Naturally fermented plum "must"

[Old Philosopher]

I didn't search on this, because I know it has NEVER come up before!

I found, in the back of my refrigerator, a 1 gallon jar of plum pulp that has been "fermenting" for about 2 months. It has a couple mold growths on the cap, and a little bit of an acrid smell.
So...before everybody goes, "Eek! Yuk! No way!", what are the possibilities of skimming the top 1/2", bagging the pulp, adding another gallon of water and doing the whole k-meta thing?
K-meta will kill yeast and bacteria, and other micro-organisms, but what are the odds of this being toxic, chemically?

 

[Wade E]

Im the farthest person from a scientist, Luc has fermented his plums naturally though! Truly, maybe you can bring a mall sample of this to a wine store and have it tested, some do this but I have no idea how much it costs, cant be that much though as it seems lots of people do it when they have a batch go south. Id imagine it cant be that bad as thats how they make prison wine but I aint going to be the 1 to test it!

 

[Old Philosopher]

Im the farthest person from a scientist, Luc has fermented his plums naturally though! Truly, maybe you can bring a mall sample of this to a wine store and have it tested, some do this but I have no idea how much it costs, cant be that much though as it seems lots of people do it when they have a batch go south. Id imagine it cant be that bad as thats how they make prison wine but I aint going to be the 1 to test it!

Oh, my... My brain's in neutral. I spent 20 years trying to track down the source of pruno in the jail, by the smell alone. They made it out of bread (yeast) and dried dates. If they hid the smell, we'd know a batch was in the works when everyone wanted 6 tablespoons of sugar on their cereal.

So since my plums have been in a < 40F refrigerator, instead of under someone's bunk, I could make this work!

 

[mmadmikes1]

Hell taste it. One little!!! taste cant hurt to bad

 

[Old Philosopher]

Hell taste it. One little!!! taste cant hurt to bad

Skimmed 2/3 of the cap, it tastes like plums, the SG is 1.012 as is. Hell, I'm goin' for it!!! Added the k-meta and it's sitting now.

 

[Wade E]

Just dial 9-1 just to be prepped!

 

[deboard]

Maybe someone should go ahead and start the "Where's Old Philosopher?" thread.

 

[mmadmikes1]

he's Plum Done gone

 

[Old Philosopher]

It's okay. It only has a pH of -14.2

 

[Old Philosopher]

Just dial 9-1 just to be prepped!

LOL! Did you mean peppered, or prepared?

 

[Old Philosopher]

Update

The plum mash was strained and now I'm dealing with 1 gallon of plain juice. I got it up to 1.096 SG, from the 1.036 it was naturally. It has dropped from 1.096 to 1.032 in 6 days.
I didn't make a starter this time, just dumped in the yeast. It was sluggish to start, until I realized the juice was sitting at 65F degrees! I brought it up to 80F and it really liked that!
The SG is dropping so fast it may be less than a total of 10 days before it's ready for the secondary.
Tastes purdy durn good, even now.

 

[Luc]

Im the farthest person from a scientist, Luc has fermented his plums naturally though!

Yep, I did try to ferment 2 batches (each 2 gallon) naturally and they went south......
After a few days there was a real good vinegar smell.
This was off course totally my own fault, there were fruitflies all over the place..........

My other 3 batches of 10 gallon each are allright.

Did you use any sulphite ????

I did not on the natural fermented batches.

Luc

 

[Old Philosopher]

Yes, Luc. I dosed it with K-meta about 30 hours before removing the pulp and leaving just juice. Seemed to have tamed it pretty well.