Easy Grappa Recipe

[Odin]

So my family in law loves Palinka. Especially the one made from pressed grapes. I mean, they press the grapes for wine, then use the spent skins to make a grappa or grape brandy. They add water, some sugar, wild yeast comes by and visits ... before you know it they have an 8% base wine that's usually double distilled.

Hmmm ... lots of work. Messy. Success not guaranteed ... So I never made it myself.

And then I read a post from Petrusk, who is a member of the Dutch distilling forum and that inspired me. An easy grappa made from ... raisins. First tests seem to between good and great, so I will be trying it myself. With a few adaptations, off course. I will send this link to Petrusk to see if he wants to join in on this English speaking forum and give us his expertise.

Okay,here we go. A grappa made out of raisins. Raisins are dried out grapes, so why not?

Here's my take on it. For a 10 liter (2 1/2 gallon) recipe. Perfectly scalable to bigger amounts.

Buy 1 kilo of raisins and rinse them well (very well, since they are usually treated with sulphuric compounds).

Bring 3 liters of water to a boil.

Add the raisins and boil for a few minutes.

Now turn of the stove and mix in 1 kilo of sugar. Brown sugar, preferably.

When the sugar is dissolved, put everything into the fermentor and add 7 liters of cold water.

Add some sh*te to lower PH to 6 or a bit lower on generation one (for generation 2 use around 15% of backset from gen 1 to start up the new ferment).

Let it cool and add yeast. First generation will take about 2 weeks to ferment dry. Second (and more) generation will ferment dry in 8 to 10 days.

The raisins provide plenty of nutrients (especially B-vits) and so does (from generation 2 onwards) the backset.

Actually the raisins add sugar. Their (fructose) sugar content is around 65%. So on this 10 liter recipe you do not just have 1 kilo of sugar, you also have about 650 grams of extra fermentable sugars from the raisins. Boiling them should open them up. Especially, since most raisins are treated in such a way that the skin already is perforated to allow for a faster drying to turn the actual grape into a raisin in the first place.

The sugar and the fructose from the raisins should get you to around 9% and that's close to perfect. Upping the abv by upping the sugar (say 1.5 kilo's) will give you extra yield, but the resulting drink (40 to 45%) will be less strong in taste. Not advisable to go into that direction.

All right! Who will take this on and repeat me to make some great grappa? I guess there is at least enough people around from Italian decent to make it worth a try ...

But if you are not from Italian descent ... please go ahead and try it as well. Hey, I am Dutch, so if I can make this work ...

Regards, Odin.

[frozenthunderbolt]

O.K. Odin, I'm doing my BM spirit runs this weekend and your rye bread whiskey next weekend, as soon as those 25 L buckets are empty I'll start a double batch of this in one bucket and go for 3 generations on it.
Something resembling 'true' (grape based) brandy is not something I've done yet, so I'm game for a new flavour

[FossZ]

Im giving this a whirl next week. Ill post up. Thank you

[Odin]

I love this recipe! Actually, I am going to purchase some 12.5 kilo's of Sultana raisins, to up the amount of taste even more.

There's 75% of fructose in these little buggers! So ... for next runs, I will do it like this:

4 kilo's of raisins and 1 kilo of sugar for a 30 liter fermentor. So around 27 liters in the fermenter.

that's 4 kilo's of sugar in total, where 75% is attributed by the raisins and one by cane sugar.

Rinse with warm water (to get oils / sulfur out), add them for a few minutes to boiling water, Add this hot water with raisins to your fermenter, now stir in the sugar.

On generation 1 I add two teaspoons of calcium sulfate to lower PH. Then more water to come up to 27 liters.

At the same time I make a yeast starter from Tokaj yeast and add that as well.Temp when adding the yeast will be around 30 degrees C.

Fermentation takes off in a minute. And after a day you actually see the raisins inflate and start to travel up ... and down. Fasinating!

The wine is dark brown and smells terific. I think the wine is good in itsself. You can distill the wine, or lager it (after filtration thru a coffee filter) in the fridge for a week or two.

Since the raisins suck up quite some liquid, I plan to use my sap maker (small motorized press that you use to make your breakfast juices) to get these liquids out.

And since this wash has such a great taste, I will do the following:
1.Distill this first generation into a grappa, save me some backset, and use that to start up generation 2. 15% backset is enough. For some extra taste, ph control and additional vits, etc.
2. I plan to use the now pressed raisins again. Not for a grappa, but for a vine based vodka. Throw the spent & pressed raisins in another fermentor, add oxygen to get the yeasties back in shape, add water, dissolve 6 killo's of sugar, add 15% of backset from the original grappa run.

This will give a 13% wash with a slight hint of the fruits there. And since Tokaj yeast can handle up to 14%, that's fine. When it is done, I'll fractionate this into a great vodka.

This recipe is so much to my liking, I may start doing grain washes, uj's, etc.for some time.

Regards, Odin.

[Digital_Plasma]

Interesting recipe. I might just that a go one day. I used to go camping in Hungary some years ago and loved their Tokaj and palinka. We visited a wine farmer in the mountains near lake Balaton that made his own wine, Tokaj and palinka. Great fellow. Looked a bit like Benny Hill. We Got palinka straight out of the still and man oh man what a treat! Glad i was'nt driving that day.
Im looking forward to hear more about your "Brandtokaj".

[Odin]

I will keep you posted DP! One of the reasons I like this recipe, is because I am in Hungary often. And now I will show them a Palinka to remember!

Regards, Odin.

[Digital_Plasma]

Haha, you show those hungarians whos the boss of palinka! Theres alot of ripe cherry-plums here at the moment. I might just harvest a bag or two of those and make a palinka.

Cheers

DP

[Odin]

Here are two pictures. Two 30 liter fermenters in action. And the cap floating on top: yeast and raisins.

Odin.

[Digital_Plasma]

Looking good. Did you chop up the raisins?

[Odin]

No. Since they are raisins, they have small punctured holes in them. To make the grapes they were dry out faster. I rinsed them with hand warm water, then put them for a few minutes in boiling water. This water plus raisins went into the fermenter.

Odin.

[Digital_Plasma]

You learn somth'in every day. That means that i don't have to get sticky fingers and ruin the wifes Kitchen-Aid.
I plan on toasting some of the raisins to give off a "darker" flavour. Not burned, but a deeper raisin flavour. Or at least I think they will...

[Odin]

Always good to experiment, Denmark! Just try it and let us know!

Someone said I should maybe add some pectinase as well to break down the cell structure of the raisins for a bit more liquids/sugars as well.

Anyone any ideas on that?

Odin.

[FullySilenced]

Here is a fairly good tutorial on Pectin's: in's, out's, and why's

http://byo.com/stories/item/1602-what-i ... er-recipes" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow


http://ajevonline.org/content/2/1/59.abstract" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

[Odin]

Thanks! I will dive into it, FS! I guess it was you who suggested them in the first place, last night, right?

Odin.

[Odin]

So ... just read it. Seems like those pecto enzymes do a great job and should be in all the time. More revenue, more taste, better clearing ...

One more Q. In our brewshop, I can find 3 kinds of them pecto enzymes. Number 1 just does the pectines, number 2 does pectines and breaks down proteins as well. Number 3 breaks down pectine, proteine and cellulose. I am sure number 1 does the job. Are there, in this recipe, any benefits from breaking down proteins and/or cellulose as well?

Regards, Odin.

[FullySilenced]

The number 3 will break the skins down more... however the more cellulose you break down the more the potential for methanol or heads to be produced...

This is just what i have read...

[Digital_Plasma]

So, these enzymes might be good enough for wine but further exstraction of alcohol would give a poor resulting product. I would avoid that enzyme then. Besides, is the yield so much greater with the use of enzymes than without? Worth the risk?

[Odin]

I did some more reading. I think number one (just pecto) is great. The others are for special fruits like bananas or plums, etc. Not for grapes!

Odin.

[Digital_Plasma]

I just read an old book I got from my parents. It's from the late 60's and 70's where wine making and distilling at home became "easier". In the book it said that by using enzymes in the fermentation process, it would give a gain of juice of up to 15%! That's quite a bit.... I actually think I still have some enzymes from when they brewed.

[Odin]

Denmark,

15% sounds good. FS gave me 20% as an indication. Not sure those "old" enzymes are still good though. Really? From the 70's? I know my parents were doing lots of things. Wine making was more like an 80's thing though!



Odin.

PS: Where you from in Denmark? Been to Aalbog and Arhus.

[Digital_Plasma]

Nah, those old enzymes are properly just a "has been" now. But they are easy to uptain.
My parents made wine and spirits from the 70's to the 80's. I still remember the fermenters in their guest bathroom. But they lost the interest a while ago. So I took over the "business".
I've lived and worked in both Aalborg and Århus. I'm currently living near Århus. Did you work in DK?

[Odin]

Nope, just friends from Denmark living there. And me visiting them.

Odin.

[FullySilenced]

I think the addition of the enzyme will more than offset the cost.... and the yield will increase... all i have read indicate 15 to 20 percent... increase... so..... in a 10% wash might make it 11 or up to 12% .... again this is all book learning not real world...

[Digital_Plasma]

If avoiding cellulose is an option at this point, then I think it's worth the effort. A larger yield is always desirable, as long as the quality is not affected. Too much anyway.

Odin - You're always welcome here also.

[Odin]

Thanks for inviting me, Denmark!

[casamayor]

Hello Odin do you put all the cap in the boiler?
Casamayor

[Odin]

I do not distill this round with my water bath yet. I use a directly fired rig,so I will leave the raisins out. I will press them and start a new sorta neutral with extra sugar on the lees.

But if I were to use my water bath boiler, I'd transfer everything with the intention of leaving as much of the yeast at the bottom of the fermenter.

Odin.

[thepatchworkdoll]

Hi Odin
Interesting recipe. How close to Brandy do you think this recipe will be.
regards
Patch

[casamayor]

Ok,Odin i use a"grille de séparation " on the bottom of my boiler i don't know what's the english name of that piece of equipement, maybe the taste should be better if i put all the cap( without the yeast of course) in the boiler!
Casamayor

[Odin]

Taste: in between brandy and grappa. With Tokaj yeast: some extra sweetness in the aftertaste.

Casa: with this extra plate I would distill with raisins in the boiler / cap in the boiler. For sure it will give you extra taste!

Odin.