About brandy
How is brandy manufactured?
What separates vodka, aquavit, cognac and apple brandy?
What separates vodka, aquavit, cognac and apple brandy?
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Vodka, gin and aquavit are made from 96% alcohol. Etyl alcohol is neutral mass produced spirits from big industrial column distilleries. To reach an alcohol level as high as 96 % the distillate has to go through a prosess called rectification, which practically removes all aroma from the raw material. Whether potato, corn or other raw materials are used, it doesn't matter for the flavor. This industrial spirits are added herbs and spices and might be stored in oak barrels before added water and bottled. Gin is added monkey berries, and aquavit is added caraway and/ or dill. Products make from etyl alcohol are called flavored spirits or "fake" brandies, because it is not the wine from the raw materials that contributes to the flavor, but the spices. Flavored liquor is an inheritance from the early technological period with premature distilleries. Herbs with strong aromas and spices were used to suppress the unpleasant smell of fusel.
Real brandy is distilled up to only 75% alcohol. This makes the the taste and aroma from the raw materials clear. The distilling takes place in small equipments named pot stills. Here both the craftmanship and the quality of the raw material is crucial to a good product. The distillate is burned from fermented "wine" or fruit mass. The most significant types of fruit brandies are grape brandy and apple brandy, however almost all types of fruits can be used - also vegetables and nuts. Whiskey is also a real brandy made of corn and burned in big pot stills with the typical swan neck.
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There are two european traditions in making fruit brandy:
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Barrel-stocked grape brandy (Cognac and Armagnac) and apple brandy (Calvados) that are burned in traditional french Alambic-apparatus.
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Non-stored (clear) snaps burned in more developed german pot stills;
apple brandy (Apfelbrand), pear brandy (Birenbrand "Williams"), cherry brandy (Kirschwasser), plum brandy (Pflaumenbrand, in Balkan: Slivovic). Italian grappa burn on leftovers from the press of grape, also belongs in this tradition of clear brandy. |
Today we can find many products that are crossing these lines.
To sum up; "fake" brandy is flavored industrial spirits made of 96% neutral alcohol without aroma from the raw materials, while real brandy is distilled in a way using real craftmanship, from "wine" or fermented fruit mass, and where the aromas from the raw materials are crucial for the quality.
