Brandy at home recipe. Cognac from moonshine, the best recipes

- one of the oldest alcoholic beverages, which has gained great popularity around the world. The classic type of alcohol is made from special grape varieties, but today everyone can make cognac at home.

There is a wide variety of recipes and technologies for preparing a heady drink, and everyone can choose a more preferable option for themselves.

Homemade cognac has its advantages. The technology of preparation is much simpler than in large-scale production. Raw materials are selected to your taste, and the exposure time is significantly reduced. In order to create natural cognac with all its traditional qualities and special taste, you need to know general rules and technology for the preparation of alcohol.

General rules for making homemade cognac

The last rule is especially important. If you violate the order of connection of raw materials and the time of its processing, then the final product may not meet expectations.

Each recipe has its own differences, but almost all methods of preparing a drink are based on the same technology.

You can create brandy yourself on alcohol, vodka or on. This product is the basis of the drink. Its quality must be high and safe for human health. Most people make cognac from vodka. This product has already been processed.

Ingredients that act as flavor enhancers are selected according to the recipe or individual preference.

The liquid is infused in a dark place. Homemade cognac is often called tincture, but this is not entirely true. The exposure time always depends on the desired result and on the properties of those ingredients that are added to the base.

For a long time, dry oak bark was considered the main component of alcohol, but as a result of experiments, recipes based on almond, cherry and apricot pits were created. The bouquet of the product infused with them is in no way inferior to the elite one.

Before you make cognac at home, you need to decide on its type and preparation technology. After that, you can procure raw materials and get to work.

Winemakers are advised to use only glass, wooden or ceramic containers. This will avoid an unwanted chemical reaction in the form of oxidation and the production of unnecessary compounds.

In ancient times, alcohol was infused exclusively in wooden oak barrels. The minimum exposure time was six months. During this time, the drink absorbed not only the aroma of wood, but also its taste. Preparing the barrels for this process was also not easy. They were soaked in water for a long time, then dried in the sun and burned with fire.

Classic recipe for alcohol

The most popular recipe is the preparation of a drink based on alcohol and always with the addition of oak bark.

The cognac recipe is simple:

1. Initially, the bark is harvested and processed. It is collected from fairly young trees, the bark of which contains all the necessary substances. If collect wood material is not possible, you can buy it at the pharmacy.
2. The bark is washed, soaked in water for 2-3 days and dried in the sun, after which it is crushed. For 1 liter of alcohol you will need 50 g of dry chopped wood chips.
3. Then the wood is poured with alcohol and infused for about 15-20 days.
4. After a specified time, the liquid is filtered and diluted to the desired strength.

The basic principle of making a drink is to respect the proportions of the components relative to alcohol or vodka. The exposure time should also be carefully observed.

You can improve the taste of the product with the help of various additives in the form of spices, fruits, nuts or fruit seeds.

The classic recipe is modified and supplemented with ingredients to your liking. At the same time, it is important not to exceed the norm and to know the measure in everything.

No less popular is cognac made from vodka. Its traditional cooking method is as follows:

1. 3 liters of vodka are taken as a basis and 1 tsp of sugar, high-quality black tea and walnut partitions are added to it. No more than 5-7 pieces are put here. carnations. Clove is a specific spice, and not everyone likes its taste. Therefore, before making cognac on vodka, it is recommended that you carefully read the recipe and, possibly, make your own adjustments to it.
2. The very last ingredient will be a pinch of citric acid.
3. Then the tincture is well mixed and left in a dark place to infuse. The exposure time is 3-4 days.

It is not difficult to prepare this type of alcohol. The main thing is to observe the measure in everything and use only high-quality raw materials.

How cognac is made from oak bark

Homemade cognac based on oak bark always has a special aroma and tart taste. For these qualities, he gained popularity. Elite products in a mandatory lock include this ingredient in their composition.

In order to prepare a delicious traditional cognac at home, you need to have the following ingredients on hand:

• or alcohol -3 l;
• dry crushed oak bark and strong black tea - 1 tbsp. l.;
• 5-7 pcs. shredded partitions walnut;
• granulated sugar - no more than 2-3 tbsp. l.;
• vanillin and lemon acid- 1 pinch;
• 3-4 inflorescences of cloves (at your discretion).

All components are poured into a glass jar and poured with vodka. Then the liquid is infused for 7 days in a dark place. After the time has elapsed, it is filtered and poured into prepared containers.

Making cognac from grapes at home

This is the oldest method used by our ancestors. It is believed that the first type of alcohol was created from grape juice.

Before you make cognac at home, you need to prepare grape, and then grape alcohol.

Cognac taste largely depends on the grape variety. It is best to use a special wine variety of berries. Many consider the Isabella grape to be the most suitable.

Those who are engaged in winemaking with a special interest and want to get a high-quality noble drink use oak barrels for infusion. The container is taken in a small volume. You can buy a mini-barrel in a wine shop.

Wine alcohol is insisted in an oak container for at least 1 year. Then the liquid is filtered and caramelized. To do this, you need to prepare soft caramel, dissolve it in a small amount of alcohol and add to cognac. Then the drink is bottled.

Cognac fast food differs in its technology and composition. Oak chips and walnut partitions are placed in wine alcohol. Then the liquid is infused for about 15 days and filtered through gauze.

Recipe for homemade cognac with spices

You can easily prepare fragrant and tasty cognac with your own hands, for this you will need:

• vodka - 3 l;
• carnation inflorescence - no more than 3 pcs.;
• 0.5 tsp nutmeg;
• a pinch of black ground pepper;
• oak bark - about 3-4 tbsp. l.;
• a pinch of vanilla sugar and cumin;
• caramel (will give a beautiful shade to alcohol and soften the taste).

All components are placed in a container and filled with vodka. Insist for about a month, after which it is filtered and bottled. In the same way, you can cook or at home.

Step 1: Prepare the burnt sugar.

In order to give a unique caramel flavor to our cognac, it is better to fry the sugar. You can skip this step if you do not want to spend time on this, but then homemade cognac lose some flavor. To prepare burnt sugar, we need a stove and aluminum utensils, preferably with thick walls. Pour the indicated amount of sugar into it and turn on the burner, setting a slow fire. To make the sugar melt faster, you can add a couple of drops of water, but it is better to be patient and wait until it caramelizes on its own. Be sure to stir it constantly to prevent burning.

Step 2: Cooking cognac at home.

The process of making cognac at home is simple - combine the ingredients, mix and leave to infuse. However, according to the original classic recipe cognac is one of the most complex and time-consuming alcoholic beverages in its preparation. Take a jar or a large bottle that will fit all our ingredients. The order of mixing is unimportant, so we put all the ingredients as you like - alcohol, oak bark, tea, cloves, nutmeg, burnt sugar and vanillin. Stir the mixture properly seal the jar tightly lid and put it on in a cool dark place so that the cognac is infused within 3-4 weeks.

Step 3: Serve homemade cognac.

When the cognac is infused, you need to open the jar and strain the drink through a double layer of gauze. Ready cognac is poured into a decanter and served to guests at a gala dinner. When serving, it should be at room temperature, it should not be heated. Cognac should be poured into special "pot-bellied" glasses. As for snacks for cognac, opinions differ here. Someone thinks that citrus fruits and chocolate are great, someone has a completely opposite opinion and believes that nothing but good cigars and coffee can fully reveal the entire fragrant bouquet. So choose the snacks you want. Possessing a pleasant caramel aroma and a beautiful amber color, you and your guests will like homemade cognac no less than purchased. Enjoy your meal!

You can buy oak bark at a pharmacy, but it’s better to collect the bark of young oak branches in June on your own, and then dry it properly. From such a bark, cognac will be more fragrant.

Buy only the vodka, the quality of which you are sure. Good cognac will not work out of bad vodka, and health should be protected.

Do not abuse alcoholic beverages, even those that you have prepared yourself.

How is good cognac made at home from moonshine, the recipe of which was known to our great-grandmothers?
It is worth noting that homemade cognac or liquor based on it turns out to be significantly cheaper. Back in the nineteenth century, the Russian Nikolai Shustov studied the recipe for cognac and set up the production of this tincture in Yerevan and Odessa.

Making cognac at home

As a rule, making cognac at home is not a complicated and time-consuming process.
You can buy moonshine concentrates in many stores, some are easy to make yourself.
You can fill it with various herbs and spices to taste. There will be no expensive homemade cognac from moonshine.
All the necessary supplements are sold in stores at reasonable prices.
Do-it-yourself home-made cognac will not be cognac in the full sense of the word either.
But tinctures and liqueurs imitating cognac have a special, unique and enchanting taste.

In order to make cognac from moonshine, you should take the best quality moonshine you add. The better the moonshine is purified, the more delicious the drink will turn out. The best cognacs you can get from moonshine at home if you use chacha, which is home-made grape alcohol. You will also need a variety of ingredients that will give our moonshine cognac color, taste and aroma.

• We are talking about products that can be found in almost any kitchen:
  tea, coffee, cloves, nutmeg, cumin.
  Simply adding tea leaves or a spoonful of instant coffee to moonshine will not give the desired result, you just get moonshine tinted beige. The taste won't change much either.

But if you complicate the recipe, spend more time and energy, put your soul into the process of creating a drink, then home-made cognac will be difficult to distinguish from the factory one.

Below are the most famous and extant traditional recipes homemade cognac from moonshine. It is worth noting that the reader can independently verify with illustrative examples that there is nothing easier than making cognac from moonshine at home, the recipe of which has been known in our country for several centuries.

How to make cognac from moonshine

In order to make cognac from moonshine, the first step is to clean the moonshine. The better the moonshine is purified, the tastier the home-made cognac will be. Only after cleaning can you figure out how to make cognac from moonshine.

• Moonshine can be cleaned in several ways: chemical and biological cleaning.
  In the chemical method, potassium permanganate, known to all of us as potassium permanganate, is added to the product of the first distillation.
  Dissolve 2 g of potassium permanganate in 0.5 l of boiled water.

Wait for the permanganate crystals to dissolve. The prepared solution is poured into a liter of moonshine and left for several hours. A sediment remains at the bottom of the container, which should be filtered through cotton wool. After that, a second distillation is carried out.

In order to achieve even better product quality, one more purification is desirable.

The most accessible way of the second cleaning is carbon cleaning.

You can use activated charcoal from a pharmacy, or you can buy charcoal from a store.

Cleaning with charcoal will be better.

Coal should be crushed to a state of powder.

• Add at the rate of 50 g per liter. Mix the resulting solution with alcohol raw materials and leave for 2 weeks. Shake several times a day. After that, leave for another week. No need to shake anymore. Wait for the coal to settle to the bottom and strain through cotton wool. There is a biological cleaning method: milk is poured into the product to be cleaned, it coagulates, and sediment falls to the bottom of the container. The effect is instant. Carefully filtered moonshine is distilled. Then the moonshine is cleaned rye bread from the remains of fusel oils. Bread is broken into small pieces and put into moonshine at the rate of 100 g of bread per liter. Let stand for an hour and filter.

For cleaning and filtration, you can use a household water filter that has a carbon filling. As a result, we have a particularly well-purified material for making homemade cognac.

Preparation of oak chips

The next important step in the manufacture of brandy on moonshine is the preparation of oak chips. Why oak chips? Wood chips are a substitute for oak barrels for cognac aging.
Oak wood contains tannins, aromatic acids, lactones and phenol compounds. Tannins give homemade cognac astringency and aroma. Aromatic acids add a slight scent of lilac.
Lactones and phenol compounds - smell of caramel. If there is no pre-harvested oak chips, then you can replace it with oak bark purchased at a pharmacy. The product obtained on oak bark will also have a cognac smell, but a little less saturated.

A characteristic cognac taste can be obtained by adding vanilla sugar to moonshine and caramel syrup.
But oak bark gives the best result.

After all the stages of cleaning have been carried out, it will be useful to paint over the moonshine under cognac. Cognac from moonshine at home can have a variety of colors and shades. The brown color closest to cognac will give tea. Tea is brewed at the rate of 1 tbsp. l. on a glass. A rich brown color will turn out if moonshine is insisted on pine nuts.
If you insist on orange peels or walnut partitions, you can get an orange color.
Insisting on lemon peels, we get a yellow color.

Recipes for homemade cognac from moonshine

The recipe for cognac from moonshine on pine nuts. The simplest and fast way- prepare tincture on pine nuts. To do this, add to the moonshine that has passed all cleanings:

• pine nuts at the rate of 300 g of nuts per 1 liter of moonshine.
• Insist 2 weeks.
• The drink will have a dark brown color and have a tonic effect.

Latgale recipe.

Pour boiling water over oak chips for 10 minutes. Drain the decoction. Rinse the bark, dry and put in a container for infusion.

• Dissolve 2 tsp. sugar per 1 liter of moonshine.
• Pour sugar solution and moonshine into the infusion container.
• Add 3 cloves, 0.25 tsp each. coriander and nutmeg, close the lid.

Infuse for a month in a dry, dark room at room temperature. Since oak chips are not always of the same quality, then 10 days after the start of infusion, you need to taste the product. As soon as the taste of cognac suits, drain and filter. Overdoing is undesirable.

How to cook cognac on rowan.

• For 1 liter of moonshine you will need 300 g of red mountain ash.
• Wash the added berries thoroughly.
• Rowan must be harvested after the first frost.

It is not difficult to prepare such a mountain ash at home - just put it in the freezer for a short time. This berry will not give a rich color to the product. How to paint over moonshine on mountain ash, so as not to lose the unique bitterness of wild berries? In this case, the best recipe is to brew black tea (1 teaspoon per glass of water). Coloring this tincture with tea will give a beautiful brown color. Seasoned with tea and rowan moonshine insist 3 months.

Cognac "Koktebel" from moonshine at home.

Perhaps this is the best recipe for homemade cognac from moonshine. Recipes for making homemade drinks are numerous and varied, but the product made using this method is very reminiscent of the famous Crimean Koktebel cognac. The raisins added to the moonshine provide a characteristic taste for Koktebel.
For 3 liters of raw materials well cleaned of fusel oils, you will need 2 tbsp. l. Walnut partition, 1 tbsp. l. Unflavored black tea.

1. 6 carnation flowers
2. 5 peas of allspice,
3. 1 tsp cumin,
4. 1 st. l. vanilla sugar
5. 2 g citric acid,
6. 500 g raisins.

Insist 2 months.

Recipe on oak bark.

When there is no pre-harvested oak chips, you can use oak bark purchased at a pharmacy. In order to have less problems when filtering after infusion, pack 2 tbsp. l. oak bark in a gauze bag.
Add:

1. 1 st. l. Sahara;
2. 1 st. l. black tea;
3. 1 tsp St. John's wort flowers;
4. 0.5 st. rose hips;
5. 2 peas of black pepper;
6. 0.25 tsp cinnamon and vanilla sugar.

Insist 3 days.

Recipe for cognac from moonshine on prunes.

Having seasoned moonshine with prunes and spices, we get a drink similar in taste to Armenian cognac.

• For 1 liter of alcoholic raw materials, you will need 10 large prunes with a stone;
  1 tsp sugar, 4 cloves, 6 allspice peas, 0.3 tsp. vanilla sugar.

Insist 2 weeks.

How to make cognac with burnt sugar.

You can color moonshine cognac in a bright cognac color with burnt sugar. To do this, sugar is poured into a heated container. You can use a frying pan, a small saucepan. The container with sugar is heated with constant stirring. After the sugar boils, cook until a thick brown color. Cool the resulting caramel and add to the moonshine along with the rest of the ingredients.

• This recipe uses St. John's wort, oregano, lemon balm, calendula flowers (marigolds), basil - all herbs 0.5 tsp each. for 1 liter of moonshine, 200 g of hawthorn, 4 black peppercorns.

Insist 3 weeks.

Coffee tincture.

Coffee not only allows you to paint over moonshine, but also gives a light coffee flavor to homemade cognac.

• For 1 liter of moonshine, 1 tbsp is added. l. instant coffee, 1 tbsp. l. sugar, 5 cloves, 0.5 tsp. ground cinnamon, 1 tsp. vanilla sugar. You can put 50 g of raisins.

Raisins will add a special charm to the drink.

Insist 2 weeks.

Homemade instant cognac.

All of the above recipes are designed to ensure that only with prolonged infusion will home-made cognac of good quality be obtained. But what if the guests are on the doorstep? Something must be done quickly! There is also a recipe. In not large saucepan pour a glass of water. Add to boiling water:

1. 1 tsp instant coffee,
2. 3 cloves
3. 3 sweet peas,
4. 0.5 tsp cumin,
5. 1 tsp thyme,
6. 1 st. l. Sahara,
7. 0.5 tsp cinnamon,
8. 0.3 tsp vanilla sugar.

Boil 5 minutes. Cool, filter through cotton wool and pour into moonshine.

The number of recipes for homemade cognac on moonshine is large. You have the option to choose your favorite option.

“Cognac is an elite alcoholic drink, with a strength of 40-45%. The technology for making a drink is a rather long, complex and multi-stage process. From the selection of grape varieties to long-term aging in oak barrels. This cognac is produced only in France in the Charente region. The name of the drink was named after the city of Cognac (fr. cognac), all other drinks made outside of Poitou-Charentes are called brandy. It is difficult to prepare cognac at home or its semblance, but it is possible if all the cooking steps are followed correctly. As a result, you can get excellent homemade cognac, sometimes of better quality than in the store.

What is cognac made from? Cognac production begins with the selection of grape varieties. Strictly defined varieties are used to obtain cognac wine material. white grapes: Ugni Blanc, Folle Blanche, Colombard and Montil. These varieties grow on soils with chalk deposits, on top of which there is a small fertile layer of earth. The climate in the vicinity of the city of Cognac is temperate, with a sufficient amount of sun. All these factors make it possible to obtain high quality grapes and, ultimately, to obtain an excellent wine for producing cognac spirit. To make cognac at home, it is better to choose white nutmeg varieties, but you can make brandy from any available variety such as: Isabella, Stepnyak, Lydia, etc. The main thing is that the grapes are well ripened.

Classic homemade cognac recipe

Making cognac at home is a fascinating process. But most lovers of homemade alcohol use a cognac recipe in which it is supposed to infuse moonshine with various ingredients including sugar, coffee, oak bark, etc., while obtaining a pseudo-cognac taste and color. The recipe described below will allow you to get homemade cognac at home for classical technology from grapes.

Attention! Sugar in the recipe can be omitted if the percentage of sugar content in the grapes is high. The amount of water also depends on the acidity of the fruit. The less sugar you add to the wort, the better and more aromatic the grape spirit will be. But if the grapes are not too sweet, then without the addition of sugar there will be a small yield of distillate.

Recipe Ingredients:

• Grapes - 30 kg;
• Sugar - 2 kg;
• Water - 3 liters.

How to make cognac:

1. Wort preparation. Grape wine ferments on wild yeasts that are on the surface of the berries. Therefore, before preparing the must, the grapes should not be washed, so as not to wash off the yeast. If, nevertheless, you got washed grapes, then you can use special wine yeast or prepare a sourdough. Fruits, separate from twigs, remove rotten grapes. Using a press, crush the grapes together with the seeds. If there is no press, you can use a drill with a mixer nozzle. Grinds berries perfectly (checked repeatedly).
2. Fermentation. Place the crushed mass in an enamel pan, add sugar if necessary, 1 kg of sugar. Pour in water and stir everything. Cover the pan with gauze to protect against midges. Put in heat + 25-30C for 3-4 days. After about 12-15 hours fermentation of the must begins. A hat of grape pulp rises to the surface. Every day, 2-3 times a day, you need to drown and mix this hat with a wooden spatula, otherwise the wort may turn sour! After 3-4 days, the must begins active fermentation, carbon dioxide is released, and a characteristic wine smell appears. At this stage, the wort must be filtered. To do this, you can use a fine sieve or gauze, the squeezed cake can be used to make chacha or other alcohol.
3. Fermentation. Pour the filtered wort into a fermentation tank, which must be filled to 2/3, as abundant foam is released during rapid fermentation. Add sugar 0.5 kg, install a water seal on the container or put on a medical rubber glove on the neck, in which you need to pierce one finger with a needle. Put the fermentation tank in heat with a temperature of 20-25C. On the third day of fermentation, add the rest of the sugar, diluted in a liter of must. Fermentation of grape juice lasts 4-5 weeks, depending on the sugar in the juice and temperature. You can determine the end of fermentation at the end of the release of carbon dioxide, the sediment also falls to the bottom, the young wine is partially clarified. Ready young dry low-alcohol wine has 8-10% alcohol. Before distillation, it is kept on the yeast sediment for 2-6 months, during which time the wine acquires a delicate and fragrant bouquet, the acidity decreases.
   
4. Obtaining raw alcohol. At the brandy factory, a special copper plate is used to make cognac and distill wine. alembic, it is called the Charente cube or alambik (alambic charentais). Copper is used because of its increased resistance to acids found in wine. On the cube there is an onion-shaped copper cap and a tube passing into the coil. The wine is distilled twice at the first stage, fragrant, cloudy raw alcohol with a strength of 30-32% is obtained. In the second stage, which is called bon chaaffe (bonne chaaffe), highly purified cognac spirit is obtained. At the same time, the "head" and "tail" are separated. Pour young wine into a cube moonshine still together with the sediment and overtake at maximum heating without separation into fractions. Depending on the device, you get 10-12 liters of raw alcohol, simply moonshine, with a strength of 25-35 degrees.
5. Fractional distillation. Dilute grape moonshine with water to a strength of 15-20%. Pour into a distillation cube, make a second distillation. For distillation, it is better to use a tray column or a BC with a copper nozzle. After warming up the raw material, drop by drop select the head fraction with a volume of 10-15% of absolute alcohol, in our case 350-500 ml. The head faction is poison! Therefore, it can only be used for technical purposes. Next, you need to select the "body" or "heart", that is, the drinking fraction. Again, depending on the apparatus, the body is selected, the body is expelled until the alcohol content in the stream is 60-70%. As a result, 2.5-3 liters of aromatic distillate should be collected with a total strength of 70-80%. The tail fraction can be omitted, if desired.
6. Excerpt. In order for a wine distillate to become a real cognac or brandy, it must be aged in an oak barrel from several months to several years. Before pouring into a barrel, dilute alcohol with clean water diluted to 60%. At home, barrels are small, usually 10-30 liters. In such casks, cognac will mature after 6-12 months of aging. The longer the distillate is aged in the barrel, the more refined its taste and bouquet becomes. If you are not a happy owner of an oak barrel, then in this case you can use a cheaper and simpler way - to insist cognac alcohol on oak chips, which you can cook yourself with your own hands or buy in a special store.
   
7. Blending. Blending is the mixing of different cognac spirits produced at different times and under different conditions. But since we are making homemade cognac, this step can be skipped. The only thing that can be done is to add caramel to the cognac to add color and soften the taste.To do this, add 50 grams of caramel per 3 liters to the drink. Stir well and keep a few more days before drinking. On this, the preparation of cognac can be considered complete. Grape cognac is stored in glass bottles and well corked, in a cool room, for an unlimited time.

Most likely, many people have heard about such an alcoholic drink as brandy, but not everyone knows how exactly it differs from cognac. Brandy includes all alcoholic beverages with a strength of 40-60 degrees, which are obtained by distilling fermented fruit juice. Brandy is also called burnt wine. Get a drink from the juice of a variety of fruits: grapes, pears, apples and other fruits. If desired, brandy can be made independently. Brandy from moonshine at home, the recipe of which is not simple, is not much different from original drink, but only if you cook burnt wine according to the rules.

Technology

Regardless of which brandy recipe was chosen, you should first study the technology for making this drink. The first step in the manufacture of the drink is the preparation of the product for distillation. This role can be played Home wine, and even the one that failed. For the preparation of brandy, you can use the fermented pomace of grapes, which remained after the preparation of wine. As a raw material for the production of brandy, you can use mash made from any fruit.

moonshine brandy

The next stage in the manufacture of brandy is the distillation of the selected alcohol-containing raw materials. Such raw materials usually require 2 distillations. An important step in the preparation of brandy is its aging in oak barrels. However, not all moonshiners have such devices available, therefore, in domestic conditions, brandy is kept in containers with oak chips. It is worth considering that oak chips not only improve the taste of brandy, but also reduce its strength.

The highest quality brandy can be obtained by distilling high quality wine, and the strength of such a drink will be 36-80 degrees. Brandy made from grape pomace has a higher strength (60-80%). This recipe is especially popular in Georgia, where chacha is made from grape pomace.

Brandy based on fruit mash is also popular, and this group includes brandy a large number of varieties of alcoholic beverages. The fortress of brandy from fruit mash is 30-60 degrees. Such drinks are made from mash made from sweet fruits: apples, pears, apricots and other fruits. The most popular varieties of fruit brandy are Calvados, Slivovitz, Boletus and many others.

Considering the technology of making brandy at home, it is impossible not to pay attention to the peculiarities of aging the drink. Brandy, homemade simple recipe, and is not aged at all, which affects the quality and taste of alcohol. The most difficult way of aging is considered to be the infusion of brandy in an oak barrel for six to twelve months. Another method of aging brandy is the Soler method - mixing a well-aged drink with a slightly aged one.

Recipes

1) The simplest, in terms of making brandy, is the recipe that includes fruit and sugar:

1. First, you should prepare a glass container and sterilize it thoroughly. After that, you can prepare fruits - these can be apricots, apples, peaches, plums and other fruits. Fruits are recommended to be cleaned from the stalks and washed thoroughly. You do not need to cut the fruits, as you need whole fruits to make brandy.
2. Sugar should be poured onto the bottom of the container, and so that the thickness of its layer is 1.25 centimeters. After that, you need to put a layer of fruit on sugar. Then sugar should be poured over the fruit again and distributed, while leaving at least 1.3 centimeters to the edge of the container.
3. The jar with the workpiece is rolled up and placed for six months in a dark place with a low temperature (this may be a cellar).
4. After six months, brandy can be poured into another container, filtering it at the same time. You can perform this manipulation using a plastic funnel. After that, the brandy can be considered ready.

Brandy, prepared according to the simplest recipe, contains a minimum of alcohol, so it belongs to light alcoholic beverages.

2) Homemade brandy can be made by adding yeast according to the recipe. First you need to prepare 3 kilograms of any fruit with a significant sugar content. Fruits should be washed well and cut into thin slices. After that, you will need an earthenware jug, in which the ingredients for making brandy will be put.

First, sugar will need to be poured to the bottom of the container and distributed in a thin layer. Fruit is then spread evenly over sugar. Do not fill the jug to the brim, as a large amount of foam will be released during the fermentation of the wort.

In the meantime, in a glass of water it is necessary to stir the yeast, taken in the amount of six teaspoons. Yeast with water is then poured over fruit and sugar. Then 6 cups of cool water are added to the workpiece.

A pitcher of wort is placed on a tray and the container is covered with a plate. Dishes with wort for a week are sent to a cool place without access to light. During this time, alcohol is formed in the workpiece, which will make it possible to obtain a real brandy. The finished drink is poured into glass bottles and consumed chilled.

3) As has been said, top quality brandy can be made from grapes, but not from grape pomace. To make brandy, you need to take a four-liter bucket of grapes, 2.5 kilograms of sugar and 10 liters of water. Yeast is not included in this recipe. First, the grapes are placed in a large saucepan and crushed. After that, half the mass of sugar indicated in the recipe is added to the berries, everything is thoroughly mixed.

A water seal is placed on a container with sugar and grapes and placed for 2 weeks in a warm dark place. As soon as the fermentation is over, the young wine will need to be filtered and poured into it with 6 liters of water and the rest of the sugar. After that, all young wine must be poured into glass jars(but not to the brim). The wine will ferment for about 20 days, after which it can be distilled.

To enrich brandy from grapes with aroma, you can add a little cinnamon or vanilla to it.

4) At home, you can make brandy from grape pomace. To do this, take 5 kilograms of cake, 15 liters of water, 2.5 kilograms of sugar and 50 grams of dry yeast. First of all, the cake is laid out in a capacious dish and sugar and yeast are added to it. In the meantime, the water will need to be heated to 35 degrees and poured into the brandy billet. The mass should be mixed and put to ferment for 14 days. Once every few days, the mash will need to be mixed.

Ready mash before distillation should be carefully filtered. It is recommended to distill raw materials 2 times, and after the first distillation, alcohol should be diluted with water to reduce its strength.

The prepared drink will need to be aged. Ideally, if the farm can be found oak barrel. If there is none, you can insist the prepared alcohol on oak chips. The duration of brandy infusion varies from six months to a year.

5) The most popular drink belonging to the brandy group is Calvados, that is, moonshine on apples. You can make this drink from two kilograms of apples, a liter of moonshine, a glass of sugar, a glass of water and ten grams of sugar.

First, all apples should be mashed, peeled and cut into cubes. After that, apple cubes are put in a jar and sprinkled with vanilla sugar. After that, you need to add moonshine to the workpiece, close everything with a lid and put the jar of infusion in a dark place for 2 weeks.

After the specified time, the drink must be filtered from apples. After that, you can start getting syrup from sugar. To do this, mix sugar and water, then bring the solution to a boil and boil over low heat for 5 minutes. The finished syrup must be cooled to 25 degrees before being added to the infusion of apples.

6) Brandy made from peaches has an excellent taste. To obtain such a drink, take 5 kilograms of peaches, a glass of raspberries, a kilogram of sugar, 4 liters of water and 15 grams of yeast.

Washed peaches are pitted and transferred to a saucepan, after which the fruits are mashed. Meanwhile, a syrup is prepared from sugar and water, cooled and added to the peaches. The container should then be covered with gauze and put in a warm place for a couple of days. After this time, you can prepare raspberry sourdough by combining raspberries with sugar. After 2 days, the starter and peaches need to be mixed, keeping them for another 2 days. When the wort ferments, it will need to be distilled 2 times.

It can be concluded that the preparation of brandy at home does not require special efforts and time costs.