I have some apples

[The Baker]

I have some apples I want to ferment; I have cut any bad bits out and will put them through the big butcher's mincer at the bakery.
There a few vinegar flies on them and I wondered if it is okay if there are not many of them; or might it be a good idea to wash the apples in a very weak solution of bleach, say?

Some of the apples are not very ripe, they came from branches of the tree that had to be removed
(my son is making a run and house for two cats his wife is getting and the tree was in the way,
I told him he is one of the few people to have his own cat-house at home...).
Anyway I plan to lay the undamaged fruit that is not fully ripe on the floor, to ripen more.

Any that had to be cut I will put through the mincer with the ripe ones; but because of these less ripe ones I have started a wash with sugar, and will put all the apple into that. Should give it a better chance.

Any insights?

[The Baker]

Footnote; After I minced the apples I tasted them and they were riper than I thought; some sweetness there that I had not expected.

[rtalbigr]

I've not done apples but I have done peaches. I left them in plastic bags to help ripen (hold the gasses in) and only cut out some moldy spots. I used boiling water to mash and kill any nasties. I added some sugar because the peaches were picked to early and not sweet at all. It made some really good brandy. Don't think ya need to use a clorine wash.

Big R

[Ayay]

Ripe flavour is more fruity. The riper the better because ripe = sugar, and sugar = alc. Flavour depends on the method of stillin and how you cut it.

[The Baker]

I've not done apples but I have done peaches. I left them in plastic bags to help ripen (hold the gasses in) and only cut out some moldy spots. I used boiling water to mash and kill any nasties. I added some sugar because the peaches were picked to early and not sweet at all. It made some really good brandy. Don't think ya need to use a clorine wash.

Big R

Thanks for that. Never thought of the plastic bags, I'll try it. Yeah, I added the sugar for the same reason.

[The Baker]

Ripe flavour is more fruity. The riper the better because ripe = sugar, and sugar = alc. Flavour depends on the method of stillin and how you cut it.

I'll let the sound fruit ripen as much as possible.
I'm using my re-modelled pot still with the fire extinguisher expansion chamber (!) ; just getting used to how it works. I put through some apricot wash from maybe a year ago and it kept a nice apricot flavour so I hope it will be good. Ran it into half-litre jars and will air it a bit and blend it soon. It seemed to keep the flavour right into the tails.

[sparky marky]

Add a couple of bananas to your plastic bags.
Bananas release a large amount of the gas that ripens fruit.

[D Major]

Hello!
Don't use bleach. Sounds like a bad Idea to me.

I ran some apples once and it was great.
Made the whole thing up but...
I cut off the worst parts too, but not a whole lot because I cooked them into apple sauce which killed anything I was worried about. Once the sauce was done I had about 3 gallons.
I added water to 6 gallons and some white and some brown sugar.
And a single packet of Red Star Premier Cuvée yeast.
After the ferment, (2.5 weeks for me) strained out the solids, set it in the cool garage for 2 days for the rest of the small solids and yeast to settle, racked it, ran it.

Some things I learned along the way...
I did not peel the apples. Apple peels have lots of pectin in them which leads to more heads from the run.
The tails were sort of "unfriendly" so I ran them in my next wash.
Since my cuts were deeper because of those things, I ended up with a heart of about 73% ABV from a potstill!!!
The smell from a potstill when running apples is incredible.
I am aging it in glass jars with toasted/charred applewood. (I started with 2 weeks of white oak, then switched out.)
I did expect for more of an apple flavor but was not disappointed in what I did get,
the apple taste is mostly in the sinuses as the warm clean likker is heating your throat.
Nothing like it.

I cannot wait for apple season this year.
The apples I ran were "forgotten" in our garage, so running them was a last ditch effort to do something other than compost them. I will plan ahead this year.

Let us know how yours turn out.

I am gettin' thirsty just writing about it.

[The Baker]

Thanks, D Major.
I replied but at the instant I hit submit the website went off the air and
I lost it all.
Or maybe I pressed the wrong button, I have done that before!
Anyway I am following your suggestion, today.

[The Baker]

I know that fruit changes when you cook it, but does anyone know what exactly happens?

Or how cooking fruit affects its distillation?

In particular, I was wondering whether the cooking of it improves its fermentation?

And is that especially so if the fruit is a bit immature/ unripe?

Thanks

[rtalbigr]

From what I can remember Baker, cooking generally destroys vitamins and anti-oxidants or they leach into the cooking water (thus strong recommendation to steam fruits/veggies) which certainly isn't a concern in distillation. I would think though that cooking would break down the pulp and make seperating it off very difficult. A mistake I made doing peaches was putting them in a blender, what a mess, separation took Forever! I have a big "potato masher," it's actually made for mixing drywall joint compound. Next time I do some fruit I'm going to use it to just break up the friut and then add some hot tap water (~140-150F) to help release the sugars, cool and ferment.

Big R

Edit: Ideally I'd like to have a fruit press and just ferment the extracted juices. Maybe someday.

[Tater]

Some blend the fruit or just mash it up good and then put in sack so separating seeds and and skin isn't a problem.After ferment just take sack out of wash and squeeze .I blend mine and after cap falls and wash settles I just dip wash off settled pulp .I have run pulp and all.Just ran slow and sure with lots of boil breaking copper pieces in bottom of still to help not scorch it Stirring washes till they reach distilling temps also helps not to scorch...Cooking fruit does change taste of final product.Ive found freezing it helps more with breaking down fruit and keeping fresh fruit taste then cooking.Would think its more a matter of taste then anything else though.