Lets get carried away with fruity goodness

[Bushman]

Had to head out in fog using my radar (not fun). We only made cider on Saturday as we had other projects as well. We did not get as much as in the past but still put up 48 gallons. Below are a few pictures of the process.

[Bph]

Just strained my dogwood fruit must into the secondary fermenter. Got about 15+ gallons after the squeeze shesh. Do you think it would be a bad idea to throw in the low wines from my apple stash into there and let it hang out for a while then run it nice and slow? I have close to 4 gallons of low wines so I think after the one and a half run id end up with 5 gallons of high proof brandy. I kinda want to do a foraged fruit brandy but I'm on the fence. Do you guys mix fruits?

[stillanoob]

I'd run them separate. Taste the hearts of the low wines. If it is delish, keep them separate. If it is meh, whatever, then I might combine them. But I'd at least want to lick the spout before I made up my mind. You can always mix them but you can't un-mix...

[cranky]

We did not get as much as in the past but still put up 48 gallons. Below are a few pictures of the process.

Nice! I haven't been able to bring myself to make any cider this year, between lack of motivation, working on the house, working on the truck and knowing I have plenty put back I just haven't managed to do much of anything.

This week the damn birds ate all my Karen's Delights and they weren't even ripe I found one half eaten apple still on the tree, they got the red delicious, the Hazens and the 2 Antiques but they left the Braeburns in the front yard alone.

Just strained my dogwood fruit must into the secondary fermenter. Got about 15+ gallons after the squeeze shesh. Do you think it would be a bad idea to throw in the low wines from my apple stash into there and let it hang out for a while then run it nice and slow? I have close to 4 gallons of low wines so I think after the one and a half run id end up with 5 gallons of high proof brandy. I kinda want to do a foraged fruit brandy but I'm on the fence. Do you guys mix fruits?

I do mixed fruit regularly. I think by distilling the different fruits at the same time it gives a different result than if you mixed different distillates. I've never been unhappy with a mixed fruit tun.

[Bushman]

Decided to pick a box of apples up the street from my house and ran them through the juicer giving me another gallon of cider. The juicer is sure a lot slower than the process we use out in the islands but was nice to collect another gallon. Still lots of apples but other projects have priority.

[Fredistiller]

Hi!
Sunday 4 October I started my berries/fruit wash I already talked about.
I had 3.2kg grapes, 9.4 kg elderberries, 5.5kg blackberries, 1kg red currant, 1kg rowanberries, 500g sugar.

But for the grapes and elderberries all the rest had suffered from the very dry weather we had this year.
I crushed and mixed everything together, poured hot water on the fruits and used EC-1118. I have currently 2x 18L fermenting.
The smell and taste evolved from fruity (elderberry prominent) to something really close to red wine.

I'm a bit concern because yesterday, as I wanted to put the hat down, I saw some white fluffy mold growing. I scooped out 5mm of the surface. I never had any issue with my wash until now....

[stillanoob]

Fred, I had some white stuff on the top of my plum wash this year, probably lacto infection. However, the wash still tasted good and the brandy did as well. As long as you run it soon I think it will be fine. If it was for wine I think you'd be screwed.

In the fruity goodness department we did a small pressing last week. We made some apple/cherry cider using 10 pounds of cherries into 5 gallons of cider, a mix of Golden and Jonathan apples. Tasted fantastic, I am looking forward to seeing what it is like when I rack it to a secondary this week. We also made 10 gallons of regular cider. Week after next we are shooting for 30 gallons of brandy cider.

[Fredistiller]

I read about malolactic infection and thought it could be that. I truly hope I can run this weekend but with the works at the house I doubt it.
The mash still smell good like a red wine so there is hope...

[Bph]

Found a pear tree late in the game. Most were in the ditch rotten. Next year....

[Bph]

Anyone ever do anything with nuts? I got a spot with a bunch of chestnut trees and I'm thinking about doing a mash with malted barley and chestnuts just cause they are there. I normally just roast em up and eat them but there are more than I could eat in a year on one tree and my spot has 5 trees so I fugure its worth a shot. But it would be a lot of work to shell all those nuts for it to be gross. I dont imagine there is much sugar in them so I may add some. All I know is the flavors work in my head. I'm sure the mash would taste good just dont have anywhere near enough experiance with distilling yet to know how that translates to the spirit.

[Tummydoc]

I've never had a roasted chestnut, none grow in my neck of the woods. I would think if you are looking for adding flavor you'd be more successful macerating the nuts in neutral to make a chestnut liqueur or vodka. Fat infused whiskeys are trendy (bacon, peanut butter, coconut). Could make a nut butter out of some in a food processor and then experiment. I think most of those are a waste of whiskey though.

[stillanoob]

Bummer about the pears but at least they are on your radar for next year. I could see the flavor of a roasted chestnut working with barley so I would be curious to try. An infusion might work and that is simple to try so I would do both and see what shakes out.

I love seeing people trying unusual combinations, let us know how it works out.

[Bushman]

In the past our cider making weekend we have added pears with apples on some of the gallon jugs we made but didn’t even think about it this year. I am not sure anyone even checked the pear trees as I wasn’t involved with the group collecting the fruit but in the production of cider process.

[Corsaire]

I went to a chestnut growing region in France, they added them to beer and that was tasty. Not sure how well the flavor would carry over into the distillate if you add it in the mash.

[Fredistiller]

I made time this weekend to run my "infected" wash. The smell was not really a fruity goodness....but not that bad either. The red wine smell was gone, but fruit with something buttery/creamy was present... with an, for me, unknown smell.

The start of the run (56ABV) was awful, I thought of shutting everything down. But as I went further in the run, it improved. I stopped at 3 ABV with a very very cloudy spirit. I think this stripping run is full of flavors but full of nasties also. The backset smelled good so I used it to start a (cane)sugar wash with EC1118 and a white wine yeast.

(I poured some elderberry flower infusion in the thumper and theflower smell is quite present.)

[cranky]

This afternoon when I got home from work I looked out the window and noticed my banana plum tree looked odd, like the wind had blown packing peanuts all over it. Curious I went out and had a look and found this

Yep, for some reason the banana plum seems to think it's spring

[The Baker]

cranky said, 'Yep, for some reason the banana plum seems to think it's spring ' ...

Must be an Australian plum.

Geoff

[Bph]

Well I ran my kuza fruit must last night... Only got 3 qts from 15 gallons so I'm thinking I should have added sugar. It has an odd taste too. Probably wont be doing that one again next year. They make a better sorbet than spirit. I haven't gotten the chestnuts yet cause I created got some jobs for myself. Ive been reinvented as a landscaper after a life time of cooking. Every person that wants me to put in a tree gets a hard push towards fruit trees lol. I'm like why do you want to spend 300$ on a Japanese maple when you could get 3 apple trees? It hasent worked yet but I will keep trying. They bloom in the spring and have beautiful fruit you can eat in the fall. Whats not to want??? Anyway long story short kuza fruits are not the best for brandy IMO.

[cranky]

Well I ran my kuza fruit must last night... Only got 3 qts from 15 gallons so I'm thinking I should have added sugar. It has an odd taste too. Probably wont be doing that one again next year...Anyway long story short kuza fruits are not the best for brandy IMO.

Give it a year or two, you might be surprised what it turns into.

I haven't gotten the chestnuts yet cause I created got some jobs for myself. Ive been reinvented as a landscaper after a life time of cooking. Every person that wants me to put in a tree gets a hard push towards fruit trees lol. I'm like why do you want to spend 300$ on a Japanese maple when you could get 3 apple trees? It hasent worked yet but I will keep trying.

I'd like to try doing something with chestnuts, I found a couple of chestnut trees a while back but never get around to doing anything with them.

cranky said, 'Yep, for some reason the banana plum seems to think it's spring ' ...

Must be an Australian plum.

Geoff

Maybe that's it I think it is just the weather or it's mad I didn't let it fruit this year.

[stillanoob]

We are getting ready for the final press of the season:

In the picture are 24 regular milk crates and 3 large ones. I also have another 4 milk crates of Breaburn apples. Man, if I ever get busted at $1500 a crate... We have a great mix this year of Golden Delicious, Jonathan, Braeburn, Bellflower and these tannic red apples that I don't know what they are. I estimate somewhere north of 30 gallons. Judging just by tasting the apples I'd say it will come in at about 5% ABV this year.

We use the milk crates as we "sweat" the apples for a week to 10 days after picking and the crates let the apples breathe, you can see in the pic we leave a gap in-between the milk crates for air flow. With any luck we will have the HF chipper in action, they are supposed to be back in stock. I also am getting 30 pounds of honey to boost the ABV closer to 10%. My bees didn't do that well this summer so I am going to buy it. I don't want to have to feed my hives sugar, the poor little buggers work hard for their honey and deserve it.

[Bushman]

That’s a pretty big hopper on that press Stillanoob! Looks good.

[stillanoob]

Welp, we got around to dealing with the apples yesterday. We used the HF wood chipper unmodified so the apples had to be halved and big ones quartered. It worked pretty well but I do have concerns about how fine the output is. There is a slightly starchy or chalky quality to the juice and if you let a glass sit for a few minutes it starts to settle out. We will have to see if this affects the quality of the cider. It may be that we have to go back to the old grinder. I hope not as the chipper is easy to use and does increase yield a little. I broke out the old chipper to make the sweet cider with and it did not have the same starchy/chalky quality and was from the same apples. Anyone else use one of these and have thoughts on the matter?

We ended up with a little over 40 gallons. 30 of it went to brandy and was fortified with honey. The other ten gallons is for regular drinking hard cider. We have another 15 gallons of hard cider we made earlier this year, so less than we usually make but I wanted more for brandy to try to build up some aging stock. Luckily we also have 10 gallons of plum wine to help tide us over until next year. We also made 5 gallons for sweet cider and froze most of it off. Next Saturday we will rack it out of the Brutes and into my new Spiedel fermenter. Nice not to have to deal with as much glass this year.

After a fun spooky dinner with our resident 6 YO (grandkid, his folks and him are living out in the cabin for a while) I broke out some of the brandy we made about 6 months ago from last year's apples. Man, that stuff is really shaping up nicely!

[cranky]

Welp, we got around to dealing with the apples yesterday. We used the HF wood chipper unmodified so the apples had to be halved and big ones quartered. It worked pretty well but I do have concerns about how fine the output is. There is a slightly starchy or chalky quality to the juice and if you let a glass sit for a few minutes it starts to settle out. We will have to see if this affects the quality of the cider. It may be that we have to go back to the old grinder. I hope not as the chipper is easy to use and does increase yield a little. I broke out the old chipper to make the sweet cider with and it did not have the same starchy/chalky quality and was from the same apples. Anyone else use one of these and have thoughts on the matter?

My personal experience with the chalkyness has always been from under ripe apples. I find that it tends to settle out and not really cause any problems. I think someone mentioned using amylase to help convert the starch from under ripe apples but have never used it myself.

[stillanoob]

Cranky, the apples weren't under ripe. The aggregate juice came in at a potential of 6.5% ABV and the apples had been sweated for a week. The starch might have been more from the tart apples. I am glad to hear that you find it settles out and is not a problem. It seemed to be settling out in the glass. Time will tell when we get to some drinking of it.

@bushman : Where did you get that awesome apple core and quarter device. I want one! I did some looking around and saw nothing like it.

[cranky]

I love finding new and interesting fruit

Today while driving down the road I spotted these little jewels

At a glance I thought they were persimmons but pulling over and closely inspecting them I discovered they were tiny little quince

I had to pick some even though they are only about an inch to an inch and a half in diameter

As near as I can tell they are Dwarf Japanese Quince. They smell incredible, very spicy with a citrusy spicy note like cinnamon and cloves mixed with lemon and oranges. My wife is planning on making a jelly sample out of these 5 to see if we want to use them for jelly or if they are not worth picking but I already know they are worth picking if for no other reason than the smell. I would really like to add them to a batch of apple and see what they add to it.

[Tabucowboy]

Ok I am very jealous of you PNW folks. I never find fruit trees here WWWV (WIld Wonderful West Virginia), that just sit there and I can get fruit from.

[cranky]

Ok I am very jealous of you PNW folks. I never find fruit trees here WWWV (WIld Wonderful West Virginia), that just sit there and I can get fruit from.

That's one of the things I like most about living here. Pretty much you can have as much free fruit as you have time to deal with, the real problem is finding the time to deal with it

[Bushman]

It’s amazing how much of our fruit goes to waste because they just let them fall to the ground. On craigslist I see people that have presses and grinders offer to processes peoples apples and split the cider. This year my wife wanted hard cider. It turned out ok but probably won’t do it again in the future will either distill or keep as regular cider.

[stillanoob]

Bushman, what was it about the hard cider you didn't like? Good cider is the nectar of the gods... Also, where did you get that apple quartering device in a picture above? I need one.

I racked the cider we made last week using a pump I got a while back. Worked great. I pumped it into a Spiedel fermenter that I had bought for this season. Mixed review on the Spiedel, it is sturdy and the valve assembly is not leaking but the lid is a pain in the ass. The o-ring fell into the cider twice while I was putting the lid on. Maybe a little silicone grease would help keep it where it belongs.

Cider tasted great, still very sweet. No sign of chalkiness from the HF chipper but it is so sweet I don't think you would be able to tell yet.

[Bushman]

The slicer is commercial grade bought a a restaurant supply store. We needed to cut the apples at least in half to run it through the converted wood chipper. By cutting them even smaller it made the process even smoother. This used to be our slow part of the process but you can really go through the apples with this slicer. We mounted it on a board and then put a tray under the collection so you can fly through the apples. We then transferred from the tray to buckets to feed through the chipper. Having people working each station you can up up a lot of juice.