MDH

You can always advertise solera method.

From a UBC Document... My suspicion is that acrolein will either evaporate with time, or become gradually oxidized to acrylic acid, then react with alcohols to ethyl/amyl/methyl esters over time. Doing a bit of quick searching shows that the former is a happy outcome since the esters apparently produce unpleasant aromas.

16 pounds of fruit? It will take roughly 1700g of sugar to make a liter of 100% pure alcohol. Of this alcohol, a small percentage will actually yield as byproducts (high alcohols, fusels, etc), some percentage will remain within the still during first and second distillations, at least 30% will be discarded as feints. If you glass-age in demijons or barrel age, then there is of course the angel's share. Considering every 100g of apple, for instance, contains 10g of sugar, then you'll need a lot more than 16 pounds of fruit for a single full bottle. I guess my question is, how are you calculating your yield? What are you including when you determine how much it takes to make a single bottle? My recommendation is that like most Eau de Vie producers, you bottle in 375ml at 45%, and label+price it as a luxury, because it is.

I have always wondered what the Solera system would be like with fruit brandy, particularly plum. With a decent amount of headspace and good balanced aging temperatures, this would probably make a very sophisticated tasting brandy!

I guess that my thinking on this is that polymers derived from ethylene are generally inert in the conditions we subject them to. As long as you aren't throwing large amounts of acetone in the barrel or using it to ferment 14% strong mashes at 80 degrees on a constant basis, you should be fine.

I have to say that I have used HDPE with no issues several times.

This is utter and complete nonsense.

Hello everyone, A friend is selling Himrod, Pinot Noir, Concord and Gewurztraminer for $1 per pound. He does not use irrigation, and practices good canopy management. This year was hot and dry in the PNW, up until very recently. The grapes are roughly between 19 and 25 brix right now. The Gewurztraminer won't be ripe for several weeks. He is located in Cassidy, BC and can be contacted at 250-667-8095 or mhogan@remhouse.com

I'm just curious for those from out of the state where a competition was held, or even the country - what was the cost to you to enter your product, overall?

I seriously suggest finding a way to crush them manually, beginning fermentation with water and coarsely crushed pears, then adding pectin enzymes to speed along fermentation. Cooking the pears first could soften them but it can't be done without an impact on flavor.

Fermentation with a single, aggressive, "domesticated" strain is fast and effective. That being said, I don't personally favor it when it comes to fruit brandy. Wild fermentation, if done properly, can allow a more subtle, nuanced profile that expresses the fruit without the influences most people describe as "Strong-liquor" like. To make a predictable wild ferment, take a small amount of the unwashed fruit and prepare a starter by putting it in an anerobic space with allowance for gas to escape - this could be something as simple as a small bottle or ziplock bag with a small corner just slightly open -- then add more of the fruit you are going to eventually ferment to keep the starter alive. Once it is a large, healthy starter, mash the rest of your fruit and pitch the starter into it. The caveat is that as with any wild ferment, there is a risk that they do not attenuate as well or will produce polysaccharides as a response to the rising alcohol content, thus lowering yields. Keeping the potential alcohol low will prevent this from occuring. In terms of actual distillation, both apple and pear are distilled on "Light lees" in Calvados country. To make a judgement on what amount to keep within the ferment/still, think of it in terms of Grappa versus brandy - One is very woody tasting, the other light and fragrant. Apple peels have a unique taste, if you chew on them alone. If you distill with all of the lees and mash in, you'll certainly have more influence from the skin and seed. If you distill with a small amount of the lees in - about a quarter of the original leftover apple pulp/skins/etc, and press the juice of the rest, you'll have a more balanced profile that features all aspects of the apple. Either way, I don't agree with distilling completely clarified juice with no pulp. It simply won't produce the same profile. For pear, personally, I actually like to keep the entire mashed pears, fermented fully, within the still, without removing anything. The pear's skin is much more subtle in taste and adds a pleasant countryside (can't think of another term) sort of aspect that is difficult to obtain without it.

Unfortunately I think the route to this is enzymes. Many large producers use enzymes, or they resort to Aspergillus Oryzae (Alberta Distillers of WhistlePig, Masterson's and Lot No. 40 use this).

Generally speaking, the only risk that you have with products above 15-16% is contamination from a particularly strong yeast strain (E.g. champagne). Then you may want to try a preservative such as potassium sorbate early in production.

I am of the same ilk, Schnit. I think that advertising thoughtfully with a target market that matches your product's image well is a sure way to help versus competing. But since I haven't been through the process of submitting a spirit to a competition before, or winning an award, it's still a great unknown to me whether or not this actually assists the sales of those who perform well (e.g. Double Golds or Best in Show, etc). I don't want to throw the baby out with the bath-water.

I've spoken to a many bartenders in the past as well as some small retail outlets about this and some are becoming skeptical about award ceremonies around the world. Several of the reasons I've heard is the myriad of award tiers just confuses people and leads them to not care. What one person from retail has told me: There are bronze, silver, gold, double gold, best in class and spirit of the year tiers for many of the competitions - SF, NY, London, China, etc. So very harsh, poor products still "Awards", which diminishes the meaning of the award. Eventually after telling customers what this all meant, they would shrug and go back to their usual bottle of Beam. In other words, this kind of awarding diminishes the repeatability of what an award means to people who are not "Core drinkers" and turns the award into an abstract symbol that doesn't mean anything significant. The second is that I've heard from many distilleries that they believe the awards are being purchase or that submitted samples are being doctored. I will not point fingers, but I have to admit that I have walked away disappointed from many Double Gold and Best in Class winners and wondering how they ever won any award at all. Now, the part I am curious about. For those of you who have participated in these competitions and done well - did you find that you directly benefitted from recieving high accolades? Was your name published in magazines or papers as a direct result of this? There is no pressure to reveal it if you consider this information a competitive advantage you would like to keep personally. I'm genuinely curious about the effectiveness of entering a competition if you know your product is excellent, that's all.

I don't think this is the proper way to do it. You are basically preaching to only the choir - the average joe doesn't understand the opinions of distillers. What you need to do is get a few basic messages out of home base and to the general public about what distilling is, what the real dangers are (as opposed to fictional ones), and why the average person should be able to do it. Be quick and snappy, if you are too long winded, average joe will be lost to the message.

I know what you are speaking of in terms of barnyard or rustic countryside flavors, but this is not due sollely to brettanomyces. The french use wild yeast and then age on gross lees for up to half a year. This does allow some passive form of oxidation as well as general degradation from various organisms that feed on the apple lees, which in turn produces tastes similar to what you describe. Even newmake distillate of Calvados tends to smell slightly like almonds or damp, "planty" hay (but not in an unpleasant way). Do you have the space, patience and flexibility as a business to let a ferment age for months? That's up to you, and you could remove the lees from the cider and just ferment the juice with commercial yeast in six days. But Calvados is Calvados, and can only be made the Calvados way. The french practices have been used for hundreds of years, and I suspect it is tough to try and make the same flavor from a young, warm-and-fast fermented cider with no lees at all.