ginger brandy base fruit?

Post by **jedneck** » Sat Sep 27, 2014 3:59 pm

I am wanting to do a ginger brandy but not sure what I wanna use for the base fruit. I can get apple cider for $4 a gallon. Or was thinking about using grape juice concentrate. How many cans of concentrate would be needed per gallon? I don't wanna us any sugar I am going for a true brandy.

Post by **S-Cackalacky** » Sat Sep 27, 2014 4:47 pm

Seems like white grape might pair well with it. But then, after distillation most any fruit brandy flavor will be so subtle that it probably won't much matter. I would say go with whatever you like best.

as far as sugar content - maybe just reconstitute it according to the package instructions, take a gravity reading and adjust with more concentrate for higher gravity or more water for lower.

NZChris · Post by **NZChris** » Sat Sep 27, 2014 4:54 pm

For what it's worth....

Ginger pairs well with:
almond, apple, apricot, banana, berries, Brazil nut, caramel, chocolate, citrus, coconut, grape, hazelnut, passion fruit, peach, pear, pineaple, plum, tropical fruit

thatguy1313 · Post by **thatguy1313** » Sat Sep 27, 2014 7:55 pm

Thanks for narrowing it down nzchris

MitchyBourbon · Post by **MitchyBourbon** » Sun Sep 28, 2014 6:41 pm

My homemade ginger ale is made with the juice of 10 lemons and 4 lbs ginger plus 4 lbs sugar and 4 cups water. I mix it all together and boil it down to a thick syrup. I add a spoonful to club soda and it make a fine ginger ale.

I would suggest something citrus. If I were making a ginger brandy i might try lemon and ginger. However, lemons have a ph of 2.3 and are low in sugar compared to grapes. Tangerines a higher sugar content and a ph of 3.9.

I know the flavor transfer into brandy tends to be very subtle compared to a glass of ginger ale. I just think citrus and ginger go so well together. But what do I know, the only brandy i ever made was banana and it had sugar added so it wasn't even a real brandy. Cheers.

Post by **jedneck** » Fri Nov 21, 2014 3:02 am

Gonna use pear cider. It was free. Gonna run fores and heads then shoot the thumper with fresh ginger.

Post by **MichiganCornhusker** » Fri Nov 21, 2014 6:26 am

jedneck wrote:Gonna use pear cider. It was free. Gonna run fores and heads then shoot the thumper with fresh ginger.

Ginger-pear sounds great! I've had a couple big hunks of ginger chopped up and soaking in white UJ for a couple weeks, and the shine has really extracted a LOT of ginger. Wondering if it would be better for you do do that first, soak the ginger in some hooch to extract the flavors before adding to thumper? If you just add the fresh ginger to the thumper while running, there might not be enough time to get all the goodness out of the root. Either way, keep us posted, sounds tasty.

Post by **jedneck** » Fri Nov 21, 2014 8:47 am

Plan is to shoot the thumper for the first batch. Then if not enuf flavour soak ginger root in collected distillate and charge thumper with that. Or do 1 1/2 run charging thump with backset and shooting more ginger. The options are many.

Post by **jedneck** » Thu Dec 25, 2014 6:18 pm

Change of plans. Running 5 gallon boiler with single plate flute. Gonna run 2 four gallon charges, keeping the best as pear brandy. With everything that don't make the cut im going to macerate ginger in it and combine with the last 3 gallons of must and run for ginger brandy. Got first run done and looks promising for the pear brandy. And it is brandy, no sugar added.

Post by **shadylane** » Thu Dec 25, 2014 6:41 pm

Ginger brandy ?
Haven't thought of that one before, let me know how it works out.

Post by **jedneck** » Thu Dec 25, 2014 7:00 pm

shadylane wrote:Ginger brandy ?
Haven't thought of that one before, let me know how it works out.

Will do. I use to like jaquinn's ginger brandy but since I have been corrupted with the good stuff, me head don't like the heads in the commercial swill. I did a couple allbran runs with ginger in the ferment but I'm trying to get away from sugar.

Post by **jedneck** » Thu Dec 25, 2014 7:23 pm

MichiganCornhusker wrote:
jedneck wrote:Gonna use pear cider. It was free. Gonna run fores and heads then shoot the thumper with fresh ginger.
Ginger-pear sounds great! I've had a couple big hunks of ginger chopped up and soaking in white UJ for a couple weeks, and the shine has really extracted a LOT of ginger. Wondering if it would be better for you do do that first, soak the ginger in some hooch to extract the flavors before adding to thumper? If you just add the fresh ginger to the thumper while running, there might not be enough time to get all the goodness out of the root. Either way, keep us posted, sounds tasty.

How much ginger in how much uj? When I did the allbran with dried ginger I was using 2.5 oz to 5 gal wash and ran 30% backset in gen two, the bottle at jedfest.

Post by **jedneck** » Fri Dec 26, 2014 8:38 am

Also found apple cider for $2 a gallon. Didn't have the cash on me at the time but gonna go back and get 5 gallons and start another ferment to do the same, keep the best and add ginger to the rest to rerun.

Post by **jedneck** » Fri Dec 26, 2014 4:08 pm

Just sampled some of the head transition area and some dead center hearts. Holy shit I'm gonna be looking for pear trees next year. Even the heads are better than a lot of commercial swill. Prestill the must had very little flavour. Now has an amazing pear flavour. I should be able to keep a 750ml and have enuf feints for macerating the ginger.

Post by **MichiganCornhusker** » Sat Dec 27, 2014 10:12 am

jedneck wrote:How much ginger in how much uj?

I used a pretty big hunk of fresh ginger. I sliced it up thinly and it filled about 1/3 of a quart jar. I then filled up the jar with UJ @ 120 proof and let it sit for a few weeks. I never added sugar like with fruit. Very pronounced ginger smell and taste. I'm tempted to do some more and try re-distilling to see what would come over.

Post by **jedneck** » Sat Jan 03, 2015 5:58 pm

Kept little better than a pint to keep as pear brandy. Have it on a block of third use chard oak. Frist on blackberry wine then 80% white wheat malt and 20% corn. Had the fiends soaking with 2 oz ground dried ginger and just added them to the fermenter of finished pear cider to blend before running it.

Post by **jedneck** » Sun Jan 11, 2015 10:45 am

Just charged the boiler with 4 gallons. The must would be drinkable as is. Running it with a single plate flute. Gonna take fores and heads slow then go pot still mode. I got high hopes for this.

Post by **jedneck** » Sun Jan 11, 2015 12:26 pm

Getting a nice distalate, has a good ginger flavour with notes of pear in the backround. I'm rite in the transition from heads to hearts. Collecting 75 ml at a time till in the hearts then gonna open her up.

Post by **jedneck** » Sun Jan 11, 2015 4:29 pm

Ended up with 16 jars of 75-100 ml each. Starting at 82% and dropping to 40%. I ran just enuf reflux to hold the tails back. I will cut and blend in a day or two then it will go on oak till I get special company.

Post by **MichiganCornhusker** » Sun Jan 11, 2015 4:39 pm

jedneck wrote:Ended up with 16 jars of 75-100 ml each. Starting at 82% and dropping to 40%. I ran just enuf reflux to hold the tails back. I will cut and blend in a day or two then it will go on oak till I get special company.

Hope to see ya soon, Jed!

Post by **jedneck** » Mon Jan 12, 2015 5:26 pm

Just got done cutting and blending. Pitched 50ml as fores. Last jar was the parrot dump after I shut down. In the end I kept just under a quart at 57%. I'm not gonna say I did good on the cuts. Ginger seems to come over early. And is hard to pick out from the heads. Jar 1 was the only one that I dumped as heads. I did reflux for 30 min till I started to collect. Jar 2 was very light heads with good pear and ginger, kept. Had just enuf reflux running to hold back the tails and the parrot dump was also pitched along with the one before. I will see how I did in a couple months when I pull it off oak.

Post by **jedneck** » Tue Feb 10, 2015 3:52 pm

Just had a wee nip. Nice fruity ginger flavour. Still needs a couple months of age though.

wtfdskin · Post by **wtfdskin** » Sat Jan 07, 2017 8:04 pm

Gonna dig this one up a year later. My first apple brandy is 2 yrs old now and turned out great. My stillin partner loves jaquinns ginger brandy also and thinks we can do way better.

Jed what was your final opinion of your run? Did it turn out better with maceration or shooting the thumper?

Im not set up to shoot it after fores and heads at this time. Been thinking about cutting a hole in the top of my thumper and corking it for that.

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NZChris · Post by **NZChris** » Sat Jan 07, 2017 10:55 pm

wtfdskin wrote:Im not set up to shoot it after fores and heads at this time. Been thinking about cutting a hole in the top of my thumper and corking it for that.

Use heart cut likker that doesn't have heads and tails to worry about, then distil it like gin.

wtfdskin · Post by **wtfdskin** » Sun Jan 08, 2017 6:39 am

Hmm never thought about that. So a standard brandy strip and spirit run, make final cuts, dilute and run again with ginger in thumper. Brilliant.

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ginger brandy base fruit?

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