apple wash

[MuleKicker]

Dont fool yerself it is alot of work. I started with a 55gal barrel of apples. ground them all up in a blender. Fermented on the pulp. didnt get much yeild. I think there is a lot more to it. My try was a failure. And for all the work, I wont do it again. I will buy store bought juice first. Just my .02. Maybe others have had better success.

[goose eye]

is it a blue barel or black barel

so im tole

[Tater]

Ive read where fokes were getting 50 gallons cider outta 1000 lbs apples.One old timer favorite way of making apple brandy was filling barrels with apple pummins (crushed apples )cover them to keep out critters and let them set till trees started showing leaves next spring.Depended on wild yeast to ferment it and would only dip off clear wash leaving what had settled to bottom.On doing50 gallon fruit only washes no sugar I seem stuck at around 3 gallons finished product.That is running it 3 to 4 times to get proof up.I like freezing my fruit before processing it also grinding or pulping apples /pears and either cookin them a bit or pouring boiling water over then and letting that sit awhile,I usually do slow on pulp runs even for stripping it .Ive also went back to a thumper this year and made 1 outta a 7.5 gallon ss keg. and am thinking about making another outta 15 gallon ss keg same size as still.So it can be used as a still and still can be used for steam on grain in mashes.As far as your apples go might wanna find out what kind they are and see if ya can find a nutrition chart for them and go by that as a rule of thumb.

[Dnderhead]

"didn't get much yield. ""
apples by themselves will yield about 5% wash this varies with type of apples.

[blanikdog]

is it a blue barel or black barel

so im tole

Yup I support that question. goose. I've always found the black barrel to be best.

[MuleKicker]

well, that is my problem then. I used a blue barrel

[goose eye]

black takes in more sun an works a bit quicker this time of year round here.

so im tole

[Yungin]

Thanks for the replies. Don't know if the barrel question was directed towards me but I'm using blue barrels and Dnt have acces to black ones. I plan on adding sugar to bring sg up to 10% cuz I Dnt think I'll have much juice. I'll keep posted on the outcome Although I'm sure it will b a while till it's done.

[nickelbacher]

Did much research on cider last year (I'm now distilling the product from last year). Basics are that you've got to pulp the apples. Do some searching on youtube for "pomace apple" keywords, there are lots of videos there. Then, you've immediately got to press the apples to get the juice. From there, you have sweet cider that can be pasteurized (this is what is sold in stores) or fermented and distilled to hard cider.

The left over 'cakes' (ie: squished pomace) can be used in animal feed etc. You can collect it, add a little water (say, 5 litre per 20 litre of pomace) and press it again to get a little more. With this second press stuff however, you'll have to add sugar to get anything decent for distilling. I began to do this second press but I was so wiped by the first suff, I bailed on that.

So, below are pictures. There is my home made grinder with a 10$ stool from Canadian Tire, some scrap wood, and a motor from an industrial scrapper (10:1 gearing inside saved me from using pulleys etc., nice.). Then, there was the apple press, sized it, got the wood and steel from various suppliers, bees was from a health-food store (to act as sealant on wood joints and to cure wood surfaces), a cheap-o hydraulic jack (it's operating length is extended by using wood spacers). Note that I also had to make trays to separate cakes and bought the correct fabric from an industrial food-fabric supplier. Yes, it took determination to get this stuff together! All, in all, on the cheap, it still cost me 300-400$. I took a break from it this year.

In my fermentation, I used all-natural yeasts, they started quickly enough on their own. However, after a month, I did add 1ml 5% sodium-metabisulphite solution per litre of juice as insurance. (This is similar to "old school" practice of burning sulphite sticks in oak casks). There were a mix of apples too, it is important to get the right mix of apples to have the right acid balance. There is much to read about apples as they are way harder to do than grapes/wine.

Could go on and on but there are some pointers to lead those that wish to delve into this.

[Slow & Steady]

The trouble I have with answering your question is I dont know the weight or bushel count of a 55 gallon barrel of apples. We would store our apples in cold storage in 22 bushel bins. We would forklift those bins to the bin dumper where the apples would be scrubed and washed then to the hammermill where they were pulverized then to the hydralic press. It has been years since I have run a batch so I'm a little unsure of the average yeilds but I do remember back in 1988 running Goldens Delicious that had been in cold storage for less than 60 days and the yeild was fantastic. We were getting 60 gallons per 900 lbs. of 9% soluble sugar apple juice... that yeilded nearly 10 gallons of 100 proof apple brandy... after cuts that was closer to 8 gallons. So a best case senario would be 120 lbs or 3 bushels of apples to yeild a drinkable gallon of 100 proof Brandy. I don't know what the yeild would be with a blend of apples but the more lower sugar apples that go in the less yeild you can expect. I expect that with home made equipment my yeild would go down considerably, the press we used took a while to liberate the juice and if you brought the pressure up to fast it would blow-out the fold on the burlap of any number of press layers and spater apple pomace all over the walls... I had lots of Golden Delicious and always used them for my Apple Brandy, as they had very high sugar and good apple taste came across during distilation. The secret was a late harvest of the Golden Delicious, they hold very well on the tree and their sugar continues to climb as they convert their starch to sugar and drop their pectin to very low levels (i.e. less heads).

S&S

[Braz]

So I've got about 10 gallons of apple wash fully fermented, cleared and ready for the pot still. The first batch I ran a few weeks ago is now aging on some toasted oak. I ran that batch in a single, slow and easy run but now I'm wondering if I should do a strip run and then a spirit run on this batch. The target is a nice sippin' apple brandy.

Will two runs help compress the heads/tails? I had a hard time with the cuts on the first batch. I think it is maybe too headsy.
Will two runs strip too much flavor out? I want the end product to retain some of the fruity goodness.
Would it help the flavor to add some backset from the strip run back into the spirit run? Or am I just chasing my tail here?

What say ye experienced apple stillers?

[Slow & Steady]

I have double distiled my apples to make a good brandy but I make sure to remove any scrubbers from the still to make sure the full flavor comes through in both the stripping run and the spirit run. Flavor and fruity nose have never been a problem for me but I do bulk age my apple wine on the lees for a year or more so I'm not sure how it would be if I distilled my apple wine right after clearing.

S&S

[Braz]

Thanks S&S. I plan on stillin' today and I guess I'll do two runs and see how it turns out. I have a pot still head for my boiler so no scrubbers to be concerned about. Wish me luck.

[Slow & Steady]

How did your apple brandy run go Braz?

S&S

[Braz]

Not sure yet. I ran a strip run Friday - ran it fairly slow for a strip run and pulled it down to 20%. Sunday I diluted it with backset from the strip run and ran it again as slow as I could. Started off above 80% which is crazy good for my rig. Collected about 4.5 liters which is now airing in a whole bunch of 200ml jars. Making the cuts and blending will be the challenge. Smells good and a teensy sample from the middle has some fruity hints which makes me happy.

I have some toasted oak sticks and some lightly charred sticks but can't decide which ones to use in the aging jar. Any ideas?

[Slow & Steady]

Braz...I put my twice distilled apple in a six gallon char oak barrel. I have used new ones and reused older barrels and I like the result from both. The brandy doesn't need as much time in the new barrels as it does in the used barrels to get to the way I like my brandy.

I generally blend the "virgin barrel" aged brandy with "old barrel" aged brandy to get a really nice apple brandy.

S&S

[Yungin]

Finally got my apples goin. Ended up needin freezer space and hadnt gotten the press made so i jus put em n a bucket and used a sheetrock mud mixer that i sharpened to cut em up real small. Had bout a third of a barrel of apples mush added some boilin water and 50 lbs of sugar. Plan on strainin thru a pillow case into secondary when done and lettin sit for a while. Want to add more sugar and water to pulp that i strain off and ferment one more time anythoughts on this? Also built a thumper so i can put some mushed up apples in it when i run this wine. Really lookin forward to this tastes great ane like its sittin round 2% but it has slowed down a lot.

[Slow & Steady]

If I was going to add to my crushed apple mash I would lean towards apple cider or unfiltered apple juice. Sugar and water will increase the alcohol not the flavor. Most of the apple washes I have made over my life were made of pure apple cider and the wild yeast that came on the apples that made the cider. I'm not suggesting that your methods won't produce a good apple spirit, but the flavor that I get on my apple cider mash, out shines every other spirit I make when it comes to nose and flavor.

S&S