Appriccot & Rhubarb ?

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Just 4 Fun
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Appriccot & Rhubarb ?

Post by Just 4 Fun »

Just wondering if any of ya'll have ever tried this combo or am I wasting my time?

I have Lots of giant rhubarb in my yard and a nice apricot tree as well and every year we get more than we can use.

Probably gonna try a 5 gal batch when the cots are done.

Thinking boil the crap out of all the fruit then add inverted sugar till I get an sg of 1.060-1.080 (8-10%)

Any and all insight would be much appreciated.

Thanx
J4F
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Just 4 Fun
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Re: Appriccot & Rhubarb ?

Post by Just 4 Fun »

Think I may have posted this question in the wrong section.

Maybe one of the mods can move it to the right one.

My bad.
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Re: Appriccot & Rhubarb ?

Post by Shine0n »

Imo, I wouldn't add any sugar to them (cots) the flavor will come through a lot better and not have the sugar bite.
If the sugar is too low for a decent yield maybe go around .25 lbs sugar to # of cots.
Also, try not to go above 1.050... the yield is on the low side but the quality is far better! Just speaking from my personal experience, although I used peaches and cots may be waaayyy different.

Destone them and keep the peals in the fermenter and if you by chance have a thumper run the mucky stuff in there. Or if you have an agitation system on your boiler than obviously you'd know what to do.

Remember though, we're after quality not quantity. Right?
Good luck,
Shine

Note... if you can get many cots, get all you can!!!!!!!!
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Re: Appriccot & Rhubarb ?

Post by hellbilly007 »

Not having experience with apricots, I'd freeze, thaw and chop em with a sharpened motor mixer. I think the stones float, if so skim em off the top. At this point, check the SG of a clean (particulate free) sample. From there either dilute down with water or bump the SG up with white grape juice concentrate. White grape juice shouldn't dilute the apricot flavor much. Plus it'll avoid the sugar bite in your distillate.

Please follow up on this thread when the time comes. I'm looking forward to your results as this is on my to do list for a good friend that loves apricots

Edit* I'm curious as to what the rhubarb will add as well
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Re: Appriccot & Rhubarb ?

Post by Jimbo »

Ditch the sugar. Unless you're more interested in quantity than quality. Take a peek here for a little inspiration.... I dont think youll have it as bad as the raspberry guys (50 lbs per fifth) http://www.westfordhill.com/framboise.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
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Re: Appriccot & Rhubarb ?

Post by Pikey »

From the rhubarb - maybe some flavour - loads of (oxalic) acid
From the peaches - some flavour - some sugar.

I'd ferment them separate - loads of sugar in the rhubarb.
Peaches ? never been able to make a decent wine out of them - Try soem with sugar, some without.

Run the 3 washes and try them

[Edit - looking back Isee you are talking apricots - not peaches :oops:

cots do add a good favour in a maceration- I'd do them as I said for peaches - but expecting a good result ! ] :thumbup:
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Re: Appriccot & Rhubarb ?

Post by GrassHopper »

hellbilly007 wrote:Not having experience with apricots, I'd freeze, thaw and chop em with a sharpened motor mixer. I think the stones float, if so skim em off the top. At this point, check the SG of a clean (particulate free) sample. From there either dilute down with water or bump the SG up with white grape juice concentrate. White grape juice shouldn't dilute the apricot flavor much. Plus it'll avoid the sugar bite in your distillate.

Please follow up on this thread when the time comes. I'm looking forward to your results as this is on my to do list for a good friend that loves apricots

Edit* I'm curious as to what the rhubarb will add as well
Just for the record.....my apricot pits did not float. I froze them and then thawed them. I used hot water to thaw just enough to stir the pits loose from the fruit and then strain with a large mesh to catch the seeds, but allow the fruit through. Made a darn fine wine and a fair brandy. Did a 50 lb batch of cots and had I had some rhubarb....I might have just added that as well. Let us know how it turns out.
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Re: Appriccot & Rhubarb ?

Post by Just 4 Fun »

Well I ended up just doing rhubarb for now as all 3 of my fermenters are busy right now (1- rum,1- rice Krispy wash and the rhubarb.)

I used 2 large freezer bags of chopped barb and boiled them to a sauce before adding them to the barrel then I inverted 4K of white sugar and topped it up to 25 litres.

Let it cool overnight and then pitched 8g of flichmans bread yeast, it kicked off nicely so we shal see what happens.

Once this batch is done I'm going to try a similar wash with a 50/50 mix of cots and barb.

My intention is more of a fruit shine I guess rather then a true fruit only brandy and since I'm still a newby this is more of an experiment kinda like the rice Krispy wash.

Just started these washes on wensday so it'll be a few weeks before they are done, I'll be sure to let ya'll know how it turns out.
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Re: Appriccot & Rhubarb ?

Post by Just 4 Fun »

Ran the barb off this weekend and I must say that I'm impressed, could have easily finished it off as a nice wine instead of boiling it but where's the fun in that lol.

Now normally I double run everything but surprisingly the barb produced a little over one gallon at 42% from a 25L wash on the first run and tastes great, think ima leave it as is.

Also very surprised at how quick it fermented compared to the other 2 washes I strarted at the same time (rice Krispy and a rum).

Next up is barb and apricot as my tree is just a couple weeks away from ripe.

This defiantly something I would recommend and will definatly be brewing more of in the future.

Will report back on the barb/cot when it's done.
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Re: Appriccot & Rhubarb ?

Post by hellbilly007 »

Glad to hear that the rhubarb turned out so well.
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Re: Appriccot & Rhubarb ?

Post by Oneearbudremaining »

I know this post is old but I was wondering how the apricot and rhubarb came out?

Also you say you just ran it once, pot stilling I assume?

Up until now I’ve only ran sugar washes but I have a ton of fresh rhubarb and have been interested in trying something like this out.
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Re: Appriccot & Rhubarb ?

Post by Just 4 Fun »

Been a while since I’ve logged in and wanted to follow up on this thread.

The rhubarb/cot turned out ok but not great.

Tried cots on their own but not a taste I enjoyed.

So far from all my fruit/sugar washes my 2 favourite are rhubarb and red currant either on their own or combined.

Looking forward to next summers fruit season as I want to try pear and apple as well as a mix of them both.

Looks like my wife will not get any rhubarb or red currants from the gardens this yr.
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