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So far ive only made a few runs of UJSSM. Do you all find the fruit flavor is more prominent in fruit washes or when you flavor your distillate with fruit afterwards like with a maceration? I have read a lot on here where the fruit flavor does not carry over much in a fruit wash. It seems to me you would have more flavor if you macerated the fruit in the distillate afterwards.

The most in your face flavors come from maceration process and you have much more control. It takes very little spice or maceration to get proper flavor...add thins slowly.

I make fruit maceration's by the pint (lemon, orange, coffee,...) and then use teaspoons as an essence to add to vodka or neutral spirits.

DAD300 wrote: I make fruit maceration's by the pint (lemon, orange, coffee,...) and then use teaspoons as an essence to add to vodka or neutral spirits.

Have you seen anything on here using the coffee other than the Kaluha recipes?
...sorry for the side step.

culvercreek wrote:

DAD300 wrote: I make fruit maceration's by the pint (lemon, orange, coffee,...) and then use teaspoons as an essence to add to vodka or neutral spirits.

Have you seen anything on here using the coffee other than the Kaluha recipes?
...sorry for the side step.

That is a bit of a side step, I make an expresso vodka you can do a search. As for the fruit I tend to agree with Dad, I also listed the plus and minuses to different methods that is very similar process to what your describing in a Gin thread using different botanicals that you might find as an interesting read.
http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 11&t=48221

Also great info in the fruit & vegetable section.

I've macerated freshly ground coffee beans without making coffee. Hope that makes sense. I think it makes a great essence. A drop can add a great note to a lot of drinks.

When speaking of fruit...I should have been more specific about citrus rinds. I have the rind of two oranges, with the pith scrapped off, in a pint of vodka right now. zest from the outside or scrape off the pith...it tastes pithy! In another week it will be a great essence to add orange flavor to anything.

Comparing Fermenting fruit and maceration of fruit. Is like comparing wine to grape juice.

If you want a brandy. Fermenting the fruit is what you want.

If you want fruit flavored alcohol. Maceration is the way to go.

Schnapps would kinda be in the middle. But would also depend on where you live. Most Americans don't know what a real schnapps is. And if they had a German schnapps. They more then likely wouldn't like it. And think it needs sugar. LOL

Prairiepiss wrote: Most Americans don't know what a real schnapps is. And if they had a German schnapps. They more then likely wouldn't like it. And think it needs sugar. LOL

haha, true statement. American schnapps shoudl never be called schnapps. They stole a german word, to add credibility, to attach to a grain neutral sugary artifically flavored garbage drink.

Its as ridiculous as calling Budweiser Pilsner.

I really didn't know that till I was in Germany. Of course the stupid American learned something. I have never figured out how they have gotten away with calling those sugary liquors schnapps? I've often wondered why the Germans don't have the term schnapps branded. Like scotch or bourbon.

They have their place. Just wish they weren't labeled as schnapps.

I think the way we make them here in HD is credible, and certainly have their purpose, but we call them pantydroppers, not schnapps And they are made with fresh fruit and clean neutral, not an artificial flavoring chemical and fuel grade neutral.

And pantydroppers would be a proper name for them. LOL

Not sure how well that would go over. On the open market.

It could also get cornfused with tequila. Well at least in my house anyway. Hehe.

I dunno, my field tests of pantydroppers, complete with panty's at ankles labels, have gone over very well at several parties with the girls. (edited LOL)

My wife's typicall response is, "I keep telling him to quit using pictures of me for his labels"

Yes, takillya definitley qualifies as a pantydropper too.... WHEW, makes em CRAAAAAZAY

I like to macerate fruit, then redistil for a nice, clear, dry schnapps type drink . Works with many different things, and is especially good for things like raspberries or blackberries which have little fermentable sugar.

Jimbo wrote: ...with the girls as much as the guys.

Equal opportunities panty dropping?

How much of the flavor comes over in the distillate Dan with macerated berries? i bet a ton would come over with pear, Ive found pear brandy to be intensely fruit forward. Might work with macerated fruit too maybe? Not sure the chemistry of why, but wow, pear bomb, cherries too (Kirsch) but less so with apples. Apple flavor is very subtle.

Dan P. wrote:

Jimbo wrote: ...with the girls as much as the guys.

Equal opportunities panty dropping?

Hmmm I think I might have worded that in a way that could be misinterpreted. I meant to say the girls dont seem to mind the label or name at all. Not that the guys at these parties are dropping their britches. be time to beat feet to the door if that shit started goin down.

The best panty dropper formula involves doing the dishes and maybe vacuuming....

Q#. Any serious difference between using dehydrated apple slices vs fresh apple slices? How about dried pears? Or is it all the same?

Scribbler wrote:Q#. Any serious difference between using dehydrated apple slices vs fresh apple slices? How about dried pears? Or is it all the same?

I doubt it's the same, but might be just as good, or better?
Problem with dried fruit is that it is rarely just dried fruit.
Fresh apples have the benefit of being in super-abundance for a month or two every year, if you are in possession of an apple tree or know someone who is.

Jimbo wrote: Not that the guys at these parties are dropping their britches. be time to beat feet to the door if that shit started goin down.

I don't judge, it's not in my job description.

Jimbo wrote:How much of the flavor comes over in the distillate Dan with macerated berries? i bet a ton would come over with pear, Ive found pear brandy to be intensely fruit forward. Might work with macerated fruit too maybe? Not sure the chemistry of why, but wow, pear bomb, cherries too (Kirsch) but less so with apples. Apple flavor is very subtle.

Loads of flavour with blackberry, raspberry, rowanberry, and sloe, which are the seasonal low-fermentable treats that I like to macerate with a finished spirit and then re-distil. The benefit is that unfermented they do not need cuts. I always take a tiny foreshot, pro forma, and because there is always a little something that can be got rid of, but otherwise you are not losing any fruit flavour except to the tails. With fermented fruit, as you know, you will lose a good portion of the flavour to the necessary cuts.
Any of the above berries can undergo the same maceration and re-distillation process, but ferment them first. You do this not for the added abv, which won't be much, but because you will get a different and more complex flavour. A small heads cut will be necessasry. Most people won't be able to tell the difference, or will prefer the unfermented as it offers familiar flavours.
When I ferment and distill my pears, I get a very very bitter distillate, which I also get with commercial pear eau-de-vie. It might just be me, though, as no one else seems to be bothered by it.
Apples- you could try boosting apple arome by macerating unfermented apples? Crab apples often have very rich and complex aromas, as do cooking apples, especially compared to table apples, which are comparitively bland.

Thanks Dan. Great idea and I will be trying this with different fruits. I have a freezer full of cherries, just past fresh season now on them here. But blackberries are in season. For apples I dunno, Im so accustomed to apple brandy flavor, Calvados, I might not be able to get past my bias to enjoy a more apply apple brandy. Apple brandy is like drinking whiskey with a touch of fruit. Warm, caramelly, slightly sweet and a fruity nose. Its not broke so I dont think Ill try to fix that one. haha

Pear is bitter when distilled, not sure why, but Ive read it creates more methanol, (substantially) than other fruits. Again not sure why, or if thats even the explanation for the bitterness. I take bigger fores and heads cuts. But the key is time. The bitterness goes away with time. Completely with enough time. The oldest brandy I have in my bar right now is a pear brandy I made in 2000. Is has zero bitterness, and is a huge pear bomb. Im down to 1/3 of a fifth, so its all smells and tiny sips now HAHA. Too bad Im not in the islands, would like for you to try it.

Ill report back on the maceration trials, thanks for the great idea.

I would also like for me to try it!

Re; apples, yes, you get so many of the bloody things that you just want to get them done. I have eight apple trees in my garden, not including crab apples, and last year was a bumper crop too. They get boring pretty quickly.
While we are on the subject, if I ever get round to planting new fruit trees, it will definitely be plum. Way easier to process into brandy, and it is a brandy I prefer. Of course, the two plum trees I have offer up about three withered little plums between them, year after year.

Here's a new experiment for me...two orange peels, scrapped the pith off and broiled them until they just started to brown. In pint of vodka for about a week.

Even the color has carried over and much sweeter than if the weren't browned first. Tastes great! I suspect the broiling broke some cell structure down and caramelized the oils/sugars. This will be a taste addition to other mixes.

Dan P: you come from a place called the Islands? I automatically envy you, because unless those islands are above or below the arctic & Antarctic circles respectively... Well, I am imagining a paradise where you sit in a lawnchair overlooking the ocean as you tend your still. I'm going to get in my canoe and come for a visit! Got a couch??!!

On topic: so these drinks that are made from neutral spirits and macerated fruit don't taste 'fake' at all? By that, I mean things like "rum&coke" or "vodka&orange juice". -to me, these drinks are obviously "booze mixed with X" and if I wanted rum, I would drink rum... If I wanted coke, I'd drink coke... Why my brother in law insists on ruining a perfectly good rye by adding coke is a mystery to me!

I've been thinking about reflux stills (all I've ever done is pot) but since I'm not a vodka drinker I am hesitant. This mace ration thing seems like it might be the ticket though! So as I understand it there are some general methods:

1). Reflux Make Neutral spirits and macerate fruit. Strain it and drink

2) reflux make neutrals, macerate fruit, then redistill in potstill, age and drink

3) pot still: make a brandy, macerate, then age n drink

4) pot still: make a brandy, macerate redistill, then age n drink

5) potstill: make a whiskey (ujssm?) macerate w/ fruit, redistill, age n drink

I'm wondering, how does this sound as a way to test the macerated waters for the first time? I don't have access to cheap or free corn, but I have an infinite supply of free barely, wheat, oats, & rye. Since starting into this a few years back, I have been making ujssm, but substituting Chopped barely for the corn. Never having tasted corn ujssm, I suspect that mine would be less flavorful in general, a little less "grainy" -its sort of like a mild Irish whiskey. I do five or six stripping runs and then a spirit run.

Does anyone see any issues with taking the ujssm after the spirit run, mace rating it and then redistilling? If I am going to try this, (as opposed to simply macerating and then age n drinking it) should I OVER fruit-ify it to account for some flavor loss in the still? (I'm thinking peaches, or apricots, or nectarines... Maybe plums?

Scribbler, my islands are the British Isles, which are in many ways the worst place in the world.

To address your other points; yes, I can see why macerating fruit, re-distilled or not, can seem more artifice than art, and some of the concoctions people dream up on these forums, like ersatz kahlua or bailey's, etc. etc. make my mind boggle, but the bottom line is "to each their own", and so it should be. I find my own ways (see my last posts) of macerating and redistilling are "purist" enough for my own definition. Further to that, the woodland and hedgerow fruits I do this with would not yield enough alcohol on their own, but do offer rare, unusual and truly delicious flavours that do not come from anywhere else, and also have a tradition of production in Europe.
When it comes to big yielding fruit like apples or plums, there is not a lot of need to change the standard recipe, but for meagre yields I guess you could boost a ferment with neutral when stripping, which would be flavouring the neutral, really.
Lastly, macerating fruit or low abv fruit ferments in a finished (UNOAKED!) whiskey and re-distilling is something I have done, and can be very nice (with a peated whiskey, especially nice), but I would choose the fruit quite carefully, so; Rowanberries, sloes, checkers, hollyberries YES. Mango, pineapple, raspberry, strawberry etc. NO. You get the idea, but as always, to each their own.
PS Rosehip is one I have been wanting to try, too.

Scribbler wrote:Q#. Any serious difference between using dehydrated apple slices vs fresh apple slices? How about dried pears? Or is it all the same?

I do occasionally partially sun dry berries to intensify the flavor before steeping. It's a good way to rescue berries with a bit of rain damage.

To intensify apples, citrus etc., freeze jack the juice, keeping the first 1/4 to 1/3 of the thaw. Add some matching high proof shine for a 'liqueur' with a flavor blast you won't get any other way.

What fruit do you all find works the best when macerating it in UJSSM?

DAD300 wrote:Here's a new experiment for me...two orange peels, scrapped the pith off and broiled them until they just started to brown. In pint of vodka for about a week.

Even the color has carried over and much sweeter than if the weren't browned first. Tastes great!
I suspect the broiling broke some cell structure down and caramelized the oils/sugars. This will be a taste addition to other mixes.

Interesting Dad, that is very similar to my Grand Marnier recipe.
http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... r#p7124442