Cachaca

Grain bills and instruction for all manner of alcoholic beverages.

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8Ball
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Cachaca

Post by 8Ball »

This makes a nice fruity sipping rum or a mixer.

10 gallons of fresh squeezed & chilled sugar cane juice

Make a starter with 25 grams of Bakers yeast/FermPro-821 mix, you can use only Bakers yeast if you want.

Heat the juice up to 100F/39C and transfer it to your mash tun. I use a orange water cooler.

No need to adjust initial gravity or pH. Mine came in at 1.062 & 5.3 pH naturally from the field & press.

By the time you transfer the heated juice it should be at pitch temp. I pitched the starter at 97F/36C.

Hang a fist sized sack of clean oyster shell grit about midway to buffer the pH — not sure if you need it but it didn’t hurt.

Put a lid on it. It should finish pretty close to dry at 1.007 & 4.6 pH.

I racked it off the yeast bed and filtered it through a paint sack.

Reserved 1G of wash @ 7.3% and stripped the rest.

Do a spirit with the reserved wash & low wines. Take a generous fores/heads cut and then collect the rest until your senses of smell & taste tell you to stop.

Strip the rest as feints.

Age a long time on toasted French oak & used white oak; or, lrave it white.
🎱 The struggle is real and this rabbit hole just got interesting.
Per a conversation I had with Mr. Jay Gibbs regarding white oak barrel staves: “…you gotta get it burning good.”
tommysb
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Re: Cachaca

Post by tommysb »

Hey 8ball -

One thing to look at with Cachaca - it's very common that they age on woods other than oak. If you can get hold of another wood, I suggest you try it!

https://www.mapadacachaca.com.br/as-dif ... r-cachaca/

I guess searching from the latin names here could help get you in the right direction? But Amburana is probably the most common.
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8Ball
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Re: Cachaca

Post by 8Ball »

tommysb wrote: Sat Dec 03, 2022 2:00 am Hey 8ball -

One thing to look at with Cachaca - it's very common that they age on woods other than oak. If you can get hold of another wood, I suggest you try it!

https://www.mapadacachaca.com.br/as-dif ... r-cachaca/

I guess searching from the latin names here could help get you in the right direction? But Amburana is probably the most common.
I’ve left some white. I can’t find a source for Amburana. I do have on hand: pecan, peach, pear, cherry, citrus & hickory. Wgat do you think?
🎱 The struggle is real and this rabbit hole just got interesting.
Per a conversation I had with Mr. Jay Gibbs regarding white oak barrel staves: “…you gotta get it burning good.”
tommysb
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Re: Cachaca

Post by tommysb »

I had a (quick) look at all the species on the list - seems all of them are more or less indigenous to South America, and used because they are the woods that are available. The BERTHOLLETIA EXCELSA is a brazil nut - which makes me think that your Pecan, also being a somewhat indigenous tree to North America, would be the closest (conceptually). Why not go for that and make it with YOUR indigenous wood?

Btw I have a book on Cachaca, I will try to share some info from in in a couple of weeks when I am back home and can get some photos, I'm traveling for work at the moment. It was given to me by a Brazilian who co-authored it and runs a Cachaca bar in my city (Porto, Portugal)

Edit: Also, from tasting various Cachacas, I don't think they tend to use char on the barrels, I imagine it is more of just a toast. So i would minimise char if I could or use just a very light char.
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Re: Cachaca

Post by 8Ball »

tommysb wrote: Sun Dec 04, 2022 5:26 am I had a (quick) look at all the species on the list - seems all of them are more or less indigenous to South America, and used because they are the woods that are available. The BERTHOLLETIA EXCELSA is a brazil nut - which makes me think that your Pecan, also being a somewhat indigenous tree to North America, would be the closest (conceptually). Why not go for that and make it with YOUR indigenous wood?

Btw I have a book on Cachaca, I will try to share some info from in in a couple of weeks when I am back home and can get some photos, I'm traveling for work at the moment. It was given to me by a Brazilian who co-authored it and runs a Cachaca bar in my city (Porto, Portugal)

Edit: Also, from tasting various Cachacas, I don't think they tend to use char on the barrels, I imagine it is more of just a toast. So i would minimise char if I could or use just a very light char.
Great response! Thanks for the detailed information. I might put a little away on toasted pecan & peach. The majority is on medium toasted French & American White Oak.
🎱 The struggle is real and this rabbit hole just got interesting.
Per a conversation I had with Mr. Jay Gibbs regarding white oak barrel staves: “…you gotta get it burning good.”
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