wine to cognac

[Doc Holliday]

is it possible to just buy a gallon of cheap wine 12% and run it for a first timer.

[S-Cackalacky]

Don't see why not.

[StillLearning1]

Meh....what's up doc?

Yea you can get a cheap gallon for about $10.

Or you can get 50# sack of corn for $10, 25# sugar for $10 and a jar of yeast for $2....and that will last you a looong time compared to one gallon of wine. And give you practice at fermenting!

Don't forget your cleaning runs!

[ranger_ric]

Doc,
That is what I used to clean my still...

Not as tasty as UJSSM, but it will get you running your still...

(posted while SL was posting)

[goose eye]

Just a place in France nothin special but the grapes
Find a wine from over there SN charge it.
ole boys use bullish cause they free an everywhere along the fields

Can't turn chicken crap into chicken salad

So I'm tole

[Doc Holliday]

it worked but taste bad. 110 proof. I dont think I stopped soon enough but got it all. I checked left over with hydo. and it reads zero proof. now time to try a fermentation batch. going to mix up 5 gal of water, 5 lbs corn mill and sugar and if i find a bag of dried fruit in it will go.

[humbledore]

Read some tried and true recipes if you want something that doesn't "taste bad". Rolling your own without experience can lead to more of the same.

[NZChris]

That is not how they distil Cognac. Unless the wine tasted bad before you began, it should have made very nice product if you distilled it using the Cognac method.

[Doc Holliday]

it was more of a still familiarization run

[NZChris]

Did you do a sacrificial alcohol run? If you didn't, that would explain why it tastes bad, plus it will make you sick as a dog if you drink it.

[Doc Holliday]

just tasted it time to time. but no didnt do a sacrifice run. well until just now. can i rerun it or dump it.

[Doc Holliday]

can this tyre of corn be used (Sportsman's Choice® Record Rack® Super Premium Deer Corn) from tractor supply or is there a way to buy it already cracked.

[NZChris]

It is most likely toxic. Don't gambol, dump it.

[OBX Phantom]

Tractor supply should sell cracked corn, they do here. And don't drink that wine that you just ran, consider it your sacrificial run.

[Rod]

BERRI BRANDY

Run it as fast as you can in pot still mode but hold back some of the wine. Make a foreshots cut but keep everything else all the way down to about 20%.
Dilute the low wines to around 30% and put it back in the still. Add the undistilled wine you held back. (I like to have the boiler charge be about 10% undistilled wine. A 10 gallon still charge would get an additional 1 gallon of wine)
Now run it slow, collect in small jars, air out and make your cuts. There is likely some good flavor in the tails so don't be afraid to add some to your hearts cut. Just taste and see what you want.
Age it on oak and add a little bit of maple syrup and maybe a small handful of raisins.
You should end up with a very passable brandy.

5 litres Berri Traditional Dry Red

4.5 litres in still

run fast

50 ml to waste , methanol

run in parrot to 20%

dilute to about 30 %

add remaining 500ml

run slow

add Jack Daniels wood chips, some raisins
and maple syrup to colour

method is here somewhere on site given to me for a similar post by me from Baz

[ranger_ric]

Poor Doc.. He has asked about 5 questions on this thread and he is gettin shotguns for answers....LOL
A specific critique of your corn recipe Doc is that I dont think that will make much of a drop at all..... You could park the car and take a few moments to get a tried and true recipe. Every Single one of your recipe and corn selection questions has been answered 5-6 times in the Thread on Uncle Jesses Simple Sour Mash. It is a great read. Yeah its like 27 pages of people trying all kinds of anything except following a pretty simple recipe.. You should really give it a read... You will learn Soooooo much and every question you asked above you will know the answer to...

Good Luck...
RR

[thecroweater]

Yeah I have seen a.few recipes for cognac I'll see if I can dig some up As for Berri wines they have a distillery mostly that produces bulk neutral. My cousins husband was the distiller at Berri Tarac a few years back

[T-Pee]

If you want to make cognac, from Wiki:

Production process

Cognac is a type of brandy and, after the distillation and during the aging process, is also called eau de vie. It is produced by doubly distilling white wines produced in any of the designated growing regions.

Grapes

The white wine used in making cognac is very dry, acidic and thin. Though it has been characterized as "virtually undrinkable", it is excellent for distillation and aging. It may be made only from a strict list of grape varieties. In order for it to be considered a true crus, the wine must be at least 90% Ugni blanc (known in Italy as Trebbiano), Folle blanche and Colombard, although 10% of the grapes used can be Folignan, Jurançon blanc, Meslier St-François (also called Blanc Ramé), Sélect, Montils or Sémillon. Cognacs which are not to carry the name of a cru are freer in the allowed grape varieties, needing at least 90% Colombard, Folle blanche, Jurançon blanc, Meslier Saint-François, Montils, Sémillon, or Ugni blanc, and up to 10% Folignan or Sélect.

Fermentation and distillation

A cognac pot still

After the grapes are pressed, the juice is left to ferment for two or three weeks, with the region's native, wild yeasts converting the sugar into alcohol; neither sugar nor sulfur may be added. At this point, the resulting wine is about 7% to 8% alcohol.

Distillation takes place in traditionally shaped Charentais copper stills, also known as an alembic, the design and dimensions of which are also legally controlled. Two distillations must be carried out; the resulting eau-de-vie is a colourless spirit of about 70% alcohol.

Aging

Once distillation is complete, it must be aged in Limousin oak casks for at least two years before it can be sold to the public. It is typically put into casks at an alcohol by volume strength of about 70%. As the cognac interacts with the oak barrel and the air, it evaporates at the rate of about three per cent each year, slowly losing both alcohol and water. Because the alcohol dissipates faster than the water, the alcohol concentration drops to about 40% over time. The cognac is then transferred to large glass carboys called bonbonnes, then stored for future blending.[4] Since oak barrels stop contributing to flavor after four or five decades, longer aging periods may not be beneficial.

Blending

The age of the cognac is calculated as that of the youngest component used in the blend. The blend is usually of different ages and (in the case of the larger and more commercial producers) from different local areas. This blending, or marriage, of different eaux-de-vie is important to obtain a complexity of flavours absent from an eau-de-vie from a single distillery or vineyard. Each cognac house has a master taster (maître de chai), who is responsible for blending the spirits, so that cognac produced by a company will have a consistent house style and quality. In this respect it is similar to the process of blending whisky or non-vintage Champagne to achieve a consistent brand flavor. A very small number of producers, such as Guillon Painturaud and Moyet, do not blend their final product from different ages of eaux-de-vie and therefore produce a 'purer' flavour (a practice roughly equivalent to the production of single malt Scotch whisky). Hundreds of vineyards in the Cognac AOC region sell their own cognac. These are likewise blended from the eaux-de-vie of different years, but they are single-vineyard cognacs, varying slightly from year to year and according to the taste of the producer, hence lacking some of the predictability of the better-known commercial products. Depending on their success in marketing, small producers may sell a larger or smaller proportion of their product to individual buyers, wine dealers, bars and restaurants, the remainder being acquired by larger cognac houses for blending. The success of artisanal cognacs has encouraged some larger industrial-scale producers to produce single-vineyard cognacs.

Eff all that. I make brandy.

tp

[Doc Holliday]

cognac has been pit on back burner. i just want simple mash to make a good liquor. the one i thought i found is as follows.
5 gal water
7 lbs corn mill
7 lbs sugar
yeast
furmint
start run
toss first 50 mil
taste, feel,taste,smell ,taste,taste
watch hydo. for drop in abv and temp to go up and shut down.

i have been doing a lot of reading and i think this is what i need.

[ranger_ric]

Hey Doc, Where did you get that recipe???

[thecroweater]

you want a simple mash Here is the one most cut their teeth on and Here is how to run it

[T-Pee]

And many of us are still making it 'cuz it's that good.

tp

[Rod]

Yeah I have seen a.few recipes for cognac I'll see if I can dig some up As for Berri wines they have a distillery mostly that produces bulk neutral. My cousins husband was the distiller at Berri Tarac a few years back

Berri wines sell 5 litres wine casks in most outlets in NSW and Victoria dan murphy BWS

[thecroweater]

yep use to live not so very far from Berri Estates probably picked for em for all I know (contract harvesting). it was either their wine or Sunnyvale i used to do a sacrificial cleaning run in my pot still

[Doc Holliday]

recipe was from some where in here.i said corn mill, i think its cracked corn. but i don't know why corn mill wouldn't work. im sure if it doesn't i will read about why in here somewhere. i have read so much i dont even remember where. that's why i just wanted a easy recipe so i can just get started. i just want to get a product then i can start trying to play. need a good kiss method. my first run using a cheap 8 dollar a gallon wine 12% i was running 70% at one point.

[rnw349]

Hey Doc,
Uncle Jesse is the easiest recipe on here. Takes a few to 5 days to ferment. It's so easy you can't hardly screw it up. Go on over to tried and true. After about the 3rd generation it starts getting real good. I started a batch in November 2014, ran it till last week, almost on a weekly basis. Building up stock. It's good on one run, but even better if you do a spirit run, age it on wood. You and your friends will be amazed. Stay safe. Good luck.

Rnw349

[Doc Holliday]

thank you all for your help. im doing a few sugar water runs then it uncle jesse time.