how to pull flavore from fruits or i wish i knew

[Mr.Roughnutz]

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so in the hatd light of sobriety and cleanup i found very minor scortch but not at the bottom of the kettel as i would hav thort but at the top close to were the water line was at the start of the run. sum of the floaty bits on the surface had slowly stuck to the wall as the lvl droped. irhere was a sudden drop in proof from 62 to 50abv in the space of 1 375 colection jar and a huge drop in colection speed as well. i was in tales allready so i shut off reflux and turnup heat.
i colected another 2.5ish ltrs of "sweet water" down to 20ish abv i think thats when it scortched it i carnt tast enything exsept in the larst two jars.

all up i think this rig has a LOT to offer in terms of on fruit stilling way cheaper in both setup and running cost. i hav 99% of the bits for a inline verticle steam driven kettle iv got to find my tig tortch or take it over to a mates shed. Honestly tho if ur "energy efficent" like me and fucking hate filtering clarifiing pumping racking from drum to bla bla bla just scoop of top and tip bottom over a spageti strainer and this rig will sort you out my brew bag split the seam and dumded a heap of slop in. i slydge pumed out 2-3kg of solids from the kettle its not the 20kg i mashed but i recon enuf. heat plate 1mm thick with 10mm standoff, 4" layer of glass marbles, cut 8 box tubes with heavy tapers over the flame to draw heat off the gas ring and funnle it out around the sides.

i had only 4 32mm holes in the top of the drum hood i think 4 more hole that i can cover up at "low" flame and open up at "high" flame would take cear of the scortch up top. plenty of things to do to optimise this rig as well hoop burner being the best IMHO it would alow for much grater controle of the "draw" of heat up aroumd the kettle enyone how has lived with a woodstove or potbelly will know what i mean.

the water bath bay marie rig i was running when i dug threw the math was running at 10% efficent fuel burnt to work dun thus promting me to dig threw other still options.

[Mr.Roughnutz]

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mash style.
sugar rot ........

enyone acurly dun this hands on?
light sprinkle of surgar every couple inches of of choped fruit. iv got 40 kg of $1kg apples dun like this now.
im going to leave it in a sealed drum and watch it till the suhar pulls out the jucie and the fruiy starts to "rot" or i gess brake down n firment on its own at witch point i will pitch yeast
40kg apple
8cups of sugar
2 kg honey (flavor plus anitbacteriale) scepticle but here we are)

[Mr.Roughnutz]

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day 3

could not be happier.
out of controle the clarity and texture of the juce coming off is insane. i dont understand what is happening but its good so far.
i copped up an apple fine and put it in a wine bottle with a tablespoon of yeast (bread) and sprinkled another tablespoon on top, logic being better to have a constant flow of cabon di oxside flowing out of the barrle than not???
there is no coloration of the fruit its just getting softer and softer. i estimate 6 or 8 litters of liquid volume so far.
im acturly suprised this is working. (knock on wood)

[harold01]

Mr.Roughnutz
what you are doing is great, but I think you should have cored the apples first as one gram of apple seeds contains 1-4 milligrams of hydrogen cyanide
not sure if it's going to a problem, just bringing it to your attention

[Mr.Roughnutz]

yeah i looked at the cyanide thing but honestly im not woried and most of the info i found that did not come from distilers forums is that its not cyanide but a cyanide analog or precurser i.e unless ur a chemist with a lab going from apple seeds to death by cyanide aint happening.

i will post sum update pix today i havnt lifted the lid for a week now will add water and a dose of mangrove jacks mo5 mead yeast today or monday night if i dont have yeast

[TheRealMrMessy]

Long as you aren't crushing them, shouldn't be a big deal. Still something you don't need to include next time though :D .

Looking forward to hearing how you go on the flavour front.

[Mr.Roughnutz]

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so the apple brandy runoff finnished up with 3ltr~72ish% and maybe 4 off heads n tails.
flavor is not what i was hopping for. i wanted a very strong BRIGHT flavore is far far more earthy and jammy tasting.
the apple there in absolut spades but heavy and jammy (delibratly not useing funky cos its not yeast funk) not light n bright.

there was a side by side run with an apple vodka mind set
40ltr water
10kg malted wheat
8cups sugar ~ 2.5 kgish
mashed in enziem still spirits

then once that did its thing i split into two fermenters and added
12ltr golden circle apple jucie to each and on the day
3ltr of juice in the still

this was very nice bearly perseptable apple flavore but a nice drop(most would probly miss it tbh)

this brandy has ten times the flavor unmistakeable apple but heavy and jammy.
i pressed the liquid from the solids and left for a few weeks to settle and siphond off the top.
i kept 3 ltrs of the apple vodka an mixed with 6 ltr of apple juice.
i kept a 10kg box of apple in the freeza from the start.
on the run day i cut the frozen apples into halves and everything whent into the still
DONT BE TEMPTED TO CUT THE APPLES SMALLER and skin on its was the devils own to clean out the still arfter this.

depressingly low yeild but a fantastic drink was made here.
thorts for next time is skip eather the bottle juice and vodka or cut backthe whole apples
basicly less unfermented sugar in the still or use a much farster heat up time tho scortch rears its ugly head
i heated up over about 3hrs (70ltr total volume) try to halv that if possable.
im thinking a lot of the sugars might hav started to caramalise contributing
to the jammyness. the low yeilds im chalking up to lost liquid in separating the soild and liquid from the firment and from the long heatup time first 90min or so was with the colum off stiring.
happy stilling and MERYY CHRISTMASS

[TheRealMrMessy]

What apples did you use mate?

Malted wheat will also add quite a bit of breadiness to the flavour - and might contribute to the "jamness" also. Unless you did something to convert the wheat to fermentable sugars - not sure how specific your enzyme comment applies and what you did to try and convert the wheat starches - either way that's a lot of flavour influence that might not have contributed to the fermentable bill.

Sounds like you distilled with all the fruits in, and I'd suggest that's probably where most of your "jamness" comes from - more applesauce than fresh bright apple? Heat is always gonna change things, and taking the fruits along for the ride is definitely going to amplify that. Might be worth keeping the solids out on the next one.

More sugar (6-7.5kg?) (or perhaps apple juice), less wheat (1-2kg?), and filter into the still? Lot of the bright apple stuff comes real early in the heads and you've gotta decide for yourself how much of that to add back in.

edit: fixing a number...
edit 2: Realised you said you pressed and let settle for some weeks - did you prevent oxygen contact during that? Fruits are prone to oxidation too - e.g. apples browning. Same can happen to a fermented fruit.