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Hi all.

I was.. wondering.. today about a entirely Kiwi alcohol..

Not sure about it, but aging on native wood such as the New Zealand Oak, or Kauri or something entirely native.

And, to go with it, is anyone aware of a NZ native grain? I'm not having a lot of luck with web searches, going to talk to some Maori friends to see if they can find out from relatives.

If you called the Chinese Gooseberry a Kiwi fruit, would that qualify?

No

a potato wash made with Kumera's might be worth trying.

But I'm more interested in finding out if there was a native grain producing plant that could be used, and then experimenting with different native woods... however, I'm more than a little concerned about toxins etc. from the plants, which is why I initially looked for a native Oak.

Of course, I know very little other than its called the New Zealand Oak, it may bare no real similarity to real Oak other than by name.. Definately needs a lot more research, at this stage, its just an idea I'm interested in following up.

using a real native fruit source might also be interesting, nothings jumping to mind however, as I don't count Kiwifruit.

punkin wrote:If you called the Chinese Gooseberry a Kiwi fruit, would that qualify?

One of my friends used some Macadamia shavings to age some UJSM, turned out good.

What did the Maoris drink before you lot got there?













MustaBeenIntoSomethingPunkin

bourbonbob wrote:

punkin wrote:If you called the Chinese Gooseberry a Kiwi fruit, would that qualify?

One of my friends used some Macadamia shavings to age some UJSM, turned out good.

The two edible Macadamia species are Australian natives. Some of the other Macadamia species are toxic. Check Wikipedia.

Not a lot it seems.. very little starchy food producing plants apart from the kumera and taro they brought with them when they came.

However have found reference to a wine made from "Tutu" berries, which I'm going to investigate further.

belialNZ wrote:Not a lot it seems...

No wonder they were such cranky buggers

Yeh!

Well, I have found reference to a small variety of fruits that I can experiment with.

But the main one still seems to be this Tutu berry, despite the extremely poisonous seeds (which have to be carefully removed from fruit pulp).

They used to soak other food in it, to improve flavour, so that sounds like an endorsement to me (either that, or its a negative reflection on the other foods). Seems like it reached pretty high levels of alcohol with fermentation.

And theres safe methods for seed removal nowadays (safer than filtering with grass anyhow).

belialNZ wrote: so that sounds like an endorsement to me (either that, or its a negative reflection on the other foods).

Almost fruit or vegetable that is not too high in citric acid, that you can get a starch or sugar out of ... can be fermented and then distilled. Sorry, I'm not knowledgeable on your crops. I'm sure there's lots of things that can be used though.


cheers

~r~

Here's an idea or two, one I've tried, one I haven't, some pretty average spirit I forgot about aged for about five years on toasted manuka hidden away in the garage, when I rediscovered it was a shame I hadn't squirreled away more! Turned out quite nice.

Another idea generated by those manuka wood smokers for your catch-of the day, I've always wondered how manuka smoked malt would go as a "kiwi" scotch-style whisky, what about using some locally grown organic barley lol.

Maybe I'll try it one day unless I hear it's not a good thing

I've made kiwi based spirits. Came out OK but my cuts could have been a bit better.

consdering the only thing maoris did for farming before the introduction to westerners was sweet potatoes, I think that would be a fitting start.

I was just today thinking about trying a kumara vodka. Can anyone link me to some good info on converting the starch in kumara/potatoes to sugar?

They do make "shochu" the potatoes are cooked and converted with kojikin/koji (molds)
but I'm shore that enzymes whould work.

punkin wrote:

belialNZ wrote:Not a lot it seems...

No wonder they were such cranky buggers

Hi, long time lurker, first time poster. I've finally found something I can add to!

Toasted Manuka is VERY tasty, but seems to be quite strong compared to oak, so go easy (although that might partly be because I didn't buy it, I wandered into the bush and got some...)

I use a finger scoop of manuka honey in my spiced rum, and soak on manuka.

actually, I think back in the day (captain cook era) they used manuka leaves and flowers to make tea as well.

I've been wondering about making some NZ style gin as well. I know South (brand of gin) use manuka berries, and I was thinking about trying to use Beech seeds and that native bracken-ish stuff that tastes a bit like subtle walnuts, as well as the juniper etc...

why have I never heard of these Tutu berries?? do they grow down here in the south?

Cheers, and good luck with the kiwi made! might as well get into it, it is legal here after all....

It's feijoa season right now. They're a bit of an institution here in NZ and good free raw material for brewing. Having sampled the delights of the Lothlorian feijoa wine, I thought I'd try a few feijoa washes. The first one has finished brewing quite quick, only use about 2 or 3 kg of feijoa flesh and gave it a few hours with pectinaise before pitching. Once I get this 100L batch of WPOSW through the kettle, I'll check and see if I've made feijoa vinegar, then I'll know if it'll end it's days as wine or vodka.

love feijoas... I hear they don't seem to be so available outside of NZ. I've got some feijoa's macerating right now, was also thinking of doing a fruit wash with them. Might have to go raid the neighbours tree if you say it works out for you

I'm experimenting with a few batches right now mixing pectinase with pulped fresh/juice. plenty of that nice aroma, not much on sugar content so far. I think maceration looks like the best idea so far. I got a few friends who are dumping sacks full of the things at my door now they know what I'm up to... TBC

I wonder what process 42Below use to make their feijoa vodka? My maceration has ended up a little bitter. I'm considering trying to make an essence, then I'll also be able to make (read: drink) it all year...

kiwistiller wrote:I wonder what process 42Below use to make their feijoa vodka? My maceration has ended up a little bitter. I'm considering trying to make an essence, then I'll also be able to make (read: drink) it all year...

I hear that the skins can impart a bitter taste, are you macerating just the pulp, or whole halves?

I had sliced a few up very fine, about to do another batch without the skins.

Getting the first fruit off my Pineapple guava right now.

I was late spraying and the fruit flies have spoiled the bulk of it (only about twenty fruits all up anyway), but i will be more prepared this coming year.

looking forward to your results from your experiments here. I was thinking of a simple maceration if there is enough unspoiled.

Finally got something of a result. The first attempt was about 3 kilos of flesh blended and set down to ferment. It was finished in a few days and had gone a dark brown tea colour and was dry and slightly bitter tasting, with not much in the way of feijoa flavor and obviously not too much sugar present. I decided to tip that lot and chalk it up. The next (and very large) shipment turned up at my door. This time I got perhaps 6 or 8 kilos of flesh being careful not to get too greedy when scooping the flesh out, the pithy stuff towards the outside of the fruit is relatively devoid of flavor and sugars anyway. I also added 2.5 kilos of white sugar. Blended it and mixed with the pectinase and also half a teaspoon of sodium metabisulphate - the advice of my friendly local brew shop. He was doing some feijoa wine in the shop when I stopped in that day. Needless to say, his turned out fine, mine took on the smell of rotten eggs which wouldn't dissipate and a murky film formed on the surface. Perhaps I added too much sodium metabisulphate (this was a 20 litre solution). It started fermenting wild before the sulphur smell left (after waiting 3 days), so instead of tossing it away I boiled the whole lot for about 30 minutes, left it to cool over night, pitched some fancy wine yeast the next day and now it's bubbling away like a trooper. It hasn't gone a tea colour yet, so perhaps the boiling is the trick. I suppose with the acids in the feijoas and the boiling, the sugar will now be inverted too, I hear is good too. Smells lovely, hopefully will taste nice too.

I plan to let it finish, bottle in quart bottles with crown caps with a little priming and with any luck it might be something similar to the legendary feijoa bubbly from Lothlorian Orchards.

I have also just macerated about 1 kg of whizzed up flesh in about 2/3 of a gallon of half finished vodka. Left it for about a week, it too went a brown tea colour. Smelled good. Once I had filtered it through a big funnel with paper was still dark. Tasted nice, with a syrupy consistency. Tipped half of it through another funnel that still had the the carbon left in the paper from a previous filtration of some vodka. Came out almost colourless this time, still hazy and syrupy too.
As far as I'm concerned, it tastes just fine . Can't wait to see what this sort of thing comes out like using some really neutral stuff.

my second maceration has worked out gooooood

I peeled and then sliced 4 big feijoas and just chucked them in 1l of 50% neutrals for about a week, with a pinch of citric acid. It's come out pretty good, close to 42 below in taste, but less... hmm thick is not quite the word. I think i'll add a few mls of glycerin, see if that helps. also, mine is a pale yellow green colour (actually not unlike thai terror. I might have to be careful with that, a mix up would probably kill someone).

Its great with a splash of apple juice on the rocks.

Yes, it seems one need not use as much feijoa as I did to macerate. next time I think I'll try what you did. Mine is pretty thick looking, and I'm thinking about pot stilling it once more to see if I can get a thinner product without losing the flavour. This will probably nice up the half finished vodka I used too, it's a bit more like rum at the moment. I wonder if the element in the still will somehow damage the feijoa flavours. I unfortunately have no means of water bath it as yet...
I have just made another 20 litres of feijoa/sugar wash. about 3kg white sugar and 5 kg of whizzed up flesh. I accidentally 'caramelised' the stuff on the stove, and now it looks like I have something like a feijoa stout (and some sugar caramelised to the bottom of the pot ) so perhaps I'll make the world's first feijoa whiskey

hmmm feijoa rum... that might not be half bad. one of my fav drinks is a feijoa mojito. I have 25kg of molasses sitting around, I might try 2kg of that, 1kg of brown sugar, then blended feijoas and pectin. I bet that is going to smell absolutely awful while fermenting... what part of NZ are you in anyway?

kiwistiller wrote:hmmm feijoa rum... that might not be half bad. one of my fav drinks is a feijoa mojito. I have 25kg of molasses sitting around, I might try 2kg of that, 1kg of brown sugar, then blended feijoas and pectin. I bet that is going to smell absolutely awful while fermenting... what part of NZ are you in anyway?

Dirty old Auckland Central. It smells quite nice before the yeast kicks in, then the place smells like any other brewery. There is a distinct sulphur smell coming from the one that had sodium meta' in it too.
has anyone tried just floating an appropriate sized metal bowl containing maceration a boiler full of water? Reckon that might work for a water bath?