Orange juice and Raisin sugar recipe

Grain bills and instruction for all manner of alcoholic beverages.

Moderator: Site Moderator

Post Reply
Thedevilswater
Novice
Posts: 21
Joined: Sat Oct 22, 2022 8:24 am

Orange juice and Raisin sugar recipe

Post by Thedevilswater »

So a nice neighbor had 17 bags of local oranges, I grabbed 8 bags and juiced them, the juice was a bit sour for drinking so I needed to "dispose" of a gallon of fresh "organicish" juice.

I found a old... Like years old package of raisins about one lb in the back of the pantry. They did not appear to be moldy or bad so I figured let's try and see it I can mix these things with some nice sugar and yeast and see what comes out.

Recipe and method as follows and I will report results in a few weeks.

I ended up with close to 7 gallons of wash the specific gravity measurement was 1.073. I don't measure pH as I do not care, too much to stress about. Normally I don't measure gravity either as I am using trusted recipes.

I have had some really good results with sugar wash so let's see how this comes out.

1 gallon orange juice
1 lb raisins
3.5 lb brown sugar
3 lb raw sugar
2 lb white sugar
6 gallons water.
6 tsp yeast nutrient
1/2 cup crushed oyster shells
2 tsp bob's dry active yeast(bakers yeast) I find this yeast adds a buttery flavor that is pleasing at the beginning.
2 tsp Dady

Using immersion blender and pulverized the raisins in the orange juice allow to sit on counter to room temp.

Heat juice/ rasian mix with 3 gallons water to 140f, let simmer for a "while" until I felt like it.

Add sugar to hot water and stir to dissolve.

Mix with remaining 3 gallons of room temp water.. pour back and forth between containers.
Add 1/4 cup crush oysters
Let get down to 95f add bakers yeast already activated stir occasionally.

When wash gets below 85f add Dady that is activated.

I dump back and forth between buckets about 20 times.

Then place another 1/4 cup oysters in fermentation vessels.

Cap and wait, smells and tastes good...now what can go wrong.
User avatar
NZChris
Master of Distillation
Posts: 13062
Joined: Tue Apr 23, 2013 2:42 am
Location: New Zealand

Re: Orange juice and Raisin sugar recipe

Post by NZChris »

You could stuff up the cuts. I suggest you don't do that :D
User avatar
Saltbush Bill
Site Mod
Posts: 9674
Joined: Thu Mar 17, 2011 2:13 am
Location: Northern NSW Australia

Re: Orange juice and Raisin sugar recipe

Post by Saltbush Bill »

Thedevilswater wrote: Tue Jan 17, 2023 8:25 pm now what can go wrong.
I guess we could wait and see if this thread is still alive and active a couple of years from now........then we will know if any thing has gone wrong.\
Lets wait n see.
Bradster68
Site Donor
Site Donor
Posts: 2196
Joined: Mon Dec 06, 2021 9:57 am
Location: Canada

Re: Orange juice and Raisin sugar recipe

Post by Bradster68 »

If it turns out ok,maybe you could call the booze Thedevilswater 😉
I drink so much now,on the back of my license it's a list of organs I need.
Thedevilswater
Novice
Posts: 21
Joined: Sat Oct 22, 2022 8:24 am

Re: Orange juice and Raisin sugar recipe

Post by Thedevilswater »

All I know right now is its chugging along, ok was worried the orange juice and oranges would be too acidic. But post 12 hours so far so good. And the wash did smell and taste very nice, I hope with some gentle distillation I can get some of the characters to pass thru.

I use a 8 gallon pot sa still with a 1 inch copper riser that is 24in long and normally a 2 gallon copper thumper.

I think wonder if I need to ditch the thumper to make sure I keep some of the character.

My normal process is to do a strip run get about a 80 to 100 proof off my still, then I add good bottled water back down to about 30 proof, then I rerun in a 2 gal copper pot still.

Does anyone know about doing citrus and how to keep the character?

I read somewhere the thumper can strip the flavor some..

Maybe I will add some orange peels to the striping run for fun..like a blue orange stuff...
User avatar
squigglefunk
Trainee
Posts: 886
Joined: Fri Jul 16, 2021 9:27 am

Re: Orange juice and Raisin sugar recipe

Post by squigglefunk »

just my opinion but I would run down to about 20-30 proof, skip the water and redistill. Anything with flavor if you're stopping stripping at 80-100 proof you're leaving behind a lot of taste. The thumper part I can't help with sorry
Thedevilswater
Novice
Posts: 21
Joined: Sat Oct 22, 2022 8:24 am

Re: Orange juice and Raisin sugar recipe

Post by Thedevilswater »

squigglefunk wrote: Wed Jan 18, 2023 9:13 am just my opinion but I would run down to about 20-30 proof, skip the water and redistill. Anything with flavor if you're stopping stripping at 80-100 proof you're leaving behind a lot of taste. The thumper part I can't help with sorry
Thank you for the idea, I will give that a try, it is still churning, in fact it seems like the ferment is getting stronger after a few days.

I will give your method a try on this batch.

Right now it smells nice.
Thedevilswater
Novice
Posts: 21
Joined: Sat Oct 22, 2022 8:24 am

Re: Orange juice and Raisin sugar recipe

Post by Thedevilswater »

Well today is the day I ran it thru my setup.

Got 176 oz total, mostly 50% or so, I ran it down to 30% but it started to get funky and I was very happy with the majority of the run.

The first 50Oz or so had nice smell or orange and something creamy but had a lot of heat at 55 to 60% the next 56 oz has an amazing orange nose and is fairily smooth even at 55 %> The remainder started to get hot and the last 32 oz or so was a bit funky with a nice orange flavor and nose, the final 16 was 30% and pretty funky so I did not want to spend the time or propane to go further, it was getting less good the longer it went.

Over all I will be doing this again, maybe with sweeter orange juice, I am going to talk to a couple friends who have really nice trees.

This could be my Florida signature shine. I can use all Florida oranges, sugar and water... Might be cool thing, not sure I can get Florida raisins, maybe some muscudine grape grower makes them...

Over all a success...maybe one of my best yet.

As I hone my skills and understanding the product is improving. Hope to run four batches of this in March.
Post Reply