"A very informative post. Lessons were presented and I gained from your post and look forward to more from you.
My pet peeve is it all runs together. You are not the only one who does not allow for white space in your posts. It is so much easier to read if you put a little white space in your posts and costs nothing.
I look forward to hearing more from you and a nice tipple is always good.
I have revamped your post for an example.
>>>Well I would like to share my experience making apple brandy for the first time. During the entire process I tried to research along the way but I couldn"t find a lot of information on the topic in questions, so with this thread hopefully someone will learn from my experiences.
First, I went to the apple orchards in the fall and purchased 31 gallons (117 liters) of fresh apple cider at $80 cash. I thought that was a good buy because the guy also filled the back of my truck with apples till they started falling off the sides. The apples were for farm use. At the orchard I added the campden.
When I got home, the girlfriend and I unloaded the truck, used a dolly to take the 31 gal new plastic drum of cider inside the house, popping the wheels off the dolly woops. I then divided the cider into five 4 gal buckets with the rest left it the drum.
Small buckets were used to make wines. I added the sugar to different specific gravity per container, and then added the different varieties of yeasts. After 24 hours I started adding the nutrient and energizer, purpose being, so the yeast would reproduce slower having better protein to help handle the higher alcohol content that I was after.
After the fermentation was complete and several rackings, I had some very good wines but what I also learned was 31gal drums are hard to work with being so heavy. You would almost need a pump for easy racking.
As the winter passed, I found time to get to the distilling. I setup the Brewhaus PSII HC as a pot still using propane, a lot of propane, 80 lbs and 64 hours of stilling later, I have discovered a few things.
One, My first run was going to be the striper run at 80 degrees Celsius with the proof being near 155. I collected the head, hearts, and tails. The hearts were awesome, put a little in your hands rub around till evaporated and smell, a very nice apple smell. Now I went to the forums looking for more information on the process with everyone saying, do the second run.
Well after the second run, it was a lot easier to make cuts with every think being almost the same, very little heads and little tails. I have a test for methanol (heads) or ethanol (cheers), and the tails I use the hand rub smell test (smells nothing like what you would want to drink, wet cardboard).
The second run was at 78 to 80 degrees Celsius with the proof being near 165 taking 36 hours of the 64 hours in total. The hearts with the hand rub test in the second run had lost almost all the apple aroma, not what I was looking for. I was making brandy not moonshine. With really clear wines already racked and aged for 6 months, I would not do the second run but a really slow first run making proper cuts.
Now the brandy was in glass waiting for the Canadian oak charred barrel, yes I said charred. I had 3.5gal of brandy but a 5 gal barrel, with lots of wine left so I put 1.5 gal in the barrel as well, with the proof now at 140. When adding the wine to the brandy I used caution tasting the blend along the way which brought back a lot of the apple taste.
I would not use charred on brandy again but rather toasted or even a used toasted wine barrel. The ageing was too fast, just under two months. After a month, I looked in the barrel and noticed that it was a nice amber colour, had a taste, and could not believe how far along the ageing and oaking was. I left it for another week, wow this is really good stuff. Now another week has passed and being my birthday I decided to have a drink. So I used the turkey baster, dipped in, took the Brewhaus proof alcoholmeter, proof was still 130, I watered down to 75 and had a taste.
My brandy in the last week was now starting to taste like a whisky brandy blend because of the charred barrel. I still have a very, very good batch, being smooth to drink at 35 to 40% straight at room temp. I tried on the rocks, it"s not for me. When you smell the glass you smell caramel. When you taste, you first taste the vanilla, then a whisky, finishing off with a slight apple taste left in your mouth. I am going to try more blending with wine to cut the proof some adding more apple flavor before watering down or maybe even leave as is in glass and mix, blend or water down at drinking time, one pint at a time.
I sure would like to hear from other people that have brandy experience or can add dos and don"ts to this thread. Brandy is a lot of work and time, not only do you make wine but you also have to distill then age. It"s not for the impatient type, and will cost you more money in the long run. I would say if you have extra wine or wine that tastes not to your liking than go for it, but to take your favorite wine and make brandy would be a sin.
I"m going to try again down the road someday maybe after I get a 1gal toasted barrel. To me it"s about learning with some benefits on the side.<<<
Originally Posted by: more than I can drink 
Well I would like to share my experience making apple brandy for the first time. During the entire process I tried to research along the way but I couldn"t find a lot of information on the topic in questions, so with this thread hopefully someone will learn from my experiences.
First, I went to the apple orchards in the fall and purchased 31 gallons (117 liters) of fresh apple cider at $80 cash. I thought that was a good buy because the guy also filled the back of my truck with apples till they started falling off the sides. The apples were for farm use. At the orchard I added the campden.
When I got home, the girlfriend and I unloaded the truck, used a dolly to take the 31 gal new plastic drum of cider inside the house, popping the wheels off the dolly woops.
I then divided the cider into five 4 gal buckets with the rest left it the drum. Small buckets were used to make wines. I added the sugar to different specific gravity per container, and then added the different varieties of yeasts. After 24 hours I started adding the nutrient and energizer, purpose being, so the yeast would reproduce slower having better protein to help handle the higher alcohol content that I was after.
After the fermentation was complete and several rackings, I had some very good wines but what I also learned was 31gal drums are hard to work with being so heavy. You would almost need a pump for easy racking.
As the winter passed, I found time to get to the distilling. I setup the Brewhaus PSII HC as a pot still using propane, a lot of propane, 80 lbs and 64 hours of stilling later, I have discovered a few things. One, My first run was going to be the striper run at 80 degrees Celsius with the proof being near 155. I collected the head, hearts, and tails. The hearts were awesome, put a little in your hands rub around till evaporated and smell, a very nice apple smell.
Now I went to the forums looking for more information on the process with everyone saying, do the second run. Well after the second run, it was a lot easier to make cuts with every think being almost the same, very little heads and little tails. I have a test for methanol (heads) or ethanol (cheers), and the tails I use the hand rub smell test (smells nothing like what you would want to drink, wet cardboard). The second run was at 78 to 80 degrees Celsius with the proof being near 165 taking 36 hours of the 64 hours in total. The hearts with the hand rub test in the second run had lost almost all the apple aroma,
not what I was looking for. I was making brandy not moonshine. With really clear wines already racked and aged for 6 months, I would not do the second run but a really slow first run making proper cuts.
Now the brandy was in glass waiting for the Canadian oak charred barrel, yes I said charred. I had 3.5gal of brandy but a 5 gal barrel, with lots of wine left so I put 1.5 gal in the barrel as well, with the proof now at 140. When adding the wine to the brandy I used caution tasting the blend along the way which brought back a lot of the apple taste.:)
I would not use charred on brandy again but rather toasted or even a used toasted wine barrel. The ageing was too fast, just under two months. After a month, I looked in the barrel and noticed that it was a nice amber colour, had a taste, and could not believe how far along the ageing and oaking was. I left it for another week, wow this is really good stuff. Now another week has passed and being my birthday I decided to have a drink. So I used the turkey baster, dipped in, took the Brewhaus proof alcoholmeter, proof was still 130, I watered down to 75 and had a taste. My brandy in the last week was now starting to taste like a whisky brandy blend because of the charred barrel. I still have a very, very good batch, being smooth to drink at 35 to 40% straight at room temp. I tried on the rocks, it"s not for me. When you smell the glass you smell caramel. When you taste, you first taste the vanilla, then a whisky, finishing off with a slight apple taste left in your mouth. I am going to try more blending with wine to cut the proof some adding more apple flavor before watering down or maybe even leave as is in glass and mix, blend or water down at drinking time, one pint at a time.
<snip>"
