I thought I'd share my experiences of making brandy with an expired wine kit!

I bought a Cantina Pinot Gris Wine Kit a couple of years ago, with every intention of making some wine. Fast-forward a few years, and I found it at the back of my brewing space, hidden behind the old bottles I'll never use and the bucket of junk I should really chuck out. It was, of course, well past its use-by date! I wanted to do something with it, and having just finished the last of my brandy, I figured it'd be a bit of fun to turn this wine kit into some!

I knew the kit would probably be absolutely fine, but, well, I fancied trying my hand at brandy so why not! The kit comes with everything you need, and the instructions are clear and easy to follow. I knew from the beginning I would be running it through my still, so instead of racking from a primary to a secondary, and aging then bottling, I just chucked all the stabilizers and clarifiers straight into the primary. It cleared beautifully in a couple of weeks, and then I was ready to go.

While filling my Grainfather to do the initial stripping run, I had a cheeky taste and I have to say, at that moment I thought I probably should have bottled it instead. Very crisp and refreshing, and I can only imagine it would get better with age. However, I was fully committed at this point, so in it all went into the G30!

I ran it through a stripping run with my pot still attachment, collecting the whole lot, then the next day put it back through for the spirit run. As always, this is a piece of cake with the Grainfather in Power Mode. I ran the power at about 60% once it hit the boil, and this made my cuts much easier to make (and sample) without there being any hurry. I collected into 3x150mm jars until I hit the hearts, then 3 more 150mm jars for the tails before I thought it was done. The hearts smelled and tasted fantastic, very fruity and aromatic. I added the closest heart and tail jar to the spirit as I liked their flavour and aroma, and all the rest went into my faints jar for a future faints run.

I diluted to 50% and oaked it with a portion of a Still Spirits French Oak Medium Toast Carboy Spiral for 3 weeks, then removed it at diluted it down to 47%. It's currently sitting at 44% waiting for a final dilution in a couple of weeks. Even though the aging process isn't finished, it's very drinkable already. Smooth and mellow, with a slight sweetness from the oak, and a lovely fruity hit at the back of the palate. Mmmmm!

You can get your own wine kits to turn into Brandy, or even (gasp) wine here - League of Brewers Wine kits

About the author

Matt came on board originally to learn the ropes of commercial brewing when The League Brewery was taking off. Starting of washing, cleaning, measuring and tidying, he quickly got up to speed and starting doing full brews by himself. Having enjoyed the spoils of homebrew for so long, he discovered a passion for commercial brewing, and all things fermented!

While we are no longer brewing on site, Matt has stuck around and is usually working in the background with Ed to keep our systems up and running, and improve the shopping experience.

He is a keen homebrewer and distiller, always trying something new. Apart from beer, he loves making mead, brandy, gin, whiskey and rice wines, and will give pretty much anything a go!