How to use oak chips. Oak chips for distillates

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 the 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!

Not everyone can afford to buy high-quality elite alcohol because of the high cost. But it is quite possible to make good brandy or whiskey at home. To do this, you need to prepare a grain or fruit distillate and keep it in an oak barrel. Such a drink will be much better than cheap analogues that we offer to buy in stores. But again, there is a small snag here - the acquisition of a good oak barrel, which also costs a lot of money. There is a way out, replace the barrel with oak chips. Chips are easy to prepare yourself.

The tannins contained in oak wood, when in contact with alcohol, improve its quality, saturate it with new aromas and tastes. Fruity notes, vanilla, chocolate and floral aromas appear in the distillate infused with oak chips.

To a greater extent, alcohol made from fruit or grain raw materials is insisted. After infusion, it has the taste of the raw materials: apples, grapes or grain taste. But even ordinary sugar moonshine becomes more pleasant and aesthetic, the taste becomes softer, it is easy to drink.

Attention! To infuse moonshine, chips are made not only from oak chips. For infusion, wood of cherry, apple, bird cherry is used. Each type gives the distillate astringency and originality of tastes and aromas. Each home distiller is determined for himself with the choice of the desired breed himself, depending on his tastes.

Instructions for preparing oak chips

Currently, many specialty stores and online stores offer oak chips for moonshine or cognac of various qualities, different roasting and oak origin. Often you can purchase low-quality material, so if you can find raw materials on your own, it is better to cook wood chips with your own hands. Oak chips for moonshine have a larger contact area compared to a barrel, so the infusion process is faster. People often ask how much oak chips per liter of moonshine are used. The usual sample is 2-4 grams per liter. Too much can spoil the alcohol. The taste of the drink will be dominated by the smell of wood, which is not very good.

1. For chips, you need to choose oak logs of old oak. Oak branches are not used for wood chips. Also, oak bark is not suitable, in which there are a lot of tannins.
2. Remove bark. Saw the log into chocks of 5-7 centimeters, then split into sticks 0.5-1 cm thick. Such chips can be placed in the neck of an ordinary bottle.
3. Put the required amount of wood chips in a saucepan, pour water and stand for a day. Every 3-4 hours it is necessary to drain the dirty water and fill it with clean water.
4. Pour the chips with a soda solution of water. One teaspoon per 5 liters of water. Soak in soda water for 6 hours. Then rinse the bars in cold water.
5. Pour the chips with clean water, put on fire and cook after boiling for about 1 hour.
6. Spread the wood chips on a mesh pallet, dry in a draft during the day.
7. Arrange dried oak chips on a baking sheet. Preheat the oven to 140-160C, place a baking sheet in it and keep the chips for 2 hours.
8. The final stage is roasting the chips to the desired firing. The taste and color of the resulting home-made alcohol depends on the degree of roasting. According to the degree of roasting, wood chips are divided into three types:

• Light firing - light brown color of chips, occurs at the moment the first haze appears. Light roasting gives the distillate a fruity-floral aroma with slight hints of vanilla. The color of infused moonshine turns straw.
• Medium firing - brown chips. The infused distillate contains almonds, coconut and caramel. The color of the drink is more saturated closer to cognac.
• Strong firing - chips of dark brown color closer to black. Distillate with taste of chocolate and smoke.

Video instructions for preparing oak chips.

How to insist moonshine on wood chips

As an alcohol base, it is necessary to use fruit or grain moonshine with a strength of 40-45% after the second fractional distillation.

Ingredients:

• Moonshine - 3 l;
• Oak chips 10-12 gr;
• Caramel for color - 1 tbsp;
• Vanillin - 1 sachet;
• Allspice - 3 pcs;
• Carnation - 3 pcs.

How to make a drink on oak chips.

1. Place prepared oak chips in a jar, pour moonshine. Add spices and vanilla.
2. Close the jar and insist the contents for 3-4 months. Once a week, you need to open the jar in order to saturate the infusion with oxygen. It is better to use an aquarium compressor and turn it on for 3-4 minutes. In the process of infusion, it is necessary to taste the drink, excessive infusion threatens alcohol with excessive saturation with tannins. As a result, you can spoil the moonshine and get a plinth.
3. At the end of the infusion, prepare caramel from sugar and water. Kohler will give the drink a noble color. For cooking, put sugar in a pan and pour in water at a ratio of 3: 1. Cook over low heat until brown, let cool and pour into the moonshine. Mix well until completely dissolved.
4. After infusion, filter the drink through a cotton-gauze filter. Pour into bottles, cork well. Wait a few days before use. Ready-made moonshine on oak chips can be stored in a cool place for an unlimited time.

mihasic 20.12.2014 - 16:27

Here is moonshine on oak chips, right? I think there is no need to talk about this drink, everyone knows. The question is different. After drinking the product, chips remain. Throw away or put back? It is not an extreme form of stinginess, but vice versa. It is known that the Scots almost never pour their whiskey into freshly cut casks, using either American bourbon casks or, more rarely, Spanish sherry or Madeira casks. Probably for no reason? So with a new bookmark - take fresh chips? use used? What will be the opinions?

Gone 20.12.2014 - 18:18

"History of whiskey and Scottish avarice.
The world-famous Scottish stinginess also influenced the style of whiskey. Scotch whiskey acquires its taste through aging in barrels of wine or sherry. They came to this decision not thanks to experiments, but only because used barrels were sold cheaper than new ones. Of course, no one remembers this anymore, but still.

Z.Y.
A tourist in Scotland decided to check whether the tales about the stinginess of the Scots are true.
He calls the first house he comes across. The man comes out.
Tourist:
- Will you give me a drink?
The man leaves - and returns with a pot of milk.
The tourist drinks and says to the peasant:
- They lie all about you, that you are greedy ... And you give excellent milk to the first person you meet!
Man:
- Well, to be honest, I wouldn't give it to you if the rat didn't drown in it...
- WHAT?!!! SCART!!!
And the tourist throws the pot - the one in pieces.
Scot:
- VANDAL!! (turns, yelling at wife) Elizabeth, did you see that goat broke your mother's chamber pot!!! 😊

mihasic 20.12.2014 - 18:24

vanish
Scotch whiskey acquires its taste through aging in barrels of wine or sherry. They came to this decision not thanks to experiments, but only because used barrels were sold cheaper than new ones.

Well, don't. Bourbon barrels brought from overseas are more expensive, whatever one may say, but they are mostly used.

Gone 20.12.2014 - 19:24

And even so, the barrel is not small chips. I think everything useful comes out of chips. Yes, and it seems like it’s necessary to prepare the barrels, but here they are already ready 😊

APavel 20.12.2014 - 23:14

Aged whiskey in sherry casks, wine in cognac casks, etc. The topic is extremely complex and lengthy. Avarice, if it was, has long been out of the question. I’m for throwing it into the brazier so that the material itself still serves

KM 21.12.2014 - 12:08

Wouldn't it be easier to try making another serving of the drink on used chips, and one on new ones and compare?

B8F761 21.12.2014 - 12:10

You can mulch the soil or use ikebana 😊

mihasic 21.12.2014 - 02:18

KM
Wouldn't it be easier to try making another serving of the drink on used chips, and one on new ones and compare?

Wait a long time. I keep it for at least a year. And it's interesting now.

mihasic 21.12.2014 - 02:20

B8F761
You can mulch the soil or use ikebana 😊

You can burn it on coal and make black powder. A lot of things are possible. But what is needed?

Abar 21.12.2014 - 10:04

Mix with fresh and taste...

PILOT_SVM 21.12.2014 - 13:18

mihasic
Here is moonshine on oak chips, right? I think there is no need to talk about this drink, everyone knows. The question is different. After drinking the product, chips remain. Throw away or put back? It is not an extreme form of stinginess, but vice versa. It is known that the Scots almost never pour their whiskey into freshly cut casks, using either American bourbon casks or, more rarely, Spanish sherry or Madeira casks. Probably for no reason? So with a new bookmark - take fresh chips? use used? What will be the opinions?

If we assume that there are a lot of useful substances in wood and they do not come out at a time, then use it again and watch the quality of the drink.
First by color, then by taste.

I think that in 2-3 times everything useful will come out of the wood chips.

Postoronnim V 21.12.2014 - 21:00

Probably need to look - what kind of chips in thickness.
While I was soaking new barrels for Calvados, in order not to waste time, I put apple moonshine in a glass bottle and threw roasted oak chips there. About a centimeter by a centimeter and about one mm thick. In a month it gave both taste and color.
Then I poured the whole thing into a barrel, and poured apple macerate to the BU-chips (purely out of curiosity, because I have enough right wood chips and I don’t feel sorry for it).
For a week and a half, the color has not changed much. So ..., it turned slightly yellow, and then, rather, due to the fact that the previous moonshine was probably absorbed there in chips ... I’ll look at the account of taste tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. If I don’t feel the right trend, then I’ll throw in new chips and then back into the barrel.

At the expense of whiskey, etc. grain drinks - barrels seem to be used there not forever, but up to five to ten fillings. Further, these barrels can be used for quite a long time for fruit and berry distillates. However, a new barrel undergoes preliminary alcohol soaking without the use of the first infusion. At the same time, excess substances that are unnecessary for the formation of taste are washed out of the oak, and fusel impurities penetrate into the upper layer and already interact with other oak substances (including copper and iron ions). Temperature and oxygen aeration accelerate the process. And when the barrel is prepared in this way, then the distillate is poured in, from which whiskey, etc. will be produced. spirits based on distillates.
If the distillate is insisted not in barrels, but on aged oak staves, then this stave is planed from time to time.
Thin chips, I strongly suspect that there is not much point in reusing them.

KM 21.12.2014 - 21:51

mihasic
Wait a long time. I keep it for at least a year.

Yes, then the comparison is not an option.

Lodbrock 24.12.2014 - 03:19

EMNIP, it is believed that in a year it is washed out of oak riveting 3 mm in depth. Accordingly, if your chip is less than 6 mm thick, reuse for the same product is useless.
In general - http://forum.homedistiller.ru/index.php?board=152.0

APavel 24.12.2014 - 11:36

Postoronnim V
At the expense of whiskey, etc. grain drinks - barrels seem to be used there not forever, but up to five to ten fillings. .

Again IMHO - aging in an oak barrel is intended not only to enrich the distillate contained in the material of the barrel, but also to reduce / bind the harmful from the distillate

Lodbrock 24.12.2014 - 12:59

Fired before first use. Please tell me where you saw a movie with firing after each use.

APavel 24.12.2014 - 14:23

I won’t say for sure, some kind of science pop, because it was a long time ago and the topic is not so important for me. But I remember the picture well - the production of whiskey, a story about where the barrels come from, what the process looks like (stone cellars, an uncle walks with an important look, tries from different barrels, a person’s work 😛), then the empty barrels are dismantled (the hoops are moved to the edges , the bottom is removed) and on a special machine with an open fire they burn the insides to coal, peel off the excess and collect the barrel back.
A few years ago, I planned the process described above by Postoronnim V, searched for barrels, found the barrels themselves, but here's how to maintain them after the first use - no, it's dumb to disassemble and assemble myself, I'm not sure of a positive result.

Postoronnim V 24.12.2014 - 16:59

APavel
I am not a great specialist, but IMHO, after each use, the barrel is disassembled and fired, judging by the picture in the cinema in this regard, five millimeters of the inner layer is exactly in the scrap.
Again IMHO - aging in an oak barrel is intended not only to enrich the distillate contained in the material of the barrel, but also to reduce / bind the harmful from the distillate

At the expense of "reduce harmful" - this is not entirely true. Rather make it tastier. And the content of the same notorious and harmful furfural is increasing.

Lodbrock 25.12.2014 - 12:29

the empty barrels are dismantled (the hoops are moved to the edges, the bottoms are removed) and the insides are burned to coal on a special machine with an open fire, the excess is peeled off and the barrel is collected back

I can assume that they are removing the very layer from which everything tasty has already been washed out. But it's not after every use. In addition, let's not forget that barrels from one drink can be used to produce another. (Of course, nothing will be chipped at the same time.)

Primary firing prepares the surface layer for faster contact with the distillate.
If anyone uses subsequent firing, then again, to speed up the process.

Faster interaction with the distillate is achieved by increasing the area/volume ratio and increasing the temperature. The aeration mentioned above is also used to accelerate ripening. Roasting itself does not accelerate maturation in any way. But it really does affect the taste. By using different degrees of roasting, you can get very different flavors in the same time and with the same distillate.

the content of the same notorious and harmful furfural increases

This is what I didn't understand.

APavel 25.12.2014 - 02:28

Postoronnim V
If anyone uses subsequent firing, then again, to speed up the process. This only reduces the resource of the barrel.

And how are you? In the sense of which barrels you take and how you serve after the first time.

Postoronnim V 25.12.2014 - 08:32

APavel
And how are you? In the sense of which barrels you take and how you serve after the first time.

Lodbrock
Faster interaction with the distillate is achieved by increasing the area/volume ratio and increasing the temperature. The aeration mentioned above is also used to accelerate ripening. Roasting itself does not accelerate maturation in any way. But it really does affect the taste. By using different degrees of roasting, you can get very different flavors in the same time and with the same distillate.

This all contributes to faster maturation.
Because maturation is accelerated by aeration with oxygen, at elevated temperatures, with UV and gamma irradiation ...
So in the charred layer, aeration occurs much more intensively due to an increase in the surface. Naturally, the barrel should not be completely filled, and pitching is desirable, so that the distillate splashes there, wets the charred walls above the surface and, flowing down the coal, is more intensively aerated.
As for the change in taste - everything is clear. The distillate has access not only to substances from oak wood, but also to those substances into which they turn on the gradient between coal and primary wood. Different firing - different ratios of gradient substances.

Lodbrock
This is what I didn't understand.

In the process of maturation of distillates in oak containers (or baths with riveting), the content of furfural increases. For cognac, for example, one and a half to two times easily.

CMS-UA 25.12.2014 - 08:36

Of course, not moonshine 😊 ... but I had a Camus booklet in Russian already in 1971. so it was very clearly written there that the first infusion is 1 year, the second 3, and only after the third aging the barrel gains nobility for aging the highest cognacs in it from 10 years. So the chips can and should be reused only to increase the exposure time.

Postoronnim V 25.12.2014 - 09:00

CMS-UA
Of course, not moonshine 😊 ... but I had a Camus booklet in Russian already in 1971. so it was very clearly written there that the first infusion is 1 year, the second 3, and only after the third aging the barrel gains nobility for aging the highest cognacs in it from 10 years. So the chips can and should be reused only to increase the exposure time.

And in that booklet, wasn't it accidentally and clearly written - what is the capacity of the barrels for this very Samus?

APavel 25.12.2014 - 14:12

Postoronnim V
I have barrels burned inside and covered with wax on the outside. Already ordered these. Before starting to use, I slightly knocked down the hoops to the middle, soaked them in water for three weeks, then poured them with a mixture of apple moonshine tails, moonshine tails and alcohol to strengthen this mixture to 55 degrees for three months. Well, from time to time he sloshed the barrels and topped up the tails as the angels sipped their share. Then he merged the whole thing and let it go for re-distillation, and poured apple moonshine into one barrel, and the secondary distillate of simple moonshine macerate on apples into the second. Further, the barrels were only topped up to compensate for the drunk. I haven't done any maintenance and don't plan to. Theoretically, the service life of barrels for fruit and berry distillates is much longer than barrels for whiskey, bourbon .., but if something is depleted, I will not disassemble and plan, but I plan to simply pour moonshine previously infused on wood chips into barrels.
By the way, yesterday I tried moonshine on a spent chip. Something didn't get through. I threw in a new fried wood chip and put it on a weekly thermostat (60 degrees Celsius).

I apologize in advance for the malicious off, but it's very interesting
- If it's not a secret, where did you order it? And, I correctly understood that these are not barrels after something, but freshly made,
- Why was the tailings poured, and not the normal distillate of the desired strength? And why raise the fortress in the process?
- I correctly understood that it is not planned to fix the "harvest of the Nth year", but simply the contents will be periodically supplemented with fresh distillate of the desired strength (and what strength is it planned to maintain in a barrel?)
- Can you explain about thermostating?
-What is your distiller?
Thank you in advance

Postoronnim V 25.12.2014 - 15:34

I have three devices.
1. a simple distiller from a 6 l pressure cooker. with a small reflux tube and glass. ball cooler for absinthe.
2. distiller from a 12 l pressure cooker with a long reflux tube, a steamer and a ball glass cooler for distillation of mash.
3. distillation column for obtaining alcohol without the smell of fusel, etc.

Yes, fixing the "harvest" in barrels is not planned. The fortress is planned in the region of 50 degrees. I don’t chase accuracy, I don’t really believe in alcohol meters, and I’m often too lazy to determine the exact fortress by weighing. Yes, and what, in fact, is the difference between forty degrees or fifty. This already means that the distillate is strong enough. Everything that does not burn - goes to the tails.

I poured tails because there is more fuselage there, and it is she who determines the taste of subsequent fillings. It is not necessary to raise the fortress. It should be between 18 and 60 degrees. The time of alcohol soaking depends on the fortress. Optimally 45-55 degrees, but 18 is also good and, if time endures, it can even sometimes be better. For example, my godfather just bought 10 liters of Madeira, poured it into the same barrel and kept it for 9-10 months. Well prepared barrel too..

I ordered barrels from Pavel Nechaev (Stavropol Bondar http://www.stavbondar.ru/) The barrels were fresh. If desired, they can be burned and covered with wax. Specifically ordered such http://www.stavbondar.ru/catal...-product-2.html
Of course, it would be tempting to buy old barrels, but, frankly, it is reluctant to deal with possible leaks later. And the volume of such barrels is not 10-20 liters. Although at home a volume of 10-20 liters is just optimal, because. there is a more favorable volume / internal ratio. the surface and drinks in such barrels mature much faster. In the post above, it was not by chance that I asked CMS-UA about the volume of barrels for Camus. Because on an industrial scale, classic (and vintage) cognacs are made in rather large oak containers, where the maturation processes are, in principle, many times slower than in barrels of 10-20 liters. Maybe it ripens better, but it makes no sense for an ordinary moonshiner to wait so much. Otherwise, it will turn out, as in a joke - ".. but you don’t feel like drinking .. 😞 "
And ordinary cognacs are made in enameled baths with oak staves. Moreover, maturation is artificially accelerated by forced oxygen aeration, etc. tricks.

Thermostating is when I pour apple moonshine into a 10 liter jar (not completely, but somewhere around 7-8 liters) and throw 1 tea. a spoon per liter of roasted oak chips (again from Stavr. Cooper), the jar is wrapped with a cable, then outside with a heater (polyethylene foam, foam rubber) Under the heater, a temperature sensor is connected and the whole thing is connected to a homemade temperature controller, which is set to 60 degrees Celsius. And that's how it's been for a week. I fluff up periodically. With this mode, 1 week is equivalent to 2-3 months of infusion on wood chips at room temperature, and moonshine becomes much more edible.

CMS-UA 26.12.2014 - 03:36

Postoronnim V
it was not by chance that I asked CMS-UA about the volume of barrels for Camus

according to her words, they should be no less than 50x50x300 mm and make up 1/10 of the infusion product by weight, her drink will go nuts, though the bars from the winery after fine wine, she uses the bars many times, the main thing from her words is so that they do not dry out, then in the scrap.

Postoronnim V 26.12.2014 - 08:40

CMS-UA
I don’t remember the volume of barrels, but I remember the fact that they evaporate 3000l of cognac into the atmosphere a year 😊 (although maybe 30000l? 😊)
The processes of natural aging in home-brewing are of course unrealistic, a familiar winemaker simply keeps moonshine in an autoclave at t 80 * for three days, oak beams
according to her words, they should be no less than 50x50x300 mm and make up 1/10 of the infusion product by weight, her drink will go nuts, though the bars from the winery after fine wine, she uses the bars many times, the main thing from her words is so that they do not dry out, then in the scrap.

I strongly suspect that your friend has three days at 80 degrees - this is the same as mine for a week at 60. I would do the same, but there is no autoclave, and from under the PE jar lid, moonshine hotter than 60 degrees already starts to fizzle out noticeably.
According to the bars and dose - everyone has their own recipes. Some pour wood chips (or even sawdust) up to a third of the volume, some use bars, some simply plug a bottle of moonshine with a special oak cork ..
Having a riveting from a vintage wine - here it turns out by itself that it is optimal to use large bars. The surface has already been prepared by alcohol soaking and grinding the riveting will only spoil it.
I use toasted oak chips. More than 1 spoon per liter is considered unnecessary and, in my case, harmful. The surface of the chips is already large enough, the roasting of the chips and the increased infusion temperature greatly accelerates the extraction and aging processes. If I added more wood chips, I got a bust in the direction of a "wooden" taste and clogging the apple flavor of moonshine.

APavel 10.01.2015 - 16:15

Postoronnim V
[B] poured apple moonshine into one barrel, and the secondary distillate of plain moonshine macerate for apples into the second barrel / B]

p-f 10.01.2015 - 17:27

vanish
As an option, they bought up empty barrels left from imported drinks. And ... "James IV, was very fond of building ships, and was so fond of this business that he cut down almost all the oaks in Scotland. In particular, he built the Great Michael ship, the largest in Europe at that time. To the share of his son, fond of bas-reliefs, there were no more trees left and they had to be imported. "(c) Maybe they really had a problem with the material?
And even so, the barrel is not small chips. I think everything useful comes out of chips. Yes, and it seems like it’s necessary to prepare the barrels, but here they are already ready 😊

barrels, primarily Spanish ones from sherry, got almost free to scotch tape, because in Europe phylloxera in the 50s of the 19th century stole all the vine and there was simply no wine.
at the moment, only 10% of such barrels are in use, which are used only when aging the elite.
the French are known to have cognac casks produced over 200 years ago. are considered the best.

Gee 10.01.2015 - 17:41

Poke your finger at the right and beautiful device to buy.

Postoronnim V 11.01.2015 - 22:56

APavel

Can you explain what is the difference between apple moonshine and moonshine for apples in a particular (your) case?

Taste difference.
Moonshine from apple wine after the second distillation with high-quality tailings has a very pleasant taste, but the taste of an apple is not always unambiguous. As if the wine was a mixture of an apple with some other fruits and berries. After an oak barrel, notes of Calvados and cognac are felt.
Moonshine macerate and its subsequent distillation give a more distinct apple taste. After the oak, the Calvados taste is present, but also the scotch.

By the way, macerate does not have to be made on moonshine and stand in oak. A kilo of apples, 5 liters of water, 5 liters of alcohol and then distilled in a distiller - we get good apple vodka.

APavel 12.01.2015 - 13:14

Postoronnim V
Personally, I like the first option more, but the news is that apple juice is fermented and distilled back in the fall, and moonshine for macerate is always available.
By the way, macerate does not have to be made on moonshine and stand in oak. A kilo of apples, 5 liters of water, 5 liters of alcohol and then distilled in a distiller - we get good apple vodka.

Sorry, I'm a little confused with the terminology. Do you call a liqueur (tincture), in this case, on apples, a macerate? And what is the strength of moonshine for insisting? What container are you doing this in?
"moonshine for macerate is always available", i.e. after the autumn "utilization" of the apple harvest, only part of the moonshine is sent to barrels, and the rest is stored in a neutral container? And what container? And how many distillations and what is the fortress? Where do you get apples for infusion?
It is not clear about the last recipe, if you mean alcohol with a strength of 100 percent, it turns out that the finished product is a tincture of about 40, what is the point of distilling it and the fortress will rise strongly?
And thanks for the detailed answers, very informative

Postoronnim V 12.01.2015 - 14:26

Finely cut a kilo of apples and pour ten liters of 40-60 degree moonshine. We insist a week, drain. Then pour 2 liters of water and insist another day. It can be longer, because the last operation is needed for a more complete extraction of the remnants of moonshine from apples. Drain again, mix with the first drain and distill (I should note that for the first time you can not drain, but distill with apples, but I personally don’t like to do this).
The recipe is not strict. If the aroma is small, then two kg is possible. apples to use

I insist in a glass jar of 10 liters. IMHO, it doesn't matter. You can insist in a plastic container.

Apple moonshine is partially sent to oak, because. the rest is drunk with great enthusiasm by friends shortly after the distillation.
What remains after the haul is quite suitable for re-fermentation and haul. I add wine yeast and glucose.
When the "vtoryak" ends, then I just distill the mash on glucose and wine yeast. With top dressing from ammonium chloride and phosphoric acid, the content of fusel oil is minimal.

I have been storing apples for maceration since autumn. One and a half bag of Antonovka and now there is still left.

If for vodka - then a kilo of apples per 5 liters of alcohol 96 degrees and 5 liters of water.
We distill so that the water in the distillate is distilled, in order to take the aromatic component from the apples, and leave the excess in the stillage. Roughly speaking, distillation is much better than hemorrhoids with suspension removal and water correction.
However, it is desirable to keep the drink in glass for at least a week after distillation.

Fruit, berry, herbal, fruit strong drinks are best distilled.
Sometimes it's just necessary.
For example, when distilling wormwood-anise-fennel tincture into absinthe, we take away herbal flavors with thujone with alcohol, and in the bard we leave unhealthy and unpleasant-tasting resins that were escaping into the tincture side by side.

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The use of oak chips during fermentation and aging is a common practice in the production of wine, which positively affects the taste and aroma, body and overall quality. In particular, the oak imparts many volatile and phenolic substances to the wine, each of which, individually and collectively, contributes to the addition. Aging in oak barrels also contributes significantly to the organoleptic format. Due to the porosity of the wood, oxygen slowly permeates through it, helping to soften the astringency, stabilize the color and reduce some of the aromatic characteristics. While fermentation and barrel aging are desirable for many wines, this is often not feasible in practice for many reasons, including financial constraints. Oak barrels are very expensive, take up a lot of space and need to be regularly replaced with new ones to consistently achieve the desired effect.

All this forces winemakers to look for less expensive alternatives, in particular oak chips. Chips can be added to wine fermented and stored in steel, glass or plastic tanks, and the effect achieved is similar to that of wines made in oak barrels.

Many factors influence which volatiles are extracted from oak into wine and in what amounts. Their content is influenced by the duration of contact of wine with oak, the origin of the tree, its quality, the level of roasting, and others. Wine type and grape variety can also be major factors influencing extract. Among the volatile components, the most characteristic are:

• Furfural (tones of dried fruits)
• Guaiacol (burnt tones)
• Whiskey lactone (oak and coconut)
• Eugenol (cloves, smoke, spices)
• 4-Ethylphenol (Labrador Dacite, Barnyard)
• 4-ethyl guaiacol (cloves, smoke, spices)
• Vanillin (vanilla tones)
• Syringaldehyde (vanilla)

Lactones, volatile phenols and phenolic aldehydes have the most significant influence on the aroma, taste and quality of wine.

Four wine samples were used in the experiment:

1) Varietal Cabernet Sauvignon
2) Varietal Bluefrankish
3) Red blend
4) White blend

and eight samples of oak chips:

1) American oak

• medium roast
• Strong roast

2) German oak

• No roast
• medium roast
• Strong roast

3) French oak

• medium roast
• Medium roast +
• Strong roast

Each wine was bottled in nine liter bottles and sealed with a crown cork. One sample was a control, the remaining eight contained 1g/l of each type of oak chips. Samples were aged for 30 days in a dark room at 4°C. The bottles were shaken twice a week for better extraction.

The composition of volatile components was analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.

results

Furfurals:

• The strongest change in concentration among other substances
• The concentration of furfural and 5-methylfural increased in all samples
• Strongest toasted French oak chips.
• Largest increase in 5-methylfurol concentrations on medium toasted American Oak and Deep Toasted French Oak chips
• Lowest concentration change on unroasted German oak chips

lactones

• Growth in all samples
• Largest increase in concentration on American Oak Medium Roast Chips
• Least gain on medium+ and deep roast chips

Eugenols

• Growth in all samples except Cabernet Sauvignon.
• In Cabernet Sauvignon, processed with German oak chips without roasting and strong roasting, a decrease in the concentration of eugenols was noted.
• Increasing concentration in wines on mid-roasted American oak chips
• The concentration of trans-isoeugenols was on French and American oak chips of medium and high roast.

guaiacol

• The level of content depended on the degree of roasting and did not depend on the origin of the chips
• Absent in samples infused with unroasted chips

ethylphenol

• Oak chips had no effect on the content of 4-ethylphenol in the samples

What does this mean?

The degree of roasting had the most significant effect on the composition of volatile substances. The content of furfural, guaiacol and whiskey lactones increased with the degree of roast. At the same time, geographic origin had a significantly smaller effect, which is inconsistent with the results of some other studies. However, the author admits that the experiment cannot fully reflect the real conditions of production, when the introduction of oak chips is carried out in a strictly defined period during the aging process. Also, shaking the bottles can hardly imitate the process of micro-oxygenation in stainless steel containers, which can also significantly affect the results.

High-quality, aged cognac is an expensive product. It is not always possible to find it in stores. But you can make a drink on your own, for this, moonshine is infused on oak chips or other methods of modifying moonshine are used. Homemade alcohol is not only tasty, but also does not contain harmful additives, flavorings.

Oak chips in home brewing

In order to cook exactly cognac on a moonshine still, you will need an oak barrel, or oak chips, as well as the patience of a distiller and a recipe with proportions. It is thanks to the wood chips, which contain tannin and give a noble shade to the taste of moonshine, the drink becomes seasoned and tart.

How to cook oak chips?

Before making moonshine on oak chips, you must first prepare all the ingredients. They are purchased in shops for winemaking, but you can find such points of sale only in large cities. It is better not to order such products over the Internet, since it is difficult to assess its quality. But if you have a recipe, you can prepare oak bark yourself.

Already prepared oak logs, which were previously cleared of bark, are split in size 15x3x0.5 centimeters, after which they are soaked in water and dried at high temperatures. Drinking water is taken for soaking, while it changes 3-4 times a day - this process will get rid of excess tannin.

Soaked wood chips are poured for 6 hours with a solution of soda. Proportion: 1 teaspoon of baking soda per 5 liters of water. After this procedure, the pegs should be boiled over low heat for an hour. Then the tree is dried in a ventilated room in a suspended state during the day.

The last step in the preparation of chips is their frying in the oven at a temperature of 160 degrees Celsius. The color and taste of cognac will depend on this stage. Time is chosen by the distiller independently. There are three options for the degree of roasting:

• A light degree of roasting (light brown color of wood) gives the infused moonshine the aroma of flowers with light notes of vanilla. Such cognac from moonshine will be straw.
• Medium toasting and, accordingly, the brown color of the chips contributes to the appearance of almond and caramel flavors. The color of the drink will be saturated.
• Strong roasting to a dark brown shade of chips will make the taste of the drink similar to chocolate.

The correct color of the tincture on wood chips is considered to be straw or brownish. If the shade turned out to be different, it means that an error was made in the technology during the preparation of the tree.

tincture recipe

In addition to using oak chips, to refine moonshine, you will need ingredients and proportions such as:

• moonshine or vodka (45-50%) - 3 liters;
• oak bark - 3 tablespoons;
• honey to taste - 1 tablespoon;
• carnation - 5 buds;
• black pepper, allspice - 10 pieces;
• St. John's wort - 1 tablespoon;
• oregano - 1 tablespoon;
• coriander and vanillin - a small pinch.

All proportions can be improved and selected independently. A drink without the addition of spices and herbs turns out to be harsh, especially if it is infused for a long time. The taste can turn out to be too tart, it is impossible to get rid of it. But the addition of honey, St. John's wort will give tenderness and additional flavor. Herbs are best purchased at pharmacies or other trusted places.

You can prepare the tincture according to this recipe:

1. Oak bark, along with other ingredients, is placed in a container, preferably in a glass jar, and poured with moonshine. After that, the container is covered with a lid.
2. Infusion occurs for two weeks in a dark place at room temperature. Shake the liquid every 3-4 days.
3. The tincture is filtered through a cotton or gauze filter without the use of additional adsorbents like charcoal. To achieve transparency, you can filter 3-4 times. The finished drink is poured into bottles and sent for storage. Banks should be hermetically sealed with stoppers.
4. If you stand the tincture before drinking for 10-12 days, then the drink will turn out even tastier.

Recipe for making homemade cognac

If necessary, you can use only oak chips for a clean taste. To do this, you need moonshine made from wine or grapes, as well as instructions for the method. In extreme cases, a drink made from sugar, grains or other fruits is suitable.

It is important to qualitatively carry out the distillation twice and not to forget about the purification of alcohol after the process. Delicious cognac at home will turn out if the drink does not contain aldehydes, fusel oils and other substances obtained from poor distillation mash. The resulting tincture will not be a full-fledged cognac, but it will become a completely high-quality imitation of it.

Glassware is required to continue cooking. Containers made of other material should not be taken, as it may react with the components of alcohol. But the glass is neutral in composition and will not violate the recipe.

A liter of moonshine with a strength of 45% will require from 30 to 60 grams of wood chips to taste. Infuse moonshine should be from 3 to 6 months. Sealed containers should be stored in a dark and cool place.

After completion of the infusion, the drink can be filtered through a simple gauze and bottled. Moonshine tincture is stored for about 2 years. To saturate the color of the product, caramel can be added to cognac. This action will give a sweetish tint to the taste and reduce the strength by 2-3 degrees. If you want to speed up the preparation of the tincture, then you can use the previous recipe, which involves vanillin, cloves and other components.

If you need to be careful with spices and control the amount of ingredients, then you can experiment with oak chips. If the distiller makes brandy according to this recipe for the first time, then you can divide the moonshine into several parts and pour it into different jars with different additions of different amounts of chips. The time required for exposure has no restrictions - it all depends only on the desire of the manufacturer. As soon as the distiller has made several attempts and gets the desired result, you can insist on the proportions obtained in large bottles.

And even before pouring into jars for storing the finished tincture, you can saturate the drink with oxygen. To do this, during cleaning through gauze, alcohol is allowed to flow slowly and in a thin stream: while the product flows into the jar, it is saturated with oxygen, the taste of the drink improves. It is desirable that the height of the fall of the jet be about 50 centimeters.

Caramel, which gives softness and rich color, is also unlimited in quantity. A tablespoon of burnt sugar or less is added per liter of drink. To make caramel, sugar should be heated over a fire to a brown hue and dissolved in a small amount of tincture, which is selected for this purpose. In order for the caramel to dissolve better, part of the tincture is heated to a temperature of 40 degrees Celsius, stirred until the caramel dissolves, the resulting mixture is added to the main container with homemade cognac and the liquids are mixed.

So that there is no evaporation of alcohol, you need to pour the liquid into a container that involves hermetic closure. The recipe for moonshine is close to the technology of preparing the product by French winemakers. It is very difficult to distinguish cognac from France from high-quality cognac from home-made moonshine.

The recipe has been tested and improved over the years. You can make not only edits, but also additions at your discretion, then the drink will turn out not only tasty and soft, but also unique.