Making Brandy from a Wine Kit

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

Matt Rhodes

Former team member

Matt is a former League of Brewers team member and has since started his own brewery - Acoustic Brewery in Nelson! His passion for brewing led him to take the next step as a brewer - going professional. We at League of Brewers are super proud of him - the quality and consistency of his beers is impressive. Check him out when you're in the Nelson region!