Walnut Brandy / Dio Palinka

[MichiganCornhusker]

And they say the walnuts should be plukked before Saint John's Day.

Gettin up in the tree tonight!

[The Baker]

Plucked by virgins!

Geoff

[cranky]

I see nobody has posted on this thread in a while but as luck would have it I just found myself in a situation where I can finally make some of this.

Yesterday someone I work with began asking my how to keep squirrels from stealing all his walnuts and somehow it came up that they were still green and soft inside. It occurred to me that, even though it's 2 weeks past St. Johns day, I might just have an opportunity to make some Dio Palinka so I asked him if I could have some. He asked how many I wanted and I told him "enough to fill a quart jar", not realizing that he probably didn't know how much that was.

Today he gave me a box with a crap load of them

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It's hard to tell but I'm guessing there are at least 40 or 50 in there.

To check them for usability I first poked a knife in and it went in fairly easily. I then cut a couple in half and found that they have not yet begun hardening,

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so, It looks like I need to find something large enough to mix up a batch in.

[Copperhead road]

It’ll be interesting cranky. What type of flavour profile you’ll get from green walnuts?. I’ve never made alcohol with them but only ever seen them as a hard edible walnut.

I’m following your thread with interest

Out of curiosity do the soft green walnuts taste similar to a normal walnut??

[EtOH]

What a stroke of luck you have there Cranky.

I've been trying for years to get more than one or two walnuts from my trees. The damn squirrels get to the walnuts (and my apples and my pears) before they are anywhere near ready to process. I have just about given up on using what I grow for "medicinal purposes."

[PalCabral]

I just read through this thread, I am officially interested. When we were driving down to Portugal we passed a couple regions in France boasting of their walnuts. Too late now.

[cranky]

Well, I had a little over 3/4s of a 1/2 gallon jar of 96%, I added about half a bottle of apple brandy at 90 proof ( or maybe 100 proof), to bring it up to a half gallon. By my calculations that brought the total down to around 86%. Odin said 75% but I think this will be fine. I divided that equally into 2 half gallon jars. I then followed Odin's original directions doubling the amounts. 4 cups water, 25 walnuts, 12 cloves and 2 cinnamon sticks, cooked that just a little bit, let it cool and added it to the alcohol and put it in the cabinet.

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Now comes the more confusing part...

There is a lot of debate about what to do next. Some say leave in direct sunlight for 2 months then filter. Others say cool dark place, for 2 months, then filter. Odin says 2 weeks at room temperature and doesn't say anything about sunlight.

Then I thought about the guy who gave me the walnuts. He is from Ukraine and that got me wondering if maybe, if Ukraine, like so many other countries in the area have something similar

and indeed they do. It's called Hriakhivka (Горіхівка), and the recipe is identical to Odins Dio Palinka and they keep it in the dark, so I will do that too. So, I decided when I made the label I would use the Ukrainian name...which I can't pronounce but I had AI make me a label and think it came out pretty good.

Dio Palinka label.png

but then I asked our future overlord to translate it and got this
Large Top Text:
WALNUT INFUSION

Text Below Large Title:
Traditional Recipe

Text on the Barrel:
Old Barrel
2026

Banner Text:
Look and Taste of Tradition

Text Above Ingredients:
Main Ingredients:

Ingredients List:
Walnuts, Spirit (Alcohol), Herbs

Bottom Text:
40% ALC./VOL.
80 PROOF
750 ml
Made in Ukraine

I suppose that's mostly ok but had to change it to Made in USA at the bottom, so it now looks like this

DIO PALINKA LABEL 2.png

Which the google says translates as
Top (Main Title): NUT INFUSION (ОРІХОВА НАСТОЯНКА)

Below Title: TRADITIONAL RECIPE (ТРАДИЦІЙНИЙ РЕЦЕПТ)

Text on the Barrel: OLD BARREL / 2026 (СТАРА БАЧКА)

Text on the Banner: THE LOOK AND TASTE OF TRADITION (ВИГЛЯД ТА СМАК ТРАДИЦІЙ)

Main Ingredients: NUTS, ALCOHOL, HERBS (ГОРІХИ, СПИРТ, ТРАВИ)

Volume Details: 40% ALC./VOL. / 80 PROOF / 750 ML

Bottom Line: MADE IN U.S.A. (ВИГОТОВЛЕНО В США)

I'll contemplate that for a bit and see what changes I might want to make.

[PalCabral]

Хай живе Україна! (Long live Ukraine!)

[Copperhead road]

That’s a really cool looking label cranky.
Looks perfect!

[cranky]

That’s a really cool looking label cranky.
Looks perfect!

Thank you

[cranky]

It’ll be interesting cranky. What type of flavour profile you’ll get from green walnuts?. I’ve never made alcohol with them but only ever seen them as a hard edible walnut.

I’m following your thread with interest

Out of curiosity do the soft green walnuts taste similar to a normal walnut??

Sorry just now getting around to responding to this.

Back in 2015/16ish MCH made some using black walnuts and sent a sample for Bear Rivers BBQ. To me it tasted a lot like Dr Pepper. These are English walnuts so I'm thinking it won't be the same and I don't really know what it's going to taste like.

I tasted the meat from one of the under developed walnuts and it really doesn't taste like anything just a bit astringent.

[cranky]

I've been contemplating this stuff a bit and yesterday noticed a bag of dried cherries we made a year or two ago from the cherries we picked from our very own trees...only one of which came with us when we moved

Anyway...I decided it might not be a bad thing to throw a hand full of dried cherries in the jars. I am also planning on probably adding a lemon peel and getting a vanilla bean or two from the bottle of vanilla extract I'm making and adding it to them.

Currently the flavor is predominantly cinnamon with only a little clove. Not much else and I'm debating putting one jar in the sun...or partial sun and leave the other in the cabinet and see what happens. I know I'm only a few days into a long process but just thinking.

On a good note, Mrs Cranky packed up the rest of the walnuts and froze them. She made 2 bags of 24 each, so I have enough for 2 more double batches if I somehow manage to make another ferment and run the big column for a batch of high test

Mrs Cranky is having me make a laundry room for her, which already has a 30 amp plug for a dryer and maybe, just maybe it could have enough space to fit the still Of course then I'd have to figure out how to get it all out of storage.

[Copperhead road]

It’ll be interesting cranky. What type of flavour profile you’ll get from green walnuts?. I’ve never made alcohol with them but only ever seen them as a hard edible walnut.

I’m following your thread with interest

Out of curiosity do the soft green walnuts taste similar to a normal walnut??

Sorry just now getting around to responding to this.

Back in 2015/16ish MCH made some using black walnuts and sent a sample for Bear Rivers BBQ. To me it tasted a lot like Dr Pepper. These are English walnuts so I'm thinking it won't be the same and I don't really know what it's going to taste like.

I tasted the meat from one of the under developed walnuts and it really doesn't taste like anything just a bit astringent.

i love Dr Peppers, might have to give it a crack...