Apple & Date Wash

[Irishgnome]

Working on an Apple / Date wash.
I mixed an all apple run with an all date run and it tasted great. This time I am making a mash mixing both to see what happens.

5 Gallon recipe:
900g. - 100% Date Syrup (2 – 450g cans) Sourced at a Middle Eastern grocery store $2.99 ea
2 lbs – Pure Cane Sugar - Zulka brand Morena
5 cans – Old Orchard Apple Juice Frozen Concentrate
2 Packets – Lalvin EC-1118 Wine Yeast
1 Tbs. – Fresh Lime Juice.

Heat the date syrup and sugar in 2 gallons of spring water for ten minutes on medium heat to dissolve sugar and thin syrup, stirring occasionally.
Add the apple juice concentrate to one gallon spring water and lemon juice in 6 gallon bucket.
Hydrate yeast in a small glass.
Pour sugar/date syrup mix into bucket and aerate between two buckets.
Top off with spring water to 5 gallons.
I will let this ferment out and run through an all copper pot still.
I started this last night, so I will let you know how it turns out.
I’ve attached some images of the product going into this.

Cheers,
Irish

[Mario84]

I live in the middle east. We have date syrup a plenty here. It is called "Silan" and is used the same way maple syrup is used... on pancakes and in desserts.
How did this recipe turn out for you?
And what are the results like when you ferment only date syrup, or date syrup with sugar?

[Irishgnome]

I just ran this and the flavor is great!

115 proof at the hearts, proofed down to 85 with some tails and a little spring water.

I put half in jars with oak chips to age, the other half I will be drinking white.

Mario, the date seems to be lacking flavor on its own. I felt the need to add sugar to up the alcohol yield when I did the date syrup by itself. I tried adding more date syrup to increase this, but it seemed to struggle.

I’ll continue to make my apple with the date syrup, it creates a great flavor profile.

I will play with the ratios and see where it takes me, if I get something better I will be sure to post it here.

Mario, if you play around with the date syrup and get something worth wile on its own, let us know.

Cheers,
- Irish

[DetroitDIY]

I like this idea Irish. There are a lot of good Middle Eastern grocery stores in my area and I've been meaning to go there with an eye towards interesting sugars and cerials. I've been seeing inexpensive boxes of dates at Costco, but hadn't considered that there would be date syrup. Have you ever tried pomegranate molasses in a ferment? That's also on my mind... wonder if it's got potassium in it... that's not listed on the ingredients of the bottle I have.

Have you refined this recipe at all? I've always been shy of using an apple concentrate. No good reason, but I'm just partial to actual apples and they're so plentiful around here. Other than that, your experiment looks right up my alley.

Also, why the Lalvin1118? I've used it for ciders before, but the local wisdom of others in the homebrew scene is to stay away from it, especially with apples, as it strips the flavor off. Did you need it for high ABV in your wash? I've been using 71B for melomels. That's good to around 14% and leaves a lot of nice fruity esters.

Take care,
DetroitDIY

[Irishgnome]

Detroit,

Right now, I have a batch going with fresh apple cider from a local farm. I heat the sugar and date syrup for around an hour and thirty minutes with some citric acid. I increased the amount of date syrup to six cans and used four pounds of sugar. No concentrate and no lemon juice with this batch, the cider is just as easy to work with (just a little more $). Same yeast (EC-1118) as before.

Frozen concentrate is just easy for me. I do a ton of fresh fruit brandies, rakija and slivo, all of which are a good amount of work. Like I said, this is easy and I enjoy the flavor. As winter approaches, I will ferment the date syrup in one fermenter and mix with some apple jack before a still run. (50/50)

Never tried the pomegranate, but that sounds like it would be tasty! The store that I get the date syrup at has the pomegranate molasses.

Now I’m thinking about what I should test that pom with.

I based the yeast off of the manufacturer’s recommendation. See PDFs

Made the same recipe with 1116 and noticed that the 1118 tasted better. The 1118 has a wider temperature range when compared to the 71 as well. I may run the next batch with 71, at your recommendation. I’d like to do a comparison, taste is more important than ABV to me.

The store that I get my date syrup from has huge boxes of dates and they are cheaper when comparing to Costco. I have another recipe for the dates, let me know if you want it.

Cheers,
- Irish