Nectarine spirit

Information about fruit/vegetable type washes.

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ryno1234
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Nectarine spirit

Post by ryno1234 »

Just purchased a house and turns out I have a nectarine tree. They were ripe and there was no way we'd be able to eat them all, so I sliced them in half, threw away the pit and tossed the fruit in gallon freezer bags until I can figure out how to best turn these into something drinkable.

So, is there a good recipe that can be followed for nectarines? I imagine it would be similar to peaches.

I have roughly 10 lbs of nectarines and from what I understand they are roughly 8% sugar (I Googled nectarine nutrition information). Given this, that means I have less than 1lbs of sugar. How much sugar can be added to this before I've hidden the nectarine's flavor and qualities too much?

This also brings up a good question that I'm not familiar with: How much of the flavor is from the actual sugars of the source fermenting and how much is from the favor of the source in general (not due to fermentation) that comes over as liquid content?

My plan is to puree everything (skins included), throw it in a pot and bring it up to 160 degrees for 10 minutes or so, add cold water, (should I strain it here?), pitch extra sugar and bakers yeast.

Any other tips? Is this an OK plan?
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Saltbush Bill
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Re: Nectarine spirit

Post by Saltbush Bill »

There are other fruit recipes around that should be able to be adapted to Nectarines.
Taters peach recipe speings to mind.
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Re: Nectarine spirit

Post by The Baker »

I didn't puree the peaches, I smashed them (whole) with the end of a big 4 x 4, in the fermenter.
No problems.
Added a very little water to make it manageable, and a tad of sugar to make it nearly as sweet as a sugar wash.
Which is really not sweet.
Then strained the stones out in a VERY coarse sieve, forced the flesh through.
Smashed the stones when dry and threw the (crushed) kernels in the wash or saved them for liqueur.

Geoff
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Re: Nectarine spirit

Post by Copperhead road »

I used very ripe nectarines, I got a bit of a production line happening with myself. I stacked all the trays of nectarines up in front of me and put a 220 L fermenter beside me. Just went through ripping them in half to remove the seed and threw the flesh in the fermenter.

You can get away with using next to no water because of all the juice. Think I still added about 10 or 15 L of water.

I added pectinase And blitzed it every day for about a week with a power drill and mixer and electric hand help food processor.

During that time they started bubbling away for from the wild yeast. I still added a good champagne yeast.

About a month later i potstilled it... happy days!

The nectarine taste didn’t come across as bold as some other brandies I have done such as pear or peaches.
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Re: Nectarine spirit

Post by NZChris »

Search the peach threads for advice. I suspect peach type flavor mainly exits the still in early and late take, so it's easy to toss out some of the important flavors if using stripping and spirit run advice from other distilled products.

If I do peach again, to try to intensify the flavor, I will make up a prospective heart cut sample with a couple of the most flavorless middle jars left out before I make my final choice of blend for the heart cut.

The most flavorless middle jars should make very nice gin base spirit.
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Re: Nectarine spirit

Post by Copperhead road »

ryno1234 wrote: Mon Jul 27, 2020 7:19 am pitch extra sugar and bakers yeast.

Any other tips? Is this an OK plan?
I would not be using bakers yeast on a fruit fermentation.
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Re: Nectarine spirit

Post by Irishgnome »

I made a blueberry nectarine brandy about five months ago. I boiled the necturines and blueberries together to kill off any mold that I didn’t catch.
Used EC 1118.
Ran dry in five to six days, I knocked the cap down every night just to stop bacteria from growing. Left this on the lees for three weeks for extra ester development.
Late heads had some great aromas and genuinely nice blueberry on the palate. Early to mid-tails held the nectarine flavors. Aging white, after a month and the fruity notes started to disappear. Three-month sample seemed to bring back the flavors. Maybe my taste buds were shit on the month tasting.
Still quite a bit of heat at this point. My basement had the aroma of fruit roll ups as this fermented!

Best of luck with your batch!

Cheers,
Irish
IMG_3335.jpg
Fruit getting cooked
IMG_3340.jpg
Ferment on day three.
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Re: Nectarine spirit

Post by The Baker »

Copperhead road wrote: Tue Jul 28, 2020 1:57 am
ryno1234 wrote: Mon Jul 27, 2020 7:19 am pitch extra sugar and bakers yeast.

Any other tips? Is this an OK plan?
I would not be using bakers yeast on a fruit fermentation.
I have let the natural yeast on the skins of the fruit ferment it.

Geoff
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ryno1234
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Re: Nectarine spirit

Post by ryno1234 »

The Baker wrote: Wed Jul 29, 2020 3:33 am I have let the natural yeast on the skins of the fruit ferment it.

Geoff
Interesting. I like the idea. Do you have any good recommended reading for this? Maybe a tried-and-true example? I will search the site, but if you have something you recommend, I'd love to read up on it.
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Re: Nectarine spirit

Post by Karooboy »

Need some assistance. I have 10 litres of fresh nectarine fresh juice I added 15 L of boiled water and I dissolve 4 kg of sugar into it until my gravity reading came to 1.060, then pitched 50 g yeast distiller Max high heat tolerance I waited for the Wash to drop to 30 degrees Celsius and then added my yeast and 10g nutrients insured it was aerated correctly close it up and put the airlock on it is now about 8 hours later and there is not one bubble yet coming through I checked the temperature which is 31 and the pH is in the region of 4.5 if the pH is too low what can I use to bring it up I heard of baking soda being you but not sure how much of it I guess I do not have the other ingredients for the pH readily available right now
Last edited by Karooboy on Wed Aug 26, 2020 11:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Nectarine spirit

Post by NZChris »

Are you waiting for a bubble through an airlock?
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Re: Nectarine spirit

Post by Karooboy »

Well it's a grommet on the lid with pipe into glass jar of water. I also make sure that the lid is closed greatly and that the grommet is inserted correctly so there is no leaks
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Re: Nectarine spirit

Post by Saltbush Bill »

Your 100% sure there are no leaks?
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Re: Nectarine spirit

Post by Karooboy »

Ill check again, the only thing I did different was that the yeast was rehydrating for a couple of hours in the jar as I needed to go out and when I came back the temp was correct on tje wash and then I pitched the yeast could it be that for some reason it was rehydrating for too long in the HR open on the counter
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Re: Nectarine spirit

Post by adamf »

nectarines.jpg
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Heheheh, I ended up with 1400 lbs of nectarines: 2 totes from the orchard. We have a small press and decided to pit and then grind them. We'd be fermenting the must (pulp). Pressing Nectarines and peaches is tough unless you have a very large, high pressure press. After some work, we ended up with 90 gallons of must in several containers. The temps were extremely high (95+ and higher) and the must was starting to ferment while we prepared the remaining fruit. I let one go naturally. The others I treated with potassium meta-bisulfate, and after the 24 hour wait pitched yeast. We chose Lalvin K1V-1116, although using Lalvin EC-1118 would have worked too. I was hoping to get some flavor enhancement from the K1V-1116. We also used pectic enzyme, dose per gallons of must. The OG was 1.061. As we worked, some of the natural yeast lowered the gravity in some of the lots...

Added sugar to a couple of the lots to bring the brix up 17.05 to yield a 9.5% ABV. The ferments went well; the natural ferment took 2 days! The Lalvin K1V-1116, 4 days. Temps were 75 F. Have run some and am glad to report the outcome is positive. It will need to age for 4-6 months before we can judge it's full merit. There's a great whisp of Nectarine with each sip :D.

Pectic enzyme worked very well. In our area, when this fruit is ripe, it's HOT outdoors. Keep this in mind. Get the processed fruit inside and as cool as possible. If we had not used potassium meta-bisulfate, the must would have been fermented when we finished grinding the fruit. I've got plenty of copper in my vapor path and chose to use the disinfectant.

Adam
Last edited by adamf on Thu Jul 28, 2022 5:20 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Nectarine spirit

Post by contrahead »

adamf wrote: Thu Jul 28, 2022 3:42 am If we had not used potassium meta-bisulfate, the must would have been fermented when we finished grinding the fruit.
Potassium meta-bisulfate is something to use with caution.

I've used potassium meta-bisulfate on several occasions. To break down fruit pectin and to sterilize equipment. It can also be used to help clarify wine.

But one year I found a good crop of ripe apricots to ferment – and as you say the weather was hot. As soon as I fitted on the lid, I knew I was in trouble. Foam started erupting up through the bung hole in the lid, blew the bubbler off and ran down the sides of the barrel and out onto the floor. The foaming would not stop. It was like a bad Hollywood Si-Fi movie from the 1950's. The slime blob from outer space that was intent upon eating Los Angeles.

I panicked.

I ran and grabbed some Camden tablets, crushed some up and stirred them in. The chaotic foaming stopped. But so did the fermentation; it never came back even after a couple years of sitting.

If the same situation were to occur in the future, I believe that I would separate the batch into several buckets, and boil each. Then ferment with commercial yeast afterwards.
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Re: Nectarine spirit

Post by jonnys_spirit »

I wouldn't boil any fruit for fermenting - ever. You'll lose valuable and subtle flavors and aroma. Make the first boil when you distill it and capture those subtle aromas in the condenser. If you use the natural yeast monitor the ferment and gravity - it might peter out after a couple few days and require a commercial yeast to finish. EC1118, D47, K1-V1116, etc - plenty of options.. Might want to check pH because fruits can be fairly acidic which prevents infection on one hand but too acidic and the yeasties can also suffer..

Cheers!
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Re: Nectarine spirit

Post by adamf »

I understand that potassium meta-bisulfate is not a panacea or a quick fix to questionable management. We had must waiting to ferment in 95 plus degrees and we could only process at the rate we were going: the processed must was seriously fermenting sitting staged. Potassium meta-bisulfate "held" that portion of the fruit until we made up our final volume. I was relieved we had the option to use it.

The drum I let ferment naturally had a very low final abv and made the lowest quality finished product. The natural yeast in the environment (terroir) made an inferior product to the ferments using K1V-1116. I'm not surprised my local yeast isn't too good... :)

I learned that a large quantity of ripe fruit must be dealt with quickly when the weather is hot, unless you have a big-ass cooler!
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Re: Nectarine spirit

Post by jonnys_spirit »

KMETA (Potassium Meta-Bisulfate) won't stop an active ferment. It will stun a natural yeast and prevent against bacterial infections - to a degree. Until you pitch a strong and healthy commercial yeast which can then take over and outnumber stunned natural yeasties and some other bacteria. KMETA is also secondarily used in wine ferments as an additive to protect against oxidation. It can also come over in the distillate as a very strong burning aroma. KMETA sulphites are different than an H2S (Hydrogen disulfide) issue which smells maybe like more like sulphur or rotten eggs... Either of those compounds can become concentrated in distillate so may need remediation. Best to avoid either in a distillation ferment if at all possible. H2S is produced by some yeasts when the must is deficient in nutrients (RC212 for example) and KMETA is an additive or treatment applied to fruits and grapes to help prevent spontaneous fermentation. Potassium Sorbate (aka: K-SORBATE) is also used in fruit and juice production to prevent spontaneous fermentation or shelf-stable products by preventing yeastie reproduction...

In my home wine production I will often allow natural fermentation for a period (the natural yeasties may or may not be adequate for full attenuation of the sugars) then inoculate with a commercial yeast to finish the ferment after half a week or so... I find that this invariably contributes to a more complex wine...

Significantly chilling or even freezing your must is a good alternative to using additives if at all possible which also assists with extraction. A cool ferment with an appropriate commercial yeast also prolongs the extraction period and prevents blowing off aromas in a hotter faster ferment... I've used dry ice blocks which can keep a ferment in the desired range for several days if you don't have eg; glycol cooling equipment available and want to try it... Free run wine (from a ferment) and pressed wine also are different if you keep your free run separate from the pressed product but that might be getting a little picky for a ferment destined for distillation...

Make good wine (grape or fruit) and it will make good brandy :)

Cheers!
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Re: Nectarine spirit

Post by zach »

adamf wrote: Fri Jul 29, 2022 5:04 am The drum I let ferment naturally had a very low final abv and made the lowest quality finished product. The natural yeast in the environment (terroir) made an inferior product to the ferments using K1V-1116.
:ebiggrin:
I find this a little surprising. Was the fruit washed prior to you receiving? Did you double distill? Did you have pulp in the boiler?

The best eau de vie (plum, pears ,cherry, ) I've tasted were fermented sugar free with the wild yeast without all the fuss of removing the stones, using enzymes and sulfites or pressing. I guess the key is to have a moderate temperature for fermentation. A friend in central Europe does his stilling in December and January after picking the plums in September.
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Re: Nectarine spirit

Post by adamf »

zach wrote: Fri Jul 29, 2022 9:11 am :ebiggrin:
I find this a little surprising. Was the fruit washed prior to you receiving? Did you double distill? Did you have pulp in the boiler?

The best eau de vie (plum, pears ,cherry, ) I've tasted were fermented sugar free with the wild yeast without all the fuss of removing the stones, using enzymes and sulfites or pressing. I guess the key is to have a moderate temperature for fermentation. A friend in central Europe does his stilling in December and January after picking the plums in September.
Sure. I did too. However, looking at the conditions we processed the fruit under: extreme heat and humidity, whatever was going on with the yeast/mold/bacteria in 95 plus degrees, is not what is normally associated with using natural yeast in central Europe. Actually, this year they have had really extreme temps and it will be interesting to see if that effects their ferments. Metabolic process is extremely sensitive to ambient temperature. Crank up the temp, and different things happen. Maybe a completely different strain of yeast worked on the must at the temps we had?

We washed fruit in fresh H2O prior to pitting, then crushed in grinder. All the batches were run identically (1.5 X using pot still/thumper) with strained must in the boiler and pulp and chunkier must in the thumper. My local conditions are really good for some things, but I'd say that my "terroir" sure ain't going to compete with a cooler temped one.

Man we can grow some damned okra though! :)

Adam
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