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If you live in a climate warm enough for apricots to ripen, then you know that in a good year there is usually no escape from the abundance of fruit. Such years do not always happen, so if it is already apricot season, then it is necessary to use all the fruits so that none of them is wasted. And if you have already dried enough dried apricots, prepared compotes, preserves, jam and marshmallows, and there are still apricots left, then you can consider the option making chacha from apricots. In Georgia, this drink is so traditional that, perhaps, in every home you can find a year’s supply of chacha from a wide variety of fruits. And apricots make one of the most aromatic drinks. Especially if you follow the traditional method of making it.
The article will discuss several recipes cooking chacha from apricots at home. Which one you choose will depend on your goals and specific conditions.
Selection and preparation of raw materials
What is interesting for cooking chacha You can use absolutely any variety of apricots and even the so-called wild ones. You just need to take into account that if in cultivated varieties of apricots the sugar content can be up to 16-18%, then in wild varieties it is less - about 8-10%.Therefore, if you are going to use exclusively the traditional recipe for making chacha without adding sugar, then it is best to use the sweetest varieties of apricots.
Fruits must satisfy two conditions:
- Be fully mature;
- They should be free of rot and mold.
Otherwise, the quality of apricots can be anything - they can be small, ugly, overripe, bruised, even blown to the ground by the wind.
There is no need to wash apricots before use. They contain so-called wild, natural yeast in the form of a natural coating, which will play the main role in the fermentation process. However, if for speed you want to use additional artificial yeast, then you can wash the fruits - this will no longer make a significant difference.
Apricots must be freed from seeds, otherwise unintended bitterness may appear in the finished drink.
Then the apricots are transferred to a separate container and kneaded with your hands or a wooden masher. You can, of course, use a mixer or blender, but the quality of any fruit will not improve from contact with metal. At this point, the preliminary stage of preparing apricots is completed.
Tradition determines quality
Traditionally recipe In the process of preparing chacha from apricots, neither sugar nor yeast is added.
All you need are the apricots themselves and water. The recipe is as follows: for 4 parts of mashed apricots, take 3-4 parts of water by weight. As a result, you will get a soft drink with an amazing aroma and refined taste.But in order to avoid disappointment, you must immediately realize that the amount of chacha obtained from apricots alone will be very small, but the quality of the drink will exceed all your expectations - you can get real German schnapps.
But you will not have any additional costs for sugar and yeast, which also matters.
Place mashed apricots into a prepared fermentation container, fill them with water and place them in a warm place. Traditionally, the container was covered with a towel and placed in the sun for fermentation, leaving it outside even overnight, if the nights were not cold (at least +18). But to be sure of the process, you can also place it in a dark, warm place in the room.
After 12-18 hours, after signs of fermentation appear (hissing, foam), a water seal is placed on the container with apricots or a rubber glove with a hole is put on. It serves as an indicator of both the beginning and end of the fermentation process. Using wild natural yeast, apricot mash can ferment for 25 to 40 days. A deflated glove will signal the end of the process. The mash itself should lighten, sediment will fall to the bottom, and the taste will become slightly bitter without the slightest hint of sweetness.
These signs mean that the mash is ready for distillation. To do this, it is usually filtered through cheesecloth into a distillation cube.
For distillation, you can use a device of any design, both ready-made and homemade. The main thing in this recipe is the fact that the moonshine is distilled very slowly. Therefore, the fire is kept minimal, the liquid should drip slowly.
As soon as the strength drops below 30 degrees, the first distillation must be stopped. Now measure the strength of the liquid collected at this stage and determine the amount of absolute alcohol as a percentage. To do this, multiply the entire volume obtained by the strength and divide by 100. Then dilute the resulting distillate with water so that the total strength drops to 20%.
Distill the liquid a second time until the strength drops below 45 degrees. It is believed that real chacha should have a strength of about 50 degrees. If you want to get exactly this, then finish the distillation even earlier. Well, to get a regular 40-degree drink, it can be diluted with water to the desired strength.
Recipes with sugar and yeast
If you can’t bear the thought of how little chacha is made from so many apricots, or you have the opportunity to use only wild apricots, then try a recipe with added sugar.
In this case, for 10 kg of crushed apricots, take 20 liters of water and 3 kg of sugar. From this amount of ingredients you can get approximately 4.5 liters of apricot chacha. Although, of course, its taste and aroma will be different, but if you don’t have truly sweet apricots on hand, then there is no other choice.
Otherwise, your further actions in this case will be completely similar to the above procedure.And in a month and a half you will be able to get aromatic apricot chacha.
If time matters to you, and you want to get a ready-made drink in the shortest possible time, then you will need to use ready-made yeast to prepare chacha: baker’s or wine – it doesn’t really matter.
For this recipe the ingredients will be approximately the following:
- 10 kg pitted apricots;
- 3 kg sugar;
- 20 liters of water;
- 100 grams of fresh or 20 grams of dry yeast.
All components are mixed in a fermentation container, in which about 30% of free space must be left for the release of foam and gases. Yeast is added last. For quick action, it is advisable to pre-dilute them in a small amount of warm water. Fermentation with the addition of yeast should be completed much faster - within 10 days from the start of the process. After which the entire distillation process is repeated with the only difference being that the speed of distillation no longer matters - you can even use high heat, and this will no longer affect the quality of the finished chacha.
Try making chacha from apricots in several ways and decide for yourself whether it makes sense to chase quantity or whether quality is more important.
