Cognac is the highest category wine. His recipe was invented in the 17th century, and production began in France in the city of Cognac, in honor of which this drink got its name. Making genuine French cognac is a complex and time-consuming business that thousands of professionals are working on.
But is it possible to make cognac at home?
Cognac at home is not at all difficult to do. Most importantly, for those who decide to make this drink on their own, stock up on enough time, patience and all the necessary ingredients. Now there are many recipes for the preparation of an alcoholic drink that will require a little effort from you, but in return they will give you incomparable pleasure from the taste of the resulting drink.
The cognac recipe at home was known to our great-grandfathers. For those who want to try to make a drink at home according to an old recipe, you will need a young bark of thin oak branches, 2.5 liters of vodka, sugar, nutmeg, 2 cloves and vanilla. The secret to making brandy is simple. Young bark of thin oak branches was collected in June, and after collection dried in the shade. After that, the bark was crushed and 2-3 tablespoons were placed in a container with vodka. Then 2 teaspoons of burnt sugar was added. 1/5 of the nutmeg, 2 cloves, and a little vanilla were added from the spices on the tip of the knife. The most important thing is not to overdo it with spices so that you don't get a “cologne”.
Cognac at home according to the second recipe is even easier to cook. It is necessary to squeeze out all the juice from the grapes and add wine yeast there. In a copper tub or in an enamel bowl, the wine material should be left to ferment for a month. After the wine material is obtained, it remains only to distill it twice and pour the resulting brandy alcohol into small oak barrels. It is best to keep the drink in barrels for 1 or 2 years, so that the made drink absorbs everything you need from wood. You can experiment and add spices, caramel or any ingredients to the drink.
For those who want cognac at home to be ready much earlier and do not want to wait another 2 years until the drink acquires the necessary endurance, there is another not complicated recipe. Only 20 or 30 days will be spent on aging such cognac. The ingredients for such brandy can be found in every grocery store, which is another undoubted advantage of this drink. The following recipe is cognac at home. It is necessary to mix 6 bottles of beer with 3 liters of grape juice, add 1 kilogram of sugar, half a liter of vodka, 100 g of yeast and half a can of instant coffee. After the necessary exposure for 20-30 days, the drink is ready.
How to choose a brandy preparation method is an individual matter, but in order to evaluate the true taste of the resulting drink, it is important to remember that cognac cannot be heated. In many bars and restaurants you can see how brandy is heated over a candle or over an alcohol lamp. It is unacceptable. After warming up the cognac, the light aromas of this drink disappear, and alcohol clearly begins to appear. The cognac that has a temperature of 20 ° C acquires the best taste. A bottle of cognac should be opened half an hour before a meal, so that the aroma of the drink spreads throughout the room. The glasses for this clear glass drink are large with a wide bottom. One-eighth of the glass is poured, and the addition of a small amount of water to the drink will reveal the entire flavor bouquet. Cognac is combined with chocolate, ice and lemon.
Try, experiment, fantasize and surprise your guests and households with beautiful cognac made at home. It is no worse than the purchased version, and even better, more natural and more useful. It is only worth a try once.