Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Well end of an era all of the figs are stripped :dance: just one final spirit run to go :pray:

After all that effort & stripping it better taste figgy!

Doing this with my fig crop next year for sure. We have more fig jam still in jars than we'll ever eat...might have to throw some in the ferment :-)

righty oh to much for one spirit run but I've completed the first run and its airing now . Weird run ABV stayed high right though till the very end , tails were still 70% :? anyway ran out of gas so off to bunnings later , my get some more butane to see if I can make a parrot

:o mate that sounds like a high tails ABV%...do you know if it is something to do with the fact you are making a rakia/grappa/?
just out of curiousity, how much hearts do you reckon you got?

2nd weird thing almost no heads (2 small jars) I was expecting a lot , no methanol smell/taste at all in anything but nearly 1/3 is tails anyway I'll run the rest in the morning . The taste of the heart can't really be described as its not really like anything I can compare it to not even figs but yuk either anyway I'll let it air some and see if I can describe it . The tails , particularly the deep tails are figgy but they have some off oils , from the skins I'd guess EDIT @ frank nup don't know and I guess 6 or so ltrs at justs under 80% but I have about the same still to run , more I suppose with all these tails to throw back in

Initial Review : Hmm very hard to describe , it is almost a tequila type flavor to it with an ultra light fig twist . yes it really tastes something like a mezcal type drink and could almost certainly be drank with the same sort of mixers . Not really something I could drink a lot of but if mezcal was your cup of meat think you'd quite enjoy this . deffinatly would benefit from aging

Ok here is my result tally 10 ltrs of hearts , 13 ltrs of tails , 400ml of foreshots , 900 mls of heads (350 mls of this could almost be hearts)
My initial review saw somewhat scathing but the flavor is starting to resemble a slight slivovic flavor now and more pleasant to my tastes could almost see myself drinking this now . not happy with the amount of tail though , might look at re running them and reblending as they are quite high ABV

Ok bit the bullet on what to do with all the tails question I'm doing a third run on the whole lot, tails still seem to have started at a high ABV, got me frigged why but nowhere near like it was last run The hearts are most definitly much cleaner, less tails cleaner taste higher ABV, yep was worth doing :handgestures-thumbupleft:

third run finished and the verdict is.... Big success this is the slivovich flavour I was expecting in the first place. Looking back I'd say I ran still to hard for a good spirit run(very hard to go softly softly with a BD747 great for stripping or hammer welding) I could enjoy sipping this stuff now :D

The brandy man can ,cos he mixes it with love and makes the world go round.

Sounds like you hit the mark crow.

So it took 3 stripping runs to get your final drinking product? That's some stubborn fig juice :-)

So what's your actual yield at the end?

About 18 ltrs at 85% and 8 ltrs of faint mostly of 60+%. I won't bother with these faints any further they are going through the reflux next neutural I run

Crow: I have figs coming in at different stages. What are your thoughts on how I gather these at varying stages of ripeness and keep them ready for one big ferment?

Some on HD say fill a fermenter with water and just keep adding figs as they ripen with a campden tablet to stop any nasties, others say freeze them until you have enough for a run.

No way I have enough freezer space. So... How to keep harvesting the 5-15 figs a day that I have ripening?

They aren't like my apricots which ripen suddenly all at the same time:-(

And they're so sweet and flavoursome, must be a tonne of good sugars here.

So any advice on incremental harvest and storage?

Also filtering this mush? Try and keep them solid in the ferment rather than pulping?

This is the figgage

ok well they will keep for awhile and if you aren't going to eat them pehaps a fair while . I kept some till they were mushy. as for pulping I think they will break down anyway and will just take longer to ferment whole but I could be wrong so maybe try cutting some in halves for one ferment and see

How did you store them? Any truth to the rumour that the fig brandy tastes a bit like tequila?

BackyardBrewer wrote:How did you store them? Any truth to the rumour that the fig brandy tastes a bit like tequila?

I think crow's love affair with figs might be over, perhaps he might not feel comfortable talking about it so soon afterwards :laughing-rolling:

BackyardBrewer wrote:How did you store them? Any truth to the rumour that the fig brandy tastes a bit like tequila?

just inside, most of them in the beer fridge and yes It does a bit mores so straight off the still

Quick check: when I get in tonight I'm getting my fig wash on. I have 30Kg of figs so that means add 30kg of sugar and fill to 150L with water??
:o
That sounds very high.

I was thinking this 30kg would go in my 200L fermenter and I'd fill to around 90L on top with water. I've got some pectinase and enough EC1118 yeast for 100L of wine.

Anyone got some thoughts on if I should go to 120L in the fermenter and make a yeast starter? I want to get a decent abv % out of the wash to make it worth all the effort but 30kg of shugaz? Surely no?

Kimbo? Crow? Thoughts please.

Kimbo wrote:Hi Croweater,
definatly add water, sugar as well if you want.
use the rule of 5's to start with, then fine tune it later to suit.
5kg sugar
5kg fruit/grains
25L water

The reason I wrote that is coz i've only ever done a 25L wash. Adding 5Kg of sugar bumps up the yield a bit for me.
If you have 30Kg of fruit and a 200L fermenter, i woulnt bother using sugar. Just use the calcs to determine how much water you need to get your desired wash ABV. ;-)
What are your thoughts Crow?