Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Hi all
Going to do a apple schnapps and my question is when doing the mash, do I have to remove the seeds from the apples seeing they contain arsenic in them.

I don't think u have to but i always do, I'd rather not take any chances and with decent apple corer it doesn't add too much time.

How do you do it?

I've heard that they core the apples, juice them, hydrate the pulp and put yeast on to ferment it. At a guess I believe they'd add sugar, but it'd be interesting to know...!

I wouldn't be too concerned mate.
To put into perspective you'd need to consume around 200 seeds in order to get ill, roughly 20 apples worth.

The cyanogenic material will remain in the boiler if you were to have any make it that far. An apple corer is an easy solution for peace of mind for you though.

I'd be more concerned about the heads cut.
When dealing with a fruit mash like apples you're going to generate a LOT more heady waste, expected a much larger heads cut due to Methanol etc.

Cheers,

Mech.

Is that from the skins Mech? Is that from higher pectin?

EziTasting wrote:How do you do it?

I've heard that they core the apples, juice them, hydrate the pulp and put yeast on to ferment it. At a guess I believe they'd add sugar, but it'd be interesting to know...!

I core them, cut them up, hit them with mixing drill, usually add 2 kg of sugar ferment with ec1118, when ready, hit it with mixing drill again to chop up any solids. Becomes a very weak looking apple sauce. That's for 25l,

Yeah the skin contains pectin, you can add pectinaze if you want to as it breaks up the pectin into simple sugars that dont ferment into methanol afaik.

Others have gotten better flavour outcomes by macerating.

scythe wrote:Yeah the skin contains pectin, you can add pectinaze if you want to as it breaks up the pectin into simple sugars that dont ferment into methanol afaik.

Others have gotten better flavour outcomes by macerating.

I was under the impression that pectinaze was for clarifying wine and actually increased methanol production.

If there are seeds in the apples they would be left behind if you press the apples.

Is this pot stilled or run through a bubler?

Whatched a video on making cider bloke put them threw a sredder like one of the electric type you would get at bunnings, then put them into a homemade press strained the mixture adjusted gravity with water then pitched the yeast..

bluc wrote:Whatched a video on making cider bloke put them threw a sredder like one of the electric type you would get at bunnings, then put them into a homemade press strained the mixture adjusted gravity with water then pitched the yeast..

Yep, Thats what i do - but I also boil the liquid first to get rid of wild yeast - first 40 litre batch I made I didnt boil and it grew a black mould on top !

Also - there is a thread on here somewhere about using the apple mulch afterwards in a sugar wash !

Toyoda

Did this eventuate? Care to share a recipe? :think:

Costco sells apple juice in bulk that makes a great cider if you can't get apples. Should make a good base for schnapps. Never had an infection from them but have had one from home crushed apples. Boil sounds like the go if it doesn't affect ferment able sugars. More flavour complexity from home crush I have found.

Wondering how many litres of apple juice in a 25l batch. Do you use 25l straight apple juice or water it back?

You can use campden tablets to get rid of wild yeast...

Wobblyboot wrote:You can use campden tablets to get rid of wild yeast...

You can, but I worry about the sulfur coming across. Unless you age it for 12 months before running it. It can also affect subsequent ferment so dosage is important.

bluc wrote:Wondering how many litres of apple juice in a 25l batch. Do you use 25l straight apple juice or water it back?

Straight apple juice here, with 700ml of homemade ribena cordial for both a little flavour, kick and smoothing when I am making cider for kegging, as the cordial has some unfermentables that keep it from being fully dry. I usually use S-04 or US-05 yeast.

It should come out around 7% usually if you let it run right down but take a starting gravity as the juice can vary batch to batch- a little sugar is frowned upon in some circles but small adjustments and a lower temp ferment would make it come out without too much heat I would have thought. Costs a bit to buy the juice (unless you can get a local orchard bulk buy) but damn sight easier than coring, crushing, pressing 80kg of apples. Have done the latter a few times, the graft is worth it, but easy routes sometimes are worth a bit of cash. Yet to run it through a still but on the list of things to do.