Everyone has heard about Georgian vodka – chacha, which the highlanders consider a longevity drink and drink small glasses before meals. This legendary spirit can be bought in a store or made from grapes yourself. The second option allows you to control the quality. Next, we will look at how to make chacha at home. The recipe is simple, and the technology largely overlaps with moonshine.
Chacha is a national Georgian alcoholic drink with a strength of 55-70 degrees, belonging to the class of grape brandy. It is made from the pomace of grapes that remain after the production of wine. In fact, chacha is an ordinary grape moonshine. World analogues are Italian grappa and Slavic rakia. If you have tried grappa, you can imagine the taste of chacha. Of course, much depends on the quality of raw materials and production technology, but if all the rules are followed, these drinks are very similar.
Ingredients:
- grape pomace – 10 liters;
- sugar – 5 kg (optional);
- yeast – 100 grams dry or 500 grams pressed (optional);
- water – 30 liters.
I advise you to prepare in advance a glass bottle of 50 liters and a moonshine still.
Attention! Real Georgian chacha is prepared without yeast and sugar, but due to the low natural sugar content of grapes in most regions of Russia, this is not always possible and advisable. Without sugar, the yield of the finished product will be much lower. On wild yeast, fermentation lasts 25-60 days instead of 5-10 on ordinary ones, but if there is no hurry, you can wait, the aroma will be more pleasant. I suggest using the recipe that is most adapted to our realities. I guarantee that its exact observance will preserve the taste and smell of the raw materials. If you do not add sugar to the mash, the amount of water can be reduced by half.
So that the grapes are not wasted, it is better to make chacha along with homemade wine. The juice will be used to make wine, and the pomace will make excellent moonshine. In other words, we find a use for wine production waste.
grape chacha recipe
1. Pour the pomace into a container, add sugar and yeast diluted according to the instructions (optional).
2. Pour the entire contents of the fermentation tank with warm water (20-25°C), if you add too hot water, the yeast will die and fermentation will not start.
3. Mix the ingredients, install a water seal or a medical glove with a hole in the finger to remove carbon dioxide. Put the container in a dark, warm (not higher than 30 degrees) place for fermentation. Once every two days, remove the lid and mix the mash well.
4. After the end of fermentation (the mash became bitter in taste without sweetness and became lighter), proceed to distillation. First, filtration is needed so that the remains of the cake do not burn from the high temperature. To do this, drain the mash from the sediment and filter through gauze, then fill the distillation cube. After the first distillation (take away the product until the strength in the stream drops below 30%, without dividing into fractions), moonshine will turn out with a rather unusual smell, so another distillation is required.
5. Measure the strength of the distillate, determine the amount of pure alcohol. Dilute moonshine with water up to 20% and overtake again. The first 8-12% of the amount of pure alcohol is collected separately and poured out, this is a harmful fraction that cannot be drunk. Select the main product before the drop of the fortress in the jet to 40%.
6. Dilute the resulting homemade chacha with water up to 40-60 degrees. Keep in a refrigerator or cellar in a tightly closed glass container for 2-3 days before use to stabilize the taste.
Chacha is served for any holiday. The drink goes well with any dishes, both salty and sweet.
