Contents
In each country there is a strong alcoholic drink that the inhabitants prepare on their own. We have moonshine, in the Balkans – brandy, in Georgia – chacha. The traditional feast in the Caucasus is accompanied not only by world-famous wines, but also by stronger drinks. For Georgia, chacha is an integral part of the national tradition. In 2011, the government even received a patent for it.
Chacha from grapes at home is simply expelled. The recipe for its preparation is only slightly different from moonshine. A large number of vineyards contributed to the emergence of the tradition of preparing alcoholic beverages from this sunny berry. Of course, wine will always come first for Georgians. But the waste left after its production and substandard grapes, which even the most well-groomed vine will give birth to every year, allowed the inhabitants of Georgia to prepare a strong, aromatic drink from them.
Homemade chacha can be made from any juicy and fairly sweet southern fruits. It will be tasty, fragrant and strong. But grape chacha has become one of the hallmarks of Georgia. In Abkhazia, it is usually made from Isabella or Kachich varieties, in the west they use Rkatsiteli.
Features of chacha
Chacha is called Georgian brandy. Indeed, among spirits, it is considered a relative of cognac. Of course, grape chacha is not so noble, but if it is properly prepared and cleaned, it will come out fragrant and easy to drink.
Raw materials and technology
Georgian brandy is made from the pulp left after the production of wine or juice. Unripe grapes must be added to it. In order to remove the unpleasant odor and increase the strength, the preparation of chacha involves a double distillation.
If after distillation the drink is immediately bottled, it is called white. Chacha aged in an oak barrel is considered yellow.
Strength and taste
We are used to the fact that strong alcohol is 40 degrees. That is why in Georgia our tourists can get into a mess. They just don’t think about how many degrees there are in chacha. But even “light” factory varieties cannot contain less than 45-50 percent alcohol. Chacha at home is usually prepared with a strength of 55-60 degrees, and sometimes all 80.
The taste of the drink made according to the rules is light, pleasant. And if he was insisted on herbs or fruits, then in general the degrees can not be noticed. Insidious drink! Moreover, it contains as much as 225 kcal per 100 g. And this is neither more nor less – 11% of the daily norm.
Traditions of use
It is interesting that in the west of Georgia it is customary to eat this drink with sweets, and in the eastern regions – with pickles. In Abkhazia, it is served before a feast as an aperitif, but drinking chacha at a family holiday is considered bad manners. Residents of mountain villages often drink a glass of strong drink in the morning before going to work.
Real Georgian chacha
For someone who has ever driven moonshine, making chacha from grapes at home is not difficult. But what kind of drink would it be? Will the inhabitants of Georgia recognize him or say: “Oh, what moonshine”?
Read the instructions before making chacha. If you deviate from them, you will get a strong alcoholic drink, only remotely similar to real Georgian brandy.
- As a raw material, grape pomace is used, which remains after making wine or juice. Unripe or substandard berries, combs are a must-have additive for mash.
- The recipe for chacha from grapes at home involves the use of only wild yeast. And no sugar! Of course, you can’t make a drink from sour grapes.
- During distillation, Georgian brandy is not divided into fractions. It is distilled twice and then purified.
- Strong alcohol aged in any wooden barrel, except for oak, cannot be called chacha. Containing less than 45% alcohol – too.
The above tips apply to the preparation of real Georgian chacha, if you are making an adapted drink, then you can add sugar and use whole grapes instead of pomace.
Chacha with and without sugar
Chacha from grapes at home, the recipe of which you brought from Georgia, is prepared only without sugar. Now let’s talk a little. Residents of warm regions grow sweet grape varieties, the sugar content of which is at least 20%. Moreover, in cold and cloudy summers, its content will be much lower.
The northern regions also grow grapes. But the varieties there are adapted to local conditions, their sugar content is usually 14-17%, and even less if there is a lack of light and heat. You can, of course, not cook chacha at all, as it will be different from the Georgian one. But no one will forbid you to add sugar, and even if the product is somewhat different from the original, it will still be delicious.
There is another point worth thinking about. Real traditional chacha is made from pomace left over from processing grapes into juice or wine. Even if the sugar content of the berry was at least 20%, at the output we will get 5-6 liters of chacha from 25 kg of squeezed and substandard. When adding 10 kg of sugar, the volume of the drink will increase to 16-17 liters, and the preparation time will be halved.
The recipe is simple
We will tell you how to make chacha with and without sugar. Of course, the taste of the drink will be different. But Georgian brandy made in the Caucasus is also different. Each family makes it in its own way, the secrets are passed down from generation to generation. It seems nothing complicated, but for some reason two neighbors living next to each other get different chacha.
Sugarless
This recipe is original Georgian, however, the simplest. The taste of the drink will differ depending on the grape variety (it is better to take white), its sugar content. It also matters how the pulp was obtained – did you make juice or cook wine, how and how much it fermented. If you squeeze the cake completely, you won’t get tasty chacha, it should contain about 20% liquid.
Ingredients:
Take:
- bunches and cake of grapes – 25 kg;
- boiled water – 50 l.
The taste of chacha will largely depend on the proportion in which you take the cake and substandard grapes. On the clusters there may be unripened, small, deformed berries. For the preparation of real Georgian brandy, their addition is mandatory.
Preparation:
Do not wash the clusters (so as not to remove the “wild” yeast), do not pick the berries, just free them from leaves and debris.
If you have a special press, pass the grapes through it. If not, knead thoroughly, trying to crush each berry.
Put the grapes and pulp in a fermentation container, fill with water, stir with a wooden spatula.
Install a water seal, put in a warm place protected from the sun. It is desirable that the temperature remains between 22 and 30 degrees. With a cool content, fermentation will not occur, and in a hot room, the bacteria responsible for it will die.
Stir the contents every few days.
Without sugar, with natural yeast, fermentation can be weak and last more than 30 days. In some cases, it can drag on for 2-3 months, keep this in mind when choosing a method for making mash for grape chacha.
When fermentation stops, it’s time to move on to distillation. Fold several layers of gauze and wring out the mash.
Do not throw away the cake, but tie it up and hang it from the top of the distillation cube.
After the first distillation, you will get a foul-smelling chacha with a strength of 40 degrees.
Dilute it with the same volume of water, remove the cake and put it on re-distillation.
Clear the drink. How to do this, we will describe in a separate chapter.
Dilute to the desired strength and bottle chacha, put in a cellar or other room with a low temperature for a month and a half.
With sugar
It is much easier and faster to prepare a drink, the mash recipe of which provides for the addition of sugar.
Ingredients:
Take:
- cake and bunches of grapes – 25 kg;
- water – 50 l;
- sugar – 10 kg.
Preparation:
Prepare the grapes in the same way as described in the previous recipe.
In a fermentation container, mix the pulp, water, sugar.
Install a water seal. Put the mash for grape chacha in a dark, warm place.
Shake the fermentation container daily or mix its contents.
When the water seal stops emitting bubbles, proceed with the distillation.
All subsequent actions do not differ from those described in the previous recipe.
Beverage cleaning
Chacha should not be cleaned with potassium permanganate, coal or soda. This will change the taste for the worse. There are many ways to label homemade alcohol, and they are not invented for fun. Improperly purified alcohol can turn from the drink of the gods into slop. Of course, this primarily applies to wine. But why spoil the taste of Georgian brandy at the final stage?
Without cleaning, chacha has an unpleasant odor and contains many harmful substances. It is impossible to completely remove them at home, but it is possible to significantly reduce them.
Casein Purification
This is the cheap way. It will remove unwanted impurities, improve taste, and eliminate unpleasant odors. To do this, add 10 ml of cow’s milk to 200 liters of drink. Put in a dark place, shake the mixture twice a day. After a week, carefully drain from the sediment, filter.
Pasting with pine nuts
This method is not cheap, since pine nuts are expensive. But the drink will not only be cleansed, but will also acquire an incomparable aftertaste. True, the cedar will have to be thrown out later, as it will absorb a lot of harmful substances.
A handful of peeled nuts is added to each liter of chacha, put in a dark place, then filtered and bottled.
Watch the video on how to make chacha:
Conclusion
Prepare chacha according to one of the proposed recipes and enjoy a fragrant drink. Just do not forget that it is easy to drink, and contains a lot of alcohol.