How to salvage pungent metallic flavors

[Mikeyhome]

I made 1k liters of peach mango wine and sent to a factory for distillation. they double distilled it with copper still. it has a, very metallic flavor and very pungent. it had a green film floating on the top. I assume some kind of copper oxidation. they also distilled a red wine brandy for me that was perfect. they claimed the mango fruit has a, pungent flavor after distillation and nothing can be done to remove that off Flavor. I've run it through activated charcoal filter I normally age it with oak and chocolate dilute it to 35 percent and sweeten it to make a chocolate brandy. . but after one month it's still not mellowing those off flavors. should I try to use a column still and see if that can remove the off flavors. is it totally ruined. or is there a way to salvage it. when I. distill at home small batches 30 liter pot still. i get a very lovely sweet mellow flavor that works well to make chocolate brandy. normally i use other fruits just had the mangoes was making a peach mango Chardonnay wine and after making that had leftover. fruit so used that for my brandy. I just hate to lose that much brandy to discard it. any advice would be welcome.

would re distillation with column still remove metallic and pungent tastes, or did the copper oxidation permanently ruin it

[still_stirrin]

What if refluxing the mango product increases the metallic taste by elimination of other congeners? And carbon filtering may do the same thing.

Question for you, when you say it is “pungent” smelling, what does that mean? Can you describe the smell other than “funky”?

Also, you haven’t told us what the %ABV the peach mango distillate is, but obviously higher than 35%ABV.

Finally, 1000 liters of wine is a large batch. I just wonder what your intentions are with that much product. Bear in mind that this is a hobby distillers website, so if you have commercial plans, we’d like to see your license number with your posts.
ss

[Mikeyhome]

I do small batches at home 30 liters.. for testing recipes and perfecting things.

I'm in China my license isn't a number it's a set of stamps.

this large batch was distilled at a commercial factory, they have the manufacturing license. I have a commercial sales license.

the factory has done successful things for me in. the past but this time it's just off.
was double distilled and diluted to 52%.. I then diluted again to 35% sweertened it, oaked it and flavored with chocolate. I make chocolate brandy. this is first large batch that I'll sell in a year after aging. when I. distil at home with other fruit wines, I've used peach, blueberry, hibiscus and black tea, with perfect flavors. this was the first time adding mango fruit.

hard to describe taste, it's acrid, tastes like has high burn from high abv but it's low. 35% some chemical taste, thought maybe they didn't do their cuts well enough but their other brandy they made for me was smooth at 48% before aging in oak.

[still_stirrin]

Well, since you are a commercial producer, I would suggest making another 1000 liters of the wine and double distill it through a potstill and see if the same metallic characteristic occurs. If it doesn’t, then the problem would come from the ferment, either the fruit, water, or yeast, or fermentation process control.

Then, you could try to reduce the metallic character of this batch by blending with another non-metallic batch.

As a commercial producer, I’m sure you have your own team of technicians available to troubleshoot your processes. My “salary” here doesn’t cover commercial failures in a foreign country. Sorry.
ss

[Ben]

I would pull enough from the batch to fill your pot still, dilute to 15 or 20%, and re-run it. If you can get it to taste the way you want after cutting and blending it yourself you will have to redistill on your own or find another commercial company to do your distillation.

How much of the total sugars in the wine were from processed sugars? Excess sugar can cause a metallic sweetness. Posting the wine recipe would help.

[Yummyrum]

A double distilled product should not have a coloured film on it . Something sounds very wrong there .

I have had a Metallic taste when I have just acid cleaned my copper still and have not ran a “seasoning run” through it . I wonder if that had happened to the still prior to them doing the spirit run .

Were you the first run on a new still just put into service in their factory .

I have also made several batches of Mango wine and distilled it and never had problems you describe .

It wreaks of a processing issue to me .

[Mikeyhome]

Thanks Everton everyone
I did change sugar companies maybe that could have been a difference. the fruit was about 8-9 % abv i added sugar up to 12 percent. my wines that I've distilled before always tasted fine even with my small simple pot still.

I'll try to make a different wine that I've use before and see if the problem is solved.

but was hoping to salvage this.

I wasn't observing them when they distilled.

the technical skills here aren't always up to standard. but was trying to make my same high standard product that I've done 100s of times as my hobby into a high quality legal product. but my small scale stuff was 100s times better

I'll try and filter, dilute and re distillation but afraid might have to take this as a loss.

was my first time making commercial products.

I've been doing 100s of small batches made a high quality product that got good reviews so just trying to make 500 bottles small scale. trying to build a product and brand. my wines I've established before and also increased production this year to 3000 bottles but still small scale.

[Yummyrum]

I’m curious who the target audience is for your spirits ? Are they for sale locally or export ?
If locally , is it a Chinese market or Expats

Back on topic , you could reflux still it as a Mango Vodka . I did this with one of mine once , it was nice , but a bit bland . In the end I used it to make a Gin .

[Mikeyhome]

my target is 25 to 45 year old Chinese. women. I make fruit wines blueberry, raspberry, cranberry, hibiscus, peach mango Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, mulberry, sometimes plum but last year season was bad. I started making for friends and to teach friends the process. ironically i don't drink alcohol. but I. have a degree in chemistry and trained as a chef and growing up in a wine region, I always knew the skills. but after 2 years making lots of different types, I perfected my techniques and made about 500. bottles a year that were quite popular. I got over 1k people at a wine convention asking where to buy my wines, decided to try expanding and getting legal.

women here like to get accidentally drunk, so my semisweet fruit foward wines don't have a strong bite but are 14% ABV. so quite popular.

I tried dozens of brandy recipes, peach, apple pie, were good but the chocolate was huge hit,

I have a few restaurants and bars interested but need to wait until the wines and brandy are ready.

I do all the labor myself and don't share my recipes or techniques with local factories, I just send them the product for testing, bottling and labeling. here copycats appear quickly, I have only a few years to build my brand and expand before others follow.

I. just really. busting my butt to try and make same quality of products I made with 5 gallon batches. it's definitely hard work. and really don't care about making money as I do making something I'm proud of that people like.

thanks again. I'll see if i can salvage this, otherwise will be behind schedule for next year with the brandy.

[tommysb]

If you really care about the product you are putting out, and have a degree in chemistry and experience of hundreds of successful small distillations - you probably already know the answer as to how salvageable this batch is.

If it tasted good going into the still - distillation by itself would not introduce off flavours.