Non distilled brandy

[bigbeerdsbrewing]

I have made this before and it turns out like 17-18% wine. The 93y/o man who gave me the recipe calls it brandy. I've made it with blueberries raspberries and peaches. I'm going to make a batch this fall and instead of using super high gravity ale yeast I was thinking about trying something else. Any ideas? Also I want to change up the rescipe a little. I want to do 6lbs peaches 5lbs honey 6lbs sugar 2lbs raisins and 3 lemons. I'll post the original recipe below so you guys can compare. Let me know what you guys think.



10lbs suger
3 gallons water
4lbs raisins
3 lemons
1/2 cake yeast
4lbs fresh fruit
boil 3 gallons water, add fruit that is cut up, sugar lemons, and yeast. let sit for 1 week stirring once a day and cover with cloth. at end of one week add 4 lbs. of raisins and mix well.do not disturb for the next 3 weeks. leave it alone, this is very important. strain and put in to gallons. pour thru cheese cloth. let sit and pour into small bottles. ( do not disturb sediment or it won't be clear).
Make sure you tell your friend how cool the 87 year old that gave you this recipe is and to toast on mr. burkhart when he opens his batch.

 

[DoctorCAD]

First, there is no way it turns out to be 17 or 18% ABV. "Yeast cake" is the clue. "Yeast cake" generally refers to bakers yeast and it isn't very good at producing high levels of alcohol.

Second, it is cool, no doubt, but is he 87 or 93?

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi bigbeerdsbrewing - and welcome.
The sugar itself will give you a potential ABV of about 15% if the wine ferments bone dry - The raisins will increase that a little as will the fruit ... so not sure I would be as certain as DoctorCad that we are looking at a lower level wine but if the wine - or "brandy" tastes sweet then the ABV must be lower as that sweetness is evidence of residual sugar. Have you measured the final gravity of this wine? If it is above 1.000 then it's not going to be above about 15% - But that in and of itself is a high alcohol wine.

 

[bigbeerdsbrewing]

Dr, he was 87 when he gave me the recipe in 2010, he is 93 now and still kicking strong. The bottom part is a copy and pasted email from his neighbor. He used bakers yeast when he made it. I use WHite Labs super high gravity ale yeast which can yield up to 20-22% abv.

Bernard, I haven't used a haven't used a hydromitor when making this. I am curious as to what og would be in his original recipe and what it would be in my doctored recipe? Can't find a fermentable calculater tho. Any help is appreciated. Thanks for the responses

 

[bernardsmith]

As a "rule of thumb" I assume that most juice expressed from fruit have a gravity of about 1.045 a gallon. Six pounds of peaches would produce - what? about a small half gallon? So perhaps 20 additional points when you add a half gallon of water or about 6 points when you add the juice to the three gallons. Let's assume that the honey and sugar dissolved in 3 gallons will give you about 14 % ABV with the added fruit.

But the issue for most wine makers is not usually how much alcohol you can squeeze out of the sugar but how smooth and well integrated and flavor rich is the wine. A yeast designed to bring out the flavor of fruits might be helpful. One designed to produce alcohol for later distillation may be much like cracking a peanut with a sledge hammer.

You are making what is called a melomel (a honey and fruit wine - although less than half the sugar is coming from the honey so purists would scoff). For me I want to use as little water as I possibly can. Wine ain't beer, so the juice extracted from the peaches would be my source of liquid - and so I would be looking for about 8-10 lbs of very ripe fruit for each gallon of wine ("brandy")... and although I know that there are many recipes "out there" authored by famous names, in my book, the purpose of water in wine making is to wash my equipment - not to dilute the juice. Two lbs of peaches to a gallon of wine will not result in much of a peach flavor, but if that is the flavor you are looking for then that flavor is just right for you. Me? I like my fruit front and center.

 

[Brewmasher]

Use WLP099 Super High Gravity Ale Yeast which can go over 25%. Use what ever flavors you want, add sugar and nutrients in increments every 3-4 days until it quits. Then freeze it, put it in a strainer and thaw in the refrigerator until all the dark stuff drains to the bottom and all that is left in the strainer is snow.