Preparation of the ferment

How to prevent the preparation of bad ferments

1. FERMENT CONTAINERS – never use metal barrels, ideally plastic or wooden rinsed using hot water. Do not place them in direct sunlight, in barns or garages.

2. UNRIPE FRUIT – it contains a lot of pigments and acids, little amount of aromatic substances and sugar. The distillate is weak, the taste is mellow, and the extract from the ferment is very little.

3. UNSOUND FRUIT – moulds and decay lower the quality and extracts, this kind of fruit has a small amount of sugar.

4. TEMPERATURE DURING FREMENTATION – not below 10˚ C and above 25˚ C. Distillery yeast can not function, and in high temperatures it starts to decay, vinegar yeast then starts to rise and the alcohol evaporates. After the fermentation process is finished it is good to put the ferments into a cold or freezing temperature.

5. GRINDING THE FRUIT – stone-fruit should be ground only mildly ( not the stones ), seed fruit should be ground into a mashed mixture. If the fruit is not ground, the yeast can not multiply and air can not get in-between pieces of whole fruit so it causes molding.

6. FILLING THE FERMENT CONTAINERS – ideally it should all be done at one time, in one day. It is inappropriate to add fresh fruit to fruit which is already fermenting, or to mix a number of different kinds of fruit.

7. FERMENTATION – a process, in which CO2 escapes, the core disintegrates. The escaping CO2 brings pieces of whole fruit to the surface, a “hat” is being created. It can never be mixed in with the ferment, it precludes the entry of air to the ferment and also unwanted microorganisms, the “hat” also prevents the evaporation of alcohol.

8. RIPE FERMENT – CO2 is not being created anymore, the “hat” is starting to founder into the ferment. The hat has to be removed, never mixed with the ferment. The containers have to be closed so that alcohol does not escape, insects do not infect the ferment and to prevent the beginning of vinegar fermentation.

9. FERMENT DISTILLATION – as soon as possible when talking about ferments from berries, strawberries, junipers, summer fruit (cherries, sour cherries, apricots, peaches) so that their aroma is not lost. Even one day can influence this factor. The distillation of other types of fruits after they have finished fermenting does not do any harm. When talking about plum ferments its freezing is of benefit.

10.EXTRACTS FROM 100 KG OF FRUIT FERMENTS - plums – 10 L 50% distillate, cherries – 8 L 50% distillate, apples and pears – 7 L 50% distillate,