Apple Brandy (Calvados-style) is a wash recipe targeting original gravity 1.050 with a pressed apple juice / cider bill. Use it as the starting fermentation for brandy runs in Broover, or as a reference template for your own variation.
Sugar bill, yeast, nutrient, target original gravity, and fermentation temperature band. These values pre-fill the New Wash form so you're not retyping them every time you start a fermentation.
Traditional Calvados-style apple brandy. NO sugar added — fruit sugars only is what makes it an authentic brandy (adding sugar makes it an apple-flavoured neutral). Variety mix matters: sweet + sharp + bittersweet apples (Cox, Bramley, Kingston Black) give the full flavour spectrum. Cool ferment preserves esters.
DISTILLATION: POT STILL, DOUBLE-DISTILLED. First strip to ~30% low wines. Dilute to ~30% ABV before second “bonne chauffe” spirit run. Cuts: small foreshots, GENEROUS HEADS CUT (pome fruit produces methanol from pectin — don’t skimp), hearts at 65–70% ABV off the spout. Late hearts into tails preserve apple character.
AGING: French oak (Limousin traditional), 2–10 years for true Calvados. Minimum 1 year for drinkable apple brandy. Use small barrel (5–20 L) for faster home-scale extraction.
METHANOL WARNING: Real risk with pome fruit. Discard 50 mL foreshots per 25 L wash + first 100–200 mL heads. If unsure, taste-test on a sugar cube; harsh solvent burn = still heads.
GOTCHAS: Sugar added = not brandy, just apple-flavoured neutral. Underripe apples = no flavour, no sugar. Source unfiltered farm cider where possible — sterile pasteurised juice loses character through ferment + distil.
Source: HD forum + traditional Calvados references. Typical OG 1.045–1.055, FG 0.995, wash ABV 6–7%.
Broover is the workflow app for craft and home distillers — track every wash, distillation run, and bottled lot from a single screen with full provenance from kettle to bottle. Clone this recipe to your account and Broover pre-fills your next wash from these settings; strip and spirit runs link automatically, and the bottled lot at the end traces all the way back to this recipe.