Schnapps!

As some of our faithful readers may recall, our Frenchie farm chores began with apples. Lots... and lots... and lots of apples. We spent many days gathering huge bags of them, and we're not talking your average "afternoon apple-picking in the pretty little orchard." With the hundreds (maybe even close to a thousand) of apples, we sorted them into three piles: the gnarliest ones for the pigs, the prettiest ones for us in the winter (feel free to refer back to our apple butter & tarte tatin posts), and the middle of the road apples were perfect for... schnapps!

Owen demonstrates grinding all the apples into mooshy appley chunks.

This is what they looked like after grinding & fermenting - mmmm, appetizing. We filled about 4 barrels full of the chunks, Gabriel added roughly 5 pounds of sugar per barrel, and then they sat in the sealed barrels for 5 months.

After 5 months, we had to go into town to officially rent the gold metal piece seen below. By "checking out" this piece as you would a library card, you must return it by a certain time. This way, the goverment can keep an eye out for people abusing the system to sell (or drink) too much booze illegally.

This is the distiller. The yellow hose ran all the way back to the barn for running water.

On the left is the copper still used to cook the apples, attached to the distiller. The copper pipe that attaches the two captures the steam & alcohol coming off of the fermented apples. You can see the spout at the bottom of the distiller where the alcohol would drip out.

Michel cleans out the copper still in preparation for the fermented apples.

Now, the real work happens! Gabriel stirs the pot while Michel feeds the furnace below with old grapevines from his vineyard.

Gabriel is showing us this copper piece that is inserted directly down into the distiller. The distiller is filled with cold water, which quickly cools the alcoholic steam as it drips down coil by coil. This helps to concentrate the alcohol.

Michel uses this instrument to gage the alcohol content of the schnapps. The process is continued until its alcohol content reaches 45% (a.k.a. 90proof).
The drip of sweet, sweet schnappy nectar.

Back inside, Michel is making the final adjustments to the schnapps...

... a.k.a. adding a little more water because it was too alcoholic.

And we all get to try the finished product! Sante!