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Season 2015

My still is nearing perfection. This must be 3. generation - 1st was the old zinc-pot with a hering-glass-thumper and my own copper-spiral, 2nd was the stainless steel 50L Contacto pot with the glass thumper and the glass clumn from the Brocki. 3rd is now with a stainless steel pot thumper and a copper pipe disperser.

The two pots no longer need the flourpaste as a sealant, both lids fit really tight when fastened with the binder clips. The silicon washers do a perfect job too. There has been the odd leakage on both pots, I'm wondering if a large diameter silicone washer might be useful.

I can now start a distillation at 09:00, be finished around 18/19 and have everything cleaned and ready to go for the next run the next day.

To-do:

I'd like a pressure reduction thingie for the hose to have a fixed pressure/flow regardless of the input.
monitoring when drips start
monitoring when a bottle is full

2015/09/01 After defrosting for two days, I pressed the red apples (2 boxes from the freezer from 2014). The juice has a dark red hue and is quite sweet. Looks like 50° or thereabouts. Total yield 15.8litres at 52°, 4.5kg trester.

2015/09/01 Have started defrosting 2 x 10kg of pears. I will add the juice to the red apple juice, with sugar and yeast. I might well add the yeast today - need yeast starter solution! Then I plan to take the trester (the squeezed apple+pear), add water & sugar, add pektin and yeast.

Vat III

15L vat. Smells quite sweet. I think it must be the johannisbeer plus pear mentioned above, it's been waiting since 10/2014.

Vat VI

This is a 30L vat, and there is an unnumbered 30L vat next to it. I think these are 50/50 mixtures of red apple juice and pear juice.

2016/05/07 distilling started at 08:50. Probably about 20L content. Took about 400ml heads.

Vat VIII

30 litre vat.

2015/09/01 Have taken 4.5kg red apple trester, added 6litres of water and 3kg of sugar. 2015/09/02 Added 2litres of water and 10ml of pektin. 2015/09/09 Added 2litres of water + 3 kg sugar. Filled up the vat, which started 2016/10/30 due to be distilled. 2017/03/17 looks like I could add more water, the fruit looks dried out (almost). Mashed it up with the drill, but it doesn't look like there's any fluid in there.

Vat #IV

15 litres.

2016/03/28 Took Nadine ribena trester, added 3litres of water and 2kg sugar plus about 700ml of Marlene's elberberry juice. Then I shot 2ml yeast straight into the mix.

2016/04/09 Added 1litre of water and 1kg sugar. It's been bubbling happily for a few days.

2016/04/23 Still the odd bubble coming.

2016/10/30 the vat didn't get a number initially, have made it IV.

Vat XII

30 litres.

2016/08/23 Ribena trester, 7kg. Still cooling off. Have prepared a yeast starter, 1ml + 1tsp sugar in lukewarm water.

2016/08/25 Have added 3L of water with 2kg of sugar. The VAT is full to the 10L mark. Added another 1L+1.5kg, looks a little too full, but normally this mix doesn't rise up.

2016/08/29 Overflow, big puddle on the floor. Have moved to a 30L vat, no number.

2016/10/30 have decided this is vat XII.
2016/11/11 Still bubbles.

Season 2016

2016/04/23 Am distilling vat III. Started around 10:00. At around 11:30, the temperature hit 63-64C and started levelling off. End result - 0.7L at 80% and 0.7L 74%. Hardly any tails, the drip went cloudy very soon after taking the 2nd bottle.

2016/05/10 after having defrosted 10 bags of Johannisbeeren, maybe 25kg, I divided them into two, each in a 20L vat. Today I added some pektin and 3L+4kg water/sugar. Tomorrow I'll add the yeast starter.

2016/10/30 the above is vat V and XI. I suspect they're ready to be distilled.

2016/11/11 vat V - still bubbles.

2018/08/15 vat V has not yet been distilled.

Apple/Pear Harvest 2016

Season 2017

Obviously I forgot to record much for 2017. It was a very poor year for apples and pears, the buds got killed off in the frost in the April.

Season 2018

Early June I acquired an oak cask, a Schnappsfass, in the Brocki. 18francs. Reconstituting it with water, it took a couple of days to grow completely tight. Even just those couple of days gave a nice yellowish tint to the water. The cask holds 4.5litres so on 13/6/2018, I took 1000ml @ 58%, 2000ml @ 64%, 100ml at 74%, all from apple juice, and 1400ml water and filled it up. That should give a percentage of around 43. This is really exciting!

2018/07/11 I tried some, just filled up a little 250ml wine bottle. Very nice!

2018/07/18 The tap has grown stuck as has essentially the wooden cork on the top. I broke the tap when I used too much force.

2018/08/10 I noticed it dripping out of the tap, albeit very slowly. Using a syphon I emptied the cask into bottles. I only got 3 full 700ml bottles, so 2.1litres. I probably took out at least 500ml in July, but that still means only ~3litres. I don't know if the rest hast slowly dripped out, I guess it must have.

I'm letting the cask dry up a bit, so I can remove the tap. Next time I'll use a cork in both holes, that ought to prevent any spillage.

2018/08/15 still not able to remove the tap. It is really stuck. 2018/08/19 finally removed the tap. 2018/08/30 I took 5 x 700ml, at 58%, 77%, 52%, 67%, 70% all from pear/birne 2015, and added 1000ml of water (first used for rinsing the bottles) into the oak fass. That should give a percentage of around 50. 2018/10/11 Have filled into 4 x 700ml and 2 x 500ml bottles, so 3.8litres. Nice colour. 2018/10/12 I took 5 x 700ml, at 54%, 56%, 63%, 63%, 64% all from apple June 2015, and added 800ml of water (first used for rinsing the bottles) into the oak fass. That should give a percentage of around 48.8. 2018/11/12 The mixture came out at 49%, much as predicted. I would like to bring it down to 45%, so I am going to add 350ml, giving me 45.1% and a total volume of 4650ml, 6 x 700ml plus 350ml left over. This one is quite pale, in comparison to the previous batch (pear/birne). 2018/11/12 New batch: Birne, 4x700ml, 64%, 67%, 55%, 60%, 1000ml at 68% plus 470ml of water. This should come out at 56%, so add another 1000ml to get 45.5%. 2018/12/14 Result: 55%, so need to add 1000ml to get to about 45%. So about 5litres, in 7 bottles. The colour is much lighter now. 2018/12/15 New batch: Apple, June 2015, 6x700ml, 45, 55, 60, 66, 68, 68. plus 50ml of water. Should come out at about 60%, so add another 1400ml to get to e.g. 45%. 2019/01/15 Result: 59%, so need to add 1400ml to get to about 45%. So 5.7litres, in 8 bottles. 2019/01/16 New batch: Apple, June 2015, 6x700ml, 45, 58, 61, 63, 68, 75. plus 50ml of water. Should come out at about 60%, so add another 1400ml to get to e.g. 45%. 2019/02/17 Result: 60%, so need to add 1600ml of water to get about 44%. 5.8 litres, in 8 bottles.. 2019/02/19 New batch: Apple, June 2015, 6x700ml, 47, 58, 61, 63, 68, 75. plus 50ml of water. Should come out at about 60%. 2019/03/17 New batch: Apple+pear, May 2016, 6x700ml, 55, 60, 70, 72, 75, 80 plus 50ml of water. Should come out at about 67%. 2019/04/17 Result: 68%, so need to add 2200ml of water to get about 45%. 6.4litres, in 9 bottles. 2019/04/19 New batch: birne May 2015, 3x700ml, 1x1000ml: 50,60,70,74%. Should come out at about 63%. 2019/05/25 Result: 64%. so need to add 1400ml to get about 44%. 4.5litres = 6 bottles of 700ml. 2019/05/30 New batch: apple, March 2017, 4x700ml, 1 x1000ml: 52%,70%,83%,84%,55%. Estimated 67%. 2019/07/07 I did not study the result, just put it in a large bottle. 2019/07/07 New batch: birne, August 2015, 5x700ml: 80%,70%,60%,77%,69%. Estimated 69%. 2019/08/21 Drained the above into big bottle. Not dliuted. 2019/08/25 New batch: birnemash, August 2015, 4x700ml: 60%,70%,80%,62%. Estimated 67%. Add 1900ml to get 40%.