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Every more or less well-read person has heard of Calvados. Many of us, at least once, have tasted this magnificent apple distillate.
But not everyone has the knowledge to make something similar in their native kitchen (whether it’s not even the canonical Calvados, but an unpretentious, but no less pleasant moonshine from apples). In this regard, the paramount place is occupied by the question: how to make (or rather, how to cook or, if you want, put) mash from apples for moonshine.
They also prepare apples: tinctures and liqueurs, liquor, wine, cider, moonshine, syrup
Classic apple mash recipe
Believe that the distillate made from the mash made according to this recipe has not disappointed anyone yet.
List of ingredients
Apples – 30 kg
Sugar – 2-4 kg
Water – 10-20 l
Dry wine yeast – 100 g
Method of preparation
Rinse the fruits, peel, cut into slices and grind in a blender to the state of a coarse gruel.
Taste the resulting homogeneous mass of fresh apples to establish the proportions of water and sugar. They are determined based on the ratio of green unripe apples and sweet fruits.
If it turns out that the future must consists mainly of sour apples, the maximum amount of sugar and water indicated in the list of ingredients should be added to it.
If there are relatively few sour or unripe apples, then the amount of sugar and water can be reduced to 3 kg and 15 liters, respectively, or even to 2 kg and 10 liters.
Having dealt with the proportions, you should add 9/10 prepared cold water to the apple mass and mix everything thoroughly.
The remaining 1/10 of the water should be used to make sugar syrup.
The resulting solution is cooled to a temperature of 30°C, added to the must preparation and mixed again.
In parallel, you can prepare the yeast. They should be diluted in a liter of water heated to a temperature of 30-35 ° C and let it brew for 20 minutes.
Then, the yeast solution is also added to the fermentation tank, and its contents are mixed again.
Next, close the fermentation tank with a lid with a water seal and put it in a dry, warm place for 3 weeks.
At the same time, it is necessary to periodically “knock down” the cake from the cake that appears on the surface of the wort.
When the cake completely settles to the bottom of the vessel, and the liquid brightens and begins to slightly bitter, it can be sent for distillation.
Braga from apple pomace
The apple pomace remaining after receiving the juice, in our case, can also be used. At the same time, the output will be a kind of apple equivalent of the famous chacha.
List of ingredients
Apple pomace – 10 kg
Granulated sugar – 5 kg
Water – 35 L
Yeast – 100 g dry or 500 g pressed
Method of preparation
Pour the cake with water heated to a temperature of 30 ° C.
Add sugar and yeast solution there.
Provide a fermentation container with a lid with a water seal and send to a dry, warm place.
Then proceed according to the instructions set out in the classic recipe.
Braga from apple juice
If you are a true gourmet, you should stop at this option. Apple brandy, made on the basis of pure juice, is the most perfect in terms of taste and aroma.
List of ingredients
Apple juice – 15 l
Granulated sugar – 3 kg
Dry wine yeast – 200 g
Honey – to taste
Lemon zest – to taste
Method of preparation
Juice, settled for several days, decant from the sediment, then mix with sugar and yeast solution; If desired, you can add a little honey and lemon zest.
Keep the resulting substance in a dark, warm place for a month, stirring it periodically.
After the specified period, the finished mash can be used.
Braga from apples without yeast
All of the above mash options can be prepared without yeast and, accordingly, without sugar.
The main thing is to leave the fruit unwashed so as not to destroy the wild yeast necessary for this type of fermentation.
The tangible advantages of this method will be the taste of the distillate not distorted by the sugar-yeast factor and the reduction of financial costs for its preparation.
The disadvantages of the mentioned method include a long fermentation period, sometimes reaching up to two and a half months, as well as a smaller amount of finished brandy obtained at the exit.
Apple drinking brew
Drinking apple mash, in fact – cider, is a pleasant-tasting self-sufficient refreshing low-alcohol drink.
List of ingredients
Sour apples – 5 kg
Sweet apples – 5 kg
Method of preparation
Squeeze juice from soft, but not rotten fruits.
Separately defend juices from sour and sweet varieties of apples for 3 days.
Then, remove them from the sediment and mix to taste.
Bottle the resulting blank, throwing a few raisins into each of the bottles.
Cork the bottles very carefully and put them in the cellar or refrigerator.
In about a month, your drinking mash will be ready.
Of course, such a drink can also be prepared using the sugar-yeast method, but we would not recommend drinking it in its pure form.
Firstly: yeast will significantly worsen the organoleptic properties of the drink, and secondly: undistilled yeast mash contains a significant amount of toxic substances that can seriously damage your body.
A few practical tips
Choose fresh fruit
When selecting fruits for mash, try not to use fallen apples with rot. If you still couldn’t manage without falling apples, carefully cut out all the rotten areas. Otherwise, the semi-finished product for moonshine will turn out to be too bitter.
Rule 10%
When putting the wort in the fermentation tank, make sure that there is at least 10% of free space left in it, which is necessary for the accumulation of foam and carbon dioxide.
Baker’s yeast – a taboo for quality alcohol
In the manufacture of mash, you can use baker’s yeast. In this case, the fermentation process may be completed in a week, but the product itself will have a characteristic unpleasant taste and smell.
Sugar mash with apples
You can try adding pieces of apples to the usual sugar-yeast preparation for moonshine. In this case, at the end of the fermentation period, you will get a refined sugar mash with apples.
Experiment
It is allowed to mix apples with other fruit and berry ingredients. In this way, for example, you will get a mash of apples and plums or a mash of apples and grapes. The main thing in such cases is to ensure that the sugar content of the future wort does not exceed 20%. Otherwise, fermentation simply will not take place.
Braga from pears and apples
If you have prepared a distillate based on pear and apple mash, it should either be consumed within the next few months or aged in an oak barrel for about a year. According to experts, this drink, after six months of storage, for some time partly loses the fullness of its flavor bouquet.
Relevance: 08.11.2016
Tags: vodka, mash, moonshine