Is anyone making their own Pálinka? Given that it's legal to make your own and the stills are easily available, I thought I'd give it a go. There are few sites which contain some info but I wondered if anyone here has experience to share...

Still not managed to find time to photograph! Good idea with the shot glasses, if you struggle to get them out, next time line the shot glass with cling film and though you might not get as smooth a finish, they will come out easily enough.

Hi, I haven't made it myself as I haven't yet tasted a homemade palinka that I find palatable but I have seen friends make theirs. It seems simple enough though be careful and ensure you dont leave any methanol in as it can damage yours eyes.

I've just had a few litres of vegyes palinka from excess fruit made by a guy who made me some last year. He double distilled it and it tastes really nice and smooth without the harshness or burn that many home made palinkas come with.
I was going to buy a still and make my own next year but have just found out that i can have my mash distilled legally in the next village for 800 huf per litre so I'm not sure it will be worth distilling my own. I'll try them out and decide later. I've got 180 litres of apple mash fermenting away at the moment, hopefully ready for a batch of palinka before Christmas ....along with 55 litres of grape wine and various batches of other wines hic

Drunkard

Do you know what proof it was Paul? A friend double distills his to ensure all the methanol is removed and says it's about 70-80%

80%? You can run a light aircraft on that

I didn't ask but it did the trick yesterday when I was working in the garden and kept chipping into it

......and as for being a drunkard!!!!! Hopefully I will be next year

and a healthy drunkard at that! All home produced with no added preservatives, colourings or flavourings.... hic

Yep, next year we start with veggies. This year's been too hectic and we only moved into the house in July, so too late to plant much.
Hopefully we'll be well stocked with most things but what we have found is that it's incredibly time consuming when working full time. Recently it's been really stressful trying to get everything done. Fortunately, our neighbour helped out last week, spending all day clearing and burning leaves for us

sounds like you are busy, but just a tip to improve your soil, for the future if you intend growing lots of veg, don't burn your leaves, that's a waste of some of the best soil nutrients and improvement to soil structure. bag them up and leave in a corner of the garden to rot down for a good year, they will crumble down then dig the mixture into your veg patch.
or add them to your compost heap mixed with other vegetation, paper etc and let the worms do the job for you, you can't beat homemade compost to add to your soil and improve drainage, especially to clay soil.
good luck with your gardening

I agree with the above. I might add to be careful with walnut tree leaves...last year we inadvertently ended up with some walnut tree saplings in our veggie plot

Thanks for the tip. Hopefully we'll be much more clued up next year

will watch out for that, typical if you want to proprogate plants it's hit and miss, when you don't want them they appear

LOL, we've had that as well.... They spring up everywhere!