Apple Brandy

This is a technique and recipe Ive been tweaking since the first batch I ran in '95. Cant really say recipe tho, I dont think, since I add nothing (but yeast), and mother nature done did all the hard work.

First challenge, Find apples: I have a few trees of my own, but the majority of my apples come from other tree's I've located in the area. Some are in open land, others in yards and gardens, most are untended, which is fine, a few worms hurt nothing when you crush, ferment them and distill their asses. If anything they might add some yeast nutrient.  ;-) Keep track of where you see unappreciated apple trees and dont be bashful. Homeowners are generally delighted to have you pick them before they fall and make a stinkin buggy mess of their yard. There are 31 trees I have identified within 30 mile radius of my house, mixed varieties from hard crab to sour to golden delicious sweet apples. 

Next challenge, grind and press: This is really the trickiest part. Also, its best to let the apples sit for 2-3 weeks first, they change a bit for the better, for our purposes. My first attempt was with a new stainless steel garbage disposer I bought for this, and mounted in an old sink. It kept overheating and shutting off, pain in the ass. A heavy duty juicer (I have a Champion) works good but takes a long damn time. Long story short, out of desperation and necessity I built Fiona. Rather than try to describe how she works I think pictures tell 1000 words. Holler if you have any questions.

The business end.   Stainless steel screws in a rotating drum.  

4 ton hydraulic press does a nice squash job.

Fermentation: This year (2012) we had a hot dry summer, the cider measured avg 17 brix, 1.068 on the hydrometer, or about 10% alcohol potential, crazy, they're typically 13ish brx, 1.052,  8%.    I add no yeast nutrients. Never had a problem ever and the cider always goes plenty dry. I use Safale US-05 ale yeast or K1-1118 wine yeast. Both work great.  Bakers yeast would work fine too.  Personally Im partial to the esters left by ale yeast more than the wine yeasts. Just my preference.  Use 1 packet per 5 gallons.   It finishes in about a week, but I leave it for a month to settle out before I run it.

Distillation and aging: Apple brandy is nice in that you get a real nice product with a single run, just go a little larger on the foreshots since fruit based fermentations have more lighter alcohols and other stuff you dont want to drink given the choice (its why you can get a bangin headache from too much wine).  As always, cuts are by personal preference, but I think youll find you can go quite wide on the cuts into both the heads and tails and have a really tasty product loaded with apple flavor. Apple brandy and toasted oak are a match made in heaven. Ive used oak chips, oak cubes and 5 gal oak barrels over the years. All turn out a great product, if you can keep your mitts of it long enough to age up nice. At 6 months its really tasty, longer is even better.

Very Important:

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Cheers Friends.  Stay safe. 

Apple Brandy:  28 lbs of mixed variety apples per bottle.  
Single distillation to preserve the apple flavors,  French Oak aged. 
She's smooth, sweet and intense.