New to the hobby, apricot brandy on the way

[big_top_boozin]

Hello distillers, I have been reading numerous threads on the site for the past few months in preparation to kick off my new hobby. I have a bit of hands on experience with hobby and professional distillers, and am currently working on putting my own rig together. I am interested in all kinds of distilled spirits, and tonight I just finished mashing my first batch: apricot brandy.

[NZChris]

Welcome to the forum.

Mashing is something you do with grains, not fruit. I hope you know what you are doing.

[Still Life]

Hello big_top.
Come on in and check us out.
I haven't tackled a brandy myself, but apricot sounds good.
Welcome!

[Pikey]

Morning - Welcome in

We have some wierd distinctions in this hobby - which don't really mean much eg - the fermenting liquid is called a "wort" if you're beer making, a "must" if you're wine making, a "mash" if you're doing an all grain ferment and a "wash" if you're using sugar - quite what it is called when you're doing an all fruit ferment without added sugar - I don't remember

[The Baker]

Call it a "ferment".

Geoff

[Oldvine Zin]

Call it a "ferment".

Geoff

Welcome Bigtop

OVZ

[Oldvine Zin]

Morning - Welcome in

We have some wierd distinctions in this hobby - which don't really mean much eg - the fermenting liquid is called a "wort" if you're beer making, a "must" if you're wine making, a "mash" if you're doing an all grain ferment and a "wash" if you're using sugar - quite what it is called when you're doing an all fruit ferment without added sugar - I don't remember

Must of forgot - pardon my bad English

OVZ

[thecroweater]

Apricot and plum are the same genus, you can treat em the same way except apricot struggles more to carry the flavour over so might want to be ran a tad harder. I've found for stone fruit there are better woods to age on than oak, mainly stone fruit wood and mulberry.
Welcome here.

[Oldvine Zin]

Welcome to the forum.

Mashing is something you do with grains, not fruit. I hope you know what you are doing.

I really believe that it's just a semantics issue - mash,mosh,wort,wart,must, whatever... I know Big_top - he has a bit to learn but being a chem major he can also teach us a bit.
Once again welcome to HD

OVZ

[big_top_boozin]

Thank you all for the kind welcome and the vocabulary lesson. My first batch is 3:1 apricot:sugar by weight, so I'll call it an apricot ferment until corrected otherwise. The ferment is bubbling nicely and smells great. Tomorrow is day 3 and I plan to aerate a bit to keep it chugging along. I'm shooting for high abv and a single run on a pot still. It's my first batch, so we'll see how it goes. Thanks for the wood advice, croweater, I'm not yet sure what I'm gonna do for aging. I worked off of Tater's fruit brandy recipe with some minor changes. Anyone out there done apricot brandy before?

[NZChris]

Aerating it at this point sounds like a really bad idea unless you are wanting to make apricot vinegar.

[NZChris]

I'm shooting for high abv and a single run on a pot still.

You must have a helluva pot still. Better than any I have in my shed.

[big_top_boozin]

Aerating it at this point sounds like a really bad idea unless you are wanting to make apricot vinegar.

NZChris, I have read on this forum and elsewhere that it is a good idea to aerate periodically during fermentation, to push the fruitcake down to keep the solid flavor-containing components in contact with the liquid, and to avoid drying out of the fruitcake. Are you suggesting that aeration causes an increase in the activity of acetic acid producing bacteria?

[NZChris]

Acetic acid producing bacteria are aerobic.

Pushing the cap down should be done without disturbing the CO2 layer in the top of the fermenter.

[thecroweater]

While it is fermenting the co2 with be very quickly replaced, once it finished or near finished allow the kausen to sink under its own accord (unless you are wanting to run it withing the next or so)

[big_top_boozin]

While it is fermenting the co2 with be very quickly replaced, once it finished or near finished allow the kausen to sink under its own accord (unless you are wanting to run it withing the next or so)

Thank you. Yes, I was planning to let the kausen drop on its own once fermentation halts. I did notice after replacing the fermenter lock following mixing yesterday that the bubbling resumed immediately, even picked up a bit. It's blub blub every few seconds at 65F.

My plastic drum has a 2'' opening, so I was using a low power drill with sterilized long 1'' bore bit to stir, but I have read about using a broom stick or paddle instead. More gentle, I guess. I ended up using the bit as a paddle anyway (the drilling motion didn't do much). What would recommend?

Thanks

[thecroweater]

Paint or plaster mixer but really I wouldn't bother, its not required.

[NZChris]

I push the cap down gently with a flat pusher at least once a day for at least three days.

[cranky]

I just jiggle my fermenter a little bit and the cap settles out.

By the way, before this thread gets locked for getting too far off topic

Welcome to the forums

[big_top_boozin]

Hey distillers,
It's been a few months and I wanted to let y'all know that my apricot eau de vie turned out great. I posted on "my first":
http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 32&t=68659
Thanks again for all your advice!
Big Top