Feijoa (pineapple guava) schnapps

[InglisHill]

Sounds good FTB!

I am trying an entirely new method this season as well, we shall see how it goes

[frozenthunderbolt]

Sounds good FTB!

I am trying an entirely new method this season as well, we shall see how it goes

Do share!

[InglisHill]

Yes, I will, I shall let it run its course though, last time I started getting all worked up about it I scorched it to the bottom of the boiler..... Burnt Feijoa is NASTY!

[NZChris]

My latest experiment was 20l of 16% sugar wash and a 10l bucket of fruit that I then topped and tailed and halved. EC-1118 yeast.

It finished at 0.992.

Stripped with the fruit in a basket. No foreshot removed. Stopped with 29% ABV in the receiver.

Spirit run;
The first off had a lot of feijoa flavor so no heads were discarded.
Chose the hearts by tasting blends, not jars. and was amazed by how wide the hearts cut was.

First taste;
As schnapps and liqueur, it was very nice.

The plan was to use it to make Feijoacello, Feijoa cello. Feijoa gin.

For the Feijoa cello, I used the peel from 5 medium sized feijoas, (37g), in enough of the spirit for 1l of finished 'cello at 35% ABV, nuked it to 69C, lidded it and left it to cool until the morning. There were a few 'jellyfish' in the morning, but it was quite clear after going through a coffee filter. Made a Simple Syrup with 250g of sugar and added it, then topped it up to 1l with water.

Nice color. It tastes very nice to me and to the few people who have tried it so far, BUT, nobody has picked up that it was made from feijoas.

Feijoa continues to be the most difficult flavor that I have ever tried to capture in a bottle. I haven't made a gin using this batch yet, so I'm still hopeful that that will work.

[SW_Shiner]

That sounds promising. I have access to a lot of feijoa this year so may have to give it a go.

[NZChris]

More people have tried my Feijoa cello now and nearly half have guessed Feijoa, so I'm taking that as a 'Pass' mark.

Every taster thought it was very nice, even when they couldn't guess what it was made from.

[SW_Shiner]

Just put down a feijoa wash today. 6kg feijoas and 4.5kg sugar topped up to 26L @ S.G 1.075. That's about the max my small boiler can handle and i plan to strip the whole lot at once.

[NZChris]

Don’t discard a foreshot without smelling it and knowing that it should be discarded.

Don’t discard the first jar just because you usually do, taste it in a sample of your prospective heart cut.

[SW_Shiner]

I wont be tossing anything until the i am happy with the final blend. I plan to follow what you did with the strip and spirit runs, and with the Feijoa cello.

[SW_Shiner]

Just put down a feijoa wash today. 6kg feijoas and 4.5kg sugar topped up to 26L @ S.G 1.075. That's about the max my small boiler can handle and i plan to strip the whole lot at once.

Running this today. It finished up at a gravity of 0.990 so should be close to 11%abv. Dumped the whole lot into boiler and its heating up now for a stripping run. I'm going to run down till my low wines are 29%abv.

[TDick]

I have a theory I'm testing this season: that the flavour and aroma that is carried over in distillation actually comes from the skins.
I've done up a bucket with minimal skin and a little sugar as if I were making wine, and another that is just Skins water and sugar.

I'm going to run them both once and do a side beside test. I know that tannins from the skin won't carry over (which is what makes wine with too much skin in it undrinkable)

How's the experiment coming along?
No Feijoas in Alabama, but I'm curious about the process. Thinking about other fruit as it's almost blueberry season here.

[SW_Shiner]

I ran a strip run on the weekend, till life got in the way. Ended up with about 10L of low wines at ~28%. Dipped my finger at one point to see if anything familiar was happening and i was quite happy with the taste. I don't know if the have them anywhere else, but here we have little solid gummy feijoa lollies, the strip had notes of that. Its not a sweet flavour, but more of a tangy almost sour flavour, but to me was unmistakably feijoa. Time probably wont let me spirit run during the week so that will be done first thing this weekend.