Cool.. Experimentation is what it is all about... that, and having a repeatable process.. in case you make something you ever want to make again, heh.
Regarding distilling... distilling and brewing are extremely different. The worse thing that can happen to you when a fermentation goes as bad as possible, is you end up tasting something that smells and tastes like puke. The worse thing that can happen to you when a distillation goes bad is you die.
I do not believe there are any states in the US where home distilling is legal. There are only two states in the US where homebrewing is illegal.. .and in one of them (Kentucky) it is because there is a huge Moonshine (distilling) "problem"... and brewing a corn-based mash mixed with plain sugar is the first step of distilling... so they made everything about it illegal there. the other state where it is illegal is Alabama... nuff said there.
No distiller am I. But the fermentation process seems pretty straightforward, and I've kept a sourdough culture for bread making for many years. That's taught me a lot about what smells right and what's rotten, and how much sanitation is necessary. People overdo the sanitation thing.
Had one culture go bad on me only because I left it out too long in the warm summer after it had fermented out. "Puke" is being kind. Interestingly, starting a wild sourdough culture smells pretty "pukey" at first until the lactobacilli take over. If you don't know what you're doing you'll toss a good starter before it's finished making. Wine making is similar but it should never smell off at any point, not even at startup.
This morning I mixed up a new batch with apple juice and frozen pawpaw from last fall. Potential alcohol is 11% so it should be a winner. Have never worked with apple before so we'll see how that goes.
I think I've got your repeatable process down at this point, and have kept decent notes so far. If I happen upon a really good batch I should be able to do a repeat.
This should also be another good year in the orchard so there won't be a lack of raw materials to work with. But it doesn't look like I'll ever exceed the 100 gallons per family member that is the law for home wine making.
One thing I'm considering is using yeast from the previous batch to start the next batch. Supposedly yeast acclimates to the locality. If for example I bought some San Francisco sourdough starter, after some time it would become a local strain, same as if I started a wild culture. Just something to think about.
