Ha, that's a loaded question. Kinda depends on the purity your lookin' for and your still (I'm strictly pot stiller). It's somethin' ya just gotta play with. If my mash starts @ w/an SG about 1.050 to 1.060 before fermenting and then run my distillate real slow the flavor comes through really nice. If I up the SG w/sugar to 1.070 to 1.080 I get much better yield but sacrifice some flavor. It's a marginal thing. Kind depends to on how ya run your distillate. With my still if I do stripping runs and then a spirit run I tend to loose some flavor, not much but some. What I like to do is combine my heads and tails with my wort and do single runs. Ideally if I have 2/1 ration of wort/head-tails my hearts come through with really nice flavors, really smooth and sorta buttery. Doin' it that way I'm collecting from 60%-75%abv in my hearts. I like to age at 70% for a while and then dilute down to 50-60% and age some more. I think more than anything ya gotta figure out your still, it's strengths and pecularities.
Addin' sugar won't hurt nothin', it just depends on what you're looking for in the final product. I generally add some sugar to most of my mashes but I tend to temper it. I think the main thing ya gotta decide is what's more important, yield, or the delicacy of a wonderful final product. My best advise is experiment, that's what makes this hobby so facinating!! And keep good notes.
"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves." William Pitt
I add a moderate amount of sugar to peach or pear ferments, doesn't seem to affect flavor. I'd give your specifics, but I start with pureed fruit so it's impossible to get a sg reading. If I recall correctly, I added 20 lbs sugar to 52 gal. peach mush and topped up with 4 gal. water. Flavor came through real good.
So what I'm understanding here is that a pot still produces a weaker product, but keeps flavor. The reflux still produces a stronger product, but strips the flavor. I'm so confused now.
It's hardly that simple mcdiver. I'm strictly a pot stiller and I get some pretty stout stuff, up to 80%abv, at times. Pot stills will let more flavors through; sometimes thats good and sometimes not, ya gotta pay attention to your cuts, run slow, and not smear things together. To get high abv and/or a cleaner spirit ya gotta double back and sometime tripple back. Reflux is a different animal. It purifies the distillate by condensing and then re-evaporating (simply put) within the column. By controlling the condensate and the amout of packing you can detune and let flavors through or not if your looking for neutral spirits. That's simple cuz I don't do reflux and just have a basic understanding of it's principals.
Best thing to help you is go to Home Distiller's and read up on theory and still design. It does a pretty good job of explaining this.
Big R
"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves." William Pitt
does not sound like your confused. a pot still produces lower alcohol /more flavor
a reflux still produces higher alcohol and less flavor. there are exceptions.
reflux stills with plates, these can be designed to remove product at proof you want
in one run,packing tends to remove more flavors than plates.above 80% you will have very little flavor.
Man, I can't believe that this much time has passed since my last posts! Anyway I have made several batches of peach brandy and here are some of the lessons learned.
If you are going to use the stone during the ferment, make sure that you boil them! Why? I found out the hard way that the inside of the stone can carry mold/fungus and that it will cause off flavors when you run through the still. When you boil it kills the mold, and no off flavors.
When I do a batch it is enough to fill a 15 gal bucket and I add about 12lbs of sugar, when I make a run it will typically make a bout 1-1/2 to 2 gal at about 68 ABV. I place this in a standby carboy along with subsequent runs until I have 8-10 gal's saved up and can make a second run.
Some of the peaches are placed in the dehydrator for use in a masceration after the second run has been complete. I cut the strenght back to 40-45% and let it soak for a month or two( kind of depends on how busy I am), afterwards I transfer it over to another container to allow the bits and pieces of peach debris to settle out. Once everyting has settled and it is looking clear I place it into an oak barrel to age for as long as I can bare it. I use 2 gal barrels that have been charred on the inside, and find that the bitterness that carried over from the stone mellows out very nicely, and becomes very smooth for sipping when the mood strikes.
im new to makin peach brandy,well this whole process really,but never the less i wanted to see if i could get a recipe from start to finish for a 10 gallon or so batch of mash for peach brandy,will appericate any help!
Hmmmmm.......not much data in this thread for making a batch. Not really sure how this thread ended up in "Tried and True"??? Mods???
Seems like you need to get enough fruit to damn near fill your fermenter and then top with a little water and pitch yeast. Sugar if you want. That's about what I got from reading this.
bigbuck wrote:im new to makin peach brandy,well this whole process really,but never the less i wanted to see if i could get a recipe from start to finish for a 10 gallon or so batch of mash for peach brandy,will appericate any help!
Could just cut this one down for makin pure brandy but ya wont get much outta that little fruit. I used 6 bushels in 50 gallon wash of pureed peaches that's 300lbs peaches .Recipe fruit and berry s http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... =14&t=2196 might work better for you.
Tater, what yeast did you use in this? I have always used EC-1118 in my fruit wines but none of them have been distilled. Just wondering if bakers yeast would work or not. Also did you add any additional water to your puree or did 300# fill the barrel?
"Watch out for the horse, he bites."
All of this is hypothetical or theoretical and is for research and educational purposes only
Time I posted this recipe I was playing around with yeasts and used a mix of 118 and distillers yeast 1 oz each. Pre started in 5 gallons of the wash. However in past Ive used wild yeast bakers yeast and few other wine yeasts . All seemed to well but the wine yeasts seemed to give a slight better taste .I froze peaches when thawed I stirred to a fine pulp poured through a wire basket to catch/remove seeds and anything that hadn't broken down skins and the like.Then took skins and any chunks that were left and added little water few gallons or so and stirred again. My stirrer is a lite mortar mixer that I sharpened the blades on. (see here http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... =14&t=2196 )I have just set a plank across barrel with a 3/4 piece of pvc pipe cut at a angle in it to push out seed and fermented skin and all (no added water). And lately been putting the skins and chunks in a sack weighing it down to keep under till ferments over and removing it after letting it drain.(Been trying to decide if it taste better with skins in or out of ferment). I dip my wash out of barrel so as not to disturb anything that's settled.And NEVER fill a barrel .Always leave room for the cap or you will have a mess. 50 in a 55 gallon barrel is much as I would chance. Until I was use to doing recipe I would go less.
Hey Tater!
going to pick up some peaches and give it a go!
Some recipes call for pectinase?
Also, whats the taste like, Is there a peach taste to the brandy?
Thanks
Headed this weekend to pick up some peaches from an orchard that they cant sell! Free! Might give them a qrt of finished product to say thanks! Any words of the wise Tater? Gonna do 50 Gal worth!
FloridaShine yep there is a peach taste but the sweet peach taste that ya have before fermenting is gonna get ate by the yeast.Like the difference in a grape taste compared to a dry wine.More of a aftertaste .
SailorJerry If peaches is sweet ya should get close to 3 gallons of product.Id remove stones but some don't till after ferment.If doing a pure fruit ferment Id rather have pulp in space stones would take up.I like cooler temps when doing fruits and there's no need to hurry
Ahhh, peaches make a good moonshine, I agree, I would add 50lbs of sugar to each 100lbs of peaches. Seems silly not too since you can get a far better run and more good likker.
Kravenhed wrote:Ahhh, peaches make a good moonshine, I agree, I would add 50lbs of sugar to each 100lbs of peaches. Seems silly not too since you can get a far better run and more good likker.
If I could get 100 lbs of peaches. I wouldn't be wasting them with sugar. I mite consider adding sugar to the leftover slops from the first run. But I would go for a no sugar all peach for the first run. That's just me.
Wouldn't go more than 100 lbs to the barrel of suger.
A bushel is 50 lbs. Old boys got a second cousin
that's a sandlapper an they'll squeeze em like Apples.
if they ain't free stone it'll take more than a while.
My wife and I quartered and destoned 45# of peaches last night. Now they are in the freezer. My thoughts right now are.... should I fill a 6.5 gal bucket up with peach puree when I unthaw it and top with water to 5-5.5gal mark and make a purist run then split the once used pulp and backset between three buckets and add 7-10# sugar each plus water to top off. Then strip two buckets plus low wines from pure and run a slow collecting run with the strippings and the remaining bucket of wash?
Tater or anybody else, I read that fruit mashes are run slow, but how slow? Distilling 10s of gallons of mash slowly (several drops per second) will take weeks to distill.
Great thread. Why do some of you freeze the peaches ? Not many peaches available here except in the grocery stores. A drive to Ohio next season to buy them by the bushel maybe in order.
Two reasons for me .1 lets me keep them till I have time to work them up .2 Freezing breaks up the cell walls making it easier for yeasts to get to juice.
fill a barrel .Always leave room for the cap or you will have a mess. 50 in a 55 gallon barrel is much as I would chance. Until I was use to doing recipe I would go less.
