A simple recipe for making moonshine using oak chips (chips). Moonshine on oak chips - homemade cognac and whiskey What not to do

Most luxury spirits are aged for a certain amount of time in barrels made from various types of wood. Many experts argue that there is not much difference where and in what way the alcohol was stored. However, true gourmets are able to detect the tart notes in alcoholic beverages that wood gives it. So, how to infuse moonshine with oak chips?

Why wood?

Since infusing moonshine on oak chips is not a complicated procedure, it’s worth understanding why many people use wood. There are several explanations for this. Oak chips, once in alcohol, act as an adsorbent. This is due to the structure of the material. Wood capillaries, like sponges, pull out impurities dangerous to human health from alcoholic beverages. Aldehydes do not disappear on their own during the distillation process. Thanks to this, alcohol aged on oak chips for several years is a purer product.

As practice shows, moonshine infused with such raw materials becomes softer due to the biochemical substances contained in wood. They also give the drink a pleasant aroma and also bind toxins.

Most doctors agree that oak chips are a product with amazing properties. This drink can help a person get rid of many diseases and improve their general condition. In this case, it does not matter at all where the tincture was made: in production or at home.

What substances end up in alcohol?

Oak allows you to make homemade alcohol softer and more noble. Why is this happening? Oak chips not only remove harmful compounds from the drink, but also release their beneficial substances, including:

Wood comes in different varieties

How to infuse moonshine with oak chips at home? First of all, it is worth clarifying what kind of wood is required for this. Alcohol can only be infused with wood chips made from oak grown on impoverished soil and in a dry climate. Such wood is considered ideal. If you take oak chips made from trees growing in other conditions, you can create a drink with an unpleasant taste. After all, such wood is saturated with tannins. They are the ones who spoil the taste of alcohol.

Choosing oak material

How to infuse moonshine with oak chips and get a pleasant-tasting drink? To do this, you need to choose the right raw materials. Alcohol can be infused on oak bark, oak chips, or each of the methods has its own characteristics:

How to properly prepare wood chips

Before answering the question of how and how much to infuse moonshine on oak chips, it is worth clarifying how to properly prepare the raw materials. Of course, you can purchase the material at a specialty store or pharmacy. But if you wish, you can prepare the wood chips yourself. This requires:

• Find an oak log of the required size. It should be left at room temperature until completely dry.
• The prepared log must be cleaned of bark. It can be used to prepare bitters. The rest of the wood should be made into wood chips. The dimensions of each piece should be no more than 2x2x10 cm.
• Oak chips that will be used to infuse moonshine should be filled with cold water. The raw materials must stand like this for at least 24 hours. Every 8 hours the water must be changed to fresh.
• After this procedure, the flail needs to be leached. To do this, use a baking soda solution. You can prepare it yourself. It is enough to dilute two tablespoons of baking soda in 10 liters of water. You need to soak the wood chips in the solution for 6 hours.
• After the specified time, the oak chips need to be washed, poured into a deep pan, filled with clean water, and then boiled for 5 minutes.
• The water needs to be drained and the raw materials washed. Oak chips should be dried in a dark but dry room. This takes at least a day.
• Finally, the raw materials must be heated well in the oven. Oak chips should be placed in an oven preheated to 150˚C for two hours.

Raw materials prepared using this method can be stored for many years.

Does roasting affect the taste of the drink?

How long to infuse moonshine on oak chips? In this case, much depends on the recipe, as well as on the degree of firing of the raw materials. These factors also affect both the aroma and taste of alcohol. The wood should be grilled before use. There are three ways:

• Light firing. The raw material remains light brown in color. In this case, moonshine infused with oak chips will have a pleasant aroma of fruit, vanilla, and also have smoky notes.
• Medium firing. The wood chips take on a brown tint. Thanks to such raw materials, the alcoholic drink will acquire the taste of almonds or caramel.
• Strong burning. The wood should become dark brown. A drink infused with such wood chips will have a chocolate taste with a slight hint of smokedness.

Which moonshine is better to use?

How long to steep moonshine on oak chips? It depends on taste preferences, on the method of firing the raw materials, as well as on the type of alcoholic beverage. For infusion it is better to use:

• grain;
• sugar;
• fruit moonshine.

As for the last type of alcohol, you should use chacha to prepare an elite alcoholic drink. This is moonshine made from grapes. Of course, a lot depends on taste preferences. If you use oak chips in combination with other types of moonshine, you can get an unpleasant result. The drink may acquire a strong odor or bitter taste, and may also contain harmful components.

Classic recipe

So, how to properly infuse moonshine on oak chips. To do this you will need oak chips and moonshine. It is best to use a drink whose strength is 45˚.

To prepare a tasty and aromatic drink, you need to add wood chips to a container with alcohol. In this case, it is necessary to observe proportions. 1 liter of alcohol requires 20 grams of raw materials. How long does it take to infuse moonshine on oak chips for this recipe? It all depends on the desired result. On average it takes from 3 to 6 months. When the drink is completely ready, it is necessary to remove the wood from it. Now you know how to infuse moonshine with oak chips.

To prepare the drink, use a glass or stainless steel container with a sealed lid. Plastic products are not suitable. Moonshine should be infused in a dark and cool place.

Recipe with raisins

If you want to get an alcoholic drink with smoked, vanilla and grape notes, then you need to infuse it with oak chips and raisins. The cooking process is simple. For 3 liters of moonshine you need 20 grams of raisins, 60 grams of burnt wood chips, a handful of oak bark.

All components must be combined in one container and infused for 2-3 months. Finally, it’s worth trying the finished drink. If necessary, the infusion time can be increased. The result should be a soft, slightly astringent alcoholic drink.

How to speed up the process

How to infuse moonshine on oak in just a few weeks? In this case, spices will help. For 1 liter of moonshine you will need 0.3 grams of vanillin, two peas of allspice, two cloves. The drink must be infused in a glass or stainless steel container. The room should be dry, cool and dark. How long should moonshine be infused with oak chips and spices? It takes 2 to 3 weeks to prepare an elite drink.

It is worth considering that alcohol prepared according to this recipe will not have healing properties. To obtain the required color, you will need to add caramel, which reduces the strength of the alcoholic drink by 2 or 3˚. This factor should be taken into account during the first distillation.

Alcohol “Country style”

Is there another way to infuse moonshine with oak chips? A recipe for making an alcoholic drink may include various herbs and spices. How to make moonshine “Country style”? To do this you will need:

• high quality moonshine with a strength of at least 45˚ - 3 liters;
• white sugar for caramel syrup - 2 large spoons;
• medium-burnt oak chips 4x4x10 centimeters - 6 pieces;
• rose hips - 15 pieces;
• black pepper - from 3 to 4 peas;
• black tea, preferably large-leaf and high quality - 1 teaspoon;
• St. John's wort - 1 teaspoon ground or 1 small sprig.

There is no need to add too much of the last component. It's better to put less than more.

Additional Ingredients

To make the drink more aromatic and softer, you should add:

• 1 tablespoon each of white and black raisins;
• 1 pitted prune;
• no more than 3 centimeters long;
• 15 grams of oregano;
• 15 grams of thyme.

These components do not need to be added. However, thanks to them, the moonshine will acquire a more interesting taste. You can also exclude St. John's wort from the recipe. But you shouldn’t give up vanilla.

Cooking process

First you need to make caramel syrup from sugar. It should be a light brown color. The remaining components should be placed in a glass container and carefully poured with moonshine. Finally, add the prepared caramel syrup and seal it with a lid.

In terms of time, you need to infuse moonshine on oak chips for at least 14 days. However, it is worth considering a few rules. A week after adding all the components, it is necessary to remove the prunes and vanilla from the container. In general, it costs from 14 to 28 days to infuse alcohol. In this case, the container must be shaken periodically.

What to do next

When the moonshine acquires a more pronounced aroma and its color becomes darker, it is necessary to filter it. To do this, you can use gauze, pre-folded in several layers, as well as a cotton filter.

The finished alcoholic drink should be poured into glass containers and left to rest for three months. If desired, this time can be increased. Containers should be placed in a cool and dark place. As a result of this procedure, the taste of the drink will become softer and more harmonious. At the same time, all tanning compounds will be removed from the moonshine. If after the specified time a precipitate has formed, then the alcoholic drink should be filtered again.

What not to do

You can infuse moonshine on oak chips for more than 3 months. Much depends on the desired result and recipe. However, there are general recommendations. What should you not do?

• It is not recommended to fry oak chips for too long. If you are doing this for the first time, you should practice on a small amount of raw materials. Black wood chips cannot be used.
• You should not use damp or raw material to infuse moonshine. The wood chips must be dry and burnt.
• It is not recommended to infuse alcohol in containers made of plastic. This drink can become poisonous. After all, alcohol can corrode all types of plastic.
• You should not add a large amount of spices and wood to moonshine, violating the proportions. This may negatively affect the taste of the drink. It will be almost impossible to correct the consequences.
• You should not overexpose the moonshine. This can also affect the taste and smell of the finished product.
• It is not recommended to infuse large amounts of moonshine on wood chips using an untested recipe. It is better to put a small amount of alcohol.

In conclusion

Moonshine infused with oak chips acquires a pleasant and mild taste. Even with the same recipes, in each case an ambiguous result will be obtained. Alcohol will differ in both taste and aroma. However, oak chips are still the best material for removing harmful compounds from moonshine. As a result of infusion, the drink becomes noble and purer.

Anyone can buy real French cognac! But many people love good cognac. It's not only about the complex and lengthy preparation process, but also about the basic inconveniences that are associated with making a homemade drink. Even if you are the ownermodern moonshine still of new generation , you simply may not have free space in your apartment to place an oak barrel.

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

Homemade cognac is easy!

How do oak chips work? They imitate aging 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 give the drink a noble oak note, a unique aroma and astringency, which is so valued in real cognac!

Before you start producing a noble drink, you need to select a raw material or 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 causes the coloring 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 present 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 the moonshine on the chips for varying amounts of time. There are recipes, if strictly followed, you can get the expected results. Only if you don’t have time to wait long should you useflavoring additiveson a natural basis. They can be used alone or in combination with oak chips. Thus, concentrates will give the alcohol aroma and taste, and the wood will give the necessary rich shade.

Recipe for moonshine on oak bark
This method of refining 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 receive, 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 herb) – 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 filled with moonshine and covered with a lid. You should stir once at the very beginning. Then the container will need to be shaken once every 4 days without opening. At room temperature, the distillate with such additives should infuse for about 15-16 days. After this period, the drink must be filtered. Any homemade filter made from special paper or cotton-gauze pad is suitable for this purpose. At the next stage, moonshine made from oak bark is bottled and sealed. In this form it can be stored for quite a long time. To improve the taste, it is recommended to drink the drink 10-14 days after filtration.

Herbs are necessary for softening. If you don’t like some ingredients, you can exclude them, or even remove everything except moonshine, vanillin and oak bark. Even if you have access to an oak tree, you should not harvest the bark yourself. Pharmacy products have already undergone all the necessary cleaning and disinfection procedures, so they are the preferred option.

Moonshine recipe with oak chips

Qualityoak chipsare an inexpensive but effective way to make 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. However, there are some nuances. In this case, it takes longer to infuse the distillate, and you also need to carefully prepare the chips before cooking. But the result is undoubtedly worth it!

Oak chip preparation technology

At the first stage, you need to remove excess tannins from them. To do this, the wood chips are soaked and then processed at elevated temperatures. You need to take logs, remove the bark from them and chop them into logs, then into pegs. The optimal dimensions are: 10 cm in length and 2 cm in cross-section. The prepared wood chips are soaked in cold water. 24 hours will be enough, during which the water should be changed three times.

After soaking, the chips are filled with a soda solution made from 5 liters of water and 1 tbsp. l. soda Next, you need to leave the semi-finished products in this form for 6 hours. After this, the wood chips are thoroughly washed and placed in a large container. Water is added to it. All this must be boiled for about 50 minutes over low heat. After this, the well-washed wooden pegs are dried naturally for 1 day. The dry wood is laid out on a baking sheet and placed in the oven for 2 hours, preheated to 150-160°C. This process should result in a characteristic brown color. Browned wood 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 for this recipe.

For those who find the whole process too long and labor-intensive, we offer a simpler one - buy ready-made oak chips in the storeat an affordable price.

Infusing oak chips in moonshine

This process is divided into 3 main stages:

Calculation of oak chips per 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 quantity, 9 pieces will be enough. It should be taken into account that when using such a number of chips, the useful volume decreases by 202.5 ml. Those. 2800 ml remains instead of 3000 ml. To obtain a decent aroma and color, you can take only 6 pieces, increasing their number if necessary. So you can simultaneously infuse moonshine in four 3-liter jars and place 6,7,8,9 chips in them, respectively. This way you can determine the exact number to obtain the drink that you like best in terms of its flavor and aroma properties.

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 of real French cognac. According to these recipes, it is best to keep oak chips in moonshine for 6 months. But after 3 weeks, the drink softens significantly and acquires a specific taste and a dark tint. Therefore, if time is running out, or you are on the eve of a festive event, you can serve the distillate on oak chips within 3-4 weeks. Don’t be afraid to experiment, and you are guaranteed to find your own recipe for homemade aromatic cognac!

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

What is the use of wood chips

The cost of a barrel is directly proportional to its volume. Very small ones - 5-liter - will cost an average of 4-5 thousand rubles, 50-liter - from 8 thousand, etc. But it’s not even this that’s bad; if you regularly prepare cognac products, you can fork out money, but the fact that the barrel is designed for a maximum of 10 refills. After this, there is no longer any use for it - it will just be a storage container. You don't have to be a mathematician to understand how much pleasure will cost. Oak chips for cognac and whiskey are several times cheaper, especially since they can be found for free - in the nearest forest or in a country house where oak trees grow.

You cannot use boards from logging enterprises - the wood goes through a chemical treatment to prevent beetles, rot, and to increase shelf life.

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

The easiest way is to find an old tree in the nearest forest and cut off its branch (may Greenpeace and environmental inspectors forgive us). This will truly be a 100% natural product, which will only need to be split into small chips and pre-prepared.

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

Oak chips “Premium” (highly fired) cubes - price 112 rub. for 50 gr.

Log or bark?

In extreme cases, you can use pharmaceutical bark, which is sold in all pharmacies. But this is just a backup option, since it won’t make real cognac. Before packaging, it is processed, as a result of which a large amount of tannins is lost. The finished drink will not have an intense aroma and color, and the aftertaste will be completely indistinct.

VIDEO: Harvesting technology at home

How to prepare oak chips for cognac

Preparing oak chips for cognac with your own hands consists of several stages:

1. Cleaning

After collecting and cutting into pegs with a cross-section of 5-7 mm, be sure to wash them under running water to remove small particles, dust and debris. You need to rinse it 3-4 times, drying it in between.

1. Soak

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

1. Digestion

A very important step to avoid the “baseboard” taste of the finished drink in the future. On the other hand, during the digestion process, the pores open as much as possible, therefore, with alcohol there will be a better composition.

To do this, place the pegs in cold water, bring to a boil, cover with a lid and leave on low heat for a quarter of an hour. Then they took it out, cooled and dried.

1. Burning

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

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

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

1. Storage

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

Making homemade cognac

In this case, we are not talking about imitation of the taste of cognac, but about real brandy made from grape mash. Try to follow the instructions as closely as possible so that the end result may not be a drink made by French masters, but very close to it.

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

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

If sweet juicy southern grapes are used for mash, sugar is not needed at all. In this case, you will get pure grape alcohol - an ideal base for brandy.

Preparation:

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

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

1. Stir the mash daily with wooden sticks so that a foamy cap of the pulp does not accumulate - it blocks oxygen, and the yeast cannot fully develop.

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

1. On the fifth day, the mash will have all the signs of active fermentation - hissing, aroma, the pulp will all rise to the top. Now you need to strain the liquid, and squeeze out the scraps of berries well.
2. Add sugar (a small amount) to the juice, stir with a wooden stick, pour into bottles, leaving a third of the volume empty. Close with a water seal and send to a dark place for 35-40 days. The temperature of the mash all this time should be in the range of 19-27°C, for which it is convenient to use an aquarium heater.

1. When fermentation stops, the wort becomes lighter in color and the sediment falls to the bottom, it can be filtered and sent for distillation.
2. Ideally, use an alambic (copper apparatus) for distillation, but if one is not available, a regular one will do. Pour into a distillation cube and run at maximum temperature, without removing the tails and heads. Stop as soon as the strength of the raw material drops to 30°.
3. The resulting raw material is diluted with water to 8°, after which it is put into a second distillation. This is where the heads are already selected (no more than 12%) and the tails are cut off - when the strength is reduced to 30°.
4. In order to obtain wine alcohol in its pure form, it can be sent for a third distillation, for which the raw material is diluted with water to 20°. Heads (12%) and tails are collected again after 45°. The strength of the distillate is measured and diluted with water to 42°.
5. Now comes the turn of infusion on oak chips. On average, the infusion time should be at least six months, but the longer this process goes on, the brighter and richer the taste will be. Maximum aging time is 3 years.

1. Caramelization is a mandatory step to add color to the finished drink. This is done at all production sites. Prepare caramel - 1 tbsp. sugar per 1 tbsp. The water is boiled until brown and added to the strained and filtered drink. Infuse for 10 days and bottle.

The cognac is ready, now it’s time for tasting.

VIDEO: How to make sugar color for homemade cognac

Oak barrels are required, but at home there is a good alternative for them - wood chips. It gives the drink similar taste, aroma and aesthetic properties.

At the same time, to prepare a high-quality tincture, it is important to choose the right wood from which the chips are made, fry it moderately and, following a proven method, infuse it. You can make wood chips yourself or replace them with bark.

All that remains is to familiarize yourself with the issue in detail and enjoy - “homemade cognac” -.

Oak chips for moonshine are a convenient and affordable alternative to aging in barrels. At the same time, the processes for saturating the liquid with tannins and tannins are very similar.

The distillate, and you can infuse not only sugar, but also any grain or fruit version, acquires a characteristic cognac aroma and taste with notes of chocolate, vanilla and fruit. The result is a drink that combines the taste and aroma properties of both the original raw materials and the newly acquired ones.

This is one of the methods, even a simple sugar one, and besides, the technique is very simple and inexpensive, and for those who are not looking for easy ways, we can recommend making moonshine-whisky at home.

How to properly use oak chips for moonshine

The right alcohol

Distillate based on such raw materials as:

• sugar;
• cereals;
• fruits and berries.

The optimal choice, of course, is authentic cognac raw materials – grapes, but other options will delight you with their extraordinary taste and aroma. For other types of raw materials, oak chips are not always suitable, as a result of unpredictable biochemical reactions, the appearance of various harmful compounds, a pungent odor, or simply “moonshine will begin to taste bitter” is possible.

Oak varieties for chips

Depending on the region of growth, climatic conditions and soil vary, which directly affects the saturation of wood with various substances. As a result, wood chips made from different types of oak or the same one, but growing in different countries, give the drink different flavor and aromatic qualities. The best wood is considered to be common oak, or in other words, petiolate, grown in France, the homeland of cognac.

In addition to this type, in Winter oak, also known as holm oak, and summer oak grow in Western Europe., which are also used in the distillery industry for aging alcohol.

On the territory of the Russian Federation, oak wood from the Khadyzhensky, Afipsky and Apsheronsky districts of the Krasnodar Territory has good properties. Other good options are varieties growing in the Caucasus, Crimea, Tatarstan, near the Ural Mountains, Voronezh region, Western Ukraine and the Republic of Belarus.

Standing apart is white oak, growing in the USA, which is used for the production of some types of whiskey. It gives the tincture a unique flavor and aromatic coloring, both similar and different from that obtained using petiolate.

Degree of wood burning

Another important criterion, which, like the region where oak grows, affects the taste and aroma of the drink is the degree of roasting of the chips. There are three main levels:

• Easy. The wood takes on a light brown color and the distillate takes on fruity, floral and vanilla notes and a straw color. Processing of the material should be stopped when the first haze appears.
• Average. The material acquires a brown color, moonshine - notes of almonds, herbs, vanilla and caramel and a rich brown color, similar to cognac.
• Strong. The chips become dark brown, close to black, as does the color of the tincture subsequently. Notes of smoke and chocolate appear on the palate.

Cooking method

To make a tincture on oak chips, you will need a clean container, preferably glass, wood chips in the proportion of 4-6 g per liter and moonshine itself, made according to the correct recipe, with a strength of 45 degrees. If the strength is lower, there are methods to increase it; if it is higher, you can dilute the moonshine with water.

• put the wood chips in a jar and fill with distillate;
• seal tightly and set aside in a cool place out of reach of sunlight;
• leave for 3-6 months, the first time it is better to start with a weak tincture;
• after the expiration date, the product is filtered through a paper filter folded into a funnel; for better aeration, the height from which the liquid falls should be about half a meter;
• The tincture is ready to drink or bottle.

Did you know? To make the color of the drink more cognac, you can add burnt sugar to it in the proportion of 1 tbsp. spoon per 1 liter of liquid. It is better to dissolve caramel in a tincture heated to 40-50 degrees Celsius. At the same time, the strength of the moonshine will decrease by about 2-3 degrees.

Did you know? The aging period can be reduced by 3-4 weeks by adding 0.3-0.5 g of vanilla, several cloves and allspice peas per 1 liter of distillate. It is important not to overdo it with herbs, otherwise the taste may become unbalanced.

To avoid getting a large amount of tincture with the “wrong taste” for the first time, you can close not large jars, but 0.5 and 1 liters with varying amounts of wood chips and additional ingredients. This way you can calculate the appropriate proportions with minimal risk.

What not to do

• Frying chips too long.
• Use raw wood.
• Infuse in a plastic or metal container.
• Putting a lot of spices, both in the quantity of one and in the number of different ones, makes it almost impossible to overtake the spoiled taste.
• Keep the tincture for too long.

Do-it-yourself oak chips for moonshine

An alternative to store-bought chips, and the opportunity to purchase a quality product in a store is not always available, are homemade ones, but ordering on the Internet is just playing roulette. You can get untreated oak wood at almost every construction market. It needs to be processed as follows:

• First, the bark is peeled off the logs.
• The wood is split into splinters 10 to 15 cm long with an approximate diameter of 5 to 25 mm.
• Oak chips are soaked in water for 24 hours, replacing the liquid every 3-4 hours.
• Next comes drying at high temperatures to remove some of the tannins from the wood.
• Dried wood chips are poured with a soda solution in the proportion of 1 teaspoon per 5 liters of water for 6 hours.
• After infusion, oak chips should be thoroughly rinsed with water and boiled for one hour over low heat in clean water.
• The pegs are then hung to dry for 24 hours.
• At the final stage, oak chips are fired in the oven at a temperature of 160 C degrees to one of the three described conditions: light, medium or strong, which will determine the final taste of the tincture.

How to infuse moonshine with oak bark from a pharmacy

For the tincture you will need the following components in the following proportions:

• oak bark - 2 tbsp. spoons;
• moonshine – 2 liters;
• honey - 1 tbsp. spoon;
• St. John's wort – 1 tbsp. spoon;
• oregano – 1 tbsp. spoon;
• cloves – 4 buds;
• ground cinnamon and vanilla - a small pinch each;
• peppercorns – 8 pcs.

The manufacturing process is as follows:

• The ingredients need to be poured into a glass jar and filled with distillate, mixed thoroughly and closed with a tight lid.
• The minimum aging period is 14 days, and you need to shake the container once every one or two days.
• After the tincture has expired, the liquid must be filtered through gauze or a paper filter to remove solids, after which it can be bottled.

Spices will increase the formation of sediment, which is why the number of strainings needs to be increased at least 5 times. The resulting drink can easily be included in the list of the best made from moonshine at home.

Did you know? When making a tincture of moonshine on oak bark for the first time according to an unfamiliar recipe, it is better not to change the proportions of the ingredients immediately “by eye”, but to do this after thoroughly tasting the finished product, thinking about what it lacks, for example, flavorings for moonshine, or what might to be superfluous. Thus, the chance of getting a completely illiquid tincture is greatly reduced.

Instead of an afterword

Infusing oak chips is one of the options for refining moonshine at home. The simplicity of the production method and the availability of ingredients make it possible not only to get a tasty and aromatic drink, but also to discover the amateur distiller in yourself.

By experimenting with the proportions of the main components, as well as supplementing them with herbs and other spices, you can create a unique, extraordinary brandy, and who knows where the next Richard Hennessy will appear.

Chips for aging alcoholic beverages must be made from high-quality oak wood that is at least 90-100 years old. Only the lower part of the trunk is used - up to 7 m in height.
No additional substances that increase the oak aroma or increase the extract content of substances are used in production - oak chips are a completely natural product.

On average, 300-500 g of wood chips are used to keep 80 liters of drink.

The effect of roasting level on the drink:
Lightly fired - subtle hints of vanilla, fruit and flowers
Medium roasting - bright aroma of vinyl, almond, coconut, spices, caramel.
High firing - rich smoky, chocolate effect.

Light, medium and high firing

Unburnt wood chips
Uncharred wood chips used during alcoholic fermentation improve the tannin structure and stabilize the color of red wines. The aroma profile reflects the characteristics of fruit and almond with a slight oak tone. You can also note an increase in the intensity of the aftertaste.

Burnt wood chips
The combined use of medium and deep roast wood chips during aging increases the aromatic complexity of the wine. Medium-fired wood chips enhance the sweetness and oak flavor. Highly fired wood chips have an intense aroma with a predominance of vanilla tones and a strong oak tone in the taste.

Table: quantity of oak chips for cognac or wine and required aging time:

The best results were obtained when using:
- for processing white tableware (dose 0.3 - 1.0 g/dm3), holding time - 6 - 12 days;
- for red table fortified and dessert wines (dose up to 1 g/dm3) - aging time 6 - 30 days;
- for cognac and calvados alcohols (dose 5 - 30 g/dm3) - minimum aging time - 3 - 6 months.

The standard dosage is from 0.5 to 4 g of chips per 1 liter of wine. In fact, the decision is left to the winemaker. The dosage depends entirely on the desire to impart a rich oak tone to the wine. It is also possible to prepare a concentrate in a small volume of wine with a high dosage of chips (approx. 10g/1litre), and then blend it with the rest of the wine. The properties of the chips are similar to those of the new barrel, which has more intense aromatic characteristics.

Unfried or lightly fried chips are recommended for alcoholic fermentation. Medium and strong types of roasting are used during wine aging.
Before the start of alcoholic fermentation, chips or powder can be added to the wort or pulp. Oak tannins will help stabilize color and lock in the fruity aroma of the wine. At the end of fermentation, the chips will add a complex aromatic profile and roundness to your wine. During aging, the chips allow the manufacturer to monitor the development of oak aroma tones. By using a medium to high roast blend, you can control the oak flavor in your wine.

Can be added freely, to a container or barrel. You can also use fabric containers made from porous material. Cotton bags for food use are also available, both empty, which can hold the desired number of chips, and pre-packed bags of 6 kg each (3 bags per box). In order to improve the exchange between oak and wine, we advise winemakers not to overfill the bags.

Oak shepa is not made sterile, but it is cleaned well enough and therefore does not require special processing. But if you are not sure about the storage conditions and want to avoid any problems, you should rinse it for 5-7 minutes in sulfated water at room temperature in order to avoid too much loss of its aromatic properties. And you need to keep in mind that due to the risk of producing some phenols, which give off-tones, you should avoid washing oak chips with chlorinated water.

If you use oak chips during fermentation, they should be kept in a container throughout the fermentation period. If you are using chips when aging wine, the contact time is between 3 and 8 weeks, depending on the intended purpose. The extraction takes place quite quickly (from 1 to 4 weeks depending on the size), but more time is needed to assimilate the extract with the wine.

Re-using fine oak chips is not advisable, since the chips are quite thin, the drink penetrates through the chips and extracts all the necessary components in a short time. And larger oak cubes and bars can be reused.

Recipes:

Cherry wine on oak chips

Cherry – 1 kg
Vodka – 400 ml
Cinnamon – 1.5 g
Nutmeg - 1 g
Sugar - 250 g
Oak chips

Cover the cherries, crushed together with the pits, with gauze and let stand for about 2-4 days so that the cherries ferment. Then pour sugar, spices, vodka and cherries into the container. Cover with a lid and leave for about 6-18 days.
At the next stage, it is necessary to filter the tincture and bottle it, adding oak chips at the rate of 12-14 g per 3 liters of cherry liqueur.
Leave to ripen for at least a month.
Cherry liqueur made with oak chips will have a pronounced cherry flavor, light sweetness and tartness, thanks to the oak chips.