Apple brandy question
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Apple brandy question
I am looking for some advice in regards to an apple mash. I acquired around 800lbs of apples and decided to try some apple brandy. I ground whole apples and added water. I got most of my information from cranky I believe. I used ec1118 and let it sit for a month. It was still fermenting so I put the lid back on. It's going on 3 months and hasn't moved off of 1.01 gravity. Should I say the hell with it and run it or is more patience going to get me anything else? Are there unfermentables in apples?
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Re: Apple brandy question
Taste it, if its dry run it. BTW it is not a mash, a mash is from grains only.
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contrahead
- Distiller
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Re: Apple brandy question
Taste it – and run it if it is dry, is good advice.
But if there is still some sweetness then perhaps a little more ethanol can be gained by waiting. As long as the smell is not off. This is winter after all. I've pushed ferments past 3 months, successfully. You did not mention the ambient temperature of the environment where these apples are fermenting.
800 lbs of apples, wow. Reminds me of a story about applejack. Back in colonial times, some families that had the means, buried a big barrel (all barrels were wooden then) of apples underground every year.
Such a barrel was destined to remain underground for 10 years before it was dug up. A barrel was only rotated out of the ground in the winter too. Applejack was freeze distilled. Water may be denser than ethanol but it turns to ice when the temperature drops enough, and then floats to the top. The ice is “jacked”; meaning picked out of the barrel and tossed away. There may have been mushy apple pulp to contend with too. But after a series of cold mornings most of the valuable spirit would have been extracted.
But if there is still some sweetness then perhaps a little more ethanol can be gained by waiting. As long as the smell is not off. This is winter after all. I've pushed ferments past 3 months, successfully. You did not mention the ambient temperature of the environment where these apples are fermenting.
800 lbs of apples, wow. Reminds me of a story about applejack. Back in colonial times, some families that had the means, buried a big barrel (all barrels were wooden then) of apples underground every year.
Such a barrel was destined to remain underground for 10 years before it was dug up. A barrel was only rotated out of the ground in the winter too. Applejack was freeze distilled. Water may be denser than ethanol but it turns to ice when the temperature drops enough, and then floats to the top. The ice is “jacked”; meaning picked out of the barrel and tossed away. There may have been mushy apple pulp to contend with too. But after a series of cold mornings most of the valuable spirit would have been extracted.
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stonedwolf
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Re: Apple brandy question
And the downside of Applejack was Apple Palsy aka Essence of Lockjaw. Because freeze distilling only removes water the methanol and other goodness-knows-what acetate esters and fusels, the foreshots and heads, let alone whatever non-water ickies in the tails, are left behind.
- The New York Times on April 10, 1894“The victim of applejack is capable of blowing up a whole town with dynamite and of reciting original poetry to every surviving inhabitant.”