Let's talk about how to make cognac at home. In principle, this is nothing impossible - the first cognacs in France were made in a private way. You too can try to replicate this technology, armed with patience and some equipment.
First of all, you will need raw materials. For brandy, only white grape varieties are used as raw materials . The Uni Blanc is considered to be the best grade , but it is in France, and you can use the Gift of Magarach, Yekaterinodar, Levokumsky and Scarlet Tersky with us.
Juice is squeezed from the collected berries, and you need to try to do this so as not to damage the bones, giving bitterness and astringency. The juice is fermented without sugar, and then distilled twice. The product thus obtained is poured into oak barrels and left in them for at least two years. The barrels should be only oak, no linden is suitable here, since only the oak contains the very substances that give the drink its taste and aroma. Two years is the minimum period, while the maximum exposure is 70 years. Then the drink is bottled and ... again sent for storage. But this is not brandy. After aging, you need to mix several alcohols of different ages - the resulting mix will be proudly called cognac.
Now you generally know how to make cognac at home, but the question is, do you have enough strength and patience for this? This is a very laborious process.
Much easier and several times faster you can cook a surrogate - an imitation of cognac. She, of course, will not have the same taste and aroma that distinguishes French and Armenian drinks, but it will be easy to drink, and you will not be threatened with poisoning, as if you would risk buying cognac in a frankly “left” eatery.
How to make cognac from moonshine
We will not talk about how to make moonshine. This is a topic for another discussion, and besides, it is difficult to imagine that a person who decides to learn how to make cognac at home does not know how to get alcohol.
In the most extreme case, you can buy food alcohol, or even just vodka, but it is better to drive moonshine out of grapes. Before making cognac at home, you will need to stock up on oak bark. It is better to collect it yourself, and not buy ready-made packages at the pharmacy. The fact is that you need spring bark, and in the pharmacy collection you can not be sure. In June, collect bark from thin branches of oak and dry it well in the shade. One and a half liters of moonshine requires three tablespoons of bark, two teaspoons of burnt sugar, a couple of clove inflorescences and a fifth of nutmeg. The latter should be crushed in a mortar or grated. You can add a little vanilla. All this is filled with moonshine and left in a dark place for two weeks.
Now you know how to make cognac at home. It remains to add that before serving it, you need to strain the liquid and pour it into bottles. If you have “branded” containers at home, and you put sniffers (cognac glasses) on the table, it is possible that you will be able to pass off your work as production, if not French, but industrial winemakers.