Oak chips for moonshine. Tips and recipes for making cherry tincture on moonshine Cherry chips for moonshine

Even the highest quality and pure moonshine has a specific taste that not everyone likes. An ordinary cherry will help to neutralize the sharp vodka taste, give the drink softness and berry aroma.

All recipes for cherry tinctures are simple and affordable. To prepare the drink, the most common ingredients are used, and even an inexperienced winemaker can cope with the process.

Reference! The taste of cherries will not be inferior to store-bought counterparts, and due to the natural composition, the tincture is considered safe and even useful in moderation.

In order to make a healing drink, any alcohol base is suitable: alcohol, moonshine, cognac and vodka.

An obligatory ingredient is sugar - it is he who gives the necessary softness and neutralizes the sourness that is present in all berries and fruits.

Important! A tincture is an alcoholic beverage with a sugar content of not more than 30%. Sweeter drinks are called liqueurs.

Cherry for tincture is suitable for any - fresh, frozen, dried, with bones and without stones. Each type of berry must be prepared in accordance with the recommendations below.

On moonshine

What you need for cooking:

• 1 kg of cherries;
• 1 liter of high-quality moonshine;
• half a kilo of sugar

This amount of ingredients will be enough to fill a 3 liter bottle.

Step by step preparation:

1. Pour prepared berries into a clean jar.
2. Top the cherry with sugar, shake the bottle slightly so that the sugar is evenly distributed over the container.
3. Leave the jar in a warm place for 24 hours - during this time the berries should release juice.
4. Mix the berries that released the juice right in the jar.
5. Add moonshine.
6. Cover the bottle with a clean cloth or several layers of gauze.
7. Place in a dark cool place for 3-4 weeks. Shake the drink once a week.
8. Strain the finished drink, pour into bottles and close with lids.
9. Keep in the refrigerator for another month.

The taste of alcohol will only improve over time, so do not rush to taste it, let the tincture stand for the allotted time.

Watch the video, which tells how to properly prepare cherry tincture with grain distillate:

On vodka

An interesting vodka tincture is obtained with the addition of cherry leaves and citric acid. The leaves enhance the cherry flavor, and the concentrated acid helps stabilize the taste of the alcohol.

Ingredients:

• cherry berries - 50 pieces;
• cherry leaves - 200 pieces;
• sugar - 1500 g;
• vodka - 1000 ml;
• purified water - 1000 ml;
• citric acid - 1.5 teaspoons.

This recipe will be an excellent solution for a lean summer, when there are few berries, and you really want to cook a cherry.

How to do:

1. Wash the berries, remove the seeds, place in a refractory dish.
2. Pour clean water, put on fire and bring to a boil.
3. Boil the berries on low heat for 15 minutes, not forgetting to stir.
4. Strain the resulting composition through cheesecloth.
5. Add citric acid and sugar to the broth, boil again over low heat for 5-7 minutes. Sugar should be completely dissolved.
6. Cool the resulting berry syrup to room temperature and add vodka.
7. Prepare several bottles, wash them, put a few leaves on the bottom of each - they will enhance the aroma of the drink.
8. Close the bottles tightly and place in a dark place at room temperature.

Reference! The infusion time is 20 days. If the cherry turned out to be cloudy, you can filter it through a layer of cotton wool.

In the video, an experienced moonshiner tells how to make a delicious alcoholic drink from vodka cherries:

on alcohol

Cherry is delicious, made from fresh or frozen berries in alcohol.

What to take for cooking:

• cherry - 1 kg;
• alcohol - 1.5 l;
• spring water - 0.5 l;
• sugar - 0.5 kg.

It is better not to remove the pits from the berries - it is the astringency and delicate aroma of the pits that give the alcohol a special aroma and smell.

Recipe:

1. Pour all the cherries into a large glass jar.
2. Pour food alcohol over the berries, not reaching the neck by about 3-4 cm.
3. Cover the container and leave in a dark place.
4. After 14 days, when the liquid is saturated with juice and acquires a beautiful cherry hue, it must be carefully strained and poured into another container.
5. Leave the first alcohol infusion for storage in the refrigerator, and prepare syrup from cherries.
6. For syrup, pour the remaining cherries after infusion in the same jar with sugar and pour water.
7. Leave in a cool place for another two weeks, shaking occasionally.
8. Mix both compositions (alcohol and syrup) and leave to ripen in a dark, non-hot place for the remaining 14 days.
9. Pour the finished alcohol tincture into convenient jars and let it “rest” for a day or two. If the drink turned out to be too strong, it can be diluted with filtered water and let it brew for a few more days.

Important! Cherry must be protected from sunlight - ultraviolet can destroy the rich berry color.

On cognac

Cognac for cherry tincture should be classic, without additives and flavorings.

Ingredients:

• 500 g of cherry fruits;
• 2 glasses of cognac;
• 1 cup of sugar;
• 5-7 cherry leaves;
• 2-4 pieces of spicy cloves.

Sequencing:

1. Pour sugar and berries into a jar, alternating layers.
2. Arrange leaves and cloves on top.
3. Add cognac.
4. Cover with a lid and shake.
5. Put in a dark room with a temperature of about 20 degrees. Shake every 3-5 days.
6. Strain the finished tincture, bottle it and keep it in the cold for another 2-3 days.

Preparing berries

Cherry turns out tasty and rich from cherries in any form. But the berries must be properly prepared so that they give out the taste to the maximum.

frozen

Cherries can be purchased at the supermarket in the freezing department or you can use summer preparations from your own summer house. Before cooking, the berries must be thawed until soft.

The liquid that appeared after defrosting is best drained.

Dried

Weakly dried or slightly dried cherries are a good basis for making aromatic alcohol. These processing methods allow you to get rid of the liquid that makes the cherry watery.

How to dry fresh berries:

• You can dry fresh and frozen berries by placing them under the sun on a baking sheet for 2-3 days.
• For drying, you can use the oven - on low heat, the cherry is baked for 4-6 hours.

Underwire

There is an opinion that cherry stones contain hydrocyanic acid, which adversely affects human health. But many winemakers are in no hurry to get rid of them, arguing that it is the seeds that make it possible to get a rich drink.

Preparation of fruits with seeds:

1. For the preparation of cherries, it is better to choose berries of sweet varieties, juicy and ripe.
2. Fresh cherries must be carefully sorted, washed and the stalks removed.
3. In order for the fruits to give as much juice as possible, prick each cherry with a toothpick.

Drink "Russian Standard"

Russian Standard is a sweet berry tincture with a pronounced cherry flavor and aroma. The basis of the alcoholic drink is high-quality alcohol and selected natural cherry tree fruits.

The composition is infused for a month, acquiring a fortress of 29 degrees.

• The finished sweet tincture is dominated by pronounced cherry notes, turning into shades of spices and fruits.
• Pleasant sweetness and heady aftertaste make the drink an ideal aperitif and digestif.

The tincture can be served with tonic or ice, but always chilled - at a temperature not exceeding 8-10 ° C.

Cherry tincture is a pleasant drink that you can treat yourself and your family at any time of the year. In summer, cherries are made from fresh ripe berries, and in winter, you can prepare a drink based on frozen fruits.

In our article we will talk about an alcoholic drink of self-preparation. Cherry tincture on moonshine can decorate your table. The drink is very light, and its preparation does not require serious expenses. But in terms of taste, it is not inferior to analogues from the store. At the same time, homemade cherry tincture on moonshine is a natural product without chemicals and any additives. Cherries are grown in almost all regions, their cost is low compared to other products. In addition, for the preparation of liquor, you can use not only fresh berries, but also frozen and dried ones.

Ingredients for pouring

An excellent liqueur is obtained on the basis of moonshine. But if you do not have such a product at your disposal, then you can use ordinary vodka. There are many recipes for cherry tincture on moonshine. In our article we want to talk about the most successful, in our opinion. To prepare a decent liqueur, you need to know some of the nuances.

Another essential component for tincture is sugar. No matter how sweet a cherry is, it still shows sourness. And that's why you can't do without sugar. But here its quantity should be regulated, excessive sweetness is also useless. First you need to put a small portion, and only then bring the liquor to the ideal state to your liking.

As a rule, we apply concepts such as liquor equally. In fact, there is a difference between them. Tincture is a stronger drink. You need to put no more than 30% sugar per liter of its preparation, otherwise you will get exactly the liqueur. In general, such nuances are important only for gourmets. If you do not like the finished product to your taste, then you can dilute the drink or add sugar.

Regarding the preparation of cherry tincture at home on moonshine, there is one more nuance. These are bones, there are always disputes around: whether they are needed for cooking or not. The fact is that they contain hydrocyanic acid, which, of course, is harmful to the body. It is for this reason that bones are often removed. In addition, their presence makes the drink more intense. It acquires a characteristic heavy aroma.

But still, if you have prepared cherry tincture on moonshine with seeds, then you should not worry. penetrates the drink only after six months. In general, every recipe for cherry tincture on moonshine can be used for berries with and without stones.

Good liquor and liquor are obtained if it is used weakly for cooking. To get such berries, you need to put them in the sun to dry for two to three days. If you do not have such an opportunity, then you can warm the cherries in the oven at a temperature of 60 degrees for about five to six hours. During this time, they will lose excess liquid, after which they will be able to give off flavor to the tincture.

The simplest tincture recipe

We offer to prepare cherry tincture on moonshine with seeds. This recipe is very simple. For cooking you will need:

1. Moonshine (50%) - 0.75 liters.
2. Cherries - 1.5 kg.
3. Sugar - ½ kg.

Berries are thawed or used slightly dried in the oven or in the sun. Dried cherries are used for the reason that excess liquid leaves them, therefore, after insisting, the strength of the drink does not change. The aroma of the drink is very rich, although this is a matter of taste.

All components are mixed in a glass jar, on top it is closed with a lid. Next, we send the container to a dark and cool place for a month. Once every three days you need to shake the jar, but you do not need to open the lid. After a month, the liquid must be filtered through cheesecloth. If the drink is corked into clean bottles, then it can be stored for three years in the basement.

Seedless tincture recipe

You can also make cherry tincture on pitted moonshine.

Ingredients:

1. A kilogram of cherries.
2. Three kilos of sugar.
3. Strong moonshine (not less than 50 degrees) - liter.

Cherries should be washed well and pitted. After that, the pulp is transferred to a jar and covered with sugar. After three hours, the fruits should release juice. After that, add moonshine to the dishes and tightly cork it. We send the jar to a dark warm place for several weeks. When the tincture is ready, it is worth tasting it. If the taste is satisfactory, then the drink must be filtered so that there are no particles of pulp left, and bottled. In this form, the tincture can be stored for up to three years.

Recipe with spices

If you are thinking about how to make cherry tincture on moonshine, then you can use the recipe using spices.

Ingredients:

1. Two kilos of cherries.
2. Ten carnations.
3. Liter of moonshine.
4. Nutmeg.
5. Cinnamon.
6. Ten tablespoons of sugar (tablespoons).

This recipe allows you to use fresh and dried cherries. Before mixing the components, it is advisable to pierce each cherry with a toothpick. Berries, sugar and spices are placed in layers in a glass jar. The container must be filled to about seventy percent.

Now you can pour vodka or moonshine into the container. Alcohol should completely cover the berries. The jar needs to be corked or closed with a cloth, then the taste of the drink will be softer. For several months, the container with the drink should be stored on a well-lit windowsill. Once every three days, the tincture should be shaken.

Cherry tincture on moonshine without sugar

You can also make a drink without sugar. In fact, connoisseurs recommend choosing only sweet varieties of cherries, since the tincture is much tastier from them. Our ancestors have been preparing strong cherry tincture on moonshine since ancient times. However, they did not use sugar. The drink was infused, filtered, and only then, if necessary, a little sweetener was added. Modern connoisseurs of the art of making a drink also recommend doing it this way, since sugar changes the natural taste of berries. Of course, there are times when you can’t do without adding it, but you shouldn’t overdo it either.

Ingredients:

1. Ripe sweet cherry - two kilograms.
2. Moonshine (40-50 degrees) - 0.8-1 liter.

Slightly dried cherries must be poured into a jar. In this case, the berries should occupy approximately 2/3 of the total volume. Next, pour moonshine into the dishes to the top. The drink is infused from 1.5 to 3 months. Every three or four days, the jars with the contents are shaken. After a while, the tincture must be filtered and bottled. If you are satisfied with the taste, then you should not add sugar.

Recipe with wood chips or leaves

The best recipes of our ancestors, who knew a lot about making drinks, have survived to this day. One of them involves the addition of cherry leaves. And you can make a tincture even on cherry chips. This is done in order to give the drink a more noble taste, while the color also changes, it becomes more brownish. Cherry chips add even more flavor.

Here is one of those recipes.

Ingredients:

1. Cherry berries - two kilograms.
2. Sugar - 1.6 kg.
3. Litere of water.
4. Liter of moonshine.
5. 1.5 teaspoons of citric acid.

We wash the berries and leaves well, and then fill it with water, add sugar. We send the dishes to the fire and boil the contents for fifteen minutes. After that, we filter the contents. It is best to use gauze, as it does not allow even small particles of pulp to pass through. Add citric acid to the broth, then boil for another ten minutes. Next, the drink should cool to room temperature. Only after that we pour it into bottles, cork them and send it to infuse for twenty days. If during this time a precipitate appears, then the drink must be filtered through cotton wool.

Kirschwasser

Cherry tinctures have long been prepared in many countries. Until now, in Western European countries (Austria, France, Switzerland and Germany) they prepare a very popular drink called "Kirschwasser". The old recipe is passed down from generation to generation. Each specialist has his own secrets. The main feature is the use of sweet cherries or dark-colored cherries, but with a small stone.

Kirschwasser is prepared only from very ripe berries, which are ground into a homogeneous mass, but the bones are left intact. The drink is infused from a certain type of wood, which does not give an extraneous aroma. The mass wanders for about three weeks. During this period, the barrels are regularly opened and their contents are well mixed. After readiness, the wort is distilled as the simplest moonshine. In this case, the first portion is always poured out to get rid of unnecessary fusel oils.

The original tincture recipe

You can cook the original cherry tincture on moonshine from frozen cherries.

Ingredients:

1. A kilogram of frozen cherries.
2. Moonshine - 350 ml.
3. Cognac - 650 ml.
4. A kilogram of sugar.

We take out the frozen berries from the freezer and give them the opportunity to melt a little. Next, the berries are transferred to a clean jar and covered with sugar, after which they are left at room temperature for four hours. During this time, the juice should stand out from the cherries. After that, moonshine and cognac are poured into the container and the mixture is stirred until most of the sugar is dissolved.

We close the jar tightly and send it to a cool, but dark place for three months to infuse. Periodically, the mass must be shaken to activate the process. After the drink is infused, it is certainly filtered and poured into containers that need to be hermetically sealed for further storage.

Spice tincture

Based on folk recipes, you can experiment on your own by adding certain ingredients and spices to make an original drink. We offer a recipe using an interesting set of spices. A drink based on it turns out to be very refined and at the same time aromatic, but has a lower strength.

Ingredients:

1. Cherry - two kilograms.
2. Liter of moonshine.
3. 0.3 kg of sugar.
4. Spices.

For cooking, you need to take only sweet and ripe fruits, since the final result depends on this. We wash the cherries well and sort them out, removing rotten berries. Next, pierce each fruit with a sharp knife or toothpick. Such a simple move helps the juice stand out faster. Next, pour the fruits into a container with a wide neck, but at the same time alternate layers of spices and sugar with berries.

In general, the set of spices can be anything, but the spices must be suitable for making a drink. Experienced connoisseurs recommend using cinnamon, nutmeg, star anise, coriander, cloves. You can take a teaspoon of all the spices, or you can use just one. In this case, it all depends on your taste. If you do not like the smell of spices, then do not abuse them, because in the end you may not like the drink.

Pour a liter of moonshine into a container with berries and sugar. We cork the jar and send the drink to infuse in a sunny place for several months, after which the cherry can be filtered and bottled for further storage.

Instead of an afterword

We have given only some options for making cherry tincture on moonshine. The cooking rules are quite simple. In addition, it is possible to make your own changes to obtain the original flavor. Some drink lovers prepare real masterpieces at home, bringing the tincture to perfection.

Everyone can buy real French cognac! But many people love good cognac. The point is not only in the complex and lengthy cooking process, but also in the elementary inconveniences that are associated with obtaining a homemade drink. Even if you are the ownermodern moonshine of a new generation , you simply may not have free space in your apartment to place an oak barrel.

The problem is solved quite simply if you have a pure distillate and a great desire to make cognac. It is necessary to insist the drink on oak bark, which you can buy at a pharmacy. But it is not so easy to find this product in modern outlets, and at a cost it is even higher than specialized ones. oak chips or chips for refining moonshine.

Homemade cognac is easy!

How do oak chips work? They imitate the aging of moonshine in a real barrel, namely, they repeat the process of soaking and firing a container made of valuable wood. Chips sold in, have high quality characteristics. They are able to endow the drink with a noble oak note, a unique aroma and astringency, which is so appreciated in real cognac!

Before proceeding with the production of a noble drink, it is necessary to choose a raw material or a base. There are no special restrictions here. Despite the fact that the original cognac is made from grape moonshine, you can also use fruit, grain and the simplest - sugar.

What is the color of the drink? This tree contains unique tannins that change color, aroma and taste. They are converted into an environmentally friendly dye under the influence of alcohol, namely ethyl alcohol. Both bark and oak wood are of equal value. Below we will give different recipes for homemade cognac to make it easier for you to choose the right one.

To achieve spectacular notes of vanilla, fruit, chocolate or flowers, you should infuse moonshine on chips for a different amount of time. There are recipes, with strict adherence to which you can get the expected result. Only if there is no time to wait for a long time, it is worth usingflavor additiveson a natural basis. They can be used alone or in combination with oak chips. So, concentrates will give alcohol aroma and taste, and wood - the necessary rich shade.

Moonshine recipe on oak bark
This method of ennoblement is attractive for its simplicity. It will take a minimum of effort and time to radically change the aroma and color of the distillate. As a result, you will get, of course, not cognac, but a drink with a mild taste that will resemble a noble product. For 3 liters of finished drink you will need:

• Moonshine - 3 liters. It is advisable to take an already diluted product with a strength of about 45%.
• Oak bark - 3 tbsp. l.
• Allspice - 10 peas
• Natural honey - 1 tbsp. l.
• Carnation in buds - 5 pcs.
• Oregano (dry grass) - 1 tbsp. l.
• St. John's wort (dry) - 1 tbsp. l.
• Vanillin - 1 gr. or on the tip of a knife

It is necessary to mix all the herbs and bark in a large container, it is advisable to choose glass that is neutral. At the next stage, everything is poured with moonshine and covered with a lid. Stir should be 1 time at the very beginning. Then the container will need to be shaken once every 4 days without opening. At room temperature, a distillate with such additives should be infused for about 15-16 days. After this period, the drink must be filtered. For this purpose, any home-made filter made of special paper or cotton-gauze pads is suitable. At the next stage, moonshine on oak bark is bottled and corked. In this form, it can be stored for a long time. To improve the taste, it is recommended to drink the drink 10-14 days after filtration.

Herbs are needed for softening. If you do not like some ingredients, you can exclude them, or even remove everything except moonshine, vanillin and oak bark. Even if you have access to oak, you should not harvest the bark yourself. Pharmaceutical products have already passed all the necessary cleaning and disinfection procedures, therefore they are the preferred option.

Recipe for moonshine on oak chips

qualityoak chipsare an inexpensive but effective way to get homemade cognac. Compared to bark, this product most accurately recreates a drink that is as close as possible in taste and aroma to cognac aged in real oak barrels. At the same time, there are some nuances. In this case, it takes longer to insist the distillate, and before cooking, it is also necessary to carefully prepare the chips. But the result is definitely worth it!

Oak chips preparation technology

At the first stage, excess tannins must be eliminated from them. To do this, the chips are soaked and then processed at elevated temperatures. It is necessary to take logs, remove the bark from them and chop them into poles, then into pegs. The optimal dimensions are: 10 cm in length and 2 cm in cross section. Cooked chips are soaked in cold water. It will be enough for 24 hours, during which the water should be changed three times.

After soaking, the chips are poured with a soda solution made from 5 liters of water and 1 tbsp. l. soda. Next, you need to leave the semi-finished products for 6 hours in this form. After that, the chips are thoroughly washed and placed in a large container. Water is added to it. All this must be boiled for about 50 minutes on the slowest fire. After that, well-washed wooden pegs are dried naturally for 1 day. The dry tree is laid out on a baking sheet and placed for 2 hours in the oven, heated to 150-160 ° C. As a result of this process, a characteristic brown color should appear. Toasted chips are stored in a dry, well-ventilated area. High humidity has a detrimental effect on oak chips. Gardeners often harvest cherry, apple or pear wood according to this recipe.

To whom the whole process seems too long and laborious, we offer an easier one - buy ready-made oak chips in the storeat an affordable price.

Infusion of oak chips in moonshine

This process is divided into 3 main steps:

Calculation of oak chips for a 3-liter jar

Everyone in the household has this container. And it is with such a small volume that it is worth starting experiments with oak chips. For a standard jar or bottle of the same capacity, 15cm bars are best suitedx 3 cm x 0.5 cm. As for the quantity, 9 pieces will be enough. It should be borne in mind that when using such a number of chips, the useful volume is reduced by 202.5 ml. Those. 2800 ml remains instead of 3000 ml. To get a decent aroma and color, you can take only 6 pieces, if necessary, increasing their number. So you can simultaneously infuse moonshine in four 3-liter jars and place 6,7,8,9 chips in them, respectively. So you can determine the exact number to get the drink that you like best in terms of flavor and aroma.

Grape brandy or chacha are best suited for making homemade cognac. Using such raw materials, you bring the taste, aroma and color of the drink as close as possible to those possessed by real French cognac. According to these recipes, it is best to age oak chips in moonshine for 6 months. But after 3 weeks, the drink softens significantly and acquires a specific taste, a dark shade. Therefore, if time is running out, or you are on the eve of a festive event, you can serve distillate on oak chips in 3-4 weeks. Do not be afraid to experiment, and you are guaranteed to find your own recipe for homemade fragrant cognac!

Let's disappoint you. Not so simple. If you follow the instructions above, with a probability of 99% you will get a "skirting" - a drink that bears such a name among moonshiners because of its dense, heavy taste and woody smell. It has nothing close to homemade cognac.

To prepare a fragrant and tasty oak tincture on moonshine at home, you need to follow the technology of infusion. It is simple, and is divided into several stages. But first things first.

Preparation of oak chips and moonshine before infusion

At the first stage, it is necessary to prepare our ingredients for infusion: soak the wood chips properly and clean the moonshine.

Soaking wood chips is necessary to rid the wood of excess tannins. In small quantities, they flavor and improve the drink, in large quantities they “tan” it.

Chips are of different types of roasting. The stronger the roast, the stronger the aroma transferred to the drink. Therefore, if you want to get a mild taste and light aroma of the drink, use a medium roast. For a richer taste and dark color, chips with a strong roasting are suitable.

It is necessary to soak the wood chips during the day, changing the water 4 times at approximately the same time intervals. But first we wash it under ordinary water to wash off dust and dirt. We change the water and start soaking. The first 3 times we soak in cold water, and the fourth time we pour the chips with boiling water and add baking soda. (for 40 g of wood chips - half a teaspoon.) Let the boiling water cool, then drain the water, rinse the sticks and dry them in any convenient way (in the sun, in the oven, in a frying pan). The chip is ready.

A lot also depends on the distillate itself. Firstly, moonshine must be clean, without impurities. Read about cleaning methods in our article "How to properly clean moonshine". Secondly, the type of raw material from which the moonshine was obtained affects the preparation of the finished drink. For example, from sugar moonshine you get a cognac drink, from fruit - an analogue of Calvados, and keeping grain distillate on wood chips will give whiskey at the exit. Corn moonshine will generally give a semblance of bourbon. It is clear that to obtain cognac tincture, we will use sugar distillate.

Recipe for homemade cognac from moonshine on oak chips

The final stage is, in fact, the insistence itself. Let's make a reservation right away, it will not be possible to get real cognac or bourbon from moonshine on oak chips. But here is a cognac tincture almost indistinguishable in taste and color - easily.

To prepare cognac tincture, we need:

• Glass bottle with a tight stopper
• Moonshine strength - 45-50%
• Soaked oak chips.

We mix the ingredients in bottles, tightly cork it and put it in a dark place. How much to insist oak chips on moonshine, everyone decides for himself. On average, the exposure time is 1-3 months. During aging, the tincture can be tasted, and only the manufacturer decides when the drink is ready to drink.

As for proportions, there are many opinions. But on average, about 10 g of oak chips per liter of moonshine are required. To achieve a cognac color, the tincture can be tinted with color.

If desired, the taste of the tincture can be diversified with various spices and additives. In this way, you can cook, for example, Latgalian cognac. This tincture, invented in Latvia, completely repeats the taste of real cognac. At least that's what its creators say.

To prepare this tincture, we need:

• Moonshine with a strength of at least 50% - 3 l
• Oak chips - 2 tbsp. spoons
• Cloves - 3-4 things
• Nutmeg - 0.5 g
• Coriander - at the tip of a knife
• Sugar - 3 tbsp. spoons

We dissolve sugar in 100 g of moonshine, we get syrup. Pour it into the rest of the moonshine, add the rest of the ingredients there. We cork the bottle, remove the infusion in a dark place from 1 to 4 weeks. The degree of readiness can also be determined by taste.

In the article, we have listed the basic steps for making oak moonshine at home. Of course, there are many more recipes for moonshine tinctures on oak chips and various spices. You cannot list and remember all of them, and there are dozens or even hundreds of potential ingredients for creating tinctures. But this fact will give room for experimentation and the invention of your own unique drink.

Oak moonshine on wood chips (video)

In production, for the same purpose, oak barrels are used from boards of varying degrees of roasting, but in everyday life its purchase is quite expensive. Not quite a complete, but quite a worthy replacement would be wood chips and, to a lesser extent, bark, which can be bought at any pharmacy. How to use it correctly and what to do with it in general - in our article.

What is the use of chips

The cost of a barrel is directly proportional to its volume. Quite small - 5-liter - will cost an average of 4-5 thousand rubles, 50-liter - from 8 thousand, etc. But even this is not bad, with the regular preparation of cognac products you can fork out, but the fact that the barrel is designed for a maximum of 10 refills. After that, there is no longer any use for it - it will just be a storage container. You don't have to be a mathematician to figure out how much pleasure will cost. Oak chips for cognac and whiskey are many times cheaper, especially since you can find it for free - in the nearest forest or in the country house where oaks grow.

You can not use boards from logging enterprises - the wood goes through a stage of chemical treatment from beetles, rotting and to increase the shelf life.

Even if we assume that the tree has not yet been processed, the dubious benefits of such an acquisition are obvious - dusty warehouses, oil and fuel oil from loaders neutralize all the useful properties of the tree.

The easiest way is to find a middle-aged tree in the nearest forest and saw off its branch (may the Greenpeace and environmental inspectorates forgive us). It will be a truly 100% natural product, which will only be chopped into small chips and pre-prepared.

There is an option to buy blanks in specialized stores - 50 grams cost an average of 80-100 rubles. This amount of oak chips is enough to infuse 2.5-3 liters of future cognac.

Oak chips "Premium" (strong firing) cubes - price 112 rubles. for 50 gr.

Log or bark?

In extreme cases, you can use the pharmacy bark, which is sold in all pharmacies. But this is exactly a fallback option, since real cognac will not work on it. Before packaging, it is processed, as a result of which a large amount of tannins is lost. The finished drink will not have an intense aroma and color, and the aftertaste will be completely slurred.

VIDEO: Harvesting technology at home

How to make oak chips for cognac

Do-it-yourself preparation of oak chips for cognac consists of several stages:

1. cleaning

Be sure to after collecting and cutting into pegs with a cross section of 5-7 mm, they are washed under running water from small particles, dust and litter. You need to rinse it 3-4 times, between which it is dried.

1. Soak

The task of this stage is to clean the wood from the inside. You can simply soak the pegs in water at room temperature for a day, or you can add baking soda at the rate of 1 tsp. for every liter of water. Soda in this case absorbs all those substances that the tree managed to gain during its growth. Soak for an average of 2-3 days (changing water every day), after which it is dried again. There is no need to wait until the water becomes clear. This may not work. But some of the substances will go away during the soaking process.

1. Digestion

A very important step, which allows you to avoid the taste of "skirting" in the finished drink in the future. On the other hand, during the process of digestion, the pores open as much as possible, respectively, with alcohol there will be a better composition.

To do this, put the pegs in cold water, bring to a boil, cover with a lid and leave on low heat for a quarter of an hour. After they were taken out, cooled and dried.

1. Burning

Depending on the conditions in which oak chips for cognac are prepared, they can be burned in an oven at a temperature of 160 ° C or over direct fire. The degree of roasting can be different - minimal, medium and intensive. In the future, this affects the color and taste of the drink. We recommend doing all 3 types and insisting on each separately in order to further determine your preferences.

• minimum roasting - a tree of golden color - the taste will be vanilla with a slight bitterness;
• medium - brown - a distinct sound of almonds with caramel notes, bitterness is felt more, but unobtrusively;
• intense - dark brown - in the future, the taste of freshly brewed tea and chocolate will be felt.

If black marks appear on the tree, you cannot use it - it will simply be impossible to drink such cognac.

1. Storage

Store prepared pegs in an airtight container to preserve the flavor of the smoke. It is advisable to use oak chips for moonshine as soon as they are prepared. In this case, all the notes and accents of the fragrance will be preserved. The more the workpiece is stored, the less pronounced the organoleptic will be.

Making homemade cognac

In this case, we are not talking about imitation of the taste of cognac, but about real brandy from grape mash. Try to follow the instructions as accurately as possible so that at the end you get, if not a drink of French masters, but very close to it.

For mash, you need to use sweet grape varieties - Isabella, Lady's finger, Lydia, etc. He must be ripe.

• grapes - 15 kg;
• sugar - 1.5;
• water - 2 liters.
• oak chips.

If sweet juicy southern grapes are used for mash, sugar is not needed at all. In this case, pure grape spirit will be obtained - an ideal basis for brandy.

Cooking:

1. Grapes are removed from the bunch and crushed right along with the seeds.

1. The liquid is poured into a bottle and, if the grapes were not very juicy, sugar is added at the rate of 1 kg of sand for every 10 liters of must. Drinking water is also poured there, it is measured in advance at the rate of 1 liter per 7.5 kg. Cover with cotton cloth and send to a warm dark place for 4 days.

1. The mash is mixed daily with wooden sticks so that the foamy cap of the pulp does not collect - it cuts off oxygen, and the yeast cannot fully develop.

By the end of the first day, you can start stirring the mash to prevent sourness.

1. On the fifth day, the mash will have all the signs of active fermentation - hissing, aroma, the pulp will rise all up. Now the slurry needs to be filtered, and the lumps of berries are squeezed well.
2. Add sugar (a small amount) to the juice, mix with a wooden stick, pour into bottles, leaving a third of the volume unfilled. Close with a water seal and send for 35-40 days in a dark place. The temperature of the mash all this time should be in the range of 19-27 ° C, for which it is convenient to use an aquarium heater.

1. When fermentation stops, the wort will brighten, and the sediment will fall to the bottom, it can be filtered and sent for distillation.
2. Ideally, an alambik (copper apparatus) should be used for distillation, but in the absence of one, a regular one will do. Pour into a distillation cube and run at maximum temperature, without taking away the tails and heads. Stop as soon as the strength of the raw material drops to 30 °.
3. The resulting crude is diluted with water to 8 °, after which it is put into a second distillation. Here, the heads are already selected (no more than 12%) and the tails are cut off - with a decrease in the fortress to 30 °.
4. In order to get wine alcohol in its pure form, it can be sent for the third distillation, for which the raw material is diluted with water to 20 °. Heads (12%) and tails are taken again after 45°. Measure the strength of the distillate and dilute it with water to 42 °.
5. Now comes the turn of insisting on oak chips. On average, the infusion time should be at least six months, but the longer this process goes on, the brighter and richer the taste will be. The maximum holding time is 3 years.

1. Caramelization is an essential step in adding color to the finished drink. This is how they do it in all industries. Caramel is being prepared - 1 tbsp. sugar per 1 tbsp. the water is boiled down to a brown color and added to the strained and filtered drink. Insist 10 days and bottled.

Cognac is ready, now it's time for tasting.

VIDEO: How to make sugar color for homemade cognac