Orange Brandy

[RuddyCrazy]

G'day Guy's,
Well about a month ago my missus madeup a Orange infused mulled wine and had a couple of litres left over after the party and surprisingly she asked to go something with it. :scared-eek:

So filtered out the Orange and the mulled herbs and did a few strip runs in my minime but didn't have enough low wines so just added some 90% neutral to top up the boiler for the spirit run. I put the orange and the botanicals back in the boiler for the run too. The smell on the spirit run was very interesting and the first D.P. went close to blowing me away with the taste. :happy-partydance:

Now after that first try I decided to go grab a 5 litre Coolabah Rose goon cask and mulled the mulling herbs and some freshly cut Navel orange slices keeping the heating under 70 C for about 3 hours. Then I filtered out the botanicals and did several strip runs to get the low wines for the spirit run. I threw the orange and the botanicals back in the boiler and in the thumper went some of the original mulling wine mix.

Once again the smell and D.P. was amazing and the final spirit was watered down to 65% and some freshly charred/toasted French Oak was cut from my 2.2kg domino and added.

Now after a few weeks the taste has really started to develop and I'm thinking for such a small run calling it and making a bottle or two.

I do need to go see a few wineries and see if i can get some red wine cheap to strip so I can do a full run over 4 plates in my bubbler setup. In order to get 45 litres of low wines from a red grape based wine I would reckon I'd need close to 100 litres of red wine. So with many wineries close by I'm sure one may come to the party.

Anyway if you have a small pot still setup this is worth trying as the result is simply stunning.

Cheers Bryan

[warramungas]

Got a rough recipe you can share?
Making it with wine sounds expensive unless you use a little for taste and boost the flavor with alcohol.

[RuddyCrazy]

Got a rough recipe you can share?
Making it with wine sounds expensive unless you use a little for taste and boost the flavor with alcohol.

Hi warra as I said in the post I went and grabbed a $13 goon cask and used that, mulled the herbs ( allspice,cassia,cinnamon and black pepper). Crushed up in my corana mill and just sliced up a fresh navel orange. Put it all in a 10 litre stock pot and onto the gas it went with a temp gauge stuck in to make sure I kept it under 70 C so the acl didn't boil off.

As the boiler on my minime hold about a litre I did several strip runs to get the low wines then I had enough 40% to do a spirit run where i threw the orange and herbs in the boiler.

As for tasting the orange comes out and hits you first also it is very smooth going down the hatch and then the herbs kick in to complete the dram. It is my first array into brandy and I will be doing more with different fruits.

$13 for a base is cheap enough to get a couple of bottles of fruit based white brandy and when I can get enough red wine my plan is to put down a 25 litre french oak barrel for a couple of years.

Cheers Bryan

[warramungas]

Not familiar with mulled wine.
I find citrus comes over really well in any distillation and really like the fresh flavour in my gin like the flavour in my gins.
Cassia and cinnimon not so much as i usually cut before they come over too much.

[bluc]

Hey bryan if winery's let you down check this out viewtopic.php?f=51&t=12201 i have half that along with about 20 kumquats and oak in a mason jar and some herbs. I gifted a bottle and have had some good feedback.. i bought the merlot kit.
Have also found somewhere to buy concentrate or merc :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[RuddyCrazy]

Well guy's, After 9 months on oak this drop is ready and man what a taste :handgestures-thumbupleft: the citrus comes out boldly in the mouth then with a very smooth swallow the mulling herbs shine thru nicely.

so off 5 litres of Coolabah RED and 2 runs thru my 2" potsill then 9 months on oak did yield a 1 litre bottle and 1/2 a dram glass. The Angels took a huge share and they took all the baddies with it :handgestures-thumbupleft: leaving a drop that would suit a king :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

So tomorrow time to get another goon cask and do this recipe again as theres no way that bottle will last 9 months :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

Cheers Bryan

[RuddyCrazy]

G'Day Guy's,
Well the tradition of Mulled Orange Brandy lives on with that full keg of red wine Thanks Triangle :handgestures-thumbupleft:

SWMBO took over and in the end 6 stock pots were done and I get 5 of them as mummy tax applies :laughing-rolling: My job was moving the stock pots and that 40 litre fermenter I have came in handy for the wine transfer. I also used my 30 litre beer fermenter for the macerated wine which is slowly cooling outside.

So about 60% was macerated and with SWMBO taking a pot I may be able to get this done in one pass on my bubbler, now I am tempted to throw some thru my minime pot still as some fresh orange in the thumper will give that extra citrus flavour.

It was just too easy siphoning the wine out of the keg when it was still in the boot as the dropoff from my shed pad is enough for fast transfers and I used a broken brick to level up the fermenter so it wouldn't roll back on the decline :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Cheers Bryan