How to make chachu at home

Chacha is a strong alcoholic drink traditionally produced in Georgia. They make it not only handicraft, but also at distilleries. By and large, for Georgians, chacha is the same as moonshine for the Eastern Slavs, grappa for Italians, and rakia for the inhabitants of the Balkan Peninsula. Of course, there are differences in the technology of preparation and raw materials, but they have one thing in common – all these alcoholic beverages are an integral part of national traditions.

Chacha at home in the Caucasus is prepared as simply and often as we have moonshine. There is probably no person who has ever visited this country and has not tried this drink, regardless of desire. Only children and pregnant women managed to avoid chacha tasting. Traditional Georgian hospitality includes not only a plentiful feast and famous dry wines, but also stronger drinks.

During the Second World War, at the Yalta Conference, Stalin gave Churchill and Roosevelt exactly chacha. Now this drink is known far beyond the borders of Georgia, it can be prepared not only from grapes, in its production today any fruit and berry raw materials are used. Interestingly, the authorities of this country in 2011 issued a patent for chacha.

What is chacha

We will tell you how to make chacha at home, but first, let’s take a closer look at this strong drink. When classifying alcohol, it is classified as brandy.

Raw materials for the production of chacha

Traditionally, grapes are used to make chacha at home. This makes it a drink related to Cognac or Armagnac. But chacha is prepared not from wine, but from waste – cake, seeds, ridges left after fermentation, and substandard – grapes that did not have time to ripen. True, no one forbids making a drink from juice, sometimes they do just that.

In order to diversify the recipe and taste of alcohol, chacha is made from any, but exclusively fruit and berry raw materials, which is its main difference from vodka. Today, both in Georgian villages and in retail outlets, you can find distilled products:

• apricot;
• sweet citrus;
• persimmons;
• cherries;
• mulberries;
• figs;
• peaches;
• grenade.

Traditionally, in western Georgia, the drink is made from Rkatsiteli grapes; for Abkhazia, Isabella and Kachich turned out to be more acceptable. Depending on the subsequent storage of chacha, there can be two varieties:

• white, which is immediately poured into glass containers;
• yellow, aged in oak barrels.

From a strong alcoholic drink, tinctures on herbs, walnuts, and fruits are often prepared.

Strength, taste and calorie content

Chacha has the taste of raw materials – grapes or other fruits. Its strength is 55-60 degrees, which is significantly higher than most similar drinks. This must be taken into account when drinking, as chacha is easy to drink and has a fruity aftertaste. Alcohol expelled in the factory can have a strength of 45-50 degrees, and homemade – 70-80.

The taste of yellow chacha aged in oak barrels is always more intense than that of white chacha, a non-specialist can easily confuse it with cognac. It should be stored in a dark, cool place, bottled in glass bottles. Plastic, not only kills the delicate taste, but can also introduce unwanted substances.

Calorie content is 225 kcal per 100 g.

How and when to drink tea

It is useless for a person who abuses alcohol to talk about the culture of drinking alcohol. He only needs to be reminded of the insidiousness of chacha, in which degrees are disguised as a fruity aroma.

Those who drink alcohol in moderate doses are often interested not only in cooking recipes in order to be able to make a drink with their own hands, but also in national traditions of drinking strong drinks. This is how their taste is fully revealed. Chacha is drunk and eaten in different ways, depending on the place of residence:

1. A high-quality drink should be at room temperature, which allows the taste to fully open up, drunk in small sips. Simple distillates are cooled to 5-10 degrees.
2. In Georgian villages, they drink a glass of chacha before going to work. Moreover, in the west they eat churchkhela or other sweets, in the east – pickles.
3. In Abkhazia, chacha is served as an aperitif before a feast. Unaccustomed to such celebrations, guests of Georgia need to be especially careful, because rather strong alcohol will have to be washed down with wine.

Drink Features

Making tea at home is easy. It is much more difficult to expel a drink that corresponds to the national Georgian traditions. Of course, if authenticity is important to us, not the name. For some reason, when we make chacha, we have it like moonshine, Italians make it look like grappa, Bulgarians and Moldavians make it like brandy. The production of the Georgian national drink has its own subtleties, which we will list below. It may not be easy to take into account all the points, but if you want to get exactly chacha, there is no other way out.

1. The main ingredient of the drink is grape or other fruit pomace obtained after the production of wine or juice. Mandatory addition – unripe fruits.

   

2. Fruits should be exclusively traditional for Transcaucasia. There is no such thing as apple or plum chacha.
3. It is impossible to use sugar or any yeast, except for the “wild” ones contained on the surface of unwashed fruits. Of course, the drink will take longer to prepare, and it is generally impossible to make it from sour grapes.
4. Prepare chacha from only one variety of fruit. Grapes need to take white varieties.
5. During distillation, it is impossible to separate chacha into fractions. Instead, double distillation and thorough purification are used.
6. The drink is aged only in oak barrels. When using other wood, it will no longer be chacha.

   

7. The strength of the drink should not be less than 45 degrees. Without going into the subtleties of chemical processes, we note that if you accidentally dilute chacha even up to 43 degrees, and then increase the alcohol content by mixing it with an undiluted product, the taste will deteriorate.

Preparation of Chacha

Before giving a recipe for chacha at home, we warn you that for its preparation you will need a distiller, or simply a moonshine still. Each subsequent distillation increases the fortress:

• single allows you to get alcohol with a strength of up to 40 degrees;
• double – 60;
• triple – 80;
• multiple – 96.

Pure alcohol is obtained by distillation.

Of grapes

We offer to cook chacha at home. A simple recipe provides that for every kilogram of grape cake and grapes you need to take 2 liters of boiled water.

Take the pomace remaining after making the wine.

Peel the bunches of substandard grapes from leaves and twigs, but do not cut them off for years. It can not be washed in order to preserve the “wild” yeast that is on the surface.

Thoroughly mash the grapes so that they release the juice. If you have a juicer, use it.

In a fermentation tank, combine the pomace with crushed grapes, fill with water.

Stir with a wooden spatula, put a water seal. Remove to a dark warm place.

To prevent mold from forming on the surface, stir every 2-3 days.

Once fermentation is complete, move on to the next step.

Preparation for distillation should take place in one of the following ways:

1. Strain the mash, tie the cake in several layers of gauze and hang it from the top inside the moonshine still. This will make the alcohol more flavorful.
2. You do not need to filter anything, put a layer of clean straw on the bottom of the distillation cube so that the cake does not burn.

After the first stage of distillation, you will get alcohol with a strength of about 40 degrees with a not very pleasant smell.

Dilute it with water 1:1 and distill again.

Purify distillate. This will be the subject of a separate chapter.

Dilute to the desired strength, which should not be less than 45 degrees.

Bottled.

Store in the refrigerator or cellar for at least 1,5 months.

Unfortunately, in the north, grapes ripen poorly and often remain sour even by the end of autumn. And some are quite satisfied with the drink “a la chacha”, prepared with sugar. We simply have to tell you how to make it at home. The video offered for viewing just describes the preparation of chacha with sugar:

From tangerines

Probably everyone is wondering how to make chacha from southern fruits. We give a recipe for a drink with tangerines, but they can be replaced with any juicy fruits.

For every 2 kg of peeled tangerines and pomace obtained after obtaining the juice, take 1 liter of water.

Then do everything as described in the first recipe.

From pomegranates

This drink is not as often made in Georgia as grape or other fruits, but is highly valued.

For each kilogram of cake left after obtaining the juice, take 2 liters of boiled water and 100 g of peeled pomegranate seeds.

From cake and water, prepare the mash, as described in the first recipe (do not add grains yet).

Distill the drink once, dilute to a strength of 30 degrees.

Pour pomegranate seeds with alcohol, soak for 5 days in a dark place.

Distill along with grains.

Clean the drink, let it brew in the cellar or refrigerator for 1,5 months.

Chacha cleaning

Without purification, the drink does not smell very good, and we do not need harmful substances at all. Everyone knows about cleaning homemade wine or moonshine. So, for chacha, these methods are not suitable. Potassium permanganate or activated charcoal will only spoil the taste.

Milk cleaning

Immediately after the second distillation, milk is added to the chacha at the rate of 200 ml of casein per 10 liters of drink. For a week, it should stand in a dark place, shaken twice a day or mixed with a wooden spatula. Then the alcohol is carefully drained from the sediment, passed through a cotton-gauze filter, diluted to the desired strength, and bottled.

Cleaning with pine nuts

Of course, you want to eat pine nuts, and not throw them into an alcoholic drink. That’s just from the smell of acetone, which may appear, especially if the mash is overexposed, it is difficult. And pine nuts will do the job perfectly. Yes, and harmful impurities will be absorbed.

For each liter of chacha, a handful of peeled nuts are taken and placed in a dark place for 2 weeks. After that, the drink is filtered and bottled.

Conclusion

As you can see, there is nothing complicated about making homemade chacha. Just do not forget about the insidiousness of the drink, which contains many degrees, but is easy to drink!