Raisin cognac has a pleasant and mild taste, in no way inferior to the elite varieties of this drink. It is prepared very simply, and if you have basic knowledge of home winemaking,... Next →

Already a long time ago people learned how to make moonshine. It did not take long to make cognac at home. The name of this alcoholic drink came from one French city, where this drink was born, and the city is called Cognac.

Content

1. How to make a drink at home?
2. More complex recipes
3. Additional Information

1 How to make a drink at home?

Recipes for making homemade cognac are very diverse. Very interesting is the fact that this fairly strong alcoholic drink can be prepared even from ground coffee. To do this, you need to take 170 g of coffee, pour it with a little water until completely dissolved and leave to infuse for 24 hours. After the required period of time, coffee should be poured with vodka. The resulting mixture will need to be mixed well and left to infuse for 20 days.

Cognac from coffee beans

• Armenian vodka Artsakh
• Preparation of cognac in an oak barrel
• How to drink brandy - tips for drinking pure and diluted

It is very important that both ingredients are tightly connected to each other. When the required period of time has passed, the mixture will need to be filtered and sugar syrup should be added to it, which must be prepared in advance. To do this, you only need 0.5 kg of sugar and 150 ml of water.

Mix the mixture and sugar syrup and leave for another 2-3 days. After it settles, it will need to be properly filtered. That's all, the prepared cognac can be safely bottled and started to use it.

2 More complex recipes

There are also more complex recipes. We need ingredients such as 3 liters of homemade moonshine, vanillin on the tip of a knife, 1 pc. bay leaf and orange peel, 10 black peppercorns and 1 tbsp. l. cinnamon and dry tea.

All ingredients must be mixed together and put in a dark place for 5 days. It is very important that the temperature of the room where the cognac will be infused is not lower than room temperature. Strain the infusion. This is best done with gauze folded in several layers.

Beer and juice can be added if desired. In order to get cognac based on these products, you need to take 6 bottles of beer with a capacity of 0.5 liters and grape juice. All this must be mixed with alcohol. You will need only 250 ml of alcohol, here you will also need to add 0.5 instant coffee, 100 g of yeast and 1 kg of sugar. The resulting mixture must be infused for 21 days. Cognac is ready. You just need to strain it well.

Cognac in a glass

You can also prepare the following options.

1. Extreme cognac. In order to prepare this option, you will need 3 tbsp. oak bark, nutmeg powder, vanillin, 2 cloves and 2.5 liters of vodka. The whole essence of the extreme of such a drink lies in the fact that if you exaggerate the dosage of the combination of vanillin with cloves, then instead of cognac you risk getting a real cologne. In addition, you need to insist it no more than 31 days.
2. Based on rose hips. For lovers of berries, you can make homemade cognac from rose hips. You need only 5 black peppercorns, 80 rose hips, 1 tsp. dry tea, 50 g of oak bark, 1 small branch of St. John's wort, 3 liters of diluted alcohol and 2 tbsp. Sahara. It is best to insist such an alcoholic drink for 40 days. If you want to try it much earlier, then remember that the minimum time for infusion is at least 15 days.

1. Economical. If you are used to saving money, this recipe is for you. It will be necessary to take only 0.5 liters of alcohol 95%, 350 ml of boiled cooled water, 2 tbsp. sugar and 1 cup crushed rose hips. All ingredients are thoroughly mixed together and left to infuse for 1 week.

After this period of time, the entire mixture must be filtered and you can safely proceed to use.

The following recipe is probably one of the most difficult to prepare and the largest in terms of the number of ingredients used. Making homemade cognac from moonshine according to this recipe will take a lot of time, but the result is worth it.

Take 3 liters of purified homemade moonshine, 1 tsp. oak bark, 1 tsp dry tea, 1 tsp instant coffee, 1 tsp sugar, 0.5 tsp soda, vanillin (the amount of this product should be only a few crystals), 3 black peppercorns, 2 bay leaves, 2 clove sticks, 5 raisins, 1 prunes, 0.5 g of nutmeg (more precisely, its powder) and 4 coriander seeds.

Rosehip cognac

In order to prepare such a drink, you need to take a sufficiently voluminous stainless steel pan and gradually place all the components into it. Leave moonshine for last.

After that, fill the entire composition with homemade purified moonshine and put the pan with the ingredients on a slow fire.

It is important not to miss the moment of boiling the mixture.

It is very difficult to measure the required amount of vanillin at home. But you need to try. Vanillin is placed in the composition at the tip of the knife. If there is a lot of vanillin, then it will turn out not cognac, but brandy.

If the entire composition, which is placed on fire, is covered with a glass lid, it is necessary to tightly close the hole on it. This should be done so that the degrees do not disappear.

At the moment when the liquid begins to boil, it must be immediately removed from the heat and allowed to cool. Remember: it is strictly forbidden to boil this alcoholic drink.

This is one of the most difficult and very crucial moments in the process of making homemade cognac according to this recipe.

When the entire composition has cooled, it will need to be carefully filtered. This can be done using special towels or gauze. After that, you can safely bottle and start drinking.

The taste, of course, will not resemble Armenian or French, but if the recipe is followed, it will come out no worse. Color thanks to tea and cinnamon will be appropriate.

3 Additional information

Cognac is the most difficult drink to make at home. It is quite difficult and almost impossible to comply with all the norms of the classical technology of its preparation. In order to prepare another option, you need to take the following ingredients in the following proportions: 1 liter of purified vodka, 4 tsp. oak bark, 0.3 tsp nutmeg powder, 5 pcs. cloves, 0.3 tsp vanilla sugar, 2 tbsp. ordinary sugar and 3 tsp. dry black tea.

Cognac made from nuts

To prepare such a drink, you need to take high-quality vodka or ordinary ethyl alcohol diluted with water to 40-45 degrees.

The first step on the way to obtaining such a noble drink is the processing of sugar.

It needs to be burnt so that in the process of use you can feel the caramel taste and shade.

It is necessary to take aluminum dishes with sufficiently dense and massive walls and pour sugar into it, after which the dishes will need to be placed on a small fire. At the time of melting sugar, it must be constantly stirred so that it does not burn. After caramel is obtained from this product, remove the dishes from the stove.

After that, in a separate bottle, mix all the ingredients thoroughly. After their connection, the entire composition will need to be thoroughly mixed. For 3-4 weeks, let the drink brew in a dark place.

Cognac must be filtered and bottled. The alcoholic drink is ready to drink. But it is worth remembering that the abuse of any alcoholic beverages is harmful to health.

“Cognac is an elite alcoholic drink, with a strength of 40-45%. The technology for making a drink is a rather long, complex and multi-stage process. From the selection of grape varieties to long-term aging in oak barrels. This cognac is produced only in France in the Charente region. The name of the drink was named after the city of Cognac (fr. cognac), all other drinks made outside of Poitou-Charentes are called brandy. It is difficult to prepare cognac at home or its semblance, but it is possible if all the cooking steps are followed correctly. As a result, you can get excellent homemade cognac, sometimes of better quality than in the store.

What is cognac made from? Cognac production begins with the selection of grape varieties. To obtain cognac wine material, strictly defined varieties of white grapes are used: Ugni Blanc, Folle Blanche, Colombard and Montil. These varieties grow on soils with chalk deposits, on top of which there is a small fertile layer of earth. The climate in the vicinity of the city of Cognac is temperate, with a sufficient amount of sun. All these factors make it possible to obtain high quality grapes and, ultimately, to obtain an excellent wine for producing cognac spirit. To make cognac at home, it is better to choose white nutmeg varieties, but you can make brandy from any available variety such as: Isabella, Stepnyak, Lydia, etc. The main thing is that the grapes are well ripened.

Classic homemade cognac recipe

Making cognac at home is a fascinating process. But most lovers of homemade alcohol use a cognac recipe in which it is supposed to infuse moonshine with various ingredients including sugar, coffee, oak bark, etc., while obtaining a pseudo-cognac taste and color. The recipe described below will allow you to get home-made cognac at home according to the classical technology from grapes.

Attention! Sugar in the recipe can be omitted if the percentage of sugar content in the grapes is high. The amount of water also depends on the acidity of the fruit. The less sugar you add to the wort, the better and more aromatic the grape spirit will be. But if the grapes are not too sweet, then without the addition of sugar there will be a small yield of distillate.

Recipe Ingredients:

• Grapes - 30 kg;
• Sugar - 2 kg;
• Water - 3 liters.

How to make cognac:

1. Wort preparation. Grape wine ferments on wild yeasts that are on the surface of the berries. Therefore, before preparing the must, the grapes should not be washed, so as not to wash off the yeast. If, nevertheless, you got washed grapes, then you can use special wine yeast or prepare a sourdough. Fruits, separate from twigs, remove rotten grapes. Using a press, crush the grapes together with the seeds. If there is no press, you can use a drill with a mixer attachment. Grinds berries perfectly (checked repeatedly).
2. Fermentation. Place the crushed mass in an enamel pan, add sugar if necessary, 1 kg of sugar. Pour in water and stir everything. Cover the pan with gauze to protect against midges. Put in heat + 25-30C for 3-4 days. After about 12-15 hours fermentation of the must begins. A hat of grape pulp rises to the surface. Every day, 2-3 times a day, you need to drown and mix this hat with a wooden spatula, otherwise the wort may turn sour! After 3-4 days, the must begins active fermentation, carbon dioxide is released, and a characteristic wine smell appears. At this stage, the wort must be filtered. To do this, you can use a fine sieve or gauze, the squeezed cake can be used to make chacha or other alcohol.
3. Fermentation. Pour the filtered wort into a fermentation tank, which must be filled to 2/3, as abundant foam is released during rapid fermentation. Add sugar 0.5 kg, install a water seal on the container or put on a medical rubber glove on the neck, in which you need to pierce one finger with a needle. Put the fermentation tank in heat with a temperature of 20-25C. On the third day of fermentation, add the rest of the sugar, diluted in a liter of must. Fermentation of grape juice lasts 4-5 weeks, depending on the sugar in the juice and temperature. You can determine the end of fermentation at the end of the release of carbon dioxide, the sediment also falls to the bottom, the young wine is partially clarified. Ready young dry low-alcohol wine has 8-10% alcohol. Before distillation, it is kept on the yeast sediment for 2-6 months, during which time the wine acquires a delicate and fragrant bouquet, the acidity decreases.
   
4. Obtaining raw alcohol. At the cognac factory, a special copper distillation cube is used to make cognac and distill wine, it is called the Charente cube or alambik (alambic charentais). Copper is used because of its increased resistance to acids found in wine. On the cube there is an onion-shaped copper cap and a tube passing into the coil. The wine is distilled twice at the first stage, fragrant, cloudy raw alcohol with a strength of 30-32% is obtained. In the second stage, which is called bon chaaffe (bonne chaaffe), highly purified cognac spirit is obtained. At the same time, the "head" and "tail" are separated. Pour the young wine into the cube of the moonshine together with the sediment and overtake at maximum heat without separation into fractions. Depending on the device, you get 10-12 liters of raw alcohol, simply moonshine, with a strength of 25-35 degrees.
5. Fractional distillation. Dilute grape moonshine with water to a strength of 15-20%. Pour into a distillation cube, make a second distillation. For distillation, it is better to use a tray column or a BC with a copper nozzle. After warming up the raw material, drop by drop select the head fraction with a volume of 10-15% of absolute alcohol, in our case 350-500 ml. The head faction is poison! Therefore, it can only be used for technical purposes. Next, you need to select the "body" or "heart", that is, the drinking fraction. Again, depending on the apparatus, the body is selected, the body is expelled until the alcohol content in the stream is 60-70%. As a result, 2.5-3 liters of aromatic distillate should be collected with a total strength of 70-80%. The tail fraction can be omitted, if desired.
6. Excerpt. In order for a wine distillate to become a real cognac or brandy, it must be aged in an oak barrel from several months to several years. Before pouring into a barrel, dilute alcohol with clean water diluted to 60%. At home, barrels are small, usually 10-30 liters. In such casks, cognac will mature after 6-12 months of aging. The longer the distillate is aged in the barrel, the more refined its taste and bouquet becomes. If you are not a happy owner of an oak barrel, then in this case you can use a cheaper and simpler way - to insist brandy alcohol on oak chips, which you can cook yourself with your own hands or buy in a special store.
   
7. Blending. Blending is the mixing of different cognac spirits produced at different times and under different conditions. But since we are making homemade cognac, this step can be skipped. The only thing that can be done is to add caramel to the cognac to add color and soften the taste.To do this, add 50 grams of caramel per 3 liters to the drink. Stir well and keep a few more days before drinking. On this, the preparation of cognac can be considered complete. Grape cognac is stored in glass bottles and well corked, in a cool room, for an unlimited time.

In Rus', moonshine stills took root for a long time - the locals did not understand them. Intoxicated drinks were widely advertised by foreigners, trying to start earning huge sums. Not everyone could afford to have a moonshine at home, so soon the presence of the device indicated a person’s high income. Foreigners who brought moonshine to Rus' and taught it to drink, opened taverns and lobbied for a ban on private ownership of the device.

The ban on brewing moonshine at home was lifted only in 2002 by the Federal Law of Russia. Of course, at any time there were ardent fans of home brewing, who, under pain of punishment, continued to produce intoxicating drinks. Today, those who decide to try their hand at this business are struggling to wade through numerous recipes and tips. There are as many recipes for each intoxicating drink as there are moonshiners, everyone contributes and has their own little secret of producing the perfect drink. Moonshine still - a means for the production of a variety of drinks, different strengths and aftertaste. For centuries, people have not yet experimented and continue to invent new recipes. With the help of moonshine at home, you can make cognac. As a rule, grapes are used for this, others simply ennoble moonshine by improving its color and taste by adding coffee, sugar and other ingredients. Real cognac from grapes is also called brandy and it is quite possible to make it at home. today moonshine can be easily bought in specialized stores, for example, Katyusha moonshine is an excellent choice for beginner moonshiners. Experts advise using Muscat grape varieties with a specific aroma, but any other variety will do. The main requirement for grapes is its ripeness.

Making cognac is a laborious and multi-pass process.

First you need to prepare wine material. Cognac alcohol can be obtained by distilling young wine through a moonshine, so you need to start with wine. It is not necessary to wash the harvested grapes, the berries are simply removed from the bunches and crushed along with the seeds. A reasonable question is why you can not wash the grapes. Wine yeast, necessary for fermentation, is formed on the surface of the berries, without which wine will not work. Heavily dirty berries can be wiped with a dry cloth. Grated grapes are placed in an enamel bowl, diluted with sugar (calculated as 2 kg per 10 liters of grapes). Cover the resulting product with a clean cloth or gauze and place for a week in a warm and dark place. You should not forget about the wort, it is advisable to mix it regularly with a wooden spoon. Approximately on the second day, a “cap” of pulp will begin to form, which interferes with fermentation. Wine for better fermentation two or three times a day is thoroughly mixed. After about a week, the wine will begin to emit a characteristic wine smell, and all the pulp will be on the surface - signs that it is time to filter the must. The liquid is carefully poured into another vessel, the remaining one becomes obsolete through a cloth or gauze. Sugar is added again with the same calculation of 2 kilograms per 10 liters of liquid. Grape juice is poured into glass bottles (fill up to a maximum of 70% of the volume), a water seal or a medical glove with a hole is installed. Tanks for 20 days are installed in a dark and warm place. After 18-22 days, fermentation ends and wine material with a strength of 11-14 degrees is obtained.

Now the moonshine still is connected to the process.

• Young wine is poured into it without sediment. At this stage, slow distillation is used (up to 3 liters per hour) and the first 50 ml of distillate is poured out. They stop taking alcohol when the fortress falls below 30 degrees. The drink obtained as a result of the first distillation is diluted with water 1:1.
• The second distillation is carried out in the same way as the first. In order to eventually get pure wine alcohol, you need to drive the wine through the moonshine still one more time.
• For the third distillation, the distillate is taken at least 45 degrees. Now the production of cognac requires an infusion. Some use an oak barrel for this, others use oak pegs. Oak aged 50 years or more, with a trunk diameter of 30-35 cm, is perfect for cognac tincture. Production wastes, such as sawdust, shavings and bark, are not used in the preparation of cognac, since a high content of tannins makes cognac hard.

If you use oak pegs, they must be prepared in advance. It is desirable that the cut down tree is naturally soaked (lay down for several years under snow and rain). Pegs are placed in three-liter jars, where alcohol is poured. The distillate is diluted with water before bottling to obtain a strength of 42-45 degrees. One of the secrets of homemade cognac makers is to pour alcohol into water so that the liquid does not become cloudy. Banks with pegs and alcohol are cleaned in a dark, cool place for six months or a year. The aging time affects the quality of cognac. The last stage in the preparation of cognac is caramelization. It is necessary to change the color of cognac and soften the taste. This process is purely individual, depending on your individual preferences. On average, no more than 50 grams per 3 liters of drink are used, citric acid at the tip of a knife. After caramelization, cognac is aged in a sealed vessel for another 7-10 days. After this period, you can bottle the drink by straining it through a layer of cotton. Today, moonshine stills can be purchased on a free sale and their variety is impressive, for example, you can buy a moonshine still in St. Petersburg in the Pan Samogon specialized store.

Of course, most of the devices are used for the distillation of mash at home and the production of strong alcoholic beverages. The most primitive apparatus consists of two components - a distillation cube and a refrigerator (coil). The raw material is poured into the distillation cube, then it is heated to the desired temperature. During the heating process, the raw material begins to evaporate lighter fractions, which condense in the coil. Modern moonshine stills are equipped with a variety of design solutions that allow you to control the distillation processes.

Be able to make cognac from alcohol at home - this is a very valuable skill, because many of you like to treat yourself to this noble drink during any holidays. But buying cognac in a store can sometimes be expensive and impractical, since you can never predict whether you will get a good drink or not at all. At best, you will have a sleepless night with gatherings over a ceramic “comrade”, but at worst, the symptoms are much more unpleasant. That is why the best solution would be to make cognac from alcohol on your own. There is absolutely nothing complicated here, the main thing is to know what needs to be mixed with what and in what proportion.

There are a large number of recipes with which you can make high quality homemade homemade cognac without spending unimaginable amounts. We will tell you about these recipes in our article.

Classic recipe

By making homemade cognac according to this recipe at home, you will get a great drink with a rich smell and pleasant taste. If you pour it into store bottles and serve it to friends, they will never guess that this cognac is completely non-purchased.

Required Ingredients:

forty degrees alcohol: 3 l

oak bark: 3 tbsp. l.

caramel: 2 tsp

nutmeg: ½ tsp. l.

dried cloves: 3 heads

vanilla: a small pinch

Cooking method:

It is best if you find some kind of wooden container in which it will be convenient to make homemade cognac. First you need to pour alcohol into it, add all the remaining products there and mix it all well. You can even shake vigorously a couple of times. Then it is necessary to hermetically close the container with alcohol, and send it to the basement or pantry for a month. After the required amount of time, the classic homemade cognac, made at home, will be ready for use.

Aromatic cognac

If you are a gourmet and love unusual, aromatic drinks, then this recipe for high-quality fragrant cognac made at home will suit you very well. The drink turns out to be very tasty, and its aroma will conquer anyone.

Required Ingredients:

forty degrees alcohol: 3 l

oak bark: 1 tbsp. l.

black tea: 1 tbsp. l.

granulated sugar: 3 tbsp. l.

rose hips: a handful

St. John's wort dry: 3 tbsp. l.

dry cloves: 10 heads

Cooking method:

Prepare a suitable container in which the cognac will be infused, and mix all the required ingredients in it. Then hermetically close and send to infuse in the basement or pantry for a month. If possible, you can wait longer, because the longer the fragrant cognac is infused, the tastier it will be.

infused with ginger

Cognac on ginger comes out very tasty, and also has an unusual aroma, by which you can never say that the cognac was made by yourself.

Required Ingredients:

ginger root: 50 g

granulated sugar: 200 g

vanilla sugar: 5 g

walnut: 5 pcs.

diluted alcohol: 0.5 l

Cooking method:

Ginger root must be grated on a coarse grater, and walnuts must be ground in a blender. Combine both ingredients with sugar and vanilla, mix and pour into a prepared container. It is best to take a wooden barrel, it will be more symbolic and tastier.

But keep in mind that it must be shaken every day, and before drinking it, you need to strain the drink with gauze.

coffee cognac recipe

Cognac with the aroma of coffee is liked by everyone without exception. It has a subtle (and sometimes not subtle) coffee aroma and amazing aftertaste. Pairs well with any type of coffee.

Required Ingredients:

diluted alcohol: 3 l

sugar: 3 tbsp. l.

instant coffee: 3 tbsp. l.

ground cinnamon: 1 tsp

vanillin: 15 g

dry cloves: 10 heads

Cooking method:

Prepare a container in which brandy will be infused, and put all the ingredients in it. Then fill it all with alcohol, and having carefully closed the container with a lid, vigorously shake the future cognac. After that, you can clean it in a dark, cool place for at least a month. It must be filtered before use.

Cognac with orange peel

Homemade cognac with orange zest tastes like a classic homemade cognac, but has slightly different ingredients and method of preparation.

Required Ingredients:

forty degrees alcohol: 1 l

granulated sugar: 1 tsp

black tea: 1 tsp

allspice: 2 peas

dried cloves: 2 heads

bay leaf: 1 pc.

vanilla sugar: 1 pinch

orange peel

Cooking method:

First you need to pour sugar into alcohol and stir it well until the crystals dissolve. Then we send the tea leaves to a blender so that it is thoroughly ground, and we send it to alcohol. Next, add all the other products, carefully peel off the orange zest and also put it in the drink. Now you can send the container with the drink to a dark place, it should be infused for at least two weeks. Before use, it is necessary to filter cognac, and only then serve it to the table.