Victoria plum TC

[pantsmachine]

A mate of mine brought down a builders bucket(4 gallon) full of victoria plums to go in a cider(great idea the night before on the 4th pint)!

Anyway, went ahead and made it it up. Boiled the plums with 3 ltrs of tap water till soft mush added a couple of ltrs of apple juice to thin down and boiled that. Transfered the lot to FV, stones as well. Filled FV with apple juice, pitch pkt of youngs cider yeast and it was showing activity at the airlock in 45 minutes(not much head space). Anyway ended up with a an og of 1.052 and its bright pink! This is going to be one sharp cider...

If you have access to a plum tree and its not been picked, give it a go.

[pantsmachine]

Bottled this yesterday under the name Soor Ploom Cider. Its a bit green and a bit sharp. Guess this will be getting stored for a few months before trying. Strangely it has lost all the pink colour it had from the plum skins during the boil. FG 1.004 so a respectable 6.2ABv sharp cider for Mid winter!

[pantsmachine]

Who am i kidding,of course i won't wait a few months! Trying a bottle with my wife the now and its fantastic. Sharp, dry and totally refreshing and it genuinely reminds me of soor ploom sweeties. The slightly woody green taste has disappeared already which i think is amazing(1 week) . Oh yeah and the pink colour from the skins has come back . Remember this for next year plum tree owners. I promise you won't be disappointed!

[danbrew]

Hi pantsmachine, just wondered, are you doing some of these this year?

Mate has a plum tree and the fruit is getting itself ready...

What weight of plums would you use? Can you remember...?!?!?!

[pantsmachine]

I can't remember the weight, it was a standard 2 1/2 gallon builders bucket and it was full!The only thing i'd do differently this year is to remove the stones from the plums as i think they may have influenced the taste a little(woody). Don't know if i'll be able to do it this year as i'm currently stuck in Saudi Arabia till the end of September so they might all be gone on my return. Vanilla pod turbo cider on the other hand is on the cards as i'm down to my last few bottles of TC.

[beertrix]

did the plum tc clear? shes always dubious when its cloudy..

[second2none]

I never hurd of a plum drink, then today I hurd of it twice!
This quote from wiki made me laugh:

Another similar drink is plum jerkum, made from fermented plums, traditional of Warwickshire in the English Midlands.
It is said that it "left the head clear while paralysing the legs".
The Warwickshire Drooper plum from which it is traditionally brewed is now uncommon, which explains the rarity of the drink

hehehee I hope you're friend gave you some nice rare plum, you're not from Warwickshire are you?

[oneilldave]

Talking of clearing, if you add some pectolase during the brewing, and then use one of those A+B fining kits you will get a wonderful clear cider. I know it's a bit soft for the average scrumpy hound, but when you want to produce a "professional" looking end brew it really does work. I did it a little while ago and I have bottles of clear liquid gold in the cupboard under the sink, calling me in to drink them! Lovely stuff!!