Apple schnapps/brandy

[davecuds]

Ok, i tried my hand at some apple schnapps and it wasn't a success.
Recipe: 13kg blended apples, 8kg of sugar, 80gm bakers yeast and water to bring it up to about 60L,
put it all in the fermenter and waited 2 weeks.

The SG was hard to take as it was a very thick wash so i gave up on that idea and just waited over 2 weeks when i thought it should be ready.
I ran it through the still and collected about 250ml of distillate! hahaha

I guess the yeast didn't end up doing hardly anything? Do i need to add nutrients to a fruit wash?

I dont want to waste all that farm fresh appley goodness so what do u guys think about this?
To try and revive it, i plan to add another 8-10kg of sugar, nutrients some more yeast and more water to make it up to about 80L so i can get 2 ferments out of it. Thoughts?

[res]

I always heard bakers yeast was bad for fruit washes. I assumed it was a flavor thing but maybe there's other issues as well. :-B I would try EC1118, pretty common for fruit washes, wines, champagne and cider etc; and stuck ferments too come to think of it :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[SBB]

Without looking into it Id of thought the apple mush should have enough nutrients in it.
What temp was it fermented at? ...maybe the cold weather was the problem.

[MacStill]

bakers yeast + fruit :crying-blue:

Only use wine or champagne yeast for fermenting fruits, bakers yeast would be my last choice ;-)

+1 on EC1118 :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[davecuds]

Yeah i read bakers yeast wasn't the best but it was all i had on hand. However, i have only read i might not give desirable flavours, it still should work right?

I would have thought there were enough nutrients as well but i'm not that well read on that stuff yet. Maybe it was the temp. It has been quite cold here lately. I'm just trying to remember if i aerated it as well. I think i just gave it a a hell of a stir with a paddle, perhaps it wasn't enough.

So tomorrow i will dissolve some more sugar and pitch a better yeast with some nutrients after a good hit with a paint stirrer. I have 2 weeks work away so hopefully i come back to a decent wash.

It'd did smell delicious for the hr i had it running so i hope it turns out ok.

Could PH be an issue?

[Sam.]

If it smelt real good you might have had a leak mate, hence the low yield :scared-eek:

[davecuds]

Dont you guys get big hits of smell coming off your still? I can smell different washes even before it is up to temp, especially my brandy.

There was a slight leak in one of my sight glasses but it's only a drip every minute or so...i will fix it before my next wash but wasn't a big issue. The yield was literally about 300ml and the plates weren't loading as normal and generally acting weird and i really had to give it heaps of power to maintain it. So there was just no alcohol in the wash which means the yeast were just being lazy.....or i tortured them.

[Sam.]

Yeah I do get the smell off the still especially the lighter stuff at the beginning like you mentioned, but your still shouldn't be dripping, if it's dripping then there is probably a lot of vapour escaping as well, ethanol vapour isn't visible ;-)

[davecuds]

Righto. So i took the warm wash from yesterdays attempt and have diluted another 12kg of sugar into the mix. I topped up the fermenter to make roughly 80L, added 2 tubs of tomato paste and pitched 60gm EC1118 after 20mins aeration.

I will check in a few hrs to see what it is doing. fingers crossed.

[1 2many]

Righto. So i took the warm wash from yesterdays attempt and have diluted another 12kg of sugar into the mix. I topped up the fermenter to make roughly 80L, added 2 tubs of tomato paste and pitched 60gm EC1118 after 20mins aeration.

I will check in a few hrs to see what it is doing. fingers crossed.

So mate how did it go? Any results this time?
Mick.

[davecuds]

G'day Mick, nah another disappointment mate. I reckon it's the temperature. I've still kept the wash so i'm going to check the SG again and wack in an aquarium heater and see if that does the trick. If not, im outta ideas.

[Prunus]

Hej,

i actually run a Apple mash. The apple is called "Gravensteiner" and it´s one of the most popular in Northern Europe.
I selected 80kg of best fruits without any damages. Send them through a mill and added special yeast for cold mashing.
I storage the Vessel in a 12°C room. Thats the limit for the yeast i use. It took 3 weeks and then i have something around
6% Vol. Alcohol in the wash. Distilling for each run not more than 2 hours. In the End i have something around 3 Liters good Product.

regards

Prunus

[twentytwo250]

I used to make a lot of fruit wine and your recipe seems a bit too much water and 6 weeks to ferment. 2Kg of fruit 1.5Kg of sugar and a tea spoon of bakers yeast for a 5 litre wash. Therefore your 60 litres of water was too much and you needed to leave the wash longer.