As if homebrewing was not a big enough challenge, I have taken on Slivovitz. Don't know what that is? Read on.
Several years ago I was visiting friends in Hungary and was introduced to "Plum Brandy". A neighbor of my friend was picking plums from his tree to make this drink. Later at a party, the host asked us all to have a shot of his "Plum Brandy". It was a little hot on the tung, but tasted good. Since then I have learned that what I was tasting was "Slivovitz" which is a common drink in that area.
For some reason, the weather was just right in my area this year and we have a bumper crop of wild plums. All the wild plum trees are loaded down with ripe fruit. When I discovered this, I knew that I had to try my hand at making Slivovitz. I started out by picking about 26 gallons of these wild plums. I picked most off the ground since the trees have thorns and grow in dense thickets. When the plums are ripe, the slightest breeze will cause them to drop on the ground, so you know that these are ripe and full of sugar.
I started off by washing all my fruit and putting them into my 25 gallon homebrew kettle. The kettle was rounded up with fruit, but it quickly cooked down so that I had at least 20 gallons of juice and pulp. Because the fruits have so much pectin, I add an enzyme once the juice was cool that cancels out the pectin and makes the juice thinner and easier to strain. The enzyme is called "pectolase" and I ordered it from Amazon.
After letting the enzyme work for about 4 hours, I added the yeast. I also added 10 pounds of sugar to make sure that the batch produced enough alcohol since I planned to hold back a gallon or so of fermented juice (wine) to be enjoyed later. As of this writing, the batch is still fermenting vigorously and should be ready to distill in about a week.
Now for the distillation. A friend loaned me his reflux still that I plan to use. It will attach to a 15 gallon beer keg which I plan to use for the still. I am concerned that a reflux still produces too pure of alcohol and thus may be more like vodka than Slivovitz. I know that traditional Slivovitz must contain a lot of "bad" stuff or it would not burn ones mouth so much. I am all set up and just waiting for the fermentation to be complete. I will update this blog if I am still alive after distilling the Slivovitz.
Several years ago I was visiting friends in Hungary and was introduced to "Plum Brandy". A neighbor of my friend was picking plums from his tree to make this drink. Later at a party, the host asked us all to have a shot of his "Plum Brandy". It was a little hot on the tung, but tasted good. Since then I have learned that what I was tasting was "Slivovitz" which is a common drink in that area.
For some reason, the weather was just right in my area this year and we have a bumper crop of wild plums. All the wild plum trees are loaded down with ripe fruit. When I discovered this, I knew that I had to try my hand at making Slivovitz. I started out by picking about 26 gallons of these wild plums. I picked most off the ground since the trees have thorns and grow in dense thickets. When the plums are ripe, the slightest breeze will cause them to drop on the ground, so you know that these are ripe and full of sugar.
I started off by washing all my fruit and putting them into my 25 gallon homebrew kettle. The kettle was rounded up with fruit, but it quickly cooked down so that I had at least 20 gallons of juice and pulp. Because the fruits have so much pectin, I add an enzyme once the juice was cool that cancels out the pectin and makes the juice thinner and easier to strain. The enzyme is called "pectolase" and I ordered it from Amazon.
After letting the enzyme work for about 4 hours, I added the yeast. I also added 10 pounds of sugar to make sure that the batch produced enough alcohol since I planned to hold back a gallon or so of fermented juice (wine) to be enjoyed later. As of this writing, the batch is still fermenting vigorously and should be ready to distill in about a week.
Now for the distillation. A friend loaned me his reflux still that I plan to use. It will attach to a 15 gallon beer keg which I plan to use for the still. I am concerned that a reflux still produces too pure of alcohol and thus may be more like vodka than Slivovitz. I know that traditional Slivovitz must contain a lot of "bad" stuff or it would not burn ones mouth so much. I am all set up and just waiting for the fermentation to be complete. I will update this blog if I am still alive after distilling the Slivovitz.
