How Not To Make Calvados
Jimmy | March 25, 2008In the interest of helping others, I now present my guide to completely failing to make apple brandy. The keen-eyed amongst you will quickly spot the folly of this method, but perhaps it will serve to educate those who are as stupid as myself and prevent more innocent fruit giving their lives for nothing. Luckily, I only did this on a small scale as a test!
I took a bag of nice juicy apples, and four large pears. I removed the pips and stalks, but shoved everything else through the juicer, putting both juice and pulp into a bowl. You need the skins and suchlike to get flavour, and I thought this was a good way to mash everything up. So far so good.
My first mistake was not adding any water. The pulp was too thick (in my opinion) to ferment out properly. It was a bit like soup or thick apple sauce, and I definitely think it would have benefitted from being watered down. I didn’t measure the specific gravity (S.G.) of the mix before I started, mostly because it would have been approximately equivalent to that of a brick. Lesson learned - get the wash to a decent S.G. level before proceeding in future.
Secondly, I didn’t measure the pH - mostly because I have no way of doing so. This is probably less relevant, but to do it properly I should have made sure that it was about 4.8 - 5 to provide optimum conditions for the yeast (4.0 - 4.5 for a pure sugar wash). Apples are generally around 3.5, pure water is 7. As it happened, this was the least of my worries.
My biggest mistake was my choice of fermentation vessel. I had intended to use an empty 2 litre plastic bottle, but due to the aforementioned pulp consistency, I found I was unable to get it through the neck of the bottle. I looked in vain for a suitable vase, bucket, or piece of kitchenware that wouldn’t be missed for a week or so. Nothing. In desperation, I chucked it all into my usual fermentation bucket, which holds 30 litres. Spot the problem? In my enthusiasm, I didn’t.
For those who are still learning, at this point it’s a good idea to revisit what we know about yeast. For our purposes, yeast does basically two things. Given a supply of sugar and oxygen, it will consume the sugar and multiply, producing more yeast and carbon dioxide. Deprived of oxygen, it will consume the sugar and produce alcohol. By putting 2 litres of wash into a 30 litre bucket which was mostly full of air, I had basically given the yeast license to multiply like buggery and not bother producing alcohol. Doh.
Of course, normally a layer of carbon dioxide would form on the top of the liquid, thereby allowing alcohol production underneath, but because the pulp was so thick I was shaking the bucket up several times a day to make sure it was all mixed in - yes dear reader, not content with my earlier stupidity, I was now oxygenating the liquid so it could make MORE yeast.
I was still blissfully unaware at this point though, the airlock was bubbling away and when it stopped I gave it a few days to be sure and then cracked the lid. It smelled like cider, which I took to be a good sign - what I should really have remembered is that cider is full of carbon dioxide, so what I was smelling was apple scented carbon dioxide. I tasted the pulp, which had no sweetness at all - good I thought, the yeast has done its job. Yes, yes it had. Sadly I’d given it the wrong job to do.
We strained the mixture to remove the lumps, then put it through the still. We didn’t let it settle, basically because it was pretty much ALL sediment. This is where the extra water would have made a difference - after all, it would be distilled out so it wouldn’t affect the final product. Also, if I had been able to take an S.G. measurement of the wash at the start, I would have been able to tell that there was hardly any alcohol in the finished solution.
The first 25ml or so that came out smelled great, so I left that on one side as heads and collected another 25ml. This was less great but still OK, and tasted like watery apples. The next parts were waterier still, and by about the fifth lot I was basically collecting pure water so I stopped. At this point I was confused by how badly it had gone, and I had to sit down and work out all the areas that I’d gone wrong with. As you’ve seen, there were a fair few. I did drink the heads though, normally a no-no but when I’d worked out how little alcohol I’d put in, I figured there would be hardly any bad bits present so it would be OK. They tasted nice, which was about the only encouraging thing to come out of this disaster - at least I know now that it’s worth trying again properly.
Lessons learned then. Firstly, use an appropriate sized container for a fermentation. You ideally want to give as little room as possible for oxygen, while giving enough room for the yeast to bubble and foam without breaching the container. If using my 30 litre bucket, I should have had 25 litres in there at least. Secondly, make sure your wash is liquid enough to measure the starting S.G. so you can calculate the strength of the wash when fermentation has finished. Thirdly, measure the pH if possible and adjust if required.
None of this is rocket science, and to some people out there it will seem like downright stupidity, but bear in mind that when you’ve never done something before it’s easy for enthusiasm to take over and common sense to go out of the window. Hopefully someone will learn from my mistakes and save themselves the time and expense that I’ve wasted this time!
Have you had any similar disasters? Leave a comment, share them with us all and at the very least you’ll make me feel a little better!
Hmmm would definately like to give that a try when
Jane | April 13, 2008Hmmm would definately like to give that a try when its properly done! I love your experiments, bit like an alcoholic equivalent of disaster biscuits!
Despite your massive failure, I would like to see a
Xander Cormorant | April 16, 2008Despite your massive failure, I would like to see a mango-based beverage from the house of Still Smart. Don’t let these failures get you down: they are merely stepping stones on the path to greatness.
Kisses,
Xander
Ok, so far, my current efforts have proved a little
Fatbloke | May 31, 2008Ok, so far, my current efforts have proved a little more successful by the sound of it.
Firstly, I have a copy of the book “Calvados”, and apart from some of the basic info, it was, IMO, a complete waste of money.
Yes, it’s beautifully produced/printed etc, but I found either a printers error or it hadn’t been proof read completely i.e. the descriptions of the differences between a straight alembic and a column still, seem to have exactly the same text!
It came across like a tourist guide aimed at Americans who are visiting the Normandy region for the first time and have discovered Calvados by accident.
I digress………
So, I have been basically taking cider kits (40 pint ones) and making them up according to the instructions, then modifying the mix.
The initial mix will give you a gravity of about the 1045 mark, and a pH measurement of about 4 or so.
I’ve been adding a couple of teaspoons of an acid mix I found referenced in an “out of print” book about mead making (2 thirds Malic and 1 third tartaric is the mix), to bring the ph down to about 3.5, and then I’ve been adding sugar, 1 kg at a time, so bring the gravity up to about 1080 or so i.e. that will convert to 10% abv.
Now the idea being that I’m trying to make sure that it still has a good level of sugar but high enough malic to be more like a batch of pressed juice that’s from a cider apple of a good year.
I then put some of the must/wash into the liquidiser and give it a whizz for a minute - it aerates brilliantly.
I then put that back into the bucket and add the packet of yeast/nutrient that came with the kit, plus I add a packet of “youngs” cider yeast (I’ve seen yeast data sheets, that, while not mentioning youngs yeasts, mention that some other manufacturers “cider yeasts” would go to 14% if they could).
Thus far, it’s worked a treat - I’ve managed to get 3 or 4 cider kits cheap from Wilko’s (they’re nearly out of date).
This is then distilled, and the result is filtered (the still has been both a SS “water purifyer” and a SS super reflux still for “essential oils” - if I use the former, then it’s filtered by the “carbon teabag”, if I used the later it’s filtered with a “Z” filter).
The results are then smelled and tasted, and the rest is placed into a 34 litre jar (from Brouwland). It’s got mainly distilled cider kits, but also the results of other wine and mead making efforts that i didn’t like the taste of as their original product.
I’ve also put 2 packs of “oak chips” to simulate barrel contact (one pack was “normal”, the other one was toasted).
I’m guessing I might have to rack it in and out of a large bucket to simulate oxidation - I might actually not fill it all the way up, as the air space might help (according to the calvados book anyway).
Next time I put some more in, I’ll try to take a picture and post it on flickr so you can see what I’m on about.
Hmmm, sounds like a good method to me - I
Jimmy | June 1, 2008Hmmm, sounds like a good method to me - I will have a go with it when I find a kit. I didn’t know you could get them from Wilkos? The nearest homebrew shop to me is over an hour away so I don’t tend to get over there to browse around unfortunately. I keep meaning to make an online order but I want so many things that I keep getting scared off doing it by the price!