How to make calvados from apple wine. How to make real calvados from apples without sugar and yeast

Making Calvados at home is an unattainable thing. Like cognac, armagnac or the same tequila, this drink has strict geographical and raw material restrictions, enshrined at the legislative level.

Therefore, Vzboltay will tell you how to make apple or apple-pear brandy at home, whose production technology will be as close as possible to Normandy counterparts.

Further, keep in mind that it is completely unacceptable to cook Calvados according to the red scheme. That is, apple mash for Calvados (as well as apple-pear) should in no case be prepared with cultivated yeast, and also with the addition of sugar. As you understand, this circumstance also does not allow making Calvados from apple pomace (by the way, practical Normans with waste pomace act in a very original way: they dry it and sell it to cosmetics manufacturers). If you, based on the speed and higher productivity of the red scheme, decide to ignore our advice, you will get an ordinary, although not without pleasantness, moonshine from apples. Calvados, on the other hand, is made exclusively from apple juice fermented according to the white scheme, i.e., with natural wild yeast.

And finally, given the unofficial name of the drink - apple cognac - Calvados must be aged in oak barrels for at least two years. Otherwise, at the output you will get the same apple brandy of the moonshine class, though of better quality than the distillate from the pomace.

homemade apple calvados recipe

This simple recipe will allow you to make drinks that are reminiscent of Calvados such as the famous Calvados Pays d'Auge and the slightly less prestigious AOC calvados.

Selection of fruits and preparation of cider. As we already wrote, the wort for Calvados is prepared from pure juice without any third-party additives. In fact, we are talking about non-carbonated cider. At the same time, when estimating the desired amount of the future drink, keep in mind the following ratio: to produce a liter of forty-degree Calvados, it is necessary to overtake 14 liters of cider made from 20 kilograms of apples.

When selecting suitable varieties of apples for Calvados, follow the classic Normandy formula: bittersweet varieties with a slight addition of sweet - 70%, sour varieties - 20%, bitter varieties - 10%. It is very desirable that the apples are small and have a noticeable aroma. At the same time, the fruits must be plucked from the tree, i.e., remain slightly unripe.

Having picked up the desired combination of different varieties of apples, leave the fruits in a warm place for a couple of days for final ripening. Then, by no means washing the fruit (otherwise you will destroy the wild yeast on the peel), chop them and send them under the press; if the amount of work to be done is not particularly large-scale, you can use a regular juicer. Leave the resulting juice in a container covered with gauze, and hold the cake in warm water for a day. Then, squeeze the apple mass, and pour the resulting liquid into the juice; it is important that it does not exceed 20% of the total volume. When the wort begins to ferment, remove the foam from it and place it in a dry, dark place, where it should be under a water seal at a temperature of 22-25°C. After 3-6 months, when the cider finally calms down, carefully remove it from the sediment and send it to distillation.

pear calvados

To be precise, we will talk about the preparation of an apple-pear drink, since pure pear Calvados simply does not exist in nature. In general, the technology of its production does not actually differ from the classical one. However, there are several nuances that we are going to tell you about.

Firstly: apple-pear brandy can only be made within the AOC calvados and Calvados Domfrontais standards, but in both cases a single column distillation is used. Accordingly, if you resort to double distillation, then move somewhat away from the canon.

Secondly: pears used to make a drink are equated with sour apples, so they must be with a noticeable sourness. Thus, when selecting fruits for making apple-pear cider, you can replace 20% of sour apples with the same amount of pears, which is acceptable under the AOC calvados standard, or do a la Calvados Domfrontais standard, replacing sour and some bittersweet apple fruits with pears, which will account for 30 to 50% of the total amount of fruit.

And thirdly: if you want to do everything according to science, prepare separately apple and pear cider, distill them and mix the resulting spirits in the proportion you want.

The recipe at home, and not only it, implies two possibilities. The first is, as in the case of the AOC calvados standard, to carry out a continuous single distillation by means of a vertical column distiller.

A more acceptable second option for us is a double distillation carried out in an ordinary moonshine unit (although, ideally, for the double distillation of drinks of the Calvados Pays d’Auge category, Charente-type copper “cognac” alambicas are used). As a result of the primary distillation, a 25-30 degree raw alcohol is obtained, which is entirely used for re-processing.

The secondary distillation of Calvados involves the separation of the resulting alcohol into fractions. First, 5-8% of the “head” containing highly toxic fusel oils is discarded. Then the “body” is selected, which will become the future Calvados. The starting point for the tail fraction should be the drop in the strength of the output product below the 40 degree mark. Unlike the "head", the "tails" can be stored for later to be added to new cider just before it is distilled.

The middle fraction should be diluted with distilled water to the desired strength (from forty revolutions and above), and then come to grips with the exposure of the resulting alcohol.

Keeping the drink and subsequent cleaning of Calvados at home

The first step in finishing your apple brandy is preparing the Calvados cask (needless to say, the cask must be oak). If you are dealing with a new container, it must be steamed, soaked in cold water, then rinsed with a 20-degree alcohol solution and steamed again. In this way, you will increase the water resistance of the barrel, disinfect it and rid the wood of excess tannins. Then, following the example of the Normandy distillers, the container should be burned from the inside, but this, frankly, is not for everybody.

To turn apple brandy into calvados, it must be in the barrel for at least two years. If you have steel nerves and iron endurance, the term can be extended indefinitely. At the same time, after two years of aging, the distillate should be poured into an older container so that its flavor and aroma bouquet acquires the calm versatility inherent in noble drinks.

The original Calvados has been made in only one of the regions of France, in Normandy, for more than four centuries. This is a distilled cider aged in oak barrels. For a long time it was considered a drink of the poor, but with Remarque's light pen it became popular among representatives of various classes. The secret of its preparation is in the choice of certain varieties of apples grown specifically for this type of strong drink. It is believed that a drink made from other varieties of apples is not Calvados, winemakers call it apple brandy. In fact, Calvados is also an apple brandy, but with a brand name. If you do not chase after the accuracy of the wording, it should be recognized that everyone can make Calvados at home, and how exactly to call it is a secondary issue.

Technology Features

Making apple brandy at home is a task that almost everyone can do, but not an easy one. You should be patient, since this process is lengthy, and also study the intricacies of the technology so that the finished drink resembles real Calvados as much as possible.

• The quality of the finished calvados will certainly be affected by the quality of the finished raw materials. You should not take rotten apples, hoping that the distillation process lies ahead. At best, a drink made from spoiled fruits will have unpleasant notes, at worst, at the first stage, the raw materials will not ferment, but will rot.
• Such varieties of apples, which are used in the production of the original Calvados, cannot be found in Russian gardens. A successful combination of different varieties of apples, which must be late varieties, will help you get the right bouquet. This combination is considered optimal: 7 parts bittersweet apples, 2 parts sour fruits and 1 part bitter (tart).
• Some recipes that can be found on the Internet advise washing and de-seeding apples to make Calvados cider, using pure apple juice without pulp for this purpose. If you follow these recommendations, you will not get Calvados at home. Firstly, you can’t wash apples so that live bacteria that ensure fermentation remain on them. The maximum that can be done with the fruits is to wipe them with a dry cloth to remove dust. Secondly, apple seeds help to give the desired flavor to the future drink, so the fruits should be crushed along with the core and peel.
• Picking apples for the preparation of alcoholic beverages, including Calvados, is possible only in dry weather, at least a couple of days after the last rain. Otherwise, there may be too little yeast on the surface of the fruit for full fermentation.
• One of the steps in the preparation of Calvados is the distillation of apple cider. In this case, the quality of the moonshine and distillation conditions matter. So, the drink should not be allowed to heat above 85 degrees, and distillation should also be stopped when the strength of the resulting brandy drops to 30 degrees. The drink should not be subjected to double distillation, as in this case it will completely lose the flavor and aroma notes characteristic of Calvados. The first and last portions of the liquid obtained during distillation (10% each) may contain toxic substances, so they will have to be thrown out.
• An important requirement in the preparation of Calvados, both in industrial conditions and at home, is its insistence for a long time in oak barrels. If you didn’t manage to get one, you can ennoble the drink as follows:
  • Plane the oak logs to make chips in the form of "chips", while avoiding the oak bark, which will give the drink a bitter aftertaste, into the chips.
  • Pour oak "chips" into the bottom of glass jars.
  • Pour the Calvados into jars.
  • Roll up the jars with metal lids, like compote, and leave for 8-12 months.
  • Open the jars, filter the drink and pour into glass bottles. Seal them, preferably with oak corks.

If you cook Calvados according to the classical technology, then you will be able to try it not earlier than in a year. If you want to simplify and speed up the process, you can make a drink that imitates Calvados, but in fact it is an apple tincture.

Classic homemade calvados recipe

Composition (for 1.5–1.6 liters of Calvados):

• apples of bitter-sweet varieties - 14 kg;
• sour apples - 4 kg;
• tart apples - 2 kg.

Cooking method:

• Sort the collected apples, throwing out the rumpled, rotten and wormy ones, carefully wipe the selected fruits with a soft cloth, remove the stalks.
• Cut the apples, without peeling or removing the seed box from them, into pieces of any size. Pass through a juicer or chop with a meat grinder, food processor.
• Place the pulp containers in a warm, but not sunny place, covered with a cloth. Leave it to ferment for 24-48 hours. All this time, remove the foam that forms on the surface and mix the apple juice.
• Squeeze out the juice from the pulp through gauze folded in 4 layers and set it to settle for another day.
• Drain the juice through a rubber tube into a large bottle, where it will ferment further. Try to exclude the ingress of pulp (sediment) into it.
• Close the bottle with a water seal or simply put a rubber glove on its neck, having previously pierced one of its fingers.
• Put the bottle in a room with a temperature of 20 to 25 degrees and wait for the end of fermentation. This process usually takes about two months. A fallen glove will testify to its completion.
• Pour the resulting cider into an alembic and start distilling. Do not forget about the need to pour out the "heads" and "tails". If the amount of ingredients indicated in this recipe was used, then you need to drain the first and last 0.2 liters, that is, in a faceted glass. The output will be about 1.5 liters of a drink with a strength of 40-45 degrees - it all depends on the quality of the raw materials and the strength of the apple wine used for distillation.
• Place the distilled apple brandy in an oak barrel or pour it into glass bottles, adding oak shavings to them and closing them with oak stoppers (the first option is preferable). Infuse the drink for at least 8 months (if you have enough patience, you can insist longer - in this case, the drink will turn out to be of better quality). The possibility of reducing the exposure time is not provided by the recipe.
• Strain the infused drink through cheesecloth folded in several layers twice or thrice. Pour into bottles and cork them. You can store such Calvados for three years, but hardly anyone has the patience to wait so long.

Homemade Calvados oil, prepared according to the classic recipe, differs in its organoleptic qualities from the original drink.

Easy Homemade Apple Calvados Recipe

Composition (per 1.5 l):

• apples - 2 kg;
• vodka - 1 l;
• water - 0.15 l;
• sugar - 0.2 kg;
• vanillin - 1 g.

Cooking method:

• Select unspoiled apples, wash them, wipe them, cut out the core.
• Cut the apples into small cubes, about a centimeter or a little less.
• Mix sugar with vanillin, you can use vanilla sugar instead of vanillin, but then you need to take 10 g of it.
• Wash a three-liter jar well.
• Pour apples and sugar into it in layers.
• Mix vodka with water and pour it over apples.
• Cover the jar with a cloth and place it in a dark place for 2 weeks. Shake the jar from time to time to mix the contents.
• After 14 days, remove the apple mass from the jar, strain the remaining liquid, passing through gauze folded in several layers.

Such a tincture only imitates the taste and aroma of real Calvados, however, many will like it.

Apple and pear calvados

Composition (per 1.5 l):

• apples - 1.5 kg;
• pears - 0.35 kg;
• vanilla sugar - 100 g;
• sugar - 150 g;
• water - 0.2 l;
• vodka - 1 l.

Cooking method:

• Sort apples and pears, wash and dry well.
• Cut the fruit into 4 pieces, cut out the core with seeds.
• Cut apples and pears into cubes no larger than a centimeter.
• Put apples at the bottom of a three-liter jar, pears on top of them.
• Sprinkle with vanilla sugar, pour vodka.
• Infuse the drink in a dark place for 10 days. Periodically mix the contents of the jar by shaking it.
• Remove apples and pears from the jar, strain the remaining liquid.
• Drain the liquid into a saucepan and bring to a boil.
• Boil 0.2 liters of water, dissolving sugar in it.
• Pour the syrup into the boiling pot.
• Boil the mixture for half an hour over very low heat.
• Cool the drink to room temperature.
• Pour into bottles, cork them and store in a cool place.

Such calvados will turn out to be less strong than those prepared using traditional technology, and slightly sweet. This imitation of the original drink will appeal to the ladies.

Home-made Calvados, of course, will differ from the genuine one produced in France, even if you follow the traditional technology. However, this difference will be noticeable only to true connoisseurs of apple brandy. For most of our compatriots, home-cooked Calvados will seem little different from the real thing. Your guests will surely appreciate your efforts.

Calvados- a strong alcoholic drink obtained by distillation (double in the classics) of apple (apple / pear) wine material (cider) and the last stage of aging in an oak barrel; Essentially apple brandy. The birthplace of the drink is the north of France, Normandy. Deprived of vineyards, locals have historically made alcohol from the available material - apples and pears. It is thanks to them that the drinking world community has the opportunity to pamper itself on occasion with cider, pommo, calvados.

Let's not waste time on all sorts of appellations and enumeration of cider varieties of apples (all this is easily searched on the Internet) - straight to the point. Our goal, as usual, is to get the highest quality authentic drink with a minimum of unnecessary gestures and unnecessary waste of time and money. So, Calvados at home: step by step.

1. Budgeting - will not differ much from, except that I note such nuances:

a) a barrel (let me remind you, we work with 10-15 liters) should be soaked longer (at least 4 months), it is even better to use an already worked one (for example, with whiskey distillate, bourbon, brandy, wine);

b) we do not need a wort kettle! But we desperately need a juicer. The ideal option is screw. Her price is not divine, but it was the presence of such a unit in my companion that prompted us to venture on fulfillment of the Norman dream. With a conventional centrifugal juicer, you also have a good chance of getting a good calvados, but get ready to process a little more apples and overcome a little more difficulty in decanting the mash (if you do it according to the “red” scheme, i.e. with pomace for more flavor), but will that stop a real man?

c) instead of malt, apples are the starting material, the expense item can be 0 rubles if you have your own apple orchard,
and maybe more than 5000 rubles, if you intend to buy fruit. Given that from 20 kg of apples (+ a certain minimum amount of fructose / glucose) we get 1 liter of Calvados distillate per barrel, to fill a 10-15 liter barrel we will need to process about 250 kg of apples (a very large error delta is possible depending on the type of your juicer, sugar content apples, etc.)

d) we practically do not need water. Of course, there will be consumption, but it is an order of magnitude less than in the production of whiskey: 1 liter per 10 liters of juice when preparing wort, a few liters to dilute raw alcohol to 30 ° to prepare for secondary distillation, a couple of liters to dilute calvados distillate to 60 ° for pouring into a barrel.

e) fructose / glucose - 100-150 rubles / kg at the rate of 0.5-1.0 kg per 10 liters of apple juice. We plan to squeeze out and ferment about 200 liters, i.e., the cost item for sugar will cost a thousand and a half rubles.

f) together with alcohol meters from other necessary things, I highly recommend getting such a sharpener for apples
- it will make your life much easier. The issue price is 100 rubles. Garbage bags (apple peels will decently be so) I will mention only for the purpose that you check their presence and are definitely fully armed.

Necessary equipment and tools.

For the production of Calvados, we need the following equipment and consumables:

- cutting for apples;

- juicer;

- fermentation tanks (bottles, tanks, canisters, etc., with a supply of one free for transfusion when removed from the sediment);

- hydraulic seals;

— silicone tube for decanting (removal from sediment, transfusion);

– distillation equipment (alambik, moonshine);

- alcohol meter, hydrometer, thermometer;

- fructose/glucose.

I suppose that interest in Calvados warms you up every year, disappearing in indecent
the amount of apple harvest at your dacha, in the village with your mother-in-law, in the garden of a good friend-neighbor, etc. In this case, there will be only three tips:

1. Try to avoid summer varieties (white filling, etc.) - too much puree and little juice; late autumn and winter varieties - this is what the doctor ordered (antonovka, anise, autumn striped, asterisk, etc., etc.)
2. The more varieties of apples you can attach to the case, the better. The French use at least 20 (although, it seems to me, this is not so much for super quality, but for reproducing the same (“standard” for a particular brand of Calvados) taste. Plus, up to 10-20% you can take pears or wild apples.
3. Don't go after the carrion, especially the stale one. The ideal option is fruits from a tree (clean, not broken, not rotten) and recently fallen (again, clean, not rotten). It is much easier and faster to process them, and most importantly, the wine material will turn out to be of better quality. Let me remind you that we work for quality, not quantity.

In the previous stages, we stocked up on fermentation/fermentation tanks, apple cutters, yeast, fructose/glucose (assuming we have a juicer) - full speed ahead! First batch of apples on the way

- Great. We don’t need emergency jobs - we take exactly as much as we can process at a time. Experience shows that “in manual mode” this is about 30-50 kg of apples (four large bags or two incomplete potato bags). If apples are exclusively from a tree (without carrion) and the garden is not near the road (apples without dust and burning), then they can not be washed and immediately processed. If they are different, then it is better to rinse them slightly beforehand (for example, in a bath, in a basin, etc.)

We prepare the workplace: we take an apple cutting board, cutting, a knife, a trash bag for cleaning, basins / containers for chopped apples, we take out a juicer, wort tanks. Let's go: with the help of cutting in one movement, we separate the core with stones and cut the fruit into slices. If necessary, cut off disputed places with a knife (rotten, with worms, etc.); cleaning in a trash bag, slices of apples - in a bowl. The next apple, and so on. If there is in
the presence of a second pair of hands, then we send an assistant in parallel to the production of juice, if not, then, having cut a sufficient portion of apples, we get up to the machine ourselves. Depending on the type of juicer and its performance, within 5 minutes we get the first liter of juice. With a start! Pour the juice into the container for fermentation / fermentation and start slicing apples again. In such a simple way, we process the entire batch of apples into juice. In the process, we will perform the following additional manipulations:

That's actually all! Congratulations, you have delivered the first batch of mash and you can deservedly celebrate this business!

Distillation of wine material is not a difficult event, since there is not so much foam from cider, there is no need to crush the shoulder strap, and in general no features. We just pour the mash into a cube, put the cube on a heat source, wind up / connect the distiller (if you have an alambic, then we mount a helmet), connect the water and at maximum speed (I set the power to 1400 W on the induction cooker (IP) ) distill until dry ( i.e. until reaching 100 ° C on a cubic thermometer, if you have one). Someone pours out the first tens of ml, calling them heads - you can practice this approach if you really want to. Some people stop distillation when the jet reaches 15° (either deeming further action unprofitable or assuming tailings) - you can practice this approach too, especially if you have time limits. Personally, I cut off and pour out 30 ml of the first drops (it is assumed that there are a lot of "easys" (isoamylol) - they are not tasty and not healthy) and drive to dryness (a number of authors claim that enanthic esters, which provide an important flavor component of the bouquet of fruit and berry distillates, go at the first distillation at the very end).

We accumulate a sufficient amount of raw alcohol and prepare for re-distillation. Its feature will be the division of fractions, therefore it is called fractional (we will divide the entire shoulder strap into the head, body and tails). We dilute the whole em to 30 ° (small deviations are not critical), pour it into a cube, install a distiller with reinforcement (I have a copper drawer with a diameter of 30 mm and a height of 400 mm) and start the heating process (on IP - max power). Process flow
we control tactilely and by the thermometer installed in the upper part of the ascending pipe - with pronounced heating of the drawer, we connect water to the refrigerator, and reduce the supplied power (for IP - 1000 W). After a while the steam temperature will rise to 78-80°C, and the first drops of distillate will begin to collect in the receiving tank. We also slightly reduce the supplied power (on the IP - 600-800 W), achieving precisely the drip of the product. This is necessary for the qualitative separation of the "heads" - the most volatile, low-boiling fractions, which are clearly unnecessary for us due to their toxicity. In total, we select the head fractions by volume equal to 3% of the volume of the raw alcohol poured into the cube (it seems to me more difficult to track in the share of the AC), focusing on the organoleptic assessment. We evaluate it this way - we collect a couple of drops of distillate in our palm, rub it with the other palm, wait a couple of seconds (so that the sharp alcohol smell disappears a little without confusing us) and inhale the aromas with our nose. With experience, you will be able to accurately determine the moment when there is almost no “acetone” and you can substitute a new container under the outlet tube to take the “body” - the main desired fraction.

So, the heads were taken away, closed, removed (in the future they can be poured out or used on the farm). They substituted a clean large jar for the most valuable thing, for which everything was started - calvados distillate. We slightly increase the heating power (on IP - 1000W), achieving a drip-jet output condensate (it is easy to calculate the speed with a glass-flask graduated in volume and a watch - 30 ml / min is the most). We select the body, rejoicing in the volume, up to a cutoff of 60 ° in the jet! In order not to miss this moment and let in, as they say, tails, starting from the moment the steam temperature reaches 92 ° C, we set aside the container with the body of the shoulder strap, substitute a smaller container and watch the strength of the resulting distillate. Everything that is more than 60 ° - pour into a common jar. At the same time, we again carry out organoleptic control (you cannot skip the fuselage) - we rub a small portion of the obtained aqua vitae between the palms and sniff out unpleasant odors; everything is delicious - we skip it, unpleasant fusel notes appeared - stop! we pass to the selection of the tail fraction. We collect the tails in a separate marked jar up to 40 ° in the jet (it will fall into the selection for so much in volume, but we will loop it all into a new batch of sam).

The selected body (or, as it is often called, the “heart”) is diluted with clean tasty water to 55-60% vol. and pour into
prepared barrel (I wrote how to soak a barrel). We put the barrel in a suitable place (temperature 18-22 ° C, humidity 60-70%, no draft, distance from heating radiators) and forget it for a month. If the apple taste of the distillate is not important to you and you want to get brandy as a result, then forget about the barrel for at least half a year. After the specified time period, we begin to taste the ripening drink every week. As soon as it makes you impressively happy - drain, dilute to 40% vol. and start resting on our laurels. Get ready for laudatory odes from relatives, envious glances from colleagues, and friendly demands for more! By this time, the cuts on your hands will heal, the smell of mash from your apartment will disappear, your wife will begin to forget about the atrocities in the kitchen, and along with a noble subtle aftertaste after another sip of homemade Calvados, you will have one thought in your head - yes, it was worth it!

Calvados is the hallmark of the region of the same name in the province of Lower Normandy. This brandy is made by distilling apple or pear cider.

The drink dates back to the 15th century, and is now protected by the "Rules of Authenticity of Origin" (AOC in French). This means that only the distillate that is produced in several departments of Lower Normandy can be called Calvados.

The origin of the drink is also allowed from the Orne, Manche, Eure, Loire, Sarthe and Mayenne. And the highest quality brandy is produced only in the eastern part of the Calvados department. Such a drink is not cheap - from five to eight thousand rubles per bottle. Even if the original manufacturing technology is followed to the smallest detail, the resulting drink cannot bear the proud name of Calvados. It can only be called "apple brandy". Calvados, like cognac and armagnac, goes through a long exposure in barrels. But this does not mean at all that it is impossible to cook it at home.

And in this article we will describe all the phases of the artisanal process. Believe me: the resulting drink will be only slightly inferior to the branded Calvados.

Original technological process

In Lower Normandy, only 48 varieties of fruit are used for apple calvados. As a rule, only small but ripe fruits are selected.

Manufacturers carefully observe proportions. A good brandy should be 70% bittersweet, 20% sour, and 10% bitter. That is, dessert varieties are not suitable for a drink. Apples should have a rich aroma and increased tannin, which is expressed in a somewhat bitter taste. After pressing the juice, it is turned into cider. Then, when the wort has passed the fermentation process, it is subjected to a double distillation. But this is not yet Calvados.

Alcohols are skillfully mixed and placed in oak barrels, where they mature for at least two years. During this time, the distillate is gaining an amber color, the aroma of smoke and wood, and notes of dried fruits, caramel and spices appear in the taste.

Phases of making brandy

There are not so many recipes for apple calvados. And so that we do not get Slavic tincture or German schnapps, we must strive to adhere to the original technology.

The whole process can be divided into phases:

• Picking apples and getting juice.
• Making cider - a low-alcohol drink.
• Straining.
• Distillation. Receiving distillate.
• Excerpt.
• Filtration.

Of course, it is difficult to follow the manufacturer's technology completely. For example, oak barrels can be replaced with glass jars with wood chips. But if you want the drink to be fragrant, strong and tasty, you should apply effort and patience.

Recipe for apple calvados at home. Step one

We carefully select apples. Often not very good fruits are taken for juice: broken, with spoilage spots. But in this case, you need to be a perfectionist and strive for the ideal. We keep proportions. Seventy percent of apples should be moderately sweet and very juicy.

To start the process of preparing Calvados, select autumn (September-October). Then the apples reach their full maturity.

Don't forget to add another 20 percent sour varieties and 10 percent bitter. This does not mean that you can take unripe apples that have not gained sugars. Unripe fruits have no aroma, and it plays a primary role in the drink. Never wash apples. After all, we need to preserve the wild yeast that lives on the peel. We simply cut out the core with stones from apples and squeeze the juice.

Any method will do, including modern ones. The juicer will allow you to get a product almost without pulp in just a few minutes. If the liquid came out too cloudy, filter it.

Step two. cider making

Pour the juice into a glass container. We put it in a dark place, but not in the cellar. Need room temperature. In a day - and even earlier - abundant foam will appear on the surface of the liquid. As the Calvados recipe prescribes, it must be removed from apple juice. This can be done in two ways. The first way is with a spoon. The foam is quite dense and the work progresses easily at first. But the remaining foam is difficult to remove. Therefore, the second method is preferable - through a tube. So you get rid of not only the foam, but also the sediment that the pulp has formed.

Pour the liquid into another tank and leave it under a water seal. If you don't have a professional setup (a glass convoluted flask), you can get out of the situation in one of two ways. We cork a jar of juice with an airtight lid. We make a small hole in it, into which we put a rubber tube. Its edge should not touch the juice. But we lower the other end of the tube into a vessel with water. Thus, air does not have the opportunity to enter the fermentation tank, but the resulting gases can leave the tank.

There is an easier way. Just pull a medical glove over the neck of the jar by piercing the rubber on one of the fingers with a needle. We leave the juice to ferment in a dark place, but at room temperature.

Step three. Straining apple wine

After some time, you will see how the fermentation process began in the jar of juice. As winemakers note, it is important that you do not immediately get apple cider vinegar.

But there is no need to add any sugars, let alone yeast, to the wort. Also, you should not resort to vodka and alcohol if you want to make real homemade calvados from apple juice at home.

The wild yeast on the rind of the sour fruit should do its job and start the vinous fermentation process. The rapid release of bubbles (or a glove inflated like a balloon) will be replaced by another phase in a month. It will be a quiet maturation. How do you know when cider is ready? Winemakers advise to look closely at the bank under the water seal. If bubbles do not appear for several days, and the liquid has brightened and a precipitate has fallen, then the cider is ready. If you have a glove instead of a water seal, then it should completely fall off. Open the container and carefully strain the cider. Connoisseurs say that if this is not done, the solid parts will burn during distillation and spoil the taste of the drink. It is enough to pass the cider through several layers of gauze.

Step four. Primary distillation

To get apple calvados at home, you need a moonshine. It would also be nice to have an alcohol meter to determine the degree of the drink.

At this stage of the preparation of Calvados, the main thing is not to be greedy. As winemakers assure, to prepare one liter of distillate, you need 14 liters of cider (or 20 kilograms of apples). Where does so much fluid go? To get a quality brandy, the cider is distilled twice.

During the primary distillation process (in Lower Normandy, copper "alambicas" of the Charente type are used for this), all the liquid is collected. At the output, we have the so-called raw alcohol with a strength of 25-30 degrees. It, unlike the pleasant-tasting cider, cannot be drunk.

Step five and most important

In most Normandy distilleries, the apple Calvados is double distilled. This second distillation process is very responsible. Professionals say that it consists of three factions. If we compare moonshine with a green snake, then we will call these parts “head”, “body” and “tail”.

First, a liquid is released from the apparatus, which is saturated with toxic fusel oils. This is the “head” that must be mercilessly drained. The fortress of this sivukha is small, but you can’t drink it. "Heads" can be from 5 to 12 percent of all mash that has passed the first stage of distillation. Next comes the body. It is this that will become the future apple Calvados. We carefully collect alcohol with a strength of 80-90 degrees drop by drop. The tail comes out last. The strength of the liquid drops. When it reaches below 30 degrees, cut off this "tail". It can be collected in a separate container and saved for a new cider.

Sixth step. Replacement for oak barrels

As a result of our efforts, we got an apple moonshine devoid of color and with a rather boring bouquet. Calvados is a nobler drink that needs time to mature. It is hard to imagine an oak barrel in which brandy matures in a city apartment. We'll do without her. But we still need oak. And not sawdust, bark or shavings. They have a lot of tannins, because of which the drink will come out bitter.

We will need wood, which we will carefully divide into pegs 15 centimeters long and 1 cm in diameter. A cut of a trunk 25-30 centimeters in diameter will be enough for a three-liter jar. Pegs are scalded with boiling water. Leave for 10 minutes under the lid. We drain the water, pour a new one, this time cold. Soak for 20 minutes. Dry the pegs.

Excerpt

We carry out all manipulations with oak wood ahead of time so that by the end of the secondary distillation it is ready for use. We do everything this way.

1. First, dilute the resulting alcohol with distilled water to achieve a strength of 40-42 degrees.

2. Pour this liquid into a jar. At the bottom we will place oak pegs. Seal the jar tightly. You can even roll it up with an iron lid.

3. Then we leave the container alone in a dark place for six months or even a year. Nothing bad will happen if you uncork your apple calvados after a few years.

4. Before drinking the drink, it must be filtered through several layers of gauze.

An easier homemade calvados (apple vodka) recipe

The method of making brandy described above is complicated. In addition, something can go wrong at any of the phases of the technological process - then the juice will turn sour to vinegar, otherwise the fermentation process will not start.

Much easier to resort to the second recipe. It will turn out not quite Calvados, but also a strong apple distillate that tastes good.

1. Peel and core two kilograms of apples, cut into small cubes.

2. We put these pieces in a jar, sprinkle with a bag of vanilla sugar (10 g). Pour a liter of quality vodka.

3. We cork the jar tightly and put the liquid to infuse at room temperature in a dark place for 15 days.

4. We extract apples, we outlive them.

5. Filter the liquid through a cotton-gauze filter.

6. Cook syrup from 200 grams of sugar and 150 milliliters of water. Let it cool down to room temperature.

7. Pour in apple vodka. Stir and bottle the tincture.

An even faster way

The traditional recipe involves making Calvados from apple juice. But you can simplify your task by passing 15 kilograms of fruit through a meat grinder. From the resulting puree, you need to separate 300 milliliters of the wort. Add two tablespoons of sugar and dry yeast there.

While the foam cap is formed, boil the syrup. To do this, dissolve three kilograms of sugar in half a liter of water and bring the mixture to a boil. Let the syrup cool and pour in the wort with yeast. Place the entire pureed mass in a large container (up to 50 liters). Fill with mash and put under a water seal. Let's wait until the liquid ferments, then the foam will disappear, and the sweetness in the taste will go away. This may take two weeks. Next, we filter the liquid, removing cakes. We send a drink for distillation, which can be called homemade Calvados. To make it more like a noble Normandy brandy, winemakers recommend brewing it on oak pegs for about six months.

For a long time, Calvados was considered the alcohol of commoners, since the drink is made from ordinary apples. But after this alcohol began to appear in the works of the writer Remarque, the situation changed. The elite became interested in apple moonshine infused in barrels and it quickly became fashionable. We will look at how to make Calvados at home according to the classic recipe and in the form of an imitation tincture.

On a note. Calvados can only be called a drink produced in Normandy (a region in the north-west of France), in all other cases, apple distillate should be called brandy.

Imitation Calvados (apple tincture)

Preparation takes a minimum of time and money. The smell of the tincture is slightly similar to the original. For those wishing to cook real homemade Calvados, I advise you to immediately go to the second recipe.

Ingredients:

• apples - 2 kg;
• vodka - 1 liter;
• sugar - 200 grams;
• water - 150 ml;
• vanilla sugar - 10 grams.

Technology:

1. Wash the apples, remove the core and seeds, cut into cubes.

2. Put the cubes in a jar, sprinkling with vanilla sugar.

3. Add vodka, close the lid and put the jar in a dark place at room temperature for 2 weeks to infuse.

4. Remove the apples by straining the drink through cheesecloth. Squeeze out the pulp.

5. Mix water and sugar in a saucepan, bring to a boil, boil for about 5 minutes (until foam is released), removing foam from the surface. Cool the finished sugar syrup to 25-30 ° C, then pour into the apple tincture and mix.

6. Pour the finished tincture into glass bottles and seal tightly.

Imitation Calvados

Store in a dark cool place. Shelf life - up to 3 years. To taste, it turns out sweetish apple vodka with a strength of 32-35 degrees.

Apple calvados recipe (real)

The proposed technology is as close as possible to the original. Of the ingredients for homemade Calvados, only apples are needed. Although in the end you will get a distillate (moonshine from fermented juice), I still advise you to take the quality of apples seriously. They must be ripe, with no signs of rot and spoilage. The variety is not of fundamental importance, but it is better to use sweet and juicy fruits.

1. Obtaining cider. Squeeze juice from apples in any way possible. The less pulp, the better. Juice to defend during the day in a dark place at room temperature. Then remove the foam from the surface and drain from the sediment through a tube into a fermentation tank. Install a water seal or a rubber glove with a small hole in one of the fingers (pierce with a needle).

Move the container to a dark place with a temperature of 18-27°C. After fermentation is complete (signs: the water seal does not blow bubbles for several days or the glove is deflated, the drink has become lighter and without signs of sweetness in taste, sediment has appeared at the bottom), pour the finished cider into the distillation cube, trying not to touch the sediment at the bottom, you can additionally filter through gauze. If this is not done, the hard part will burn during heating, spoiling the taste of Calvados.

Fermentation of wort under a water lock

2. Distillation. It's time to get the distillate out of the cider. To do this, you need a moonshine of any design. During the first distillation, the yield should not be divided into fractions, taking all the product until the strength in the stream falls below 30 degrees. Measure the strength of the resulting apple moonshine and determine the amount of pure alcohol.

Dilute moonshine with water to 18-20 degrees, then overtake again, selecting "heads", "body" and "tails". The first 12% of the amount of pure alcohol is collected in a separate container and poured out (used for technical needs), these are “heads” that contain harmful impurities, spoil the taste and have a bad effect on health.

3. Exposure. In order for apple moonshine to turn into calvados, insistence on oak wood is required. Classical technology uses oak barrels. But at home, not everyone has such an opportunity, so a simpler option is suitable - aging in glass jars (bottles) with oak pegs.

We need oak wood with a trunk diameter of 25-35 cm. Bark, sawdust and shavings are not suitable, as they contain too many tannins that make Calvados bitter.

The wood must be divided into pieces 5-8 mm thick and 10-15 cm long. Pour boiling water over the resulting pegs, leave for 10 minutes, drain the broth, soak in cold water for 20 minutes, then drain the liquid and dry the wood. Place the processed pegs in jars and pour apple alcohol diluted with clean cold water up to 45 degrees. Roll up the jars with iron lids (close tightly with corks), put for 6-12 months in a dark, cool place for ripening.