How to cook apple calvados at home: recipes

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

Calvados is the hallmark of the region of the same name in the province of Lower Normandy. This brandy is made by distilling apple or pear cider.

The drink dates back to the 15th century and is now protected by the Rules of Authenticity of Origin (AOC in French). This means that only distillate produced in several departments of Lower Normandy can be called Calvados.

The origin of the drink is also allowed from Orne, Manche, Eure, Loire, Sarthe and Mayenne. And the highest quality brandy is produced only in the eastern part of the Calvados department. Such a drink is not cheap - from five to eight thousand rubles per bottle. Even if the original manufacturing technology is followed to the smallest detail, the resulting drink cannot bear the proud name of Calvados. It can only be called "apple brandy". Calvados, like cognac and armagnac, goes through a long exposure in barrels. But that doesn't mean it can't be made at home.

And in this article we will describe all the phases of the handicraft process. Believe me: the resulting drink will be only slightly inferior to the signature Calvados.

Original workflow

In Lower Normandy, only 48 varieties of fruit are used for apple calvados. As a rule, only small but ripe fruits are selected.

Manufacturers carefully observe proportions. A good brandy should be 70% bittersweet, 20% sour, and 10% bitter. That is, dessert varieties are not suitable for a drink. Apples should have a rich aroma and high tannins, which is expressed in a somewhat bitter taste. After pressing the juice, it is turned into cider. Then, when the wort has passed the fermentation process, it is subjected to a double distillation. But this is not yet Calvados.

Alcohols are skillfully mixed and placed in oak barrels, where they mature for at least two years. During this time, the distillate is gaining an amber color, the aroma of smoke and wood, and notes of dried fruits, caramel and spices appear in the taste.

Brandy preparation phases

There are not so many recipes for apple calvados. And so that we don’t get Slavic tincture or German schnapps, we must strive to adhere to the original technology.

The whole process can be divided into phases:

1. Selection of apples and getting juice.
2. Production of cider - a low-alcohol drink.
3. Straining.
4. Distillation. Receiving distillate.
5. Excerpt.
6. Filtering.

Of course it's difficultcomply with the manufacturer's technology completely. For example, oak barrels can be replaced with glass jars with wood chips. But if you want the drink to be fragrant, strong and tasty, you need to apply effort and patience.

Recipe for apple calvados at home. Step One

We carefully select apples. Often not very good fruits are taken for juice: broken, with spoilage spots. But in this case, you need to be a perfectionist and strive for the ideal. We keep proportions. Seventy percent of apples should be moderately sweet and very juicy.

To start the process of preparing Calvados, select autumn (September-October). Then the apples reach their full maturity.

Don't forget to add another 20% sour and 10% bitter. This does not mean that you can take unripe apples that have not gained sugars. Unripe fruits have no aroma, and it plays a primary role in the drink. Never wash apples. After all, we need to preserve the wild yeast that lives on the peel. We just cut the core with stones from apples and squeeze the juice.

Any methods will do, including modern ones. The juicer will allow you to get a product almost without pulp in just a few minutes. If the liquid came out too cloudy, filter it.

Step two. Making cider

Pour the juice into a glass container. We put it in a dark place, but not in the cellar. Need room temperature. A day later - and even earlier -copious foam will appear on the surface of the liquid. As the Calvados recipe prescribes, it must be removed from apple juice. This can be done in two ways. The first way is with a spoon. The foam is quite dense and the work progresses easily at first. But the remaining foam is difficult to remove. Therefore, the second method is preferable - through a tube. So you get rid of not only the foam, but also the sediment that the pulp has formed.

Pour the liquid into another tank and leave it under a water seal. If you don't have a professional setup (a glass convoluted flask), you can get out of the situation in one of two ways. We cork a jar of juice with an airtight lid. We make a small hole in it, into which we put a rubber tube. Its edge should not touch the juice. But we lower the other end of the tube into a vessel with water. Thus, air is not able to enter the fermentation tank, but the resulting gases can leave the tank.

There is an easier way. Just pull a medical glove over the neck of the jar by piercing the rubber on one of the fingers with a needle. We leave the juice to ferment in a dark place, but at room temperature.

Step three. Straining apple wine

After some time, you will see how the fermentation process began in the jar of juice. As winemakers point out, it's important that you don't end up with apple cider vinegar right away.

But you don't need to add any sugars, let alone yeast, to the wort. Also, you should not resort to the help of vodka and alcohol if you want to make real homemade calvados from apple juice at home.

The wild yeast on the rind of the sour fruit should do its job and start the vinous fermentation process. The rapid release of bubbles (or a glove inflated like a balloon) will be replaced by another phase in a month. It will be a quiet maturation. How do you know when cider is ready? Winemakers advise to look closely at the bank under the water seal. If bubbles do not appear for several days, and the liquid has brightened and a precipitate has fallen, then the cider is ready. If you have a glove instead of a water seal, then it should completely fall off. Open the container and carefully strain the cider. Connoisseurs say that if this is not done, the solid parts will burn during distillation and spoil the taste of the drink. It is enough to pass the cider through several layers of gauze.

Step four. Primary distillation

To get apple calvados at home, you need a moonshine still. It would also be nice to have an alcohol meter to determine the degree of the drink.

At this stage of the preparation of Calvados, the main thing is not to be greedy. As winemakers assure, to prepare one liter of distillate, you need 14 liters of cider (or 20 kilograms of apples). Where does so much fluid go? To get a quality brandy, the cider is distilled twice.

During the primary distillation process (in Lower Normandy, Charente-type copper “alambicas” are used for this) collect all the liquid. At the output, we have the so-called raw alcohol with a strength of 25-30 degrees. It, unlike the pleasant-tasting cider, cannot be drunk.

The fifth and most important step

In most Normandy distilleries, the apple Calvados is double distilled. This second distillation process is very responsible. Professionals say that it consists of three factions. If we compare moonshine with a green snake, then we will call these parts “head”, “body” and “tail”.

First, a liquid is released from the apparatus, which is saturated with toxic fusel oils. This is the “head” that must be mercilessly drained. The fortress of this sivukha is small, but you can’t drink it. "Heads" can be from 5 to 12 percent of all mash that has passed the first stage of distillation. Next comes the body. It is this that will become the future apple Calvados. We carefully collect alcohol with a strength of 80-90 degrees drop by drop. The tail comes out last. The strength of the liquid drops. When it reaches below 30 degrees, cut off this "tail". It can be collected in a separate container and saved for a new cider.

The sixth step. Replacement for oak barrels

As a result of our efforts, we got an apple moonshine devoid of color and with a rather boring bouquet. Calvados is a nobler drink that needs time to mature. It is hard to imagine an oak barrel in which brandy matures in a city apartment. We'll do without her. But we still need oak. And not sawdust, bark or shavings. They contain a lot of tannins, which will make the drink bitter.

We will need wood, which we will carefully divide into pegs 15 centimeters long and 1 cm in diameter. For a three-liter jar, it will be enough to cut the trunk 25-30 centimeters in diameter. Pegs are scaldedsteep boiling water. Leave for 10 minutes under the lid. We drain the water, pour a new one, this time cold. Soak for 20 minutes. Drying the pegs.

Excerpt

We carry out all manipulations with oak wood ahead of time so that it is ready for use by the end of the secondary distillation. We do everything like this.

1. First, dilute the resulting alcohol with distilled water to achieve a strength of 40-42 degrees.

2. Pour this liquid into a jar. At the bottom we will place oak pegs. Seal the jar tightly. You can even roll it up with an iron lid.

3. Then we leave the container alone in a dark place for six months or even a year. Nothing bad will happen if you uncork your apple calvados after a few years.

4. Before drinking the drink, it must be filtered through several layers of gauze.

Easier homemade calvados (apple vodka) recipe

The method of making brandy described above is complicated. In addition, something can go wrong at any of the phases of the technological process - then the juice will turn sour to vinegar, otherwise the fermentation process will not start.

It is much easier to resort to the second recipe. It will turn out not quite Calvados, but also a strong apple distillate that tastes good.

1. Peel and core two kilograms of apples, cut into small cubes.

2. We put these pieces in a jar, sprinkle with a bag of vanilla sugar (10 g). Pour a liter of quality vodka.

3. We seal the jar tightly and put the liquidinfuse at room temperature in a dark place for 15 days.

4. We extract apples, we live them out.

5. Filter the liquid through a cotton-gauze filter.

6. From 200 grams of sugar and 150 milliliters of water we cook syrup. Let it cool to room temperature.

7. Add apple cider. Stir and bottle the tincture.

Even faster way

The traditional recipe involves making Calvados from apple juice. But you can simplify your task by passing 15 kilograms of fruit through a meat grinder. From the resulting puree, you need to separate 300 milliliters of the wort. Add there two tablespoons of sugar and dry yeast.

While the foam cap is formed, boil the syrup. To do this, dissolve three kilograms of sugar in half a liter of water and bring the mixture to a boil. Let the syrup cool and pour in the wort with yeast. Place the entire pureed mass in a large container (up to 50 liters). Fill with mash and put under a water seal. Let's wait until the liquid ferments, then the foam will disappear, and the sweetness in the taste will go away. This may take two weeks. Next, we filter the liquid, removing cakes. We send a drink for distillation, which can be called homemade Calvados. To make it more like a noble Normandy brandy, winemakers recommend brewing it on oak pegs for about six months.