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Tutovka is the national drink of Karabakh, an original silky vodka with an unusual exquisite taste and, according to rumors, unique medicinal properties. Almost everyone who has tried a good mulberry puts this drink on a par with the best Armenian cognacs, or even higher. Today we will talk about “liquid Karabakh silk” and – of course – learn how to make it yourself.
In the world community, the nickname “silk brandy” was assigned to the Greek Metaxa. But in fact, Armenian mulberry mulberry vodka is much more worthy of this title, which, in fact, is not “vodka” at all, but “brandy” – a fruit distillate. Traditionally, mulberries are made only from mulberries, with wild yeast, without water and sugar. But advanced moonshiners living in regions where mulberry grows a little, get excellent drinks in more economical ways, which we will discuss in detail in this article.
Mulberry vodka – Armenian and Karabakh traditions
Mulberry is made in several regions of the Caucasus, but it is in Karabakh that it has established itself as a truly national drink, here silk brandy is driven in almost every family, and the industrial production of mulberries has also been established. The most famous mulberry vodka from Karabakh – “Artsakh” – is made in several versions: regular and aged on mulberry wood. There are also smaller producers in the unrecognized republic. They also make mulberry in Armenia, but, according to experts, it is inferior to the Karabakh one.
Who and when invented to make brandy from mulberries, of course, is unknown. The history of this drink dates back more than one hundred years, the inhabitants of Karabakh often still follow the rough old technology: when the berries ripen, they are crushed on a linen cloth, put into special clay containers – karases, crushed and left to ferment in a natural way, without adding water and sugar.
Mulberries are usually driven in very large quantities – for this they build a special “factory” that works on wood, right in their garden. Double and fractional distillation is rarely used. The finished product is usually aged in mulberry barrels or on wood chips – at the end of the article there will be a recipe for its preparation.
Mulberry vodka is not just a traditional drink, but one might even say mystical. Mulberries in Karabakh are used not only for entertainment, but also for medicinal purposes – they drink for colds, make compresses, rubbing, use for disinfection and as a remedy for stomach diseases. The locals sincerely believe that it is this product that determines the long life span that Karabakh has long been famous for. They say that in the old days, the usual breakfast of a villager consisted of 50 grams of a mulberry and a boiled egg – after that, a person could work until lunchtime without feeling tired. However, many believe that “alcohol in small doses is harmless in any quantity” – we even have a separate article about this.
In the village they told about many cases when one or the other, after sitting in a carp with a sediment from mulberry vodka, was cured of rheumatism.
Sero Khanzadyan, “My Relatives and Neighbors”
During the anti-alcohol campaign of the 1960s, the Soviet of the RSFSR banned the production of moonshine. But in Karabakh they continued to make the drink anyway, and they sincerely wondered why they were getting fines, because mulberry vodka is not moonshine … I had to separately write down responsibility for the production of mulberries in the Criminal Code. However, this did not help either – silk brandy was driven, driven and will be driven, where can the “breech” and other wonders of the Soviet alcohol industry compete with it!
A detailed recipe for mulberry vodka
The traditional recipe for mulberry vodka is good for everyone, but it really depends on the quality and variety of berries. The ideal mulberry for brandy – pink – does not grow everywhere, and other varieties may not be sweet or aromatic enough. Therefore, mash at all stages will have to be tried and adjusted with water and sugar.
Different types of mulberry – white, pink (red) and black
Cooking Wort
In fact, the process of making mash is similar to the process of making mulberry wine. If you have come across the perfect sweet-sour mulberry, you will not need supplements to it. With insufficient sweetness, sugar is added, usually in a ratio of 10: 1 (10 kg of mulberry – 1 kg of sugar) or more. With excessive acidity, the mash should be diluted with water, starting with 1 liter per liter of must, until the taste becomes soft and pleasant.
Mulberries are fermented with wild or wine yeast – if the fruits were harvested in dry weather, the “savages” will work great. Wine yeast is more stable, less sensitive to temperature conditions and allows you to achieve a higher mash strength, and hence a more abundant distillate yield. It is recommended to choose yeast for Bordeaux type wines; top dressing is usually not required.
So, the collected berries you need:
- Sort and wipe with a dry cloth if you chose the wild yeast method.
- Wash thoroughly if CKD is chosen.
- Knead by hand or in any other way, cover with gauze and leave in a warm, dark place. When preparing on CKD, at this point, pre-fermented yeast should be added to the wort. The wild yeast contained in the berries should work on its own.
- After the start of fermentation (a sour smell appeared, foam, solid parts of the cake floated to the surface), the mulberry must be kept for a couple of days, while 2-3 times a day you need to knock down the foamy “cap”.
Silk must in fermentation
Another nuance is the method of distillation. If you have a moonshine still with a steam generator, you can, excuse the involuntary pun, “do not bathe” – ferment and distill the mulberry along with the cake, so the product will turn out even more fragrant. If you have a conventional apparatus, it is better to squeeze the pulp.
- After 2 days have passed since the start of fermentation, you need to try the mash. Little sweetness – add sugar, 1 kg for every 10 liters, add more if necessary. In case of excessive acidity, dilute the mash with water, also 10:1.
- When the taste of mulberry “wine” suits you, you need to pour it into a fermentation tank and put it under a water seal.
- Mulberry mash roams from 5 (on CKD) to 15 or more days, depending on temperature and a bunch of other factors. The absence of bubbles in the water seal is a sign that it is time to move on to the next stage – to make, in fact, Armenian mulberry vodka.
Distillation of mulberry
The mulberry is usually distilled 2 times. For the first time, there is no need to “crush” the distillate – to separate the heads and tails, since they contain all the aromatic compounds that give the drink that same silky taste. Therefore, the distillation is carried out to dryness – until alcohol ceases to be felt at all in the dripping moonshine, the strength of such a distillate usually does not exceed 30-35 degrees. During distillation, it is worth using a dry steamer – as a spray trap. After that, the distillate should be allowed to rest for a week in a dark place.
During the second distillation, the selection of heads and tails is mandatory, it is better to remove the steamer from the apparatus. The heads are cut off with a “margin” – at least 100 ml, if you initially had 10 kg of mulberry. The easiest way to navigate is by smell – if there are no more notes of acetone or other chemicals in it, you need to start selecting the body. The body is taken until the strength of the resulting distillate reaches 65-70 degrees according to the alcohol meter – this is our product. Tailings can be driven out to near zero and added to the next batch of distillation.
If mulberry moonshine seems to you not fragrant enough – during the rest between the first and second distillation, you can add a little fresh mulberry berries to it, 10 pieces per liter. Also, unaged mulberries are an ideal raw material for making mulberry liqueurs.
Extract of mulberry vodka, recipe for mulberry chips
Tutovka is an elite vodka, with a character that should definitely be allowed to open up! Such a product is not immediately drunk, but kept, best of all – on mulberry wood. In the homeland of the drink, barrels are made from mulberry, in other regions they are not, so the barrel can be conditionally replaced with mulberry chips. In fact, its production process is almost identical to the method of making oak chips, which is in this article.
So, we need a large or medium branch of a mulberry tree, always completely dry. The bark from the branch must be cut off, and the remaining wood must be split into sticks with a diameter of 5 mm and a length of up to 10 cm. Air dry. After that, put the wood chips in the oven, over medium heat, and keep until the wood turns brown, the color of a coffee bean, or a light smoke comes out of it.
You need about 1-2 such chips per liter of re-distilled mulberry vodka. It is infused quickly – on the third day you need to try the brandy, remove the chips at the first sign of bitterness. After that, the product must stand “in its own juice” for at least 2-3 weeks, and preferably more.
As we can see, Artsakh mulberry vodka is no more difficult to make than any other fruit brandy, and the taste is a very special thing – you will definitely surprise your friends!
The article uses information and photos from the sites “ARMENIA Today”, “Caucasian Knot” and the forum of homedistiller moonshiners