How to make moonshine from grapes at home – a step by step recipe

Homemade delirium is the best solution for those who have plenty of grapes. On the one hand, this product is much more worthy than chacha. On the other hand – unlike the classic cognac technology with such moonshine, there is much less trouble – almost any grape will do (including sour northern varieties), copper alambic is not necessary, a minimum of skills is needed. With proper aging, we get a surprisingly good drink – tested in practice!

What is the difference between grape moonshine, for example, from chacha, grappa, orujo? The fact that it is not pomace diluted with sugar water that goes into the must, but the very grapes. By the way, we can get both grape brandy and classic chacha from the same raw material, but more on that later. So – goodbye to the sharp fusel smell and the nauseating taste of sugar sam familiar from childhood, hello to the delicate aroma of ripe berries, delicate, rich grape flavor and bright fruity aftertaste. If the recipe for mash from grapes for moonshine does not involve the introduction of sugar and coarse baker’s yeast, and the distillation is done “with soul”, and not “with a smell”, the drink turns out wonderful, but what is there – downright elite!

Step one: grape mash for moonshine – recipe, variations, tips

When making moonshine from grapes at home, as in the case of any fruit brandy, we are faced with the usual game of passions for a moonshiner. Firstly, I want to get a decent product, and secondly, I want to make it as big as possible. Let’s try to deduce some optimum.

What grapes are suitable for mash?

Unlike cognac, which is made only from white grapes of certain varieties, almost any grape that we have on hand will do. It is clear that the sweeter it is, the more brandy will be. It turns out excellent moonshine from Isabella grapes, alpha and other “blue” noname growing in our latitudes – the distillate has a bright grape aroma with astringency of the skin, a light, though slightly watery taste. Another thing is white or pink grapes, like Lydia, Muscat. These varieties give subtle and very odorous “stone” notes. But the best option is a mixture of white and red. Last year, your humble servant received an excellent drink from a mixture of Isabella and Lydia 2: 1, you can experiment with the proportion as much as you like – you should still get something good.

What about yeast?

Either purchased or “savages”. Pure yeast culture (CKD) is more reliable and faster, they produce more alcohol, increasing the yield, and, consequently, the pleasure of the moonshiner. Sold in any wine shop or via the Internet, yeast for red wines, universal, or special turbo yeast for fruit brews are suitable. If such purchases are not to your liking, you can make grape mash without yeast, more precisely, on a wild yeast culture, the zone of compact residence of which is the grape skin. In this case, the fruits cannot be washed. You will have to wait longer, there will be a little less alcohol in the mash. Baker’s yeast is best used for its intended purpose, tobish for baking bread (or for sugar sam – прим. ред.).

Will we sweeten the pill?

It depends on the initial sugar content of the raw materials, as well as on your greed … sorry, frugality. It has been empirically proven that moonshine from grapes a la Isabella, Lydia, alpha “tolerates” up to 15% sugar in the must, that is, 150 g / l. For sweet varieties, you can do without this additive – and so they shove sugar into everything that gets into it. In addition, for normal fermentation, acidic varieties need to be slightly diluted with water – up to 1/3 of the volume. Remember that grape mash is not wine, and all the extra sugar will definitely affect the quality of the brandy, and obviously not for the better. The ideal option is only grapes, the optimal one is no more than a kilogram of sugar per 10 liters of must. You can replace sugar with other sweeteners – for example, fructose, glucose, invert syrup (there is a recipe here) – the distillate will be cleaner. They say that good moonshine is obtained from Isabella grapes and honey – if you don’t mind translating honey.

The recipe for grape mash without yeast using the “red” technology

The classic version, a minimum of hassle. The berries are fermented along with the seeds and pulp, giving all their tastes and smells to the must. Owners of distillation cubes with a steam-water casing or a steam generator can distill the fermented mash right along with the pulp – then the moonshine will be even more fragrant. Those who have a simple distiller will have to tinker a little and clean the drink from the pulp. For 20 liters of wort we need:

1. Before making moonshine from grapes, we sort out the berries, not mine, we throw out moldy and rotten fruits. Tassels are sometimes left in the wort – they say they give additional flavor, but I would still prefer to remove them. And from dry brushes, by the way, you can make a special anti-hangover tincture. Next, the fruits should be carefully kneaded – with your hands, with a drill with a construction mixer, with a special crusher, but best of all – with a pair of slender female legs, if any are freely available.
2. To the resulting “porridge” add a pound of sugar, cover with a cloth, gauze – so that oxygen remains – and leave it in a container with a wide neck in a warm place for a day or two, stirring with a wooden spoon 3-4 times a day – so as not to turn sour.
3. When the “cap” becomes dense, a clear aroma of fermentation will start, the liquid will begin to bubble – it’s time to add another 0.5 kg of sugar, water to the wort, mix thoroughly and pour into a suitable bottle with a water seal – so that it takes no more than 2/3 of the volume. We will add the remaining pound of sugar in another 5-7 days, after draining a couple of liters of mash and dissolving sugar in it.
4. Fermentation on the “savages” lasts quite a long time – from two weeks to one and a half months, depending on temperature, volume, sugar content, acidity and a host of other factors. We need to wait until the liquid ferments completely, otherwise the remaining sugar may burn in the tank. When the water seal stopped gurgling, the “wine” became lighter, the turbidity fell out from below in the form of a dense sediment – fermentation was over.
5. Next, there are several options. Owners of tanks with PVK can immediately start distillation by pouring all the liquid along with the pulp directly into the apparatus. A more “clean” way is to filter the mash from the cake (part of it can then be put in a gin basket to flavor the grape moonshine) and let it stand for a couple of days in a cool place so that the yeast sediment falls to the bottom – the wort can simply be decanted with a straw . The best option is to send the mash for secondary fermentation, like wine, in a smaller container, under a water seal, in a cool place, until completely clarified – for two months.

Braga made from grapes or grape juice with wine yeast

A more economical, faster, more reliable option for getting mash. It is also good because it will give us a significant amount of cake – it will go to a separate moonshine from grape pomace. This recipe can also be adapted for purchased juice – not nectar, but natural juice without sugar. And if you already have a dry wine that you don’t feel sorry for – for example, not a very successful homemade one – you can immediately proceed to the next point.

Making such a mash is even easier than the previous one, the only hitch is getting juice. The easiest way to squeeze it out is with a wine press, you can also use a sieve, cheesecloth – in general, as it turns out. If you are going to use pomace for chacha, try to make sure that they have at least 25% juice left. If the cake goes to waste, you can use the so-called “cahors” technology described in this article, that is, simply heat the crushed grapes for a couple of hours – during this time it will give off a maximum of aromatic substances to the “decoction”. Just remember to chill the wort before adding the yeast!

So, we take the resulting juice, try it, measure it with a sugar meter. If the liquid is too acidic, dilute it with a small amount of water, add sugar (fructose, invert syrup, honey) if necessary. We mix everything thoroughly and put it under a water seal, in a dark, warm place. Within 12 hours, the mash should ferment, and after 5-10 days – stop fermentation. We wait a couple more days until all the sediment remains at the bottom – and decant the wort with a straw. To improve the organoleptic qualities of the future grape moonshine and guarantee the absence of a yeasty taste, it is better to keep the mash removed from the sediment under a water seal in a cool place for at least 2 weeks, decanted again – and you can start distillation.

Step two – how to properly expel raw alcohol from grapes?

For the first time, homemade moonshine from grapes is traditionally distilled – like all fruit distillates, to dryness, without cutting off heads and tails. Our goal is to extract all the aromas and tastes from the mash, both good and bad, to the maximum, and we will separate them at the next stage. Therefore, we turn on the heating at full power, fill the tank by 2/3 of the volume and select raw alcohol until there is at least 10% alcohol in the stream or at least some pleasant aroma.

Before re-forcing the raw, it is advisable to rest for 3-4 days, or more. If the pervak ​​is not aromatic enough – this, alas, happens if the berry itself contained few aromatic substances – it can be additionally insisted on fresh grapes or grape seeds. Our raw material does not need any additional purification – otherwise we risk losing aromatics. Before re-distillation, it must be diluted with an alcohol meter to 20-25 degrees.

Step three – the second distillation of moonshine from grapes

The most difficult stage. For grape brandy, both the volatile floral aromas contained in the head fraction are important, as are the fruity, grapey notes that are present in abundance in the tails. So we take only the heads and tails, and pour the body – in a sense, the selection is carried out in an extremely sparing mode, so as not to cut off the excess. As soon as the heating went on and the first droplets dripped from the device, we reduce the power to a minimum.

Approximately we need to select about 2% of heads from absolute alcohol (AS). But it is better to focus not on numbers, but on your own scent: just rub a drop of distillate in your hands. Does it smell like acetone or other hard-to-describe, but clearly nauseating things? We continue the selection of goals. Did the pleasant aroma of herbs and flowers go? We proceed to the selection of the main faction.

When distilling the body, the temperature can be increased, but not much. We continue the selection until the degree in the jet falls below 40 and / or until the dripping liquid smells pleasantly of fruit. When the smell of fuselage has gone, we substitute another container, select the tail fraction – it can be added to grape or other moonshine during the next distillation of the mash. Ready!

What to do next? Refinement and aging of grape moonshine

Freshly distilled grape distillate has a bright, delicate aroma, slightly harsh, but overall a very pleasant taste. When diluted, the taste softens, but its divine smell also becomes weaker. Therefore, it is clearly not worth bringing the fortress to 40 °, the usual 65-70 degrees for chacha will be enough – it will still be easy to drink moonshine, retaining enough aroma. Before using such brandy, it is advisable to keep it in a cool place in bottles for up to six months – at first it will seem that its smell is lost, but over time it will open again, becoming even more subtle, multifaceted, acquiring additional tones that are too direct, not particularly elegant ” fresh” does not. It is best to taste such a drink from special glasses for grappa – pot-bellied, but with a narrow neck, and in the absence of such – from cognac.

The second option, which immediately suggests itself, is aging on oak, in a barrel or on wood chips. Only I ask you – no bark and sage with coriander, no caramel – we do not ennoble sugar sam or a breech “for cognac”, but our own, natural product! You also need to be careful with the barrel and chips; during the maceration, brandy should be tried periodically, otherwise there is a risk of turning it into a “stool”. The time of infusion in a barrel depends on its volume (read more here), in the case of wood chips, a couple of weeks will suffice if you put 1-2 small 10-centimeter chips of medium roast per liter of distillate.

In any case, homemade moonshine made from grapes, aged on oak or just in bottles, is certainly a very interesting product, fully justifying all the efforts in its production! With proper preparation, it leaves plum brandy, pear, apricots, and other framboises far behind, making it easier, cheaper and faster. So to speak, fruits are for the body, and grapes are for the subtle moonshiner’s soul!