Sultana brandy

[kickarum]

What am I looking at here?
I dissolved 2kg of HOMEBRAND brown sugar into about 4L of 50 deg water then added 1kg of HOMEBRAND sultanas placed the lid on the pot and allowed to soak for 24hrs, strained most of the water into 30L fermenter and blended the now semi rehydrated sultanas to a paste and added to the fermenter, then added 15L HOMEBRAND apple juice to the fermenter and topped up to 25L about another 4L of water.
Started a 5 gram sachet of EC 1118 according to bt1 instructions the yeast seemed to react/swell for lack of a better term so I stared to add Tbs of wash not sure how to explain it but looked a little sinister :o
SG was 1070 and has been bubbling away for 3 days now this is what it looks like. Not sure what to make of it as I've only ever done Rum washes before.
Tasted great when I put it down and still smells pretty good but it's starting to get that wine/alco smell to it I think/hope.
Sorry if I've hijacked this thread but I figured along the same lines anyhow.

[Sam.]

Might as well make this it's own thread mate :handgestures-thumbupleft:

All looks good to me, you usually get some floaties, you will probably find most have sunk to the bottom. Just strain it through something when you put it in the boiler ;-)

[Hava]

Just need a stripe of orange peel flavor and you hava hot cross bun in a shot glass! :teasing-tease:

[kickarum]

Hi all
Not sure if there's any interest in this recipe ;-) but here's an update anyhow.
Fermented out in 7 days low 30s C all the floaters sunk and it cleared nicely. As stated SG was 1070 FG 991, Strained it all thru an old cotton sheet, the yeast bed released cloudy solution probably a mistake and should have finished racking before getting to it. Ran it slowly thru the pot at 4L hour because I knew there wouldn't be enough from this one ferment to justify a spirit run and don't want to do more ferments if its crap. Pulled off 500ml fores then took down to 20% another 4.5L. Took tastes from 50 % thru to 30% not bad considering single run pot still. Will definitely make up a 40L wash of this and run it thru a bubbler in the near future I hope.
Cheers Kicka.

[spit'n'shine]

Interesting.. Anything you would compare it to flavour wise? Thanks for sharing that mate :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[TheMechwarrior]

In interested in hearing more about the flavour profile.

[pulsetech]

Same here

[kickarum]

Ok I don't really want to describe flavour profiles or make comparisons however after a few considerations I'll do my newbie best.
1 from what I understand making a brandy is a timely process, this stuff was on a supermarket shelf 15 days ago.
2 I'm totally new to this hobby and have pulled this ( for lack of a better term ) recipe out of thin air.
3 When racking the wash I poured the last of it thru a cotton strainer yeast bed and all :handgestures-thumbdown:
4 Didn't know how fast to run it, so as a spare of the moment thing went for a slow strip.
5 the tasting I did was straight off the still not even a chance to breath, was just deciding to follow this up or not.
So tasted from 50% thru to 30% the higher % was sharper or had more bite.
The apple flavour although clearly present wasn't as pronounced as I'd hoped.
Can't say I could detect the sultanas.
What did interest me was the clean sensation it left in my mouth with a reasonable aftertaste.
So I would imagine in the hands of an experienced distiller, after correctly racking the wash, running it thru a bubbler then good cuts and fair ageing this may make the basis for a reasonable spirit especially if someone with experience in this hobby was to apply a little effort into getting the max out of it.
Sorry for the long winded post, but being a newbie with minimum understanding of it all I don't want to mislead :liar:
Now you two Gents both have the equipment and probably the experience :whistle:
Cheers Kicka.

[pulsetech]

I have neither. Equipment is on order and just needs to be paid for. Experience will come in time.