How to prepare Georgian chacha at home. Technology for making grape chacha at home. Cocktails with Georgian chacha

It is traditionally prepared in Georgia. For many years, the chacha recipe has been passed down from generation to generation. If you want to check the quality of the drink, you need to wet your finger in the liquid and bring it to a lit match. It is believed that if the flame burns out and does not burn your hand, then you have a real chacha in front of you. We suggest learning how to make chacha from grapes in this article. Check out the step-by-step instructions.

How to make chacha at home

To prepare a grape drink you will need:

• 30 liters of clean drinking water;
• grape marc (usually left over after making wine) 10 liters;
• fresh yeast weighing 100 g;
• sugar in the amount of 5 kg.

How to make chacha at home conditions: step-by-step cooking technology

It is best to prepare the drink from the grape pomace that remains after making wine.

1 step

Place the grape pomace in a large glass bowl. Pour in the entire amount of sugar, yeast and water. Use only boiled, cooled water. Close the container with a lid and place it in a dark room for a week or two. Stir the mixture periodically (every other day).

Step 2

How to make chacha at home yourself? To prepare it you will need a moonshine still. You need to put straw on its bottom. Pour the pulp and all the liquid from the container on top. Straw is necessary to prevent the cake from burning. Now start distilling. During this process, a specific smell will appear. To avoid this, you need to separate the liquid from the cake.

Step 3

How to make chacha at home as tasty as possible? To do this, pour the resulting drink into a separate container and add walnuts. Then infuse the drink for 30-60 days. After this, distill the chacha again through a moonshine still. You will receive a drink with a strength of about 46 degrees.

For a feast, chacha will be the best option; it does not cause a hangover and is easy to drink. In addition, if chacha is prepared correctly, it will have a positive effect on the digestive system. The drink is believed to prevent the development of malignant tumors and cancer cells. Chacha can be prepared not only from grapes. In Abkhazia, the drink is made from figs, tangerines, cherry plums, and mulberries. Chacha is served in small glasses with a good appetizer.

How to make chacha at home: purifying the drink

Like any alcoholic drink, chacha needs to be purified. To do this you will need potassium permanganate and cotton wool for the filter.

Instructions

Since freshly distilled moonshine emits a rather unpleasant odor, which gives it, it should be cleaned before use. The most affordable and easiest way is to use potassium permanganate. Dilute the chacha to a strength of 45 degrees and add 3 grams of potassium permanganate to it for every 3 liters of liquid. Stir the solution and place in a dark place for 3 days. As a result, black flakes should appear, which will subsequently settle to the bottom. Pour the chacha through a filter made of plain cotton wool. A strong grape drink is ready! Don't forget that excessive alcohol consumption is harmful to your health!

According to the residents of Georgia, chacha made from grapes is a drink that has no equal on our land. There are legends that its recipe was given to Georgians by the Lord God himself, and everything divine is considered to be heavenly nectars. The history of the drink goes back to ancient times. The methods of its preparation were passed down from generation to generation, thanks to which they have reached our time and allowed every connoisseur of alcohol to prepare authentic Georgian chacha from grapes at home.

Which grapes to choose for chacha

When choosing grapes for chacha, it is recommended to give preference to varieties with high acidity. Wine berries of Caucasian or Crimean origin are best suited. The best option is considered to be early white varieties, which will give chacha a pronounced sourness and a fresh, invigorating aroma. If you take dark grapes, the drink will be soft, with a rich and deep bouquet.

Before preparing chacha, it is not advisable to wash grapes, since their skin contains a natural white coating containing wild yeast. However, if you are not sure that the crop was not treated with chemicals, it is better to clean it with water, removing rotten berries and leaves.

What is needed to prepare chacha

Before you start creating chacha, you should prepare the dishes and tools that you will definitely need during work:

• distillation apparatus;
• containers where the wort will ferment;
• a wide saucepan or basin required for preparing the cake;
• gauze for straining the wort;
• activated charcoal or charcoal, cotton wool and a funnel for purifying the distillate.

Georgian chacha recipe on video

The traditional Georgian recipe for making chacha from grapes requires the use of the following ingredients:

• 10 kg of grape pomace;
• 4–5 kg granulated sugar;
• 30 liters of boiled water;
• 120 g alcohol yeast.

The cake is obtained from fresh grapes by crushing them with your hands, and it is possible to crush both individual berries and whole bunches. Sometimes, as a base for chacha, they use the pomace left over after making wine, but in this case, you will need 2 times more product, since the grapes have already given the wine some of the natural substances required to create chacha.

The process of making a drink includes several successive steps:

• Fermentation

There is an opinion that real chacha is made from grapes without the use of sugar, but many professional moonshiners still add granulated sugar to speed up fermentation and get a larger volume of the drink. To ferment grapes, add sugar, warm water and yeast to the pomace, and then leave the resulting mixture for about 1 month in a cool place at an air temperature of 14 to 20 degrees Celsius. The temperature may be higher (up to +28 °C), but in this case there is a risk of losing the amazing grape aroma for which chacha is so famous.

The mash is considered ready when air bubbles stop forming in it, the liquid becomes light, and the pulp sinks to the bottom of the container. To make sure it is ready, you can use a special device for measuring the density of a liquid - a hydrometer. If its indicators are less than 1.002, then the mash can be sent to the distillation apparatus.

• Distillation

The fermented mixture is distilled after careful filtering through cheesecloth, since while in the apparatus, the pulp can burn out and give the drink an unpleasant burnt taste and smell. If distillation is carried out by steam, then the cake does not need to be filtered.

Distillation is carried out in two stages. The first produces raw alcohol, which is distilled without dividing into fractions until a strength of 30–40 degrees is reached. Next, the resulting product is purified by placing cotton wool in a funnel, placing charcoal or activated carbon on top and pouring in the distillate in a thin stream.

At the second stage, fractional distillation is done - initially, the head fraction (“head”) is separated in a volume of 10–12%, and then the remaining product is distilled. The “head” is thrown away because in its pure form it poses a health hazard, or it is diluted with water and used for household purposes.

• Maturation

Chacha can be drunk immediately after distillation, but to refine it and give it an intense taste, it is diluted with water to the required strength and poured into glass bottles, left for storage for an average of 1 month. During this period, the drink becomes softer and more balanced. To get chacha that resembles cognac, you can infuse it in oak barrels or on oak chips.

If you want to get rid of the characteristic yeasty taste, you can use a simpler recipe that does not require the use of yeast. The main rule in this method is not to wash the berries, so as not to remove natural yeast from their skins. To prepare chacha you will need:

• 15 kg of grapes;
• 15 liters of water;
• 5 kg of sugar.

Initially, the grapes are crushed, then the resulting mass is poured with warm water, sugar is added, covered with a lid and left to ferment. Every day you should open the container and mix the mash well. When fermentation is complete, the mixture is filtered and sent to the moonshine still. The wort is distilled, cutting off the “head” and “tail”, cleaned and put for re-distillation. At the second stage, the head and final fractions are again removed and diluted with water to the desired strength.

Many winemakers try to prepare grape chacha at home, despite this, not everyone makes a good drink. An exquisite drink requires patience and strict adherence to technology, otherwise instead of chacha you will prepare ordinary fruit moonshine. Despite the fact that the recipe for chacha at home is not at all complicated, the preparation of this drink should be approached with the utmost seriousness.

Properly prepared grape chacha contains natural antioxidants, thanks to which after it you will never have a headache or a hangover.

If all the preparation rules are followed correctly, you will end up with a truly special drink, the taste of which will not leave you indifferent.

Recipe for making chacha from grapes at home

For the simplest grape chacha recipe, which is suitable even for novice winemakers, you will need: 15 kilograms of any grapes, 30 liters of water, 100 grams of yeast and 5 kilograms of sugar. You can use any color and variety of grapes for preparation - the taste of this wonderful drink will not deteriorate. Water should be taken boiled, for this it will need to be prepared in advance and cooled to room temperature.

If grapes are grown on your site, it is best not to wash them - this will help the drink ferment faster. If the grapes have been purchased, it is best to rinse them in running water.

In a convenient container for preparing mash, mash the prepared grapes well and strain. Drain the juice to make juice or wine, and mix the cake with water, sugar and yeast and leave to ferment.

Using this recipe for homemade grape chacha, the mash should ferment in a warm place for at least 10 days. Using a convenient spoon, stir the resulting mixture daily, and when all the pulp rises to the surface, you will need to squeeze it well through a colander or sieve. The fermented cake can be thrown away, and the liquid can be poured into a moonshine still and distilled. There are several ways to distill chacha, but it is best to stick to the classic one. Distill the chacha twice, separating the “tails” and “heads”.

The resulting alcoholic drink will not be lower than 70 degrees, so before making grape chacha, prepare a sufficient amount of clean boiled water to dilute it. After the drink is diluted to the desired strength - 40-45%, pour it into glass jars, close tightly and place in a dark, cool place for 40 days.

After this period, you can try the finished chacha. Since it is advisable to drink the drink in its pure form, do not forget about snacks.

Recipe for making chacha from grapes (with video)

The chacha recipe without sugar and yeast is most often used if you grew the grapes yourself or know about the conditions in which they were grown. It is very important that the drink is not only tasty, but also healthy, so the use of grapes of questionable quality will need to be excluded.

Since making chacha from grapes requires neither sugar nor yeast, the mash will ferment longer than usual. To preserve as much wild yeast as possible, there is no need to wash the grapes.

Place 25 kilograms of grapes in a convenient container - it can be a vat or a wooden barrel and mash well. There is no need to use a juicer or meat grinder - it is best to mash the berries simply with your hands or using a vegetable puree masher.

Using a meat grinder or juicer can damage the grape seeds, which can ruin the taste of the finished drink. When all the grapes are well crushed, add 50 liters of water to it and mix well. Before making chacha from grapes, prepare suitable containers - it is best to use milk cans or large pans. Since the drink will rise during fermentation, try to select a container of such a size that there is at least 15% free space.

This recipe for making chacha from grapes is suitable for patient winemakers, since the mash without adding sugar and yeast will ferment for 1-2 months. Place the dishes with mash in a dark, warm place where the temperature will be no lower than 22 and higher than 30 degrees. Since the wort will ferment for a long time, it should be stirred periodically.

Sometimes it takes longer to ferment, but it is very important to avoid it. So that the surface of the top layer becomes moldy. Stir the mash once every 3-4 days, then you will be able to see in time when the fermentation process is complete.

The next stage of making chacha from grapes is filtration

If you taste the mash and it is slightly bitter, this does not mean that the drink is spoiled. During distillation, the chacha will become purified and acquire its unique taste. That is why the next stage of making chacha from grapes - filtration - will be very important. Before distillation, the mash is well filtered; for this you can use several layers of gauze, through which the liquid should be drained and the cake should be squeezed out well. The pulp and skin of grape berries gives the drink a special flavor, so you can pour the mash into a moonshine still without filtering it. This recipe for making chacha from grapes is often used in Georgia, the birthplace of this drink.

For filtration, you can use not only gauze, but also a regular colander or a fine sieve. Pour the drink, cleared of solid particles, into a distillation cube.

There are several ways to prepare chacha from grapes - sometimes the double distillation method is used, and in some cases it is distilled three times. The purer the drink, the better its taste. In this case, you should remember the main rule of distillation - when using a homemade chacha recipe, you will always need to divide the resulting drink into fractions, removing the head and tail parts.

Before making chacha from grapes, you should prepare several containers into which the “pervak” will be poured, which is very harmful to health. The main fraction can be collected in a glass jar or other suitable container. The main fraction ends when the strength of the product drops below 40 degrees, so it is advisable to have a special alcohol meter.

If you don’t have an alcohol meter at hand, you can use a simple but effective method. To do this, you will need to set fire to the liquid on the spoon - if it continues to burn, it means that the main fraction can still be selected. The tailings can be poured off or selected and stored to increase the strength of other homemade drinks.

According to the classic recipe, grape chacha should be cleaned after the first distillation. You can use activated carbon or a mixture of potassium permanganate and baking soda.

The resulting drink should be diluted with water and distilled a second time. The distillation procedure is exactly the same - the head and tail fractions should be selected until the strength is reduced to 40 degrees.

The drink is poured into glass bottles or a wooden barrel and placed in a cool, dark place to mature. Now you know how to make chacha at home - the drink will be ready for use in about two months.

If you want to learn how to prepare this noble drink, a video recipe for chacha from grapes will help you, in which the whole process is shown in sufficient detail.

Real chacha is a drink that requires patience and endurance. The longer the drink matures and infuses, the nobler and tastier it will be. It is no coincidence that residents of the Caucasus always have a special room for preparing chacha, in which some vats of the drink are stored for several years.

If it is difficult for you to find an oak barrel at home, you can use ordinary glass jars or bottles - the quality and taste of the drink will not be affected. It is necessary to age chacha for at least two months, only then the drink begins to acquire its unique aroma and taste.

Georgian chacha is prepared from grapes; its simple recipe does not require special skills and knowledge and is prepared at home. Any owner of vineyards or simply a farmer who has a lot of juicy berries on his property tries to sell the ripe product and turn it into a pleasant drink.

Almost everyone makes good wine from homemade grapes, but they still don’t even suspect that ripe berries can also be used to make chacha.

Anyone can prepare this Caucasian drink at home without spending a lot of time. Quite often it is compared to brandy, but the founders of the recipe themselves claim that this is real grape vodka.

Each Georgian village has its own recipe for this alcohol. They are not very different from each other, so the taste is almost identical. You should figure out how to prepare chacha at home without having any special skills.

Any Georgian or Abkhaz family prepares chacha according to its own recipe. They add to the drink those ingredients that, in their opinion, fit perfectly with the alcoholic taste of this grape drink. However, there are also rules, violations of which are simply unacceptable.

Typically, such pomace remains only after high-quality grapes, which are used to prepare truly noble varieties of wine. That is why we can conclude that from such a product you can get high-quality chacha.

• To prepare chacha from the cake, you cannot squeeze it completely. It is very important that at least a little juice remains in the leftovers, which will give the grape vodka a sweet and sour taste. If your chacha contains less than a quarter of natural grape juice, then this drink may turn out to be quite bitter and strong. This chacha is suitable only for men.

According to the traditions of Georgia and other countries that prepare chacha, it is not customary to add either sugar or yeast to the drink. However, it has been proven that in these regions the grapes themselves are sweeter, so other nations will have to add sugar powder.

Should I add yeast?

As for yeast, this is a matter of taste. For some, the aroma and taste of this component is unacceptable and even disgusting, as it slightly resembles moonshine. Still, Georgians themselves prefer chacha with yeast, since thanks to them they can speed up the cooking process by at least 2 times.

But experts say that a recipe without yeast is healthier for health, so it’s better to wait a little.

To ensure that the distillation of the mash does not end with the grape skins burning, it should be strained before the procedure. Then the future chacha will not have an unpleasant burnt smell, much less taste.

It is worth noting that in the homeland of the drink it is customary to prepare the product at 55-60% vol., but people are not used to drinking drinks of such strength, so chacha needs to be distilled until the strength mark shows 45% vol. and below.

A simple recipe without adding yeast

To prepare 3.5-4 liters of strong drink you should take:

• 7.5 kg of overripe grapes, preferably the Isabella variety;
• 13-14 liters of distilled soft water;
• 4 kg granulated sugar.

The founders of this recipe say that you can also use unripe berries, this will only add piquancy and slight sourness to the future chacha.

After all the above simple procedures, the entire mass should be poured into a glass container with a very narrow neck. In this case, a 30-40 liter bottle is perfect. It is recommended to install a glove-shaped water seal on top, after making a hole in one of the fingers.

This bottle should be installed in a warm room where the air temperature is at least 22°, but not higher than 28°. Once every 2 days, the container must be opened and the contents mixed. If this is not done, the drink may not ripen completely.

The end of fermentation is usually determined by the state of the water seal. When the glove inflates, it means that the fermentation procedure is quite active. When the water seal is deflated, it is likely that the fermentation process has already been completed, and the next operations can begin.

Distillation, how many degrees should it be

With added yeast

To get an average of 3 liters of full-fledged chacha, you should take:

• 5 kg grape pomace,
• 15 liters of purified water,
• about 2-3 kg of sugar to taste,
• 50 g of dry yeast or 25 g of pressed yeast.

At the beginning of preparing the drink, you need to pour the grape pulp into a container where it will ferment.

If you are using already processed cake, which has already been used to make wine, you should take almost 2 times more of it than indicated previously. You will also need a bottle with a volume of 30 liters, no less.

1. After this, add sugar, crushed yeast, and water heated to 29° into the fermentation container.
2. After this, you need to thoroughly mix the entire mass so that the sugar can dissolve as well as possible in the released liquid.
3. After this, a water seal is installed on the neck of the bottle, which should fit very tightly. As in the previous case, this can be an ordinary rubber glove with a hole in 1 finger.
4. Place the container in a warm place where the air temperature is not lower than room temperature.
5. Once a day, the contents of the bottle should be shaken thoroughly. This is necessary to speed up the fermentation process.
6. After a couple of weeks, the contents of the bottle will acquire a bitter taste, the glove will deflate and, accordingly, the fermentation process will stop.

Chacha at the Georgian market

• The entire grape mass should be carefully strained, preferably through a cotton filter. After this, you should repeat all the steps that are carried out when distilling mash to prepare moonshine.
• The liquid is first poured into a cube and placed on fire. When the strength of the drink drops to 30% vol. and below, it is recommended to stop the distillation procedure.
• The resulting material must be diluted with water so that the strength is 20% vol., and put for additional distillation.

In no case should we forget that the “head” and “tail” are not suitable for consumption. The first 10% is the head, and the last 10% is the tail. This liquid contains a lot of toxic substances that can cause serious indigestion.

The resulting ready-made chacha must be diluted with water until you obtain the required strength. The best option for our area is 50% vol. It is better to drink the drink after 2 weeks of settling. Then it will acquire new pleasant notes of aroma and taste.

The final taste of chacha depends on what type of grape you used to prepare the drink.

Traditional Georgian

1. First you need to prepare the so-called wort. Ripe Isabella grapes should be removed from the branches and thoroughly mashed in a special container. It is very important not to wash the berries so that the fermentation process occurs without the use of yeast. The container must be enameled.
2. For 1 liter of full-fledged wort with already crushed berries, it is customary to take 50 g of sugar. This wide container is covered with a lid or another container of the same diameter and left to infuse in a warm place. The wort must be stirred every morning.
3. After about 5 days the cake will float to the top. Then all the liquid should be poured into a glass container, then distilled 2 times, following the rules of the previous recipe. The result will be a strong, but at the same time refined drink made from grapes.

To reduce the strength, simply add water

If you are the owner of vineyards and don’t know where to put your harvest, prepare chacha.

Chacha is a strong alcoholic drink made from grapes. It is widespread throughout the Caucasus, especially in Georgia and Abkhazia. The strength of traditional Georgian chacha is 65-70 degrees. The history of the origin of chacha goes back to ancient times, its recipes were kept strictly secret, and disputes about where it appeared in Georgia or Abkhazia continue to this day. But in 2011, the production of chacha in Georgia was officially patented. Store-bought chacha is mainly in demand only among visiting tourists. Local residents prepare a strong grape drink on their own and pass on their recipe from generation to generation. Making chacha with your own hands at home is quite simple, although it is a long, labor-intensive process.

To prepare chacha, wine grape varieties with high acidity are used. It is difficult to answer which variety is best to take for chacha; white varieties will produce a lighter drink with some sourness, while red grape varieties will convey a deeper aroma. Georgian chacha is made from white grape varieties Rkatsiteli, and in mountainous Abkhazia they prefer dark varieties Akachich and Isabella. The aroma and taste of chacha will be more harmonious if you use a mixture of different grape varieties.

In central Russia and the northern regions, chacha is made from Isabella grapes. This is the most common, unpretentious, frost-resistant variety, almost always with a high yield. The Isabella variety is the main source of raw materials for homemade alcohol in the central zone. These grapes are used to make juice, jam, and preserves; they make delicious wine and strong homemade alcohol. Below is a simple chacha recipe.

Attention! In some countries of Europe and America, alcoholic beverages made from the Isabella grape variety are prohibited for sale due to their high content of methyl, which is harmful to the human body. One liter of fermented Isabella juice contains 70-120 mg of methanol, which is not critical. Therefore, it is not recommended to abuse the strong distillate, even though chacha is considered hangover-free vodka.

Recipe for making grape chacha

The basis of chacha is mash; it can be prepared from grape cake left over from wine production. In some cases, mash is made from whole grapes. Classic Georgian grape chacha is prepared from marc and water; no yeast or sugar is used. But due to the fact that Isabella grapes have low sugar content, it will have to be raised by adding sugar, as well as adding water to reduce acidity.

Ingredients:

• water – 30 liters;
• grape cake – 10 liters;
• sugar 5–7 kg.

How to make chacha:

1. Preparation. Clean the harvested grapes from leaves and rotten berries. Never wash it. On the surface of the berries there is a white coating - wild yeast, which triggers the natural fermentation of the mash. Crush the grapes with your hands or feet, you can crush them together with the ridges. You can simplify the process by using a mixer attachment for a drill. For chacha, you only need the juice, we squeeze the juice into a separate container, and from it we will later make delicious aromatic homemade wine. The recipe indicates the amount of pomace from freshly squeezed grapes. If you use cake that fermented during wine fermentation, then its quantity must be doubled. From fresh pomace, the distillate will be more aromatic, so it will be better if more grape juice remains in the pomace.
   
2. Fermentation. Place the pomace in a container, add granulated sugar and pour in water at a temperature of 20-25°C. How much sugar to take can be determined using a saccharometer; it should be 20-25% in the wort. If you want to speed up the process, you can use wine yeast. This is a special yeast for making homemade wines; it practically does not spoil the taste of the drink, and fermentation lasts 2-3 weeks.
   Fermentation should take place in a warm place 20-25°, its time depends on the raw materials, the sugar content of the wort and temperature. Usually, mash made with wild yeast is ready in 1-2 months. During fermentation it is necessarystir the wort and drown the raised cap of pulp. The end of the process can be determined by the cessation of gas evolution, the mash also becomes bitter, and there is an alcohol smell in the mash.
   
3. Filtration of mash. Squeeze the mash for chacha from the pulp if you plan to distill it in a regular moonshine still, this is done so that the solid particles do not burn. If you have a steam-water boiler or the distillation will be done with steam, then you can distill with cake, this will give the final drink a more enriched aroma.
   
4. Driving. Place the finished grape mash in a distillation cube and perform double distillation. The first time raw alcohol is obtained from mash, it is distilled at maximum power to water. The result is 12 liters of raw moonshine with a strength of 30-40 degrees. The second distillation is fractional. At the beginning, separate the head fraction drop by drop in a volume of 10% of absolute alcohol, which is 350-400 ml. Experienced distillers determine the end of the heads by smell; they contain esters that partially convey the aroma of the raw material, but there are also many harmful impurities that are very harmful to humans. Therefore, we use heads only for technical purposes. Then the heating power can be increased and the “body” – the drinking fraction – can be removed. According to the recipe, you should get about 4 liters of aromatic chacha with a strength of 85-90 degrees. The distillate yield depends on your apparatus and experience. Next come the “tails”, “sivukha”, also an unnecessary faction. Everyone decides to select the tail fraction themselves or stop selection.
5. Maturation and refinement. Dilute the finished chacha with water to 45-70 degrees, pour into bottles and keep in glass for a month. During this time, the taste of the drink will become rounded, balanced and soft. Chacha is drunk white as it is, but you can infuse it with oak chips or age it in an oak barrel. This drink will look like a good elite brandy, tasting like cognac.

How to make chacha at home video recipe

The benefits and harms of Chacha. In the Caucasus, chacha is still used as a preventative against colds. Small but regular consumption of chacha promotes better functioning of the digestive organs; the drink relieves tension and normalizes blood pressure. Grape moonshine is a good remedy against the development of malignant tumors. Another undoubted advantage of chacha is the absence of a hangover from it, of course, if you drink a limited amount. Contraindications are primarily excessive alcohol consumption and individual intolerance. People with severe heart disease or peptic ulcers should not drink chacha. Strictly not for use by pregnant and lactating women.

How to drink chacha correctly and how much. Properly prepared grape chacha, despite the fact that it contains many degrees, is soft and easy to drink. They drink the drink warmed to room temperature, 30-50 ml each, at this temperature the taste qualities of the grape distillate are revealed to the maximum. Used in pure form or as part of cocktails.

The cocktail is especially popular "Sunny Georgia" . To prepare it, take 50 ml of chacha and 150 ml of grape juice, lime and a sprig of mint. The recipe is simple. Pour Isabella chacha and grape juice into a tall glass, pre-chilled, squeeze out lime juice and add mint, stir everything and garnish with a small bunch of grapes.