Strawberry Banana Shine

[William Autrey]

Try to use invert sugar, the long sugar chains are broken down into simple sugar chains the yeast have a fun time chewing thru.
I'll say the bananas had the lot of that sugar, strawberries are not that high.
If I can relocate the page on fruit sugars I'll link it here. it's very good info, I was looking on it for some mead to know the amount of honey to substitute for the sugars available in fruits.

I just cut up 32 lbs of strawberries and 60 lbs of bananas. Cuisinarted then to a smoothly like consistency. Took a refactor reading of 11 brix and added 10 lbs of sugar to increase it to 15 brix. Added 20 gallons of 160 degree water, added an enzyme to break down the bananas. Stored every 15 mins for about one hour. And then used a wort chiller to drop the temperature to 80 degrees. Added 6- ec1118 yeast with yeast nutrient. Buy Sunday (yesterday) afternoon the yeast had already begun to work. I placed a locking lid on the container that has two vent slots near each handle. I am hoping by next Saturday or Sunday for a reading of 1.055 or 1.099. Maybe even make up some smoothy to fill up the thumper. Inject more flavors. Fingers crossed I’m on to something great!

 

[Shine0n]

What temp are fermenting at?
1118 Is a beast with fruit!!!

The hardest thing to put in a bottle of likker is patience, dont be in a hurry as the fruit notes will take some time to return.

Most of the base flavors will come thru in the heads and strawberry takes a long time to show its face.

I haven't done anything with nanners, but most folk I've talked to say it's a hard flavor to find.

Collect in small jars and let air for a day, then go back to blending.

I have read from a reputable source that if you suspend the fruit over the distillate (not in) that the vapors will let the flavors absorb back into the likker.

Good luck

 

[William Autrey]

What temp are fermenting at?
1118 Is a beast with fruit!!!

The hardest thing to put in a bottle of likker is patience, dont be in a hurry as the fruit notes will take some time to return.

Most of the base flavors will come thru in the heads and strawberry takes a long time to show its face.

I haven't done anything with nanners, but most folk I've talked to say it's a hard flavor to find.

Collect in small jars and let air for a day, then go back to blending.

I have read from a reputable source that if you suspend the fruit over the distillate (not in) that the vapors will let the flavors absorb back into the likker.

Good luck

80 degrees

suspend the fruit over the distillate? Like place fruit in a bag and drop it in the vessel but not let it touch the liquid?
You can also fill up your thumper with fruit to get the same injection.

I also ran a vinegar water mixture and ran it to clean out my vessel. Usually throw out first half quart but this time throw out a full quart. And rinse too before my run.

 

[Shine0n]

That's exactly right, it worked well with cinnamon for the clear apple pie.

not saying the thumper idea won't work but for me it hasn't worked well enough to keep doing it.

Now if you suspend the fruit above the liquid and let the vapors come into contact it should act as a gin basket.

 

[William Autrey]

That's exactly right, it worked well with cinnamon for the clear apple pie.

not saying the thumper idea won't work but for me it hasn't worked well enough to keep doing it.

Now if you suspend the fruit above the liquid and let the vapors come into contact it should act as a gin basket.

I would think that filling the thumper which forcing the distillient through would do the same thing?

 

[Shine0n]

I'm just saying I haven't had good results from it. Not bad just not as good as the vapor path route.

You absolutely do get some, I've had better results with the vapor.

I do get a stronger flavor when I put the grains from an AG mash in the thumper, but I mainly do that to not waste alky or have to squeeze the grain bag.

 

[NinjaBear]

How do you suspend your fruit without breaking/interfering with your seals?

 

[Shine0n]

I have a 6" opening, I use a nylon brew bag, I also have a copper sheet gasket wrapped with Teflon tape.

Once you clamp down the triclamp on the gasket, it seals up nicely. just avoid wrinkles on the gasket part.

 

[William Autrey]

I have a 6" opening, I use a nylon brew bag, I also have a copper sheet gasket wrapped with Teflon tape.

Once you clamp down the triclamp on the gasket, it seals up nicely. just avoid wrinkles on the gasket part.

I cut up 32 lbs of strawberries and 60 lbs of bananas. I got a refractor reading of brix 11. Added 10 lbs of sugar and increased to 15 brix. Stuck with that and am now fermenting with ec1118 yeast at a good rate. I suspect to distill low and slow by this weekend. I am also going to fill my thumper with the same strawberry banana mixture. But am thinking of flavor injecting with maybe a strawberry juice adder or something like it I may find at whole foods. My still and thumper have a 2" threaded opening only. I have threaded caps. The openings are to narrow for a bag.

 

[William Autrey]

Well as I feared! another attempt semi failed. After spending hours cutting up strawberries and bananas, fermenting for nine days with ec1118 yeast and an enzyme.
SP at 1.099. I was only able to distill 2 gallons out of the 20 gallon mash liquid. First proof was 110 and the second was 80.
I even put 3/4 gallons of 115 proof and 1/2 gallons 50 proof in the thumper.

It has a nice fruity smell. I combined the two and proofed it to 90.
Completely lost on why there was such a huge margin between the two or why I only got two instead of four or five gallons?

Probably done with the fruit... for now. To much expence and work for such a little volume.

I’ll wait a couple of weeks to see if more of the fruit begins to show it self.

 

[Shine0n]

How big is your still, 15gal?
let's say you have 10% wash
in a 10 gal boiler.
That's 1 gallon of 100% pure etho, now take into account cuts...Maybe 3 5ths and that's if you do loose cuts.
Also, you're not getting all the etho out anyway.

 

[William Autrey]

20 gallon and that is 20 gallons of mash liquid.
Running Rye I usually get five one gallon starting 150-110 proof. Adding everything together I further proof it to 100 and add an extra gallon.
But not with the strawberry banana?
What the hell happened???

 

[William Autrey]

20 gallon and that is 20 gallons of mash liquid.
Running Rye I usually get five one gallon starting 150-110 proof. Adding everything together I further proof it to 100 and add an extra gallon.
But not with the strawberry banana?
What the hell happened???

It is possible when I was transferring the liquid from the fermentor to the still. I may have also transferred some of the pulp too. But that would not explain the low volume. I had even added a 50 proof 1/2 gallon and a 115 proof 3/4 gallon to the thumper.

 

[Shine0n]

In my experience, running the still quickly can cause a dramatic drop in abv in short order.
When I do a one and done I run 2 quarts per hour sometimes 3, but I collect in very small jars. I also don't worry myself with quantity, I want quality!

I said before that I retrieved 3 total gallons from 45 gallons of peach wash with no added sugar and it's a superior product, I could've upd the quantity for less quality but that's not how I roll.

 

[William Autrey]

In my experience, running the still quickly can cause a dramatic drop in abv in short order.
When I do a one and done I run 2 quarts per hour sometimes 3, but I collect in very small jars. I also don't worry myself with quantity, I want quality!

I said before that I retrieved 3 total gallons from 45 gallons of peach wash with no added sugar and it's a superior product, I could've upd the quantity for less quality but that's not how I roll.

Agreed. I ran this low and slow. And where I state gallons I captured in quarts. My surprise was that SP was at 1.099 with a brix of 15. 20 gallons of liquid should have captured at least 15-20 quarts with a starting proof at 120-130. But the first was 110 and the fifth quart was 80?
The only thing I keep dwelling on is maybe allot of solids was transferred instead of just liquid. Maybe more of the pulp could not turn to a vapor but suspended process.

 

[Shine0n]

Yea, all 3 of my runs with baby food jars.

When I do bourbon or rum I collect in pints until I get to the hearts then go back to pints when I detect tails.

Fruits seem to have the best flavors in the heads, the hearts are pretty boring until that addition of the heads at blending.

I proof down with the 0-15 ish % Sweetwater at the very end of the run, not much at all for alky but the flavors are awesome.

I've put fermented apple pulp in the thumper and it was so thick it heated awkwardly, some of the pulp didn't get hot while the other boiled away. Strang but true.

I plan to do this couple runs of apple and pears this year but I'm going to focus on filling my new barrels with rum.

And 3 or 4 with meads of some sorts!

 

[TGFV]

Edited: Didn't show me the last few days worth of posts so ignore this

 

[Paladin_91]

Mash with Alpha Amalayse and Beta Amalayse powder???? Bananas do not contain enough enzymes to break down thier own sugars so your yeast can dominate??? Wild rambling...