Plums

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Hey all.....I have made a few mead's before but it has been quite awhile. Anyway I am a Bee Keeper so I have Honey. I also have a plum tree that never gets eaten. I would like to make a Mead from them. Anyone have a recipe for a plum mead ? I am looking for something simple.
Thanks
Jack

 

[madscientist451]

Don't have an actual recipe, but this is what I've done with extra plums from my tree:
You can get (6) 1/2 gallon big mouth jars at Walmart for about $11, which is a pretty good deal and they work good for adding fruit to a fermented beverage.
Wash and place whole plums in containers in the freezer. (not the jars above!)
Make mead, cider wine or whatever it is you want to add to the plums. Let the fermented beverage finish fermenting.
Thaw out the plums, and put about 3-4 cups of plums in a 1/2 gallon (sanitized) jar.
Add mead/cider or whatever, screw lid on somewhat loose and place jar in fridge and forget about it for a month or two. You want to leave the lid on loose in case the sugar in the plums cause the yeast to kick off again. If you make a high ABV mead, the chance of it kicking off are less, since the alcohol kills much of the yeast. Give it a taste when you think its ready. You can pour off the mead/cider whatever and add more to the plums in the jar, but I only add 1/2 as much the second run and Iusually end up consolidating jars.
Reserve some of your mead/cider that hasn't been added to the fruit for blending purposes in case there is too much fruit character.

 

[gratus fermentatio]

I usually start with 3 lbs honey/gallon & 3-6 lbs plums/gallon, though I think 4 lbs plums/gallon is fairly standard. The amount of fruit really just depends on how much fruit flavor you want in the end product. Do you want to showcase the fruit with minimal honey flavor or would you rather have a balance of fruit & honey? I usually try for a balance.

Also, you can add fruit to primary, or to secondary/tertiary or to both. Adding fruit to primary alone will give you more of a wine flavor, adding to secondary/tertiary will give you more of a fresh fruit flavor; I usually do both. I think doing so adds depth of flavor to a melomel.

I wash the plums & freeze them whole in large 2 gallon Ziploc bags, then thaw & simply squeeze them with my hands to extract the pits, it makes it so much easier; though watch out for the pointy end of the pits, they can be pretty sharp. Also, the freeze/thaw helps to break down the cell walls, which means more juice & thereby, more fruit flavor. I also always use pectic enzyme with the fruit, it helps to break down pectin & results in a clearer product, faster.
Hope that helps. Regards, GF.