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7 Lt water - 6 kg apples - 1.5 kg sugar and a bit of Epson salts. This is my attempt at making an apple brandy with sugar help, my first actually.
After the yeast was added not much if anything happened, which in my area, climate etc is unusual. Usually I have a bubbler chattering away by the time I have packed away and cleaned up area, not this time - went to bed worried.

The following day after work I went to check on my Applelation and could hear it already when opening the door, it honestly sounds like its under pressure. The bubbles are not loose individuals, they like a kid blowing through a straw in a milkshake.
The description is not exaggerated !
I would venture to say that what I am seeing is not possible from a 10 -12 lt source, there just can not be so much production ability ???????????????????????????????

What is happening here - OG was 1.060

Can anyone explain this ? And is there anything I should add to a maniacal fermentation of this sort.

It's not unusual for a healthy ferment to blow an airlock madly. I've had beers where the top and center of a 3 piece airlock have blown out, and lost all water from a 3 chamber bubbler. In general with a mash for distillation, the airlock is unnecessary.

I stopped using air locks years ago as they were causing more issues than they solved. Sometimes everything just happens to line up perfectly, i've had 20L and 50L ferments finish dry overnight.

Congrats on your super healthy ferment!

So it went all the way ended at 0.940 FG.
I distilled it and it tasted awful - old socks and must cupboard. What did I do wrong, not even a trace of apple.

Apple flavour hides in the heads. Too much of a heads cut and you'll throw away all the apple. While some of the esters, like ethyl acetate, have a similar boiling point as ethanol, many have a lower boiling point.
There's an old saying that this years cider is next years brandy. At least a year resting is preferred as this gives everything time to interact. My first brandy was terrible off the still, like an old wet box of farts with the slightest hint of apple. A year latter and it is now recognisable as apple based and the bad smell has disappeared.

You don't say how you distilled it. There are plenty of mistakes a newbie can make if they haven't done their homework first, I'm not going to write a list just because someone asked.

Haha, apple brandy is hard! I reckon super-ripe, tasty apples and absolutely no sugar or water is the way to go. Even then it’s still a challenge, like most fruit brandies I reckon.

I suspect you did one distillation? If you can get your hands on 50kg of ripe apples it’s worth another crack.

Good luck out there.

After reading over your first post again i can see you've done pretty much a sugar wash not a brandy. With that much dilution with water and sugar id be surprised if much, if any ant all, flavour will be able to be found.

Socks and cardboard implies tails.

Without information about the entire process, that's speculation. But in generally, a sugar wash like you made will have very little flavor. That means any defects stand out more than the 'apple' you are looking for by default. If you smear tails into your hearts cut, you got funk. Apple flavor tends to be in the heads, and it's tricky to make good cuts to make use of some of that. I wonder if you also did a one and done distillation, which I'd expect to taste how you briefly describe.

Strongly recommend reading a lot and learning how this works to develop some process expectations to lead you on your way. Start with the required reading links (below) and then keep going.

NZChris wrote: ↑Mon Mar 24, 2025 1:36 pm You don't say how you distilled it. There are plenty of mistakes a newbie can make if they haven't done their homework first, I'm not going to write a list just because someone asked.

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I will not ask then.

JustinNZ wrote: ↑Mon Mar 24, 2025 1:53 pm Haha, apple brandy is hard! I reckon super-ripe, tasty apples and absolutely no sugar or water is the way to go. Even then it’s still a challenge, like most fruit brandies I reckon.

I suspect you did one distillation? If you can get your hands on 50kg of ripe apples it’s worth another crack.

Good luck out there.

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I did a fast strip run in my stainless reflux still - no baffles or such in it. Remove fore a lot and aft not so much.
I them ran it through my pot still - 5 lt at about 40 %. removed 50 ml fore again then 20 ml in small glass's. I then ran 150 ml cuts , about 4 of them - they all not good for anything.

SW_Shiner wrote: ↑Mon Mar 24, 2025 2:10 pm After reading over your first post again i can see you've done pretty much a sugar wash not a brandy. With that much dilution with water and sugar id be surprised if much, if any ant all, flavour will be able to be found.

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Thank you, this valuable to me.

bilgriss wrote: ↑Tue Mar 25, 2025 4:05 am Socks and cardboard implies tails.

Without information about the entire process, that's speculation. But in generally, a sugar wash like you made will have very little flavor. That means any defects stand out more than the 'apple' you are looking for by default. If you smear tails into your hearts cut, you got funk. Apple flavor tends to be in the heads, and it's tricky to make good cuts to make use of some of that. I wonder if you also did a one and done distillation, which I'd expect to taste how you briefly describe.

Strongly recommend reading a lot and learning how this works to develop some process expectations to lead you on your way. Start with the required reading links (below) and then keep going.

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Yes, I did not that if anything was better it was my second heads, before my hearts guess (my terms).
Again this is valuable.

IT IS BRANDY that I most yearn to make.

Oom Boom wrote: ↑Tue Mar 25, 2025 12:36 pm

JustinNZ wrote: ↑Mon Mar 24, 2025 1:53 pm Haha, apple brandy is hard! I reckon super-ripe, tasty apples and absolutely no sugar or water is the way to go. Even then it’s still a challenge, like most fruit brandies I reckon.

I suspect you did one distillation? If you can get your hands on 50kg of ripe apples it’s worth another crack.

Good luck out there.

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I did a fast strip run in my stainless reflux still - no baffles or such in it. Remove fore a lot and aft not so much.
I them ran it through my pot still - 5 lt at about 40 %. removed 50 ml fore again then 20 ml in small glass's. I then ran 150 ml cuts , about 4 of them - they all not good for anything.

How fast was it run through the pot still? With that small of a charge the cuts were way too big. a general good rule of thumb for spirit runs is that it should take roughly 6 hours, regardless of charge size, and ideally about 20 jars for cuts, especially for those new to distilling. Once you've dialed in how everything works then you can adjust to what suits you.

Oom Boom wrote: ↑Tue Mar 25, 2025 12:36 pm I did a fast strip run in my stainless reflux still - no baffles or such in it. Remove fore a lot and aft not so much.
I them ran it through my pot still - 5 lt at about 40 %. removed 50 ml fore again then 20 ml in small glass's. I then ran 150 ml cuts , about 4 of them - they all not good for anything.

Copper helps remove sulfides, I'm guessing that there wasn't much copper in the still.

Removing too much foreshot from an apple strip removes essential apple flavor. I don't remove much at all, often none.

A pot head is better than a reflux head for stripping and for the spirit run.

40% Low Wines means that you stopped stripping far too early and threw out good alcohol and flavor in the backset. I stop with 40% when stripping for neutral, and around 24-27% for flavored products.

Adding sugar adds neutral alcohol so dilutes flavor. You can rescue it a bit by excluding the most flavorless jars from the heart cut.

bilgriss wrote: ↑Wed Mar 19, 2025 3:30 am It's not unusual for a healthy ferment to blow an airlock madly. I've had beers where the top and center of a 3 piece airlock have blown out, and lost all water from a 3 chamber bubbler. In general with a mash for distillation, the airlock is unnecessary.

I agree on this, leave top loose, most of the time the top of what ever you have is leaky anyway.
bubblers seldom bubble for me and if they clog , its a mess, DeathWish out of the TandT do not use a bubbler,
you might find it stuck in the ceiling and SO she will scream.