Peach Brandy

[Geoman]

Howdi every one,

I'm a beginner, building my experience by experimenting one recipe at a time.  last I did is a peach brandy, and it turned bad.  Here is what I did:

1. Got 30 pounds of very ripe peach and or nectarines;  
2. wash them in a tub using tap water;
3. Pet them and remove obvious bad spots and mold;
4. put them through a food processor to crush and liquefy them;  
5. Did NOT separate cores from juice, put them in a food grade plastic container;  
6.  they were liquidy, but not juice, they were rather like a mushed fruits;  
7. Added about 3 gallons of water with about 7 pounds of white table sugar dissolved in it;  
8. added one cup of hydrated EC8111 yeast;
9. put in temp controlled environment, set at 67 F;
10. did not oxygenate, thinking that food processor must have done the job; and 
11. fermentation actually took of the next day in a steady speed.

after 10 days, I opened the bucket to check on my peach wine,  and I see bad news.  

there is a thick white and pink crust from all the nectarines, which may sound normal.  but I scooped some of it.  It smells moldy, and taste vinegary and bitter.  see a picture.

so, what wrong did I do?

is it the water added with sugar? if so, why adding juice is OK?

is it not mixing the surface of the fermentation each day?

see a picture of what I scooped.

 

[Roger]

https://homedistiller.org/

[IanMcCarthy]

Geoman,

1) It is going to take much more than 30 pounds of fruit to make brandy. Of course, smaller scale makes distillation more difficult, because the space between heads and tails is so compact. Even the smallest test batches of fruit I do start with 500# - regardless of your still size. 

2) Sugar. Good fruit brandy is just fruit, no added sugar. You need to concentrate the flavor of a huge amount of fruit to get something aromatic. in the case of your 30# peach v 7# white sugar, you are getting much more fermentable sugar from the sugar than the peach. That is going to dilute your fruit flavor. Also, when you don't use sugar, you won't need water. It will start gloop-y, but the fruit will break itself down during fermentation.

3) Fruit quality. Don't use rotten or moldy fruit. Crap in, crap out. This is going to increase the chance of spoilage in a big way - you can't see all the mold spores, and you won't be able to remove them. 

4) Temp control - gold star for that. 

5) Agitation - You might consider opening your fermentation vessel and punching down the fruit at least once a day. Solids will rise to the top, which will slow down your fermentation, but also increase the possibility of spoilage. Keep it all wet and well-mixed.

6) Pits - get em outa there. You might thinking about adding back a small percentage when you get proficient, but when you are starting out there are source  of cyanide that you don't want to worry about. 

Agitation and funky fruit are the reasons for the ugly fermentation, but consider your base recipe - and try to just use fruit. I have some books in German I can recommend if you speak it, but in English "distilling fruit brandy"  by Josef Pischl is a good, if not perfect, starting place. Happy distilling!

[Geoman]

38 minutes ago, IanMcCarthy said:

Geoman,

1) It is going to take much more than 30 pounds of fruit to make brandy. Of course, smaller scale makes distillation more difficult, because the space between heads and tails is so compact. Even the smallest test batches of fruit I do start with 500# - regardless of your still size. 

2) Sugar. Good fruit brandy is just fruit, no added sugar. You need to concentrate the flavor of a huge amount of fruit to get something aromatic. in the case of your 30# peach v 7# white sugar, you are getting much more fermentable sugar from the sugar than the peach. That is going to dilute your fruit flavor. Also, when you don't use sugar, you won't need water. It will start gloop-y, but the fruit will break itself down during fermentation.

3) Fruit quality. Don't use rotten or moldy fruit. Crap in, crap out. This is going to increase the chance of spoilage in a big way - you can't see all the mold spores, and you won't be able to remove them. 

4) Temp control - gold star for that. 

5) Agitation - You might consider opening your fermentation vessel and punching down the fruit at least once a day. Solids will rise to the top, which will slow down your fermentation, but also increase the possibility of spoilage. Keep it all wet and well-mixed.

6) Pits - get em outa there. You might thinking about adding back a small percentage when you get proficient, but when you are starting out there are source  of cyanide that you don't want to worry about. 

Agitation and funky fruit are the reasons for the ugly fermentation, but consider your base recipe - and try to just use fruit. I have some books in German I can recommend if you speak it, but in English "distilling fruit brandy"  by Josef Pischl is a good, if not perfect, starting place. Happy distilling!

Thanks, that is detailed.  Any instructions on crushing fruits? Also boiling, are you for boiling or not?

 

ps. I do have distilling fruit brandy book you mentioned.

thanks