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Fruit processing equipment


Sorghumrunner

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We are working primarily with apples, peaches and pears at our distillery. So far we've been having to buy juice rather than whole fruit. I'm looking for some suggestions for versatile processing equipment, preferably something that could handle these different fruit types. I believe it may be possible to just mash the fruits rather than a complete juicing, as for our apple brandy we would only be processing about 25% of the batch, the rest coming in as juice rather than whole fruit.

We are talking about processing 50-150 bushels per month here, not vast quantities.

Any suggestions?

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Apples and pears can use the same equipment. Small-ish imported grinders are available. The peaches will take something else. I've simply broken them in half by hand - the yeast will turn them to mush in short order and the pits sink to the bottom. But a half-ton later, you have severe RSI. I see that GW Kent is offering a crusher modified for stone fruit this year. Have tried it myself.

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With stonefruit I've had some luck using semi-commercial tapered-screen juicers with a very coarse screen. It's noisy, but macerates anything up to green plums or sloes with brutal efficiency. Usually they are made for tomatoes or something...I might have photo somewhere. I'm not a fan of fermenting on the stones...

Also, grinding the fruit and fermenting that works great. I try to use relatively acidic water to mash into (pH 4.5) and the appropriate pectolytic enzyme. The fruit floats a lot during fermentation, and the top layer can oxidize pretty severely, so either closed fermentation or periodic agitation (I used pump agitation) helps a lot. Especially with grappa, as grape skins are buoyant little mofos.

I know I'm not supposed to add water to skins for grappa, but have you seen how dry they come out of modern presses??!?

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Great, thanks for the suggestions everyone. So, if you use something like a grinder, you'll get a pulpy mash that could be then run through a juicer, or you could add water to it? If you're doing the latter, how are you measuring the brix or s.g? Are you just adding enough water to hydrate the pulpy mash from the grinder?

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