I just ran 20 lbs of apples and 12 pounds of honey. Fermenting now and will be distilling on Sunday. Looking forward to this. Plan on proofing down with apple cider.
We use a garbage disposal to hypothetically crush our apples when making our cider. We have a plastic basin to help feed the apples into the inlet and a PVC pipe into a bucket to collect.
Philbilly try using a 5 gallon Macintosh fruit press with a large mesh bag. I use it to squeeze the remaining wash from my corn that is ground to corn meal. I recover about 90% of my wash. Less pain in the ass than using a colander
I have this issue with peach brandy, can't get enough flavor to transfer. I started doing apple rum with brown sugar and molasses doing a stripping run and spirit run with a thumper I shoot the barrel with and it's worked out great. Gonna try that with my peaches next season.
Hi really injoy your knowledge and vids? I've got a 8 gal stainless 3 pot still and I'm wanting a an exact ratio corn mash or apple moonshine recipe please? I'm struggling how much goes with what? I'm new to it all wanting to learn!! Thanks very much 🙏🏽
A lot of things with this style of distilling (moonshine, folk distilling, whatever you want to call it) are dependant on variables like what grain you have, what apples you have, and how you treat them. This is great for experienced distillers because every batch gets tailor made to the best it can be based on what you have and what your goal is. It is difficult for beginners though because as I mentioned, it's always different. If you want to approach things more exact I suggest checking out still it. Specifically his safety net series if you want to get in to mashing grain. He goes through everything you need or will mention which video it's in.
Got my first still for xmas and my first attempt is 12 lbs apples +3 gallons water heated to 165°, added 6 lbs sugar and cooled to 75° + 2 more gallons of water followed by AB-1 cider yeast. 2 days in and airlock bubbles every 8-10 seconds. Why am I so nervous? Lol At least if I fail I will learn something 👍
I run apples, I use a gas powered chipper shredder. I put a big tote at the outlet and I find a way to keep all the juice and chunks from flying out. I then have a blast tossing apples into the shredder. Kids even love tossing apples into it. Takes no time at all to shred the apples. When box is full, I dump it into a cooler and repeat. When finished I put it in fine mesh laundry bags and use my grape press to get the rest of the juice. I put apple pie spice in my wash and some brown sugar. I get a nice flavor. I'm running the turbo 5000 but I prefer to use my home made set up.
man i did the same shit, had 5 variety of apples and some pears which i cored and i used a juicer and also threw in all the pulp for extra flavors but this was a mistake as i knew it was gonna be a sob to strain out, i did a strip run but removed the foreshots and some heads then i took those left over cores and macerated them with the low wines for a day (perhaps i shoulda done it with the spirit run and triple distilled) , then did my spirit run and it did bring out some nice although a bit faint aroma ,nice light sweetness but had this prickly spice most likely from too much tails, i been letting it rest for 3 months and cutting it down by 7% each month till i hit 40% but if that heat is still there i may let it rest another 3 months or might try to do a partial chill filtration but worried about loosing aroma and flavors,, any suggestion? next time i will use less pulp though and make proper cuts although they all tasted good at the time and since the batch was so small i decided to use it all up but it was pure no water or sugar for once in my life might be some of the best stuff i make
Hey I purchased a new copper still and was wondering if a sacrificial run is absolutely necessary. I scrubbed the hell out of it with soap and water and with starsan after that I gave it a 2 hour vinegar run then a steam cleaning for a hour.
I have 75 lbs of apples,home canned apple juice and apple sauce,what would you recommend for sugar and/or corn yeast flavoring etc never done a batch this big
Phillbilly love your videos and hope to do a apple brandy soon, I have a question not pertaining to apple brandy. I have an 8 gal pot still, and a half gal glass thumper. My question is my thumper accumulates almost 3/4 full of liquid when Im nearing the end of the run. What do you think causes that much liquid in the thumper?
Try different temperature on the still when distilling. Also, you can't have a complete fermentation on the batch. Also a cider will be better in leaving flavor in your distillation. But I'm probably typing to deaf eyeballs because I don't believe that you read the comments.
Hey man question, I've been given a large amount of fruit bars with all natural flavors. You think it would work? They are made with apple sauce and other natural fruit flavors.
When your water cooler was making that sound I thought you were gonna blow up or something lol. I did that too my first time doing an apple brandy I ran it a little sweet also. It was not dry. Did a 8 gallon batch with 25 pounds of apple and I think I only used like 2 pounds of sugar. Couldn't really get a starting gravity because like yours mine was very pulpy and thick, fermented for 3 weeks and ran it at 1.019. I got a gallon and a half out of it. Stopped it at 95, came out at 131 after the foreshots and the heads. Stopped it early because of some funky smells. My cuts were weird too. My heads came out very fruity like strong fruit smell but it changed on me at hearts and the tails were just different too. Kinda fruity tails but I Stopped it cuz I didn't like the taste. But anyways good shit.
Are you combing your jars after the run? There should be slightly different flavors through the run. When you combine all the best parts of the run the apple flavor should be more intense compared to any single jar in the middle of hearts.
I had a buddy give me about 150 lbs of apples from his trees in the fall. Like you said… virtually no apple flavor came through. But it did make an excellent apple pie shine. Everyone loved it.💪👍🥃
How about a little shine swap? Send me a sample and I will send you a sample of my Jimmy Red I grew? I aged on Jack Daniel’s wood chips and put a few coffee beans in with it!
I ain’t got no juicer so I just put apples between 2 sheets of plywood and drive over it with my lawn tractor a few times and scrape it into my mash bucket. It’s ugly but I’m cheap and lazy I call it apple drive… I would love to swill a good slobber of the one you made… smush and ferment on my brother…
I have a serious question if anyone can help. I've tried to mash in apples twice now. Once just kinda putting the lid on and once with a bubbler airlock. Neither time worked out. They both turned to vinegar almost immediately. I'm talking 4 days later it's vinegar. The bubbler never even bubbled even tho when I took the lid off the mash was bubbling. I don't understand what is happening. Please someone help me
Mr phillBilly do you sell or give away ur shine if so I would love to have some My name is Rodney from Athens Ga I watch almost all your shows when I can keep up the good work hope to here back
I thought your ass was joking about a truck load of apple 😅. Well I guess I’m going to get my still set up and run this weekend now. People want their pie.
I made some apple shine once... tasted like Aniseed. Then I made some mango malt liquor, and it tasted like shit... so I distilled out the methanol, and damn. Best beer i ever had My favorite tho, is the bark of the Persian Silk tree, fermented with Japanese Honeysuckle.... not distilled... had me seein shit for a while :)
Either not enough ingredient and too much sugar, possibly distilling at too high of proof. Bourbon for instance should not be distilled over 80% ABV off the spout of the still. Simple stills ran slow enough with column packing & feints in the wash or a spirit run after stripping can easily hit 86% ABV for a while.
I have been running a blue corn and fig recipe all fall and winter. Thanks for the corn, and the new video.
I just ran 20 lbs of apples and 12 pounds of honey. Fermenting now and will be distilling on Sunday. Looking forward to this. Plan on proofing down with apple cider.
Let us know how it turned out
How much water did you use?
@@joshp2542 13 gallons
We use a garbage disposal to hypothetically crush our apples when making our cider. We have a plastic basin to help feed the apples into the inlet and a PVC pipe into a bucket to collect.
So smart!
Great video. Just made a purchase from your site. Looking forward to using it.
Philbilly try using a 5 gallon Macintosh fruit press with a large mesh bag. I use it to squeeze the remaining wash from my corn that is ground to corn meal. I recover about 90% of my wash. Less pain in the ass than using a colander
I have this issue with peach brandy, can't get enough flavor to transfer. I started doing apple rum with brown sugar and molasses doing a stripping run and spirit run with a thumper I shoot the barrel with and it's worked out great. Gonna try that with my peaches next season.
I use that same chipper i just cut apples in half i use it with fresh corn too works great
This was excellent. Thanks @philbilly
Sounds like Vevor needs to send you one of those nifty presses they have for a product review. Awesome video my friend. Enjoy them all.
I run mine through a garburetor attached to an old sink. Works great. Keep a fan blowing on it so it doesn't overheat
it works great on whole corn.
Hi really injoy your knowledge and vids? I've got a 8 gal stainless 3 pot still and I'm wanting a an exact ratio corn mash or apple moonshine recipe please? I'm struggling how much goes with what? I'm new to it all wanting to learn!! Thanks very much 🙏🏽
A lot of things with this style of distilling (moonshine, folk distilling, whatever you want to call it) are dependant on variables like what grain you have, what apples you have, and how you treat them. This is great for experienced distillers because every batch gets tailor made to the best it can be based on what you have and what your goal is. It is difficult for beginners though because as I mentioned, it's always different. If you want to approach things more exact I suggest checking out still it. Specifically his safety net series if you want to get in to mashing grain. He goes through everything you need or will mention which video it's in.
PhilBilly's The man
I did the same, I added applesauce in a thumper to help with flavor then put Applewood chips in it for a week.
This is great, i literally laughed out loud when seen the truck load of apples thats awesome hahahha
I was told to do that as well. I’ll have to give it a go
We had apple cider for a dollar a bottle. I have been running apple cider vinegar in the thumper. Works nice.
Got my first still for xmas and my first attempt is 12 lbs apples +3 gallons water heated to 165°, added 6 lbs sugar and cooled to 75° + 2 more gallons of water followed by AB-1 cider yeast.
2 days in and airlock bubbles every 8-10 seconds. Why am I so nervous? Lol
At least if I fail I will learn something 👍
Try looking for a wine supply store. They have huge/ small grinders and presses. Way easier.
And don't cook the sugar! Add cold and stir the heck outta it!
I think you killed the yeast with the heated sugar.
They also press the juice
I run apples, I use a gas powered chipper shredder. I put a big tote at the outlet and I find a way to keep all the juice and chunks from flying out. I then have a blast tossing apples into the shredder. Kids even love tossing apples into it. Takes no time at all to shred the apples.
When box is full, I dump it into a cooler and repeat. When finished I put it in fine mesh laundry bags and use my grape press to get the rest of the juice.
I put apple pie spice in my wash and some brown sugar. I get a nice flavor. I'm running the turbo 5000 but I prefer to use my home made set up.
Build a stand With a stainless steel sank and a garbage disposal under it works great from making mash we use are to make apple mash to press
man i did the same shit, had 5 variety of apples and some pears which i cored and i used a juicer and also threw in all the pulp for extra flavors but this was a mistake as i knew it was gonna be a sob to strain out, i did a strip run but removed the foreshots and some heads then i took those left over cores and macerated them with the low wines for a day (perhaps i shoulda done it with the spirit run and triple distilled) , then did my spirit run and it did bring out some nice although a bit faint aroma ,nice light sweetness but had this prickly spice most likely from too much tails, i been letting it rest for 3 months and cutting it down by 7% each month till i hit 40% but if that heat is still there i may let it rest another 3 months or might try to do a partial chill filtration but worried about loosing aroma and flavors,, any suggestion? next time i will use less pulp though and make proper cuts although they all tasted good at the time and since the batch was so small i decided to use it all up but it was pure no water or sugar for once in my life might be some of the best stuff i make
I bought a chipper cheap and it works great
Mahalo for the vids, love your channel! Quick question, does cigarette ashes add to the flavor like Swisher Sweets? :)
I'm doing Apple Brandy today
Lmao camera man in the back ground killin that bong!!!
Hey I purchased a new copper still and was wondering if a sacrificial run is absolutely necessary. I scrubbed the hell out of it with soap and water and with starsan after that I gave it a 2 hour vinegar run then a steam cleaning for a hour.
I have 75 lbs of apples,home canned apple juice and apple sauce,what would you recommend for sugar and/or corn yeast flavoring etc never done a batch this big
Hey man,
Wondering about temps while running and where are they taken from.. mash temp or column vapor temps..
Thanks,
💯🇨🇦💯🇨🇦
All you need is a piece of 4 by 4 and pound them let the natural yeast do the work use the half rotten ones for that turns out great that way
Try running your apples through a Vevor electric meat grinder.
You think after it sets a couple months,it’ll get more apple flavor? I had one that did that.
Good video
Phillbilly love your videos and hope to do a apple brandy soon, I have a question not pertaining to apple brandy. I have an 8 gal pot still, and a half gal glass thumper. My question is my thumper accumulates almost 3/4 full of liquid when Im nearing the end of the run. What do you think causes that much liquid in the thumper?
Sweet 🍻🥂
Use pectin let it sit over night in the mean time invert your sugar let it cool heat water add it to your mixture pitch yeast
Did you do a single run and done or did you distill it twice?
" I bought a truckload of apples cuz I thought I was......" I feel your pain brother!! Keep mashing!!
ever think about popping a few green apple jollly ranchers in?
Try different temperature on the still when distilling. Also, you can't have a complete fermentation on the batch. Also a cider will be better in leaving flavor in your distillation. But I'm probably typing to deaf eyeballs because I don't believe that you read the comments.
Hey man question, I've been given a large amount of fruit bars with all natural flavors. You think it would work?
They are made with apple sauce and other natural fruit flavors.
Get a waist disposal unit they shred apples great,
When your water cooler was making that sound I thought you were gonna blow up or something lol. I did that too my first time doing an apple brandy I ran it a little sweet also. It was not dry. Did a 8 gallon batch with 25 pounds of apple and I think I only used like 2 pounds of sugar. Couldn't really get a starting gravity because like yours mine was very pulpy and thick, fermented for 3 weeks and ran it at 1.019. I got a gallon and a half out of it. Stopped it at 95, came out at 131 after the foreshots and the heads. Stopped it early because of some funky smells. My cuts were weird too. My heads came out very fruity like strong fruit smell but it changed on me at hearts and the tails were just different too. Kinda fruity tails but I Stopped it cuz I didn't like the taste. But anyways good shit.
Why sometimes the mash it turns foamy after a week?
How much yeast did you se
Are you combing your jars after the run? There should be slightly different flavors through the run. When you combine all the best parts of the run the apple flavor should be more intense compared to any single jar in the middle of hearts.
I had a buddy give me about 150 lbs of apples from his trees in the fall.
Like you said… virtually no apple flavor came through.
But it did make an excellent apple pie shine.
Everyone loved it.💪👍🥃
I used 75 lbs of apples per 15 gallon fermenter. I also bumped the gravity with concentrated apple juice.
How would anyone from Tennessee get in touch with you? I'm interested in learning a few things brother
How about a little shine swap?
Send me a sample and I will send you a sample of my Jimmy Red I grew? I aged on Jack Daniel’s wood chips and put a few coffee beans in with it!
He man I appreciate and admire what you do. But I'd like to challenge you to a taste test. I make the smoothest moonshine in the country!!!
Whats ya secret slick?
I ain’t got no juicer so I just put apples between 2 sheets of plywood and drive over it with my lawn tractor a few times and scrape it into my mash bucket. It’s ugly but I’m cheap and lazy I call it apple drive… I would love to swill a good slobber of the one you made… smush and ferment on my brother…
What is the brand of your still ?
I'm thinking you're getting a better apple flavor because you didn't let it ferment all the way down that's my opinion sounds good lol
Are you using tap water? By the way, I see some nice bourbons on your shelf.
I have a serious question if anyone can help. I've tried to mash in apples twice now. Once just kinda putting the lid on and once with a bubbler airlock. Neither time worked out. They both turned to vinegar almost immediately. I'm talking 4 days later it's vinegar. The bubbler never even bubbled even tho when I took the lid off the mash was bubbling. I don't understand what is happening. Please someone help me
Mr phillBilly do you sell or give away ur shine if so I would love to have some My name is Rodney from Athens Ga I watch almost all your shows when I can keep up the good work hope to here back
Throw the sugar and water to it.
Have uoy looking at moonchiners? Dere the make a 120 years old appel brandy recipe
Jack the bloody stuff if you want more apple
I thought your ass was joking about a truck load of apple 😅. Well I guess I’m going to get my still set up and run this weekend now. People want their pie.
if you want more flavor, use an apple cider specific yeast and ferment it under airlock, very slowly.
Green doo doo apple 🍏
A garbage disposal for grinding your fruit up would be quicker. Just mount it in a lid for your container.
you cut the shredder opening and make it bigger, it's just plastic
Dayyyuum whole apples? Guess nona y'all worried about the arsenic in seeds. To each his own
I made some apple shine once... tasted like Aniseed.
Then I made some mango malt liquor, and it tasted like shit... so I distilled out the methanol, and damn. Best beer i ever had
My favorite tho, is the bark of the Persian Silk tree, fermented with Japanese Honeysuckle.... not distilled... had me seein shit for a while :)
hmm i got 6-7% on my pure apple juice, must be your type of apples that's not too good
What about seeds
Yo phill if my whisky has the strength but not flavor where am I going wrong
Either not enough ingredient and too much sugar, possibly distilling at too high of proof. Bourbon for instance should not be distilled over 80% ABV off the spout of the still. Simple stills ran slow enough with column packing & feints in the wash or a spirit run after stripping can easily hit 86% ABV for a while.
next flavor or shine has to be pomegranate
same one just cut a notch out of top
Ya need some crab apples bro
Apple jax
My sister just came down from Columbus. If I knew you had them, I would have got about a 100lb from you ( Bam Bam)
Lol I have same juicer and what a mess that shit makes. Effective but messy as hell
I thought you everything you know!! Don’t be bullshitin!!
ohh man, that was dirt...