Know your Apples & Pears?

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Something I found on the walls in the training center of the Austrian institute of agriculture.

StillDragon Europe - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Europe & the surrounding area

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  • edited May 2014

    Wow, lots of varieties...The gursterburgerburgermiester's are my favorite :)

    StillDragon North America - Your StillDragon® Distributor for North America

  • Apples, and there are far more wild or old varieties then on the pictures, are very welcome for distilling here. They are cheap, every farm owns lots of apple trees and more easy to distill as pears (which is the second most available fruit here) Apple spirits (formerly "schnaps") are however not very typical in taste. We often said during blind tastings: it isn't cherry, it's no pear, it's no plum, it can only be apple...we use the complete fruit for distilling, but if you don't like the grassy taste, it is recommended to remove the core.

    Good apple spirits get often awards at the tastings, my personal favorite is an apple cigar brandy, apple spirit, aged in or with wood ;) at higher ABV of 50% or more. It is difficult for distillers to find the balance between the oak taste and the fruitiness but if it is well done, the product is heavenly!

    Pears in their old varieties are very common and beloved in Austria too. "Austrian Speck Birne" is my favorite, it is not so sweet in flavor and taste as the Williams Christ but very rustical and hearty. I like it. The problem is often in distilling them, as they tend to rot very quickly and a "dirty" mash leads to poor quality. Some spirits have the typical harsh feeling of the peel in them, this is also for me very yummy, but it is certainly not for everyone. Interestingly pear brandys should be distilled near to the edge of the tails, then the flavor is most enhanced.

    StillDragon Europe - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Europe & the surrounding area

  • I was thinking a brandy might be best aged on spent oak if barrel aging? Keep the more forward oak notes to a minimum.

    StillDragon North America - Your StillDragon® Distributor for North America

  • Fruit brandys don't stay for such a long time on the oak like whisky. Most of our master distillers reduce the aging to a few months even weeks. Many use new barrels or barrels that are only used with the same fruit spirits, they don't want the delicate fruit notes spoiled by some heavy flavors, the wood flavor should not be too strong. French oak is very popular, since it has higher vanillin then the American oak.

    The oak products (dominos...) that we and you have in stock now, are ideal for this use, since you can perfectly balance the flavors to the fruits.

    You should know, we don't use sugar in the mash and certainly not in the product (4 g are legal, but not in competition) This makes the difference to German or Italian products, they use up to 20g sugar in their brandys or grappa. (Which I really find disgusting.)

    StillDragon Europe - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Europe & the surrounding area

  • Just to clarify, Calvados can spend a fair time in Oak...a minimum of two to three years according to AOC rules?

  • Calvados is a different story. 2 years aging is the minimum.

    StillDragon Europe - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Europe & the surrounding area

  • I use modern commercial apple cultivars ( Royal Gala etc.) – no sugar no water , whole fruit hammer milled and fermented (+-pH 3.6) with fruit wine yeast. I find very little aroma from the fruit in the 50-70% ABV spirit SD or DD at pot still mode (2” , 60cm high copper packed column still ) What else should I change?
    Extract flavour after/during distilling like with Gin? Lower the pH at fermentation? Use my 4” Dash at pot still mode?

  • the thing with apple is, it is not the best fruit to have a signature aroma outcome. We had a saying in our distilling class: It is not pear, it is not cherry, it is not plum - what can it be? Apple!

    The second thing is: the fruits have to be perfect ripe, not too much and certainly to to little. So if your apples could be a bit more riper, there will be better flavor outcome then.

    If you want to have more apple aroma, it could also help to use another apple, that has more aroma per se. Copper packing is not something I would use for aroma brandies, I would go for 2 - 3 bubble plates, that is all. Or just do 2 runs (stripping run, spirit run) in the potstill without packing.

    StillDragon Europe - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Europe & the surrounding area

  • Thank you Sunshine, it makes sense. I also think of experimenting with more pectin rich apple cultivars. The Cider and Calvados people use all different types.

  • edited October 2016

    @Sunshine said: French oak is very popular, since it has higher vanillin then the American oak.

    It's actually the opposite, and one of the major reasons American Whiskies taste the way they do, the second has to do with higher levels of oak lactones in American oak, which of course drives higher level of whiskey lactones. French Oak, on the other hand, would have higher tannin levels.

  • The apples grown here in Florida are very easy to identify...... :))

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