I still needed some Apple Brandy for Christmas presents as my previous batch was rather over-oaked. When I set out to make my Cider, my plan was always to use some of it to make more Apple Brandy. It turned out to be a bit of a long day as I did 3 stripping runs, each with about 1.7l of my cider during the day and then a spirit run this evening. And I even have the label ready!
Unlike previous times, my setup today used the column so as to get more refluxing. Here it is ready to start the spirit run.
I combined the output of my 3 stripping runs and added the remaining 550ml of my over-oaked brandy. Here is some my distillate getting measured for ABV.
...bottle 6 of 9 coming in at 68%. I discarded Bottle 9 (66 ml @ 22%) as it was now the 'tails', leaving me with 675ml @ 66% ABV. Tasting each bottle along the way and then the blend at the end with a little sample each time using a pipette, it is sweet and apple-tasting.
Now to get the Oak level right. Here is my bag of medium-toasted French oak chips.
As you can see from the label, the recommendation for oaking wine is to use between 5g and 30g per 10l. As I was going to end up with a little over 1.1l at 40% when I dilute it, I added just over 3g to my bottle. We'll see how it is after a few days... I can always add more if necessary.
Well that's enough distilling for a while, I think!
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