Grape varieties
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Grape varieties
I'd like to try making Brandy from grape juice. But I have no idea what type of grapes to use. I am surprised how little there is on the Internet and would be curious if anyone on this forum tried it.
- DetroitDIY
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Re: Grape varieties
I've done a pyment that aged very well, but never a brandy. Used unsweetened concord grape juice for my pyment. It was quite jammy for the first year, but by year three, it's matured into a lovely mead. While the "perfect" grape would be nice, if I wanted to do a grape brandy, I would be just looking for whatever was available that didn't have additives nor preservatives.
Re: Grape varieties
Mendel, I have just finished making a brandy using Cabernet grapes. It’s still pretty early in the aging process yet as it’s only been on oak for 4 weeks. I fermented approximately 100kg of grapes with some ec1118 yeast, pressed out the wine removing the marc which gave me around 60 ltrs to run. After cuts I have placed 5ltrs @ 65% on French oak in a Demi to age.
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Re: Grape varieties
You can buy 30-bottle wine kits for a reasonable price on Amazon and try all sorts of different wine varietals if you like! The cost is much more than concord grape juice but only a couple dollars a bottle when you price it as a finished wine. As a wine it makes a decent glass, so for brandy I'm sure you could get the same result. I think these 5-6 gallon kits are like $50ish at the moment.
Granted cognac and armagnac are made from either Ugni Blanc, Folle Blanche, Baco Blanc, or Colombard (these are all white grapes) none of which you'll find online I think. Pisco is apparently made from any of eight varietals Quebranta, Negra Criolla, Uvina and Mollar, and the aromatic grapes—Moscatel, Torontel, Italia and Albilla. Here's a photo of pisco grapes:
So there's that. But I bet if you made two batches, one concord (vitis labrusca) brandy and one chardonnay or sauvignon blanc or cab or whatever (vitis vinifera) brandy you'd like one more than the other and know what it was worth to you when it was time to make more.
I looked around and I can find Trebbiano kits, which is the Italian name for Ugni Blanc. So if you wanted to make a homemade 'cognac' you could try to use that or incorporate it, but none seem to be in stock, I'm sure if you look closer to harvest in the late summer and fall that you'd find kits available for more esoteric varietals like Trebbiano.
Granted cognac and armagnac are made from either Ugni Blanc, Folle Blanche, Baco Blanc, or Colombard (these are all white grapes) none of which you'll find online I think. Pisco is apparently made from any of eight varietals Quebranta, Negra Criolla, Uvina and Mollar, and the aromatic grapes—Moscatel, Torontel, Italia and Albilla. Here's a photo of pisco grapes:
So there's that. But I bet if you made two batches, one concord (vitis labrusca) brandy and one chardonnay or sauvignon blanc or cab or whatever (vitis vinifera) brandy you'd like one more than the other and know what it was worth to you when it was time to make more.
I looked around and I can find Trebbiano kits, which is the Italian name for Ugni Blanc. So if you wanted to make a homemade 'cognac' you could try to use that or incorporate it, but none seem to be in stock, I'm sure if you look closer to harvest in the late summer and fall that you'd find kits available for more esoteric varietals like Trebbiano.
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- jonnys_spirit
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Re: Grape varieties
I had several wine kit wines in carboys that I turned into brandy and it went well... If you can get grapes in your area it'd probably be less expensive. I now only use grapes for my wines and use the pomace to make grappa with a cheap kit or two to bump the amount of product a little.
Cheers!
-jonny
Cheers!
-jonny
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i prefer my mash shaken, not stirred
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i prefer my mash shaken, not stirred
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Re: Grape varieties
Did you guys do one or 2 runs to make your brandy? I have a copper alembic style pot still. I have chardonnay wine I made that is very good but not great (was never able to complete malolactic fermentation so it is quite acidic). I think it would make a great brandy. I am just wondering if should distill once or twice.
Cheers
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Re: Grape varieties
Commercial distillers of high quality brandies distill twice. I'm guessing they do that because they have decades of experience and experimentation to guide them, so I do what they do.