First Brandy - Lots of Feints

[ZeroTrousers]

What do you do with an old forgotten carboy full of red wine? That's right, you make brandy (and some sangria).

This past weekend I was cleaning out the brew room and getting it organized for the fall when I came across a carboy I completely forgot I had. Red wine made pre-pandemic with a completely dry airlock. Surprisingly, the wine was very good. I would have totally just bottled it up and counted it as a win, but my wine racks are full. They're overfull. I have a few cases that have nowhere to go still.

So I charged my Brewzilla with 6 gallons of this very nice red wine and ran it off low and slow over the course of a whole afternoon. I was extremely conservative with my cuts, netting two quarts of good product @ 60% and a little more than 2 quarts of feints at 50% aggregate. Similar to my first corn whiskey run, I could have included a bit more of what I considered to be heads and tails, but I'm happy with what I ran off.

Now for something different: I have some light and heavy toast american oak and medium toast french oak cubes; each put into a different 200ml jar with a bit of the wood and good brandy to see what I get.

The light toast oak is really super interesting though, after only 2 days it's taken on a spicy-sweet character that reminds me of Dutch cookies. I never thought I could get that kinda flavor out of oak! I'm going to age the rest of the batch on a mix of this and the heavy toast, but I'm going to have to keep it hidden from my wife because she keeps sneaking samples out of that jar

[still_stirrin]

Salvaging something into something else….I do it too.

I have been given expired beers, the cases of beer that can’t be sold commercially nor returned to the producer/distributer only destined to be emptied down the drain. Stripping the alcohol and turning it into a “whiskey” makes a unique spirit.

So, distilling a fermented product is a great way to “salvage” the investment. And it gives you the opportunity of experimentation you otherwise wouldn’t try. Congrats.
ss

[zed255]

Done similar, only it was an uncle about to pour out a wide variety of old wines. Had him pump the brakes on that idea and brought him some old fermentation buckets.

It is my 'Trash Wine Brandy' and it came out quite well. Wasn't great new and white, but a couple years on some French Oak and it is a nice sipper.

[cranky]

Good job

A failed wine is what brought me down the rabbit hole in the first place. Save the feints until you have enough for an all feints brandy run, it's worth it.

[ZeroTrousers]

Good job

A failed wine is what brought me down the rabbit hole in the first place. Save the feints until you have enough for an all feints brandy run, it's worth it.

It'll be fruit wine season in another month or so and I've got ideas... And part of that is saving all the feints from fruit runs to run a fruit salad brandy.

[cranky]

Good job

A failed wine is what brought me down the rabbit hole in the first place. Save the feints until you have enough for an all feints brandy run, it's worth it.

It'll be fruit wine season in another month or so and I've got ideas... And part of that is saving all the feints from fruit runs to run a fruit salad brandy.

I often do a mixed fruit and always like how it turns out.

[shadylane]

What do you do with an old forgotten carboy full of red wine? That's right, you make brandy (and some sangria)...... I was extremely conservative with my cuts...

Now for something different: I have some light and heavy toast american oak and medium toast french oak cubes; each put into a different 200ml jar with a bit of the wood and good brandy to see what I get.

I'm not experienced with brandy. But I have a friend that is.
His advice would be against conservative cuts from the heads to hearts.
Much of the fruit flavor and smell can easily be lost.
Given time and a little bit of oak, the heads burn will dissipate leaving the fruitiness.
Be careful with the toasted oak, it can mask and hide the brandy flavor.
According to Bubba, more oak is easy to add, but impossible to remove.

[NZChris]

Agreed, Shady. Lots of fruits have their best flavors come over early and late.

Over oaking is only a problem if you are in a hurry. I have deliberately massively over oaked some experiments and a couple of years later they have been drinkable on their own and are useful for blending. The woody astringency has mellowed and turned nasty into nice.

To save any confusion, I don't air the bulk of my new make before choosing my cuts.

[cranky]

What do you do with an old forgotten carboy full of red wine? That's right, you make brandy (and some sangria)...... I was extremely conservative with my cuts...

Now for something different: I have some light and heavy toast american oak and medium toast french oak cubes; each put into a different 200ml jar with a bit of the wood and good brandy to see what I get.

I'm not experienced with brandy. But I have a friend that is.
His advice would be against conservative cuts from the heads to hearts.
Much of the fruit flavor and smell can easily be lost.
Given time and a little bit of oak, the heads burn will dissipate leaving the fruitiness.
Be careful with the toasted oak, it can mask and hide the brandy flavor.
According to Bubba, more oak is easy to add, but impossible to remove.

I often give similar advice. Wood can often overpower delicate flavors of brandies and sloppy cuts often have the best flavors and make the final spirit better but it can also require considerable time.

I have also begun doing the same as Chris and doing cuts without airing but I think this is a more advanced thing to do but it keeps a lot of the fruit flavors that my get lost due to evaporation.

[Spike007]

Most folks don't know that the companies making apple or any variant of Brandy start as wines and with manipulation an some handiwork you can to. I've done great so called " apple Brandy" from wines that were leftover wine runs from when I was a kid. Happy distilling an some of the best things come from initial mistakes or just lucky finds from older forgotten attempts at different stuff. Enjoy ur happy blunders. I know I have... Spike

[jonnys_spirit]

Most folks don't know that the companies making apple or any variant of Brandy start as wines and with manipulation an some handiwork you can to. I've done great so called " apple Brandy" from wines that were leftover wine runs from when I was a kid. Happy distilling an some of the best things come from initial mistakes or just lucky finds from older forgotten attempts at different stuff. Enjoy ur happy blunders. I know I have... Spike

What manipulation and handiwork do you speak of? I guess if you ferment eg; apple, grape, and raspberry juice together then strip/spirit run it you get fruit brandy or "Obstler" but not particularly "Apple Brandy"... In my mind anyway...

Cheers!
-jonny

[Spike007]

I went to the liquor store an looked at all the apple brandy they sold. All of them were from winery's and made from grapes the "handy work an manipulation" i mentioned I've got no idea lol! was just my way of saying they don't start with apples the bottles state "BLENDED". Starting from apples was not available in my area anywhere. I don't know how they presto chango poof your now apple brandy. But I'd like to find some true apple brandy to compare to what I've made as well as older stuff from my grandfather's batches.