An apple a day...

I suppose it's no secret and those that visited our place this year will know very well what Palinca is, a shot drink distilled to about 70% to 80%.

Ok, it's made from plums but there are other recipes using apples.

We have both so we had quite a busy weekend picking and collecting all the plums and apples and it was hot, at 38C.

Photos are in no particular order....

We all mucked-in collecting apples...







Soon, the barrow was full...



Even the truck joined in...



Giving the trees a shake...





Barrow No.2...



And several buckets...



With still plenty on the ground...



Another shake...





Some more buckets...



Then, the contraption. Aura started cutting the apples into quarters with a knife, taking ages, so we visited the neighbor to borrow their shredder...



It sits on top of the plastic drums we have, and shreds directly into the drum...



Don't put your fingers in here. The pins are razor sharp and shred apples as fast as you can pour them into the hopper...



Apples just kept coming...



Our neighbor, Ioan ...



More tree shaking...



Our friend Marius with a long stick...



Marius tipping apples into the hopper...



Job done, time for a beer...



Each plastic drum holds 220 lt filled with shredded apple plus 8 kg of sugar and topped with about 10 lt of water and all that will generate about 5 lt of palinca, after twice round the still. The first distillation takes it to 30% or so and the second to 70% - 80%.

Powerful stuff, crystal clear and 100% natural.

Cheers.

Uhm, couldn't you just make 220 litres of cider? That is the perfect start ...

Cider is hard to make Chris.

Apples oxidize almost immediately and as far as I know, within the first minutes of juicing them, you have to bring the juice to pasteurizing temperature (about 86C I think) to stop the oxidization.

After that I don't know, but it would be good to try.

Nooo, not at all. Cider isn't hard to make at all. It starts exactly like that. You're confusing it with some poncy alcoholic apple juice that is sold to the masses. Cider is an ancient drink that certainly didn't get pasteurised.

Where's the health and safety on that motor Clive .

I used to make "cider" when I was 12 with a much older 13 year old friend. We raided the apple orchard on the farm and minced the apples in a hand mincer. We put a bucket under the table leg and the juice used to run down the leg in to the bucket. We then strained it through a tea towel in to empty gallon sheep dip jars and just left it for 3 weeks. It made us giggle and fall over...........whatever it was.

I suspect the pasteurisation is to kill off those yeasts that would form methanol/wood alcohol.

frank said:

Where's the health and safety on that motor Clive .

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Yes, I was thinking that it wouldn't pass a PAT test

frank said:

We then strained it through a tea towel in to empty gallon sheep dip jars and just left it for 3 weeks. It made us giggle and fall over...........whatever it was.

Click to expand...

Sheep dip? [emoji15]

Domestic. Not covered by Elf n Safety. Crack on but mind your fingers.

You get methanol if it goes wrong using potatoes IIRC not apples.

OK, thanks for that Chris and Frank.

Although I would like to make some cider (if it's not too complicated for a simpleton like me) the folks that want something from the apples and plums we collected, wouldn't give us so much as a "thank-you" for cider, it's palinca they want and "they" start with my mother-in-law, so there's no way I'm arguing on that score .

Cider is definitely on the list though, or simple good old apple juice for the kids, but fresh juice is almost black after 3 weeks, so I don't think there's a way without some pasteurization or other equal and approved process.

Yes Frank, "elf & safety" would have had a fit. The motor made the whole contraption back heavy and I had to quickly cut a bit of wood a suitable length to prop it up.

More than "unprotected drive belts and pulleys" on the "suspension of work" order would have included no guard on the blade zone on the machine, a stray finger in that part would have pulled in your whole hand, if not more. Also, the operator (my neighbor) was "afumat" which translates verbatim as "smoked" but really means pissed as a fart!

It was fun though and shaking trees is just another use for an indispensable 80 on a sunny day...

StarCruiser said:

Yes, I was thinking that it wouldn't pass a PAT test

Sheep dip? [emoji15]

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No way, wouldn't have passed any tests SC

Maybe it was the sheep-dip residue that made the young 12 year old Frank giggle

We've pressed gallons of apple juice before now and drunk it as fast as we can before it goes too bitter, it's great. Nothing like what you get in the shops.

clivehorridge said:

No way, wouldn't have passed any tests SC

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I did find the innovative use of the bottom half of a drink bottle rather amusing…[emoji4] And I agree with Chris that Elfin Safety doesn't apply at home ('Home' here could possibly mean Romania as a whole, though I haven't been so can't say for sure). I have, however, seen many similar contraptions cobbled together on farms over here as well as good installations abused or tinkered with to the point of being lethal.

Anyway, back to thinking of cider…

We did not realise that the sheep dip chemical used in late 50's-60's had brain damaging powers but now we know .

I was under the impression that apple skins have yeast on them which ferments the apple juice when it can get to it. That's why damaged apples sometimes taste a bit alcoholic. We also used a big aluminium saucepan turned upside down with water running over it as a still, heating up the "cider" underneath. Even in at that age the quicker you got pissed the better. We used to smoke sawdust cigarettes rolled in newspaper as sweet.

Not completely convinced you can't get methanol from rogue apple yeast. Blind drunk would result.

Ahh, Eau di vie, water of life as its known around these parts made from plums, apples, pears, anything really! There used to be lots of travelling stills about, but the liscenses are not being renewed when its passed on , but most folk have access to one even if not strickly legal! good health sir

froggy Steve said:

Ahh, Eau di vie, water of life as its known around these parts made from plums, apples, pears, anything really! There used to be lots of travelling stills about, but the liscenses are not being renewed when its passed on , but most folk have access to one even if not strickly legal! good health sir

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I thank you Sir Steven and will raise a shot to your health on the next occasion!

Yes, we have pears too, but not so many as there's only one pear tree in the yard. Plenty of plums though, we filled a 220 litre barrel and there's still plenty more on the trees.

This summer has been painfully dry and hot (except the week that the forum posse visited ) so the plums are not as juicy as usual.

No licenses in Romania (yet) but when they signed up for EU membership, the previously unrestricted amount you could distil became limited to 40 lt per household per annum. Thin end of the wedge IMO, it won't be long before that is progressively reduced until it's banned altogether for the average Joe, as it is in the UK.