Rakija

[BourbonBoi]

Has anyone here ever made or had Rakija?

My neighbor is an Olympic wrestling coach and travels to Serbia and gave me a batch. It’s a Serbian Brandy, his was made with Plums and it was amazing. I’d like to figure out how to make it if anyone can be any help, thanks!

[shadylane]

Here's some videos about the copper stills used to make Rakija

viewtopic.php?f=16&t=76359

[Dan P.]

Serbian rakija is just plums fermented in a barrel, double distilled. The addition of sugar to the plums is frowned on but common. Use it sparingly if at all. You dont have to remove the stones but you should avoid cracking them. There are opinions about some of the stones being cracked to release the almond (cyanide??) taste,and whether this is toxic or not. I just leave them be, personally, theres plenty of flavour in the flesh. Add a little water to the plums during fermentation to exclude oxygen (and flies). The plums come with their own natural yeast. If you add yeast you will get a different flavour.
Serbian stills either have very wide, shallow pots for maximum speed of distillation so the fruit doesnt scorch, or they have a rummager.
Sometimes a tiny pinch of Chios mastic is added to the finished product. And I mean tiny, just as a background for the plum.
Plum brandy is my all time favourite spirit, hands down.

[Kareltje]

Dan P.: You just answered a question we had on the thread Shadylane gave us here!
(About the shallow shape of the stills.)

And you answer some other questions I had. So double distilling is done, but it is never shown in any of these videos. And sugar and water are added too, albeit reluctantly. These answers make the process easier to understand.

And indeed: it is the best drink there is!

[Dan P.]

It couldn’t be simpler, really!
I have a normal copper still, not shallow and no rummager, I just bring the contents on a stripping run very slowly up to heat with the cap off, plenty of stirring, keep the heat low and steady, and I don’t have a problem with scorching. You’ve got to make sure your mash or whatever you call it, your plum soup, is fermented absolutely dry. Left over sugars will increase the chance of scorching.

[BourbonBoi]

Great info! Does anyone have a recipe with ratios or anything? I haven’t ventured too far from whiskey before so I’m a bit green when it comes to fruit. Thanks.

[Dan P.]

Great info! Does anyone have a recipe with ratios or anything? I haven’t ventured too far from whiskey before so I’m a bit green when it comes to fruit. Thanks.

The great thing about fruit is that it ferments itself!
So, as far as ratios go, there’s only fruit, and whatever water you feel you need to add to seal it off. Or add an airlock and there will usually be enough liquid in the fruit to keep it manageable (if not just add a little water at the time of distillation.
The only problem with fruit other than scorching is that it’s a turd to get in to the still if you don’t have one of those stills designed for the purpose where the whole lid lifts off. On some European stills the have specially fabricated wide spout funnels to get it in the hole, so to speak.

[BourbonBoi]

Great! Now I just need to find some Damson Plums come mid summer, anyone know of a place?

[The Baker]

Probably any kind of plum would be fine.

Geoff

[shadylane]

A friend uses the wild Cherokee plums that grows in my neck of the woods.
He fills a barrel full and smashes them. A couple weeks latter he uses my steam rig to strip the alcohol.

[BourbonBoi]

From what I’ve read, the Serbian way is with Damson Plums, is there that much of a difference between Plums? I’m new to the Brandy mix.

[shadylane]

The first rule.
Is to use what's available in Large quantities
I'm guessing that includes more than just plums

[Dan P.]

I’m sure in Serbia they have many varieties of plums that can be used in rakija. A widely available cultivar is “quetch” or “zwetsch”, those being it’s french and German names, though I think it is Polish in origin? Nurseries here in the UK will sometimes stock it, but really any plum will do, needn’t be a damson or blue plum either, mirabelle is a very popular plum in France for distillation. Personally I’d go for whatever grows well in your area.

[Kareltje]

In 2018 I found abundant sloe, in 2019 much less, but I was lucky to find mirabel. Much easier to harvest!
Just like shadylane and Dan P. say: go for what grows near you. Either to pick free or to buy cheap.

It is quite easy: a lot of plums are quite soft and can easily be crushed (keep the stones intact!!). Add just enough water to make the mass managable, so the yeast can come everywhere. Harder and dryer plums, like sloe, can be frozen and thawed or heated with some water.

I have heard that heating the mashed plums improves the taste, but I have never put that to a test. Adding sugar of course enlarges the amount of alcohol, but dilutes the taste. Although some claim the extra alcohol also extracts some extra taste.

[jonnys_spirit]

For grapes two five gallon buckets makes about 6 gallons of juice. My math estimates between 12-16 buckets of fruit to produce enough low wines for my 16 gallon pot still spirit run. I have yet to find an economical source of that much fruit but I keep my feelers out each season. Berries, plums, cherries, peaches, apples just about anything would be welcome.

Cheers!
-jonny

[shadylane]

Although some claim the extra alcohol also extracts some extra taste.

I have a friend that says the same thing,
Instead of adding extra sugar to the ferment
He adds a gallon of neutral spirits just before distilling

[Kareltje]

Although some claim the extra alcohol also extracts some extra taste.

I have a friend that says the same thing,
Instead of adding extra sugar to the ferment
He adds a gallon of neutral spirits just before distilling

Interesting.
But this means he has to make neutral first, add it to a wash and then distill it again.
Your friend surely has thought about it. So why does he not add sugar to the ferment, but does add alcohol to his still?

[shadylane]

Here's basically what he said.
Sugar washes taste like shit
And have to be refluxed to get the taste out.
Adding extra sugar to the fruit will raise the ABV but the shitty sugar taste is still there.
Adding feints will also raise the ABV but then the brandy will taste like shitty feints.

His idea is to ferment the fruit naturally
Then add some neutral to the strip run to extract more fruit flavor.
And have more finished product

[BourbonBoi]

Here's basically what he said.
Sugar washes taste like shit
And have to be refluxed to get the taste out.
Adding extra sugar to the fruit will raise the ABV but the shitty sugar taste is still there.
Adding feints will also raise the ABV but then the brandy will taste like shitty feints.

His idea is to ferment the fruit naturally
Then add some neutral to the strip run to extract more fruit flavor.
And have more finished product

I agree that sugar washes taste like shit but the idea of adding neutral to extract better flavor is a great idea. Just have to test it...

[jonnys_spirit]

When I do my grappa runs after wine season I'll collect my feints and macerate the used skins until next grappa season. Depending on whether I do a spring/fall wine season that's 6 months to a year of nasty used grape skin extraction. Press that and add it to my spirit run. I might bump my primary ferment abv with sugar+ph-balanced-backset when I ferment on the pressed skins and I'll add a cheap wine kit concentrate and/or maybe some cheap kroger grape juice to the fresh pressed skins to stretch it further which I press and clear after AF to prevent scorching on the stripping runs. I know it's not the traditional grappa method but I use the resources I have available to maximize the flavors and it works quite well for me. Sometimes I'll throw a handful of skins and oak in the high proof aging jug and filter out the sediment for drinking too.

For those that make wines each year you can repurpose the various dregs if you enjoy that bottom of the barrel approach. This grappa makes a nice base for further macerations and re-distillations in anise, cinnamon, coffee, orange zest, oak, etc... Less is more for subtle complexity and sometimes more is even more too. lol

Cheers!
-jonny

[zach]

I think the key to the flavor is to have the fruit pomace in the boiler. Then add the first stipping run back boiler for the 2nd run. The higher alcohol content with the skins and seeds in the boiler brings more flavor into the brandy.

I made a grappa like brandy from a wine grape (malbec maybe) that was dried to raisins on the vine. I used a concord grape juice from the grocery store to hydrate the grapes. With my LM still I was able to pull 80% with just a 6" of marbles in the bottom of the column on the 2nd run. I diluted to 50% and was very happy with this brandy. My Romanian friends were impressed.

I added sugar to the grape pomace, re-fermented, and distilled again in the same manner. The faux grappa was nearly as good as the first batch. No shitty sugar taste. I did reflux with a LM head.

I did this with plums about 2 years ago and the 2nd ferment of the pulp with sugar wasn't nearly as good. It tasted more like a lightly flavored vodka than a slivovitz.

So far my brandy experiments have been limited to finding free fruit. It would be nice to find enough low cost fruit to avoid sugar.

[Kareltje]

Here's basically what he said.
Sugar washes taste like shit
And have to be refluxed to get the taste out.
Adding extra sugar to the fruit will raise the ABV but the shitty sugar taste is still there.
Adding feints will also raise the ABV but then the brandy will taste like shitty feints.

His idea is to ferment the fruit naturally
Then add some neutral to the strip run to extract more fruit flavor.
And have more finished product

Makes good sense!
And another thing that occurred to me while thinking it over: the extra sugar in the ferment causes extra CO2 and that drives out some of the aromas.
This second mentioned effect is also, why it is preferable to ferment at low temperatures. At low temperature the gas speed is low and the volacity of the aromas too.