Fig Rakia

[thecroweater]

Hi I see there's a bit about figs on here and other forums but nothing conclusive . what i have read is bits and pieces no one thread had gone through how they did it and what the result was . I'm doing a work thread on it on aussiedistller and if there's interest in it here I'll post the method and results here as well . Well once I get the results anyway

[thecroweater]

Okay well this is where I'm up to at the moment : I have 5 kg fruit to 5kg sugar to 25ltrs of water using wine yeast it has fermented in to a clear crisp dry white . Its my intention to to use the backset on each generation until the figs are done . After the next lot I'll most likely begin to use the lees but as I intend to change yeasts to a more vigorous wine yeast I'll toss the first lot. I will keep back all the low wines until the figs are done and then do the lot in one spirit run

[Washashore]

Keep us posted. My dad has 200 fig trees and many times has more fruit than he knows what to do with. I did some research round here and kept seems no one was ever really successful at pulling off a fig brandy.

[thecroweater]

Keep us posted. My dad has 200 fig trees and many times has more fruit than he knows what to do with. I did some research round here and kept seems no one was ever really successful at pulling off a fig brandy.

Will do : yeah some ppl , said it worked out dandy but didn't say how they went about it so not all that imformative

[thecroweater]

UPDATE : The first batch seems to be completely fermented out now . according to the gravity readings it should have around 15.5% ABV ,pretty happy with that .The wash is clearing nicely and the aroma and taste is comparable to a dry white wine > I have every confidence that this will make a very nice spirit once stripped and run

[frozenthunderbolt]

What kind of fig, can you give a more detailed method?
My fig wine was golden and clear but tasted like kerro even before i stilled it

[thecroweater]

What kind of fig, can you give a more detailed method?
My fig wine was golden and clear but tasted like kerro even before i stilled it

I can't tell you much about the variety of fig other than the tree is 100 or more yrs old and it is a very late setter most figs around finished a month or 2 ago as for the method i have a work thread elsewhere but as soon as I sort out which method seems to work best I will defanitly post the method and result . I have several washes on the go that are not identical in terms of yeast and fruit to water , pretty sure I've narrowed down what will work best but i want to try one more thing before I'd say this seems to work best PS one with bread yeast might be a tad kerro like I can see it producing unwanted esters I'll include it in the low wines but will be turfing lees and backset . Anyway the better one uses cy17 wine yeast developed for white fruit and flower fermentation but I think I've come across an even more suitable aggressive wine yeast

[Washashore]

Type of fig can make a huge difference I'd reckon. I know with my dads trees, the varieties that are blood red on the inside are the sweetest and taste very much like clover honey. The greener varieties, although still delicious, taste far less sweet and a bit bitter.

[thecroweater]

yeah I know the ones , My Granny has one , mine is greener turns purple brown more so on the top and inside is quite golden yellow towards the center maybe a slight red tinge . pretty sweet though something like caramel might best describe the taste . very high in sugar but ya need to water them down or ya could never ferment them so that's why I still added some sugar , they were thick as plaster when I mashed them no way in hell could ya strain em(the sap in the stem is a thickening agent,the Italians made junket with it) so thats why I went for the 5,5 and 25 rule and some pectinase to break them down worked a treat

[thecroweater]

Ok well I tried to rack this wash ready for distillation tomorrow . bloody fines and sediment stirred up even with the slightest movement caused by siphoning so I've mixed in a gelatin solution to hopefully have it cleared by morning . i need to get this stuff run as it is at a considerable risk of infection , that is that it is brewed out and sitting in a non air tight container

[thecroweater]

The gel didn't work as good as I hoped so I had a bit of work straining though fly wire , the bottom sediment and lees were put in cloth and drained slowly that stuff will get bottled and chucked in the next run . Anyways I ran it the and the flavor of the hearts is really great considering this was a stripping run . I ended up with about 10 ltrs of low wines (somewhere's around 3gal.) So this is looking very promising at this stage , down side is the frosts have stuffed the rest of the figs , they've gone harder and leathery with all the flavor of dead grass. I probably have enough to do another 200 ltrs of wash and then its finished . Oh and an update on the latest wash the new wine yeast I'm using seems to be producing a far superior product , if this turns out to be best one I'll post the exact strain as a recommendation

[thecroweater]

Stripping the first fig wash

[thecroweater]

straining the sludge

[thecroweater]

Ok I've stripped another ferment , Not a big success , puked shit into the lyne arm blocked the liebig lucky I didn't blow the shed to smitherines . so here's the rub don't bother using bread yeast for this type of ferment , stick with wine yeast . It won't clear and has way too much sediment . I already knew I was running the risk of producing unwanted esters but just wanted to see how it would go , milky soup with a kerro taste , the low wines seem ok I'll use them in the spirit run but I'd never try it again , just a nightmare to work with

[thecroweater]

Okay here are some visual aids to what I've been up to

[thecroweater]

here is some of the process I have found to be the best method . first I disovole 10 kg of sugar into 10 ltr's of hot water add the fig mash and fill with hot and cold water to achieve around 30' centigrade (this was 29.4) and pitch the hydrated yeast . leave some head room because this stuff is going to go ballistic . I've had a play around with yeasts here and this one is the one IMHO . ppl have had varying success with figs and I think some of the reasons for failure have been the yeast . Bread yeast is for sure no good although it has sugar in it to boost the yield my experience is it can't be treated like a rum wash and this type of yeast causes a whole range of problems with it including taste . The cy17 yeast developed for white fruit was not as good as expected either and that is because I overlooked to start with the fact that a fig is not a true fruit . Figs are an inverted flower that never fully develop in to a fruit , that understood I used a yeast developed for the main purpose of fermenting white fruit and flowers . Bingo results have been consistent and encouraging ever since . The low wine heart have an interesting lovely brandy flavor and I think this is going to be a big success story

[thecroweater]

ok the last wash is beginning to clear shouldn't be long till i strip it so the spirit run is slowly getting closer on this , BTW i forgot to mention I used pectinase in this to help brake down the solids . I didn't over do it (one teaspoon per 60 ltrs before pitching)for fear of producing excess methanol I now believe this stuff produces no more methanol than say a sugar wash

[emptyglass]

I like your persistance in trying different yeasts. Must be the wine making background in ya.

Not sure if it means anything, but I have made slivovitz, from a traditional czech method, and any added sugar to the ferment was a no go, unless you want headaches the morning after. Just live with the low wines being low and run again. (there is a thread I did on it here somewhere)

As you say, figs not being a true fruit, I'm not sure it will change anything for you.

I look forward to your results...

[Dan P.]

I am not sure that I really believe the thing about more sugar in rakija giving you a headache. I think it's just something the old boys say because they don't approve of adding sugar! Plenty of people distilling sugar washes of one type or the other with no problem. However it seems logical that the more fruit you use, the more flavour you get.
Concerning yeast, I would try and use the natural yeast on the figs. I find natural yeast quite slow, but it gives a good taste.

When my fruit starts coming through, I will be fermenting it with natural yeast and no or little sugar, then distilling it once with some neutral (or as close to neutral as I can get).

[frozenthunderbolt]

I am not sure that I really believe the thing about more sugar in rakija giving you a headache. I think it's just something the old boys say because they don't approve of adding sugar! Plenty of people distilling sugar washes of one type or the other with no problem. However it seems logical that the more fruit you use, the more flavour you get.

+1 It's bad cuts that give head aches rather than adding sugar. Caveat being that you potential ABV should remain under 12% including the natural and added sugars together. Stressed yeast is more likely to lead to byproducts and poor cut that would give headaches

[thecroweater]

well I did one spirit run and one to go . Was a very strange run very few heads (2 small jars)and no methanol smell/taste in any of it what so ever , the tails came off at a high ABV siting at around 70% till the last few drops . But the down side was tails made up a bout 1/3 of the run ,no biggy today as I can chuck them back in in the morning but the next run will be the last so I'm guessing there will be a lot of wastage due to a high percentage of tails , whether that oil from the skins or what i don't know

[thecroweater]

I have finished all the spirit runs
Ok my initial Review :The flavor this produced is not quite what I expected , at first I really struggled to describe it although the flavor was similar to something I had tasted . Its a Mescal flavor with a very light fig background that you can barely notice , the up front flavor is as I remember Guerrero which was quite a shock to me , just a pity I'm not a big tequila fan . Any mixer you would drink Mescal with you could quite imagine drinking this with , as I said nothing like I expected from the low wines but not awful either . Would I make this the same again hmm not sure guess if I liked a mescal type of drink I would but really thats the sort of drink I would have maybe once or twice a yr and at that rate I have 10 or 20 yrs worth . all this may change with aging though

[Washashore]

Thanks for the updates crow!

[ro palinca]

This bring back some memory about a moroccan moonshiner (i know, what are the odds?)
whom I met personally here in Romania, and he used figs for his brandy, because it was
very cheap in his country. After a "scientific" drinking session ( with peer and plum brandy)
he said he will try to go with this fruits from now on, because the taste and quality
of his fig brandy is not even close.

[frozenthunderbolt]

I have finished all the spirit runs
Ok my initial Review :The flavor this produced is not quite what I expected , at first I really struggled to describe it although the flavor was similar to something I had tasted . Its a Mescal flavor with a very light fig background that you can barely notice , the up front flavor is as I remember Guerrero which was quite a shock to me , just a pity I'm not a big tequila fan . Any mixer you would drink Mescal with you could quite imagine drinking this with , as I said nothing like I expected from the low wines but not awful either . Would I make this the same again hmm not sure guess if I liked a mescal type of drink I would but really thats the sort of drink I would have maybe once or twice a yr and at that rate I have 10 or 20 yrs worth . all this may change with aging though

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE CONFIRMED: FAKE Tequila - use fig wine.

This is what i thought was the key ingredient in my mock tequila that i accidentaly made - re running old wine i had arround - thank you for confirming for me

[thecroweater]

theory confirmed just tried it with lemon , been to margaritaville

[thecroweater]

To be fair to ppl wanting to try this I should add that after about 6 or 8 weeks I tasted this and the flavor has very much improved

[thecroweater]

latest update: didn't know what to do about the large amount of tails or why it happened so today I bit the bullet and re ran the whole lot nice and steady. Success this is much more like the slivovich flavour I was expecting, and I would now call it a pleasant drink. I can only assume that I ran it though to hard on the initial spirit run and smeared it as this is worlds apart for what I had before also a hell of a lot less tails

[thecroweater]

Just a little update, although this spirit has taken s ridiculously long time to age out some off flavours it is really starting to get interesting. I have actually wrote figs off as not worth the hassle but am now thinking cleaner ferments, tighter cuts and better aging might be key to a better drink faster. Fig rakia is a bit of an acquired taste but in time mine has gone from god awful to not bad to kinda pleasant and interesting, my choice in s bar? Not likely but an ok sipper