Chacha: 5 recipes at home
Cooking chacha at home in the historical homeland of this drink (ethnic western Georgia with neighboring Abkhazia and Adjara) is more than common.
At the same time, if you want to make your own homemade chacha, and not, say, grappa, rakia or artzakh, which often goes by the name of "Armenian chacha" in the post-Soviet space, you need to keep a few things in mind...
Tips before you start
Avoid using sugar and cultured yeast
Of course, because of this, the brewing time can take from one to three months, and the amount of the resulting drink will be relatively small; but at the end you will get real Georgian chacha with its characteristic rich taste and unique fruit aroma.
By the way, when preparing raw materials for brag, do not wash them under any circumstances. Otherwise you will destroy the very wild yeast that is responsible for fermentation.
If the grapes available to you or other suitable gifts from the gardens do not have sufficient natural sugar content, you should give up the idea of making Georgian pomace brandy and instead try to make something like grappa or some other similar drink that allows the use of sugar and cultured yeast.
The main raw material for the drink should be grape or fruit cake obtained after squeezing the juice
An obligatory addition to it are unripe grape bunches or unripe fruits corresponding to the cake.
In addition to grapes, the classic raw materials for the brandy we are interested in can be fruits typical of Transcaucasia: persimmons, peaches, apricots, pomegranates, cherry plum, tangerines, etc.д.
Accordingly, such concepts as "apple chacha" or "plum chacha" should be regarded as nonsense, as these fruits are common to the north. But they can be used to make an excellent likeness of Normandy calvados or Balkan plum. In turn, such a drink as dogwood chacha, by and large, also does not exist.
Cornelian distillate, by the way, is more traditional for neighboring Armenia, is made not from cake, but from full berries.
Use white grape varieties
If you decide to make a canonical Georgian drink, you should use ordinary white grape varieties, ideally Rkatsiteli.
If you want to make Ajarian or Abkhazian chacha, use the cake obtained after processing the more aromatic Isabella.
Refrain from dividing the resulting product into fractions
Transcaucasian masters use the method of double distillation, as well as various methods of purification of the already obtained drink.
Do not dilute chacha below 45 degrees
When wondering how to dilute chacha to 45 degrees, first of all, it is worth considering that this is the minimum that is highly discouraged.
If you dilute chacha with water to 40 or even 43 turns, the drink will lose its richness, and, moreover, become cloudy. For the same reasons, it is also not recommended to increase the strength of this brandy by adding the original product to an already diluted drink.
A few words about aging chacha
The type of brandy we are interested in can be refined by aging in a wooden barrel or on wood chips.
In this case, both in the first and second case, it is necessary to use oak. It is this feature that distinguishes chacha from Armenian Artsakh, which is aged in mulberry barrels.
Some craftsmen claim to be able to make cognac from chacha on oak chips, but, as you can imagine, such statements are very far from the truth...
Chacha recipe at home
We'll start by telling you how to make the most common version of Georgian pomace brandy.
List of ingredients
Grape cake and bunches - 25 kg;
Cold boiled water - 50 liters.
The method of preparation
Separate the grape bunches from the branches and leaves, and then mash them thoroughly. Mix the resulting mass in a fermentation container with cake and dilute with water. Stir the resulting substance with a wooden spatula and leave in a warm, dark place under a water seal. During the fermentation period, the contents of the container should be stirred every two to three days to avoid mold formation.
After the end of fermentation, you need to prepare for distillation. To do this, you can strain the resulting brew, or you can leave everything as it is.
In the first case, the separated cake should be tied in cheesecloth and suspended before distillation in the upper part of the distillation cube to make the future drink quite aromatic.
In the second case, the bottom of the still should be lined with straw so that the cake does not burn during distillation.
To eliminate the specific unpleasant odor, grape brew should be subjected to double distillation.
After the first round, the alcohol should be diluted with water in a 1:1 ratio. after the second distillation, clean it from fusel oils and dilute it again with cold boiled water: to the desired strength.
After bottling, the brandy should stand for at least a month and a half in the cellar or refrigerator.
Recipe for chacha on tarragon
If you don't know how to soften chacha, we recommend insisting it on tarragon. To do this, freshly washed tarragon leaves should be poured with the finished drink in a ratio of 100 g per 1 liter and let the liquid brew for three months. It is highly desirable that the future tincture is in an oak barrel.
After the specified period, the finished drink must be filtered and bottled.
Tangerine chacha at home
As we have already mentioned, Transcaucasian pomace brandy is made not only from grapes, but also from local fruits. Including - from citrus fruits. At the same time, this recipe will be relevant for all varieties of the drink we are interested in, made from fruits with juicy pulp.
List of ingredients
Tangerine cake and peeled tangerines - 10 kg;
Cold boiled water - 5 liters.
The method of preparation
The principle of preparing the drink is similar to the method outlined in the first recipe.
Pomegranate chacha
Pomegranate distillate is most characteristic of Turkey, but this raw material is also used in Georgia.
List of ingredients
Pomegranate cake - 10 kg;
Peeled pomegranate seeds - 1 kg;
Cold boiled water - 20 liters.
The method of preparation
Prepare a brew from cake and water for classic by recipe.
Distill the resulting substance once. Dilute the distillate to a strength of 30 degrees, pour it over the pomegranate seeds and send it to a cool, dark place for 5 days.
Then, distill the tincture together with the grains, clean it, bottle it and return it to a dark, cool room to reach full readiness for a month and a half.
Recipe for chacha with feijoa
This somewhat unusual drink is characteristic of Abkhazian rather than Georgian distilling practice.
List of ingredients
Feijoa cake - 10 kg;
Frozen feijoa fruit pulp - 250 g;
Cold boiled water - 20 liters.
The method of preparation
A distinctive feature of the preparation of this type of drink, which somewhat complicates the cooking process basic recipe, is the need for additional flavoring.
For this purpose, it is recommended to use a still with a dry still, in which the frozen pulp of feijoa fruit should be placed before the second distillation.
If your still does not have a drying tank, you can place the frozen pulp in cheesecloth and hang it in the top of the still.
How to clean chacha from the smell of acetone
To clean Georgian pomace brandy from harmful impurities, it is best to use products of organic origin.
Unlike inorganics: potassium permanganate, activated carbon, soda, etc., products of organic origin will not have a negative impact on the taste and smell of the drink.
Skimmed milk
To achieve the desired result, grape alcohol diluted to a strength of 45-55 degrees is mixed with skim milk at the rate of 10 liters per 200 ml. Next, the distillate must be kept for a week in a dry, dark place, stirring it daily with a wooden spatula in the morning and evening. After a white precipitate falls to the bottom of the container, the purified product should be filtered through a cotton-wool filter, diluted with water and bottled.
Purifying chacha with pine nuts
To make it, 5 handfuls of hulled nuts are thrown into a five-liter container filled with brandy. Then, the drink rests in a dark place for two weeks, after which it is filtered, diluted and bottled.
If you use the above-mentioned purification methods, your distillate will not only get rid of the unpleasant odor, while retaining its positive organoleptic qualities, but will also become much less dangerous to health.
Update: 25.02.2017
Category: Brandy and Cognac