Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Quite a few people in my family enjoy brandy so figured I might give it a bash considering I stuffed up the sour corn wash (didn't sour and ended up with rum) and will have a single malt wash on the go soon thanks to some tins of amber liquid malt extract I found in the shed.

So on HD there's a thread which mentions either distilling store bought wine or making the wine and distilling that. The quick recipe for the wine was 15 cans of grape juice concentrate topped up to 20L. I searched for the concentrate in Woolies and couldn't find it. I did see Berri 2.4L grape juice bottles. Can I just use 10 of these bottles which will make 24L, ferment it out with bakers yeast (or an ale yeast? or blend?). Once fermented, put in pot and strip run ditching the first 200ml and keeping down to 20%abv. Then do the spirit run. Maybe age it on an oak domino?

Its cheaper to buy the wine from wollies, 6x clearskins for $12

and you get 6 bottels!

it was recommended to not get the cheap bottles mainly due to sulfites. I have 3 bottles of rubbish white wine that the Mrs bought and won't drink so no doubt they will go in the pot still at some point.

Cask or two of goon and yr running tonight. Why wait on juice & yeast? Cheap cleanskins will get you there with no waiting and probably same cost.

Casks of wine (5l) are 2 for $24 ... so for $48 instant wash !!! no messing about !!! same price as a Turbo really !!!

I wouldn't go from grape juice...wrong variety, lacks acid, very high in sulphur so it's hard to start a proper ferment and get it dry...plus, you'll have a very large heads portion that's hard to separate.

I'm with others here...buy ready made wine, at least your acid levels are right and the resultant distillate will resemble brandy somewhat.

Ideally, get the most acidic and low ph...semillon, riesling or similar...

I agree with most of the posts here regarding table grape juice or concentrate. I however would not agree regarding fresh grapes, not everyone has access to bulk affordable wine and the process of wine making can be quite fun and rewarding in its self. A lot of ppl have access to grapes well suited to wine making and a lot of these would lend themselves well to distilling. members in a viticultural area would have access to any amount of grapes possibly for free as the harvesters can't start right at the strainer post or harvest efficiently right to the strainer therefore the ends of the rows have unharvested grapes remaining on the vine. most growers are happy to have these removed as they are a source for mildew and a range of other infections to develop. Not to use a product that can be obtained cheaply of free because there is a pre made option might be good advise to some but senseless to others particularly if the end product is for a non-commercial application where a number of overheads won't be factored in

That's certainly one way to go about it.

Just remember, you're not making a red wine, go for white varieties with high acid and don't use sulphur (PMS). It's quite hard to separate in the distillate.

i kinda like the idea of starting from grapes.... starting from wine just seems like cheating :teasing-neener:

As a new distiller I want to fast track my skills.

I bought a couple of 4l casks at Dan Murphy's local shop for $9 each.

Meanwhile I have started a 20l fermentation of tomato wash.

My recipe for a Orange mulled brandy

5 litre cask of red coolabah for $13

some mulling herbs
One sliced navel orange

Add the red wine to a 15 litre stock pot along with the sliced orange and mulled herbs and raise the temp to 65 degrees and hold it around there for 3 hours being careful not to go over 70C as we don't want to boil away the alc do we. Let it cool and seal it up for a week then run it thru a 5 litre pot still and temper to 65% with some toasted/charred French Oak chips.

Leave for a few months then temper down to 40% and i'm sure you will be making it again and again.

Cheers Bryan

I've made a decent brandy from sultanas, much better then cask wine, not my favourite brandy but it's a traditional tasting brandy.
I much prefer peach, quince or apple brandy.