Corn Cracker wrote: ↑Mon Sep 08, 2025 12:56 am
Damn, I thought i would enjoy getting into brandy but, it sounds like a rich man's game to really get enough fruit to make a gallon, especially 5 gallons. I need to do some planting before I can get into this
CC the dollars can sure add up when you pay for the fruit and use little to no sugar.
I did a grape brandy using boxes of fresh grapes that cost me $396.00
After tight strict cuts I ended up with 4L @ 65%
So I ended up with 5.5 x 700ml bottles. That works out at $72 a bottle
that does not include 4 days hard work and GAS
I find that a “geist” style product bridges the gap between a pure brandy and utilizing less volume of fruits for a nice drop.
I just purchased and crushed about $350 worth of grapes this weekend which will make 6-7 cases of wine plus using the pomace and the geist protocol, will yield 2-3 gallons of grappa geist which i can drink as-is or use as a base spirit for other fruit macerations/infusions. Neutral would also work well for fruit maceration/infusion.
Harvest moon was full and beautiful this weekend and so were the grapes
Corn Cracker wrote: ↑Mon Sep 08, 2025 12:56 am
Damn, I thought i would enjoy getting into brandy but, it sounds like a rich man's game to really get enough fruit to make a gallon, especially 5 gallons. I need to do some planting before I can get into this
It's tough to get into brandy without growing or living in an area with cheap fruit. I grow my grapes, but but live in an area with surplus grapes and could purchase them for less than what it cost to grow. Tree fruit is too expensive, unless you know a farmer.
Corn Cracker wrote: ↑Mon Sep 08, 2025 12:56 am
Damn, I thought i would enjoy getting into brandy but, it sounds like a rich man's game to really get enough fruit to make a gallon, especially 5 gallons. I need to do some planting before I can get into this
zach wrote: ↑Mon Sep 08, 2025 9:49 am
Tree fruit is too expensive, unless you know a farmer.
What Zach said... I could be wrong but in most cases, it helps to either have the trees, bushes etc. or know someone who does.
(My Brother In Law has been bitchin about all the pears on the ground falling off his trees.)
Another idea Artisan Distiller was a very good forum until the doors were closed. Now it's read only, but another good reference.
I saw this a couple of days ago and thinking SUPER Panty Dropper could be a good way to get "that flavor" I'm looking for.
Sort of Schnapps without the sugar.
TDick wrote: ↑Mon Sep 08, 2025 9:54 amWhat Zach said... I could be wrong but in most cases, it helps to either have the trees, bushes etc. or know someone who does.
(My Brother In Law has been bitchin about all the pears on the ground falling off his trees.)
Seconded. Around here I can get apples for free if I'm prepared to go and pick them. And sometimes people really want to get rid of them and they are free, already picked and in sacks. Worst case it's about 3€/25kg already bagged!
In a year or so, I might have enough raspberries in the garden for a geist. Hoping to get there with blackcurrants too. But no brandies.
"I have a potstill that smears like a fresh plowed coon on the highway" - Jimbo
Im planting pear and peach trees in a few weeks, kinda late but spring is later, right? I want to grow some muskadine grapes and other vine fruits on my fence line
Ive got a few mulberry trees, 3 different types
Not a lot of flavor in those though
I think I'll go home and fire up my still, it might not make me feel better but, I bet it will
cranky wrote: ↑Mon Feb 21, 2022 8:47 pm
Perfectly ripe pears are almost completely juice, by contrast apples are about 70% juice so you get more product per lbs of pears. Other fruit vary.
Cranky I have pears in the freezer.
Ga Flatwoods boils his, sparges and just ferments the juice.
What’s your process?
Thanks!
I use the same method with pears as apple. Feed then through the chopper and press. After pressing there is almost no pulp left behind.
Corn Cracker wrote: ↑Mon Sep 08, 2025 12:56 am
Damn, I thought i would enjoy getting into brandy but, it sounds like a rich man's game to really get enough fruit to make a gallon, especially 5 gallons. I need to do some planting before I can get into this
Personally I seldom pay for fruit but on rare occasions have. One source to help find for free fruit is https://fallingfruit.org/ You never know what you may find if you keep your eyes open. I'm always noticing trees and pushes wherever I go. I see you live in Texas so I'm not certain what's available there but I believe persimmons might be out there.
As far as having to buy it I find Mexican grocery stores often have the cheapest prices...at least until our local Ukrainian grocery opened. Sometimes they have multiple boxes of fruit discounted because the new crop is coming in.
There is also the possibility of buying bottled juice, which also often gets discounted when the new crop comes in.
I've been turning down free fruit left and right this year Once word gets out you are looking for it it seems to come out of the woodwork. I even had to turn down the free grapes this year on top of 5 apple trees people have offered to pick for me.
cranky wrote: ↑Wed Sep 10, 2025 2:23 pm
I've been turning down free fruit left and right this year Once word gets out you are looking for it it seems to come out of the woodwork. I even had to turn down the free grapes this year on top of 5 apple trees people have offered to pick for me.
You are a lucky man!
"...and I wound up spendin the night in a corrugated conduit with a cat." Suttree, Cormac McCarthy
Once word gets out you are looking for it it seems to come out of the woodwork. I even had to turn down the free grapes this year on top of 5 apple trees people have offered to pick for me.
