Lets get carried away with fruity goodness

[MooseMan]

It has to be cherry brandy Cranky, surely!

Followed by a "Crappa" maybe?

[cranky]

It has to be cherry brandy Cranky, surely!

Followed by a "Crappa" maybe?

While I'd really like to do a Kirsch and I could probably get a bottle out of 45lbs of cherries but I can't find the time and energy right now to run all that apple cider I have, and some of that is showing signs of infection so I have to get around to that pretty soon. Plus using all those cherries for brandy would leave us with nothing to make preserves or pie filling out of But...Mrs Cranky is a fan of cherry brandy, especially when it's in a Singapore sling, so...

[cranky]

So...the other day while picking cherries I noticed a great big tree on the far side of my neighbors back yard who's leaves looked suspiciously like cherry leaves Today I took my monocular out back and gave it a good look and sure enough it is a giant cherry tree

Now the question is if somehow I miraculously find time to pick them, would they let me and would I need to modify my apple picker for cherries?

We actually don't have issues with these neighbors. He doesn't drink but she's Scottish and is quite fond of my hard cider so maybe trade a case of cider for the right to pick cherries but then again, where do I find time to deal with them I'm currently trying to get things in order so I can make the 6 stripping runs and 3 spirit runs of the apple, which is going to take a big chunk of time.

[cranky]

I got the first 2 stripping runs of apple done, finally.

I had a bit more problems than usual, mainly with keeping my cool. Of course I decided to do this on the hottest day of the year and it's normally pretty cold whenever I run but first the liebig wasn't able to keep up. Normally I can crank it all the way up but this time I had to dial it back quite a bit to keep it cool. I also wound up changing my cooling water out halfway through each run. Usually I can get through an entire run on one reservoir full but not today and both those things took more time than I'd hoped which is why I only had time for two runs but that took care of everything in carboys and buckets showing signs of infection. I'm guessing the cider in the 30 gallon fermenter is probably also infected but I'm not willing to open that up until I'm sure I have time to take care of everything in it. I think I also have four, 5 gallon carboys, a six gallon and a seven gallon to go but I think the 7 will be the Christmas Cider this year and everything else will be brandy.

Hopefully I can get 2 spirit runs out of all that but I also have what was one or two stripping runs from, I think, last year and 2.5-3 gallons of stripped pear that will go into the final spirit run. I don't normally like running apple and pear together together but since I'm not going to pick this year I'm unlikely to gather enough Shinseiki Pears to do a proper run but... now that I think about it, I suppose I could do a proper spirit run with he pear low wines in my little boiler...if I can find it and the lid but that would just be one more thing on my already overcrowded plate but we'll see.

[NZChris]

Have you considered adding a preheater? I do up to seven strips a day with mine, sometimes not with the same wash in the preheater. The sooner you build one, the sooner you start saving the warm up time and energy costs for every subsequent strip.

My preheater is insulated and starts the main pot producing early in the morning if I have had to shut down overnight and restart. They can be stacked above the main pot so that the footprint isn't much larger than a single still.

[cranky]

Have you considered adding a preheater? I do up to seven strips a day with mine, sometimes not with the same wash in the preheater. The sooner you build one, the sooner you start saving the warm up time and energy costs for every subsequent strip.

My preheater is insulated and starts the main pot producing early in the morning if I have had to shut down overnight and restart. They can be stacked above the main pot so that the footprint isn't much larger than a single still.

I've never really seriously considered a preheater, it might help a bit but my heat up time is only 20-30 minutes. What's really slowing me down right now is the liebig isn't keeping up unless I dial the heat back and slow the output down for it to come out cool and the reservoir is heating up faster than usual. A preheater might help a little with that too but I'm thinking about digging out the liebig extension I have and see if it's clean enough to use. I've been using the water from my 55 gallon drum fementer/rainwater reservoir to water my trees and plants in this hot weather. When it's empty I'll move it next to the still reservoir so when one heats up I can move the pump to the other and at least make it through a run before I have to drain and refill them.

[cranky]

There is anther thing I want to mention, although it might be better in the "tell us about your mistakes: thread

While running the first batch the other day 15 or 20 minutes after it started flowing I checked the flow and temp of the low wines. They were coming out hotter than I would like so I turned the knob down on the controller and nothing changed When I turned it on it read 220v 20.something amps and when I turned it down to zero it was still reading 220v 20.?? amps I started wondering if I needed to switch to the other dial when I put my hand on the box. It was so hot I couldn't touch it that's when I realized the fan wasn't working and it had been running at full blast for over about 45 minutes without being cooled it didn't take long to figure out that somehow while getting things started I knocked the wal wart for the fan loose. So I plugged it back in hoping I didn't need to rebuild the controller and fortunately after a few minutes it cooled down enough to function properly again but that could have ruined my whole day.

[NZChris]

I have a couple of 12V temperature alarms that I can utilize anywhere I need them, flashing lights and screamers. There is usually one on the spout for if something goes wrong with the cooling water.

Cooling water demand is way down and very changeable with a preheater. I've never bothered to calculate by how much and the flow is temperature controlled so I don't usually notice when it starts operating, but it isn't usually using any water during the first third of a strip.

Yesterday, the wash was going in at a wintery 45F and the cooling water wasn't coming on until near the end.
The heat was back on 11 minutes after shutting down a strip and it was producing again 13 minutes later.

[cranky]

I have a couple of 12V temperature alarms that I can utilize anywhere I need them, flashing lights and screamers. There is usually one on the spout for if something goes wrong with the cooling water.

Cooling water demand is way down and very changeable with a preheater. I've never bothered to calculate by how much and the flow is temperature controlled so I don't usually notice when it starts operating, but it isn't usually using any water during the first third of a strip.

Yesterday, the wash was going in at a wintery 45F and the cooling water wasn't coming on until near the end.
The heat was back on 11 minutes after shutting down a strip and it was producing again 13 minutes later.

You know your adding to my already exceedingly long to do list

[joschi]

I have 2 questions about fruits:
1. I can buy fresh pressed apple juice locally (in autumm). How much would i need for my 50 l keg still to have 3 strip/1 spirit run? For ex., if i make rum, i go with 3x 35 l = 105 liters total, i get about 25 liters low wines, thats perfect for a spirit run.
Is there enough sugar in pure apple juice to get about the same yield?

2. if i want to make plum "brandy", Internet says they would contain about 10% sugar (is that with stones or without) , my calculation woud give me 100 Kg plums to get 10 Kg sugar = give me SG 1.038 and 5.9 % alcohol. Is that about right? And would i need to add water to the fruits? I think so, but then the SG would be even lower....

And i cannot distill with the fruit, so i will have to press them after fermentation, so i will have less. So i would need even more plums? Seems like a lot of fruits

[subbrew]

I have 2 questions about fruits:
1. I can buy fresh pressed apple juice locally (in autumm). How much would i need for my 50 l keg still to have 3 strip/1 spirit run? For ex., if i make rum, i go with 3x 35 l = 105 liters total, i get about 25 liters low wines, thats perfect for a spirit run.
Is there enough sugar in pure apple juice to get about the same yield?

Sorry but I still work in gallons. Anyhow, last year I did 4 strips to fill one spirit run. My apple juice fermented out to about 5.4%. I fermented 45 gallons and when all was done and cuts were made I ended up with 2.25 gal of 125 proof spirit. I did take a little more heads that I would on a whiskey ferment but there is so much apple aroma in the heads I risked it. I put most of it in a badmo clone and don't plan on touching it for 3 or 4 years.

Given your numbers I think you will need at least 140 liters of juice and you still will not have quite as much product as you get from 105 liters of rum wash.

[zach]

Is there enough sugar in pure apple juice to get about the same yield?

2. if i want to make plum "brandy", Internet says they would contain about 10% sugar (is that with stones or without) , my calculation woud give me 100 Kg plums to get 10 Kg sugar = give me SG 1.038 and 5.9 % alcohol. Is that about right?

And i cannot distill with the fruit

You can get a refractometer and measure the brix of the apple juice for a modest price. (under $20 US) Then there is no guessing. Plums sugar content can vary from 9 to 20 brix, so again no way to hit an original gravity without a measurement.

The best plum brandy (see slivovitz, palinka, tuica) is made with the fruit pomace in the boiler and little or no sugar added. Some or all of the stones are put in the boiler for a more complex nutty flavor.

[cranky]

I have 2 questions about fruits:
1. I can buy fresh pressed apple juice locally (in autumm). How much would i need for my 50 l keg still to have 3 strip/1 spirit run? For ex., if i make rum, i go with 3x 35 l = 105 liters total, i get about 25 liters low wines, thats perfect for a spirit run.
Is there enough sugar in pure apple juice to get about the same yield?

To begin with I can't really guess at this because you don't give any details on your rum wash but here's what I can tell you...

The answer to your question is "depends". What S.G. (brix, Potential alcohol) is this fresh pressed apple juice? I have apples that come in as low as 10 or 11 brix (5-6% potential alcohol) and others that can hit 20-23 Brix in a good year (12+% potential alcohol) and lots of apples that hit 14-16ish. You will need the actual juice and a way to measure it to know for sure. I personally don't even bother measuring anymore, I get what I get but what I have is a crap load of free apples available and equipment to press them so there is almost no cost to me.

2. if i want to make plum "brandy", Internet says they would contain about 10% sugar (is that with stones or without) , my calculation woud give me 100 Kg plums to get 10 Kg sugar = give me SG 1.038 and 5.9 % alcohol. Is that about right? And would i need to add water to the fruits? I think so, but then the SG would be even lower....

And i cannot distill with the fruit, so i will have to press them after fermentation, so i will have less. So i would need even more plums? Seems like a lot of fruits

Here is another "depends" situation to begin with I can't even begin to guess at the sugar in your fruit.

Whenever I've tested them store bought plums came to around 16 Brix. My home grown Italian plums tend to run 18+Brix. Back in 2020 my Italian plums were 24 Brix (1.01 S.G. 14% potential alcohol) and my sugar plums hit 31Brix. I have another tree that claims to be a beauty plum (but isn't) that routinely tops 25+ Brix. Plums can be all over the place sugar wise so nobody can really say what you may get because it all depends. The only way to know is to test them yourself.

I personally don't like to water any fruit down if I can avoid it even though I know plums are a pain in the ass to strain and almost impossible to press, but as mentioned by Zack, slivovitz, palinka, tuica are fermented with the pulp and stones and not strained before stripping. Of course that isn't really practical for a lot of people, including myself but if you can avoid it, no watering down, no adding sugar will get you the best final results but if you are buying fruit it can also be very, very expensive and mistakes are extremely costly.

[cranky]

I got the 30 gallon fermenter emptied and stripped today. There was only about 25 gallons in there due to the head space I left. As expected it had a raging lacto infection. I think pretty much everything I've ever fermented in there got a lacto infection. I wonder if it's because the used barrel I bought had some kind lactic powder I don't really remember what kind of lactic powder but I remember is was lactic. Lactic infections don't bother me...most infections don't...except vinegar, that bothers me That's why I don't use big fermenters, with the long ferments I do a vinegar infection could turn bad real quick.

Anyway, I got that batch run off in two runs and still had time for a 3rd. The water behaved normally this time and I was able to run full throttle and the water lasted throughout the run. by the end it was up to 110 or so but it lasted through the run. At one point close to the end I measured with my cheap timu laser thermometer and the water going in was around 80 and out was 130ish, I didn't measure the booze outlet, I guess I should have but I didn't

I have about 12 more gallons of cider to run off, that should be good for another 4 gallons of low wines. Currently I have 4 carboys of low wines filled to around the 4 gallon mark, a batch of low wines from last year or the year before, and around 2.5-3 gallons of pear low wines that will probably go in the final spirit run.

[cranky]

I've been in school for the past 2 weeks learning how to work on a new piece of equipment we have I hate technology but I'm now fully qualified on it.

One of the big problems with going to school is it messes up my days off. Our pay cycle runs Saturday though Friday, not Sunday through Saturday like a normal pay cycle and my normal days off are Thursday and Friday. Classes are Monday through Friday so my schedule had to be adjusted to meet all these things.

This wasn't too bad going into it because it gave me a 4 day weekend but at the end it put me technically working 10 days straight because the classes ended Friday and a new pay period started on Saturday

Fortunately my manager gave me Saturday as a freebee and the last I looked at the schedule I was supposed to go back to work today (Sunday), and go back to my regular days off this week.

So I showed up for work as usual today and as everyone was checking their assignments people noticed I wasn't assigned to anything

So, I checked my schedule and discovered that some time in the past 2 weeks someone decided to change my post school weekend to Sat-Sun instead of Sat only but didn't bother to tell me, which is about par for the course

So, I told my boss "I'm not supposed to be here today. I'm Going home" and left.

So I went home, snuck into the house and surprised Mrs Cranky with her favorite breakfast Actually I kind of startled the shit out of her, but that's OK, she was happy to have me for an extra day.

So, here I had a free day and wasn't highly motivated to work on the house or yard or anything, so I decided to go ahead and strip the last batch of apple. That actually went quite well and I now have around 20 gallons of low wines from last years cider and probably around 4 or 5 more from the year before which will get me 2 full runs followed by a third run of everything that doesn't make the cut. Last year that worked out really nicely.

Of course while I was stilling I had a little help and thought I'd introduce Ya'll to my still hands

The one on the left is Gizmo, the one on the right is currently a cat with no name we've always called "The Siamese". Gizmo, thinks the Siamese is his friend but the Siamese only plays with him a little bit, like when he walks by and the Siamese hisses and runs up and swats him on the but. Gizmo loves this game by the way.

When I go out to mess with trees the Siamese comes out and supervises and "plays" with Gizmo.

Lately I've been messing with trees a lot. I picked 45 lbs of cherries that I'm still trying to get to the point I can dehydrate and the plums have begun coming in, which makes Mrs Cranky very happy, since the banana plum is producing again...finally.

On top of this the blackberries are ripening and will need tending to beginning a couple days ago

I have around 2.5 gallons of blackberry juice in the fridge I need to deal with as well, that will likely become wine, although I'm about to start packing all the carboys away. I've decided to sell the big Pyrex, the Arrowhead and the Kardashian for various reasons, but the others will be cleaned and boxed up.

And that's about all the fruity goodness news I have today

[cranky]

Yesterday I got the first apple spirit run done. It went very well but I think cuts are going to be extremely difficult. Hopefully some time in the next week I'll get around to the next 2 but I have a lot going on that has to get done by Wednesday in preparation for my summer vacation week.

I drove all the apple trees just to see how they are doing.

The Yellow transparent is ready to pick. It looks like it has at least 600 lbs on it. I feel bad for not going over and picking it.

Both Vista Bellas are ready as well. I will admit I stopped at one and picked a couple dozen but only because I borrowed a really big dehydrator from someone I work with to dehydrate the cherries... I know, that may not make a lot of sense but bear with me.

The dehydrator has something like 10 sections and 25-30 lbs of cherries filled it up leaving me with 2 remaining bags of cherries (10# before pitting). While we have the dehydrator Mrs Cranky wants to try it with a few other things like pineapple, for healthy snacks. I know I can use it with only 1 or 2 sections but that seems like such a waste, so I figured I could dehydrate some apple slices and give them to the owner of the dehydrator along with some cherries as a thank you for loaning me the dehydrator. Plus it could add tot he healthy snack options in the pantry.

Blackberry season is also upon us so I've started picking those and need to make room in the fridge and freezer for them, so I'm going to make a batch of blackberry dessert wine with the juice from last year. I haven't made it in a very long time but Blackberry dessert wine was what got me started down the path of home made alcohol and ultimately what got me where I am today.

[cranky]

I just finished the 2nd apple spirit run... ...damn that was a long run! I must have miscalculated my many low wines I had because I didn't expect it to take this long.

I started around 10 AM and just finished around 7:40 PM. I was doing a lot of other things at the time so I set up to collect a pint every 10 minutes for most of the run. I also had to shut down around 1PM to take the dog for his walk and didn't get fired back up til 3:30 or so, and at some point while I was washing carboys I sped it up to a pint every 5 minutes. I did get most of the carboys cleaned and now know approximately how many I have (14 or 15)

It's was very hot here today but the 55 gallon drum kept everything cool til the end.

Now I need to blend it, then the feints run. Then everything gets boxed up and put away for a while.

I still need to bottle the 7 gallons of cider and I just started a 6 gallon batch of blackberry dessert wine and I need to empty my barrel and refill it once I get the feints run done, which means bottling. I think I already have the labels, I should have the bottles already.

Y'all probably already know I tend to hoard bottles, but I've been cleaning things up and have been disposing of all but the ones that I really like that don't have names embossed on them.

My bottle dumpster has been a real blessing over the years but fairly recently someone had started throwing trash in it which pissed me off but also pissed off the recycle company. One day I was salvaging bottles and someone with authority told me they were going to take the dumpster away because of all the trash and a few weeks later they did So, I have no more bottle dumpster, so the bottles I have are all I have Now I need to find out just how many bottles that is

Anyway... Other fruity goodness, I've been picking blackberries but only in my own yard. I got all the cherries dehydrated and did a cookie experiment where I soaked the dried cherries in brandy for 10 minutes before using them in the cookies.It worked very well but a specific recipe is still in development.

I also dehydrated some apples, which turned out well and I'm planning on seeing what adding those to brandy does to the flavor.

While I was out with the dog I decided to drive by and see how the transparent is doing. It's losing them fast.

They aren't as big as most years but they are certainly ripe. I picked 10 with the intention of seeing how they taste dehydrated, then I figured I'd also grab some of the Vista Bellas for the same purpose but when I got to it some seriously sketchy looking people were attempting to pick them, so I didn't stop. I'm glad someone is eating them but that area has gotten so sketchy with the homeless people I just don't feel safe going back there anymore, so that's another tree I won't be picking in the future.

[Bushman]

I am going to make a lot more apple juice this year as our 15 month old granddaughter is really going through our supply. I am down to my last 9 gallons of canned apple juice in the cabinet.

[cranky]

I am going to make a lot more apple juice this year as our 15 month old granddaughter is really going through our supply. I am down to my last 9 gallons of canned apple juice in the cabinet.

Gotta keep the granddaughter happy

Do you know how the trees on the island are looking?

[cranky]

Well, I just finished the apple feints run...well actually kind of 2 back to back feints runs. I was halfway through the first one when I realized I had left 2-2.5 gallons out So, once the first got into the tails I shut everything down and took the dog for a walk. When we got back I added that bit back in and fired it back up. It seems to have worked out but I won't know for sure until I get it blended.

I checked the transparents I picked the other day. They are only 10-10.5 Brix but they never have great sugar content, they make up for it in sheer volume

I spent a good part of my day cleaning carboys, which was a lot of work and cleaning the East tunnel in the garage in an attempt to get things in order. This required evaluating my bottle hoard In the process of getting ready to remove a cabinet I found a crap load of Patrone and Quervo 1800 bottles. Currently they are in the recycle bin but Mrs Cranky is talking about listing them online because it seems like a real shame to just throw them out.

I am moving in the direction of disassembling the chopper, since nobody local seems interested in doing apples this year...then two people sent me this picture today

Yep...My favorite kind of apples... ...free apples someone else picked Just waiting for me to go pick them up at work and nobody seems to even know who brought them in.

I've been considering a couple routes here.
#1- Evaluate how many is there, make a quick run over to the transparent to pick enough to make it 300 lbs, bring the chopper and my press stuff into work next weekend and do a quick pressing so I have some juice for a batch of Scumble. This option is an awful lot of work and lately my Sat-Sun assignments have kept me far too busy to have time for that.

#2- Bring them home and see if they are suitable for pie filling, and if not see how well they dehydrate.

#3- Bring them home, rebuild the small press, throw them through the chopper and press them here...but that is an awful lot of work

Option 2 is probably the one I will go with.

[Bradster68]

Your definitely the apple king cranky. All this makes my head spin. I gotta get a press and get my arse in gear.

[cranky]

Your definitely the apple king cranky. All this makes my head spin. I gotta get a press and get my arse in gear.

Thank you I highly recommend building or buying a press and scratter/chopper and making apple brandy.

[cranky]

I've been very busy lately trying to get a whole lot of things in order, including getting all my booze runs completed so Mrs Cranky can sell my shop. I'm not happy about her doing that but it's necessary at this time. It's also the only place currently wired for my still so if it doesn't get done before she sells it I have to get complicated with the dryer plug and I don't want to have to do that.

So, I got all the apple done and in the barrel. The 2021, or is it 22? that was in the barrel is now in our 5 gallon stock pot waiting to be tempered and bottled. The angels were quite thirsty on that one but really I think that can be expected after 2.5 years in a 5 gallon barrel. Hopefully I'll get that tempered and bottled some time in the next week or two and I guess I'll talk about the tequila bottles, six 12 packs of Coors Light and all the fermentables and low wines I found while cleaning the East tunnel in a different thread.

[cranky]

Today was all about bottling cider...which was basically about getting another carboy clean. Yesterday when I got the bottles out I finally found the Arrowhead carboy, which should be the last missing one and I think brings the total to 17.

After digging out the bottles I ran them through the dish washer. then I stopped at the store to get some frozen concentrated apple juice to prime with but they were out, so I had to resort to plain old table sugar.

This morning I sanitized everything, racked the cider to another carboy. primed it and filled 38 bottles with cider. Most of that will be given away at Christmas. It's nice to be finished with it and now I can continue organizing the garage.

I have one more thing I'm thinking about. I'm considering running off the "Cranberry Cocktail" wine. It's not terrible as dessert wine goes, but I personally thing I overshot the back sweetening but the tartness of the cranberries was so overpowering it required a lot of sugar to balance it. It's improved with a bit of age but I'm not real thrilled with it so I'm thinking of just chucking it in the boiler and seeing if I can run it without scorching the sugar

[Bushman]

My son put a request for apples in the FB Marketplace and a person responded that they have 15 apple trees and we could have what ever they don’t take.

[cranky]

My son put a request for apples in the FB Marketplace and a person responded that they have 15 apple trees and we could have what ever they don’t take.

That's Awesome!

[joschi]

i asked some treads bevore about plums, voila, i called the farmer of my choice if he's got some plums. And yes, he said there is one tree that a storm just has broken down some days bevore, i can have all the plums for a small tip if i pick them myself, whitch was easy as the tree was more or less on the ground gave me about 25 kg of good plums, some maybe not so ripe, but ok, you get what you get.

it's already bubbling away nicely

As a side note: he's doing ferments himself, of course i asked him how HE does it: he just put the hole fruits with stones in big buckets, and wild ferment, no yeast added. He doesn't distill himself, maybe i ask him later who does it and try to meet up whith the distiller, would be interesting.

[cranky]

i asked some treads bevore about plums, voila, i called the farmer of my choice if he's got some plums. And yes, he said there is one tree that a storm just has broken down some days bevore, i can have all the plums for a small tip if i pick them myself, whitch was easy as the tree was more or less on the ground gave me about 25 kg of good plums, some maybe not so ripe, but ok, you get what you get.

it's already bubbling away nicely

As a side note: he's doing ferments himself, of course i asked him how HE does it: he just put the hole fruits with stones in big buckets, and wild ferment, no yeast added. He doesn't distill himself, maybe i ask him later who does it and try to meet up whith the distiller, would be interesting.

That's a very nice score

[subbrew]

After digging out the bottles I ran them through the dish washer. then I stopped at the store to get some frozen concentrated apple juice to prime with but they were out, so I had to resort to plain old table sugar.

How much apple juice per gallon do you use to prime?

[higgins]

Today we picked our peach crop (2 trees) even though they were just starting to ripen.

They were really loaded this year - there must have been well over 1000 peaches on just the larger tree. 3 main branches were weighted down to touching the ground, and when we got a pretty good storm a few weeks ago several large branches broke from the wind and the weight. They were still attached so I propped them up as good as I could to let them go a few more weeks. Now the deer and bear have discovered them, and the smaller tree is nearly empty, so we got what we could before they were all gone. Even with the massive loss on the ground and in wildlife bellies, we still got a good sized basket (maybe 1/2-3/4 bushel) of large, high quality peaches for eating and freezing, and I got 4 more baskets of medium quality for brandy.

My problem is that they are in different stages of ripeness. We ate a couple that were juicy sweet and full of flavor, and another that was still firm and less sweet. I know that peaches are one of those fruits that will continue to ripen after picking, so I've tried to sort them out roughly by how soon they'll ripen ... a few days, 3-4 days, a week? They are going in the sunroom out of direct sunlight to ripen.

So I'll let them ripen till they are fairly soft, then process (de-pit, cut bad spots) & put in the fridge until I get enough, then puree in a blender and start a 5gal/19L fermentation in a 30gal/113L fermenter. Every few days as more ripen I'll process them add them to the fermenter, sort of an incremental feeding, until I max at around 28gal/106L.

Anyone see any issues with this process?