GRIFFO CUSTOM DISTILLATION
Top Questions Wineries Ask About Making Brandy
Q&A WITH HEAD DISTILLER DYLAN CARNEY
What wine is best for brandy? If I have wine with a flaw, will that carry through? How much brandy will I yield from X amount of wine?
Located in the heart of Wine Country, Griffo has partnered with hundreds of wineries on brandy projects, wine-based spirits, and more.
These are the top questions we get asked …
What wine is best suitable for Brandy?
The good news with distillation is that most wine can be turned into a fine brandy. Our hybrid still can be tuned to allow the character of an excellent vintage shine through, or refine the hard edges of an off year.
I have wine with a flaw, will that carry through in a brandy?
Most common faults in wine have no impact on distillation. Here's the five most common. Click to see if they are okay to produce brandy:
Oxidation ✅
Since the wine will be boiled and exposed to air in the still this is already going to happen. Once the wine has been distilled we actually want it to oxidize while maturing in the barrel.
Smoke Taint ✅
The molecule that causes the “ash tray” fault in wine is very heavy. Very little comes over in the collection so otherwise world class wine can be salvaged.
VA ✅
Acetic acid has a boiling point of 118C/244F, or well above that of water. It will naturally be separated from the collection in the still.
Underripe Harvest ✅
Did weather force you to harvest too early? The high acidity does not come through in the distillate. The potential yield may be lower than riper fruit, but we can still concentrate it up to barrel strength.
Sulphur ✅
When we distill something, we are concentrating the more volatile components of the liquid. As a result suffered wine can be ruined by distillation. We can neutralize the sulfur with a hydrogen peroxide addition before distillation, but the best way to avoid this is to minimize/completely abstain from suffering the wine.
How much brandy yield can be expected?
About 400 gallons of 14% ABV wine should yield enough brandy to fill a 59 gallon barrel.
Some of the lost ethanol can be recovered for use as high proof sanitizing liquid around the winery, but is not recommended/safe for consumption. The heads fraction contains a concentration of methanol and acetone, making it dangerous to drink but great for cleaning! Griffo honed these skills during COVID in a big way.
What sort of barrel should I use to age my brandy?
Traditionally brandy is often aged in barrels where the original wine was stored. This can result in a subtle and refined product, when aged over many years. This style of maturation will allow a brandy to develop slowly and without the oak taking over the character of the spirit. The color will probably be a little lighter, but we are allowed to add some caramel coloring to help with that if desired.
American whiskey utilizes charred barrels (More time over the flame than even a very heavy toast). A feature of bourbon and rye production is they can only be used once. This results in empty casks which are far from what a winery would consider neutral oak. In fact almost all Scotch, Irish and Canadian whiskey is made in Ex-bourbon casks. This will be a more aggressive aging style, adding oak and color far faster.
Either method, or a combination of both can yield a fine brandy.
What steps are needed during brandy barrel maturation?
You're in luck because distilled spirits are extremely stable. We do not need to sulfur a maturing cask, top it up, or adjust it in any way until it is ready to blend and bottle. Allowing oxygen ingress is a crucial component in spirit maturation and the high proof prevents any spoilage bacteria from surviving.
Other than watching out for leaks, the best thing you can do for the first two years is forget about your brandy.
Are column stills better than pot stills for making brandy?
They’re simply different tools to achieve different goals. Columns are an effective way to refine larger volumes of ethanol. The resulting spirit tends to be more clean due to the high rectification capability of the system. In a pot still, more of the inherent character of the base product shines through.
Griffo’s Betty is what is known as a hybrid still, having a pot still style base with a small column on top. This gives us the opportunity to lean into either style depending on the desired result. Tuning things in with portions of the column as needed.
So, if the client wants to highlight the style of barrel or had a less-than-perfect fermentation, we can refine the distillation more, yielding a cleaner but less intense flavor. Or, if we want to highlight the nuance of the base wine, we can run with the column plates "deactivated", closer to a traditional pot still. We’re flexible.
How easy is the brandy process at Griffo?
- Request a Free Estimate: fast, no obligation.
- Deliver Wine: in tank or tote.
- Distillation: stripping & finishing runs (join us if you’d like).
- Pick Up or Barrel Down: take your brandy in tank, or age in your barrels.
- Aging & Bottling Available: turnkey services if you want us to carry it through.