It is not so difficult to learn how to cook everyday and festive dishes, but, as they say, “Not by bread alone ...”.
Our hostesses and homemade alcoholic drinks are served at festive tables.
And let it not shock you, tinctures, liqueurs, various types of cognacs at home are prepared even in aristocratic European families, and often recipes are known only to units of older family members, servants are not allowed at all.
Cognac from moonshine at home: general principles of cooking
Preparing cognac from moonshine at home is not as difficult as it may seem. On the very preparation of cognac takes little worries, more they fall on the preparation of the base - moonshine, insistence and aging of this strong drink. But these moments will not require additional attention and labor from you.
And yet, what are the general principles for the preparation of cognac from moonshine on different recipes?
Cognac from moonshine at home: the necessary raw materials
The main raw material, or rather the basis of any cognac from home-made moonshine is distilled distilled from various products (moonshine). You can buy it ready. But keep in mind that, buying moonshine can not only shorten the cooking time, but also easily spoil the final product, as the source material may turn out to be of poor quality. Therefore, the brew is best to cook yourself.
Raw materials and products necessary for making moonshine and brandy based on it:
• grapes (it is best to take wine varieties), wheat, fruit, sugar, etc.
• fresh pressed yeast, interchangeable with dry, instant;
• purified water.
• activated carbon, potassium permanganate or pasteurized milk. So, with the help of which the distillate obtained can be purified from fusel oils.
• coloring and flavoring natural ingredients, “ennobling” cognac, allowing to give the drink a specific taste, color and unique aroma: seasonings, spices, dried walnut partitions, crushed oak bark. • distilled water. She diluted the main product to obtain the desired strength of brandy.
Cognac from moonshine at home: the necessary equipment
1. Glass containers or bottles made of dark glass, hermetically sealed. In such containers, not only the mash is drawn until the distillate is made, but brandy itself, before overflowing into another container.
2. Moonshine in which you will need to prepare the basis for brandy, moonshine.
3. Common funnel and gauze used in filtering both the initial and final product after infusion.
4. An alcohol meter to measure the strength of the product.
5. Oak wood barrels or glass jars, tightly sealed bottles or bottles. It all depends on what kind of litrage you plan to store and withstand a strong drink.
If there is no oak barrel, but I want to get as close as possible to the original cognac in taste characteristics, you can use a simple technique for aging the beverage, putting in each container until the oak chips are filled with cognac. Such chips are sold on specialized sites and stores. You can make them yourself. It will take a lot of time to make chips, but it’s worth it, because they will allow you to imitate the aging of the noble drink in barrels, saturate the cognac from moonshine, home-made unique aromas of vanilla and caramel, and also give the tartness, characteristic only in barrels.
How to properly prepare oak chips for making cognac from moonshine at home
1. Take a dry oak chock or a small log from a tree trunk or branch and split it into small thin chips along the fibers, their thickness should not be wider than four millimeters. Alcohol is able to penetrate the wood by only two millimeters.
2. Then dip the harvested chips in cold water and soak in it for about twelve hours.
3. Drain the water and refill the oak chips, but with soda solution. Soda is taken from the calculation of one tsp. per five liters of plain water. 4. After twelve hours, drain the water again, and shift the chips into a colander and put it on the steam bath for the same period of time as when soaking. The water in the saucepan under the colander must be periodically changed as soon as it noticeably darkens.
5. After this, the blanks are dried for the same time in the open air and only then they are heated in the oven, spreading out on a grid, at a temperature of 150 degrees, for about five hours.
6. After twelve hours, the warm-up procedure should be repeated. It is at this stage of processing, dried oak chips will smell sweet aroma of vanilla and caramel.
7. Having also ignited four hours, again put off the “sticks” to rest for twelve hours.
8. Then proceed to the final stage - roasting. To do this, put the oven in the grill mode or heat it up to 200 degrees and roast the wood in the oven until it starts to smoke.
Cognac from moonshine at home: cooking technology
The most delicious cognac is obtained from the moonshine of the highest quality, and only if it was used for the production of grape brew, commonly referred to as “chacha”. But home-made cognac from home-distilled vodka will be no worse at all if we use ordinary fruit, sugar or wheat distillate as a basis.
After distillation, it is necessary to clean the brew of impurities of fusel oils as thoroughly as possible. For this purpose, potassium permanganate, milk or activated charcoal is usually used.
How to clean moonshine:
Potassium permanganate
Moonshine is poured into a three-liter jar, throw 5-7 crystals of potassium permanganate and leave to stand for several days. When adding potassium permanganate, the raw material for the future brandy should have a pale pink color, not brighter and not paler. During the so-called settling, a precipitate will collect at the bottom of the jar, in no case shake the jar. After moonshine needs to be filtered. This can be done by passing it through gauze or pouring small parts into a funnel, at the base of which is wadded discs or cotton wool. Activated charcoal
In the funnel is placed a litter of gauze, put on it activated charcoal and then, through the filter collected in this way, pass the moonshine.
Milk
Milk is poured into the finished moonshine, it must necessarily be curtailed, after which it is carefully drained from the residue and filtered as in the above described cleaning methods. Milk is taken at the rate of one glass per three liters of ready-made moonshine.
After the main product used for the production of cognac at home is cleaned, it is poured into prepared special glass containers in which the following components necessary for further production are placed: flavoring and coloring natural substances.
In such a container cognac insists not less than two weeks, but not more than one month. After the drink acquires the desired shade, characteristic of the bouquet and the corresponding taste, which is framed by the flavoring components, it is filtered and poured into containers intended for long-term storage - “aging”.
On the production of such a process is carried out in quality oak barrels. But after all, it is not convenient to place such a capacity in each apartment. Although you can use the commercially available oak barrels with a displacement of two liters. You can also use glass packaging, but still, even in this case, you will need specially processed oak wood: oak chips, commercially available or self-made oak chips. It is thanks to them that they manage to make cognac from moonshine at home as close as possible to the original taste.
Cognac stand at home for up to six months or more. The more years, the more stars in brandy. One year - one star, two years, respectively, two stars and so on.
Home-made moonshine recipe for home-made cognac
Ingredients:
• kilogram of white sugar;
• 100 grams of fresh pressed yeast (replaced by 18 grams of instant); • five liters of filtered water.
Cooking Method:
1. In lightly heated water, dissolve granulated sugar and add yeast. If you use pressed, then dissolve them in a small amount of warm sugar water and let stand for about five minutes. And only then add to the required amount of water required.
2. Remove the closed container with the prepared product in a dark place, without drafts, with a constant temperature regime for a week.
3. Then drain the precipitate formed in the fermentation process and overtake the brew in a special moonshine apparatus.
4. Do not forget to filter the finished product.
Cognac from moonshine at home: recipes
The following recipes and techniques relate to the last, final process of making cognac at home, namely, insisting it with various natural flavors and flavor components. Under the moonshine is further understood, first of all, natural wine "chacha", or pure sugar-yeast moonshine, prepared according to the above recipe.
Cognac from home-made moonshine - “In Latgalian”
Ingredients:
• three liters of fifty-degree moonshine;
• pharmaceutical oak bark - two tablespoons;
• three umbrella carnations;
• a small pinch of ground cinnamon;
• 0.5 grams of nutmeg, ground;
• three table. spoons of sugar.
Cooking Method:
1. Pre-dissolve granulated sugar in a glass of moonshine, until its crystals are completely dissolved.
2. Then in a clean three-liter jar, put all the ingredients, pour the moonshine, add the dissolved sugar and, having well sealed, put the jar in a dark place.
3. Insist at least two weeks, but preferably not longer than a month.
4. After the present moonshine has turned brown and absorbed all the flavors, filter it, and, bottling, soak for at least six months in a cool dark place.
Cognac from moonshine, infused on the shell (partitions) of walnut
Ingredients:
• 100 grams of dried walnut partitions;
• a tablespoon of black tea leaves, top quality;
• eight stud umbrella;
• teaspoon cumin;
• dessert spoon of vanilla sugar;
• citric acid, quite a bit, on the tip of a knife;
• three liters of self-distilled moonshine.
Cooking Method:
1. In a glass three-liter jar place walnut partitions washed under water, tea, cumin seeds, cloves and vanilla sugar.
2. Fill all the ingredients with moonshine, mix well and add citric acid.
3. Close the jar tightly with a nylon cap and remove the infusion.
4. After seven days, filter the tincture through gauze laid out in a sieve or funnel.
5. Pour the purified cognac into containers prepared for long-term storage and tightly closed, place in a dark place for “aging” for several months, from three or more.
Cognac from moonshine on Lavrushka and oak bark
Ingredients:
• three liters of moonshine, with a strength up to 60 degrees;
• two tablespoons of large leaf tea;
• three leaves of laurel;
• five pea-scented peppercorns;
• chopped pharmacy oak bark - 4 tables. spoons;
• incomplete tsp. cinnamon;
• a small pinch of vanilla;
• carnation, one umbrella.
Cooking Method:
1. In a glass container with moonshine, put all of the specified ingredients, shake well, and repeat this several times. Having tightly closed, put the drink “ennobled” in a cool place without access to light for two weeks.
2. Strain the infused drink, and, overflowing in a specially prepared container, remove for storage.
Cognac from moonshine, instant
Ingredients:
• one liter of finished, approximately 50 degrees, moonshine;
• pea allspice;
• one leaf of laurel;
• half a teaspoon of dry leaf tea;
• third tsp. baking soda;
• 50 grams of sugar;
• A small bag of vanilla.
Cooking Method: 1. Put boiled poured into a small enamel pan of moonshine.
2. Add one by one: pepper, bay leaf, tea leaves, baking soda, sugar and vanilla.
3. Cover the pan with a lid and soak on the included plate until the temperature of samogon rises to 75 degrees. You can allow the temperature to rise to 77 degrees, but not higher.
4. Turn off the heat, it is best to remove from the stove and wrap with thick cotton, linen, or other “natural” towels, fabrics. Let it sit for five to fifteen minutes.
5. After pouring the contents of the pan into a jar and leave to cool.
6. When the brew is completely cool, filter, bring its strength to an acceptable 40-45 degrees and, overflowing into prepared bottles or kegs, tightly seal the cork.
7. At least five days later, the first sample can be taken.
Cognac from moonshine at home: tricks and tips
• To infuse brandy, you can burn granulated sugar before putting it into the jar. Then the cognac will get an interesting volatile texture and original coloring.
• To clean both the moonshine and the brandy produced from it, you can use cosmetic cotton pads, using them instead of gauze or cotton, putting four pieces in the funnel at once. As the discs get dirty.
• The small pieces of orange or lemon peel added to the original product will give the cognac a special aroma.
• An unexpected effect can be obtained if a small handful of pine nuts are added to the brandy in the process of brewing.
• Another secret of technology, which requires more exposure not from brandy, but from the master who prepares it. Wash, dry and heat the shell of pine nuts, cherries and apricots for about 15 minutes in a hot oven (oven). Pound it, not into powder, of course, but into small crumbs and put in a glass container. The shell should fill it with about 1/5 of its volume, add up to 4/5 of strong, “with a reserve”, moonshine (50-55 degrees). The bottle, or bottle, is wrapped in paper to prevent light from entering and put in the fridge for a week. An analogue of the water gate used in the fermentation of wine is needed, in the simplest form it is a cork with a through hole and a short elastic hose inserted into it. We put on such a wonderful cork on the already slightly aged cognac and use our mouth to pull the air out of the bottle with all our strength. We bend the hose so that the air “does not return”, we fix it with a clothespin and put it in the fridge for two days. We take out the bottle and perebaltyvaem, remove the cork and leave at room temperature, waiting for the complete subsidence of small crumbs. Put the cork back on, pull out the air, clamp it with a clothespin and put it in the fridge. We repeat the procedure for a month. With a certain patience, cognac insists for 30-40 days, at the end it is only necessary to filter, reduce the degree of pure water to the usual indicators and add a tablespoon of molasses. The difficulty, in addition to the process itself, is that the temperature in the refrigerator is a relative concept and it may take a little longer to extract such cognac from moonshine at home.
