Eau de vie

[MishMash]

Who has a recipe and experience with a fine Eau de vie, with apple, cherry, pear, blackberry, or plum, and what's your still like?

[Dnderhead]

Clear Creek?
if so,,, all fruit wine, distill once,,save harts only.

[Freedave]

thats funny i was just reading about eau-de-vie last night. ive only done this once so far but it seems like the new direction for me.
just make some wine from the fruit of your own liking and run it through a pot still or reflux still in pot mode. and dont oak or add any flavors. and like dundr said be tight with cuts, only hearts. i made some white grape wine from concentrate, ran through my bokakob in pot mode and like what i got. mine is on oak now but i could see drinking it clear. we have more wine going now cause we want more.

one other thing i would suggest is do not add any sugar to the must in an attempt to gain abv. unless you are sure you can get out that flavor that some of us (ME) have such a hard time dealing with. this was my first attempt at anything other than sugar wash. and i am verry happy with the result.

seems like there is a fine line between a vodka made from wine and an unoaked brandy. or, at least, it seems that way just cause most people are not familiar with these less mainstream beverages. i have been drinking boomerang Australian vodka lately. its made from wine and has just a small taste of fruit that i really like. i imagine an eau-de-vie would just have a bit more flavor and would be quite good.

give it a go and tell us what you think. and have you got much experience drinking commercial eau-de-ve? what is it like and what kind? i think this a little-known spirit that i'd like to get to know better.

[goose eye]

id use a wee litle bit to a middlin amount of suger based on fruit an that changes year to year an
type to type.
it all bout flaver smoothness an clarity at 118 round these parts.
as far as mainstream aint never met him .

so im tole

[blind drunk]

Is it like schnapps? do ya think? bd.

[kiwistiller]

I wrote a big long reply but was lost in some forum downtime. the jist was:
eaux de vie = german schnaps = unoaked fruit brandy, but I have read the eaux de vie is double distilled to get a very light flavour.

I tried some Sav. Blanc eaux de vie the other day, it was very good.

[Dnderhead]

Eau de Vie= water of life,, or brandy,schnapps,,depinding on country made.
how it is made depends on where you git it from.

[LWTCS]

as far as mainstream aint never met him .

[Freedave]

that guy mainstream, yea i know him, but hes like a woman, love/hate relationship, cant live with'm cant live with out'm.

good to know some one is paying attention

[blanikdog]

Hmmmm Never tried this and I just happen to have 1.5 gallons of grape white lightning sitting in the shed waiting for weather to cool down. The temp in the shed is unbearable at the moment. I was going to do something I never do and give it a second distillation. I'll try this and see what happens. Seems a waste to not use some heads and tails, but it will be used next time I do a grape run.

Living in a small community as we do I have to admit that mainstream doesn't live here either. Everyone here is weird in some way, except me of course.

blanik

[Dnderhead]

I'd say make a strong flavord fruit wine ,,then run off at the proof you want, saveing harts,,,use heads/tales for somthing else.
I beleve that whould give you a start.
(heads/tales mite go in UJSSM be like aging in a wine barrel)

[goinbroke2]

One of the first runs I did was "purple passion". Basically welch's grape juice/sugar/water and yeast. Made it at 14-15% or so and ran it. It came out alright but what made me think was the next whiskey run I did....(or did I mix it with white dog..crap) anyway, my point is it made awesome tasting whiskey when there was just a hint of it. I was thinking it would be like aging whiskey in a red wine barrel. I just can't remember if it was left over flavour in the still, (back to back runs not cleaned) or mixed together later in a "lets try this" type of experiment.

Anyway, like was said, make wine, run it, enjoy. (oh, I double distill everything including wine though)

[goinbroke2]

Thinking about it...it might of been the feigns from the run mixed with a bunch of others then thrown in with a whiskey run.

[Dnderhead]

""(oh, I double distill everything including wine though)""

that depends on your still,

[MishMash]

Eau, Éaux, Yo, eaw, I don't know what's right, but it sounds like the Eau de vie purists are pretty particular about making sure only the freshest fruit is used in a pot still, with only a single distillation, but since mainstream doesn't exist, I look forward to experimenting. I've never distilled anything before, and I'm making mikrobios palatable wash for the offset valved reflux still I just finished making.

If any of you think you've come up with something like a great fresh fruit schnapps, I'd appreciate if you could share your recipe.

Any pointers on running my first attempt?

[Dnderhead]

""only the freshest fruit is used "
over ripe fruit is better. (soft but not "spoiled")
more you distill to a higher proof the less flavor, also use a "farmers wine" 0r "country wine" high in fruit.(use as little suger as posable)
then distill at the proof you want. so you dont have to dilute.

[goose eye]

check the brix if you aint gonna use suger cause theres alot of tricks out there they use to make fuit look riper than they is. tree ripe is best but cold storage is how most comes to you.

so im tole

[coppercreature]

They say that quality in equals quality out. I'd start with the freshest fruit (provided by in-state sources, which is what the distillation 'allowances' are all about,) and ferment it out to a super clean wash, racking several times, and being very conservative with the cuts. And don't forget to name it "OH! Da Vee!"

[noobsauce]

One thing to keep in mind is that the flavour profile of fruit changes, and alot in some cases, as it ripens..Since over-ripe fruit is generally used for spirit purposes, its possible you may not end up with the flavours you want using fresh fruit.