iOnaBender wrote:G'day Hun,
Also a recipe for Hungarian Palinka to potentially go into the "Tried & proven" section would be awesome! :handgestures-thumbupleft:
Cheers
Ahh the famous hungarian Palinka :) A couple of years ago they changed the law here in Hungary so that you can distill you own fruit spirits. Since two years ago it's tax free up to 84 liters 50% final product per year. The law also says that you cannot own a larger still than 100L and you can only use fruits to make spirits. The brand name Palinka may only be used for fruit spirit made in Hungary and some regions i Austria. The purists will tell you its a big no no to add sugar and some people still don't use yeast or acid correction, just let it wild-ferment.
Basically you pick good ripe fruit, if its stone fruit like plum, apricot or peaches you remove the pit and put the flesh into a fermentation vessel. Apples, pears and quince are easiest to chop up with a compost shredder. You can use a paint stirrer to puree the fruit for better liquid yield.
After that you put a lid on it to keep the flies out and let it ferment somewhere in the shade between 15-30 degrees celsius. You can punch down the cap once or twice a day and the fermentation is done when the caps sink and when you light a match and it wont go out when you move it down into the vessel (no more CO2 blanket.) Most stills sold for making palinka are either equipped with and agitator or they are water bath boilers which helps to avoid scorching the fruitmash. Then you either distill it once or make stripping runs and run the spirit run low and slow. Usually its proofed down to 48-50 ABV.
I have had my share of bad palinka lol and its either because of a bad ferment or not making proper cuts.
What i have found is that you can add 2-3% sugar and the spirit will be fine. I do also believe that adding yeast and nutrients is a good practice to have more control and get better flavour. Controlling acid pH is also important to have a good environment for the yeast to do its job, i tend to keep it at wine levels around 3,3-3.5. Keeping the fermentation a bit cooler and using yeast that thrive in cooler conditions makes a more fruit forward end result. A hydrometer is the best to keep track of the fermentation.
I did a run of Quince that they say is notorious for scorching and it turned out just fine. It's important to agitate it while it is warming up, every 3-5 minutes or so and when it's starting to come out thru the spout the fruit consistency changes and get thinner. I also put about 5-8% water in with the quince in the still because it was really dense. I used antifoam agent but I reckon some butter will do fine too. It made the cleaning alot easier.
I attach some picture of how the still looked while doing the stipping run. I did not have any puking and the still has a pressure relief valve for safety if it would clog up.
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