Fruit / Berry Recipes

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Kareltje
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Re: Fruit / Berry Recipes

Post by Kareltje »

When I made wine, the standard recipe was 4 lbs of berries and 3 lbs of sugar to a Imperial gallon (4,5 litre) of wine.
It was said about raspberries that the wine would have a surprisingly strong taste. But I never made a raspberry wine.

For making a Geist der wo advises 250 gr of raspberry to 1 litre of 12 vol-%. Which is about half the ratio for wine.

Boiling the must can inactivate the pectic enzym and so prevent the formation of methanol, but can also cause a boiled taste. Adding pectic enzym will release more taste but also more methanol.
Boiling the tapwater is only necessary when your tapwater is not clean. And indeed: if you boil the must and the water, make sure you will add oxygen again.
Young Copper
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Re: Fruit / Berry Recipes

Post by Young Copper »

Ha never thunk thus is called "must" not "mash".

Thank you for the clarification, and thank you for the information. This helps alot. :thumbup: :thumbup:

I was just thinking of boiling the water to remove any impurities. Our tap water is good so I wont worry about it
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Re: Fruit / Berry Recipes

Post by Young Copper »

Well we will see how it turns out. This what I got going
60 liters of red raspberry must on the go.
20 liters of yellow raspberry must on the go
20 liters of strawberry must.

They are all fermenting well
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biggybigz
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Re: Fruit / Berry Recipes

Post by biggybigz »

Good afternoon fruit and berry freaks! I ran across 2 bushels of homegrown blackberries and we want want some shine made from them. I plan on following taters recipe here. Just looking for input or experience that folks have had with blackberries. The bushels are rinsed and frozen. Should I run them through a screen of sorts or just blend and go at it? Thanks!


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Copperhead road
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Post by Copperhead road »

Tater wrote:Freeze 50 to 70 lbs peaches and thaw .Should look like this after thawing Image Image Then add a little water and stir .I use a sharpened morter mixer. Image Image Then pour through sive to get seeds and large pices of pulp and skin out.Save this to add a bit of water back to and stir agin Image Image Use hands to rub fruit through sive seeds help with this.After all fruit is poured through and seeds and skin are tossed wash should look like this Image Take a pot add 20 lbs sugar 1/4 cup lemon juice water and heat till clear. Image
Tater what happened to all the pictures, I have just got myself a heap of peaches and trying to work out best way to go about things, I wanted to use a little sugar with them also.
How many kilograms of fruit do you recommend per litre of water??
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Tater
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Re: Fruit / Berry Recipes

Post by Tater »

Photo bucket is holding them for ransom. have to join and pay 300 bucks to get them back.been hoping someone has copied in past and may be able to get copies On pure peach just use peaches to fill barrel .No water or very little. fill barrel with frozen peaches and if adding sugar mix it with water and add.I figure sweet ripe peaches as a 4-8 abv wash.If adding sugar I go by that to figure sugar.
I use a pot still.Sometimes with a thumper
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cranky
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Re: Fruit / Berry Recipes

Post by cranky »

Tater wrote:Photo bucket is holding them for ransom. have to join and pay 300 bucks to get them back.been hoping someone has copied in past and may be able to get copies On pure peach just use peaches to fill barrel .No water or very little. fill barrel with frozen peaches and if adding sugar mix it with water and add.I figure sweet ripe peaches as a 4-8 abv wash.If adding sugar I go by that to figure sugar.
I haven't tried it because I never used Photobucket in the first place but I just read this on a different website
other website wrote:
Just learned there is a chrome & firefox extension that revives nuked photobucket embeds. Just installed it and I can see history again!

This is the one I used: https://bridgetroll.io/ext/photobucket-hotlink-fix" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

I would still not use PB for embedding new images, who know how long this will work before PB breaks it, but it's great seeing old photos again.
Maybe you can recover those pix that way
Whitecap72
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Re: Fruit / Berry Recipes

Post by Whitecap72 »

I posted my pineapple honey shine recipe in the shared recipe forum. Just sayin. Its got good flavor and pretty easy to make. I seem to be getting addicted to distilling and reading all the recipes on this site,lol.
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Re: Fruit / Berry Recipes

Post by Hilltop »

Tater, have you tried this using wild yeast in summer? I have with blueberry's and it was excellent. I actually prefer the wild yeast on my corn, the blueberry's was by accident as I couldn't get back to it to add yeast, came back about 6 days later and it was bubbling away.
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Re: Fruit / Berry Recipes

Post by Tater »

Hilltop wrote:Tater, have you tried this using wild yeast in summer? I have with blueberry's and it was excellent. I actually prefer the wild yeast on my corn, the blueberry's was by accident as I couldn't get back to it to add yeast, came back about 6 days later and it was bubbling away.
yes have used wild yeast.was way i was showed at first.Was said by some old timers that wild yeast is best after dogwoods bloom
I use a pot still.Sometimes with a thumper
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Hilltop
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Re: Fruit / Berry Recipes

Post by Hilltop »

Makes since, as the dogwoods blooming are the sign that spring has arrived and Turkeys are ready to start gobbling. It can go bad, real bad. I definitely use wire over the barrel and you can expect what I have learned now is a lacto infection.But these wild yeast make a better flavor. Infections are the problem I've had. Those old timers you refer to are right as in spring the mash always works, later in summer you will get a stalled one or one that has a bad infection.

I would like to learn how to cultivate the wild yeast from the best barrel next summer, I've read a couple threads on it here. It may be beyond my abilities as I have yet to understand how it survives, but if certain yeast are better then it would be worth the trouble.

Compared to bread yeast I notice the wild ones don't give me so much gas.
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Re: Fruit / Berry Recipes

Post by Tater »

just save some slop from bottom barrel for keeping yeast . freeze it . I like to use wine yeasts less chance of of losing a wash .Do agree that some fruit likkers are not traditional unless ya do use wild . however ec1118 or d47 work mighty well in apples and peaches/nectarines and plums
I use a pot still.Sometimes with a thumper
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Hilltop
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Re: Fruit / Berry Recipes

Post by Hilltop »

Freeze it? I figured that would kill em. Live and learn I guess, sure makes it easy too. How much slop to save for a barrel?
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Tater
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Re: Fruit / Berry Recipes

Post by Tater »

Hilltop wrote:Freeze it? I figured that would kill em. Live and learn I guess, sure makes it easy too. How much slop to save for a barrel?
How ya reckin wild yeast make it through winter. Ive taken slop left in one barrel 55 gal and used it to start4 more. a gallon or so divided up into whatever ya decide needed for size wash ya doing.should give ya some to use and some to try agin .
I use a pot still.Sometimes with a thumper
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Hilltop
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Re: Fruit / Berry Recipes

Post by Hilltop »

Yeah makes sense now, but I never thought to freeze it before. I've used fresh slop to start other barrels but never froze it. Yeast are airborne so i figured lack of oxygen would make freezing impossible. Ya Learn something every day on HD. Thanks
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Re: Fruit / Berry Recipes

Post by Stew8 »

My original recipe used less fruit, but clearing a freezer I’ve found plums we picked from 2013 :shock:

Taters paint mixer is a different design to the ones available and for a fiver, it was cheaper to buy than make. I was hesitant to sharpen it and remove the plating. So using it on the slowest speed on my battery drill it chopped up the plums in less than five minutes. If I’d used the higher speed on the drill, I’m sure the contents would be either on the floor or the walls.
B47D0344-9D43-4653-938B-0778C2EB4303.jpeg
B47D0344-9D43-4653-938B-0778C2EB4303.jpeg (15.41 KiB) Viewed 7180 times
BTW screwfix.com is not a brothel or porn site :x

It wash is bubbling like mad and I’ll let you know how the brandy turns out :thumbup:
Thanks tater!
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Re: Fruit / Berry Recipes

Post by Scrubby »

So I made strawberry and Banana mash. And I left it 2 or 3 inch bellow the top of my 13 gallon fermenting barrel. When i added my yeast it made a cap and push my air lock out and spilled out. How much does yeast make mash rise? Should I gave used a wet towel at first and put lid on after CO2 slows down?
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Re: Fruit / Berry Recipes

Post by Scrubby »

Tater how do you get 3 gallons shine out of 13 gallon mash? I ran a strawberry and Banana 13 gallon mash based off of your recipe. But only got 3 liters. Came out 160 proof. And tastes great. But I don't know why I came out with 3 liters. Any suggestions will be appreciated thanks
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Re: Fruit / Berry Recipes

Post by Tater »

Scrubby wrote:Tater how do you get 3 gallons shine out of 13 gallon mash? I ran a strawberry and Banana 13 gallon mash based off of your recipe. But only got 3 liters. Came out 160 proof. And tastes great. But I don't know why I came out with 3 liters. Any suggestions will be appreciated thanks
I was tole that ya get 1 gallon drinkin likker for every 10 lbs sugar ya ferment.so 20lbs sugar 50 b ripe fruit will add around 5 mor lbs suger to get 2 1/2 of around 120 -130 proof gallons likker that temper down to 3 gallons if done right . use a 55 gallon barrel and wash will be 15 gallon at start time ya ready to run should be around 13 or so gallons to run .
I use a pot still.Sometimes with a thumper
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Re: Fruit / Berry Recipes

Post by Copperhead road »

great thread Tater..... :clap:
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Re: Fruit / Berry Recipes

Post by rootjuice »

Tater, I can tell from the pics and maybe I didn't read it but do you peel your peaches or just remove the pits before grinding them up.
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Re: Fruit / Berry Recipes

Post by The Baker »

rootjuice wrote:Tater, I can tell from the pics and maybe I didn't read it but do you peel your peaches or just remove the pits before grinding them up.
Just thinking...
If you had a very robust grinder you could just throw the stone fruit in whole.
Then the crushed up woody bits of the stone would float to the top of the ferment and you could scoop them up with a sieve.
The actual kernels would give an almond touch to the spirit.
And no, I believe any cyanide from that would be slight: amaretto liqueur is much more often flavoured with apricot kernels than almonds (which for all I know might also contain cyanide...!)

Or you can just throw the peaches whole into your ferment; give it a few thumps with a hunk of four by four to release some juice.
Maybe add a little water to reduce the thickness of the slurry, and a tiny bit of sugar...
The yeast on the fruit should ferment it fine.

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Re: Fruit / Berry Recipes

Post by Tater »

I get peels and seed out after stirring with sharpened mortar mixer most times .Seed leave a woody taste to me in peach/nectarine or plum and I never use .Peels Ive left in to ferment but remove before running.Sometimes placing in thumper .Id suggest trying different ways to see what suits your tastes
I use a pot still.Sometimes with a thumper
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Re: Fruit / Berry Recipes

Post by belgianale »

Why do you use both the “wine yeast” and distillers yeast? And by distillers yeast do you mean some kind of high octane turbo yeast? Put 60lbs of peaches in the freezer earlier today and I’m excited to try this recipe. Second run, first was sugar wash. I will probably have to to do two ferments to get the whole thing up and running (figure to do initial ferment in stainless milk can transfer to carboy when mostly done and do the other half same way). I would like to follow your recipe as closely as possible. What “other” yeast should I use? Thanks a bunch. And if you have tightened up the recipe or have any other suggestions I would love to hear them.

Again, Thanks

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Re: Fruit / Berry Recipes

Post by belgianale »

Alright I read the entire string and see ya said earlier the 1118 would be adequate all on it’s on. I’ll waive the smack down, still if there is anything else...I still got 60 lbs of peaches in the freezer today....
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Re: Fruit / Berry Recipes

Post by rootjuice »

Hey Tater, I ran my peach concoction yesterday. I followed your instruction to the letter. It can out tasting like dish water, not that I've ever drank any but all the same it was very disappointing. I don't know what happened. I used two bushels of peaches, 25 lbs sugar, 12 gals water, and yeast. I had a starting SP gravity of 1.067, at the end of 10'days it was .999. It started coming off at 190 proof then dropped to 180 hung around 160-150 for bout an hour then tapered off over th next couple of hours. I stopped at 100 proof. Proofed it down to approx 86 proof. My rid is a 15 gal keg with a thumper and a quart mason jar thumper with 2 cut up fresh peaches in it. Now, what the hell did I do wrong?
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Re: Fruit / Berry Recipes

Post by belgianale »

Does this stuff ferment out to a point that it would pull through a siphon? If not how do you get it from the fermenter to the cook pot, or to a secondary fermenter. It looks like I’m going to end up with some hard to work with peach sludge and I don’t want to just dump it yeast and all into my still.
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Re: Fruit / Berry Recipes

Post by belgianale »

Okay, I’m going with fermenting in 8 gallon plastic fermenters with drilled bottoms sitting in similar undrilled fermenters and just planning to work a strain of the mash out from there (I can manage three of these setups). I Have just under 70 lbs of frozen peaches (halfed and pitted) from an orchard just up the street (50 cents a lb., not bad I thought). I also have about 12 pounds of strawberries frozen that I vacume packed earlier this summer. Turns out that is not a good idea, they are two delicate to take the squeeze and are unpleasant mush when thawed. Breakfast sucked this morning. So I figure in they go. Question is do I need to adjust anything else? I’m good with a three gallon yield and don’t want to add more sugar, hoping to accent some fruit flavor and don’t want to dilute it. Same water\sugar addition to the mash or will I make it too thick? I also have 2.5 lbs cherries and at this point I’m figuring what the hell...
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Re: Fruit / Berry Recipes

Post by DetroitDIY »

belgianale wrote:Alright I read the entire string and see ya said earlier the 1118 would be adequate all on it’s on. I’ll waive the smack down, still if there is anything else...I still got 60 lbs of peaches in the freezer today....
Lot's of yeast options out there. Google, or better yet, go onto a wine or cider or mead forum and do a search for yeast for fruit flavor. There are many options, and they'll produce different esters and flavors.

EC-1118 is a champagne grape yeast. It ferments very dry (I think up to 18%), but is has a reputation for wiping out flavors rather than enhancing them. I made my first ciders on it. They were great, but definitely had a champagne flavor to them.

47D is one that a lot of people use for fruity esters, and there are others. Do a search.

When you find one with a description that you like, look up that yeast through one of the producers (such as Lalvin) and check what ABV it survives to. Typically they're somewhere in the 12-18% range. And the alcohol tolerance is known to increase for a given yeast colony as it goes, so if you get one that states 12%, it may actually go to 14% before the alcohol becomes too much for the yeast.

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Re: Fruit / Berry Recipes

Post by cranky »

I'll chime in a little about some fruit yeasts.

In regards to distilling I find 1118 doesn't remove flavor but it doesn't add any either and tends to make cuts easy. It ferments dry and clean but you need to keep it fairly cool, 70 ish (f) or even cooler. It doesn't like warm and it has a reputation for being slow. 1122 and D-47 both add fruity esters but make cuts much more difficult, they also need cooler temps. These 3 are my go to yeasts for pretty much everything fruit.
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