Q&A for How to Make Homemade Brandy

Yes. Some people say that brandy made in copper tastes better, but most people can't tell whether it is made in a copper or stainless steel still.

Aging in wood barrels or adding wood spirals and/or honeycombs to the distillate flavors and colors the final product.

You should be able to get everything you need from eBay.

It depends on so many factors, the alcohol content of the wine, the temperature you run at, how much water comes through etc. Get an alcoholmeter and measure it. Remember that it only measures accurately at 20 degrees Celsius and at sea level -- you can get an online chart to adjust your measurements.

Yes, scraps of old wine and other booze will work fine. You are mostly just taking out the alcohol, so even if the wine is a little dusty, the distilled product will be clean.

I did use a aluminium still the first year I made shine and it works but the still gets grimy and takes on the color from your mash, lots of cleaning needed. It may also give it a bit of metallic flavor but it's barely noticeable.

If you plan on doing a double distill, make no cuts on the first run. Collect everything down to 10%-20% and then do all cuts on the second run.

The yeast is a bacteria that starts the fermentation process. So whether you add the specific yeast you want (some engineered yeast strain for a specific flavor), or you just let the fruit/sugar/water mixture sit exposed and wait for some other naturally occurring bacteria to get into your sugar mix and start natural fermentation, you will have yeast involved either way.

This depends where you live: In the USA, it is illegal to have non-taxed liquor at home, same going for most west-European countries, but east-European countries are less strict. In Croatia, for example, one can have 50 liters of brandy without much trouble, and in Hungary one can have their mash distilled by professionals (who take a certain percentage of your liquor for payment). Britain and the Netherlands however, are very strict with alcohol production, but there it is mainly done in low quantities, no more then 10 liters a year.

There is no such thing as the right ABV. Typically you would want the highest ABV possible, most juices bought will between 13-15 brix, which is low, the wine will have about less than 8 percent. Adding sugar, a pound of sugar to a gallon, will add 8 brix. The taste of the brandy will be less fruity, however.

Say you have a wine with 15% ABV, and you would drink your final product at 50% ABV, if you start with 1.5 liters which is 1500 ML, you would get 225 ML of 100 % ABV, at 50 % ABV you can double it to 450 ML. Subtract 30 ML for forshots and heads, we stay with 410 ML. So, to get only 300 ML, it should be about a quarter less than 15%, which is about 11.5 ABV.

It makes sense that if you extract the fruit, you will also leave behind the sugars, hence the ABV will be lower rather than higher. The higher the sugar content, the higher ABV your end fermentation will yield before extraction.

No. Heads are toxic, tails are "water". Some people use heads in a thumper, but that's a much more complex still, not something you want in your kitchen!

Between 165 and 180 degrees. But every still is different. It is important to keep a close eye on your temperature. Even on a cleaning run. Practice makes perfect. If you get it too hot, you can break your still. If you let boiler run dry, it can blow up. And if you are using a thump keg, you will want to open the pressure relief valve or disconnect the thumper as soon as you turn the heat off. If you don't, a vacuum will form and crush the still like a pop can.