Strawberry Wash

[logwarrior]

I found this recipe on the forums and was wondering if I could use a high alc handling yeast with the rest of the recipe and make a good wash. Or is there another recipe that would work better?

[CoopsOz]

Most just make vodka and then macerate the strawberries, that way the colour and flavour carries better.

[logwarrior]

my plan was to do a strawberry wash and then macerate in some strawberries...would the vodka work just as well?

[Grayson_Stewart]

I hear tell the maceration route makes girls drop their panties...it doesn't get more "well" than that to me.

[RJB510]

Dunno what that recipe was that you were talking about. But figured that this was more recipe development rather than clogging useless space on a Tried and True recipe.

Anyway, referring to the Strawberry Panty-Dropper (SPD), I was wondering if anyone has tried it similar to taters peach or blueberry liqueur? As i read on the parent site that soft fruits don't have a lot of sugar concentrate in them for making into a wine, or to make a true schnapps.

I figured that you could mash all the strawberry's, add a bit of sugar and some wine yeast, then let it ferment then distill it through a pot still to extract a clear and strawberry flavoured alcohol?
OR
Macerate them in 60% alcohol, as strawberry's have a lot of water in them that will dilute the alcohol later. Leave for about a month to bring out all the flavour, then distill that?

Has anyone tried either of these? and does it work?

Cheers

[Tater]

Any that Ive made I think have tasted better making the wash and liqueur outta the same fruit.And when making it without using same fruit I prefer 120 + white rum to soak in rather then vodka.Double run, (cuts made before molasses taste gets heavy) this seems to me to make better product Seems fruit and rum go well together

[RJB510]

Who were you replying to then Tater?
I was always going to make it out of the same fruit, might be able to mix and match berries, but always better to make fruit liqueurs separately then combine it later if desired, that would yield more accurate results and flavours i imagine.
My assumption to my post is that it is possible, both ways will work.
I.e. You CAN make it into a wine first then distill it. Or macerating with a White Rum you say Tater?
Then it should be able to be double distilled? But just be careful with the cuts before the white rum starts to seep the molasses into the distillate, which would degrade the flavour if macerating with the white rum.

Am i correct?

[Tater]

Miss read what ya had posted there .You will find making fruit either with or without sugar flavor of fruit will be more a after taste.Little bland cause what sugar there was is now brandy So when using white rum ya just want a hint of the rum taste as well to enhances the taste rather then overpowers it.I single run my rum except when using it for this.Single run the fruit with sugar washes also.Pure fruit ya gotta double or triple run to get the proof up to where ya want it.However some of the best for flavor grape likker Ive made was some that I single ran got 80 proof total after cuts and drank as is.

[HookLine]

Macerating fruit in a rum base works well for me. Best one so far was a blueberry and strawberry combination. Still got one bottle left that I am going to age for at least a couple of years. If I can keep my hands off it.

[RJB510]

Sweet, well i'm trying a small batch now as a trial and error sort of run. Blended strawberry's in normal neutral at a ratio of 50/50 Berries to Spirit. I'll leave it for 2 weeks to mature, then i'll run it through the still.

I'll let you know how i go, then i'll try it with a White rum.
Then as a wine. See if it does any different.

Edit* actually just read the parent site then, and they said 2 parts neutral to 1 part fruit. Wonder if it will make that much of a difference? I can only try and see!

[Woody_Woodchuck]

I had a batch of strawberry wine start to turn on me so I ran it thru the old copper pot. I thought it was great. If mixed with coke it tasted like strawberry coke. You did need to dilute it down, even with a couple ice cubes to get the full strawberry flavor. As I remember I went pretty deep into the tails. The flavor got stronger and stronger the longer I let it run. It was a 10 gallon run and I collected tails in small jars and sipped through them to decide which ones to use and where to stop. I do not remember just how far I saved though but recall it was a noticeable stopping place. You could tell right off what too far was.

If I had access to a strawberry field that was about to get mowed at the end of the season again, I’d make the largest batch I had containers for!

[RJB510]

Well my biggest issue now is working how long to leave it to extract as much flavour as i can. but i assume that there will be a point where i will reach diminishing returns. So i Figure, because they were frozen berries that i blended into a pulp, i'll leave them for 3 weeks, then distill it. I figure that should be long enough to let the flavour permeate throughout the spirit. If its no good... I can always let it cool and add it back into the fruit for longer or add more berries to increase flavour, then try again.

I always get caught up with this though and time leaving it. I read with the SPD recipe that there is a sweet spot to leave the fruit for 3-5 days - suppose that isnt pot stilled, its to bring out flavour and colour for a final product. I figure a good time to stop is when the berries turn white. But then, i read other sites recipe's where the fruit is left for months on end to macerate to bring out the best flavour and i have found this when trying it with apricots, i left it for 2 weeks, and the flavour was there, but it wasn't as strong as i expected, as a lot of fruit liqueurs develop best flavour over time as it matures, probably could have left it for months. Most of these have sugar mixed in with it, however some do not and require a sugar syrup to be made and added later. Its strange how it all varies and sometimes shorter or longer periods are better? Depending on different recipes, which i suppose come down to particular people's tastes.
Some say leave it on a window sill, others say leave it in a cool dark spot to macerate. All changes the flavours (same reason some beers are in brown bottles others green or clear) with the way it reacts to sunlight.

I have a friends mum who makes Limoncello, she leaves hers for months, even years, puts them in the back cupboard and forgets about them. While other recipe's say only a few months...
Unfortunately, i am learning that there is no general rule for this sort of thing. That its all a part of the learning game. Maybe other people have hard fast rules that work best.

[RJB510]

One question i do have tho. When you double pot still a run to increase the purity, you are left with the same concentration of flavour, but just with a higher concentration of alcohol. Correct? So if you wanted to dilute it down to drinking proof, then wouldn't you dilute the flavour also, so it doesn't taste as good or have as rich a flavour? So wouldn't it be better with a schnapps or something like this, to sacrifice purity for flavour?
I'm new to pot stilling, so maybe i have my understanding of technique wrong. But i figure that it would seem pointless to shoot for a higher proof if you just going to dilute it down later which would sacrifice flavour?

Actually, i think i just realised that if you run pure fruit mash's, then you'd need to double it to get it up to the right purity, But if it is a sugar based wash, there is usually more alcohol in there, and can get it higher to drinking range without the need to still it twice, but still hold the same amount of flavour. Although i read that its not as good as if it is pure fruit.

[Dnderhead]

Out of curiosity, has anybody tried the consecrates that are used in beer/wine?. Iv never used them but they mite go good in a good base?
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[RJB510]

I haven't. But judging by what it sounds like, its not to dissimilar to extracting the fruit flavour yourself, or, similar to mixing a neutral spirit with a bottle of essence from the local brew shop, 1-4 oz isn't a lot for 5 gal. Although, it looks like this type is more natural as it is extracted from the fruit, as opposed to using artificial flavours. maybe with lower quantities of spirit it would have a bigger kick.

Yeah, not sure hey. I'd say anything is worth a try in this game!

[Dnderhead]

If/when I git some neutral I'm going to try it. If it works it whould be a grate way to make a quick fix for fruit flavored . just add X amount
dilute to 40% and have schnapps or cut with sugar syrup and have a ""kitty"" drink.

[SAStoker]

my plan was to do a strawberry wash and then macerate in some strawberries...would the vodka work just as well?

This is an old old post, but I'm new to the distilling hobby, so forgive me for my late 2c.
I did this recently, made a strawberry shine, which on it's own was fantastic - could really taste the strawberry, but then I also macerated strawberries in it.
I then used that to make a strawberry cream. It's really great but probably needs some colour.
My next experiment is to make a strawberry brandy (i already did that with some of the shine - great on it's own or with sprite), then macerate strawberries in that, and then make the cream for a fuller taste.

Something I did notice though. The ABV drops significantly during the maceration. I went from 49 to 10%! I did the sugar coat for the strawberries and put that back in after it all liquefied.
Anyone have an idea as to if or how much of the alcohol the sugar draws out?

[Swedish Pride]

Issue is that you can't measure abv after maceration or sugar addition.
It changes the density of you booze, making the hydrometer float higher.

Drink a pint of it, bet it'll have you falling on your arse, a pint of 10% won't do that

[Bryan1]

I did a Strawberry wash recently, it took a couple of months in our cool temps to finally finish fermenting and I after stripping and doing a spirit run I found like all my fruit brandies it takes time aging on French Oak to really develop.

where the panty dropper is strawberry in ya face going the brandy route is the long game where the true rewards are there to be had.

Cheers Bryan