Steam juicing damsons

[Smiggs]

Hi, does anyone know if I need to remove stones from damsons before steam juicing? Thanks

[Technotrucker]

I'm a newbie also.. but when I checked the recipe section there's a thread about stones in plums & damsons....http://www.winesathome.co.uk/forum/s...mson-Plum-wine ...and I would guess that it would be the same with steam juicing....I did a gall of damsons the other week and I did remove the stones...pain in the harris I know.

[fatbloke]

Nah! cobblers to that. Like Bob says in the thread that the TT linked, for fruit that are easily held, yes I'd de-stone, but for damsons, I'd have a go with my olive/cherry press, but if the fruit was a bit too soft, I'd just freeze, then thaw them (which is exactly what I do with Sloes - they're far too fiddly to follow the traditional route and prick them individually with a pin).

Besides, if you haven't "damaged" the stone in any way, the possible bitterness should (theoretically) be minimal. Yes, it's possible that if you took the effort to de-stone them, you may get a better wine, but I'm far too lazy for that

p.s. and yes, I do have a steam extractor, but I wouldn't use it on "prunus" fruit like plums or damsons, it'd likely set too much pectin and you end up with haze central - equally, yes that can also be sorted, but I just find it less effort to freeze/thaw, mix a must, then hit it with pectolase for a day or two, then pitch the yeast (of if it's looking a bit iffy, sulphite it and then 24 to 48 hours after that, pitch the yeast).

[lockwood1956]

I agree with John

For damsons....freeze and thaw and either press them or pulp ferment

I no longer de-stone damsons

regards
bob

[Smiggs]

Thanks for your advice.

But, I'm moving house next week (getting my spare room/winery back after a little person moved into this one!). So it wasn't really practical to start freezing fruit. And I had a brand new steam juicer in desperate need of a run out.

So I decided to give them a go anyway and I was really pleased with the result.

3kg of damsons and I got close to 2l of great juice (1.5l now frozen). It's really rich and deep red (but not very sweet). I drank some hot and it was a little like non-alcoholic mulled wine.

I'd be surprised if you experienced winemakers couldn't make a red wine from it, if you had enough. Please let me know if you think this might be possible as I should have a good supply each year.

So the juicing was a success. But now I have to try to make some wine. I'm still quite new so I was thinking of adding my 1.5l to 1l white grape juice and going for a wine number 1ish. I guess I'll need lots of pectolase?

Is this sensible?

Thanks,
Matt

[fatbloke]

Thanks for your advice.

But, I'm moving house next week (getting my spare room/winery back after a little person moved into this one!). So it wasn't really practical to start freezing fruit. And I had a brand new steam juicer in desperate need of a run out.

So I decided to give them a go anyway and I was really pleased with the result.

3kg of damsons and I got close to 2l of great juice (1.5l now frozen). It's really rich and deep red (but not very sweet). I drank some hot and it was a little like non-alcoholic mulled wine.

I'd be surprised if you experienced winemakers couldn't make a red wine from it, if you had enough. Please let me know if you think this might be possible as I should have a good supply each year.

So the juicing was a success. But now I have to try to make some wine. I'm still quite new so I was thinking of adding my 1.5l to 1l white grape juice and going for a wine number 1ish. I guess I'll need lots of pectolase?

Is this sensible?

Thanks,
Matt

Darker "red" fruit like that are quite handy, as you can often add some water to the fruit after it's been steamed and get a decent "second run" off it i.e. add the water, bring it up to a gentle simmer for a couple of minutes and then switch it off and let it cool, once cool you can hit it with some pectolase for 24 hours (covered, or in a bucket etc) and just strain out the fruit debris - it makes for good water base to add into the main steamed juice (and yes, when it comes to "foraged" fruit, I'm enough of a tightwad to not want to waste any of my efforts).

As with anything, adding pectolase before ferment is often best Matt. It uses less (you need to use double the quantity if it's already been fermented).

A handy tip for steam juicers, is that they're bloody brilliant for black/blue type fruit, as that usually benefits the taste etc, but for white/green type fruit (think apples, kiwi fruit, etc) it's not much help as it will give that "cooked" flavour (presumably it breaks down some of the acidity from the naturally occuring ascorbic acid/vitamin C), losing that "fresh" flavour of the fruit.

Your "time of the year" tip, is that yes, it's the mutz nutz for steam juicing elderberries, so that you don't have to spend hours removing the tiniest bits of stalk

regards

John