Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

WineGlass wrote:

BackyardBrewer wrote:I'm treating it like a clearing beer and waiting for it to drop.

No good rushing now mate. Good approach. It will tell you when its ready. It will whisper to you quietly in your sleep.

Nothing lost if you get a little mush in the boiler, the bubbler will sort it out.

Its a bitch of a job clearing the stuff, but it will taste delicious, I recon. When I do the plum stuff, the shed smells fantastic, a smell to remember.

Oh the smell of the laundry was magic. The old man popped round this arvo and walked in and said it smelled good enough to drink as it was.

bet if he tasted it he would change his mind :laughing-rolling:

crow wrote:bet if he tasted it he would change his mind :laughing-rolling:

Mate I had a sip... Not terrible, kind of sour but very apricot wine... I guess less than 10% abv by taste and experience.

Chances are you're sitting between 5% and 8%. You'll know once you run it.

WineGlass wrote:Chances are you're sitting between 5% and 8%. You'll know once you run it.

Reckon 8% would be great, that feels like the high end based on the smell & taste so far. Loads of flavour at this point, lets hope that carries through after a boilin'

:-)

Well this has been a disaster. Reckon I could put this in Tell Us Your Fuck Ups:(

Got a nasty wild acidic ferment almost immediately before I got proper yeast in. Whatever wild shit was on them was nasty!

Then all seemed ok, smelt fine, took a tonne of filtering and racking and then I ran it... It stunk! Methanol? Vinegar? I don't know but it burned the hairs out of your nose.

I thought it was a stuck ferment so I added more yeast, sugar and DAP. The fermenters kicked off again but started to get that spider web cracked mold on top again.

Ran it just then and got fuck all out of it maybe 1.5L of 85-90% out of 45L. Smells very "nutty" from the kernels. Tastes revolting off the still @40%.

Airing some now but with all the effort and another 2 fermenters I think this shit should go down the drain and I'll try and get it right next year:(

Really high hopes all dashed... Makes me envious as hell for all those guys pushing out plumb brandy that you're raving about being the best thing ever. This shit is the worst muck I've made and when I think about the picking and the pulping and the filtering it's heartbreaking. Yes they were free from my tree but bugger me what a disappointment.

So...down the drain with the last 50L?

Geez sorry to hear that mate, I'll pour myself a fantastic lightly oaked plum brandy for you :teasing-tease:

Don't stress mate, my plum brandy was pretty much a failure, I got about 1L of 65% from a tree's worth of plums and it still doesn't taste great. Lesson learned, next time just buy grapes.

MacStill wrote:Geez sorry to hear that mate, I'll pour myself a fantastic lightly oaked plum brandy for you :teasing-tease:

Don't make BYB cry! :(( too late! Waaaaaaaaa!

Fruit might be fun, but grain is great!

It can be dissapointing when it goes south, but hang in there mate. Don't let a little itty bitty set back like that stop you. Next year it'll all be good.

Did you get a lactic ferment? I'm sure crow will have an idea or two.

WineGlass wrote:Fruit might be fun, but grain is great!

It can be dissapointing when it goes south, but hang in there mate. Don't let a little itty bitty set back like that stop you. Next year it'll all be good.

Did you get a lactic ferment? I'm sure crow will have an idea or two.

Yeah crow saw the initial pix before I got yeast into it and he was of the opinion it was a lactic ferment. Never really recovered...

jeez mate that's krud news hmm yeah would rely to much on wild yeast or bread yeast for that matter. Cots are kinda furry if ya look at them up real close and I'm not real sure that that is yeast on them could well have a lot of other bacteria there. yeah do do it again but use white wine yeast or cider yeast do add sugar and don't cook them , that would have changed the hell out of the flavour and profile
@ BC where did you go wrong hard to fuck plums up , just plums water sugar and either natural or wine yeast :handgestures-thumbupleft:

crow wrote:@ BC where did you go wrong hard to fuck plums up , just plums water sugar and either natural or wine yeast :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Fuckup 1: used bakers yeast
Fuckup 2: either the pH was wrong or there wasn't enough sugar (3kg)

The yield was really poor, and bakers didn't leave a nice aroma.

Only cooked half, but yes that was a mistake and I used wine yeast - but it took 36hours to get it in to the wash as I had no stock and the brew shop was closed.

I think by then it was too late, I had vinegar in the making:(

Have an old wine making book most fruit recipe 6 lb fruit 3 lb sugar stone and crush fruit pour on boiling water .when cool add one teaspoonful pectozyme and 1 campden tablets .Cover and soak for 2 days then strain and stir in sugar .nutrient and fermenting yeast .Sulphide in wine may be no good if your allergic but infection is probably worse and does it get removed by the copper in the vapor path. Pectozyme does it create problems with greater methanol ,have fermented cider from bottled reconstituted apple juice and did no seem to give a bad headache .

wynnum1 wrote:Have an old wine making book most fruit recipe 6 lb fruit 3 lb sugar stone and crush fruit pour on boiling water .when cool add one teaspoonful pectozyme and 1 campden tablets .Cover and soak for 2 days then strain and stir in sugar .nutrient and fermenting yeast .Sulphide in wine may be no good if your allergic but infection is probably worse and does it get removed by the copper in the vapor path. Pectozyme does it create problems with greater methanol ,have fermented cider from bottled reconstituted apple juice and did no seem to give a bad headache .

I used sodium metabisulfite on my figs and not apricot. I would almost say that 48hours isn't enough as it will kill a ferment dead because it destroys ALL yeast not just bateria and wild yeast.

The figs actually came up much better than expected. So a win for the figgies and a loss for the cots. I would use sodium met next apricot run for sure.

BackyardBrewer wrote: Smells very "nutty"

That's cos it's shit austin :laughing-rolling:

Sorry couldn't help myself :handgestures-thumbupleft:

But yeah, I think next year if I want to do this I will be grabbing for the plums (sounds gay) instead of the apricots. :handgestures-thumbupleft: