i am in the process of a little experiment. Basically i had a few gallons of apple wine i made last fall sitting around which i hadnt drunk. I recently learned that apple brandy is made from distilling fruit / apple wine so thought i would have a go at running it through my still.
Well no suprise, alcohol is coming out. I wasnt sure if you still had to throw the first 100ml but to be safe i did anyway.
However the product coming out has some severely strong smell to it, like apple gasoline but so strong it hurts my nose to smell it
Ususally my corn mash has a really nice smell butt his stuff is so harsh i cant imagine its good . Is that normal ? do you have to age it before its nice ? .. do you normally do a stripping run with an apple brandy ?
should i just not bother and chuck it all away ? whats the deal here .... surely the apple wine isnt stronger than the corn mash ?
Did you do any cuts? Does it smell the same through the entire run? Sometimes things are added in the wine making process that we wouldn't normally add for a hard cider or a must for distillation. I don't know what those things might be because I'm not a wine maker.
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Apples have plenty of pectin and produce lots of methanol. If using reflux, I think you want to compress heads carefully and expect way more fores/heads than usual. If pot stilling, I guess you'll have to cut heads twice, for both low wines and final.
Also, the flavor of fruit brandies is usually in the heads (unlike grain mashes where any desirable flavor is usually in the tails). This is a gross generalization, but it means the heads should be rich in flavor, the hearts clean as usual, and the tails meh. But I usually just drink the cider without distilling.....
Yes i was making cuts as i would for a corn mash. I threw the first 100ml (running 3 gallons at a time). Then started collecting heads, however the smell of the first 200-300ml was so awful i threw that too. Then it started to improve a bit and i collected what i percieved to be the hearts and then the tails which i ran till pretty high 94degrees . In the end though ive just lumped the whole lot together as i figure i will do a spirit run and try to make better cuts then as what id collected wasnt really great tbh ...just got the 2nd 3 gallons on the go now. The will try and stripping run. Will adding baking soda help with improving the spirt before that do you think?
well in the end i lumped all the heads, hearts and tails (what i could tell anyway) together in a pair of mason jars, added bicarb and salt and shook them up and left them for a little while. Then ran that through the still at a slow steady pace making the cuts again. It has actaully come out ok no, you can smell it with out it burning your eyes and nose off...not sure what was causing that before but the salt and bicarb seemed to cure it, soon as it started coming out i could smell it was better. However, It is now around about 160 proof though and has lost almost all of the apple flavour it had, just smells like pure ethanol now really ... got about 500ml of decent cuts from around 6 gallons of apple wine lol...
Sounds, to me, like you're being a bit hasty doing your blending, most of the old hands around here would still have the individual jars airing out, plus you've probably chucked good flavor out on both runs. Makes me wonder how much you're corn flavor you're losing.
When doing a new product, I spend more time researching it than I do making it. I suggest you do the same.
Im sure you are right, i am still trying to learn when to make cuts. Hopefully im getting better at it each time i do a run. I still have a few gallons of apple wine so i might have another go tomorrow and then if i can get some good hearts mix that with what i made this evening to add some flavour back in ? what do you think
Sounds like you're trying to do your cuts on the fly during the run. Collect in small containers, number them, let them air with a cloth over them for 24 hours, and then do your cuts by smell, taste, and feel. Start in the middle and work out toward the two ends until you hit heads and tails. For apple brandy, it's common to blend in some of the late heads (not too much) and late tails (after fussels) for flavor.
I try not to over distill apple brandy. I run it one time through with a thumper attached. I charge the thumper with the same must as in the boiler. Smells like apple coming off the still.
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Evillemon wrote:Im sure you are right, i am still trying to learn when to make cuts. Hopefully im getting better at it each time i do a run. I still have a few gallons of apple wine so i might have another go tomorrow and then if i can get some good hearts mix that with what i made this evening to add some flavour back in ? what do you think
I think you should hold off on the stilling for a week and use the time to learn how to get some flavor in it.
As goose eye asked, "How you make your wine". This might have a lot to do with what you're getting outta your spout.
NZChris wrote:
I think you should hold off on the stilling for a week and use the time to learn how to get some flavor in it.
As goose eye asked, "How you make your wine". This might have a lot to do with what you're getting outta your spout.
+1 on that. Do a search for apple brandy and read anything by Jimbo and Bushman about apples. Then read the thread about bicarb and you will understand why you shouldn't have used it unless all you want is vodka. Now if all you want to do is convert apple wine to vodka you succeeded but if you want apple flavor you need to read those threads by Bushman and Jimbo.
