When I was a kid, I worked as a building labourer one summer break, there as an old Polish guy, he made plum wine and Plum “SLIVOWITZ” that was Rocket Fuel! But “smooth” as silk and cheap as all to make, when I told him my parents had “Narrabeen” and “Santa Rosa” plum trees ( we had a very big block and they grew in the chicken run), he made the surplus into SLIVOWITZ and split it 50/50 with me. I took a dozen bottles back to college with me and got a lot of people smashed.
I have a Friend in Bosnia who makes this Plumb brandy from the orchard his great grandparents planted and his families still is over 100yrs.... its amazing how he makes this drink..... its what i want to do. I like that Neven.... I watched his vids before... very good distiller.
Maybe I should organize an old school Rakija summer course in the countryside some day. 😃 Regarding the apple brandy, you won't get such strong aroma as you get with plums. From apples you get a pretty neutral spirit (neutral in the fruit spirits category), so it is often used as a base for liqueurs and macerates.
My family in Slovakia makes this (slivovica). Great stuff! Made with small, black plums (damson I think). Everyone in the village as at least one plum tree. They become so heavy with fruit that the branches need to be propped up to keep from breaking. My relatives also make a variety with apricots.
I watch what I call the George, Still It, and Bearded and Bored channel (plus others that might come up.) Of the triumveret, I elect you to be the cool teacher, the one you walk away from at graduation and thirty years later, remember fondly. And you can still do the skills taught you because the environment is relaxed...and the student is curious but apt to fail many, many time. Not to take away from either George or Jesse - I learn and laugh with both - you just have that relaxed spirit that can encourage incorrigibles.
That's probably the best you can do if you attempt to make slivovitz (palinka) at home. One of the traditional ways we use in Transylvania up north in Maramures, is that the plums are collected at harvest time (end of August early September) in barrels and let ferment over winter until approximately February, March (that is about 6 months) or until they are ready. The multiple generations master distillers know when is that. One of the stories I have heard from an old master is that when you see the little flies dying on top of the crust then it is ready. That palinka is ONLY made for personal consumption or as a gift for friends and family. To qualify as palinka the ABV is usually over 60% and it goes as high as 80%. You will never be able to experience that outside Maramures, EVER. Also no yeast is added it is only the wild yeast that comes naturally on the plums and the plums are of a specific variety similar to the Stanley plum variety but not quite: smaller and sweeter. Palinka in Maramures is aged in mulberry wood barrels as it gives it a distinctive colour and complementing flavour. I would say I am a professional drinker of spirits and without bias would say that is the best spirit I have ever had. Anyway, great video and keep up the good work maybe next time you try an apricot one. Cheers from Romania!
I was down in Croatia for the summer vacation and have tried this Slivovitz brandy and holy moly...it really is amazing! Everyone seems to have their own home brew and they constantly offer it to you. The first shot I had was on the very first day when the owner of the Airbnb insisted we try it, lol! I've talked to him and he basically described the same process, wild ferment and all. I'm not sure they ferment it over winter tho. He was however talking about starting the fermentation just before the grapes and ending it after the grapes, which is a long time, but I don't know how much longer than the grapes it's fermented. The plums they use look like damsons (he couldn't tell me what they were called in English), but they ferment the Stanley plums too, only these smaller ones ripen sooner. Another great brandy I tried there was a Williams' pear brandy. Also called raki. Incredible how much pear aroma and flavor that one has as well!
Very cool, I have a plum tree in my back yard that usually gives me more than I can deal with gave it all away this year but next I know what I'll be doing.
That fruit leather that you got is a vinegar mother. Drop that into anything actively fermenting or mildly alcoholic and boom vinegar. It forms at the top because it needs O2 to do it's dirty work.
@@john-leehulme8239 There was a pretty good fruit cap on top all the good stuff is under it. Had he pressed and ran everything through a sieve it probably would have gone the other way, same with that mold.
Yeah, it was definitely a mother colony, probably qualifies as a scoby too because of the yeast. Should have saved it to make kombucha, but I was too shocked to think, haha!
I’ve made some Peach Brandy with the help of the liquor fairy a few months ago. It’s mostly fruit fermentation with some sugar, but the raw spirit tasted just like peaches. I added some sugar and more peaches to soak in the spirit and the flavors came out much more like the fruit itself. It was incredible, even though I yielded less liquor than usual. Sorry if I rambled on. Congrats on the Plum Brandy. It’s hard to imagine plums with an alcoholic taste but sounds good.
I'm glad you got the end result you wanted brother; opening that bucket the last time gave me flashbacks to those 20 years working at the hospital! Funky stuff. Thanks for another cool vid man. Rev. D.
My grandfather's favorite drink was plum Brandy. I've always dreamed of making some and this might just push me over the edge. BTW, I literally LOL'd a few times watching this one dude.
I'm pretty disconnected from my Croatian roots (second generation), but I love fascinating alcohol, so drinking sjlivovica always helped me feel in-tune with the other half of my family. Definitely gonna give home distillation a try one time if I can get my hands on some good plums! Thanks for the video. :)
Made a batch of this many many years ago when I first got into home brewing/distilling, and was the best stuff I've ever made, to date! Plums I used where even smaller than the ones you used, they were from a tree I had on a property I was renting at the time and used either a wine or champagne yeast, fermented the mash for probably close to 1 month, maybe a little longer. Best and smoothest tasting ever, and kept it for personal consumption as it was too good to just give away!
Just making my first fruit wash (apple and yesterday), so this video is super timely and interesting. Can’t wait to watch the full interview on the Patreon page! Great content as always brother!
For a great apple brandy, I remove the seeds and run them in a food processor and use a real high quality apple cider for the liquid aspect, Sorry, but I won't say what kind of apples or cider.. It took me years to perfect my hard cider & apple brandy.. Just make sure there are no preservatives in the cider, add pure sugar to get it to the gravity you want and I also use the thumper with the remains of the crushed apples, one secret I will share is, for a real fall flavor add some sweet pitted cherries to to mix.. You will love it.. Even a bad batch, is pretty tasty.. Loved your video...
B&B, Interesting thing about scorching a wash... Charcoal filtering has been used with limited success (multiple passes) to remove the "scorch taste" from a run. And then re-distilled on a neutral column with somewhat limited success after multiple distillations. Interesting part comes when aging any spirit. We scorch the inside of a barrel to a "charcoal like state" to add that wood flavor. Cheers B&B
Really fascinating choice! 👏 I love obscure recipes, especially those with a history, whether it's for food or beverage. This was really one of your best videos, in my opinion.
Thanks for this I’m Eastern European and spent a lot of time in Romania where they called it Palinka. And now I live in Appalachia and I’m determined to convince the moonshiners down here that plums are a better base than corn and has a better flavour. But the only way to convince them is to bring the palinka to them! Fingers crossed!
Yeah, bacterial contamination is a common problem with fruit mashes. I think I'm either going to summon the liquor fairy sooner next time, or get some campden tabs;-)
thanks for the info brother. I'm going through about 50lb of yellow plum but I added sugar and little water. used the tablets and the same yeast as well as the house temp is at 22C I like it chilly. It's going on day 10 on fermentation and I've fallowed all your steps. So far so good for 2 5 gallon buckets. Can't wait to see how it goes. Oh, I added sugar because a my Romanian neighbor said too. He used to make this stuff but he never used a thump keg so he is extremely excited to see how this turns out. wish I Could share some with ya but I'll keep you posted on how things go. I'm usually a bourbon guy but I wanted to try something different. I will also try the same steps with the 200 lbs. of frozen whole peaches that ill be doing next and the n 300 lbs. of seedless watermelons. Go big or go home brother. So far so good. cheers and I hope you have a good summer
Couldn't believe you put this vid out at this time. Someone else I know is doing a plum brandy ; ) Couple a things, freezer to break down the fruit fibers and I (oops he) didn't sweat the wild yeasties. final product was TASTY just like you said. Also check out the houses around your area for fruit trees. He got 2-5 gal buckets from one. And I'm gettin that pounder glass!
Going to have to try this one. Probably next year. Plenty of free plums up here in the great pacific northwest!! Really want to try a yellow plum as well.
Love your work man..... And yes.... in the apples.... juice em. It's all scummy and foamy after the juicing but man..... the taste in the end! Just made one with a clarified juice I got from a farmer....not the same hey
Couple weeks ago i went for some drinks to buddy's place with some of my magic fairy delivered gin. He had some brandy from the old village. Usually im not a fan of the commercial plum drinks as they are.... strong. He said they just use the fruit AND not adding any yeast. It is all naturally fermented. It was... amazing. I ended up just sitting there and smelling the glass when i finished it.
@@superdupermax It's tricky with wild yeast. You never know what you're going to get from batch to batch. But I think most of the time you should be able to get a decent abv, maybe 5-7%. Just depends on what drifted onto the fruit.
@@BeardedBored thats a lot more than i expected. Thought it would be 1-2%. Hey... it's already subverting expectations. Can only get better from this point 😁
@@superdupermax Wild yeast is a gamble unless you have a very old established orchard where the wild yeast had become the dominant strain in the area. The commercial orchards these days use so many chemicals to increase the yield that there is hardly any wild yeast on those plums except the ones picked up in transport and that is a gamble. A good wild yeast will produce a 95% fermentation the ABV is dependant on the sugar content of the plums and even wit the sweetest plum varieties you don't get more that 6-7% ABV. The average sugar content in plums is 10% (some varieties are higher). Depending of the wild yeast you can have alcohol tolerance anywhere from 3% to 15% or higher ABV.
As a side note, I used to make apple shine every fall. I live in a long established farming area and all the old treelines have apples (now wild) growing in them. The first few years I had access to an apple press, later I just froze the apples in a deep freeze to mush them - I'm sure there was a difference in the end product but now, decades later, I can't remember it. I slowly moved out of apples, to a sugar shine, simply because I have a very small still and the volume processed was just too much. Those were good days, though.
In Bulgaria we do it mostly with grapes, but also plums, apricots, pears, rarer with apples, pears. Basically any fruit that you can grow in larger quantities, such that you can brew it after the missus tax (fruit for canning, jams, ...)
I really love slivovits, I've been shocked. Cuz I got a bottle of kaisija(apricot brandy) since so many cocktail recipes call for it. Good stuff. But slivovits is just SOOO good. Even better than kirschwasser, as far as popular non-grape brandies go.
Yes, but those don't grow here and I couldn't find anything but these in the grocery store. Still made a delicious spirit, but I hope to find the right plums some day:-)
yes you can taste the tails in slivo and most fruit shines or eau de vie i think they add some to the heart for more aroma and flavor its packed with it perhaps due to the acidity and other stuff in tails that has those aroma more lingering to it
My Ex father in Law being a Croat, taught me how to make Rakia......... And yes it is Jaggy but you totally know its from plums. Its awesome when its aged.
I had about 60 or 70 pounds of peaches last year that I was going to can they ended up not being good for anything so I made brandy out of it. Basically did most of what you did except to get about 10 gallons I added some water and to boost my gravity I add brown sugar. End result was full of peach smell and taste. But anytime I'm working with fruit I always mash in on the fruit I rarely use just the juice. Also on the apples if you are going to peal and core them take that peal and core throw it in a pot cover to the top with water and boil until the cores become soft. End result super concentrate apple juice with a ton of flavor strain off and add to rest of mash you'll be glad you did.
0:10 what movie or show was that from? i been getting into slivo that past couple of years, tried a few and for the clear shine my fav is the maraska brand from croatia but for the wood aged brandy i discovered a good one called stara sokolova from serbia and i am not into brandies specially ones from grapes but this one is beautifully smooth and flavorful with notes of plum apple pear ,medium oak smoke and nutty(almond,peanuts,hazelnut) and spice finish with the plums again in the lingering ,good stuff and even the clear stuff might be rough at first but after the first couple ounces are out the bottle leave it alone for a couple of days and see how smooth it gets , only thing im wondering is if they add any sugar to those because they do have a bit of sweetness that i love and im hoping its just natural so idk ,, ben following nevin as well as he made vids with jeff and still it dude jesse
Here in Serbia, we make Sljivovica a bit different... it's made from different plum sorts unique to this region, we never strain the juice but distill it all together, and we always do double distillation. That way it has a high proof of 65-70% alcohol and then we let it sit in an oak barrel for a few years and let it naturally lower the percentage. Rakija which is made like this can easily take the tasting medal from most premium whiskeys, cognacs, etc.
finished my homegrown greengage mash a week ago. Some sugar to stretch the poor harvest, wine yeast, stored about a month after finishing fermentation (SG1075, FG1005, dry&slightly sour taste). Strained and stilled to 55% on average, first 200ml were good, but then got ~400ml to discard because of a kind of sulphury stench, rest down to end was fine. Sure a lot of good stuff was lost in there as well, so think of clearing next year's attempt to keep yeast residues out of the boiler. Now 2 liters resting on the shelf at 42%. Robust flavour so far, not bad after all, not too hot, but lacking some finer fruit notes. Happy with it for the first "real" fruit mash.
@@BeardedBored made all still head, piping and condenser from copper plus one scrubbie... but there's space for some more, so I'll think of that next year. It's a small plum variety, sweet & juicy. There are different breeds and wildlings, yellow to purple, some more mealy, some juicy, bit sour in cold summers... less robust in flavour than prune plums i'd say, but also less sugar sweetness as the "big" plums.
@@lilinguhongo2621 and @Bearded & Bored I'm a giant stone fruit geek (out here on the Left Coast its easy) and Greengage are an old school English variety that have a truly ASTONISHING amount of pectin in them. Use extra enzyme! They also produce an EXTREMELY high acid jam -- it's sometimes called a "marmalade lovers' jam" which is, again, AMAZING in flavor but SUPER intense. If you're gonna play with obscure varieties, everything -- and I mean everything -- that have ever made with Damson plums is incredible.
Great video Bearded. I run mine down to about 20% too, there's a quart or so that tastes like sweet corn. I do an all corn mash. I temper mine with tails and turns out great. BTW my likker fairy took some apple pie shine I had and turned it into half a freezer full of deer meat, there's a back strap in the mail for man!
I've made a different version with 1part plum 1 part sugar and 3 parts water. This one already smells and tastes fruity, and indeed it burns like ####. I've got it oaking on american white right now. I'am aiming for the combination of the fruity taste from the plums and the suttle base from the wood. I hope the wood makes it a little bit less burny in the throat. Keep up these lovely vid's man. Byeeee
Mate!.. so good to be back in the loop for a little while… Melbourne Australia 🇦🇺 SUCKS right now… but I have a water distiller on the way!!.. add that to my beer kit and my fruit garden?!… PRESTO ZAPPO.. the basics of MATEorade.. I figure I can Chuck my product through the soda stream and Alacazam!. this is
Do some googling on fermenting orange juice. It's really tricky and can make some rough hooch if you let the pH get wonky. Never made it myself, but I've read about some bad batches. Let me know how it goes:-)
Question. If I have a kettle with a basket, could I pour the fruit and all in there and, hypothetically, distill on the fruit? My theory is that with the fruit in the basket, it wouldn't be on the bottom of the kettle. Therefore reducing the risk of scorching.
Hola estimado ! Con respecto al descanso de tres o más meses de este destilado, qué opina si fuerzo la oxigenación inyectando O2 a través de una piedra sinterizada difusora ? Este sistema lo he experimentado con mis destilados y dió buen resultado, de esta manera reduzco el tiempo de descanso . Espero su opinión. Gracias por sus videos! Saludos! Hello dear ! Regarding the rest of three or more months of this distillate, what do you think if I force the oxygenation by injecting O2 through a diffusing sintered stone? I have experimented with this system with my distillates and it gave good results, in this way I reduce the rest time. I await your opinion. Thanks for your videos! Cheers!
Damn cool video . both thumbs up 😃 Love how you went all in to find the *original* way to do it ! And I think A camden tablet would be a good thing, or a heating (not boil) to kill of any bacteria and wild yeast next time. That way you don't have to hurry the licker fairy so much.(not good for the feel of the plums) I made one with prune plums But I cheated with water, sugar and heat. Got it in the raw, pot still mode. will use thumber like you did on my next slivovitz run (but, yep the plum fruit comes through nicely) got one ageing with home toasted birch wood staves,(6 months you say about) and one ageing on raw plums and a bit of sugar 30-40 days I think ? (Ladies schnapps for Christmas party) and I have a mirabelle plum mash standing waiting for the fairy to get the tension all the way down to the plums 😃 HAPPY DISTILLING OUT THERE !! Stay safe .
@@BeardedBored hmm so it was not tasting like the store bought stuff then? im wondering if they have any added sugar or if that is the natural sweetness i taste when i get the store bought slivo or aged plum brandy, id really like it to be natural part of the process result and not artificial so i been wondering about this and not sure who would give an honest answer
😁😅😂🤣😋👍! Nice. P.S. I made plum wash with infusion (+100C in boiled water) / without enzymes add sugar and it ferments, but pH go down and I add Baking Soda for "911" :). Ferments good - no problems, but plums in Latvia are without sugar in it... If we have super sweet plums, than we can make something useful (ABV). Thumper is good thing. It is right - just right! Flavor and ideology too - make cleaner spirits and this is it. 👍🥂
Fantastic video! This actually got me into distilling in the first place. I now have 90kgs of plums and so Ihave returned for a catchup! One question: some folk on the HD forum are off the opinion that campden tablets will create some serious off flavors in a distillate. Have you successfully used them in a brandy? I really dont want to end up with a whole ton of vinigar so I am really tempted
Campden leaves no flavor. Use it unless you want wild fermentation, or you plan to distill it as soon as the fermentation is complete so bacteria has no chance to grow.
When using camden tablets, is it better to use them before pectic enzymes? So after crushing the fruits, use the camden tablets to kill first any wild yeast etc, and then use the pectic enzymes to extract the juice. This is the correct order, right?
Yeah, do campden, wait, then add everything else the next day. Pectic enzyme can go in at the same time as yeast and nutrients if you have enough juice to start the fermentation. If not, give pectic enzyme a half day to start pulling out the juice, then hit it with yeast and nutrients.
that sounds tasty, and when you mentioned the apple brandy it reminded me of a half formed idea that I've yet to try to bring out more flavor. Instead of distilling the fermented apple juice directly, turn it into applejack first. that would give you a higher abv going into the pot and hopefully give a higher density of flavorful goodies that could carry over into the distillate. you could also,"hypothetically", do a stripping run and then put dried apples into a gin basket for the spirit run.
There is another YT'er that did add dried apple to their runs in a gin basket. Apparently it comes out quite tasty. I might get the liquor fairy to try the apple jack thing;-)
After watching this video again I have a an idea about keeping the fruit under the surface of the liquid something like a metal greace spatter lid for frying food or a plate you use to keep things from burning when your cooking grain. Could you put something like that on the fruit to hold it underneath the liquid of the wine ?
European plums (prunus) tend to be more free stone - easier to separate the stone from the flesh. Ripe / soft fruit tends to have a higher sugar content. Pectic enzyme improves the juice release - recommended dose (for the Laffort brand) is about 6 grams per hectolitre. (100 litres). A bain marie boiler / water or steam jacketed - works well on a larger scale. The T500 boiler works OK as long as the mash is fluid enough to circulate and not stick to the hot spot above the T500 element. Six months ageing makes quite a favourable difference to the product.
If you have ad blocker on it may not pop up, also it's sometime wonky on phones. No idea why. Look up Beer wine and spirits fruit brandy, and still it plum rakia. Those are the keywords for the videos;-)
If you sanitized the wash (with Camden tablets or whatever), why wouldn't you use a fermenter with a vapor lock precisely to keep out mould and other yucky stuff? You could agitate the fermenter to try to mix the cap back in. Conversely, if you're opening the fermenter lid every day what's the point of using Camden tablets, since mould and wild yeast will find their way in? Curious.
I'd say blend the plum flesh with a sanitized immersion blender, add in your enzyme to break down the pectin, use the sodium metabisulfate, then pitch your yeast. Should give you a bit more liquid from the plum flesh since it's been broken down more mechanically and the pectinase has a better chance of actually working through the fruit flesh compared to leaving it as large chunks. I'd also say buy from a farmer's market or a bulk store like Costco or the like so you can save a bit on produce costs. Farmers market plums are usually softer than I prefer, which is ideal for making alcohol. The more ripe the fruit is when harvested, the better.
I used the kv 111 yeast on my Apple juice mash and it was inactive..got mad and throwed dadys in and it took off...but smells very different than usual..wat hoppind????
@@BeardedBored dang Wal-Mart...thanks man that was a mystery solved..but it mixed with Dady and got funky..im still gonna still it I might carry over sour...
![🆕How To Make Bulgarian Rakia [2021]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/NIFPSLfsWuM/mqdefault.jpg)
Link to T-shirts and Drinkware - bearded-and-bored.creator-spring.com/
If you watch carefully you can see the exact moment the tension in his plums released. . . .wait hold on. . .
Hahahaa 🤣
HA!
Looooooool
And now I just spit coffee on myself, LOL😂
When I was a kid, I worked as a building labourer one summer break, there as an old Polish guy, he made plum wine and Plum “SLIVOWITZ” that was Rocket Fuel! But “smooth” as silk and cheap as all to make, when I told him my parents had “Narrabeen” and “Santa Rosa” plum trees ( we had a very big block and they grew in the chicken run), he made the surplus into SLIVOWITZ and split it 50/50 with me. I took a dozen bottles back to college with me and got a lot of people smashed.
I have a Friend in Bosnia who makes this Plumb brandy from the orchard his great grandparents planted and his families still is over 100yrs.... its amazing how he makes this drink..... its what i want to do. I like that Neven.... I watched his vids before... very good distiller.
Maybe I should organize an old school Rakija summer course in the countryside some day. 😃 Regarding the apple brandy, you won't get such strong aroma as you get with plums. From apples you get a pretty neutral spirit (neutral in the fruit spirits category), so it is often used as a base for liqueurs and macerates.
So glad I read your comment. My first Apple mash is fermenting right now. My expectations will be set accordingly.
count me in for the course, been to Pula few years ago and wouldn't regret seeing more of your country for sure!
Thanks for the advice on the apples, brother! And thanks for all your help:-) You should definitely do a rakija course, and get Jeff to film it!
@@BeardedBored have it on the backburner already.
@@NevenVorkapic8 but go full traditional ,with hornets and all :)
Man, you have become a great teacher!!! Thanks AGAIN!!
Wow, thanks!
My family in Slovakia makes this (slivovica). Great stuff! Made with small, black plums (damson I think). Everyone in the village as at least one plum tree.
They become so heavy with fruit that the branches need to be propped up to keep from breaking. My relatives also make a variety with apricots.
You're very lucky:-)
I watch what I call the George, Still It, and Bearded and Bored channel (plus others that might come up.) Of the triumveret, I elect you to be the cool teacher, the one you walk away from at graduation and thirty years later, remember fondly. And you can still do the skills taught you because the environment is relaxed...and the student is curious but apt to fail many, many time. Not to take away from either George or Jesse - I learn and laugh with both - you just have that relaxed spirit that can encourage incorrigibles.
Thanks so much!
Wow, I don't think I have ever seen so many great "hypothetical" possibilities......Lots to explore...
Have fun exploring;-)
That's probably the best you can do if you attempt to make slivovitz (palinka) at home. One of the traditional ways we use in Transylvania up north in Maramures, is that the plums are collected at harvest time (end of August early September) in barrels and let ferment over winter until approximately February, March (that is about 6 months) or until they are ready. The multiple generations master distillers know when is that. One of the stories I have heard from an old master is that when you see the little flies dying on top of the crust then it is ready. That palinka is ONLY made for personal consumption or as a gift for friends and family. To qualify as palinka the ABV is usually over 60% and it goes as high as 80%. You will never be able to experience that outside Maramures, EVER. Also no yeast is added it is only the wild yeast that comes naturally on the plums and the plums are of a specific variety similar to the Stanley plum variety but not quite: smaller and sweeter. Palinka in Maramures is aged in mulberry wood barrels as it gives it a distinctive colour and complementing flavour. I would say I am a professional drinker of spirits and without bias would say that is the best spirit I have ever had. Anyway, great video and keep up the good work maybe next time you try an apricot one. Cheers from Romania!
Thank you so much for the information!
I was down in Croatia for the summer vacation and have tried this Slivovitz brandy and holy moly...it really is amazing! Everyone seems to have their own home brew and they constantly offer it to you.
The first shot I had was on the very first day when the owner of the Airbnb insisted we try it, lol!
I've talked to him and he basically described the same process, wild ferment and all. I'm not sure they ferment it over winter tho. He was however talking about starting the fermentation just before the grapes and ending it after the grapes, which is a long time, but I don't know how much longer than the grapes it's fermented.
The plums they use look like damsons (he couldn't tell me what they were called in English), but they ferment the Stanley plums too, only these smaller ones ripen sooner.
Another great brandy I tried there was a Williams' pear brandy. Also called raki. Incredible how much pear aroma and flavor that one has as well!
Hi! What do you mean by letting the plums ferment all winter? What exactly do you mean? I’m trying to make this for theã first time….
"flies dying on top of the crust " ahhh thats how you know you got some good stuff ready when the bugs die on it,, love it hahaha
@@alexlarsen6413 Williams' pear brandy is that one made in usa? or is it the r. jelinek one from Czech?
Super video brother, the result is crazy good, wow.
Will have to shop round for some plums or peaches
Sien hier kom 'n perske of pruim mampoer video😁😁😁😁
try peaches, if you can. pure magic. I think I'm raiding my neighbour today for some of his last year apricot rakia - even better
Yeah broer, peach and plum mampoers!
Nice surprise as I open up my phone. This sounds awesome!
Very cool, I have a plum tree in my back yard that usually gives me more than I can deal with gave it all away this year but next I know what I'll be doing.
You lucky dog! Have fun next year:-)
That fruit leather that you got is a vinegar mother. Drop that into anything actively fermenting or mildly alcoholic and boom vinegar.
It forms at the top because it needs O2 to do it's dirty work.
With that amount of mother on top, would the ferment not be all vinegar?
@@john-leehulme8239 There was a pretty good fruit cap on top all the good stuff is under it. Had he pressed and ran everything through a sieve it probably would have gone the other way, same with that mold.
Erm,no.
Acetobacter needs oxygen.
Yeah, it was definitely a mother colony, probably qualifies as a scoby too because of the yeast. Should have saved it to make kombucha, but I was too shocked to think, haha!
That is just what i have done with my plums this time am extremely excited for the results..😊
I’ve made some Peach Brandy with the help of the liquor fairy a few months ago. It’s mostly fruit fermentation with some sugar, but the raw spirit tasted just like peaches. I added some sugar and more peaches to soak in the spirit and the flavors came out much more like the fruit itself. It was incredible, even though I yielded less liquor than usual.
Sorry if I rambled on. Congrats on the Plum Brandy. It’s hard to imagine plums with an alcoholic taste but sounds good.
Sounds tasty!
I'm glad you got the end result you wanted brother; opening that bucket the last time gave me flashbacks to those 20 years working at the hospital! Funky stuff. Thanks for another cool vid man. Rev. D.
Yeah, shocking to see the skin on top and the noise it made while scooping it off, haha:-)
Slivovitz is wonderful! My friend's father made it and it sure goes down smooth. However, it sure has a kick, lol.
My grandfather's favorite drink was plum Brandy. I've always dreamed of making some and this might just push me over the edge. BTW, I literally LOL'd a few times watching this one dude.
Your grandfather had excellent taste in spirits. Thanks brother:-)
I'm pretty disconnected from my Croatian roots (second generation), but I love fascinating alcohol, so drinking sjlivovica always helped me feel in-tune with the other half of my family. Definitely gonna give home distillation a try one time if I can get my hands on some good plums! Thanks for the video. :)
Good luck on it, brother:-)
Another great UA-cam video. Thanks
Glad you enjoyed it:-)
Just the introduction warranted a thumbs up.
Thanks!
Made a batch of this many many years ago when I first got into home brewing/distilling, and was the best stuff I've ever made, to date! Plums I used where even smaller than the ones you used, they were from a tree I had on a property I was renting at the time and used either a wine or champagne yeast, fermented the mash for probably close to 1 month, maybe a little longer. Best and smoothest tasting ever, and kept it for personal consumption as it was too good to just give away!
something you can be proud of every time you pour n sip from the bottle,, did you not use any pectic enzyme? a month was it sour and buggy?
Just making my first fruit wash (apple and yesterday), so this video is super timely and interesting. Can’t wait to watch the full interview on the Patreon page! Great content as always brother!
Hope your batch turns out great!
Great video, thanks, I love learning from other's experiences, what to expect, what can go wrong, and how to work with what you have. Awesome!
Ill be going back there for work in the new year. I now have something to look for when I'm there.
I also now need to make a thumper. Lol
Have a shot for me when you're there. Thumpers are so worth it for on grain, or on fruit projects.
great video!
For a great apple brandy, I remove the seeds and run them in a food processor and use a real high quality apple cider for the liquid aspect, Sorry, but I won't say what kind of apples or cider.. It took me years to perfect my hard cider & apple brandy.. Just make sure there are no preservatives in the cider, add pure sugar to get it to the gravity you want and I also use the thumper with the remains of the crushed apples, one secret I will share is, for a real fall flavor add some sweet pitted cherries to to mix.. You will love it.. Even a bad batch, is pretty tasty.. Loved your video...
Thanks for the advice:-)
Thanks for the tip on distilling right away as well. 😁
Yep, gotta bribe the liquor fairy to show up sooner next time;-)
Brilliant video will have to try it soon
B&B, Interesting thing about scorching a wash...
Charcoal filtering has been used with limited success (multiple passes) to remove the "scorch taste" from a run.
And then re-distilled on a neutral column with somewhat limited success after multiple distillations.
Interesting part comes when aging any spirit. We scorch the inside of a barrel to a "charcoal like state" to add that wood flavor.
Cheers B&B
Really fascinating choice! 👏 I love obscure recipes, especially those with a history, whether it's for food or beverage. This was really one of your best videos, in my opinion.
Thanks!
A national beverage of Eastern Europe and Turkey isn’t exactly obscure...do you know how much the Bulgarians consume alone?
Thanks for this I’m Eastern European and spent a lot of time in Romania where they called it Palinka. And now I live in Appalachia and I’m determined to convince the moonshiners down here that plums are a better base than corn and has a better flavour. But the only way to convince them is to bring the palinka to them! Fingers crossed!
Outstanding. I heard that a lot of people are making peach brandy this time of year and they might be having the exact same problems…
Yeah, bacterial contamination is a common problem with fruit mashes. I think I'm either going to summon the liquor fairy sooner next time, or get some campden tabs;-)
thanks for the info brother. I'm going through about 50lb of yellow plum but I added sugar and little water. used the tablets and the same yeast as well as the house temp is at 22C I like it chilly. It's going on day 10 on fermentation and I've fallowed all your steps. So far so good for 2 5 gallon buckets. Can't wait to see how it goes. Oh, I added sugar because a my Romanian neighbor said too. He used to make this stuff but he never used a thump keg so he is extremely excited to see how this turns out. wish I Could share some with ya but I'll keep you posted on how things go. I'm usually a bourbon guy but I wanted to try something different. I will also try the same steps with the 200 lbs. of frozen whole peaches that ill be doing next and the n 300 lbs. of seedless watermelons. Go big or go home brother. So far so good. cheers and I hope you have a good summer
Couldn't believe you put this vid out at this time. Someone else I know is doing a plum brandy ; ) Couple a things, freezer to break down the fruit fibers and I (oops he) didn't sweat the wild yeasties. final product was TASTY just like you said. Also check out the houses around your area for fruit trees. He got 2-5 gal buckets from one. And I'm gettin that pounder glass!
I'm looking into getting some trees of the same species that Neven grows. Luckily they grow well in my zone;-)
Going to have to try this one. Probably next year. Plenty of free plums up here in the great pacific northwest!! Really want to try a yellow plum as well.
Lucky dog!
Cheers from Croatia :DDD rakija :D šljivovica :D
Hvala!
Love your work man.....
And yes.... in the apples.... juice em. It's all scummy and foamy after the juicing but man..... the taste in the end!
Just made one with a clarified juice I got from a farmer....not the same hey
I’ve found the pectin enzyme will bring out intense flavor in most fruits. Great job!
Definitely helped this batch for sure. I just rough chopped the fruit and the pectic enzyme chewed through it anyway.
Couple weeks ago i went for some drinks to buddy's place with some of my magic fairy delivered gin.
He had some brandy from the old village.
Usually im not a fan of the commercial plum drinks as they are.... strong.
He said they just use the fruit AND not adding any yeast. It is all naturally fermented.
It was... amazing. I ended up just sitting there and smelling the glass when i finished it.
I really want to try wild fermentation next time;-)
Wonder what abv wild yeast can produce.
@@superdupermax It's tricky with wild yeast. You never know what you're going to get from batch to batch. But I think most of the time you should be able to get a decent abv, maybe 5-7%. Just depends on what drifted onto the fruit.
@@BeardedBored thats a lot more than i expected. Thought it would be 1-2%. Hey... it's already subverting expectations. Can only get better from this point 😁
@@superdupermax Wild yeast is a gamble unless you have a very old established orchard where the wild yeast had become the dominant strain in the area. The commercial orchards these days use so many chemicals to increase the yield that there is hardly any wild yeast on those plums except the ones picked up in transport and that is a gamble. A good wild yeast will produce a 95% fermentation the ABV is dependant on the sugar content of the plums and even wit the sweetest plum varieties you don't get more that 6-7% ABV. The average sugar content in plums is 10% (some varieties are higher). Depending of the wild yeast you can have alcohol tolerance anywhere from 3% to 15% or higher ABV.
I definitely want to try rakia.... Although I am wondering about the plum wine
Would both cause any bowl problems?
As a side note, I used to make apple shine every fall. I live in a long established farming area and all the old treelines have apples (now wild) growing in them. The first few years I had access to an apple press, later I just froze the apples in a deep freeze to mush them - I'm sure there was a difference in the end product but now, decades later, I can't remember it. I slowly moved out of apples, to a sugar shine, simply because I have a very small still and the volume processed was just too much. Those were good days, though.
You should do some more apple shine, just for old times sake;-)
Last time I made apple cider/wine I used my meat grinder to chew through all the apples. Worked out great!
Good advice!
Thank you so much! That was a brilliant video!
Thanks so much!
I have used sweet apple cider with the palp to get that apple character.
I'm glad to hear that. Thanks!
@@BeardedBored I also aged it with hosted applewood
Be interesting to try this method with other fruits.
In Bulgaria we do it mostly with grapes, but also plums, apricots, pears, rarer with apples, pears. Basically any fruit that you can grow in larger quantities, such that you can brew it after the missus tax (fruit for canning, jams, ...)
Yep;-)
Missus Tax, that's great:-)
I really love slivovits, I've been shocked. Cuz I got a bottle of kaisija(apricot brandy) since so many cocktail recipes call for it. Good stuff. But slivovits is just SOOO good. Even better than kirschwasser, as far as popular non-grape brandies go.
Ask Devin about Pelinkovats, if you like flavour carry through, we usually serve it in the mornings.
Thanks for the recommendation. I'll ask him about it.
Isn't slivovitz usually made with the ellipse shaped plums?
Yes, but those don't grow here and I couldn't find anything but these in the grocery store. Still made a delicious spirit, but I hope to find the right plums some day:-)
yes you can taste the tails in slivo and most fruit shines or eau de vie i think they add some to the heart for more aroma and flavor its packed with it perhaps due to the acidity and other stuff in tails that has those aroma more lingering to it
Super cool video, glad to see you talking to a guy like Neven, he's a pro.
He really is an incredibly knowledgeable guy and so generous with his time and advice:-)
My Ex father in Law being a Croat, taught me how to make Rakia......... And yes it is Jaggy but you totally know its from plums. Its awesome when its aged.
Yep, it definitely doesn't leave you guessing what it's made from. Love that. I'm really looking forward to January when I get to try it again:-)
I had about 60 or 70 pounds of peaches last year that I was going to can they ended up not being good for anything so I made brandy out of it. Basically did most of what you did except to get about 10 gallons I added some water and to boost my gravity I add brown sugar. End result was full of peach smell and taste. But anytime I'm working with fruit I always mash in on the fruit I rarely use just the juice. Also on the apples if you are going to peal and core them take that peal and core throw it in a pot cover to the top with water and boil until the cores become soft. End result super concentrate apple juice with a ton of flavor strain off and add to rest of mash you'll be glad you did.
Thanks for the tip on the apples:-)
0:10 what movie or show was that from? i been getting into slivo that past couple of years, tried a few and for the clear shine my fav is the maraska brand from croatia but for the wood aged brandy i discovered a good one called stara sokolova from serbia and i am not into brandies specially ones from grapes but this one is beautifully smooth and flavorful with notes of plum apple pear ,medium oak smoke and nutty(almond,peanuts,hazelnut) and spice finish with the plums again in the lingering ,good stuff and even the clear stuff might be rough at first but after the first couple ounces are out the bottle leave it alone for a couple of days and see how smooth it gets , only thing im wondering is if they add any sugar to those because they do have a bit of sweetness that i love and im hoping its just natural so idk ,, ben following nevin as well as he made vids with jeff and still it dude jesse
Here in Serbia, we make Sljivovica a bit different... it's made from different plum sorts unique to this region, we never strain the juice but distill it all together, and we always do double distillation. That way it has a high proof of 65-70% alcohol and then we let it sit in an oak barrel for a few years and let it naturally lower the percentage. Rakija which is made like this can easily take the tasting medal from most premium whiskeys, cognacs, etc.
finished my homegrown greengage mash a week ago. Some sugar to stretch the poor harvest, wine yeast, stored about a month after finishing fermentation (SG1075, FG1005, dry&slightly sour taste). Strained and stilled to 55% on average, first 200ml were good, but then got ~400ml to discard because of a kind of sulphury stench, rest down to end was fine. Sure a lot of good stuff was lost in there as well, so think of clearing next year's attempt to keep yeast residues out of the boiler. Now 2 liters resting on the shelf at 42%. Robust flavour so far, not bad after all, not too hot, but lacking some finer fruit notes. Happy with it for the first "real" fruit mash.
You might need so more copper packing to pull the sulfur out. Never tried greengage. How do they taste when they're fresh?
@@BeardedBored made all still head, piping and condenser from copper plus one scrubbie... but there's space for some more, so I'll think of that next year.
It's a small plum variety, sweet & juicy. There are different breeds and wildlings, yellow to purple, some more mealy, some juicy, bit sour in cold summers... less robust in flavour than prune plums i'd say, but also less sugar sweetness as the "big" plums.
@@lilinguhongo2621 Hmm, that's more than enough copper. Might just be an anomaly for this one batch. Those plums sound really interesting:-)
@@BeardedBored we'll see next year...
@@lilinguhongo2621 and @Bearded & Bored I'm a giant stone fruit geek (out here on the Left Coast its easy) and Greengage are an old school English variety that have a truly ASTONISHING amount of pectin in them. Use extra enzyme!
They also produce an EXTREMELY high acid jam -- it's sometimes called a "marmalade lovers' jam" which is, again, AMAZING in flavor but SUPER intense.
If you're gonna play with obscure varieties, everything -- and I mean everything -- that have ever made with Damson plums is incredible.
Great video Bearded. I run mine down to about 20% too, there's a quart or so that tastes like sweet corn. I do an all corn mash. I temper mine with tails and turns out great. BTW my likker fairy took some apple pie shine I had and turned it into half a freezer full of deer meat, there's a back strap in the mail for man!
Great video! I saw him on istills podcast too. He's great! Man that fruit leather was 😝
Yeah, Neven is awesome. Fruit leather was definitely gross, but I wish I had kept it for kombucha.
Might try adding some wood tannins to the mash for a little more complexity
I've made a different version with 1part plum 1 part sugar and 3 parts water. This one already smells and tastes fruity, and indeed it burns like ####. I've got it oaking on american white right now. I'am aiming for the combination of the fruity taste from the plums and the suttle base from the wood. I hope the wood makes it a little bit less burny in the throat. Keep up these lovely vid's man. Byeeee
Let me know how it ages out:-)
Mate!.. so good to be back in the loop for a little while…
Melbourne Australia 🇦🇺 SUCKS right now… but I have a water distiller on the way!!.. add that to my beer kit and my fruit garden?!…
PRESTO ZAPPO..
the basics of MATEorade..
I figure I can Chuck my product through the soda stream and
Alacazam!.
this is
Szilva palinka 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
Can recommend using apples vs juice for apple brandy. And age it on toasted apple wood
Thanks Ben!
That 'Fruit Leather' (around 9 minute mark) looks like a Scoby (Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria & Yeast) that you see with Kombucha. Very interesting..
This just might work well with Oranges and I have a lot of those. I'm going to have to juice them the old fashion way to keep the peel out.
Do some googling on fermenting orange juice. It's really tricky and can make some rough hooch if you let the pH get wonky. Never made it myself, but I've read about some bad batches. Let me know how it goes:-)
Question. If I have a kettle with a basket, could I pour the fruit and all in there and, hypothetically, distill on the fruit? My theory is that with the fruit in the basket, it wouldn't be on the bottom of the kettle. Therefore reducing the risk of scorching.
Yeah, that would work:-)
Hola estimado ! Con respecto al descanso de tres o más meses de este destilado, qué opina si fuerzo la oxigenación inyectando O2 a través de una piedra sinterizada difusora ? Este sistema lo he experimentado con mis destilados y dió buen resultado, de esta manera reduzco el tiempo de descanso . Espero su opinión. Gracias por sus videos! Saludos!
Hello dear ! Regarding the rest of three or more months of this distillate, what do you think if I force the oxygenation by injecting O2 through a diffusing sintered stone? I have experimented with this system with my distillates and it gave good results, in this way I reduce the rest time. I await your opinion. Thanks for your videos! Cheers!
I haven't tried this yet. Thanks for the advice:-)
What about no pectic enzymes? What could be the substitute?
You can leave them out. It just helps to get more juice out. You can also freeze the fruit to get the cells to burst.
Damn cool video . both thumbs up 😃 Love how you went all in to find the *original* way to do it ! And I think A camden tablet would be a good thing, or a heating (not boil) to kill of any bacteria and wild yeast next time. That way you don't have to hurry the licker fairy so much.(not good for the feel of the plums) I made one with prune plums But I cheated with water, sugar and heat. Got it in the raw, pot still mode. will use thumber like you did on my next slivovitz run (but, yep the plum fruit comes through nicely) got one ageing with home toasted birch wood staves,(6 months you say about) and one ageing on raw plums and a bit of sugar 30-40 days I think ? (Ladies schnapps for Christmas party) and I have a mirabelle plum mash standing waiting for the fairy to get the tension all the way down to the plums 😃 HAPPY DISTILLING OUT THERE !! Stay safe .
Nice, I was wondering how a prune brandy would taste;-)
Very nice
so did your shine have any sweetness to it like the store bought clear maraska sljivovica?
More of an "implied" sweetness on my taste buds. Not true sweetness like sugar.
@@BeardedBored hmm so it was not tasting like the store bought stuff then? im wondering if they have any added sugar or if that is the natural sweetness i taste when i get the store bought slivo or aged plum brandy, id really like it to be natural part of the process result and not artificial so i been wondering about this and not sure who would give an honest answer
I would line up to watch this video, like the schoolchildren lining up for their sack lunches.
Hahaha! Thanks brother:-)
😁😅😂🤣😋👍! Nice. P.S. I made plum wash with infusion (+100C in boiled water) / without enzymes add sugar and it ferments, but pH go down and I add Baking Soda for "911" :). Ferments good - no problems, but plums in Latvia are without sugar in it... If we have super sweet plums, than we can make something useful (ABV). Thumper is good thing. It is right - just right! Flavor and ideology too - make cleaner spirits and this is it. 👍🥂
I like that infusion idea:-)
"the fruit just wants to punch you in the face"
me when i get into a bar fight
LOL!
Fantastic video! This actually got me into distilling in the first place. I now have 90kgs of plums and so Ihave returned for a catchup!
One question: some folk on the HD forum are off the opinion that campden tablets will create some serious off flavors in a distillate. Have you successfully used them in a brandy? I really dont want to end up with a whole ton of vinigar so I am really tempted
Campden leaves no flavor. Use it unless you want wild fermentation, or you plan to distill it as soon as the fermentation is complete so bacteria has no chance to grow.
Did you use Italian blue plums ? The have a shape like an egg apparently they are best for making plum slivo ???
No, just American plums. Not as flavorful.
When using camden tablets, is it better to use them before pectic enzymes? So after crushing the fruits, use the camden tablets to kill first any wild yeast etc, and then use the pectic enzymes to extract the juice. This is the correct order, right?
Yeah, do campden, wait, then add everything else the next day. Pectic enzyme can go in at the same time as yeast and nutrients if you have enough juice to start the fermentation. If not, give pectic enzyme a half day to start pulling out the juice, then hit it with yeast and nutrients.
@@BeardedBored thank you B&B! Regards from Greece!
Nice!!
that sounds tasty, and when you mentioned the apple brandy it reminded me of a half formed idea that I've yet to try to bring out more flavor. Instead of distilling the fermented apple juice directly, turn it into applejack first. that would give you a higher abv going into the pot and hopefully give a higher density of flavorful goodies that could carry over into the distillate. you could also,"hypothetically", do a stripping run and then put dried apples into a gin basket for the spirit run.
There is another YT'er that did add dried apple to their runs in a gin basket. Apparently it comes out quite tasty.
I might get the liquor fairy to try the apple jack thing;-)
After watching this video again I have a an idea about keeping the fruit under the surface of the liquid something like a metal greace spatter lid for frying food or a plate you use to keep things from burning when your cooking grain. Could you put something like that on the fruit to hold it underneath the liquid of the wine ?
It'd be interesting to know how it compares flavour wise with a water/sugar/fruit brandy
I was thinking the same thing. I might do a side by side next time to find out.
I’m wondering if you ran the fruit through a juicer, would you get more juice and you could still use the pulp?
Lol. Your magpieness was on over drive huh? :). I have got to go see your full post on Patreon now.
His Magpieness, the Procurer of Faraway Recipes is my new title:-)
@@BeardedBored Oh that's good!
Have you ever thought of a maple based burbon
Not until you suggested it;-) Good idea, brother!
Got it from city seedings they recently done a maple wine I thought would make a grate berbon
European plums (prunus) tend to be more free stone - easier to separate the stone from the flesh. Ripe / soft fruit tends to have a higher sugar content. Pectic enzyme improves the juice release - recommended dose (for the Laffort brand) is about 6 grams per hectolitre. (100 litres). A bain marie boiler / water or steam jacketed - works well on a larger scale. The T500 boiler works OK as long as the mash is fluid enough to circulate and not stick to the hot spot above the T500 element.
Six months ageing makes quite a favourable difference to the product.
I really hope I can get some European plums next year. Going to look into some of the farmers markets to see what I can get my hands on;-)
How much wash/pulp did you land up with to ferment? Trying to guess how many kg’s one would need to make 40l ish of juice.
I used 18kg for 20L, but I could have gone as high as 21kg, 42-45kg should be enough. I know it's a lot of fruit, but it's worth it:-)
Hmm was a playlist supposed to appear where you pointed?
If you have ad blocker on it may not pop up, also it's sometime wonky on phones. No idea why. Look up Beer wine and spirits fruit brandy, and still it plum rakia. Those are the keywords for the videos;-)
re: punching down the cap: I'm surprised you don't have/they don't make ferment stones in bucket size. (similar to pickle/craut ferment weights)
Never seen them, but I'll take a look.
Awesome!
Thanks!
@@BeardedBored my pleasure. I always look forward to your videos. Fellow Texas here, by the way. Keep up the awesome content.
If you sanitized the wash (with Camden tablets or whatever), why wouldn't you use a fermenter with a vapor lock precisely to keep out mould and other yucky stuff? You could agitate the fermenter to try to mix the cap back in. Conversely, if you're opening the fermenter lid every day what's the point of using Camden tablets, since mould and wild yeast will find their way in? Curious.
What distiller are you using?
I believe you had a A SCOBY is a symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast that is used to brew kombucha tea or vinegar
Definite scoby. Just waaaay thicker and much more hideous looking than any I've seen before.
I'd say blend the plum flesh with a sanitized immersion blender, add in your enzyme to break down the pectin, use the sodium metabisulfate, then pitch your yeast. Should give you a bit more liquid from the plum flesh since it's been broken down more mechanically and the pectinase has a better chance of actually working through the fruit flesh compared to leaving it as large chunks. I'd also say buy from a farmer's market or a bulk store like Costco or the like so you can save a bit on produce costs. Farmers market plums are usually softer than I prefer, which is ideal for making alcohol. The more ripe the fruit is when harvested, the better.
SOOOooooo many plums
How did it taste 3-6 months later?
Didn't last that long. Somebody drank it all, and it was delicious. Gotta make some more:-)
I used the kv 111 yeast on my Apple juice mash and it was inactive..got mad and throwed dadys in and it took off...but smells very different than usual..wat hoppind????
Sometimes you'll get a dead packet. Happens every once in a while. Probably got hot in transit or something.
@@BeardedBored dang Wal-Mart...thanks man that was a mystery solved..but it mixed with Dady and got funky..im still gonna still it
I might carry over sour...
was it double distill?
Single run with a thumper.
What temperature do you run your still at
Could you use that skin to make kombucha? It looks like a scoby!