Apricot Brandy

[ratters]

For a while now I have had quite an abundance of apricots in my chest freezer, at a guess maybe 20kg or so and I have recently been pondering over what to do with them. I have already made plenty of apricot wine so I dont think I need to do any more of that.

One thought I came up with that Im liking more and more is the idea of brewing up a large batch of apricot wine, or enough to use up the fruit anyway, and then freeze distill it into a sort of apricot brandy. At least that would be something different to try anyhow.

Has anyone done this before and how did it go? I think the addition of raisins, sultanas and a dose of oak chips might produce something nice.

Cheers

 

[jensmith]

Try making a port with them. Thats just a little different then wine. Sounds more fun then finding room in the freezer for your plan. At least if youre freezer is anyway like mine!!
Or make a jam with them. You can always turn the wine into wine later if you wanted to.


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[ratters]

Should have mentioned, we already have far more apricot jam than anyone could reasonably hope to use in a year!

The problem you see, was that a large orchard nearby suffered a massive storm and they had so much windfall right on the eve of their picking season they advertised the windfall apricots at bargain prices, so I went a bit nuts! I think it was 60kg in the end. Gave a lot away, cooked and brewed a lot and still have a lot

What would you suggest then if I were to make an apricot port?

 

[PatrickSweetman]

Give it a try, but my experience with freeze concentrating is that it concentrates the fruit acids and tannins as well as the alcohol so the resulting liquor is rather rough.

 

[scarekrow]

When you freeze concentrate you get a concentration of alcohol, sweetness and taste. So if the wine is good the concentrate will be good, if it is mediocre it will taste bad. I've tried two different wines and it magnifies what you put in. Just my 2 cents

 

[MindenMan]

I have made quite a few batches of freeze concentrated apricot/apple ciders/juices. Apple juice in the store is usually 1.050 in gravity, add yeast, and in a couple of weeks or so, try it to see if it ready to freeze concentrate. Your F.G. should be around 1.012 ( more or less).
Lets do simple math to calculate our final volume of available Alcohol. For example A 128 oz gallon jug of 1.050 cider may get as strong as 10% ABV.
There are 20 ounces of partially frozen 100 proof to be drawn off. Depending on adding fjc to boost back up the flavor and alcohol %.
If you are making Apple Jack, some residual sweetness is good as in my experience as the final product will be smoother much more complex.
We have a little stash put away since September, 2013, and I must say it is amazing now. I wonder what another 6 months would do.
If you haven't tried freeze concentrating before, go to the store, buy a gallon of juice, pour out 1/2 cup of it (to save for later) add yeast, put it in a cool dark environment for 2 or so weeks, drop it in the freezer until there is a sufficient amount of ice made, take the bottle out of the freezer and turn it upside down in some kind of a jar for an hour or so or until the ice has lost most of its color, and sample the results. Cheers!

 

[MindenMan]

Give it a try, but my experience with freeze concentrating is that it concentrates the fruit acids and tannins as well as the alcohol so the resulting liquor is rather rough.

If standard brewing practices are kept in place, the chance of a bad batch are very rare to happen. In another forum, I discuss my adventures with making apple jack.

 

[jensmith]

I've never intentionaly made a port. I have made wines that were port like! There are two ways to make port.
Bascicly is very short terms...
The "real" way. Make a wine with a med high sg to start with. When it gets to the sweetness you want dump in a high abv, everclear or super high abc brandy. That kills off the yeast and leaves it sweet and fruity.
The "other" way... Frowned on by real port makers. Make a wine with as much fruit in it as you can. Bump up the sg as high as you can go. Step feed the wine untill the yeast dies off. At this point you can sweeten to taste if needed, and or add a dash of everclear to bost the finnel abv.
Age well no matter the method.

The second method will use lots of apricots at least!


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[ratters]

Well I dont think there's any harm in having a go!

Unforunately the only high % spirit I can get here is called "Spirytus", its 95% but costs $70 per 500ml bottle, so i have only used it once making Limoncello.

I have freeze concentrated a small amount of Strawberry wine before, and it worked out OK. It was better than the wine it came from actually, mainly because it wasnt a strong flavour and sweetness to begin with.

I think perhaps I just need to be mindful not to freeze concentrate a very sweet wine, I dont want to end up with anything thats really too syrupy.

 

[RachmaelBenApplebaum]

Pretty sure (though I'm probably wrong) it's not illegal to own a small personal still in Australia, thoughts?

 

[ratters]

You are correct its not illegal to own a still in Australia, and its a common enough hobby too. All the home brew supply shops sell them for the legitimate purpose of distilling oil, along with all the goodies you need to distill spirts.

It's one of those things that is socially acceptable or just ignored, but if you were selling it then you might be in for a world of pain should you be caught. Thats my understanding on the matter anyway.

I dont actually drink a lot of spirits, more a fan of good old beer, wine and ciders

 

[brewbama]

Around here we have what we call Sweet Lucy made up the road in Kelso. It's REALLY good. If you can make it I highly recommend it.


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[RachmaelBenApplebaum]

But if you plan on jacking apricot wine why not just go the distance and make a real spirit rather than concentrating all the headache-inducing chemicals as well? I dunno, your beverage I guess.