Cognac from apple juice at home. Making Calvados at home

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 is made exclusively from apple juice fermented according to the white scheme, i.e., on 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.

Calvados must be 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.

Selecting the desired combination of different varieties 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.

After that, 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% sour apples a similar amount of pears, which is acceptable under the AOC calvados standard, or do a la the Calvados Domfrontais standard, replacing sour and some bittersweet apple fruits with pears, which will make up 30 to 50% of the total number of fruits.

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.

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 cold water, then rinse with a 20-degree alcohol solution and steam 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 Norman distillers, you should burn the container from the inside, but this, frankly, is not for everybody.

Error or something to add?

Having learned how to cook Calvados at home, you can forever forget about the nuances associated with buying alcohol, the quality of which does not always correspond to the declared one, and the price exceeds all conceivable peaks. In practice, the technique for creating a drink is not as intricate as it might seem at first.

What is Calvados?

At its core, Calvados is a distillate of apple cider, which is obtained by double distillation of fermented apple juice in its pure form or with the addition of other fruits, sugar.

1. In the original, calvados is called apple, produced in the north-west of Normandy from apples grown in the same territory.
2. Calvados can be made at home, using industrial ideas, from several varieties of apples, combining sour, sweet and sour and sweet fruits.
3. The colorless distillate acquires its characteristic color, aroma and taste after aging in oak barrels or insisting on oak chips.

Calvados at home - recipes

Anyone who has such a desire and who comprehends the whole essence of technology, which is not as complicated as it might seem at first glance, can make homemade Calvados at home.

1. Before making homemade Calvados, chopped apples or fresh juice are put into fermentation by placing the wort under a water seal.
2. The resulting fruit cider is distilled twice, selecting the distillate.
3. In order for moonshine to turn into apple brandy, it must be diluted to a strength of 45 ° and insist on oak wood. If it is not possible to use the classical technique and keep the drink in oak barrels, wood chips are added to the jars, which are pre-soaked in cold water and then in boiling water for 15-20 minutes, and then dried.
4. The aging time of the drink together with the oak additive is 6-12 months.
5. When ready, homemade alcohol is filtered through a cotton swab, bottled and corked for storage.

apple calvados

Looking for an effective use for excess fruit fruits, do not miss the opportunity to make apple calvados at home. Apples are preferably used as is, without rinsing with water, so that all wild yeasts remain on the surface. With insufficient natural fermentation, you can add wine yeast, based on the instructions.

Ingredients:

• apples - 20 kg;
• water - 12 l;
• sugar - 3 kg;
• wine yeast - 10 g.

Cooking

1. Apples are peeled from the core, chopped with a meat grinder.
2. Add water boiled from sugar.
3. Wine yeast is mixed into the base of apples, the must is left to ferment at a temperature of 25-28 ° C.
4. The mash is filtered through cheesecloth and distilled twice to obtain a distillate.
5. Moonshine is diluted to a strength of 45 ° and poured into oak barrel.
6. After 4-6 months. you can try apple brandy.

pear calvados

Calvados prepared according to the following recipe at home from pears has a pleasant aftertaste and an unusual aroma. In addition to pears, apples should be present in the composition, the proportions of which can be arbitrary or be 50, 30 or 20% of the total. Unlike pure apple cider, pear cider requires a single distillation and subsequent dilution of the distillate to the desired strength.

Ingredients:

• pears - 10 kg;
• apples - 10 kg;
• water - 10 l;
• invert syrup - 2.5 l.

Cooking

1. Pears and apples are crushed, mixed with water and syrup, placed in a warm place to activate the fermentation process for 3-5 days.
2. The wort is filtered, poured into a container under a water seal, left until the end of the fermentation process.
3. The cider is distilled, and the resulting distillate is diluted with water.
4. Pear brandy is poured into oak barrels and left for 6-12 months.

Calvados with raisins

Soft in taste with a pleasant light shade of grapes, Calvados is obtained, the home-cooked recipe of which is performed with dry raisins. The latter should be exclusively natural, untreated with chemicals and clean, as it is not recommended to wash it before use.

Ingredients:

• apples - 5 kg;
• pears - 2 kg;
• - 5-7 tbsp. spoons.

Cooking

1. Juice is squeezed out of apples and pears, raisins are added and left warm for 3-5 days, stirring the mixture several times a day.
2. After the start of fermentation, a water seal is installed on the wort container, waiting for the completion of the fermentation process.
3. The cider is removed from the sediment, distilled to obtain apple-pear moonshine.
4. The distillate is placed in an oak barrel or glass jar with oak pegs for at least 6 months.
5. Brandy from pears and apples is filtered, bottled and kept in a cool place for 6-8 months. or more.

Calvados with sugar

Having understood the essence of what kind of Calvados drink it is, it becomes clear that its preparation in an authentic version does not require the addition of sugar, and the desired taste is achieved through right combination apples of different varieties with varying degrees of sweetness and sourness. However, in home brewing techniques, sugar is often added to the wort to increase the distillate yield.

Ingredients:

• freshly squeezed apple juice - 20 l;
• water - 9 l;
• sugar - 4 kg.

Cooking

1. 2 kg of sugar is added to the juice, left warm for 3-5 days.
2. Syrup is boiled from water and the remaining sugar, cooled to a temperature of 28-30 ° C and poured into the wort.
3. Install a water seal on the bottle or put on a glove with a pierced finger and wait for the fermentation process to complete.
4. Apple mash is distilled, and the resulting moonshine is insisted on oak chips or apple cuts.

Calvados with yeast

High-quality, fragrant, close in its properties to the authentic, Calvados is obtained at home, the recipe of which involves the addition of aroma-forming yeast. The portion of the additive here is 2 times less than recommended on the package, which, in addition to the artificial fermentation activator, allows wild yeast to express itself.

Ingredients:

• freshly squeezed - 25 l;
• yeast - 10 g.

Cooking

1. Juice is squeezed out of unwashed apples with a juicer, poured into a fermentation container.
2. 250 ml of juice and water are mixed separately, yeast is dissolved in the mixture, poured into the must.
3. Install a water seal and wait for the completion of the fermentation process.
4. Apple mash is distilled, and the distillate is insisted on oak chips or in an oak barrel for at least six months.
5. Cooked Calvados with yeast at home is additionally filtered.

Calvados on alcohol

When you don't want to bother with implementation traditional ways cooking homemade calvados, messing with mash, distilling it, you can simplify your task and make Alternative option alcohol in the form of tincture of apples. Ideally, you need to choose the most fragrant fruit fruits with dense juicy pulp.

Ingredients:

• apples - 1 kg;
• alcohol diluted to a strength of 60% - 0.5 l;
• alcohol diluted to a strength of 45% - 0.5 l.

Cooking

1. Before making Calvados at home with alcohol, the apples are washed, dried, removed from the stalks and cores, and then cut into slices.
2. They put fruit slices in a jar, pour alcohol with a strength of 60%, insist a week in a dark, cool place.
3. The infusion is drained, poured with alcohol of a lower strength, allowed to brew for another week.
4. The second infusion is drained, mixed with the first, bottled and allowed to brew for at least 2 weeks.

Calvados on vodka

The following are simple recommendations for those who want to figure out how to cook calvados at home with vodka. At its core, this is an apple tincture, which is additionally aged in an oak barrel or insisted by adding properly processed oak chips to a jar of alcohol.

Ingredients:

• ripe apples - 1.5 kg;
• - 2 l;
• oak chips - a handful.

Cooking

1. Apples are washed, dried, cleaned of seed chambers, cut and poured with vodka.
2. After 2 weeks, the drink is filtered, poured into a jar, supplemented with oak chips, hermetically sealed and left for at least six months.
3. Ready Calvados is filtered, bottled.

Calvados on moonshine

If you don’t want to cook Calvados at home from apple juice or puree by fermenting it, then distilling and infusing, you can implement next recipe and make a tincture of moonshine. Home-made alcohol must be double distilled, purified, without foreign impurities and fusel oils.

Ingredients:

• ripe apples - 1.5 kg;
• pears - 350 g;
• moonshine - 1 l;
• sugar - 0.5 tbsp.;
• water - 75 ml;
• vanilla.

Cooking

1. Prepared chopped apples and pears are placed in a jar in layers, flavoring the fruit with vanilla if desired.
2. Moonshine is added and the sealed container is left for 3 weeks in a cool place.
3. Strained alcohol is mixed with cooled syrup made from sugar and water, insisted for another month.

Calvados on cider

Getting decent quality homemade Calvados apple brandy is not difficult if there is an impressive amount of unclaimed home-made cider available. Having passed the low-alcohol base through the distillation cube, it will be possible to obtain a distillate, which will become the basis for a strong Normandy drink. The latter will remain to insist in oak barrels, or by adding wooden pegs to the jar.

Ingredients:

• cider - 20 l;
• oak pegs - 1-2 handfuls.

Cooking

1. The cider is distilled twice to obtain apple moonshine.
2. The distillate is poured into an oak barrel for 6-12 months. or insist on wood pegs in a closed container.
3. The drink is filtered, bottled, stored in a cool place.

Calvados on oak chips

You can get real French apple brandy from home-made fruit moonshine not only by aging strong alcohol in oak barrels. In the absence of an expensive container, it will be possible to apply an alternative method and give the drink a characteristic color, aroma and flavor bouquet by insisting on small oak chips.

Ingredients:

• apple moonshine - 3 l;
• oak chips - 10.5 g.

Cooking

1. Oak chips are poured into a jar of double-distilled apple distillate.
2. Close the container tightly and leave the drink to infuse for at least 3 weeks.
3. Calvados is filtered, bottled for further storage and aging.

How to drink Calvados?

It is important not only to master the technique of preparing exquisite Normandy alcohol, but also to master the art of how to drink Calvados and how to eat apple brandy.

1. Calvados can be both an aperitif and a digestif, as well as served in between hearty and nutritious meals improving digestion.
2. Apple brandy is not taken in one gulp. It is necessary to slowly sip the drink, savoring every sip and inhaling the vapors of the summer orchard.
3. There are no clear recommendations for choosing apple snacks for alcohol. It can be served with main meat dishes, accompanied by cheese or cold cuts, olives, complement with chocolate or not too sweet desserts.

Calvados is alcoholic drink, which is made from apples, sometimes with the addition of pears. It is pleasant to drink even in its pure form, despite the high strength. You can also make Calvados at home, the main thing is to know all the details of the recipe.

Apple calvados - a classic recipe

Apple Calvados is a drink originally from France, and making it at home so that it repeats the taste of the original 100% will not work. But the proposed recipe will allow you to get a drink whose taste will be as close as possible to real Calvados. Also, two options for the composition will be offered here: traditional and original, you can choose the one that you like the most.

Traditional composition:

• 7 parts bittersweet and sweet apples;
• 2 parts sour apples;
• 1 part bitter apples.

Original composition:

• 4 parts sweet apples;
• 4 parts bitter apples;
• 2 parts sour apples.

Cooking:

• At the first stage, you need to get cider from apples. To do this, squeeze the juice from the fruit and leave it for a day in the room. The next day, remove the foam from the surface, and pour the juice into a fermentation container, put a water seal or simply pull on a latex glove with one pierced finger. We transfer to the place where the optimum temperature is maintained from +17 to 27 ° C.

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• As soon as the glove is lowered, the liquid will become light, and sediment will be visible at the bottom, which means that the cider is ready. We drain, be sure to filter, because if sediment gets in, the drink will turn out bitter, and we send it to alcohol mashine.

• The first batch of moonshine is again poured into the apparatus and the distillation is repeated. The output should be moonshine with a strength of 70 to 80%, but we dilute it with water until the alcohol meter shows 40%. Please note that the first dose, approximately 12%, must be poured out, as this is harmful and dangerous product, which is used for technical purposes only.

• Now we pour the moonshine into an oak barrel, they are used to age real Calvados. But if there is no barrel, then we use an ordinary glass bottle, but be sure to add oak chips, about 10 pieces about 10 cm long and 7 cm in diameter.

• Keep the drink in a cool place from 6 months to 1 year. After Calvados, we filter, bottle and store in the cellar, but before proceeding with the tasting, we give the drink a week to rest and reach the desired state.

Calvados is the kind of drink that doesn't like to be rushed. The proposed recipe is called the “white scheme”, there is also a “red scheme”, with the addition of sugar and wine yeast. Of course, such ingredients speed up the process, but the taste of the drink will be far from the classic recipe.

Apple calvados - a simple recipe

To enjoy such a delicious and fragrant drink as Calvados, you will have to wait at least six months. But for those who want to speed up the cooking process at home, there is an easier apple drink recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1.5 kg of apples;
• 150 ml of water;
• 200 g of sugar;
• 1.5 l of rectified alcohol.

Cooking:

• We wash the apples well, chop them finely, put them in a jar, pour them with alcohol, close the lid and leave them warm for 2 weeks.

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• After the alcoholized fruits are passed through a juicer.
• Pour water into a saucepan, add sugar and cook syrup.

• As soon as the syrup changes its color, remove it from the stove and add apple tincture in a thin stream.

• We stir everything well, cool the drink and pour it into glass bottles.

The proposed recipe will allow you to get not so much Calvados as liquor. But the drink is tasty, fragrant and ladies will especially like it. For the recipe, it is better to choose red apples, and so that the drink does not taste bitter, the fruits must be cleaned of seeds.

Calvados recipe from moonshine at home

This version of the drink involves the addition of wine yeast, which will speed up the process of making calvados from apples at home. For the recipe, we take wine yeast, alcohol yeast or for baking are not suitable here.

Ingredients:

• 3 kg of apples;
• 12 liters of water;
• 3 kg of sugar;
• 10 g of wine yeast;
• 5 liters of cherry-raspberry wine.

Cooking:

• We wash the apples, cut into slices, peel the seeds and chop in a meat grinder or with a construction mixer.

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• We shift the resulting fruit gruel into a can and pour in the syrup boiled from sugar, as well as 12 liters of clean water.

• We stir wine yeast in warm water, let it brew for 15 minutes, and then pour it into a can.
• We leave the can with the contents for fermentation, for about 2 weeks at a temperature of + 20-22 ° C. In parallel, we pour cherry-raspberry wine into an oak barrel, which we also keep for 14 days.

• You can find out if the mash is ready by the top layer, which should become light, and by the bitter taste. After the mash, we filter it with ordinary gauze and run it on a distiller to select raw alcohol.

• After we do the second run, but already fractional, that is, we do not use the "head" fraction, this is industrial alcohol, like the "tail" fraction, only the "body" fraction with a strength of 80 ° C.

• Now we dilute apple moonshine with clean water, lower the degree to 65, and pour it into a barrel of wine, keep it at room temperature 2.5-3 months.

Have you tried making Calvados at home?
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After we drain the drink from the barrel, dilute it again with clean water, lower the degree to 40, pour it over glass jars and leave for 1 month to rest.

Calvados from apple juice concentrate

Calvados from apples at home can be prepared at any time of the year, if we take as a basis not fresh fruits and apple juice concentrate. Such a drink recipe is simpler and faster, because yeast is used here, which should be wine or fruit.

Ingredients:

• 4 kg of concentrated juice;
• 20 liters of water;
• 15 g yeast (wine, fruit);
• oak chips.

Cooking:

• Concentrated juice is not a drink that is sold in a store, it is the raw material for its restoration, so it is not eaten or drunk. The concentrate is obtained as follows: first, the juice is squeezed out of the fruit, and then it is evaporated at low temperatures, a viscous and thick consistency is obtained.

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• Therefore, in order to get juice from the concentrate, we dilute it with warm clean water. We measure 130 ml of the resulting juice, stir the yeast in it and leave for 15 minutes.

• After that, pour the diluted concentrated juice and yeast into the fermentation container, leave it warm under a water seal for 10 days.
• We distill the fermented mash twice, the second time we make a fractional fraction.

• We dilute the resulting distillation with water to reduce degrees to 60, and together with oak chips we insist for 2-3 months. Then the drink is once again diluted with water to 40 degrees and bottled.

Oak chips can be heated in a dry frying pan, so the drink will have a more pronounced flavor.

Raisin Calvados Recipe

At home, Calvados can be made from apples with the addition of raisins, the drink is obtained with pleasant taste. The proposed recipe is a bit like the previous options. fast food drink.

Ingredients:

3 kg of sweet and sour apples;

• 600 ml of water;
• 600 g of sugar;
• 50 g raisins.

Cooking:

1. Grind apples, previously peeled from seeds, on a coarse grater.
2. We spread the grated fruits in a glass container, alternating layers with sugar and raisins.
3. Now we pour in warm water, put any water seal and put it away for 10 days in a dark, warm place.
4. At the end of the fermentation process, we pass the cider through a sieve or gauze, and the drink can already be drunk by bottling.
5. But for Calvados we drive it twice through the moonshine, and then we insist on oak chips.
6. We dilute the drink with water to lower the degree, store in glass bottles in a cool place.

Calvados is a special drink and it takes time and patience to make it at home. Today you can find many recipes for a drink based on an apple-pear mixture, but if you want to get Calvados as close as possible to the original, then we use only apples.

The history of apple calvados goes far into the past. Back in the 16th century, a French nobleman from Normandy achieved recognition of the national status of the drink. It got its name from the area where the production originated. Defined as a strong alcoholic drink made by double distilling apple cider, Calvados is essentially the official moonshine made from apples. The French are famous for their eccentricity in turning homemade products into a symbol of the country. So apple moonshine became a protected trademark, along with cognac and champagne, the name of which is allowed to be used by manufacturers in a certain area.

Home brew

Braga for making moonshine is apple or apple-pear cider. To make it, fragrant apples are needed, usually a mixture of different varieties is selected. The amount of sweet and bitter-sweet fruits should prevail over sour ones. When pears are added, according to tradition, no more than 30%, they are equated with sour raw materials. The quantitative proportions of the choice of apples vary among different manufacturers, and about 50 varieties of apples are officially recommended. At home, you need to proceed from the raw materials available nearby. In Russia, apple and pear trees are much more common than vineyards, they are very diverse and prolific, so there will be no problems in selecting the source material for apple or mixed mash.

The harvested fruits are washed and placed in a warm place to ripen and gain sweetness. The source of fermentation in apple mash is natural fruit sugar and the addition of store-bought sugar is usually not required. From the fruits you need to make juice and pour it into prepared containers. In the old days, wooden vats with rotating millstones were used, modern manufacturers press apple juice on the latest food equipment. At manufacturing plants, raw materials are crushed and squeezed out with a special press. At home, use a household juicer or meat grinder with a nozzle for tomatoes. The resulting cake can not be thrown away, but poured with heated water, allowed to soak for a day and squeezed again. Secondary juice is added to the first extraction in a ratio of not more than 20%.

To enhance the fermentation process in apple mash, you can make fruit sourdough, which is made from unwashed apples to use natural wild yeast. The fruits are crushed, mixed with warm water and sugar and let it brew for a few days. When the sourdough begins to ferment, it is added to the main apple brew. The amount of the added amplifier is not more than 3–4% of the main raw material.

Standing apple mash takes place in a cool place at a temperature of 20–25 ° C. In a colder room, the duration of the process increases. Fermentation time varies from 1 month to six months. At the end of the release of carbon dioxide and the precipitation of a stable precipitate, the preparation of the mash can be considered complete.

Distillation of cider into moonshine

Fermented apple mash traditional recipe needs to be crossed twice. After the first distillation, an intermediate raw moonshine of a cloudy color with a strength of 30–35% is obtained. The secondary product already has 65-70% strength and is a real apple moonshine. The amount of drink obtained during each distillation is half the volume of the initial raw material. Thus, from 40 liters of apple mash, we get 10 liters of pure moonshine. It should be remembered that during the secondary distillation, the first drops of the outgoing product are harmful impurities that must be collected separately and disposed of. Starting the process of obtaining food ethyl alcohol comes from temperatures above 70°C.

Particular attention should be paid to the purification of the resulting product. In the resulting apple moonshine, a sufficient amount of fusel oils and impurities remain, which significantly worsen the taste and smell of the drink. Cleaning can be done different ways. The most common methods of using potassium permanganate, wood or activated carbon. The crushed cleaning elements are poured into the liquid and infused for several days. It is necessary to periodically shake containers with moonshine to improve adsorption. The drink is then filtered to extract the resulting precipitate. As a filter, you can use gauze in several layers, medium density cloth or special filter paper. Purchased filters for water purification are also suitable. The resulting purified moonshine is ready to be converted into Calvados.

Final stage

Most spirits in the final stage of preparation are infused in oak barrels. Absorbing substances from wood, moonshine acquires a traditional light brown color, necessary taste and smell. Barrels for Calvados are prepared in a special way. They are first poured into boiling water to swell the planks to increase the release. necessary ingredients. Then fill with moonshine from the first distillation and insist 2-3 weeks. Next, the containers are emptied and filled with a purified secondary distillation product. The final apple brandy is aged within 8–12 months. To obtain a collection Calvados, the exposure time is increased to 6 years. Special varieties have special inscriptions certifying the year of production of the drink.

This technology is cumbersome and is used at official Calvados manufacturing plants. At home, it is possible to age apple moonshine in glass bottles with oak chips. Sawdust or shavings can give the drink a bitter taste. Infusion should be done in a dark, cool room. old recipes recommend "marrying" Calvados. To do this, mix moonshine made from different mixtures of fruit varieties. As a result, you can get a variety of blends with great aromas and flavor bouquets.

When you decide that the aging of traditional apple brandy is over, the drink is poured into glass bottles and sealed tightly. Do not use plastic containers, they can worsen the taste and smell and do not match the solidity of Calvados.

So, the classic French drink is ready. Of course, we can talk about the duration and difficulty of making real apple moonshine, but it's worth it. The nobility of Calvados will make you proud of your skill.

Calvados prepared from apples at home, taking into account all the necessary requirements, will adequately compete with purchased elite alcohol and will surprise you with worthy taste and quality indicators. The technology is long and troublesome, but the result fully pays for all the time and labor costs.

How to make calvados from apples?

As a rule, Calvados is prepared from several varieties of apples, choosing assorted sweet and sour, sweet and flavorful specimens.

1. Apple raw materials are crushed in a blender or passed through a juicer.
2. Apple base is used in its natural form or sweetened with invert sugar.
3. Yeast in the mash is added exclusively from wine, of proven quality, or, ideally, wild yeast cultures contained on the surface of unwashed apples are dispensed with.
4. A container with mash is placed under a water seal for fermentation.
5. The resulting alcohol base is distilled into alembic twice.
6. The preparation of Calvados from apples is completed by aging alcohol in an oak barrel or insisting on oak chips for at least three months.

Apple mash for Calvados

The correct recipe for apple mash for Calvados is the necessary basis for obtaining high-quality homemade gourmet alcohol. It is important to use only ripe apples without damage, dents, dark spots or spoiled areas, so as not to spoil the final result with unwanted flavor notes.

Ingredients:

• apples of different varieties - 3 buckets;
• white wine yeast - 10 g;
• sugar - 3 kg;
• water - 12 liters.

Cooking

1. The apples are crushed.
2. Add water and invert sugar.
3. Yeast is soaked in warm water for 15 minutes, mixed into the apple base.
4. The mash is poured into a fermentation tank and left under a water seal until the end of fermentation.
5. Get apple Calvados at home by double distillation of mash.

Calvados at home from apple moonshine

The recipe for calvados from apple mash is simple and can be done using several methods. The alcohol base with a strength of 70-80 degrees is diluted to 40-45 degrees and infused in a hermetically sealed natural oak barrel or simply in a jar, adding oak chips.

Ingredients:

• apple moonshine - 1 l;
• oak chips - 50 g.

Cooking

1. Oak chips are poured with boiling water for 15 minutes, washed, dried and dried in the oven.
2. Dry pegs are placed in a jar and filled with apple moonshine.
3. Leave the container in a dark place for at least 3 months.
4. Homemade apple calvados are filtered and bottled for storage.

Calvados at home from apple juice

The ideal option for preparing exquisite alcohol is Calvados from our own extraction from fresh apples different sort. It is convenient to use a modern juicer to get fresh juice, but a press is also suitable, by means of which apples crushed to puree are pressed, packed in a fabric bag, getting a no less natural drink.

Ingredients:

• fresh apple juice - 25 liters and 1 glass;
• wine yeast - 10 g.

Cooking

1. Squeezed from fresh sweet apples required amount juice.
2. Mix a glass of juice and water, dissolve the yeast in the mixture, leave for 30 minutes.
3. The yeast mixture is mixed into the juice, poured into a fermentation tank, left under a water seal for a month.
4. The apple cider is distilled twice.
5. The distillate is diluted to the desired strength and insisted on oak chips or in an oak barrel.
6. When ready, calvados from apples at home are filtered and bottled.

Apple pomace calvados

Apple calvados, made at home from the pomace left after receiving the juice, is somewhat inferior to the original classic apple alcohol, but has very worthy properties. At the same time, it is important not to use substandard fruits or specimens with dents and damage for fresh.

Ingredients:

• apple cake - 10 kg;
• water - 22 l;
• sugar - 2 kg;
• wine yeast - 15 g;
• oak chips.

Cooking

1. Yeast is soaked in warm water for 20 minutes.
2. Combine cake, yeast and warm rest of the water.
3. Mix in invert sugar.
4. Leave the mash under a water seal until the end of fermentation.
5. The apple base is distilled and the distillate is infused on oak chips.
6. When ready, Calvados is bred from apple pomace to the desired strength and bottled for aging and storage.

Calvados from apple juice concentrate

Calvados is prepared in an elementary way from apple concentrate. This option for obtaining alcohol is feasible at any time of the year, when it is not possible to use fresh fruits as raw materials. Yeast must be white wine or fruit, which is pre-dissolved in a diluted juice concentrate.

Ingredients:

• concentrated juice - 4 kg;
• water - 20 l;
• fruit yeast - 15 g;
• oak chips.

Cooking

1. The juice is diluted with warm water.
2. Yeast is poured into 130 ml of juice, left for 15 minutes.
3. Diluted juice, yeast are mixed, left until the end of fermentation under a water seal.
4. The mash is distilled twice.
5. The distillate is diluted to 63 degrees, supplemented with wood chips, left to infuse.
6. Alcohol is diluted to the desired strength, bottled.

Store bought apple juice calvados

Calvados at home from apples is a recipe that is also feasible from purchased juice, if it is natural and of high quality. The final bouquet of the drink will be worthy when using wine yeast, the quality of which is beyond doubt. If there is an oak barrel, it is preferable to age the apple distillate in it.

Ingredients:

• apple juice - 20 l;
• wine yeast - 10 g.

Cooking

1. Yeast is mixed with a glass of juice, allowed to stand warm for 30 minutes.
2. The yeast starter is poured into juice heated to 30 degrees, left in a fermentation tank under a water seal until the end of fermentation.
3. The distillate is poured into an oak barrel for at least six months, after which it is diluted to the desired strength, bottled and sent to a cool place for aging and storage.

Apple puree calvados

From apples, which are mostly fleshy, loose with sandy pulp, they are made from mashed potatoes. Pure juice from such fruits is difficult to obtain, so fruit puree is the best solution. To do this, it is convenient to use a blender or other convenient device: food processor, meat grinder, crusher.

Ingredients:

• applesauce - 20 kg;
• water - 10 l;
• inverted sugar - 1 kg;
• wine yeast - 15 g.

Cooking

1. The puree is mixed with warm water, sugar and yeast diluted in a portion of the liquid.
2. Pour the mixture into a fermentation tank, install a water seal.
3. Leave the vessel with the contents until the end of fermentation.
4. The mash is distilled through the cube twice.
5. The resulting apple distillate is placed in an oak container or in a jar with oak chips for 3-6 months.
6. The prepared Calvados from apple puree is bottled at home.

Calvados from alcohol and apple juice

Apple Calvados for lazy winemakers and those who don't feel like messing with apple mash, can be prepared from fruit juice with pure alcohol. The final strength of the drink can be at the level of 40-50 degrees. The proportions presented in this section are based on a minimum strength of 40 degrees.

Ingredients:

• apple juice - 150 ml;
• water - 150 ml;
• alcohol - 210 ml;
• oak chips - 2-3 pcs.

Cooking

1. Apple juice is diluted with water and mixed with alcohol.
2. Oak chips are added to the alcohol base and left for 3-6 months.
3. The drink is filtered, filtered, bottled and stored in a cool place.

Apple jam calvados

It is quite possible to make a recipe for apple calvados from jam that was not eaten on time and needs to be disposed of in another way. Depending on the sweetness of the workpiece, it may be necessary to additionally sweeten the mash to obtain a sweet, but not cloying taste with regular or inverted sugar.