Newbie wants to (eventually) make plum brandy

[BugHunter]

Hi, I just joined the forum after spending several days reading through the new distiller reading lounge. I'm still wiping blood out of my eyes.

I've got a plum tree in my yard that makes more fruit than I can eat, and I have a couple of neighbors in the same situation. A couple of years ago, the idea came up of fermenting them, then distilling the wine to make a plum brandy came up and we all thought it sounded ilke a good idea (and we all understood the legal issues and didn't really care, given that it would be for personal consumption). Nothing came of it at the time, but the idea has been stuck in the back of my head, and I think I want to give it a try next year.

I've done a decent amount of homebrewing beer and a little mead, so I have a decent idea of how fermentation works (but I've never worked with fresh fruit). I have a decent theoretical understanding of distillation, but almost no practical experience. I once put together a mini-still from a couple of Erlenmeyer flasks, some glass tubing, and an ice bath and turned half a liter of old wine into something that was high enough proof to burn, but I didn't even try drinking it. Yeah, I know, glass and rubber stoppers are not aceptable still materials. But it was just a toy.

I've never done any soldering of copper, but I've done lots of electronic soldering (barely applicable), and have also done some silver and gold jewelry soldering, which is much like the soldering needed for still fabrication, but on a smaller scale. So I think I should have no problem picking up soldering copper, and probably even stainless steel (SS) if need be.

My thought is to make a modular still, using tri-clamps to hold various spools and fittings together. I have a 5 gallon stock pot for which I could make a copper or SS plate with a 2" tri-clamp flange on top to cover it. Then a short vertical pipe, a 90 degree elbow and a 45 degree elbow and another pipe, and I've got your basic pot still with a lyne arm that can be angled anywhere from 45 degrees up to 45 degrees down to try out different configurations. I should have no problem soldering together a liebig condenser to finish it up. I think that ought to be pretty much what I'll need for doing a plum brandy.

Then if I want to do neutrals at some point, I can just add a 3' tube of 2" copper, some scourers, a tee, another short pipe and a coil reflux condenser and I can have a CCVM. Or, by using that 45 degree elbow, I could angle it and make a CCLM. Basically, with just a few parts i could make just about any type of still I care to try. A short pipe with a couple of pieces of slanted copper and I'm got a bokakab takeoff.

And when I'm not using it, it's just a collection of odd plumbing fixtures. "No officer, I don't have a still. What, those pipe bits? I used them for transferring and chilling wort when I was doing homebrewing. That jacketed copper tube? Just a counterflow wort chiller, sir."

Does this sound like a reasonable plan for building a still? If what I have described isn't clear, I can probably make some diagrams of how stuff would go together.

My main question, though, is how to get ready for making plum brandy next summer? I don't want my first real distillation to be the plum brandy, since I don't want to screw it up if I'm working on a combined batch with my neighbors. So I'm looking for some advice one what I can do between now and them to get some useful experience. I was thinking that fermenting some apple cider and then making apple brandy would be good, and cider is easy to come by. Of should I start with something else? I want something that would go well through a pot still to give me hands on experience. Hopefully something that doesn't take too much aging, so I can tell get an idea of what I'm doing right or wrong before the plums are ready. Maybe some rum? Other posibilities?

Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks!

[thecroweater]

Yes apple brandy is fine through a pot still and there are quite a few threads on it. I've only done it one season with my brother in law using a beer keg boiler to run through 55 gal in two passes. That was a few years back now and we aimed for and got calvados so I'm not the best person to answer your questions as far as cider brandy goes. Plums kinda are my thing and I've worked with a number of varieties for some time so as you get closer I might be more help

[BugHunter]

@thecroweater: Thanks for the quick reply. I'm glad to hear from you. Having never fermented with fruit, I know I'll appreciate any help you can give when the time comes.

[NZChris]

Welcome to the forum.

It is important to do your research and get your equipment together before the fruit is ready. There is a lot of advice to be had on forums and Youtube, but it does include a lot of BS and contradictory opinion, so take your time digging through it to find the 'gold'.

Cheers
Chris

[still_stirrin]

...I've done a decent amount of homebrewing beer and a little mead...how to get ready for making plum brandy next summer? I don't want my first real distillation to be the plum brandy, since I don't want to screw it up...should I start with something else?...Other posibilities?

Beer brewer, huh? Well, you could make a beer, but omit your hop additions and distill that. It will give you a very nice whiskey once it’s aged on oak a while (6 months to a year). Hopless beers make good spirits and bring lots of flavor, especially when distilled in a potstill. It would give you good practice on running your still as well as practicing up on making cuts. Both of those skills are best practiced rather than just read. But continuing your education is still valuable, so please keep reading.

Another option for learning to drive your still would be to make a quick and simple sugar wash...I prefer Rad’s All Bran sugar wash (see the Tried & True recipe forum) because it is a good fermenter and produces a nice clean neutral when run through a reflux still. It’s not as expensive to make as a beer or mead, yet produces a good product and will give you some experience before trying the plum brandy.

And speaking of that, put your plums into a freezer until you’re ready to ferment them. When they thaw out, they’ll mush up nicely for you as freezing ruptures the cell membranes and liberates the juice when thawed. Then all you have to do is to de-pit them and add your yeast (Lalvin EC-1118 champagne yeast is recommended).

Good luck. Keep reading. And practice, practice, practice...
ss

[BugHunter]

Thanks for all the advice. I've spent the last few days expanding my reading in the forums beyond the beginners reading list, particularly in the Fruits & Vegetables section (as well as a bunch in the Safety section). I really liked the Pálinka - The Fruit's Spirit thread. I also saw thecroweater's recipe in the Need plum recipe help ? thread and will probably follow it when the time comes.

But it will be a while, and until then I plan on getting my still built and learning to use it. Here are my plans:

I've got a 5 gallon SS stock pot. It's got a glass lid, so I'll have to make a new lid for still use. I'm thinking of getting a SS tray, possibly this one for $3.53. The pot is about 11" across, so that 12" tray should be big enough. I've seen other people use SS mixing bowls, but I'd rather avoid adding height since I'll be using this on a stovetop. I'll cut a 2" hole through it, then take a short length of 2" copper pipe and hammer a flange on both ends, making one into an EZ flange, and the other just a simple flange that I can solder to the tray. Some flour/water paste to seal it and I think it should work fine.

I may also consider getting some PTFE tube, slitting it open lengthwise and using it as a gasket around the rim of the pot. Any experience with doing anything like that?

I've bought a couple lengths of 1/2" and 3/4" copper pipe and fittings to make a Leibig condenser. I'll practice my solder sweating skills on that before trying to do the copper to SS joint for the lid. I'm thinking about a meter (3 feet) long should be plenty.

I also picked up about 6 feet of 2" copper pipe, which I'll use to make some straight sections with EZ flanges for my column and other still parts.

I'm about to put in an order for some other tri-clamp fittings. It looks like it's more practical to buy stuff like tees and elbows pre-built from SS rather than fabricate them myself from copper fitting with EZ flanges. For instance, a 2" copper tee (just the fitting) is about $20, but I can get a 2" SS tee with tri-clamp flanges for $25.

Making my own tubes makes sense, I bought 6 feet of 2" tubing this morning for about the same price as a single 36" SS tube with tri-clamp ends would cost. I'll use that tube for the pot lid, a 36" reflux column, and a couple of other shorter tubes.

The best prices I'm finding for tri-clamp fittings are http://www.brewershardware.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow and http://stilldragon.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow. They seem very similar in pricing, but brewers Hardware has PTFE gaskets and stilldragon doesn't. But stilldragon has a Tee with a thermowell installed, and it looks like exactly the right place for a termometer on a CCVM setup. So I may end up making an order from each place. Here's what I'm thinking of getting (prices are BH for brewer's hardware and SD for still dragon):

7x 2" clamps @ $7 ea. (both)
1x 2" tri-clamp 90 degree elbow @ $19.50 (BH) or $17.00 (SD)
1x 2" tri-clamp 45 degree elbow @ $15.00 (both)'
1x 2" tri-clamp tee @ $25.00 (both - but SD has the thermowell)
1x 2" tri-clamp cap @ $3.75 (BH) or $4.50 (SD)
10x PTFE gaskets @ $1.75 (BH only)
1x 2" tri-clamp x 1/2" NPT adaptor $15.00 (both, BH has male, SD has female). For attaching my condensor, which can be built with male or female to suit.

Does anyone know of someplace else I should look at before I buy? I've found a few other vendors of tri-clamp stuff, but the ones I've found have all been more expensive.

The above should be enough to build either a pot still, a CCVM, or a CCLM by just rearrainging things. I'll try to make drawing of how things would go together for each type (although I suspect many of the experienced folk here can already picture what I have in mind). I'm just planning on working with a pot still for a while, since that's what I'll want for the plum brandy and I want to focus on learning to use it between now and then. But I like having the flexibility to try various types of still later on.

Doing it this way will certainly be more expensive than just soldering together a pot still from copper pipe/fittings, but it will be much less expensive than building a pot still, then building even one design of reflux still. And it will be much easier to store.

So now I just need to figure out what to do to learn to use the still. I'm thinking my first post-cleaning run will be a couple of boxes of cheap box wine. I can pick that stuff up for less than $2.50 a liter. a 5 or 10 liter run should give me some initial experience, and maybe even make some drinkable brandy. Or maybe it will just give me something I can use for making a neutral at some point.

Next up will probably be fermenting some apple cider and making some apple brandy, which I'm hoping will give me experience that will be useful for doing the plum brandy. I just checked the store-bought cider I have in the fridge, and it's made from concentrate and water only. No preservatives. So it would be an option for fermenting. I've also seen advice in the forums to use frozen concentrate, since it can be mixed up to whatever specific gravity I want. So what specific gravity would y'all recommend? The third option is to find a local apple farmer who sells fresh cider. It's the right time of year for it, but I'm not sure where to find any locally (but I'm sure I could find out).

After that, I'm not sure what to do next. I might try a sugar/molassas ferment to make some rum. Not directly applicable to making plum brandy, but still experience running a still, and should be something I can make and drink without too much aging. Hey, i'd like to have something I can drink before too long.

Any other suggestions? Does any of the above sound like bad ideas? All feedback is welcome.

[Shine0n]

Also a thumper would be a nice addition to the pot still, you can put the fruity, grainy mucky crap in there without having to strain it plus it ups the abv quite a bit from just the pot still.

I run only a pot/ thumper set up (15.5 each) so I can't comment on any reflux contraptions but it's a great tool to have " options"

A simple water/vinegar run followed by a sac run of cheap wine will clean the still for it to be ready for production so that's a good plan!

Rum, there are alot of rums on this site and is probably the easiest thing to make so check them out and it will give you some valuable experience to learn from although fruit will be a totally different beast. lol

Fruit will be great and we have some great threads here to read, ec 1118 is a nice yeast and will ferment dry and make cuts on fruits easier than some so it's a nice one to start with.

Start the build, start a ferment, clean and sac run, get some practice running the still, making cuts, blending, aging, and drinking and buy a ton of jars!

You've started on the right foot by researching and it shows so most here will be more than willing to help along your path down the rabbit hole.

Shine0n