Passionfruit Brandy

Many like to post about a first successful ferment (or first all grain mash), or first still built/bought or first good run of the still. Tell us about all of these great times here.
Pics are VERY welcome, we drool over pretty copper 8)

Moderator: Site Moderator

Post Reply
bourbonbob1
Novice
Posts: 47
Joined: Sun Jul 07, 2013 6:57 am

Passionfruit Brandy

Post by bourbonbob1 »

So after doing some really good mango and papaya brandy, I decided to do passionfruit, which I bought frozen at the grocery store. I did six pounds of fruit to one gallon of water and two pounds of sugar and two ounces of yeast. I started distilling after five days and it came out beautiful until the very end. As my thermometer ran to 195 degrees, the liquid starting coming out blue! It actually looked really nice and the taste is good, but I'm concerned since I am still new at this. What could this possibly mean and is it safe to drink?
just sayin
Rumrunner
Posts: 657
Joined: Sun Jan 27, 2013 2:12 pm

Re: Passionfruit Brandy

Post by just sayin »

Copper salts? Nasty stuff. Did you rinse your still, packing and condenser between runs?
Soggy Bottom Boy
Rumrunner
Posts: 746
Joined: Sun Sep 09, 2012 4:43 pm
Location: Somewhere to the north of the.. ..Peoples Яepublik of Kalifoяnia

Re: Passionfruit Brandy

Post by Soggy Bottom Boy »

What kind of yeast?
"Well, ......I don't want Fop, goddamn it! I'm a Dapper Dan man!" ...Ulysses Everett McGill

"Good thing you found HD. It's like the mythbusters of distilling." ...Prairiepiss
bourbonbob1
Novice
Posts: 47
Joined: Sun Jul 07, 2013 6:57 am

Re: Passionfruit Brandy

Post by bourbonbob1 »

Yup, did all that, ran water through the condenser and I used distiller's yeast. I went to a distilling website and there was an interesting topic there. Apparently, if you use too much yeast nutrient, which I did, it can react with the copper making the product blue. It's not harmful and it actually looks nice, but by adding some citiric acid, it should clear it up. I did so and it worked beautifully, so problem solved. Thanks for the help though guys! By the way, I added citric acid to some papaya brandy I had done over the week end which was cloudy. It cleared it right up without affecting the taste!
rad14701
retired
Posts: 20865
Joined: Wed Dec 19, 2007 4:46 pm
Location: New York, USA

Re: Passionfruit Brandy

Post by rad14701 »

Ummm...??? Yes, it is harmful and should not be consumed...!!! Throw it away...!!!
bourbonbob1
Novice
Posts: 47
Joined: Sun Jul 07, 2013 6:57 am

Re: Passionfruit Brandy

Post by bourbonbob1 »

rad, why throw it away? Do you know something about this. Please let me know because I just added the first run to the rest of my original mash so I could run it again. I heard the nutrient makes it blue because of ammonia, but adding the citric acid neutralizes the ammonia, clears up the color and taste, which it seems to have done.
Zeig
Swill Maker
Posts: 183
Joined: Mon Feb 04, 2013 3:09 pm

Re: Passionfruit Brandy

Post by Zeig »

bourbonbob1 wrote:So after doing some really good mango and papaya brandy, I decided to do passionfruit, which I bought frozen at the grocery store. I did six pounds of fruit to one gallon of water and two pounds of sugar and two ounces of yeast. I started distilling after five days and it came out beautiful until the very end. As my thermometer ran to 195 degrees, the liquid starting coming out blue! It actually looked really nice and the taste is good, but I'm concerned since I am still new at this. What could this possibly mean and is it safe to drink?

Suprised noone has said this but thats probably just copper corrosion in your condensor, you need to do a cleaning run or two. Sometimes i'll get a little of my heads coming out a light blue but it will clear up, if your whole condensate was blue id do some heavy cleaning.
To the best of my knowledge, dont' drink it, BUT you can redistill it. Your choice, somoneone correct me if i'm wrong.
You can't think of the impossible, because it's impossible. Ergo if you can think it, its possible.
bourbonbob1
Novice
Posts: 47
Joined: Sun Jul 07, 2013 6:57 am

Re: Passionfruit Brandy

Post by bourbonbob1 »

Thanks to all. I tossed it though Zeig, I've heard others say what you said about redistilling it, but I did some heavy cleaning as you said and am running a batch right now as I write this and it's coming out tasty and clean. Thanks for all the feed back everyone!
Post Reply