Home Distiller

A video on how to make herbal brandy from grappa.

The USA, it appears and I could not suspect it, are a medieval country where the Police can confiscate anything to you and you have to prove you did nothing wrong in order to have the confiscated good back. That pretty much rivals with Saudi Arabia's juridical thinking as far as civil rights are co...

I don't know why the grappa has the reputation of "rough" is something I often read here but it is not so, Because it is not known in the US I think only cheap stuff has been tried. I have only had Grappa twice, once at a vineyard in Italy and once at an Italian friends in the US. In both...

signal-2021-09-28-080447.jpgI did not use the seeds because I believe it would sit on the bottom of the pot and burn. When I put lots of skin and pulp in the pot the alcohol increased by 25% or more. The juice with no pulp gave me much less. From 50 gallons of 7% wine and collecting down to 10% I g...

20210926_190242.jpgDo any of you run your liquor on the stones? I've got a shit ton of plum seeds it's probably 15 lb of mixed with skins that is impossible to separate. Will it just stick to the bottom.amd burn because the plum seeds are heavy? I butter the bottom but I'm afraid to do it. Down to ...

Stonecutter wrote: ↑Sat Sep 25, 2021 7:33 am Demy, are you familiar with Tsikoudia? I have a Greek friend who swears up and down it’s not the same thing as grappa. Is this merely a provincial difference in name or in spirit?

It's called Loza here.

Generally speaking it is distilled twice. Some people enjoy it distilled only once. I have had it both ways and Hungary and Croatia. Everyone I know in the region distill it twice. If you are from Hungary, you are close to Subotica. You can go directly to still factory in Subotica and buy still che...

If I could buy apples for 15 cents a Kg I would just buy a $100 worth. But then I would miss the fun. I have met some very nice people by seeing an apple tree and just stopping to ask if I could pick. More often than not they say yes. I pick too from gardens too. But it is not enough to fill up lar...

cranky wrote: ↑Thu Sep 09, 2021 11:09 am

greggn wrote: ↑Thu Sep 09, 2021 5:55 am Look at all the dead flies in his distillate at approximately 9:05 !

Fortunately flies don't drink much.

Flies are not the problem. Real problem are hornets. They made a nest in my garden.

@cikcikcikpogodi Another great video. Sure wish I knew what they were saying. You have to come somewhere in Western Balkans to see how it's made. One plum brandy maker won competition in New York this year. The secret is that we just use same old plums native to our region and cold water from mount...

cranky wrote: ↑Thu Sep 09, 2021 11:20 am CikCikCikPogodi, I'm curious, Do you/they do any cuts when distilling Rakia? I know in a lot of places they make it they don't and understand in some cases it can be a pretty rough drink.

Do Ya'll only distill once and not twice?

We distill it twice, that makes it better to drink.

Tip for everyone.
Go to vineyards, and ask to take all leftover from wine production. Wineries that don't make grappa especially those in France, Spain and America they just throw leftovers into dump.

@cikcikcikpogodi Another great video. Sure wish I knew what they were saying. You have to come somewhere in Western Balkans to see how it's made. One plum brandy maker won competition in New York this year. The secret is that we just use same old plums native to our region and cold water from mount...

I will post back in a few weeks if the OP doesn't mind me tacking onto this thread. Picking apples this week with hopes of having at least 60 5 gal buckets worth to press this weekend. I have homemade grinder for apples and pear. You need old water heating boiler, one blade and washing machine moto...

The problem is you people are living in countries where home distilling is not tradition. Here Balkans it is. Yes EU "criminalized" it but no body cares, not even police.

I myself often go a little deeper than I should and it needs to age out. Leave it white. So your saying contrary to what some believe , that white left in glass or stainless can and will improve / change for the better with time Cranky ? They certainly believe that aging white helps in the slivovit...

Peach and apricot are similar fruits you can use this method.

The best Slivovice info I've found is from this site. https://slivovice.org/ They explain the process from fruit harvesting through distilling and tempering. The almond / bitter comes from fermenting on the pits, much the same as kirschwasser. I think it is a bad idea to crack the pits and it will ...

The plum we make it from in Balkans is called Požegača. It's old vareieti native to our region. https://youtu.be/f90hpnyPrVw Great video. They are distilling the entire must. Fascinating and thanks for that. Coogee, what kind of nasties do you mean? I have heard some worry about cyanide fromt he st...

I think for the almond flavour you will have to (maybe dry and) crack the STONES and remove the KERNELS and put them in. Geoff Interesting. It is hard to find much information on how slivovitz is made and I have not run across that method yet. Is that during fermentation? I have seen reference to p...

This year is very hot, I will probably put only 2 kg of sugar in plums.

I recently got a bottle of real slivovitz and the almond and bitter of the stones is really good. Next time I make some plum brandy I am going to leave the stones in during the ferment. Plus it is less work than removing the stones! Then put the low wines back in on top of the stones and the pulp, ...

I already made some brandy from apples. We made 22 liters after double distilling, half a ton for that much. Not worth a time and effort. Early apples not very good for distilling. Probably should have gone after white plum.

I am gathering plums too this year. But today I need to destroy hornets nest. At the end I will have around 1 ton of plums.

Anybody who wants new still that is not Chinese made.
For Europe they are the No. 1 in my region.
https://www.despotstills.eu/en

I do have about 12 carboys of wine from last year and not enough wine rack space for all the bottles so was going to keep the best as wine and distill the rest this year in my grappa runs (less storage space lol)... Looking forward to trying out some of these Travarica variations plus some Sambucca...

There's a lot you can do with excess grape spirit. I already have enough brandy aging already, so none of last year's crop was oaked. It makes a great base spirit for Ouzo, Absinthe, some gins, some liqueurs and probably quite a few other spirits as well. It's better than neutral for many spirits t...

jonnys_spirit wrote: ↑Mon Oct 05, 2020 2:50 am Hey Demy, is it a particular type of sage? Are there particular other herbs/blends or just depends? Is this redistilled after maceration?

Cheers!
-jonny

On 1l bottle of Grappa you need
2-3 Yarrow twigs
1 sage twig
1 Rosemary twig
1 Mint twig
2-3 Thymus twigs
Lemon peel
10 Blueberrys

If somebody lives in right region you can make this, it's called Travarica. It's made from Grappa by mixing herbs and leaving them in grappa for 20 days. You can make just out of sage. But it depends on where you live.