Mould

[Um?]

Can anyone tell me if mould should be growing on the following recipe and if so should I continue to skim it off because later the sugar and fermentation will make it benign or do I throw it all away?
Rarely seeing fresh damsons I bought almost 4lbs and searched online for recipes other than for jam. Found one for damson port which instructed me to pour boiling water over them and leave for 10 days stirring and mashing each day. On the 5th day, one of the two bowls, had grown a greyish white, dust-like mould which I skimmed off before mashing and stirring again. The next day it was worse and now the second bowl of damsons has developed mould.
The recipe goes on: run through a jelly bag and strain twice without squeezing. Add sugar and stir until dissolved. Add tea cup of boiling water to raise temperature, and leave to ferment for 14 days. Skim and bottle, corking very loosely.

[Kim A]

Did you keep the container covered? It sounds like the natural 'wild' yeasts in the air and on the skins of the damsons have fermented a bit. From the last line of the recipe it sounds as if it's quite lively in the bottle - again, I assume because of natural fermentation. I'd be inclined to carry on with it, after all, if it doesn't work, it's not the end of the world, only a bit of fruit and sugar. My sloe gin did that the first year I made it, so maybe its something that happens with wild plum-type friut -but doubtless someone else will know!

[nickmo]

Hi Um? - you should have left the mould as this is as a result of the natural yeast fermenting the fruit and forms a cap that allows the liquor below to develop into the wine. the mould is removed before you rack the wine. The recipe you have sourced also uses no extra yeast to ferment the fruit plus no pectin to break the fruit down - and doesn't say you must remove the stones.... Also there are no comments about racking the wine or maturing - Damson - or almost any fruit wine - takes about a year before you can tolerate it to drink.....

If you haven't made wines before this isn't perhaps the best starter for you. Read the following Damson Wine recipes from the Yobrew site: http://www.yobrew.co.uk/damson.php and these will hopefully point you in the right direction.

This guy also has put a lot of info on fruit fermentation onto his site which is also handy and worth reading to get an idea of what is happening to the brew:
http://home.btconnect.com/ntruman/wine/method. html

Don't foregt that all the equipment must be sterilised before you use it and you have to take care with the fermentation - don't allow the gases to build up or you get bursting bottles / demi-johns etc, so if in any doubt, off to your local home brew shop and just pick their brains - most of these shops are more than happy to help with sadvcie to the homebrewer. It should get you started on the road to trying some of the other recipes - soon be on the home made saki then..?

Have fun..!

[Um?]

Thanks both of you. Suppose it was ambitious for a first attempt. I chose that recipe because it sounded sooooo easy. Should have done some research as well. Sorry that I've binned all that 'useful' mould. Still, there's plenty more this morning. Decided to persevere and see what happens. This is a great site and I was dead chuffed by the speed and quality of the support. Thanks.