Exotic distillate with an original smell and barely noticeable flavor of raw materials. Feijoa moonshine can be made from any kind of feijoa including store-bought fruits which are not fit for sale. Let’s start with the right wash recipe and distillation technology.
Theory. Ripe feijoa contains 6-10% of sugar. That means that 1 kilo of these fruits can yield up to 120 ml of 40% ABV moonshine. But in practice, the yield is always 10-20% lower. In order to increase the amount of distillate you’ll have to add beet sugar—1 additional kilo will yield 1.1-1.2 liters (40%). But the more sugar you add the less exotic aroma and taste the moonshine will have. That’s why it is necessary to look for the happy medium.
Distillers yeast allow to make feijoa moonshine in about 5-8 days, but the artificial yeast will make the smell of moonshine noticeably worse. It’s more desirable to use raisin ferment or wine yeast (the most efficient option). Although, this will significantly increase fermentation time—up to 25-35 days.
Ingredients:
- Feijoa – 1 kilo
- Sugar – 0.5-2 kilos (optional)
- Water – 2 liters (additional 4 liters per each kilo of sugar)
- Yeast (Distillers Yeast or Wine Yeast)
Feijoa Wash Recipe
- What the feijoas, cut out the spoiled, slightly rotted and moldy parts. Cut the pulp along with peel into pieces and then mince with a meat grinder or blender until smooth.
If your moonshine still is equipped with a steam dome then you can freeze 25-50 grams of fruits and add them to the steam dome during the second distillation in order to obtain more flavored distillate.
- Put minced feijoa into a fermentation vessel. Add water and sugar (optional). Add dissolved yeast. Stir the mixture. It’s better to leave at least 25% of free space for foam and carbon dioxide.
- Install an airlock on the neck of the vessel. Make sure that it’s hermetically sealed.
- Transfer the feijoa wash into a dark place (or cover it) with a temperature of 18-28°C. Depending on the yeast used, amount of sugar and temperature fermentation will last for 5-35 days.
The process is considered finished when the airlock stops bubbling (emitting gas), there’s a layer of sediment at the bottom, and the wash itself becomes noticeably lighter and a bit bitter without any sweetness (that’s the most important sign).
How to Prepare Feijoa Moonshine
- Filter the wash through several layers of cheesecloth or thick fabric and squeeze the pulp well. If you skip filtering the pulp might burn during the heating.
- Pour the prepared brew into a moonshine still and distill.
- Dilute the moonshine with water up to 18-20%. Don’t perform the charcoal filtering or any other form of filtering in order to save the characteristic smell.
- Run the second distillation. Gather separately the first 12-15% of the pure alcohol calculated at the previous step. This harmful part is called “heads.”
- Put the frozen pulp into the steam dome (optional). Gather the middle run (“hearts”) until ABV goes below 40%. After that finish the distillation process and gather separately the last fraction called “tails.”
- Dilute the obtained feijoa moonshine with water to get the required ABV (usually about 40-45%). Bottle and hermetically seal it. To improve the taste of the moonshine, leave it in a fridge for at least 2-3 days to let the chemical reactions complete.
