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Yet Another Apple Brandy Distillation
Just ran the second of 3, five to six gallon batches of a 5-apple variety Roxbury Russet, Stayman Winesap, Empire, Jonathan and Sweetie. Next I will be fermenting, then distilling, a blend of both crab apples and Arkansas Black for added tannins when they are ready to pick this week. Using EC-1118. Low SG start about 1.047. Western NC apples. No sugar or yeast nutrients. The strong Hydrogen Sulfides odor cleared with copper scrubbies submerged for 15 minuteds per carboy.I’m running a propane fired 10 gallon all copper rig with a thumper and flake stand now safely vacuum relief vented thanks to several contributors on my first post. I followed Cranky’s Apple Brandy suggestions among others to guide me through this run along with countless hours of reading and research. I have the luxury of time. I mainly wanted to list some observations and not necessarily expecting feedback. Maybe it will help anothe rookie.1. My still should comfortably hold 7.5 gallons but my carboys are 5-6.5 gallons. This odd matchup reinforces why the experienced call for the 15.5 keg. I need to break down one of the carboys to smaller containers to get a 3/4 full boiler. Crazy high cost of fruit initially dictated my decision for lower volume. 1a. NZ Chris has suggested in more than one place on the forum to match your fermentation vessel to 3x your boiler charge. Great advice and followed.2. I ran the first 6 gallons low and slow taking 250ml cuts. A quart of wash in the thumper. Cranky suggested to run it like a spirit run and the results may be satisfactory. The apple aroma and flavor was very pronounced about 350ml into it. Damn happy I was. Some of it dissapointingly dissapated after 24 hrs of airing. Yield after cuts was around 2/3 gallon. Saved heads and some tails, discarded fores. 3. Second run of 5 gallons with a pint of tails and 12oz wash in the thumper. Flavor and aroma much more muted than first run and it was about a mere hour despite how slow I tried to run it. Tails were very evident so I shut it down at about 18% ABV. Waiting for airing before noting yield. I thought the muting may be what was in the thumper or the speed of the run.4. The low yield on the 2 batches tells me I may or should toss these low wines into the final wash for a 1.5. I guess I misjudged the yield because the sugar wash I did prior gave me much more. It’s higher starting SG equals more yield in hindsight. 5. My utility sink provides a water source which works out for now. I did notice that my 3 gallon flake needs to be pretty cool to knock down vapors into that sweet broken stream. I managed to get the “warm to cool stratification” but didn’t seem to be effective. Maybe this is why some say every still is different. Thanks for listening
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7 Replies
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Sounds like you got it under control. Have only done one apple run mine was with concentrated apple juice thick like a syrup, and a case of granny smith apples.From memory most of the apple flavour dissipated as you said but could definitely still tell it was apple based. Another thing i remember is I prefered it white.
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Brandy seems to have most of the fruit character at the beginning of the strip. Ya have to be careful not to lose it. I seldom do brandy, my friend Bubba recycles heads and/or adds some neutral spirits to the pulp before doing the stripping runs. The extra alcohol pulls more flavor out of the fruit and raises the abv.
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That advice is offered for a simple pot still, not for a thumper.
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IF by “shut it down at about 18%” you mean it was still 18% coming off the still you should have went lower IMO.
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2. Alot of apple flavor comes over early, so an aggressive heads cut can get rid of too much of the desirable VOCs.If you lose flavor with airing, don’t air.If what you are smelling coming off a jar is nice, what you are losing is nice, so put a lid on it.
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It did come back after 24hrs. But definitely good to know that’s another option. Thanks
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IF by “shut it down at about 18%” you mean it was still 18% coming off the still you should have went lower IMO.Yes you are correct. I’m surprised at how much flavor carried into the tails. One more batch to run. I’ll try letting it run down longer. Thanks
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