Lets get carried away with fruity goodness

[cranky]

Hope it works out better for you tomorrow SC. I started out with the hole in the lid just a little bigger than the shaft and don't think it has grown in size too much. I also didn't tear open any buckets but did gouge them up a bit. I think it is just a matter of getting the hang of it and it will go smoothly.

[cranky]

Last night I once again got carried away with fruity goodness.

My wife decided to run some errands and I stayed home and decided to play with fruit. As she was leaving my wife saw my work car and started laughing and making fun of it because the back seat is full of buckets, tarps, the wooden stand parts for the chopper and various apple stuff and the press occupies the front passengers seat. She said it looked like a homeless persons car but this reminded me that I hadn't taken the apple aging sticks out so I got those, wrapped them in foil and set them up to toast. This is actually one of the parts about this hobby I am least proficient at but I think it went well. While those were cooking I decided to get the plum wine started. I began by getting out 3 gallons of frozen plums and placing them in a 4 gallon pot with some water on the stove to thaw and pasteurize. I am trying to replicate a wine I did a couple years ago that I did everything totally wrong on but it turned out so good it is worth trying to do totally wrong again

While that heated up I cleaned and sanitized my 12 gallon primary firmenter to start the wine in and while I was at it I decided to prep the 2 carboys I had emptied in the morning. While doing that I decided since I was sanitizing anyway I might as well sanitize the 2 empty gallon jugs I have and rack off the 4 individual gallons of dessert wine I have going. Then I got to thinking about the 10 gallons of grape wine that was sitting there finished and cleared so I decided what the hell I may as well run that off since I have everything set up anyway. So while racking off the dessert wines, I filled 2 jugs with dry grape wine, to bottle later and give the owner of the grape vines, and racked the rest into the still and fired it up.

The grape brandy came off at 92%, I still think it's odd how with my flute I can run exactly the same way and takeoff speed but the ABV varies depending on what I am running, I haven't read of other people having this issue with their flutes but then again nobody else has anything even slightly like my flute But whatever the takeoff ABV is it makes a good drop.

The smell and taste of the grape brandy seem to be very nice so I am happy. In the process of running 2 runs in one day I used every single pint jar I have, The final jar off the still at 35% ABV was actually the last one I have, for a while there I thought I would need to break out the quart jars but it worked out perfectly. Tonight I plan on blending and see what I wind up with.

[jb-texshine]

S-cack , I know what you mean about the unripe persimmons lol...talk about bitter beer face! It's like picking berries though,if they don't fall off with a light shaking they ain't ripe enough to eat. The persimmons grow great every year here,but the wild plums are hit and miss. I will definitely keep yall updated. Went and shook a limb on on one of the smass trees yesterday and only 4 dropped....they didn't make it past my stomach,lol.
Jb
Reminder to self : STOP EATING THE DAMN PERSIMMONS!!!

[jb-texshine]

Damn jb-texshine, that sounds like a damn good deal. Growing up we had a stand of them about 20 feet from our front door but there were others all over the place. We had some hard shell pecan trees too and the wild plums were all up and down the river banks. The one success I had with distilling in my youth was a persimmon brandy in a solar still that I now only have a very vague memory of. My wife grew up in Southeast Texas and just read your post and is now talking about how she misses the sweet soft persimmons and the pecans. I'd really like to make some persimmon brandy but it is one of the few fruits we don't have up here.

If you think they might grow where your at I could send you some seeds to try and get some trees growing. I know the wild one taste a hundred times better than the domesticated ones.

By the way,to those burning up drills grinding fruit, in the flooring section at hone depot they sell a drill for mixing tile mortar high torque low to mid speed only its made to stand up to a pro tile setter usages... It's manufactured by qep products they make all kinds of flooring products.just google qep mixing drill.

[MDH]

I don't know where you're from, Cranky, but I have definitely seen Persimmons growing in both Washington and British Columbia.

[cranky]

If you think they might grow where your at I could send you some seeds to try and get some trees growing. I know the wild one taste a hundred times better than the domesticated ones.

I will PM you my address.

I'm between Seattle and Tacoma and from what I've seen virtually everything grows like a weed here. I would appreciate some seeds. I'm very familiar with those particular persimmons and how great they taste and would like to have a few trees of my own. The persimmons you see in the store are a different variety because the good American type from that area can't be picked before they are ripe and once they are they don't store well so can't be shipped. Maybe some day I will have my own persimmon trees and get enough to do a persimmon brandy

[jb-texshine]

If you think they might grow where your at I could send you some seeds to try and get some trees growing. I know the wild one taste a hundred times better than the domesticated ones.

I will PM you my address.

I'm between Seattle and Tacoma and from what I've seen virtually everything grows like a weed here. I would appreciate some seeds. I'm very familiar with those particular persimmons and how great they taste and would like to have a few trees of my own. The persimmons you see in the store are a different variety because the good American type from that area can't be picked before they are ripe and once they are they don't store well so can't be shipped. Maybe some day I will have my own persimmon trees and get enough to do a persimmon brandy

won't be a problem sending them. I suspect that you will have to nick each seed very carefully with a razor to get them to sprout... I think they are one of those seeds that were intended to be eaten and scat tered by animal waste.

[cranky]

won't be a problem sending them. I suspect that you will have to nick each seed very carefully with a razor to get them to sprout... I think they are one of those seeds that were intended to be eaten and scat tered by animal waste.

Not a problem and no hurry either, I figure I can try a couple different ways to get sprouts I will also start researching that.

[S-Cackalacky]

Cranky, you need to go over to the HD anonymous thread and take a little time for self examination.

I still didn't finish with the apples today, but, thanks to the advice I received, I think I have the procedure pretty well dialed in. I was off on errands for a good bit of the day. I spent about an hour in the basement when I got home. I ground the corners off the mud mixer, as advised, and tryed to keep the shaft as vertical as possible to avoid bumping it into the sides of the bucket. I also did the "hovering" thing and then lowered the mixer into the apples.

I think the biggest obstacle is the ass press. Not only does it not do a good job of pressing out all the liquid, it's also slow. I'm finding that for every two buckets (bushel) of apples I grind, I have to wait at least two hours for press to extract the juice. So, today I got through 3 more buckets of apples and I only have two left to grind and press. I should be able to finish up tomorrow and get it all in fermenters.

I decided not to pasteurize. I've been washing/soaking each batch of apples in Star San solution before grinding them. My only concern at this point is letting the juice and pomice sit for so long before pitching yeast.

Anyway, today's progress was a little less stressful. Hope to finish it up tomorrow.

[cranky]

I probably do SC but it might interfere with my forward momentum I'm about to move what I pressed last week from buckets to carboys and got the plum wine going this morning. After the work is done I'm going to start blending. My new blending glass has turned out to be the perfect shape for it. After I broke my Eau de Vie glass I tried using a brandy glass to do it and was not at all happy but the new one is awesome.

I'm glad you are getting the process down now, if you have freezer space I would recommend freezing and repressing but not everybody has that kind of space. Have you considered using a car jack to aid the ass press? Just a thought. I also let things rest together for days at a time with no problems other than a wild ferment gets started.

[cranky]

I just finished blending the pear brandy. Wow lots of subtle flavor, very smooth and somewhat strange. It came out very florally and slightly citrusy in the end. The ghost of the original pears is still there but I hope it comes more forward as time passes. In the end I got about 600ml at pretty high ABV but I haven't checked exactly how high. Now I want to find more pears.

[S-Cackalacky]

Cranky, I don't have freezer space. I think I'll probably stick to my original plan and do a sugarhead with the pomace. I'm thinking I'll have more of it than juice. It might be kind of interesting to do a taste comparison between the two. I have the 3rd bushel of pulp in the ass press and only have about 4 gallons of juice from what I've pressed to this point. After pressing 4 bushels of apples, I might have 5.5 to 6 gallons of juice. There should be 6 or 8 ferments of the pomace sugarhead after splitting it into buckets and adding water and sugar. I doubt if I'll be able to do much of anything else for at least a couple of months - until all of this is fermented out and run. The basement's getting a little crowded with buckets.

[cranky]

That sounds like a good plan SC. Yak is doing an apple rum with his pomace http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 11&t=57937 I was thinking that might be a worthwhile venture. Sorry to hear your not getting as high a yield as you should. Makes me glad I have the little press I have.

[cranky]

So I checked the ABV of the pear and it is 65ish %. So from 8 gallons of pear juice I got about a bottle of really nice pear Eau de Vie at 40%. Not great but well worth the effort. I have a dozen tall clear half bottles and I will put it in 2 of them and let them sit for a few months or years and see how it developed.

After a while I started to blend the grape brandy but my wife decided I needed to mow the lawn instead. In spite of my best arguments, which you can read about in the HD anonymous thread, I had to go mow the lawn. So I put on my bathrobe, snow boots and welding gloves and started to head out the door but she stopped me concerned about what the neighbors might think. She was right, so I also grabbed my ear muffs (safety first) but even that wasn't good enough. So I had to put on some real clothes and mow the lawn. I just finished blending it and now have a half gallon but haven't checked the ABV yet. It's pretty tasty but is definitely going to need to age for a while and would probably benefit from a few months on wood, although it might be the perfect thing to add to the cherry juice I have sitting on the counter. I figure that half gallon is good for at least 3 bottles after tempering so maybe 1 bottle tempered with cherry juice and 2 more done on wood.

[bearriver]

I had to go mow the lawn. So I put on my bathrobe, snow boots and welding gloves and started to head out the door but she stopped me concerned about what the neighbors might think. She was right, so I also grabbed my ear muffs

Having met you, I can picture that perfectly.

Well done

[Jimbo]

My back hurts.... http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 0#p7353000

[cranky]

Damn Jimbo, That's quite a haul, I'm tempted to take some personal days and jump on an airplane to Iceland...or down the road a ways or wherever you are living this year to help out and try to steal some apple juice and honey I did stop on my way home this afternoon and picked another 20 pounds of sweets and 10 pounds or so of the antiques. I figure there's maybe another 60-80 pounds of sweets still on the tree which I'll pick over the next couple weeks and then I expect the season will be over.

[S-Cackalacky]

I got my last bushel of apples ground and pressed. I was letting the juice run into a 5 gallon jug and didn't pay close enough attention. I lost about a half gallon to the floor. I think all said and done, I had about 7 gallons of juice. I divided it into 2 five gallon buckets (3.5 gallons each). I added a prenatal vitamin and pitched one packet of EC-1118 in each bucket. The OG was 1.050.

I put 3 bushels worth of pressed pumace into a 20 gallon Brute. I inverted 10 lbs of sugar in 4 gallons of water with added lemon juice. I added that and 1 more gallon of water to bring it to within 4 to 5 inches of the top of the Brute. I had intended to add 4 more gallons of water, but thought I was getting a little too close to the top of the fermenter. I added 3 prenatal vitamins and 4 packets of EC-1118. The OG was 1.061 - a little higher than I wanted, but I was figuring on adding more water. It's a thick slurry of pomace and water. I added a few ounces of crushed oyster shells to help balance out the lemon juice.

I threw away the first bushel of pomace that was processed a couple of days ago. It had shreds of plastic bucket in it and seemed to have a slight off smell. I didn't want to take a chance with it. Still got some cleaning to do. I think I used every 5 gallon bucket I own.

Oops, posted in the wrong thread. +1 on your harvest Jimbo.

[Jimbo]

I think I used every 5 gallon bucket I own.
.

[cranky]

I think I used every 5 gallon bucket I own.

I was getting to that point the other day when I found an extra one I had forgotten about. Fortunately I freed up those carboys and that freed up the buckets I had been using for the batch I used 1118 on.

If you think about it 7 gallons of juice out of 8 buckets of apples isn't that bad considering the ass press. That's .875 gallons per bucket. Granted it's not as high as we get with a proper press but all things considered I don't think it's all that bad.

[S-Cackalacky]

You know, It's a good thing I'm getting old with a bad memory. The memory of this experience NEEDS to fade before it's time to do it again next year. If somebody came by my house and dropped off 4 bushels of free apples, I'd be out there throwing apples at their car as they drove away. But then, I'd probably pick them all up and fire up the mud mixer. Dear God, do I need HD anonymous? Hello everyone, I'm S-Cack and I'm a distiller.

[cranky]

Not having done all gain yet I'm not exactly sure how difficult they are but I am accumulating the wheat malt to find out. That said I know some of these guys go through a lot of effort and considerable time in malting, drying, smoking, grinding, mashing and pressing and I cant see that apples are any more effort than all that even with the old slow way I was doing it, or the way you did it this year SC. The key is to try to prepare well in advance so you have everything ready to go when apple season comes along.

[S-Cackalacky]

I think I used every 5 gallon bucket I own.

I was getting to that point the other day when I found an extra one I had forgotten about. Fortunately I freed up those carboys and that freed up the buckets I had been using for the batch I used 1118 on.

If you think about it 7 gallons of juice out of 8 buckets of apples isn't that bad considering the ass press. That's .875 gallons per bucket. Granted it's not as high as we get with a proper press but all things considered I don't think it's all that bad.

I was pretty happy with the yield considering I was using the ass press. It was still a bit of a pita. For each bushel I put in the press, I had to wait at least 2 hours before moving on to the next batch. I'll definitely be looking at building a proper press before next season.

I went down to check on the pomace ferment this morning. I think the pomace soaked up all the water (5 gallons). It's just a big mass of wet pulp. I can't really tell, at this point, if it's working or not. The level was maybe a couple of inches higher, but there was no sign of bubbling. I gave it a quick stir - thinking that maybe I was seeing a cap. If it was a cap, it was reaching pretty much all the way to the bottom of the Brute.

[S-Cackalacky]

Not having done all gain yet I'm not exactly sure how difficult they are but I am accumulating the wheat malt to find out. That said I know some of these guys go through a lot of effort and considerable time in malting, drying, smoking, grinding, mashing and pressing and I cant see that apples are any more effort than all that even with the old slow way I was doing it, or the way you did it this year SC. The key is to try to prepare well in advance so you have everything ready to go when apple season comes along.

I don't have the facilities to even think about malting grains, so I can't say what the level of difficulty is. I can imagine that it is at least time consuming. I did do an AG SF using enzymes a while back and, like the apple experience, it was pretty much a pita. But, like the apple processing, I was doing it on a shoestring budget without the proper tools or facilities. In both cases, I can see the need to upgrade my equipment to get a better result. I should also say that I'm not in the best physical condition - with diabetes and a heart condition. But, as with most other things, I compensate and try not to let it stand in the way. Just takes a little longer to get there.

Anyone else wanting to attempt something like this should also understand that the initial learning curve can be exhausting, but with practice it gets easier and you just need to be aware of the corrections that need to be made and move forward with a sense of perseverance. I found that not much of anything to do with this hobby comes easy, but every step along the journey has its rewards.

[jedneck]

Cack malting don't have to take a lot of room. I use 2 five gallon buckets one inside the other, similar to the ass press. For drying I use a tray that is 2x2 1/2 feet. This setup will let me malt enuf wheat for a 15 gallon ferment.
Now on topic, I was on a job yesterday and they had fig trees growing. I was going to get a few cutting from them but I didn't get time to ask the homeowner and he left before we were done. That was the first time I had fresh figs and I could see making a meal outta them with a little ricota and honey. And maybe a spirit also. The guy said he picked thousands of the trees this year.

[Jimbo]

If somebody came by my house and dropped off 4 bushels of free apples, I'd be out there throwing apples at their car as they drove away.

That's normal, I feel that way every year after apple season. Giving birth to brandy must be like child birth, forgetting the pain and all that crap. Today tho, with sore back and legs after yesterday's haul I'm dreading hitting the trees again. Right now I've got the still fired up doing a bourbon run. These apples and pears need grinding today too. Anyone have a couple spare Tylenol 3's ? lol

[yakattack]

Jimbo
There's a product called biofreeze. Spray or roll or rub on. Worked miracles for me. I have a knee condition and it honestly has allowed me to keep going when I normally would be laid up in pain.

Yak

[Jimbo]

Thanks Yak, I think I have some of that in little 1 application packets. When I used to run they gave samples out at races. Its fucking depressing how out of shape Ive become in the 3 years since my knee blew out and I cant run anymore. Tacked on 35 lbs and lost the stamina i used to have. wah wah, I know quitcherbitchen Jimbo youre still vertical.

Gonna go see if I can find them damn packets.

[jedneck]

Jimbo
A good dose of Bourbon is good for aches and pains, but gotta use in moderation or I get lazy.

[Jimbo]

If I drank pain killer at 9AM my day would be worth a shit, the naps on the couch would be nice tho.