Muscadines 2.0! Success.

[muscashine]

I tried my muscadines again. What a difference from previous experiments.

Made 5 gallons muscadine wine using 5 gallons of grapes (frozen from last year's harvest, and thawed/crushed) and enough water to get me to about 6.5 gallons in the fermenter
Added enough sugar to have 14% potential alcohol. Added D47 yeast. Fermented a week on the skins, then scooped them off and racked into a carboy for another week.

Racked into the still leaving behind the yeast grunge at the bottom. Brought it up slow and easy, and ran at a fast drip/half stream through my liebig (I'm really starting to like it) on 7 amps with just enough water to keep the distillate cool and not smell any alcohol vapor.

Through out the first 150ml like I usually do, and got right into it. Not a whole lot of "heads" in this run, in fact, the first pint jar came out 150 proof with a nice grape smell to it. I was really surprised. Collected about 6 jars and the last one started having a little tails on it, so I cut it off and stopped the still.

Got 3 Quart jars in the attic at 125 proof. Very small hint of muscadines, but the liquor smells clean and pure. Some of my best-smelling "raw" liquor yet. I'm going to put one in a glass jar with a cork in it and some oak chips and see how it ages. I've got one jar from six months ago up there that's been oaking a while. The liquor didn't smell as good at first but it's smelling smooth and nice right now. It's dropped from 125 to 120 proof in the corked jar, but its really nice looking.

I've got a bucket of crushed apples going, it's taking forever to work off but it smells awesome in the bucket.