How to put the mash from concentrated juice and distill it into moonshine. Properties and manufacturing technology of mash from concentrated juice Calvados from concentrated juice recipe

This one is designed for home distillers who do not have access to fresh grapes in the quantities needed to make chacha or wine spirit. In this article, I will outline the process of making homemade chacha from store-bought juice, share my tips and tricks.

Recipe for chacha from store-bought grape juice

Ingredients

• white grape juice - 10 l
• sugar - 1.5 kg
• water - 750 ml
• citric acid - 9 g
• yeast for fruit mash or wine - weighed according to the instructions

Preparation of mash from juice

Making chacha at home begins with measuring the sugar content in the juice (hydrometer density). In my case, the juice was density - 15. Next, you need to find out what percentage of alcohol your yeast can produce. I used a fruit brew yeast called "bragman" which claims 18% alcohol (approximate gravity of mash with this yeast is 36). Accordingly, I decided to add more sugar to the juice to get more distillate in the end. Given that the manufacturer claims yeast performance under ideal laboratory conditions, it was decided to add 150 g of sugar per 1 liter of juice so that the yeast could produce exactly that amount of sugar.

Since the juice most likely contains fructose, it was decided to make an invert syrup from sugar and then add it to the juice so that the yeast processes it better.

Preparation of invert syrup.

Pour water into a container, add sugar, dissolve the sugar completely, let the syrup boil over medium heat for 10-15 minutes, add citric acid, mix everything well and boil for another 30-40 minutes.

Next, mix the juice with invert syrup, add yeast at a temperature of 25-28 mash. If you use yeast for fruit brews, then they can be added directly to the mash without preliminary fermentation, since they already contain a large number of different top dressings and will start up without problems. In the case of wine, it is better to ferment them before making them. Pour off about 2-3% of the total volume of the mash, dilute with an equal amount of warm water, sprinkle the yeast evenly on the surface, cover with a napkin, leave for 20-30 minutes, then add to the mash.

A note about dry baker's yeast: they can be used to make fruit brews, but keep in mind that the density of your mash should not exceed 25 hydrometers and the final taste of the distillate will not be as refined and clean as with wine yeast or fruit.

Fermentation of mash and distillation

The fermentation of the mash lasted for 10 days, every day I tried to mix it. Temperature was 22tC on average, which is in line with the instructions for the yeast I used. It should be noted that if you use wine yeast, the fermentation will last longer.

The readiness of the mash was determined by the clarification of the upper layer, bitterness in taste, and the absence of gas evolution. Braga must be carefully poured with a hose or siphon, so as not to catch the yeast layer at the bottom. The more yeast gets on the distillation, the more yeast component will be present in the taste of the distillate.

Distillation can be carried out in two ways. The first is a standard double, with the selection of raw alcohol at the maximum capacity of your distiller, and the second is a fractional one with separation into fractions. The second is by the type of production of cognac alcohol. When selecting raw alcohol (first distillation), we make a division into fractions: heads, body, tails (starting from 40% vol). The second fractional is also divided into fractions. The second option is applicable for those who will pour distillate into a barrel to get “homemade cognac”, but this option is already for distillers who want to really get confused and have enough mash.

Personally, I did according to the first option, overtook the mash almost “to dry”. During the second distillation, I selected the head fractions in an amount of 5% absolute alcohol, as always guided by the smell of the distillate. The volume of distillate and the strength of the middle fraction (body) depends on the capabilities of your moonshine still, if there is a dephlegmator and a column with filling (rpn or spn), then you can select the body at the level of 92-88%, while the aroma of the original raw materials will be present in the distillate. For a barrel, I would advise to select up to about 60-55%.

As a result, I received 1.5 liters of medium fraction with a strength of 69%. Dilute with clean water up to 40-42%. from store juice has a pronounced smell and taste of Muscat grapes and ripe apples, cognac notes are felt in the form of vanilla aroma. It is drunk easily and softly, in the aftertaste there is a clear grape-apple component.

Separately, I recommend that you familiarize yourself with the recipe for making homemade chacha from grape pomace and moonshine from apples. Below is a detailed video of the process of making chacha from store-bought juice with a tasting from the author of the blog.

Calvados prepared from apples at home, taking into account all the necessary requirements, will adequately compete with purchased elite alcohol and will surprise you with worthy taste and quality indicators. The technology is long and troublesome, but the result fully pays for all the time and labor costs.

How to make calvados from apples?

As a rule, Calvados is prepared from several varieties of apples, choosing assorted sweet and sour, sweet and flavorful specimens.

1. Apple raw materials are crushed in a blender or passed through a juicer.
2. Apple base is used in its natural form or sweetened with invert sugar.
3. Yeast in the mash is added exclusively from wine, of proven quality, or, ideally, wild yeast cultures contained on the surface of unwashed apples are dispensed with.
4. A container with mash is placed under a water seal for fermentation.
5. The resulting alcohol base is distilled in a distillation cube twice.
6. The preparation of Calvados from apples is completed by aging alcohol in an oak barrel or insisting on oak chips for at least three months.

Apple mash for Calvados

The correct recipe for apple mash for Calvados is the necessary basis for obtaining high-quality homemade gourmet alcohol. It is important to use only ripe apples without damage, dents, dark spots or spoiled areas, so as not to spoil the final result with unwanted flavor notes.

Ingredients:

• apples of different varieties - 3 buckets;
• white wine yeast - 10 g;
• sugar - 3 kg;
• water - 12 liters.

Cooking

1. The apples are crushed.
2. Add water and invert sugar.
3. Yeast is soaked in warm water for 15 minutes, mixed into the apple base.
4. The mash is poured into a fermentation tank and left under a water seal until the end of fermentation.
5. Get apple Calvados at home by double distillation of mash.

Calvados at home from apple moonshine

The recipe for calvados from apple mash is simple and can be done using several methods. The alcohol base with a strength of 70-80 degrees is diluted to 40-45 degrees and infused in a hermetically sealed natural oak barrel or simply in a jar, adding oak chips.

Ingredients:

• apple moonshine - 1 l;
• oak chips - 50 g.

Cooking

1. Oak chips are poured with boiling water for 15 minutes, washed, dried and dried in the oven.
2. Dry pegs are placed in a jar and filled with apple moonshine.
3. Leave the container in a dark place for at least 3 months.
4. Homemade apple calvados are filtered and bottled for storage.

Calvados at home from apple juice

An ideal option for preparing exquisite alcohol is Calvados from own pressing from fresh apples of various varieties. It is convenient to use a modern juicer to get fresh juice, but a press is also suitable, by means of which apples crushed to puree are pressed, packed in a fabric bag, getting a no less natural drink.

Ingredients:

• fresh apple juice - 25 liters and 1 glass;
• wine yeast - 10 g.

Cooking

1. The required amount of juice is squeezed out of fresh sweet apples.
2. Mix a glass of juice and water, dissolve the yeast in the mixture, leave for 30 minutes.
3. The yeast mixture is mixed into the juice, poured into a fermentation tank, left under a water seal for a month.
4. The apple cider is distilled twice.
5. The distillate is diluted to the desired strength and insisted on oak chips or in an oak barrel.
6. When ready, calvados from apples at home are filtered and bottled.

Apple pomace calvados

Apple calvados, made at home from the pomace left after receiving the juice, is somewhat inferior to the original classic apple alcohol, but has very worthy properties. At the same time, it is important not to use substandard fruits or specimens with dents and damage for fresh.

Ingredients:

• apple cake - 10 kg;
• water - 22 l;
• sugar - 2 kg;
• wine yeast - 15 g;
• oak chips.

Cooking

1. Yeast is soaked in warm water for 20 minutes.
2. Combine cake, yeast and warm rest of the water.
3. Mix in invert sugar.
4. Leave the mash under a water seal until the end of fermentation.
5. The apple base is distilled and the distillate is infused on oak chips.
6. When ready, Calvados is bred from apple pomace to the desired strength and bottled for aging and storage.

Calvados from apple juice concentrate

Calvados is prepared in an elementary way from apple concentrate. This option for obtaining alcohol is feasible at any time of the year, when it is not possible to use fresh fruits as raw materials. Yeast must be white wine or fruit, which is pre-dissolved in a diluted juice concentrate.

Ingredients:

• concentrated juice - 4 kg;
• water - 20 l;
• fruit yeast - 15 g;
• oak chips.

Cooking

1. The juice is diluted with warm water.
2. Yeast is poured into 130 ml of juice, left for 15 minutes.
3. Diluted juice, yeast are mixed, left until the end of fermentation under a water seal.
4. The mash is distilled twice.
5. The distillate is diluted to 63 degrees, supplemented with wood chips, left to infuse.
6. Alcohol is diluted to the desired strength, bottled.

Store bought apple juice calvados

Calvados at home from apples is a recipe that is also feasible from purchased juice, if it is natural and of high quality. The final bouquet of the drink will be worthy when using wine yeast, the quality of which is beyond doubt. If there is an oak barrel, it is preferable to age the apple distillate in it.

Ingredients:

• apple juice - 20 l;
• wine yeast - 10 g.

Cooking

1. Yeast is mixed with a glass of juice, allowed to stand warm for 30 minutes.
2. The yeast starter is poured into juice heated to 30 degrees, left in a fermentation tank under a water seal until the end of fermentation.
3. The distillate is poured into an oak barrel for at least six months, after which it is diluted to the desired strength, bottled and sent to a cool place for aging and storage.

Apple puree calvados

From apples, which are mostly fleshy, loose with sandy pulp, they are made from mashed potatoes. Pure juice from such fruits is difficult to obtain, so fruit puree is the best solution. To do this, it is convenient to use a blender or other convenient device: food processor, meat grinder, crusher.

Ingredients:

• applesauce - 20 kg;
• water - 10 l;
• inverted sugar - 1 kg;
• wine yeast - 15 g.

Cooking

1. The puree is mixed with warm water, sugar and yeast diluted in a portion of the liquid.
2. Pour the mixture into a fermentation tank, install a water seal.
3. Leave the vessel with the contents until the end of fermentation.
4. The mash is distilled through the cube twice.
5. The resulting apple distillate is placed in an oak container or in a jar with oak chips for 3-6 months.
6. The prepared Calvados from apple puree is bottled at home.

Calvados from alcohol and apple juice

Apple calvados for lazy winemakers and those who do not want to mess with apple mash can be made from fruit juice with pure alcohol. The final strength of the drink can be at the level of 40-50 degrees. The proportions presented in this section are based on a minimum strength of 40 degrees.

Ingredients:

• apple juice - 150 ml;
• water - 150 ml;
• alcohol - 210 ml;
• oak chips - 2-3 pcs.

Cooking

1. Apple juice is diluted with water and mixed with alcohol.
2. Oak chips are added to the alcohol base and left for 3-6 months.
3. The drink is filtered, filtered, bottled and stored in a cool place.

Apple jam calvados

It is quite possible to make a recipe for apple calvados from jam that was not eaten on time and needs to be disposed of in another way. Depending on the sweetness of the workpiece, it may be necessary to additionally sweeten the mash to obtain a sweet, but not cloying taste with regular or inverted sugar.

Braga from concentrated juice is not only a fragrant drink, but also a suitable raw material for the preparation of stronger and purer alcohol. Wine or cider is often made from such mash, and you can also get moonshine.

concentrated juice

Benefits of using concentrate

Braga from concentrate has a number of advantages over other varieties and other types of raw materials:

• The drink is made from highly concentrated juice, which means that fruits are taken as the basis. It is this raw material that gives a delicious aroma in the finished moonshine.
• You do not need to prepare and lay the fruit yourself. Since the concentrate does not have pulp, it means that furfural and a large amount of fusel oils with aldehydes will not form in the mash. It also does not require filtering the finished mash through gauze to get rid of the pulp, and nothing will burn in the cube of the apparatus.
• The concentrate already has ready-made indicators of sugar content, the content of various substances in the composition. You can not determine the sugar content by eye, but calmly calculate the required amount of sugar and yeast. And you can also pre-calculate the yield of pure alcohol.

Juice concentrate is a relief for the distiller's work. Since he does not need to deal with fruits, crush and filter juice from them, pasteurize it. If we talk about proportions, then apple concentrates are diluted 1 to 6. If there are 5 liters of the substance, then it is diluted with water in an amount of 30 liters and juice is obtained, which is sold in stores.

After such dilution, you can save on raw materials for mash and get more drink, and, accordingly, more moonshine. In this case, they use recipes on how to cook mash with fruit juice. But you can not dilute the concentrate with water, but use it to make moonshine in its original form.

Braga preparation technology

The concentrate cannot be used without additional sugar or carbohydrate source. To do this, make invert sugar or purchase dextrose. You can also additionally purchase oak chips to infuse moonshine on concentrate.

By the number of ingredients, you can use the following proportions:

• 4 kilograms of dextrose or sugar syrup, that is, inverted sugar.
• 5 liters of concentrate (apple or grape).
• 20 liters of water. The requirements for water are the same as in other recipes.

All components are mixed with each other, the temperature of the contents in the fermentation tank should not exceed 20-25 degrees. With such indicators, the density of the wort is measured, and the information is also checked against the instructions for the yeast. Yeast should be taken alcohol or wine, they give more output from the mash. The concentrate will require about 100 grams of alcohol yeast or the amount is calculated according to a special table in accordance with the density and sugar content of the mixture.

Pre-dry alcoholic yeast can be activated. To do this, the culture is poured into a container with water and mixed for three minutes. Water to activate the yeast should be no more than half a liter. After mixing, foam will appear on the surface of the water, which will mean that the yeast is ready for further work.

Braga is placed for 5-7 days. But you need to monitor the fermentation process daily. Alcoholic yeast can behave unpredictably. Also, the acidity of the concentrate can affect the rate of fermentation and lead to rapid souring of the product. If the mash is sour, then only the additional addition of dextrose or sugar can save it. To prevent this from happening, a water seal is placed on the mash, foaming is controlled.

Since the fermentation time is reduced with the help of yeast, and there is no pulp in the drink, the process is fast and without much foam formation - you can not use defoamers. But in order for everything to go without a hitch, you need to monitor the temperature in the room where the fermentation tank is located, the indicator should be at a level of 20 to 30 degrees. Also, the container should not be exposed to sunlight.

The tendency to sour the mash is not the only drawback of using a concentrate. This substance not only reacts unpredictably, but also costs more than juice or other raw materials. The concentrate can be found online or ordered from a juice factory. The main thing is that there are no impurities of chemicals in the concentrate, otherwise the mash will turn out tasteless. It is also important that all the characteristics of the concentrate, such as acidity, are indicated on the label to it.

At the end of the fermentation process, the drink is removed from the sediment. The taste and smell of such mash is different from traditional types of alcohol. Braga resembles strong cider when made from apple concentrate. The approximate strength of the drink, subject to the work of alcohol yeast, is 18-20%. Braga is removed from the sediment before distillation, but not clarified, as this will eliminate the pleasant aroma.

Distillation can take place at maximum speed. The selection of fractions is mandatory, but filtration before the second distillation can spoil the taste. Chemicals should not be applied to mash and drinks on fruit raw materials. The distillation itself is carried out according to the standard scheme. During the first distillation, “heads”, or pervak, are selected - this part is used as technical alcohol or poured out.

Before the second distillation, the drink should be diluted to a strength of 20%, and then the moonshine is distilled and the selection is not forgotten. The first 8-12% of the drink are “heads”, and after the strength drops in the stream to 40%, “tails” go. The result is a clear moonshine from concentrated juice, which can be infused in an oak barrel or on oak chips and get calvados.

Making moonshine from concentrate is not too difficult a task for a distiller. The main thing is to correctly calculate the proportions of the ingredients, focusing on your own concentrate. And the taste of the drink practically does not differ from moonshine, cooked on fruit mash.

For a long time, Calvados was considered the alcohol of commoners, since the drink is made from ordinary apples. But after this alcohol began to appear in the works of the writer Remarque, the situation changed. The elite became interested in apple moonshine infused in barrels and it quickly became fashionable. We will look at how to make Calvados at home according to the classic recipe and in the form of an imitation tincture.

On a note. Calvados can only be called a drink produced in Normandy (a region in northwestern France), in all other cases, apple distillate should be called brandy.

Imitation Calvados (apple tincture)

Preparation takes a minimum of time and money. The smell of the tincture is slightly similar to the original. For those wishing to cook real homemade Calvados, I advise you to immediately go to the second recipe.

Ingredients:

• apples - 2 kg;
• vodka - 1 liter;
• sugar - 200 grams;
• water - 150 ml;
• vanilla sugar - 10 grams.

Technology:

1. Wash the apples, remove the core and seeds, cut into cubes.

2. Put the cubes in a jar, sprinkling with vanilla sugar.

3. Add vodka, close the lid and put the jar in a dark place at room temperature for 2 weeks to infuse.

4. Remove the apples by straining the drink through cheesecloth. Squeeze out the pulp.

5. Mix water and sugar in a saucepan, bring to a boil, boil for about 5 minutes (until foam is released), removing foam from the surface. Cool the finished sugar syrup to 25-30 ° C, then pour into the apple tincture and mix.

6. Pour the finished tincture into glass bottles and seal tightly.

Imitation Calvados

Store in a dark cool place. Shelf life - up to 3 years. To taste, it turns out sweetish apple vodka with a strength of 32-35 degrees.

Apple calvados recipe (real)

The proposed technology is as close as possible to the original. Of the ingredients for homemade Calvados, only apples are needed. Although in the end you will get a distillate (moonshine from fermented juice), I still advise you to take the quality of apples seriously. They must be ripe, with no signs of rot and spoilage. The variety is not of fundamental importance, but it is better to use sweet and juicy fruits.

1. Obtaining cider. Squeeze juice from apples in any way possible. The less pulp, the better. Juice to defend during the day in a dark place at room temperature. Then remove the foam from the surface and drain from the sediment through a tube into a fermentation tank. Install a water seal or a rubber glove with a small hole in one of the fingers (pierce with a needle).

Move the container to a dark place with a temperature of 18-27°C. After fermentation is complete (signs: the water seal does not blow bubbles for several days or the glove is deflated, the drink has become lighter and without signs of sweetness in taste, sediment has appeared at the bottom), pour the finished cider into the distillation cube, trying not to touch the sediment at the bottom, you can additionally filter through gauze. If this is not done, the hard part will burn during heating, spoiling the taste of Calvados.

Fermentation of wort under a water lock

2. Distillation. It's time to get the distillate out of the cider. To do this, you need a moonshine of any design. During the first distillation, the yield should not be divided into fractions, taking all the product until the strength in the stream falls below 30 degrees. Measure the strength of the resulting apple moonshine and determine the amount of pure alcohol.

Dilute moonshine with water to 18-20 degrees, then overtake again, selecting "heads", "body" and "tails". The first 12% of the amount of pure alcohol is collected in a separate container and poured out (used for technical needs), these are “heads” that contain harmful impurities, spoil the taste and have a bad effect on health.

3. Exposure. In order for apple moonshine to turn into calvados, insistence on oak wood is required. Classical technology uses oak barrels. But at home, not everyone has such an opportunity, so a simpler option is suitable - aging in glass jars (bottles) with oak pegs.

We need oak wood with a trunk diameter of 25-35 cm. Bark, sawdust and shavings are not suitable, as they contain too many tannins that make Calvados bitter.

The wood must be divided into pieces 5-8 mm thick and 10-15 cm long. Pour boiling water over the resulting pegs, leave for 10 minutes, drain the broth, soak in cold water for 20 minutes, then drain the liquid and dry the wood. Place the processed pegs in jars and pour apple alcohol diluted with clean cold water up to 45 degrees. Roll up the jars with iron lids (close tightly with corks), put for 6-12 months in a dark, cool place for ripening.