Fruit / Berry Recipes

[Little21]

Roger thanks buddy will let you know how it turned out

[Bman615]

Wanted to start my question of with just saying thanks for posting this recipe, I'm trying to figure out witch fruit I'm going to use and I was considering strawberries and I wanted to kno if you cut the green off the strawberry before u freeze them or you just blend it all together and let the sieve work it's magic
Thanks

[Little21]

I'm not sure if it matters but I cut the bract "green leaf stuff" off plan on starting the batch tonight. I froze them too. Couldn't see how it could hurt to freeze plus helped me have more time to work off the other wash I had.

[Bman615]

I'm making a 7 gal wash and have a 8 gal fermentor I am hoping that 3-4 inches leaves enough room for the cap also approximate 25 pounds of strawberries does that sound accurate?

[Little21]

Just do your own recipie go off your strawberries and amount of water you want out it in the calculators on parent site finds website that will give the sugar content of strawberries

[packfan61]

how often , during those 18 days , did you stir the cap back into the wash? And when cap falls on its' own , then it's ready to run, correct? can i run this type of wash in a simple pot still without it burning the pulp ? The rest was well explained and self explanatory, so thank you!

[Tater]

how often , during those 18 days , did you stir the cap back into the wash? And when cap falls on its' own , then it's ready to run, correct? can i run this type of wash in a simple pot still without it burning the pulp ? The rest was well explained and self explanatory, so thank you!

Stirred back in when it looked like it was starting to dry out on top .I let mine settle out and dipped wash off top .I use propane and yes ya can potstill with out burning but go slow and using boiling chips helps in my opinion. i use couple handful's of cut off copper tubing about size of couplings.if using a thumper ya can run the thicker trub/wash in it if your a mind to

[packfan61]

Thank You Tater! That's useful to know! I'm just using a simple 5 gallon pot still made from stainless steel brewing pot!

[briancowart]

Tater,

I'm hoping you can help me. I'm new to the fourm, but have been distilling for a couple of years. I've recently been working on developing a good peach likker. Like a few other people have said, I've had some peach that's clear as water and smooth with a good peach flavor to it and it will not freeze. It appears to be a distilled flavor, because in my experience, when you try to flavor after distillation and put it in the freezer, the syrup somewhat seperates out and makes the likker look cloudy.

Anyway, I distilled a mash today that's been working for about 2 weeks and as it started to come off the still, it seemed promising; however, it began to develop a very off taste and an off smell as well. Ill first yell you how I made the mash.

I took 36 lbs of canned peaches with the syrup and blended them to a pull, added 10 lbs of sugar and about a gallon and a half of water. Stirred it up and activated the yeast in a few quarts of water and poured on top of the wash, covered and air locked. It worked for nearly 3 weeks and it exactly like yours this morning when I took the lid off the bucket.

I siphoned off all the liquid into a carboy and poured it in my still. Heated it very slowly, took me 2 hours to get the first drop off the still. It just doesn't taste or smell good...it's coming off at 150 proof.

My still is a stainless steel still from mile high distilling that can be run as a pot or reflux still. I distilled this batch as a pot still with a handful of copper couplings in the collumn.

I'm at a loss at this point on why my likker tastes bad. Every grain batch I do turns out great and people love it, I can't keep it on the shelf, but I want to get this peach likker right and am having trouble with it, obviously.

In your experience, what am I doing wrong to end up with bad tasting likker? Is it my wash? Or something in the distillation? Do I need more copper? Or do I need a copper still and get rid of the stainless all together?

Any help you can offer would be GREATLY appreciated.

[Tater]

I dont see how ya got that to ferment. Id went with 5 gallons water for that mix figure your saying 36 lbs syrup and peaches.With the added sugar that be more a sugar peach mix then a peach sugar and doubt if you would get peach taste.

[briancowart]

I appreciate the quick reply! I was wondering if that might have had something to do with it, I had been told you weren't supposed to exceed 30% water in your whole mixture, and I made that wash in a 6 gallon fermenter. You've been at this a while, have you ever heard tell of such thing? So in knowing my mixture was way off and had was to much sugar in in, what would explain the foul taste/smell? The abundance of sugar? Would canned peaches vs. fresh peaches make any sort of difference?

[Tater]

I appreciate the quick reply! I was wondering if that might have had something to do with it, I had been told you weren't supposed to exceed 30% water in your whole mixture, and I made that wash in a 6 gallon fermenter. You've been at this a while, have you ever heard tell of such thing? So in knowing my mixture was way off and had was to much sugar in in, what would explain the foul taste/smell? The abundance of sugar? Would canned peaches vs. fresh peaches make any sort of difference?

I try to not go over 2 lbs sugar of any kind per gallon water.Id think taste ya ended up with had to do with wash Fresh peaches don't taste cooked like canned ones do to me.

[briancowart]

So if I were to make that wash again using the exact same amount of peaches and syrup, 5 gallons of water and not adding any extra sugar...you'd say I'd be more on track? Or should I use even more water than that?

[Tater]

If I were to use canned peaches and syrup I would read label on can and go by sugar content listed on can to decide how recipe should be done.

[Dnderhead]

thats what they make hydrometers for.

[cubanredneck]

Gonna try this with strawberries will posts updates

[rasher]

I'd like to chime in with my two cents:

I took 20lbs or "sour cherries" from my buddy's tree and froze them. Threw into pot, boiled and mashed up with a submersible handheld blender thingy. Add SEVEN pounds of sugar, 1/2 lemon juice, and a can of tomato paste and enough water to make 5 gallons (20L). SG is 1.085.

Cooled to 95f and removed 2qt to an open-top pitcher and slowly poured in two packets of EC-1118. Stirred gentle, let sit overnight, scooped off and discarded the cap and poured the mix back into the rest of the must and stirred in. 3 hours later and there's a nice thick cap on top. Covered loosely with fermenter lid and removed the airlock and rubber grommet. A figure I'll stir the cap in every day and wait until it doesn't materialize anymore.

I added 7lbs of sugar to get the ABV of the must up to a point where it makes sense to only pot distill it once. Hopefully will get good cherry flavor. The must tasted so good after adding the sugar (before the yeast) that wifey almost didn't let me pitch the yeast. She wanted to make popsicles or something.

[augiecrazy8]

Rasher

Very interested in hearing how your sour cherry wash turns out. My in-laws have several cherry trees and they never use all of them. I'm hoping by the end of the summer I can collect 10-15 lbs. My boss also talks about apricot brandy that his family used to make back in the Czech Republic. Figured if it turned out well I could give him some cherry stuff that might bring back some memories.

[rasher]

So I'm only four days in to the ferment on my cherry likker and the cap has already fallen.
Hydrometer reads 1.000 right on the nose, so it's close to done.
I used two packets of EC-1118 (5 gallons of wash) yeast and stirred twice a day.

Based on research, I kind of expected the ferment to take much longer, like up to two weeks.

Is this anything to worry about, or should I just go ahead and fire up the still?

[WYTDAWG]

just a bump...Looking for some advice.

Holla.

[Rclark12]

This is a great thread very helpful. I got a bushel of peaches mashed up now pitching yeast in the morning. Very surprised at how thick this mash is though as its my first fruit shine Im not used to such a thick wash. I guess Ill give the boiler chips a try when I do run it in 2 weeks or so. Any one with a 15 gallon keg have a ball park on what it takes time wise to get 10-12 gallons of this up to distilling temps? Curious how slow I have to go to run something so thick and not burn it, never messed with anything like this thanks!

Also for any one with access to plums I was just talking with an old shiner who swears of all the fruits he uses nothing compares to plums so worth a try!

[A-Rob]

I am making for 5 gal batches... i was curious if i could use 2 small packets of E1118 for good results? I dont have any Distillers yeast. I was looking to do canned peaches and sugar. Or would you recommend the Active distillers yeast? or both? lol any help would be great! Thanks in advance

[Tater]

ec1118 should do fine Id make a starter and use it. there's a LALVIN D47 yeast that I was told made for making peach wine .I used it on my last peach run and thought it was better then any yeast I've tried with peaches to date.

[Tony T]

what did you mean when the cap fell??????

[Tony T]

And did you use air lock??? Just done my first peach mash one 5 gallon with one yeast the other with 2 pack of yeast . Day 5 and the 2 pack yeast stopped working, the other 5 gallon still working. guestion
Does the first finished bucket need to be stirred or just let settle ???? Dont look like it has a cap. Peaches still floating I did mash.

[rad14701]

what did you mean when the cap fell??????

If you don't know what a "cap" or "krausen" is then you'd better do some more research because there's bound to be more that you don't know about the basic theories and fundamentals... The "cap" or "krausen" is a layer of yeast and/or grains, fruits, solids, that floats on top of the wash, held there by CO2 bubbles... When fermentation slows or ceases the CO2 bubbles deplete and the solids fall from suspension to the bottom of your fermentation vessel...

Airlocks are a personal preference, not a requirement... Some members use them, others don't...

[Young Copper]

Just got some Ec-1118 today! I took a bushel of peaches out of the freezer. I was wondering...Could I run the peaches through a juicer instead of mashing them up with a paint stir? Or do I want to keep lots of pulp and skin for flavor? When the neighbor makes blackberry jam she juices her berries and runs it through 3 or 4 times until only seeds are left. Maybe its easier to just mash 'em in a bucket. Any thoughts?

Picking raspberries now, hoping to have 50 BLS within the next few days. I do have a juicer, any advantages of going this way?

[still_stirrin]

Picking raspberries now, hoping to have 50 BLS within the next few days. I do have a juicer, any advantages of going this way?

The juicer will work great, but have you fermented raspberries before? They have a tendancy to make the pH nosedive. Be prepared to stabilize the acid levels upward.

Also, they're not abundant in fermentables. You may need to augment with sugar. Be sure to check your juices Brix content.

Raspberries make a great "panty dropper" too. Read about it elsewhere in the Tried & True forum.
ss

p.s.- Here's a good read about raspberries: viewtopic.php?f=38&t=32337#p7026363

[Young Copper]

Thanks for the reply

Would you toss in the skin from the raspberries after juicing or throw? I see Tater puts it in the mash

This will be my first batch of mash, so I have not much any knowledge. My dad used to make it when I was a kid, I dont remember how its done.

All I have is his tools to make, why I am here to read and learn.

I have them in the freezer as we speak. This is what I have for additives

3 packs EC1118 total of 15 grams, Yeast Nutrient,Acid Blend, Pectic Enzyme, and Campden Tablets.

Think I will pre boil my water to clean it before I start mash.

I see some use 5lbs of raspberries to 7lbs of sugar, thats lots of sugar. I guess if you want alcohol content, must add sugar.

Just so much to read, 1 gets lost!! lol Thank you for the help. I shall read more

[still_stirrin]

Would you toss in the skin from the raspberries after juicing or throw? I see Tater puts it in the mash

Keep 'em in.

I have them in the freezer as we speak.

Good. They'll mush up good when thawed.

3 packs EC1118 total of 15 grams, Yeast Nutrient,Acid Blend, Pectic Enzyme, and Campden Tablets.

Use 1 to 1-1/2 package per 5 gallons of ferment. Enough, yet not too much.

Use the yeast nutrient and pectic enzymes. It'll help you recover the available sugars in the fruit. And remember, you don't want to boil the must, as that will "set the pectic", which may cause the ferment to be hazy/cloudy. And I don't know how well the pectin haze will distill out.

But you won't need either the acid blend or Campden tablets. Those are used for wine and not necessary if you plan to distill the fermented must. ("must" is the correct name for a fruit ferment. "mash" is the term for a grain ferment)

Think I will pre boil my water to clean it before I start mash.

OK. That will "sterilize" the water. But it will also drive out any dissolved oxygen at the same time. When you've cooled your must, before you pitch your yeast, be sure to re-oxyginate it good. Yeast need oxygen for their aerobic phase of life when they bud (reproduce).
ss