Black Plum Mead

[Lawlend]

Started with 10lbs of Winehaven clover honey
2g Artesian Water
8lbs. Black Plums pitted
1 packet Lavin 71b-1122
Goferm starter
DAP and Fermaid k into the must with the yeast pitch.
OG of 1.120

I froze the plums for a couple of days after they got ripened in a paper bag. Thawed them, then soaked them for an hour in a Campden tablet bath. Just crushed up 1 tablet in about 1.5-2 gallons of water. I then pitted the plums and tossed them in my bucket and crushed them with a potato masher. poured the water over them added the honey, dap and fermaid k. I used Goferm for my yeast starter let it get burning along then pitched and whipped the heck out of it with my drill stir rod. Did addtions of DAP and Fermaid k along with taking my drill and stir-rod to it for 5 minutes every 12 hours for the first 6 days. hit FG of 1.010. The fermentation ended suprisingly quickly most likely because I was using some instruction for staggered nutrition for a 5 gallon batch and for got to lower the amounts. This turbo charged the fermentation. :cross: I put it into the secondary with some potassium bicarbonate and a campden tablet. Its currently in the secondary fermenter. I tasted it when racking it . I have a strong feeling that this meed would be great sparkling. Wife and I think that we will bottle it in champagne bottles possibly back sweeten a little. Definitly going to call it "Dancing Sugar Plums" per my wife.

Let you know how it turns out.

 

[Sirthomas42]

Ooh I've been looking for a plum mead recipe. My wife picked up 60 lbs of red plums for practically free. We made a plum wine, now we want to use the rest for Mead. I might just give this a shot

 

[Lawlend]

The reason for what I did is coming from a class i took at my local brewery store i just modified it. Basic idea for the fruit is 4lbs per gallon is what my wife and i were told and the brewing technique is a variation of Curt Stoch and Ken Schramm's methods. Ill post pictures and flavor profile when it clears in a month or so.

 

[Sirthomas42]

Mixed up a batch of this recipe this weekend. Man, pitting 26 lbs of plums for a 6 gallon batch really tears up your hands. Already it's fermenting like crazy, the room smells great!

*edit* I pitched the starter yesterday, about 12 noon. Just now, 31 hours later, I went to add the 2nd dose of nutrients, per the staggered nutrient addition... it has fermented from an OG of 1.106 down to 1.054?? 52 points, almost half the sugar in barely a day. Geez, I thought the 71B-1122 was supposed to be a little slower than, say, the EC-1118 and K1V-1116 yeasts. Guess I won't need to add the 3rd dose of nutrients...

(usually you add 50% of the nutrients when you mix up the must, 30% at active fermentation, and the last 20% when about half the sugar is gone, right?)

*edit again* In the 6 hours since adding the 2nd dose of nutrients, it's dropped another 12 points, to 1.040!? I punched down the fruit bag each time, and stirred it a little, so it's not like I'm not getting an inaccurate hydro reading.

 

[Lawlend]

Yeah 71b im noticing is kind of a monster i have used it in my last 3 batches and the ferment finishes in under a week usually can't explain it. I'm going to try and make sack port mead soon and see how long it takes for this yeast to burn through a lot of honey in 1 batch.

I've been rolling around a blackberry with cloves and mesquite honey mead and turn it into a port. Ill post the recipe with the actual ferment time when it gets done.

My plum mead at this point is clearing it definitely tastes like it wil be amazing sparkling.

Happy brewing.

 

[Sirthomas42]

So I took another gravity just now when I got home from work. 1.006!? So it's fermented 100 points in just over 48 hours I pitched the starter about 24 hours after mixing up the must. Since it's sub 1.010, it's about time to rack to 2ndary right? But, after barely 72 hours since I mixed up the must, is that enough time to get all the tasty plum flavor out of the plums??

 

[biochemedic]

So I took another gravity just now when I got home from work. 1.006!? So it's fermented 100 points in just over 48 I pitched the starter about 24 hours after mixing up the must. Since it's sub 1.010, it's about time to rack to 2ndary right? But, after barely 72 hours since I mixed up the must, is that enough time to get all the tasty plum flavor out of the plums??

71B does tend to be faster than many other yeasts...but, damn!

I'd let it sit for at least another couple weeks before racking off your fruit. Let the fruit percolate a while longer, and allow the yeast to clean up after itself before moving it to clarify/age.

 

[Sirthomas42]

Well, my concern is, it's in a primary bucket atm. Lots of airspace. I can seal it - the lid is airtight - but there's no hole for an airlock. I have a couple more pounds of plums, I might rack over those in a carboy. I just don't want to leave it in the bucket. Too late too rack today, I'll have to do it tomorrow after I get home from work.

*edit* The plums are in a tightly sealed fruit bag. I'll just seal up the bucket for now (SG was 1.000 just now) if pressure builds up, it leaks out the side part of the lid. I'll just rack it in the carboy tomorrow over a pound or two of plums, sliced up. I made a 6 gallon batch so I'll have a 5 gal carboy with a 1 gal jug to top up later.

Man, usually I have a 1 to 1 1/2 week primary on a fruit wine. I was NOT expecting the 71B (with which I've had past problems) to devour 12 pounds of honey in 53 hours. Wish I coulda added more honey now, tho I'm already right at the ~14% threshold for the 71B.

Will post how it goes later

 

[biochemedic]

Well, my concern is, it's in a primary bucket atm. Lots of airspace. I can seal it - the lid is airtight - but there's no hole for an airlock.

There's a quick and cheap fix for this...link If you use a blow off or other airlock from the start, you shouldn't have to worry about headspace in the primary...it will be nearly completely filled with CO2. Even if you remove the lid to check it, you can usually just give it a good swirl to off-gas some more CO2 from solution, but generally, I don't check the gravity on my primaries for at least a couple of weeks.

 

[Sirthomas42]

Interesting side note -- I made a plum wine from the exact same plums a few months ago. About a week long primary, and that was the only plums in the wine (no fruit in secondary). It came out a super dark purple, almost black. The plum mead, with the same amount of the same plums, is a medium pink color. Interesting.

Anyways, what I'm doing with the mead is, I checked the gravity again today, .996. So while I had the bucket open, I pushed down the fruit bag one last time, stirred it some and sealed the lid back up tight. Within seconds, the lid was bulging up. I pulled the lid up just a bit, let the CO2 escape and closed it back up. So now the bucket is both airtight and filled with CO2, so I can go ahead and let it sit a while before racking.

I'm still pretty noobie at this -- less than a year in the hobby, despite the mountain of wine I've made -- so I'm open to any and all suggestions. So thanks so much guys!

 

[kingboomer]

So how'd this turn out?


-Kingboomer

 

[Sirthomas42]

Heh, it's still in the carboy. We last racked it in... February I think. The same I took was quite tasty then. I imagine its amazing now! The wife and I did a bunch of rackings today, we're going to bottle a couple batches in a week or two, including this one :-D

This is the longest start to finish batch we've done yet

 

[kingboomer]

I'm deffinitely gonna try one of these soon!


-Kingboomer