Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Has anyone had a go at doing a fruit wash of mandarines?
As we're coming to an end of th efruit season and they are dirt cheap, Im thinking of putting 10 kg or so into a fermenter and topping with some sugar like Macs lemon vodka.
I've got 30 L fermenters, so if anyone has had a go at this before I'd love to hear.

with a reflux I would be making neutral and soaking it with zest, using suspension method, or doing sugar syrup method.
i like zest best.

http://aussiedistiller.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=4063&p=67582

Hi Andy,
Thanks for the reply.
I'm thinking of running through a boka in pot mode with a strip and spirit run.
When I saw you post on this earlier I had a play with some neutral that I had to hand,
But to be honest I really want to try and get the flavour from the wash for a completely clear product.

I think....
:^)

So here goes.
4kg of imperial mandarins, peeled and boiled in 2litres water.
Thoroughly mulch with a bamix and add the zest of about six mandies.

Let cool to 45 deg and add 25g pectinase.
Keep between 45 - 50 for an hour.
Throw pulp into fermenter and add 3kg inverted sugar.
Stabilize p.h. at 5.2 using pH stabilizer.
Add rehydrated ec118 and some cap plus one vitamin B tablet.

I will post when I know the result.
If this fails, it'll be tinctures like Andy and the Doctor I guess.

I'm intrigued, having an orange tree. There's only so many you can eat and make marmalade out of before you need another idea.

if i had a tree going to waste i would ferment them :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Keen to hear how you go mate I've just frozen 2 x 20L buckets worth and have 1 more tree just about ready so should have enough for a decent go at it.
SJC

I added another 2kg of sugar to bring up the starting Sg to 1.070.
It tastes yummy. :)
It is now sitting in the fermenting bath with my other washes.
I will update it as I go along.
Fingers are crossed coz I love mandarines.

I'm somewhat fond of booze too. :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

Bubbling strongly.... :handgestures-thumbupleft:

my in laws have heaps of mandarins and cant eat them all. i might pinch some next time if this works :-D

Also what was the pectinase added to the wash for? does it extract more flavor?

To be honest I was maybe being a bit over cautious.
Given what I've read about pectin being a source of methanol through the ferment ( mentioned frequently in relation to plums apples and pears )
I did a quick google of pectin content of mandarines. I found a few articles outlining the extraction of pectin from mandarines as a process so I figured I would err on the safe side.

Whether it has actually achieved anything... Don't know. If anyone with more knowledge would like to pipe up here I would be keen to hear.

My thinking was that for $2.85 for 50 grams of pectinase from the HBS it was worth a bet.

I waited for the mix to cool and when it hit 50 I put the pectinase in. It seemed to soften the mix somewhat, but not having any control to compare this to it could be my imagination. The pot I boiled in is a good solid cast iron unit and it holds temps well.
The pectinase was between 40 - 50 for about an hour and a quarter. From what I read this is the optimum temp range for the enzyme.

Like I said, don't know if this would be:
A) long enough to achieve much
b) of any use in reduction of methanol production
C) nescessary due to pectin content in original fruit
and D) if the enzyme would continue to work after the addition of yeast.

I may be wasting my time, but I figured for a total wash cost of around $12 it's worth a run.

Also I can wash down some ec118 at the end of it if nothing else. :geek: :teasing-blah: :teasing-blah:

Fishboy wrote:So here goes.

Add rehydrated ec118 and some cap plus one vitamin B tablet.

Should be "and some DAP plus one vitamin B

Mandarin wouldn't be as bad as an orange I reckon, but would depend on the mandarin. The pectin is found in the white membranes, pith and seeds. Which is good for setting marmalades and some people keep this stuff and add it to mixtures to get pectin up in low pectin fruit. You'll find yearly variations and also if the fruit tree has fertiliser imbalances, the pectin level can be higher than normal. So that's my gardening knowledge but not much help for the distilling!

Man i just hate it when people forget about their posts.

It probably went ok but how do we know it was worth all the effort.

Fishboy Last visited:Mon Aug 24, 2015 4:51 pm
Guess he doesn’t like us any more :))