Orange Brandy Shine

[Young Copper]

Hey boys, well on the next round of must.
Running a batch of orange.
Now I have a mason jar of 85 percent, could I toss that in this must?

[cranky]

Before or after fermenting?
If you add it before it will hamper the ferment.

As far as after, Where did it come from?
I personally don't like to mix grains with fruit.

[Young Copper]

Oh okay, thanks for the information.
Wont toss it in, it was my batch of raspberries.

[Odin]

And next time you make orange shine, you may want to aim for a slightly lower abv to get more taste across.

Odin.

[Young Copper]

Okay thanks for the tip.
Now I have some issue with the ferment with this batch,
for some reason I have no cap forming but the batch is working.
It's fizzing like pop, be why no cap forming?
Also getting to must a batch of mixed fruit
Strawberry/kiwi/pinapple/ and Mellon dew.

[rad14701]

Now I have some issue with the ferment with this batch,
for some reason I have no cap forming but the batch is working.
It's fizzing like pop, be why no cap forming?

Not all washes form caps/krausens... Fruit musts and grain mashes do, predominantly, but rums and sugarheads don't always form caps/krausens...

[cranky]

Now I have some issue with the ferment with this batch,
for some reason I have no cap forming but the batch is working.
It's fizzing like pop, be why no cap forming?

I would thing it's just not a lot of solids, I wouldn't worry too much as long as you know it is fermenting.

Also getting to must a batch of mixed fruit
Strawberry/kiwi/pinapple/ and Mellon dew.

I like doing a mixed fruit in the spring when I am cleaning the freezer for the next fruit season, I have had very nice results.

Posting same time as Rad

[Young Copper]

Oh!!!!! Okay I will have to watch this batch closer then.
May have to put a bubbler on the lid then.
Thanks all for the help

[Young Copper]

So I ran this batch, but odd.
Pulled 2 jars, 75% and 65%. All is good and crystal clear
Then the issue came when it dropped to 50% and under, turned hazy and has a blue tint.
Now I been reading up on it, sounds to be the cause of the acid from the fruit, deep clean I got to do.
Are my first 2 jars still good? look good and tastes good and burns very easy

[der wo]

Worm or liebig?
How do you clean it regulary?

[Rod]

I think your hazy , is the amount of orange zest you add

I cut my Orange shine to 40% , and have some haze, louche , and then add 80% to clear it up

doubt if it would be 50%

[MDH]

You have to distill very slowly with orange. The tail arrives early if you aren't careful.

Personally I never ferment oranges - instead I take highly refined brandy without a lot of its own flavor, usually made from white grapes that I get every year. I then add orange zest and some juice filtered of its seeds and do a distillation from this.

[Young Copper]

The old way of shining. 8 qt pot, run through thumpers and into my milk can condenser.
Run vinegar a few times through it.
Took it slow, bit over 2 hours per run.
At 50 some haze, then down to 40 and lower alot of haze and a blue tint.
I will try to upload pics after

[Young Copper]

As for oranges, I bought concentrated orange juice

[Rod]

Used to make my Cointreau and Triple Sec using good neutral , 40% , and orange oil ( pure from the cake decorator ) and sugar

went to fresh oranges

went to this post http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 38&t=59841

never go back to the old method

fresh oranges are a similar cost and the flavour is superior

[der wo]

The old way of shining. 8 qt pot, run through thumpers and into my milk can condenser.
Run vinegar a few times through it.
Took it slow, bit over 2 hours per run.
At 50 some haze, then down to 40 and lower alot of haze and a blue tint.

Did you rinse it well directly after the vinegar run? O not, or did you wait until next morning? Has the condenser horizontal passages, that the water can not run out completely?

[Young Copper]

Run the vinager through, then boil water after.
The copper coil in the milk can is sloped good.
Valve on the bottom to keep the water moving while stilling

[der wo]

Did the run before the oranges puke?
If yes, did you rinse it well after?

Did it puke while the distillate came out blue?
What color had the backset?

A blue distillate is contaminated in 99% of all cases with copper salts. I would never drink it.

[cranky]

I think that bluish cloudy haze is probably just normal cloudy tails, I always get that between 35-40%. A lot of the blue look comes from jars or the light source more than copper, it just looks bluish inside or in certain jars, outside in sunlight it will probably look white. Not that I would drink it but I don't worry about it when I add it to an all feints run.

[der wo]

Now we need a picture of the blue distillate.