A Distilling Trick To Get More Fruit Flavor

[@BeardedBored]

Really cool that you laid out a bunch of different methods for "shooting". Also, thanks for the shout out brother:-)

[@debonpanton3366]

Was thinking the same thing. 'Shooting the Thumper' in a pot still. 100% apple juice should also work quite well. Ha ha ha

[@Rubberduck-tx2bh]

Hey Jesse, would love to see you do a project with a thumper (or even a DOUBLE thumper)!

[@rimrock53]

I have a half gallon of “Apple Brandy” that was made from the leftovers of squeezed Akane apples used to make cider. The apple pulp was boiled to draw out the flavor and inverted white sugar added to get to a reasonable SG for fermenting (0.075). They were then strained to remove the apple peels and fermented dry. The result was decanted off of the remaining pulp/yeast and distilled in a pot still. Off the still, the resulting brandy tasted a bit like applesauce. It has been aged for 2+years on some French oak at 50% abv. That has added spice and made it a beautiful color.

[@ryanrice3149]

Feels like this could happen as a triple distillation process… Strip, Spirit to clean out all the heads and tails, then run a 3rd distillation with apples in and very little in the way of heads and tails cuts. Love these videos btw, thanks so much for making these!

[@keiththomas3352]

Maybe 2 if you remove the heads in the stripping run.

[@lewisgiles8855]

​@@keiththomas3352you'd have to run the first part of the stripping run as a spirit run and this begs for a new name for that run. What do we call it?

[@jeremylastname873]

@@lewisgiles8855 Allow me to introduce the “streaking run.”😂

[@lewisgiles8855]

@@jeremylastname873 🏃‍♂️💨 🤏🤣

[@cnote001]

Nice work! Thanks for sharing! What do you think about putting the apple in a blender or pressing to release more juice and flavor to benefit from a quick soak?

[@ToastedSynapseGaming]

Regarding adding raw fruit when distilling an already made alcohol I find the results much better if you don't treat them as botanicals. Meaning you don't add them in on the same day you're going to make your distilling. Try adding them to a jar 1-2 weeks and THEN distilling. Let that apple macerate a bit so you can get the most out of it. Botanicals for gin don't really need this, because they give away their flavor fast. They are also mostly dry so would likely accept the alcohol on the spot especially if it's hot (kind of like tea). On a side note: This is also what I do whenever I'm adding something to my thumper. I don't just chop up fruit right then and there and add alcohol over it, but set aside a jar before (easies way is when you're starting your fermentation - and keep that jar next to your barrel and shake it daily)

[@ZombiePumps]

My favorite way to proof down shine is using apple juice. It looks like an aged spirit, and has a smooth flavor right away, as long as it doesn’t go cloudy.

[@Hunne2303]

I gotta say, I learned a lot by just watching a few of your videos. All I have is a big pot with a thermo, to which I can attach a cooling spiral. As it so happens, a new batch is about to be finished so I shall adhere to your advice and try what I´ve learned so far. This time: lemon balm water with probably way too much sugar and baking yeast...I don´t expect anything drinkable, but I´ve yet to fraction those approx. 1-3 liters of alcohol, which I´ve never done before...no wonder I always got some questionable results 😂 Since getting a big still isn´t really legal where I live, I think I´ll DIY a larger one myself.

[@the_whiskeyshaman]

Great info thank you for everything you do.

[@GorillaGlueEnthusiast]

Bearded and bored showed us how to shoot the barrel and i haven't gone back since! My best results come with making apple sauce or peach slurry to infuse with. Juice isn’t concentrated enough.🤘🥃🤘

[@BEAVERDIY]

Very cool video Brother

[@klausschwabshubris]

Literally just finished stilling out a batch about an hour ago. Edit: I add sliced up oranges 🍊 , I like that flavour.

[@schmidtyschmidty5118]

I made a false bottom for my thumper as a makeshift gin basket and I use it constantly - and not just because my gin recipe is the best gin I know of

[@lacittanews721]

Hi, congratulations on your content, I was pleasantly surprised. I wanted to ask you something that I can't understand, I saw several Air stills on amazon and vevor, the features seem identical to more expensive models. I wanted to distill gin made by direct infusion with this instrument, as well as distilled water to reduce the alcohol content. Can I use it to distill alcohol or do I have to switch to a still? Thanks

[@theghostofsw6276]

Hahaha...."get stuck in". I love those 70ish British sayings. I wish we had cool expressions, here in North America...like "get stuck in", and "not half".

[@dougdorrer4622]

My home state in the USA (West Virginia) just legalized home distilling up to 5 gal of spirits per year, per adult.(Over age 21). Bear and wine up to 200 gal. has been federally legal for some time.

[@top6ear]

I did this with botanicals while making gin I let it sit in The cauldron for 24 hours before I boiled it up and it's probably the best gym I've ever had

[@suprstu]

KiaOra Jesse! With aging jars, you swap your seals out... what do you swap them out with and where would i go find them

[@TheInfinityzeN]

Not the same thing but I always finish my wines and melomels (fruit mead) on fruit. Most commonly I use dried/dehydrated fruit because it gets you the most flavor quickly while not diluting the brew. And if I want to cut the ABV (because a wine that was supposed to be 12~14% went to 17%) then I will just fruit juice rather than water. Never thought of adding fruit in the middle of a run but it is close to the same concept. Will have to try it. Currently when cutting a fruit based spirit I have two methods to add more fruit flavor. The first is take some portion of fresh juice, add pectic enzyme, then let it sit in the fridge for a few days. Course filter it to remove any solids that drop and that makes up some portion of my water for the cut. Depending on the fruit the juice is from (apple is the worst), if you don't do the pectic enzyme and filter thing you will get a cloudy or hazy result in your final spirit. This will also add color and sugars to your spirit. The second I picked up from a friend who does a run on straight juice/fruit. This results in a completely clear liquid that has no sugars, but often the fruit flavor will be "cooked" rather than "fresh".

[@d9inger544]

I was wondering if you could run the fore shots off and then connect a thumper with the fruit in it, that way you're dealing with disconnecting a cool/cold condenser and connecting a cool thumper, so nothing you're touching is hot. I know it would take time for the thumper to heat up and stabilize but maybe you wouldn't have to deal with hot parts or loose flavor in the fore shots or heads. I hope this makes since...

[@allfatherodin-officiallyun1107]

Can you distill stroopwafels if you can find them in New Zealand?

[@Nikeshan]

Would this work with cherries or other fruit as well? How would you choose how much fruit? Do you have a rule of thumb on percentage of fruit?

[@Doubie.]

Hey Jessie are you going to have more selection in your us store now that the federal probation on home distillation is gone

[@glleon80517]

The federal judge ruled that the TTB cannot restrict a home as the location for a Distilled Spirits Plant. The requirement to have a license and pay excise taxes remains. It takes up to a year to get a license and there are record keeping requirements. If you live in a state that does not allow home distilling you are still breaking the law. You can download and read the injunction. The TTB still has the right to appeal.

[@Hunne2303]

tbh, the prices are a bit too much for my wallet...DIY a still, it´s not that hard

[@nealdavis9259]

I don’t have a great pallet. I like just straight ethanol. Try beet. That’s the only thing I’ve done and has a strong definite flavor that tastes just like beets.

[@demsrchildabusers7959]

Do you ever proof your grain whisky's with sweet water from the end of a run?

[@Denis_v1.0_beta]

What I do is run off a very clean refluxed neutral and use that as my base spirit to macerate botanicals. Other than a very minor amount of "foreshots", the remainder collected is hearts. No heads to pull out flavour. I actually thought this would be the obvious method TBH, as it's how Gin is typically produced.

[@willbbwluvr]

Plinka can be aged on the fruit to intensify the flavour

[@TheMorningIWokeUpDead]

what do you think about adding just apple skin in the still to add flavor?

[@TheMorningIWokeUpDead]

I've made it with spirits where it sits in it cause distilling here is illegal.

[@jeffomalley100]

Can you use terpenes to add flavor?

[@jayhope7110]

what about a thumper bypass set up so you change the vapour path from normal set up to the thumper set up that way no need to open it up just a two ball valves

[@rogermatthews182]

If you're doing a double distillation can you get away with being conservative and taking out a lot of heads on the first distillation, and keeping everything from the second with the fruit?

[@AhhZrulz]

What do you think would happen if you macerated the alcohol and fruit in a pressure pot. The alcohol would vaporize but it would not be able to escape the pot.

[@andersjjensen]

I wonder just HOW good a "Whiskey" you could make if you threw out any notion of tradition/doctrine and went all in on "cheating at every step of the way". Stuff like doing a main mash for the bulk alcohol, but several smaller mashes that each aim at something specific, along with every cheat in the distilling phase like injecting flavors and a whole bunch of cuts. The waste is probably going to be higher, but if the goal is to go for "artificial perfection" that's not really a big deal. AND... we get to see all the traditionalists go apeshit in the comment section, which is always a delight.

[@redneckrvliving]

May i make a small quandary. I'm a bit confused. Most of us do not have an air still. And some of us are not smart enough to be able to automatically make comparisons or equivalents to be able to take what you're trying to show, or teach and do the same thing with a normal still.. maybe I'm just dumb. Not sure. Please help

[@johncarter1150]

Got 600+ pounds of(bruised) sweet dessert pears from my trees to get to working.

[@ZombiePumps]

I made the best candy apple brandy from leftover candied apples from the school , then ruined it by filtering it, and lost all the flavor. 😢

[@joshuahansen5486]

I've come to the realization that whiskey is just a tincture or wood tea with alcohol then that made me think of the tea tree so here's my idea what if you tried to make a whiskey using tea tree wood

[@jonathanmilne2043]

Who is Brandy?!

[@awasteofsalt]

She’s a fine girl What a good wife she would be

[@jonathanmilne2043]

@@awasteofsalt 😂😂

[@patrickpearce886]

first?

[@scottp3287]

Use a big boy still

[@kirkstinson7316]

These are test runs. Why would you potentially waste a large still full?