Plum ale

[Tubba]

Hi, it's been a while. I'm still in the game, just busy with other stuff.

Last year I made a plum wine with plums from my own garden, which is just about now getting drink-ready. It's pretty fantastic (or at least was when I bottled it a week ago) though the clearing process was a hassle. I'm not really a fan of wine, but it has a sort of subtle, yet intense plum flavour.

This year I'm expecting another batch, possibly more, plums. Last year I got one batch of about 15lbs and one of about 10lbs, around the same time (We have two trees). That should be well more than enough for a few gallons of ale.

I need some brainstorming on designing a recipe. I haven't found much while searching online. I'm thinking something trappistesque. High gravity, perhaps a good bit of candisugar, to say 1.070-1080 OG. I want to keep the body thing enough for the plum to shine through, yet I think a high gravity will enhance the flavour.

What do you think? I haven't designed too many recipes.

 

[Tubba]

Right now I'm leaning toward basically making a blue chimay clone, with a few alterations to keep the gravity a bit lower, to leave some room for fermenting the plums sugars.

 

[daksin]

I actually wouldn't adjust the gravity too much- there will be plenty of fermentables from the plums but they will help dry the beer out which is really what you want. I actually would go to a Golden Strong as your base, because even though they're both very dry, the upfront sweetness of the BGSA will go better with the dry plum flavor. I think the Chimay yeast (WLP500) would be perfect though. This sounds like an awesome fruited beer.

 

[Tubba]

How much plums do you think I should add for a 5g batch? 7-10lbs or so?