Home Distiller

Hey everyone.

So I have an apple tree with quite a few apples still on it that aren't really being eaten, so I figured I'd probably better liberate them for alcohol production. They're green apples, quite sweet but tart too. Waste not want not, right? I've never done fruit washes.

now, I was planning on blasting them through my blender (because I don't have a press) and then just adding water until I had a good SG, making a starter with bakers yeast, then distilling whatever I managed to make.

four questions:
1 Am I Dreaming? sounds to easy.
2 ferment on the pulp or cook it and strain it through something first?
3 bakers yeast ok? I have some ec1118 lying round I could use instead, or I could use a yeast monster that was all sorts of different types about 10 generations ago, has been fermenting rum and DWWG quite nicely
4. add sugar or not add sugar?

Cheers in advance for any help
KS

1) its usually a little harder than that, a chipper and press would be a much easier way to do it, many home brew stores will rent these out.
2) if you ferment on the pulp, you best have an indirect heat source for your still. cause you'll never be able to remove all the "sauce" particles.
3) I would use the ec1118, you'll get more of the apple flavour coming through.
4) sugar will increase the alcohol content, but decrease the flavour content. you'll be making apple vodka rather than brandy.

theres a ole boy that uses one of them small chipers in just fill a barel bout 1/2 full with apples an add water an pectic enzime an suger. just dip the cider off the top. wont be near as good but sometime you caint have your druthers.

so im tole

I have heard an old time shine recipe that involved fallen apples crushed in a barrel with cornmeal and water mixed in, and apple jack was/is made from cider.

four answers:
1 nope it is easy.
2 you may tend to more congeners and methanol fermenting on the apple must (good and bad)
3 bakers yeast is ok but ec1118 would be better or your yeast monster, depends on the flavor profile you want
4. you don't need to add sugar if you do you will lose some of the apple-y goodness

Cheers, the cider is long ago made and recently distilled. I cooked the apples with 20% pears ala calvados, and fermented on the pulp in a muslin bag. ended up adding a kg of sugar. left the fermented cider (which was AMAZING during the ferment, none of the samples got chucked out ) for a month or so and a gentle single pass of the pot still and the result is beaut. I'll keep a bit white and the rest is a toss up between toasted apple wood and charred oak.

Normally I wouldn't bump such an old topic, but I couldn't find a follow-up thread

Kiwi, did you ever age any of this apple brandy on apple wood? I'm thinking of doing it too and wonder what it ends up tasting like

very timely mate. I sampled the two remaining bottles yesterday. They were aged on toasted oak, but not for all that long. I kept one for posterity, and tipped the other into my neutral keg. That pretty much says it all I guess? I wasn't too impressed with my efforts. But, the cider wasn't all that great really (I recall, was a while ago), so I guess bad in = bad out. Just a bit flavourless really. I wouldn't use EC1118 again, but a cider yeast.

Thats too bad.

I have some cider fermenting right now with cider yeast. Plan on running that through the pot still (gotta build that first too!) and then age it on toasted apple wood.

I'm sure yours will be better than mine was - it was distilled on my older setup, before I'd really gotten my head around pot stilling so to speak.

I'd recommend patience with apple distillates. My batches never tasted good until they got to age for over a year. My two year old batches have gone from a harsh chemical smell and taste to a nice smooth very nice apple flavor. It just took time.
I didn't really like my apple shine at first, and recycled much of it into other projects... Now after a couple of years, I really wish I would have saved more.

Hey dawg, are you aging your apple shine white or on oak?

I've got about 5 liters that I put down with some lightly charred oak about a month ago. Took a sip today and it has promise but it is still pretty "sharpish" and tastes a little woody. It is my first try at an apple brandy and also my first aging on wood so I have no idea what to do or to expect. I'd like to leave it on the oak a while longer to get a better color but I don't know if it will get more and more woody tasting as time goes on or if the woodiness will mellow with time.

I didn't think oak and apples would go good together so I just bottled it up and aged it white. The difference after a couple of years is amazing. Now its the fine quality drink that I knew I could make... When it was young it was a little disappointing. edited to add...

I think the woodiness will mellow over time. It seems to change just like the apple did!

Any updates on this. I'm looking to make 'Applejack', not the old fashioned way.

Should apples be peeled?
Do you crush/boil similar to corn?

I gather adding sugar takes away from apple-y flavor, is there a good apple/water ratio? Or just add water til you get roughly 1.070SG?

grind apples add yeast,,or you can cook the pulp,,,or press pulp and just use juice.
no water/sugar needed apples have plenty of water.
how you do it depends on equipment you have.
cooking will give a different flavor,,fermenting "on the pulp" will make more heads.

I've been stilling a few years. Normally just a sugar wash or sometimes corn and tomato. Happy enough with my neutral spirit; it mostly goes to a tasty bathtub gin. We had a truckload of apples last year and made a few gallons of juice. Really nice breakfast juice, and really difficult to STOP it fermenting into cider. I figured what the hell, I'll just still it after.
I've just run 2 gallons and it came out at my usual 82%, so it must've had an ABV going in of about 4.5%. I do not like the result. I made 7 equally sized cuts, and every single one of them tastes to me of pear drops.
Is this the esters, the ethyl acetate? I understand that the wild yeasts on the fruit can produce more of these chemicals than brewers yeasts would. I also read that there are already enzymes in the fruit juice which feed the production of esters.

Is it my imagination? Or my paranoia? Could I get a better flavour by boiling the mash before fermenting it and pitching a little unboiled wash to get the yeast going? Would I be better starting with a different yeast at risk of losing some of the flavour?

eStill said, '...sometimes corn and tomato.'

Hi, eStill,
Was that actual tomatoes?
Or just the tomato paste?
It is possible I could get over ripe tomatoes though I think they are not often distilled as they don't produce much alcohol.

???

Geoff

I'm new to apple brandy but have made cider for years. I find that the apple flavor is in the heads but that overall it tastes pretty good off the spout. It does need time, my first two runs are improving greatly with some time and oak. I think the key is that it has to be tasty cider that you would want to drink. That requires good apples of proper varieties in proper ratios and really good sanitation. I just started using EC1118 last year and I think I may agree that it finishes out too dry and seems to take some of the apple character with it. I am going to do some side by side mangrove Jack cider yeast and EC1118 this year and compare. I think also that a lower pitch rate and a longer ferment may lead to better results. The bottom line is that making good cider takes more than just grabbing apples and tossing in yeast and unless the cider is good the brandy won't be either.

The Baker wrote: ↑Mon Sep 21, 2020 4:12 pm Was that actual tomatoes?

Not as the base. The base is still sugar, the toms are just for extra vitamins. A bit of a yeast treat.

The Baker wrote: ↑Mon Sep 21, 2020 4:12 pm It is possible I could get over ripe tomatoes though I think they are not often distilled as they don't produce much alcohol.

I've added green tomatoes to a gin macerate for an "earthy" taste. Yum. Dunno about over-ripe. Try it!

NB - this might qualify as "Off Topic."

stillanoob wrote: ↑Mon Sep 21, 2020 4:17 pm I'm new to apple brandy but have made cider for years. I find that the apple flavor is in the heads but that overall it tastes pretty good off the spout.

This has a distinct apply taste all through. Even the tails (which usually taste of wet dog) are not unpleasant. I just get esters all the way through. Maybe it's paranoia and I can't tell the difference between apple taste and peardrop taste!?!? To me, the whole run tastes like heads (or even a bit foreshotty).

stillanoob wrote: ↑Mon Sep 21, 2020 4:17 pm It does need time, my first two runs are improving greatly with some time and oak. I think the key is that it has to be tasty cider that you would want to drink. That requires good apples of proper varieties in proper ratios and really good sanitation.

The producer's been making and selling cider commercially for years. I personally find all his brews too dry. He doesn't add yeast but he does add sugar.

stillanoob wrote: ↑Mon Sep 21, 2020 4:17 pm I just started using EC1118 last year and I think I may agree that it finishes out too dry and seems to take some of the apple character with it. I am going to do some side by side mangrove Jack cider yeast and EC1118 this year and compare. I think also that a lower pitch rate and a longer ferment may lead to better results. The bottom line is that making good cider takes more than just grabbing apples and tossing in yeast and unless the cider is good the brandy won't be either.

Indeed. Others would say making good cider is about grabbing some apples and NOT tossing in any yeast!

Well, different strokes I guess. For me, a mix of sweet and tannic apples is important for flavor and for that flavor to remain after fermentation is complete. Without the tannic apples I find the product gets bland after 6 months or so. While wild yeast can give good results sometimes not. I prefer repeatability and don't want to risk the 50 or so gallons I make a annually as I will have to wait until the next year! All the more now that we are doubling production to make brandy as well. I think one of the advantages of wild yeast may be the low pitch rate and I am experimenting with that. While I never add sugar for drinking cider I did add some honey to the brandy cider past year and it was really delicious.

Edit: Oh and yeah, I think that the smell might be ethyl acetate. When I did my first run of brandy I was lucky enough to have a commercial distiller that makes awesome apple brandy present. He said the foreshot was full of it and described the smell as green apple candy which seemed about right. Why it would appear throughout your run I have no idea.

stillanoob wrote: ↑Tue Sep 22, 2020 6:10 am Edit: Oh and yeah, I think that the smell might be ethyl acetate. When I did my first run of brandy I was lucky enough to have a commercial distiller that makes awesome apple brandy present. He said the foreshot was full of it and described the smell as green apple candy which seemed about right. Why it would appear throughout your run I have no idea.

YES! That's the bit that's pissing me off. It usually disappears after the first 200ml of a 20L sugar-only run.