Grape Brandy - Cabernet & Blackbery
Posted: Tue Jun 15, 2021 3:29 pm
Hi all,
I have been searching for information on Brandy runs for several days and haven’t seen too much information. I just finished my first run of some wine I made about 3 years ago which was a bit of an experiment and hoping that people find this information useful as I personally couldn’t find the detail I was looking for. Thanks to @nzchris and others who have consistently posted responses to other threads from which I learned a lot. Here’s what I made:
Using a cheap Cabernet (ordered on amazon) wine kit I fermented as follows:
Kit instructions were for a 6 gallon kit, Which I made to 5.5 gallons as I find that these cheaper kits are too thin at 6 gallons
This also boosted the SG and final alcohol % to 13% (12.7% to be exact)
During fermentation I added some sautéed fresh blackberries to add the aroma to the wine (in primary it comes through on the nose mostly)
I had 13 remaining bottles from this fermentation completing about 3.25 years ago.
I added tannins to primary (didn’t plan to make brandy
) and some oak chips during aging (6 months in carboy, rest in bottle)
For the stripping run:
I collected in 8oz / 236ml jars - sanitized with star San (wine making habit?)
I estimated this first run 8L x .127 => 1.016 L potential (no idea if this is correct, but it was close)
I use a stainless steel still, with a slobber box on an induction plate where I control power as watts (10 = 1800, 4= 800).
Temp is in C, measured at dome, and was tracked as a guide for me to try to learn my still.
6/14/21 - First run: collected as small cuts as I wasn’t sure if I would do a second run or not yet and better safe than sorry
4:35pm - temp 20* power 10 #start run
4:50pm - 25* power 10
4:55 - 32* power 10 ## sweet apple aroma detected at outlet, started condenser
5:00 - 45* power 10
5:01 - 50* power 10 #start to drip reduced power to 4
5;04 - 64* power 4 # stream very dry with strong alcohol aroma
5:05 - 72* power 4 # continued broken stream about 100ml collected, smell acetone and sweet
5:10 - 76* power 4 # collected 1/2 jar and swapped (jar 1)
5:15 - 78* power 4 #still broken stream collected second half jar and swapped aroma is softer (jar 2)
5:20 - 80*, power 4 ~half jar and swapped (jar 3)
5:28 - 81* power 4 - half jar swap (jar 4)
5:30 - 81* power 4 #broken stream, 4.25 half jars collected
8:36 - 81* power 4 # jar swap (jar 5)
5:43 - 81* power 4 #jar swap (jar 6)
5:45 - 81* power 4 #broken stream 6.25 half jars collected
5:50 - 81* power 4 # jar swap (jar 7)
6:00 - 82* power 4 # jar swap (slightly more than half) # liquor feels slightly oily (jar
6:08 - 85* power 4 # jar swap - smell is in that wet dog area maybe, feels oily - (jar 9)
6:15 - 85*, power 4 # half jar, shut down, flow stopped immediately. (Jar 10)
~10 half jars collected. Estimate around 1.25L collected.
- emptied slobber box of about 100ml of cloudy sweet smelling stuff ( smelled good. Almost kept it. Wondering what I could have done with it)
6/15/21
Aromas of hearts (4-7) in first run pretty good, hot taste, wasn’t able to measure abv by sample due to small volumes…..decided to do a second run with remaining wine as charge approximating a 1.5 run.
Second run 1.5 (or so) using 5 bottles to which I added full previous run.
- again Collect in 8oz / 236ml jars but filled middle jars more full to get abv of samples.
10:30am- 20* / p 10 # start run
10:45 - 30* p10 #starting to smell apple notes and hearing rumbling noises. Head is hot. Started condenser
10:49 - 42* p10 / p4 #first drips, reduced power to 4, began collecting serious acetone smell, very dry liquor
10:50 - 52* p4 #steady drips
10:53 - 65* p4 # intermittent stream;
10:55 -70* p4 #half jar -fores : Jar 1 (treat as fores even though about 125ml which is probably too much)
10:59 - 72* p4 # half jar harsh smell : Jar 2
11:03 - 73* p4 # half jar, lighter smell: jar 3
11:10 - 74* p4 # 3/4 jar, much lighter smell:Jar 4
11:17 - 75* p4 # 3/4 jar, light sweet smell’ grape and blackberry: Jar 5
11:23 - 76* p4 # 3/4 jar, light sweet smell: Jar 6
11:30 - 76* p4 # 3/4 jar, still sweet smell: Jar 7
11:38 - 78* p4 # 3/4 jar, sweet smell: Jar 8
11:46 - 82* p4 # 3/4 jar, sweet smell:Jar 9
11:58 - 82* p4 # 3/4 jar, changing smell but still seems sweet : Jar 10
12:09 - 83* p4 # 3/4 jar, stream more intermittent, sweet bit maybe wet cardboard in there, feels oily on skin: Jar 11
12:17 - 85* p4 # 3/4 jar, definitely wet cardboard and oily : Jar 12
12:17 shut down.
Put all jars under coffee filters to sample and blend hopefully tomorrow. Early aromas: sweet blackberry and grape notes seem to be coming through.
Estimate average 150-175 ml per jar - so about 2L collected.
Slobber box again full of cloudy sweet smelling stuff.
Blending tomorrow but here’s some abv notes from testing.
Jar 1 - dispose
Jar 2: > 77% (not enough to measure)
Jar 3: > 77% (not enough to measure)
Jar 4: 77%
Jar 5: 75%
Jar 6:
Jar 7:
jar 8: 66%
Jar 9:
Jar 10: 54%
Jar 11:
Jar 12: 36% (strong tails)
I’m not sure if this is helpful, but I had trouble finding anything like this and wanted some ideas of what a run looked like so I thought I would share mine. Also not sure if this is the right place so please feel free to move if it isn’t.
Final question: what oak do any of you who make Brandy use? I have American (light and medium spirals and chips) and French (medium chips) and Hungarian barrels (don't have enough for this though….).
I have been searching for information on Brandy runs for several days and haven’t seen too much information. I just finished my first run of some wine I made about 3 years ago which was a bit of an experiment and hoping that people find this information useful as I personally couldn’t find the detail I was looking for. Thanks to @nzchris and others who have consistently posted responses to other threads from which I learned a lot. Here’s what I made:
Using a cheap Cabernet (ordered on amazon) wine kit I fermented as follows:
Kit instructions were for a 6 gallon kit, Which I made to 5.5 gallons as I find that these cheaper kits are too thin at 6 gallons
This also boosted the SG and final alcohol % to 13% (12.7% to be exact)
During fermentation I added some sautéed fresh blackberries to add the aroma to the wine (in primary it comes through on the nose mostly)
I had 13 remaining bottles from this fermentation completing about 3.25 years ago.
I added tannins to primary (didn’t plan to make brandy
) and some oak chips during aging (6 months in carboy, rest in bottle) For the stripping run:
I collected in 8oz / 236ml jars - sanitized with star San (wine making habit?)
I estimated this first run 8L x .127 => 1.016 L potential (no idea if this is correct, but it was close)
I use a stainless steel still, with a slobber box on an induction plate where I control power as watts (10 = 1800, 4= 800).
Temp is in C, measured at dome, and was tracked as a guide for me to try to learn my still.
6/14/21 - First run: collected as small cuts as I wasn’t sure if I would do a second run or not yet and better safe than sorry
4:35pm - temp 20* power 10 #start run
4:50pm - 25* power 10
4:55 - 32* power 10 ## sweet apple aroma detected at outlet, started condenser
5:00 - 45* power 10
5:01 - 50* power 10 #start to drip reduced power to 4
5;04 - 64* power 4 # stream very dry with strong alcohol aroma
5:05 - 72* power 4 # continued broken stream about 100ml collected, smell acetone and sweet
5:10 - 76* power 4 # collected 1/2 jar and swapped (jar 1)
5:15 - 78* power 4 #still broken stream collected second half jar and swapped aroma is softer (jar 2)
5:20 - 80*, power 4 ~half jar and swapped (jar 3)
5:28 - 81* power 4 - half jar swap (jar 4)
5:30 - 81* power 4 #broken stream, 4.25 half jars collected
8:36 - 81* power 4 # jar swap (jar 5)
5:43 - 81* power 4 #jar swap (jar 6)
5:45 - 81* power 4 #broken stream 6.25 half jars collected
5:50 - 81* power 4 # jar swap (jar 7)
6:00 - 82* power 4 # jar swap (slightly more than half) # liquor feels slightly oily (jar
6:08 - 85* power 4 # jar swap - smell is in that wet dog area maybe, feels oily - (jar 9)
6:15 - 85*, power 4 # half jar, shut down, flow stopped immediately. (Jar 10)
~10 half jars collected. Estimate around 1.25L collected.
- emptied slobber box of about 100ml of cloudy sweet smelling stuff ( smelled good. Almost kept it. Wondering what I could have done with it)
6/15/21
Aromas of hearts (4-7) in first run pretty good, hot taste, wasn’t able to measure abv by sample due to small volumes…..decided to do a second run with remaining wine as charge approximating a 1.5 run.
Second run 1.5 (or so) using 5 bottles to which I added full previous run.
- again Collect in 8oz / 236ml jars but filled middle jars more full to get abv of samples.
10:30am- 20* / p 10 # start run
10:45 - 30* p10 #starting to smell apple notes and hearing rumbling noises. Head is hot. Started condenser
10:49 - 42* p10 / p4 #first drips, reduced power to 4, began collecting serious acetone smell, very dry liquor
10:50 - 52* p4 #steady drips
10:53 - 65* p4 # intermittent stream;
10:55 -70* p4 #half jar -fores : Jar 1 (treat as fores even though about 125ml which is probably too much)
10:59 - 72* p4 # half jar harsh smell : Jar 2
11:03 - 73* p4 # half jar, lighter smell: jar 3
11:10 - 74* p4 # 3/4 jar, much lighter smell:Jar 4
11:17 - 75* p4 # 3/4 jar, light sweet smell’ grape and blackberry: Jar 5
11:23 - 76* p4 # 3/4 jar, light sweet smell: Jar 6
11:30 - 76* p4 # 3/4 jar, still sweet smell: Jar 7
11:38 - 78* p4 # 3/4 jar, sweet smell: Jar 8
11:46 - 82* p4 # 3/4 jar, sweet smell:Jar 9
11:58 - 82* p4 # 3/4 jar, changing smell but still seems sweet : Jar 10
12:09 - 83* p4 # 3/4 jar, stream more intermittent, sweet bit maybe wet cardboard in there, feels oily on skin: Jar 11
12:17 - 85* p4 # 3/4 jar, definitely wet cardboard and oily : Jar 12
12:17 shut down.
Put all jars under coffee filters to sample and blend hopefully tomorrow. Early aromas: sweet blackberry and grape notes seem to be coming through.
Estimate average 150-175 ml per jar - so about 2L collected.
Slobber box again full of cloudy sweet smelling stuff.
Blending tomorrow but here’s some abv notes from testing.
Jar 1 - dispose
Jar 2: > 77% (not enough to measure)
Jar 3: > 77% (not enough to measure)
Jar 4: 77%
Jar 5: 75%
Jar 6:
Jar 7:
jar 8: 66%
Jar 9:
Jar 10: 54%
Jar 11:
Jar 12: 36% (strong tails)
I’m not sure if this is helpful, but I had trouble finding anything like this and wanted some ideas of what a run looked like so I thought I would share mine. Also not sure if this is the right place so please feel free to move if it isn’t.
Final question: what oak do any of you who make Brandy use? I have American (light and medium spirals and chips) and French (medium chips) and Hungarian barrels (don't have enough for this though….).