Brandy from Muscat Wine

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Samogonka
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Brandy from Muscat Wine

Post by Samogonka »

Hi guys , I am making some Muscat White Wine about 60 liters right now currently fermenting should be around 14 to 15% alcohol ones fermented , would this wine make good to distill for brandy ? It's a sweet dessert wine ?

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cranky
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Re: Brandy from Muscat Wine

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Samogonka wrote:Hi guys , I am making some Muscat White Wine about 60 liters right now currently fermenting should be around 14 to 15% alcohol ones fermented , would this wine make good to distill for brandy ? It's a sweet dessert wine ?

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I wouldn't run a dessert wine for two reasons. #1 I like dessert wines and #2 the high residual sugar might burn easily. after all, 80 bottles of dessert wine isn't really that much.
rad14701
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Re: Brandy from Muscat Wine

Post by rad14701 »

14% - 15% is also somewhat high ABV for a flavored spirit like brandy... It might be a bit rough around the edges, so to speak, from a flavor standpoint... It could have more bite than expected... If you want smooth sipping brandy you want to keep your potential %ABV lower and ferment to dry so you don't have residual sugars...

We've got some good topics on brandy scattered about these forums... Tater makes a good amount of brandy every year as I recall...
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NZChris
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Re: Brandy from Muscat Wine

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Quickly grab another load of grapes, tread, de-stalk, don't add sugar, ferment on the skins, and you should be fine.

Use some of the brandy to fortify some of the wine. Put oak in the jars while it ages.
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Re: Brandy from Muscat Wine

Post by goose eye »

Half it in another barrel .taste it as you go and add
Water. Grape a strong flavor that will come across .
You got to drop it a fair amount to get it back workin

So I'm tole
Samogonka
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Re: Brandy from Muscat Wine

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NZChris wrote:Quickly grab another load of grapes, tread, de-stalk, don't add sugar, ferment on the skins, and you should be fine.

Use some of the brandy to fortify some of the wine. Put oak in the jars while it ages.
I have a another 30l pale with skins stems and seeds fermenting. Muscat grapes can I add some into each pale? At what point should I add brandy ? If I ferment to dry It will be 14% to 15 by volume

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NZChris
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Re: Brandy from Muscat Wine

Post by NZChris »

Samogonka wrote:At what point should I add brandy ? If I ferment to dry It will be 14% to 15 by volume
If you want to stop it with some residual sugar, add the brandy before it finishes fermenting. Taking it up to 18% should stop it. There is no strict rule, you just time it to make what you want. I've added brandy to freshly pressed juice to make a Jeropiga style wine for those who like a sweet desert wine. It still needs more age, but is nice already.
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Re: Brandy from Muscat Wine

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NZChris wrote:
Samogonka wrote:At what point should I add brandy ? If I ferment to dry It will be 14% to 15 by volume
If you want to stop it with some residual sugar, add the brandy before it finishes fermenting. Taking it up to 18% should stop it. There is no strict rule, you just time it to make what you want. I've added brandy to freshly pressed juice to make a Jeropiga style wine for those who like a sweet desert wine. It still needs more age, but is nice already.
So brandy would be a no go for this wine ? Shit I spend close to 250$ on these grapes


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NZChris
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Re: Brandy from Muscat Wine

Post by NZChris »

As long as you didn't put any SO2 in it, it should be ok for brandy.

I'm guessing from your projected abv that you added sugar, which would dilute the flavor and stress the yeast.
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Re: Brandy from Muscat Wine

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What have you got to lose if your try a test run using 8 - 10 liters... Just 8 - 10 liters, right...???
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Re: Brandy from Muscat Wine

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NZChris wrote:As long as you didn't put any SO2 in it, it should be ok for brandy.

I'm guessing from your projected abv that you added sugar, which would dilute the flavor and stress the yeast.
No S02 and no I didnt add any sugar Muscat grapes are very high in sugar naturally I was getting gravity of 1.100 before fermentation , fermenting it on the wild yeast also 3 days in it's fuzzing like crazy .

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NZChris
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Re: Brandy from Muscat Wine

Post by NZChris »

That sounds good to me. It should make a great brandy.
Look up how Cognac is distilled. It is different to grains and neutrals, so it pays not to rely too heavily on past experience or advice from whiskey distillers.
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Re: Brandy from Muscat Wine

Post by Rod »

BERRI BRANDY

Run it as fast as you can in pot still mode but hold back some of the wine. Make a foreshots cut but keep everything else all the way down to about 20%.
Dilute the low wines to around 30% and put it back in the still. Add the undistilled wine you held back. (I like to have the boiler charge be about 10% undistilled wine. A 10 gallon still charge would get an additional 1 gallon of wine)
Now run it slow, collect in small jars, air out and make your cuts. There is likely some good flavor in the tails so don't be afraid to add some to your hearts cut. Just taste and see what you want.
Age it on oak and add a little bit of maple syrup and maybe a small handful of raisins.
You should end up with a very passable brandy.

5 litres Berri Traditional Dry Red

4.5 litres in still

run fast

50 ml to waste , methanol

run in parrot to 20%

dilute to about 30 %

add remaining 500ml

run slow

add Jack Daniels wood chips, some raisins
and maple syrup to colour

method is here somewhere on site given to me for a similar post by me from Baz


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http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 27&t=43451
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NZChris
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Re: Brandy from Muscat Wine

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I don't do most of the things recommended in that BERRI method :lol:
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cranky
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Re: Brandy from Muscat Wine

Post by cranky »

In the original post the OP indicated it was a dessert wine he was making and going to distill. I would never distill a dessert wine but if you ferment the must to dry it won't be a dessert wine. I agree with Chris, it will make a good brandy as long as it is fermented without metabisulfite. I don't think a 1.5 run or even a 1.1 run like the berri method would be a bad way to do it. I've gotten kind of lazy myself lately and just do a single run on a flute and call it good. Cuts are the trickiest part of any brandy, that and how to age it. I hate anything aged on JD chips because in the end anything aged on oak that has been used for bourbon all just tastes like bourbon to me. I want my brandy to be fruit forward, not covered up by whatever the last guy stored in the oak.
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NZChris
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Re: Brandy from Muscat Wine

Post by NZChris »

I wouldn't do a 1.5 on a straight grape must. I haven't done Muscat, but if I ever do get the chance, I won't do a 1.5.

Distilling pure grape brandy is easy. It doesn't need overthinking and highly skilled cuts .... unless you want to impress your friends with what you made yesterday, but that is a subject that I am not familiar with.
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Re: Brandy from Muscat Wine

Post by thecroweater »

Yeah those grapes are so sweet they stall with residual sugar and you get a desert wine. If you want to run the lot to brandy go back and read what goose eye has told ya. Another idea is keep back some as wine and water the rest down for brandy wine, when you distill that add some to your desert wine to make a proper fortified muscat. That said the correct answer is it would be to sweet and what goose eye suggested will remedy that . @ rod , use to live not so far from Berri Estates and have delivered grapes there :wink:
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NZChris
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Re: Brandy from Muscat Wine

Post by NZChris »

Yeah, listen to Goose, you don't want the yeast struggling to get it to dry.
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Re: Brandy from Muscat Wine

Post by masonsjax »

I have run brandy from some very sweet and strong wines. After stripping, there was enough residual sugar that I put it back on the yeast and it started fermenting again. I got another good amount of low wines from that. The resulting brandy turns out great!
Samogonka
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Re: Brandy from Muscat Wine

Post by Samogonka »

I think I understand now 6th day now and no more bubbling in air lock? Do you guys think it's a stalled ferment because of hoe sweet Muscat wine is? Should I add dry yeast to kick start again

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Samogonka
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Re: Brandy from Muscat Wine

Post by Samogonka »

Going to check the gravity see where it's at I daudt it's complete

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NZChris
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Re: Brandy from Muscat Wine

Post by NZChris »

Samogonka wrote:I think I understand now 6th day now and no more bubbling in air lock? Do you guys think it's a stalled ferment because of hoe sweet Muscat wine is? Should I add dry yeast to kick start again
It could be a leak.
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