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Making Brandy at Home

Have you ever tried homemade liqueur or liquor?

Lemoncello is easy enough to make and I might post a recipe tomorrow. Today we're making Brandy!

I found this 8 simple steps to making Brandy at wikihow.com and it's "oh so simple." The only problem I have with the recipe is there is no specific amount of yeast. I have NO idea how much yeast to use (but I found a more detailed recipe).

1. Choose a fruit such as peaches, pears, grapes or nectarine. Grapes or wine is the default choice.

2. Sterilize your receptacles (fermenting container, boiling pot). You want them to be as clean as possible. Do the same with your fruit.

3. Remove all stems and leaves. Fill your fermenting container with over %51 percent fruit.

4. Add %25 percent water. Your fermenting container or boiling pot should be only %75 full for safety reasons.

5. Mash with something similar to a manual potato masher.

6. Boil resulting concoction for five minutes stirring frequently.

7. Return to fermenting container and add the correct amount of yeast.

8. Cover, use an airlock, or leave uncovered, for a week or more.

After that you have %9-%15 A.B.V. wine. True brandy is made with grapes and/or other fruit with no added sugar. Brandy is the resulting liquid from distilling this wine.

Things you’ll need:

Fruit, such as peaches or blackberries

Yeast

Sugar

Something to ferment the brandy in (crock pots or large glass bowls with lids are best)

Plastic wrap

Read the FULL recipe at Back to the Basics!

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Comment by Marianne Smith on June 26, 2012 at 9:59am: It's also illegal to divert rain water in several states but I'm not sure that's going to stop anyone either.