Difference between revisions of "Personal pages/Season 2021/Distillations"

Latest revision as of 12:55, 13 September 2021

Distillations 2021

I got started quite late, end of June - somehow Spring was quite busy or I just kept procrastinating.
I started with distilling some of the cider which I never got bottled. Not enough bottles and not enough interest, so I'm distilling it instead.

2021/06/27 D2 - 20litre golden delicious - about 900ml of 48%. It went straight into the gin balloon.
2021/06/28 D1 and D3, some mixture - approx. 40litres. 1000ml at 54%, 800ml at 30%. Straight into the gin balloon.
2021/06/29 D4 and D6, some mixture - approx. 40litres. 1000ml at 45%, 1000ml at 30%. Straight into the gin balloon.

2021/06/30 Dunno, some mixture - approx. 40litres. About 2000ml. Straight into the gin balloon.

2021/07/01 D7 and Dx, some mixture - approx. 30litres. 1000ml at 50%, 1000ml at 40%, 800ml at 30%. Straight into the gin balloon. This was with the new reflux cooler, seems quite an improvement.

Vat C3/C4/C5/C6/C7

2021/07/02 Starting on C6, Schneider juice, no extra sugar. Probably 30-35litres. Disappointing, 1000ml at 60%, 900ml at 30%.
2021/07/03 Continuing with C6, Probably 40litres.
2021/07/05 Finished C6, still disappointing, 1100ml at 45%, then some 30%. Gin-balloon.

C6 summary - overall disappointing. End result was about 2litres @ 68%. It did have some fungus growing on top, I cannot say if that may have had an impact. Basically, there is not sufficient sugar content to achieve a decent ethanol %. It is much like with the cidre.
The new powerful reflux cooler is too good, produces too much reflux - it is clearly noticeable when switching off to swap to the quiet one. Maybe with a PWM regulator, which I'm sure the servers have too.

2021/07/06 Starting on C5, Moschtbirne, probably 30-35litres. No fungus, just clean juice. 1000ml 50%, 1000ml 35%, 800ml less than 30%. C3 is also Moschtbirne, total yield will be 6+6 = 12-14 litres.
2021/07/07 C5 part2
2021/07/08 C5 part3
2021/07/09 C3 part1, Moschtbirne
2021/07/10 C3 part2
2021/07/11 C3 part3, very much the same story as above.
2021/07/12 C7 part1, Schneider, 1000ml at 50%, then 40..30
2021/07/13 C7 part2, 1000ml at 50%, then 40..30
2021/07/14 C7 part3, 1000ml at 50%, then 40..30
2021/07/15 C4 part1, Golden, 1000ml at 50%, then 40..30
2021/08/04 C4 part2, 1000ml at 50%, then 40..30
2021/08/05 C4 part3, 1000ml at 50%, then 40..30

Vat F1

F1 (the square one in the front room) had birnetrester plus 15 liters of juice. I should probably have added a lot of sugar.

2021/08/06 F1 part1, mostly tails, all cloudy, green balloon / Moschtbire
2021/08/07 F1 part2, maybe 250ml at 55%, then tails, all cloudy, green balloon / Moschbire

Vat C10

Various apple trester, leftovers from cidre, plus water and 10 kilos of sugar.

2021/08/09 C10 part1. approx 500ml at 65%, then back down to 30% hazy tails.
2021/08/10 C10 part2
2021/08/11 C10 part3
2021/08/12 C10 part4. It overflowed and spilled when I was away on Mahlzeitendienst.

Overall yield: 2litres at 67% and 2litres at 54%. For trester with sugar, I guess that is not too bad.

Vat C2

maische-status only says "Schneider" plus mash. It was very much like apple mush, I was even able to pour the last bit out.

Distilled over three days, 13/14/15 August. About 1 litre at 60-70%, several at less, for gin.

Vat C8

maische-status only says "Schneider", but it was very much like apple mush, much like C2.

2021/08/16 part1. 600ml at 55%, 2.5 litres at 30%, hazy.
2021/08/17 part2. 1000ml at 50%, 2 litres at 30%, hazy.
2021/08/18 part3. 1000ml at 50%, 2 litres at 30%, hazy.

Total yield (C2+C8, Schneider mash): 1.6litres at 50% and 2litres at 54%.

Vat C9

Various apple trester plus juice.

2021/08/19 part1. 400ml at 50%, then hazy.
2021/08/20 part2.
2021/08/21 part3.

I guess this was an experiment to begin with, and it didn't work out very well. Yield: maybe 800ml at 50% and plenty of hazy stuff. Have poured it all into a gin balloon.

Vat C1

Black currant trester plus apple.

2021/08/25 part1. Very striking nose of black currant, quite typical. Very quickly went hazy, I took 3 litres for the gin balloon.
2021/08/26 part2. 400ml at 50%, then hazy. Total 3 litres for the gin balloon.
2021/08/27 part3. 400ml at 65%, then hazy. Total ~3 litres for the gin balloon.

The black currant "nose" was quite evident, I'll have to figure out a way of using it. It is very pleasant in Ribena. Maybe dried, then macerated?

Vat B1+B2 (all Schneider)

Schneider mash, presumably with some water added (as in B1). Seems quite runny, sludgy, could almost be pumped.
I expect to do 4 runs per vat, each run producing roughly 3 litres. That makes 2x3x4 = 24 litres, so enough for a balloon by itself. I get to see what a schnaps made from Schneider only is like.

2021/08/29 part1. 700ml at 50%, then hazy at 30%. Approx 3 litres in total.

Note - in a "stripping run", there is no need to separate out the heads, everything can go straight in.

2021/08/30 part2. 800ml at 55%, crystal clear. Total yield 3 litres.
2021/08/31 part3. 700ml at 55%, crystal clear. Total yield 3 litres.
2021/09/01 part4. Plus some of B1

2021/09/01 B1 part1, plus some of B2. 800ml at 50%, then 30%. Total yield 3 litres.
2021/09/02 part2. 800ml at 50%, then 30%. Total yield 3 litres.
2021/09/03 part3. 800ml at 50%, then 30%. Total yield 3 litres.
2021/09/04 part4. 1000ml at 50%, total yield 3 litres

That concludes the first round of distillations.

Overall yield

From a total harvest of some 1000-1200kg of fruit (need to keep better records), some juiced, some of that sold or drunk -

• three 25litre balloons for a 2nd distillation, at about 30%
• one 25 litre balloon with Schneider-pur, for a 2nd distillation, at about 30%
• more downstairs.

Four 25 litre balloons at about 30% each equates to approx 4 x 8 litres of pure ethanol, i.e. 32 litres at 100%. Diluted to 40%, that makes 80 litres.
If I were to sell that in 500ml sizes, 160 bottles at 30francs = 4800. Minus costs (water, electricity and amortization of equipment) and taxes.

Schneider "leftovers"

When I cook the Schneider mashes and the pot leaks a bit, it is quite sticky, has a caramel-like colour, suggesting it still contains sugar. I took two samples of the leftovers and looked at them in the refractometer - both showed just less than 20°.

2021/09/04 As an experiment, I took about twenty litres of this leftover mush and stuck it in a 30 litre vat, then added yeast.
2021/09/05 Nothing yet.
2021/09/07 Nothing at all, have stopped experiment.

2nd distillations

• the Schneider-pur I'm going to do separately. With water of course.
• the 3 x 25 litres I'll mix in with the methanol, e.g. 25 litres of ethanol, 10 litres of water, 2 litres of methanol. 3 distillations.

2021/09/12 I'm doing the Schneider. Took the whole balloon, about 20 litres, added 10 litres of water. In the balloon, some "muck" had gathered on the surface. I think I managed to filter it out by pouring half of it through a sieve with a tea-towel.
2021/09/12 Yield - 2litres at 77%, 2litres at 68%, 2litres at 52% (still crystal clear), then 35% and hazy. Those first six litres equate to 4litres of pure ethanol, or 6 litres at 65%.

Adding 3 litres of water gives me 9 litres at approx 44%. In terms of 70cl bottles, that makes 12.

I guess it is quite a significant effort for 12 bottles of schnaps. Maybe 250kilos of apples - collecting 10 crates @ 25kilo, washing, putting into the vat, hauling out of the vat, distilling, dispensing with left-overs, distilling again. Approximately one bottle per crate.