For the preparation of chacha at home, grapes of any variety or waste (cake) left after squeezing the juice is suitable. The result will be about the same. We will consider a recipe that is as close as possible to the technology used in the traditional regions of the drink production – Georgia and Abkhazia.
Real Georgian chacha differs from ordinary grape moonshine in that it ferments on wild yeast, and not on spirit or bakery yeast, which improves the aroma. It is also desirable not to add sugar, which increases the yield but eliminates the unique flavor. This moment is provided in the recipe. Next I will tell you how to make chacha with and without sugar.
Ingredients:
- bunches of grapes (or cake) – 25 kg;
- water – 50 liters;
- sugar – 10 kg (optional).
With a sugar content of grapes of about 20%, out of 25 kg of berries with clusters, you can get 5-6 liters of forty-degree homemade chacha. When adding 10 kg of sugar, the yield increases to 16-17 liters. At the same time, the original aroma and taste of chacha will not go anywhere, since during the distillation we will use one trick.
From the pomace of grapes left after making juice or wine, the yield is even less. Therefore, in this case, I recommend adding sugar, otherwise the amount of the finished product will unpleasantly surprise you.
Attention! Chacha from Isabella grapes grown in the northern regions of Russia is made only with sugar, since this variety has a low glucose content and high acidity.
Chacha recipe without yeast
1. Knead unwashed grapes with your hands, trying to crush each berry. Do not remove scallops and bones, in many ways they create the unique taste of chacha. Berries must be unwashed. Natural wine yeast lives on the surface of the fruit, causing fermentation.
In the case of making chacha from grape pomace, skip this step.
2. Place crushed grapes together with juice (or pomace) into a fermentation container. I advise you to use large XNUMX-liter pans.
3. Add water, sugar (optional), mix by hand or with a wooden stick. At least 10% of the capacity must remain empty. The empty volume will be occupied by carbon dioxide, which will begin to be released during fermentation.
4. Install a water seal and move the container to a dark place with a temperature of 22-28°C. Natural yeast is not as active as spirit yeast, so natural chacha mash will be ready only after 30-60 days (in some cases, fermentation lasts up to 90 days).
Attention! The remains of grapes periodically float up, forming a layer on the surface that needs to be destroyed. To do this, once every 2-3 days, the mash should be opened and mixed. Otherwise, mold may appear, greatly deteriorating the quality of homemade chacha.
5. After the fermentation is over (the water seal does not blow bubbles for several days, the mash has become bitter in taste without sweetness), you can start distillation.
6. Drain the mash that has played out from the sediment, otherwise the solid particles will burn during distillation. On the other hand, it is in the bones, skin and pulp that substances are contained that distinguish chacha from ordinary moonshine. To solve this problem, we will use the secret that I wrote about at the very beginning. Namely: we filter the mash through 5-6 layers of gauze, fill the distillation cube with liquid, and hang the solid part on the same gauze at the top of the cube (see photo). As a result, all the aromatic substances will remain in the mash and will enter the distillate during evaporation.
7. Overtake the mash for the first time without separation into fractions. Finish selection when the strength in the jet falls below 30%. Measure the strength of the resulting distillate, determine the amount of pure alcohol in the entire volume.
8. Dilute moonshine with water up to 20% and make a second distillation. The first 10% of the amount of pure alcohol is taken separately. These are “heads” – a harmful fraction that is dangerous to drink. Select the main product (“body”) until the strength in the jet falls below 45%.
9. Dilute homemade chacha with water up to 40-60% and leave it in a cool dark place for 2-3 days before use to stabilize the taste. The container must be hermetically sealed.
