I have enjoyed making home brew beer for many years now.  I take the “easy road” here with just buying my favourite beer kits and sugar – sometimes I add tea tree but otherwise I stick to the standard recipe.  It is simple and enjoyable – the “Happy Hour” when the work is done is a fixture in our daily routine.

When it comes to spirits I have taken a more adventurous road though:  A friend of ours in Hawkes Bay showed us a video many years ago about an Italian grappa maker who was using his grandfather’s still to make grappa which is also known as the poor man’s brandy.  Grappa is made using the grape pressings which are a by-product from the wine making process and fermenting them separately – the result is something like wine and if you distill it you get something like brandy.  A few years ago I imported an old wood fired still from Germany – it is now mounted on a trailer and apart from making some grappa, pear brandy and apple brandy here at home, I have also been making “proper” brandy (distilled wine) for wineries in Matakana.

We are growing sugar cane at Pukahu and my next project is to juice the sugar cane, ferment the juice and then distill it into rum.  I have had a go at it already and the fermentation seemed to go very well … until it took a turn and it all became vinegar -  what do we do with 75 litres of vinegar?  We will find some use for it.  Must try again soon.

If you want to learn how to use a wood fired still, please get in touch.