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Hey cool! My acoustic guitar was made in Tacoma WA. I wonder if there's any loose blueberries rolling around inside...

That park is very cool! There a park here that has a large patch of blackberries, we like to stop on bikerides and gorge for a mid ride snack

Well the apple brandy I made aged on white oak that was toasted at 425F for 3 hours. Gave it a great color and nice caramel and vanilla tones. It had to age for a 6 month period to really smooth it out. It is great straight up, no ice. I have used it in a clone Grand Marnier. Totally awesome. This is Bushmans method. Quoted from a different site.

Grand Marnier

Postby Bushman » Mon Apr 08, 2013 8:58 am
This is my modified recipe, I think it is pretty close with a bit spicier flavor than the actual Grand Marnier but served it last night to family members and they all loved it!

Grand Marnier

Ingredients
1 liter 45% (90 proof) vodka/ neutral
The peel of 2 good size oranges
10 Tablespoons invert light brown sugar syrup
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Add 1/4th cup raisins for 4 days
Agave syrup if needed at end for taste

Directions
Peel the oranges and using a micro planer remove the pith ( white stuff just inside the skin). You can cut it away as well as if you don't get all the pith it's not as bitter as lemon but the micro plane is much easier and really does a nice job of removing it.

Place peel white side down on a baking sheet and put under broil until the edges turn dark and just start to look like they are going to burn (when it gets close you have to keep a good eye as they catch fire fast). Turn over and brown the white side.

Add peel to spirits with some JD chips for color and leave for 2 weeks.

Prepare brown sugar:
2 cups light brown sugar
2/3 cup water
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Bring mixture just to boil stirring often. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.
(If you want thinner syrup you can add another 1/2 cup hot water at the end of simmer)

While sugar is still warm take 10 tablespoons out and add to spirit (the rest can be saved in a small mason jar for another batch).

Add 1 teaspoon vanilla extract to spirit and stir or shake
Add 1/4th cup white raisins for 4 days

After 4 days you can serve or age longer on oak but I would remove the raisins as I left mine in longer which gave it a spicer taste.



Re: Grand Marnier

Postby Bushman » Mon Apr 29, 2013 10:34 am
I just made my second batch which was a triple and so I changed the recipe slightly as it improved the taste. First I switched the white raisins for regular not sure that made a difference but second go around was much better out of the jar. Also on my first try I forgot to remove the orange peels before adding the raisins and syrup so it was a lot bitter than this go around. With these changes it did not need the extra agave syrup.

To make this my way I used
400ml apple brandy
200ml sweet feed whiskey
800ml vodka


An absolute favorite of the little misses
Definitely on the to do list again this fall

MDH wrote:
They are indeed; but the yields are absolutely awful. About equal to raspberry. A true Eau de Vie of blackberry, I'm thinking, would take about 100lbs / 375ml.

MDH
I don't really remember the exact % they produce but I believe it's a bit higher than that, depending on when you pick them. I find the early season berries are tart and fairly low in sugar but peak season berries are sweet and much higher in sugar. As the season progresses they get more and more bitter. Eventually I stop picking just because of this bitterness but my plants produce ripe berries right into December and sometimes even as late as January. Then there are other factors like the specific variety. In addition to plain old wild local blackberries, I also have Oregon evergreens which you can find in many places around here. The Oregon evergreens have a very short picking season but are much sweeter than the non evergreens. If my wife can stand at the sink eating them straight out of the bucket without any sugar we are talking high natural sugar content. Now as far as how many pounds it takes to do anything is kind of irrelevant to me. With free fruit I go by volume, I have no idea how many pounds a gallon of berries weighs. what I do know is that I get 6-10 cups of straight juice from a gallon of berries and 16 cups equals one gallon so for every 2 gallons of blackberries I pick I get 1 gallon of juice. So for 10 gallons of fruit wash it would take 20 gallons of berries. How much does a gallon of blackberries weigh? I just looked it up and according to the interweb about 4 pounds. So 100lbs of berries is about 25 gallons which by my calculations would be about 12.5 gallons of juice. The interweb also tells me that blackberries run about 8% sugar or roughly 4% alcohol. So from 100lbs of blackberries you should get about a half gallon of pure alcohol. Figure half of that is the good stuff but cut to 50% ABV your return should still be about a half gallon or roughly 1500ml of the best blackberry Eau de Vie ever made. Of course your mileage may vary. Is it worth the effort? Guess that is up to the individual. I do know that by the time I stop piking I usually have filled 3 carboys with blackberry juice and still have a years worth of jelly, a few more containers of juice and several gallon bags of berries put back and I don’t put that much effort into it. Best of all it is all free and you cant get much better than that.

Jimbo wrote:Hey cool! My acoustic guitar was made in Tacoma WA. I wonder if there's any loose blueberries rolling around inside...

That park is very cool! There a park here that has a large patch of blackberries, we like to stop on bikerides and gorge for a mid ride snack

Brand???

I lived 95% of my life within 40 miles from that shite hole of a city. We would fill a 5 gallon bucket with them every hour on average, per person. Blackberries grow wild EVERYWHERE like weeds. Just gotta pick the right strain, because some aren't all that tasty. 100 pounds really wouldn't take long at all if you and your spouse went picking.

Jimbo wrote:That park is very cool! There a park here that has a large patch of blackberries, we like to stop on bikerides and gorge for a mid ride snack

It is cool and very big. It gets hit pretty hard on weekends so the best days to go are mid week if you can and mornings are also best.

Bear, no its a Tacoma guitar made in Tacoma. Creative brand name eh? Lol.

Never liked the one's I've seen much. Saw quite a few at Guitar Freaks there in Tacoma.

Anyways this sounds like something I have planned to do. Thinking of picking 100 #s west side blackberries from the Seattle area and 100#s east side huckleberries from the Spokane area.

All that for two little bottles I'll probably never drink.

cranky wrote:

MDH wrote:
They are indeed; but the yields are absolutely awful. About equal to raspberry. A true Eau de Vie of blackberry, I'm thinking, would take about 100lbs / 375ml.

MDH
I don't really remember the exact % they produce but I believe it's a bit higher than that, depending on when you pick them. I find the early season berries are tart and fairly low in sugar but peak season berries are sweet and much higher in sugar. As the season progresses they get more and more bitter. Eventually I stop picking just because of this bitterness but my plants produce ripe berries right into December and sometimes even as late as January. Then there are other factors like the specific variety. In addition to plain old wild local blackberries, I also have Oregon evergreens which you can find in many places around here. The Oregon evergreens have a very short picking season but are much sweeter than the non evergreens. If my wife can stand at the sink eating them straight out of the bucket without any sugar we are talking high natural sugar content. Now as far as how many pounds it takes to do anything is kind of irrelevant to me. With free fruit I go by volume, I have no idea how many pounds a gallon of berries weighs. what I do know is that I get 6-10 cups of straight juice from a gallon of berries and 16 cups equals one gallon so for every 2 gallons of blackberries I pick I get 1 gallon of juice. So for 10 gallons of fruit wash it would take 20 gallons of berries. How much does a gallon of blackberries weigh? I just looked it up and according to the interweb about 4 pounds. So 100lbs of berries is about 25 gallons which by my calculations would be about 12.5 gallons of juice. The interweb also tells me that blackberries run about 8% sugar or roughly 4% alcohol. So from 100lbs of blackberries you should get about a half gallon of pure alcohol. Figure half of that is the good stuff but cut to 50% ABV your return should still be about a half gallon or roughly 1500ml of the best blackberry Eau de Vie ever made. Of course your mileage may vary. Is it worth the effort? Guess that is up to the individual. I do know that by the time I stop piking I usually have filled 3 carboys with blackberry juice and still have a years worth of jelly, a few more containers of juice and several gallon bags of berries put back and I don’t put that much effort into it. Best of all it is all free and you cant get much better than that.

I typically keep about 40% as hearts when I distill, and after that I age in glass. So yes, you're right, probably a higher yield than suggested, but that's an ideal world yield. I dislike the idea of freezing blackberries before fermentation as I like using wild yeast, so I typically just start a fermentation and add to it incrementally. I do have to say that while the yield is low, the taste of blackberry eau de vie - at least, the 200ml of 50% or so I managed to make from a large amount of the berries, was very good after just a month of being aged.

Sungy wrote:Well the apple brandy I made aged on white oak that was toasted at 425F for 3 hours. Gave it a great color and nice caramel and vanilla tones. It had to age for a 6 month period to really smooth it out. It is great straight up, no ice. I have used it in a clone Grand Marnier.

MMmmm sounds tasty. You gonna try some without sugar this fall?

Y'all are killing me with your free fruit pickins. Use to have that out east, but now I'm back out west. Ain't got nothing free but sage brush and i could get some juniper berries. Better start making me some gin or anyone got a sage brush Eau de vie recipe...?

MDH wrote: I typically keep about 40% as hearts when I distill, and after that I age in glass. So yes, you're right, probably a higher yield than suggested, but that's an ideal world yield. I dislike the idea of freezing blackberries before fermentation as I like using wild yeast, so I typically just start a fermentation and add to it incrementally. I do have to say that while the yield is low, the taste of blackberry eau de vie - at least, the 200ml of 50% or so I managed to make from a large amount of the berries, was very good after just a month of being aged.

I'm not a big fan of wild yeast myself. I like to feel I have some control over things and I like to mash then press the berries so I don't get excessive bitterness from the seeds. Sometimes I even steep the pulp in hot water and add sugar to make a nice non alcoholic cool-aid like drink. I like to freeze the juice until I have a carboys worth and then start fermenting. I also like a nice slow cool ferment that may go for several months because I'm in no hurry and want the best I can get.

JBAR9 wrote:Y'all are killing me with your free fruit pickins. Use to have that out east, but now I'm back out west. Ain't got nothing free but sage brush and i could get some juniper berries. Better start making me some gin or anyone got a sage brush Eau de vie recipe...?

Sorry, I looked and can't find anything for sagebrush but funny thing is I cant find any free juniper berries. Everybody I know who had juniper bushes got rid of them last summer.

Got junipers coming out my ears. Never had gin though.

tp

JBAR9 wrote:Y'all are killing me with your free fruit pickins. Use to have that out east, but now I'm back out west. Ain't got nothing free but sage brush and i could get some juniper berries. Better start making me some gin or anyone got a sage brush Eau de vie recipe...?

What about cactus apples?

firewater69 wrote:What about cactus apples?

"wilded" was askin' about prickly pear a ways back: http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... &p=7194853
Dunno if he ever distilled any of his wine.

tp

I think it would work fine, & figured since JBAR9 was out west he would have plenty of them. they grow around here and im gonna see if i can gather some up when they get ripe. if i cant get alot maybe i'll ferment them with some agave syrup?

firewater69 wrote:I think it would work fine, & figured since JBAR9 was out west he would have plenty of them. they grow around here and im gonna see if i can gather some up when they get ripe. if i cant get alot maybe i'll ferment them with some agave syrup?

Makes perfect sense to me. Agave syrup isn't cheap though. Costco has two-packs though if you have one near you.

tp

I thought I made this post about my apple brandy experience. I'm not sure what inspired this post being HIJACKED . If you wanted to post about other forms of fruit brandy why didn't you create a post of your own.

Sorry about the highjack Sungy, just got carried away with fruity goodness.

Sungy wrote:I'm not sure what inspired this post being HIJACKED . If you wanted to post about other forms of fruit brandy why didn't you create a post of your own.

Here we go again.

You mean normal "thread drift"? It happens. Besides...
...once you hit SUBMIT, the post becomes property of the site. It doesn't belong to just you.

*edited to be a kinder, gentler post*

tp

Re: Apple Brandy first .....

Post by T-Pee » Thu May 15, 2014 1:31 pm

Sungy wrote:I'm not sure what inspired this post being HIJACKED . If you wanted to post about other forms of fruit brandy why didn't you create a post of your own.


Here we go again.

You mean normal "thread drift"? It happens.

That happens ...no problem

Relax, unwind your shorts and it will likely drift back to it being all about you.

Really........ now do you have to be like that! This is how things get out of hand...Please ....

Besides...
...once you hit SUBMIT, the post becomes property of the site. It doesn't belong to just you.

You are so right there.

My thoughts where to try to build a thread about apple brandy. Something I thought was missing around here. Lots of bits and pieces but not a complete thought pattern can be found. After all my post lead you to my thread about apple brandy. There are lots of posts about many varieties of brandy.

No argument from me, as I was trying to get this back on track.

Please feel free to enlighten us with all your apple brandy knowledge.

firewater69 wrote:Sorry about the highjack Sungy, just got carried away with fruity goodness.

No problems...was just trying to get back on track.

On the apple brandy topic,

I started a thread in the newbie section about reusing your apple wash.
I have a 55 gallon drum of last years used already distilled apple juice that the hoarder in me couldn't let go of. As an experiment I added 60 pounds of sugar and some ec1118. It seems to like the warmer temps a little better, say 75 to 80 degrees. It took three weeks to finish fermenting and I will run it this weekend. Mind you it is basically an apple flavored sugar wash, but I am curious to see how it will turn out.

Worst case I could add some Kool aid to it and feed it to the Janitor and Ga flatwoods!!!

Jimbo, how would this recipe work with no sugar? Need more apples?

Sungy wrote:12 Gallon Wash

1 bushel apples. (approx 20kg) cored with the seeds removed then puree in food processor
10 kg sugar
1.5 tsp DAP
4.5 tsp citric acid
hot water to make mix temp at 80'f
120 grams fleishmans dry active bakers yeist

So I got this idea...how about apple brandy. I always wanted to try some fruit recipes. A few HD google searches gave me a start and the cals from rad helped finish this....
So here is the scene...I got a bushel of apples from the farmers market and cored them. After the removal of the cores (seems there is a possible health concern from the seeds...not sure) so to play it safe I removed them. Then, into the food processor to turn them into pulp (added a bit o water to food processor here to help out). After all was done I had 20 kgs of pulp. This was split into 3, 7 gallon buckets. From what I have read there is 10% sugar content, so If Im right, this will mean 20 kg of apple puree will have 2 kg sugar. Hope I did the estimate right. So here is what I did. Liquified 10 kg sugar in hot water and split into the three buckets. Then added 6.6 kg apple puree to each bucket.Then I added 1/2 tsp DAP and 1.5 tsp citric acid per bucket.Topped up the three buckets to 6 gallons each with warm water to get a mix temperature of 80 'f. Then pitched in 40 grams flieshmans dry active bakers yeast. Stirred it well and put the lids on with air locks. The starting SG was 1.062 and should be about 10 %ABV. It is bubbling away nicely. So what do you think?

Interesting idea of reusing the wash. I would like to know if it turns out as flavorful as your first batch. Apples are cheep where I'm from in the fall. Apple brandy from scratch would be a lot of apples to process . A better method for pureeing them would be needed than the food processor, and a proper press to squish the goodies out of them as I fermented the apple puree and strained after fermentation was complete. That was a bit of a pain. Thinking of a press for this years runs and just fermenting the juice.

MyUncleMo wrote:Jimbo, how would this recipe work with no sugar? Need more apples?

With 100% apples, you add nothing, no DAP, no water, no citric acid, nothing. Just juice the apples and pitch yeast. EC-1118 is perfect for this, clean and goes very dry. I let it run a month to ferment and settle out and then run it, usually just once, sometimes cycling feints into the next still load. Sometimes twice with no feints, and sometimes I run the feints by themselves a second time through. All methods produce delicious brandy. Age on oak. Its takes me 26-28 lbs of apples for every bottled fifth, after cuts.

Sungy wrote: My thoughts where to try to build a thread about apple brandy. Something I thought was missing around here. Lots of bits and pieces but not a complete thought pattern can be found. After all my post lead you to my thread about apple brandy. There are lots of posts about many varieties of brandy.

I would like to apologize for helping to hijack this thread, it was not intentional but with the sheer number of people on HD discussions tend to bounce around and drift. I do feel you are incorrect in your assessment that something is missing from the apple brandy discussions. Apples is one of the most popular subjects in the fruit section. It is a subject that everybody seems to bring up at some point and it is covered very well.

Sungy wrote: If you wanted to post about other forms of fruit brandy why didn't you create a post of your own.

That's exactly what I did, So anybody who wants to discuss apples by all means post on this thread.
But if you want to get carried away with fruity goodness, by all means come on over to this thread
http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 38&t=48881
and talk about anything you want, including apples.
Cranky

Thanks cranky. Maybe I will bring over a jug and pass some time on the bench with ya.

My method, right or wrong goes like this.
My neighbors have more trees than they know what to do with and they also have an antique cider press brought out from North Carolina. I get the apples by the wheelbarrow full and bring them to the press. I don't care if they are bruised or buggy or if you have to share them with birds or worms. Just not rotten. Run them through the cider mill and squish the bejeezuz out of them. Instead of pressing, I put them in clean barrels and add water to the level of apple pulp. Then I let them set a week or two. The apples start to break down and already begin to ferment on their own. I then run them through the press and squeeze every ounce of juice out of them. I then stick them in the fermenter add a little ec1118 and let them finish the process. Sometimes I have added sugar sometimes I don't. Leave them for another two weeks until they calm down and run them through the still. Not very scientific I know, but the old timers didn't use hydrometer s either. This year I will be more scientific and keep better notes.

I ran apples until I was sick of them and only have my last batch of used cider left. It is the one I will run this weekend.

On a side note, everything I have read on the parent sight points to a higher methanol content when you are making apple brandy. Be careful for what it calls apple paulsey. A crippling head ache from the side effect of methanol.

I have read post about arsenic and cyanide being in seeds and pits from fruit on the parent site. Other places have varied opinions. My choice is to avoid them and not take a chance. Also larger than normal for shot disposal ( for me its double). The heads cut I also run deeper just for safety.

I plan on trying your method this year

So reading through this thread, I see one big thing missing. What variety of apples is everyone using? I've done the apple brandy with juice, sugar, and concentrate before (its sitting on oak right now) and by first taste it is real good at 2 months old. I'll try to dig up that recipe and add it here if I can find it. And right now i'm away from my still but ive got some apple cider going. I got a hell of a deal on old fruit at a grocery mart-about 5 pounds of apples for a buck. I picked up around 22 pounds of a mixture of gala, fiji, jazz, and granny (there may have been others in there). I know desert apples aint the best and my wash dont smell so good and my Annie Proulx cider book is 700 miles away. So back to the question-What type of apples is everyone using in their recipes?