StillSmart

a friend of mine who makes really good cider every Autumn wants to give me 5 gallons to see what I can do with it

Anyone had a go at this

Would appreciate any tips or advice regarding cuts (obviously want to get a decent yield as a one off) ageing (planning to get a 5 litre barrel) etc etc

Should be a bit of a change anyway

My only attempt is banging cider, wines and meads I've made through my smart still. Then wound it all into a large carboy with heavy toast oak chips......

And while its a half arsed attempt at a mixex fruit brandy and that more cider has gone into it than the other two, plus some of Brouwlands apple liqueur flavouring to try and give it more of a hint of apple etc........ last time I tasted it, it was more whiskey like, than brandy.......

Its about 4 or 5 years old at the moment.......

Take it! Fairly wide cuts and age on med toast oak. Excellent!

I've never done an apple brandy, but as this is a one time deal with limited wash, I would think a bit of trickery might help you get the most hearts from it.

Stick the reflux head on, stabilise and take the heads off very slowly concentrating the heads to the smallest possible portion, then stick the pot head on and run out like a normal spirit run.

I've heard that the apple flavour comes over at the heads side of things, and its easy to include heads when cutting off the still, but as your barrel ageing a bit of heads probably isnt a bad thing, the wood\air will sort that out.

Let us know how you decide to run it, and what it tastes like cool.