from the old message boards:
AkCoyote
06/09/04 09:09 PM
subject: Wanted: Good Brandy Recipe
When I first got into home distillation, my primary goal was to make home made brandy. I'm not talking about peach, apricot, cherry or any other flavor but smooth, straight sipping brandy. I've tried Top Shelf and Spirits Unlimited essences and Top Shelf is by far the best. What I would really like to do though is make brandy completely from scratch that is as smooth as those made with essences.
Does anyone have a recipe or method for brewing/distilling/flavoring home made brandy? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
AkCoyote
"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." Thomas Jefferson
tater
06/09/04 09:15 PM
Re: Wanted: Good Brandy Recipe [re: AkCoyote]
what r u wantin to make it out of
Blanchy
06/10/04 06:30 AM
Re: Wanted: Good Brandy Recipe [re: tater]
Distill wine twice. Put into uncharred French oak casks. Age until smooth. Cut to drinking proof.
French brandy (Cognac) is made from grapes that do not make great wines. Brandy was probably the fall back product for the region. If you want to make your own wine, get the recipe from a wine making site. Typical grapes are Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc, etc.
Chuck
AkCoyote
06/10/04 08:45 PM
Re: Wanted: Good Brandy Recipe [re: Blanchy]
I already make home made wine and have about 15 gallons in secondary fermenters right now. I currently use a reflux still but have everything necessary to make a good pot still from a pressure cooker. As you can probably tell by my screen name, I live in Alaska and have nowhere near the choice of fruit that you have in the lower 48. Decent wine kits run $60-$100 and I would really hate to cook one of those down to get 3-4 qts of brandy. Even up here you can buy some pretty good stuff for $25 a bottle. I know that you can't make a silk purse from a cow's ear but there has got to be an economical way to make some decent brandy without resorting to essences. The local brew shop has all sorts of grains but since I don't make beer, i'm not really familiar with them. Like I said, I'm open to suggestions.
AkCoyote
"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." Thomas Jefferson
Blanchy
06/11/04 06:31 AM
Re: Wanted: Good Brandy Recipe [re: AkCoyote]
It would be a lot cheaper for you to learn how to make mash and develop a taste for Irish Whiskey. There are a number of recipes on this website for basically fake Cognac. Apparently there was a big underground market in England for faking Cognac and I think the recipes are from there. You might try one of them.
Chuck
Brain_Solenoid
06/11/04 01:10 PM
Re: Wanted: Good Brandy Recipe [re: AkCoyote]
AkCoyote,
Back in the '80s, I began my long travel down the road of the alcohol arts, beginning with home winemaking. I lived in Illinios at teh time, and like yourself had no direct access to shops......everything was sent via mail after making phone calls to roder the supplies (pre-Internet).
I was a broke college student, and developed a pretty good Beaujoulais from Welch's Pure Grape Juice Concentrate (no apple juices or similar), raisins, a banana, cane sugar, acid blend, pectic enzymes, yeast nutrient, water, and Beaujoulais yeast. It was pretty simple, and still tasted good 11 years later.
This would make a pretty inexpensive wine to distill into a Brandy. My notes show I used 12 pints of concentrate, 18 pints of water (spring), 13 cups of sugar, 1 box or raisins (the bigger box....not the lunch size), 8 teaspoons acid blend, 2 teasponns enzyme, 4 teaspoon nutrient, 1 package of yeast. Don't forget the campden tablets and the banana! I show I got an O.G. of 1.093 and terminated around .998 to make about 13% alcohol.
I was able to ferment in a carboy since I had boiled the raisins and banana to extract their flavors / components. I added everything to the carboy.
Amazingly, I based this on recipe #53 in the "Winemaker's Recipe Handbook", a pamplet size booklet that has about 100 cheap wine recipes in them......mostly sugar based. It's a pretty inexpensive booklet as well and is still in print today, 20 years later.
Anyway, give it a shot. It is a lot cheaper than distilling a kit wine.
Regards,
BS
tater
06/11/04 05:26 PM
Re: Wanted: Good Brandy Recipe [re: AkCoyote]
what fruit or berry is most commen there AK?
AkCoyote
06/11/04 09:15 PM
Re: Wanted: Good Brandy Recipe [re: Brain_Solenoid]
Brain:
Thank you very much! That sounds like something that just might work. I do have a couple of questions though. Do you ferment and age it to a drinkable wine quality? If so, for about how long? What is the yield after distilling? I'm assuming you use a pot and not a reflux still? What's the approximate proof of the spirit and should it be aged? Sheesh. Too many questions. Really though. Thanks for the idea. I'm going to give it a try.
AkCoyote
"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." Thomas Jefferson
AkCoyote
06/11/04 09:19 PM
Re: Wanted: Good Brandy Recipe [re: tater]
tater:
That's actually a very good question. The 2 I'm most familiar with are blueberries and a raspberry like berry called Salmon berries because the color is like a salmon egg. Kind of a pinkish orange. I just planted some canes but it will be 3-4 years before I see any berries:(
AkCoyote
"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." Thomas Jefferson
Brain_Solenoid
06/11/04 11:16 PM
Re: Wanted: Good Brandy Recipe [re: AkCoyote]
AkCoyote,
> "Do you ferment and age it to a drinkable wine quality?"
Yes, most certainly. I wasn't into distilling back then and everything I made was for drinking and aging as a wine. The last bottle of this Beaujoulais batch was drunk 11 years after it was made.......opened around 1998. It was quite good and I shared it with my Assistant Brewer, who enjoyed it very much and was shocked at the ingredients.
As a distiller, I probably wouldn't spend a lot of time waiting for the wine to clarify as I did as a winemaker. I'm not drinking it at this stage so a little yeast turbidity is acceptable.
> "If so, for about how long?"
Well........it was about a 13% wine, so it could have aged for quite a while. Generally, red wines hit their peak after 3 - 4 years.
> "What is the yield after distilling?"
I have not distilled a wine before, though a friend of mine keeps busting my chops to distill 40 gallons of a wine that was considered too acidic. I generally get around 3.75 - 4 gallons at 40% from a 14 gallon Rum wash.......so........I would think that if I started with 14 gallons of wine wash of this sort I would end up with somewhere around 2.75 - 3 gallons at 40%, depending on how greedy I get.
For a 2 distillation runs, I notice on the first stripping run I start around 65 - 70% and drop gradually from there to collect a 57%ish average first run at 3.9 - 4 gallons or so. I cut this with distilled water to get a 40% wash at 5.6ish gallons and run it a second time. I need the increase in volume to ensure I don't risk exposing a heating element during the boil. During the second run, I notice that it stays pretty high..........75 - 80%ish for quite a while and rapidly falls of toward the end. It takes 8 hours or so to do this, but I get some nice flavors without any hazes after the final distilled water cut.
> "I'm assuming you use a pot and not a reflux still?"
Yes, I use a pot still. I perform 2 distillations: a stripping run and a final cut run. I stop collecting around 55% to avoid the tails altogether. I really enjoy my beer keg electric pot still and it does a very good job. The boiler is all stainless with inconel aloy heating elements. I like a fuller flavored product and this pot still configuration makes some spectacular Rums.
> "What's the approximate proof of the spirit and should it be aged?"
I age at 50% on everything I've done except for a Barley Wine Whiskey I made from some off-tasting 11% Barley Wine. I aged it initially at 60% for the first month and cut it to 50% with distilled water (which you should use for all cutting, by the way). When I use oak chips, I add 2 Tblspn of chips per liter of product except for Rum, which I age on 1 Tblspn / liter. I generally age it for many months.........until curiousity drives me crazy.........then cut it to 40% at bottling. My last Rum I left clear (no chips) because the contrast in colors between my Whiskey and Rum intrigued me.
I think Brandies are lower than that.........in the 30s alcohol percentage wise.
Please feel free to ask any questions..........that's what this message board is all about! Generally, though, experience will be your best teacher. I often do my homework (research and reading) about a process, perform it, note the observations, and go back to the research if something went different than expected.
What I hate most about this craft is the waiting. It drove me nuts as a winemaker. I have a 3 month old Whiskey in a carboy in my wine cellar I tapped just today for a 375ml sample bottle. I think that's why I enjoy the Brewing Industry so much.........beer matures much faster..........and I'm drinking beer before my second racking of wine.
Drop a post if there's anything else!
Regards,
BS
AkCoyote
06/12/04 06:37 AM
Re: Wanted: Good Brandy Recipe [re: Brain_Solenoid]
BS:
Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. This forum is a wealth of knowledge and its great to learn from those who have already learned from their mistakes:) I agree, the hardest part is waiting. I've built a small wine cellar under my entryway and it's hard to stay out of it. I literally have 'drink it/store it' sides to the cellar.
I broke my last empty carboy last nite so I need to get another today and start a batch of your brandy making wine. It will give me a good excuse to finally put my pot still together. Thanks again BS!
AkCoyote
"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." Thomas Jefferson
tater
06/13/04 06:38 PM
Re: Wanted: Good Brandy Recipe [re: AkCoyote]
got this off this sight A gallon of rowan berries ( mountain ash ) washed, cleaned and crushed. To this I added three pound of honey dissolved in one gallon of boiling water, the water was added whilst still boiling. Once it was cool I topped up to two gallons total volume added yeast and left it until it stopped fermenting ( like the blackberry one it was too thick to get a reliable SG). Double distilled in a pot still this has given a 70% spirit ( not yet diluted ) which has the light flavour of rowan berries with a good honey kick in the after taste - extremely pleasant and watered down in the glass to 40% it's easy to drink.
Wanted: Good Brandy Recipe
Moderator: Site Moderator