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I really love cognac. But recently, a decent cognac costs from 15 rubles for a 000-liter bottle. You can afford this for your birthday or New Year, well, perhaps that’s all. Drinking 0,7 grams once a week is already expensive.
And I began to figure out how to make cognac myself. Found several ways:
- distill grape mash through a distiller;
- distill grape wine through a distiller or distillation column;
- insist alcohol (vodka) on burnt oak sticks;
- insist alcohol (vodka) on roasted oak chips.
The very first method I used was wood chips, because the easiest and cheapest option.
The story was sent by blog subscriber Gregory.
How to understand how much wood chips to add to alcohol
To calculate the amount of wood chips per liter of distillate, you must first understand:
- strength of the tincture;
- volume;
- roasted chips (small, medium, strong);
- holding time.
It is best to calculate all this based on the technology for making cognac, which is full on the Internet.
I proceeded from the area of contact of the walls of an ordinary oak barrel with distillate. On an industrial scale, barrels from 500 liters are used, into which distillate with a strength of 60-70 degrees is poured.
I insist on chips in a jar
Through complex calculations, I got the value of the weight of the chips 50 grams per liter of alcohol with a strength of 40 degrees. This corresponds approximately to the calculations given on the Internet in the relevant forums.
It is clear why I proceeded from such characteristics – it is now unrealistic to get alcohol and dilute it to a fortress of 60-70 degrees. You can legally use only vodka from the store.
Thus, for 2 bottles of vodka, I poured 50 grams of strong roasted chips.
How long do you need to keep wood chips in alcohol
In new oak barrels, the distillate is kept for no more than 3 months, otherwise the taste of the drink becomes “wooden”, that is, it is highly saturated with tannins and other substances released by the oak. It is impossible to drink this and the people call such a drink “skirting”.
The same goes for the shavings. I kept the first portion of vodka with soaked chips for 3 months. After which I had to pour out the vodka, because it was impossible to drink it.
Why did this happen? Because in the barrel only part of the distillate is in contact with the walls and a saturation gradient occurs in the liquid. Even if the keg is shaken or stirred from time to time, the distillate still touches the walls only to a limited extent.
My favorite cognac
In the case of shavings, the vodka comes into contact with a larger surface area of the oak and picks up tannins very quickly.
The best barrels are considered to be those that have already been used several times for cognac infusion, and then aging in barrels takes years and even decades. In such barrels, cognac only becomes nobler with time.
You have to be more careful with the shavings.
Can the wood chips be reused?
After the first unsuccessful experience and the loss of a liter of vodka, I poured the same chips again in the same proportion and after 3 months I got a completely normal drink that I didn’t want to spit out right away.
Thus, I was convinced that, as in factory production, the shavings (barrels) must be reused, while it releases tannins more slowly and less, but over time the drink becomes nobler.
Regular shavings from Ebay
I did not take risks and overexpose the second fill. Now I am using the same shavings for the third time, and I will infuse vodka for a year already. The main thing, tasting it from time to time, is not to drink it before.
Of course, in parallel, I filled in several containers with new chips, and now I’m doing the first filling for no more than a month.
Woodchip Tips
Over the past year, I realized that the shavings of the shavings are different. I also found many different types of shavings in the world’s online retail chains.
So far only theoretically, but I can advise what chips should be taken. It is listed in order of priority from best to worst:
You understand perfectly well that French shavings should have the best quality, which, by the way, is added to industrial barrels according to technology when they have already been used for 10 years.
My first shavings were bought in an offline store. Of course, I won’t buy it again, because the result is a drink that doesn’t even look like cognac. In this “wine” is not only shavings, but also vodka. Each vodka has its own taste, and it greatly affects the taste of the drink.
Now I am experimenting with French shavings, which are infused with diluted rubbing alcohol. So far, the experiment can be considered successful.
If you are interested in what will happen next with cognac on shavings – write.