Kirschwasser (cherry eau de vie)

[Jimbo]

Just finished the run of this years cherries. Here's how it went.

I picked 70 lbs of cherries. Didnt completely empty the tree, it produces about 100lbs of cherries, but I got tired of picking.

70 lbs made 7 gallons of mashed up fruit must at 12 brix, about 1.049. I used my hands to crush the cherries to avoid breaking any pits.

Fermentation went off fine with 1272 American Ale II yeast. Good stuff, clean fermenting, and I have gobs of the crap. In 12 days it went to 1.005 and I decided to seize an opportunity to run instead of waiting for the last .005. 0.005 gravity will make about 0.6% ABV. Or about 10% increase ii yield if I waited. Fuck it. I ran it at 5.3%. Fermenting the must on the pomace and squeezing yielded 5 gallons of wash.

Ran on the flute with 1 plate. keep cut went to 190F vapor temp heading into condensor. After that was jarred for tails. Keep after cuts was 1 quart even at 75%. I watered down enough to fill a 375ml to 80 proof. Verdict? Delicious. Cherry bomb without sugar sweetness, just that nice alcohol eau de vie sweetness. Very happy with the run. Cant wait till it sits for a few months to age some. Yield is 2.4 fifths of 80 proof from 70 lbs cherries. Or 29 lbs of fruit per bottle. Interesting that is about the same yield I get from apples too. Mother nature is funny about many fruits, putting them right at 12 brix for our fermenting and hooch needs. Nice of her.

Cheers!

[woodshed]

Any chance some of that will make S3:16?

[MichiganCornhusker]

Very nice, that sounds very special. And all "free" from the backyard! Worth every mosquito bite, no doubt. Congrats.

[Jimbo]

Thanks guys, free is good Shed, you bet! Ill put a bottle aside.

[woodshed]

You da man.

[WhiteDevil504]

Awesome, thanks for following up Jimbo! Now I just need to plant some real cherry trees.... And get one of those grip exercisers... 70lbs by hand, just reading that made my have to get a beer....

[Jimbo]

I planted 19 fruit trees when we moved into this place, 14 years ago. The sour cherry tree (Montmorency) has been the most reliable, started producing after 3-4 years and every year since. The sweet cherry tree has yet to give me fruit! Apples are every other year heavy producers. 2 plums died. Peaches produce the most delicious tree ripened fruit but are pretty finicky this far north and often dont produce, or just die. Have replanted peaches just because a tree ripened peach that annihilates your shirt on first bite is something to experience if you havent. Impossible to buy grocery store peaches any more. Pears are idiotic trees that routinely commit suicide with heavy loads of fruit on very brittle wood. Asian pears (the weird round ones) are delicious! Crunchy and very very sweet. Have 2 of those. Never made booze out of em, too delicious to eat.

[Danespirit]

Sounds like you made some great stuff.
I expect to get a fair amount of cherries at the end of the summer, so i might give that a try.
As you run one plate on the flute, do you think it will turn out good on a potstill..?

[Jimbo]

Sure it would be great on a potstill. Ive run fruits on pots for decades. Youd have to see if 1 run cuts it or not, maybe do a second. Some years I did 1 run for apples on the pot, other years I went 2, just depending on what my tongue and nose told me. I didnt want both plates on the flute for this, so with 1 plate and the pot boiling under it I figure its probably like 1.5 runs, but in many ways its comparing apples to oranges trying to compare flutes to pots. Completely different beasts due to the reflux happening.

Edit: Hey this is cool, I can say decades now. Its been 20 years since my first potstill and fruit brandys in '95

[MichiganCornhusker]

Edit: Hey this is cool, I can say decades now. Its been 20 years since my first potstill and fruit brandys in '95

I'll drink to that! Cheers!

[Jimbo]

Thanks bud, cheers to you too. Lifting a Kirsch

Its amazing what a site like this can do. Ive learned more in 3 years here than the other 17 fumbling around with a couple dicey books and lots of trial and error.

[ga flatwoods]

Jimbo take some of those pears and use 6lbs per gallon measure add enough water to boil them down without scorching. Check OG. I know you onsider it a sin but add some sugar if necessary and ferment.
Ga Flatwoods

[Jimbo]

Thanks woods, but I have WAY more than 6 lbs to deal with and Im not gonna boil down hundreds of lbs of pears. And there isint a commercial pear brandy made with added sugar. I see no reason to add any to mine either. To avoid the pear mush for really ripe pears I would pick them when they are sweet but still firm, and grind and press them just like apples. Works fine. A couple years ago I made a 7 gal bain marie, link here http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 8#p7125808 This year I may try really ripe pears and ferment and run the whole must.

[ga flatwoods]

The real point I was making was the boil of the pulp! It is then fermented with YOUR yeast and no pulp. Smells good enough to drink straight. The six pounds note was the amount to use if you are making a sugar added wine. I know you know but others may not. Don't be afraid to try the boil thought if you never have before.

[Jimbo]

Interesting. After boiling how do you seperate out the slurry from the straight juice? And doesnt the bitterness of the pips come out from boiling?

[ga flatwoods]

Sorry forgot to mention I core them. Mash straini g bag and mop bucket will reduce to one gallon per five gallon bucket full. The rest is yummy juice!
BTW cooking reduces the water and intensified the flavors.

[Ferment_It]

Thanks guys. Friend has a pear tree heavy with fruit, we don't have a crusher or press so we weren't really sure how to move forward. The boil method will put pear brandy back on the map.

Regarding the pears, I have read a few times that when you make perry the fruit should be picked and stored for a few days (5-7) to continue to ripen. Any thoughts?

[Jimbo]

Yes pears ripen after they are picked. But you still need to pick them at the right time, at the peak of their development. If you take a bite and its still a little crunchy but very sweet, they are ready

[S-Cackalacky]

I was thinking about something like this for apples - http://www.ebay.com/itm/Earthwise-GS700 ... 1c3bd789f2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow . There is another brand at about the same price. The prices on these were about $50 cheaper a few months ago - must be a seasonal thing. The prices also vary greatly from one vendor to another.

[Jimbo]

Dont forget you need to fashion up some sort of press as well, like the Rube Goldberg contraption in my apple thread. Works good, cheap, basically just the cost of some lag bolts and a 12ton cheap hydraulic press.

[S-Cackalacky]

Well Jimbo, not looking too promising for the coming apple season. The chipper/shredder just isn't in the budget. I guess I'll just do a couple of runs of store bought juice again this season.

When I DO get it together, I had thought about just using the ass press, but I'm wondering if that will be robust enough for apples. Works great for squeezing grains, but apples - maybe not so much, don't know. I'll take a look at your press build link.

[Jimbo]

Well Jimbo, not looking too promising for the coming apple season. The chipper/shredder just isn't in the budget. I guess I'll just do a couple of runs of store bought juice again this season.

When I DO get it together, I had thought about just using the ass press, but I'm wondering if that will be robust enough for apples. Works great for squeezing grains, but apples - maybe not so much, don't know. I'll take a look at your press build link.

Neccessity is the mother of invention. Maybe if you go stand in your workshop for a while with a nice pour and look around some lights might come on. A lot of my contraptions start that way. If nothing else you had a nice drop in the workshop, thats not terrible.

[S-Cackalacky]

Thanks Jimbo. You got the wheels to turnin'. After looking at your press thread, I realize that I do have some of the same elements that went into your build. I'll mash it around in my head and see what I can come up with. Might also need to make a few trips to the flea market and the scrappers for more ideas.

But for now, I feel like this is taking your thread off topic. Thanks again.

[Jimbo]

Its all good buddy if we're talking hooch its not off topic or maybe even if we're not talking hooch.

[Jimbo]

BTW, I took NZChris advice in another thread (below) and did a grappa from the VERY cherry smelling deep red backset and the pomace, with enough sugar added to get me back to the original gravity. About 1.050

http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... a#p7327468

[Jimbo]

.....waiting for TP to pounce.

Jimbo (an...tici...pation....)

[ga flatwoods]

That will poison you Jimbo! Better try it and send it all to me. Above all others be true to yourself brother!

[Jimbo]

Fixin to make some Cherry Pantydropper from it. I bet Joyce would appreciate another bottle? You guys seemed to enjoy that last one

[Jimbo]

[cranky]

I finally got around to reading this one Jimbo. Very nice thread. Cherries are still on my list and some day my trees will be there. One of the guys I work with has a cherry tree and he was going to give me cherries but he went away for a week with the intention of picking them when he got back but when he returned the birds had stripped the tree clean of fruit. Oh well, some day I will get enough cherries, in the mean time there are blackberries, apples, pears,and plums, all of which are coming ripe right now.