Unit 5 - Brandy

Question 1

What are the three brandy categories?

Answer 1

Neutral Brandy
Cognac style brandy
Armagnac style brandy

Question 2

What distillation process does neutral brandy use?

Answer 2

Continuous distillation in a column still. The spirit must come off the still at a minimum of 96% abv.

Question 3

What is the ABV progression in neutral brandy?

Answer 3

10-12% to 85-96% abv

Question 4

What is used for Cognac style distillation?

Answer 4

The alembic charentais which consists of three vessels -

Direct fired boiler
Wine pre heater
Worm tub condensor

Question 5

Describe the process using alembic charentais

Answer 5

The boiler contains the wine to be distilled.
It’s heated by flame
As the vapour rises, they travel up through a hat (also called a dome) which is usually a chamber sitting on top of the boiler which increases influx.
Vapours eventually escape the hat and travel through the swan neck and continue to the worm tub condenser.

Question 6

What is usually between the boiler and condenser?

Answer 6

Pre heater. This tank contains wine to be distilled in the next distillation run. The pipe from the swan neck travels directly through the preheater.

The heat from the vapours of the on-going distillation passes into the wine in the pre heater. This allows a faster turn around between distillation runs.

Question 7

What condenser is used for Cognac?

Answer 7

Worm tub condenser - long copper coil that circles around inside a large tank filled with flowing cold water.
Water is pumped in through the bottom of the tank, and leaves at the top of the tank through an airflow pipe.

Question 8

What ABV does the wine (cognac) start off at for double distillation?

Answer 8

10% abv.

Question 9

What is the fraction of the total volume of the heads from our 1st distillation? (cognac double distillation)

Answer 9

1-3%

Question 10

What is the fraction collected of the heart (brouillis) for cognac double distillation?

Answer 10

28-30%

Question 11

What is the fraction collected for the tails for cognac distillation?

Answer 11

The remainder until the amount of alcohol coming off the still is at around 1% abv

Question 12

How long does the 1st distillation take?

Answer 12

10h or more

Question 13

Describe the head hearts and tails collected from the second distillation? (cognac)

Answer 13

Heads fraction is removed at 1-3% of the total volume in the still.
The hearts begins to come through at 75% abv.
Final fraction is the tails which continues until the spirit is about 1% abv. Tails are discarded, but the heads and seconds are combined and stilled with the hearts of the first distillation.

Question 14

What is the extra fraction taken from the second distillation called?

Answer 14

secondes and is collected after the hearts. This fraction begins when the distillate coming off the still is around 60% abv and continues until about 5% abv.

Question 15

How long does the second distillation take?

Answer 15

around 12hrs

Question 16

What is the ABV from the final spirit of cognac distillation?

Answer 16

68-79%

Question 17

What is the distillation process for armagnac?

Answer 17

only distilled once, through a small column still called an alembic armagnacais.

Question 18

Describe an Armagnac still (alembic armagnacias)

Answer 18

Consists of a boiler that is directly heated by a flame.
Has a serpentine coil condenser.
It has a series of plates and is steadily fed with wine, producing distillate in a single pass

Question 19

How many plates can an alembic armagnacias still legally have?

Answer 19

up to 15 plates, but is usually less than this.

Question 20

What are the alembic armagnacias stills designed to produce a spirit like?

Answer 20

to produce a spirit of an alcohol concentration of 52-60%. Legally the spirit can have a higher abv.

Question 21

How would you describe armagnac spirit?

Answer 21

heavily flavoured and aromatic spirit

Question 22

What ABV do grappa skins contain?

Answer 22

3-4% abv

Question 23

What distillation process is used for making Grapa?

Answer 23

Using a continuous still. It can also be distilled in a batch process. Small distilleries prefer to use vapour extraction.

Question 24

What is the ABV of the emerging spirit for Grappa?

Answer 24

70-80% but can legally be as high as 86% abv