More Rakia Planned - This Time Grape

iThe grape rakia season is now in full swing in Bulgaria and I can see the local Yambol rakia house chimneys expelling thick black smoke from every one of its kazans that are working full time. There is some serious rakia being distilled here right now.

Having all my grape bar a little salvaged for wine by picking them early, I had to supplement sugar to bring the alcohol content up to 11%. I think now that the wine will not be the best so 30 litres of wine now will be turned into rakia. There is also 20 litres of sub 37% rakia from previous rakia making to be added to this, that’s 50 litres of liquid to distil right now. There is a source of buying grapes at 40 stotinki (around 30 US cents) per kilogram and this is going to be bought to make up and extra 200 litres of wine and fill up the 250 litres that the big kazan can take.

The sliva rakia has now stood for 20 days and was tried last night at 44% by adding mineral water (Devin). It was the smoothest rakia made to date and will improve with more time. I feel that the addition of bicarbonate of soda and coriander seeds made the difference. The current stock of 40 litres however is not going to last through to next summer so the extra grape rakia should see us through with another 40 to 50 litres of rakia.

So another rakia day to look forward to this year.

Troyan Celebrates Rakia

There is a Rakia festival going on in the Bulgarian Town of Troyan and its municipality alongside the national exhibition Oreshak – This is sponsored and organised by “Vinprom Troyan”, JSC, National Community Centre and the local tourism council.

The celebration goes under the name of ‘Plump and Plump Rakia Holiday in Troyan’ and the National Exhibition in the starts at 10:00 on 19th September 2009 on Oreshak Village

Here is the Program of events

Oreshak village
- 10:00 AM – Official opening of the holiday in the National exhibition of crafts and arts in Oreshak village.
- Demonstration of traditional production of plump rakia from famous masters.
- Competition for best homemade plump rakia.
- Plump rakia bazaar.
- Theme festival “Rakias’ meeting”;
- Concert program with the special participation of local bands;

Troyan
- 6.00 PM – Festive defile from the bridge near Elma;
- Local cheerleaders;
- The local community centres;
- The community of the Troyan Jokers and Cards;
- Students from the national art high school;
- Groups from Gabrovo, Pirdop and Knezha;

Source: http://www.visitbulgaria.net

The Best Rakia Made To Date

Well Rakia day came and went on Monday and the result was potentially the best rakia I have made since living in Bulgaria. The reason is quite simple, experience!

After being through so many rakia making days, not only with my own rakia but other Bulgarians, the methods used becomes second nature. All the tricks of the rakia trade onboard and being practised as the day progresses.

I recall my first rakia making day, it was a bit of a blur, not from the rakia, but form the complete alienation of doing anything like this before. Of course it illegal from where I came from so previous knowledge was nil. No books readily available on the subject in English at the time.

As promised in my previous post, no pictures due to a inoperative digital camera, not that that it made any difference to the rakia. In fact it would have been quite a distraction and refreshing not to have to bother with pictures. During the process kufte (Bulgarian burgers) were cooked on the embers of the fire that was doing the magic to the must. Alongside fresh Yambol bread and the event that was already a party just went up a gear. Why does ifood always taste better grilled this way? Measuring the alcohol and tasting was made throughout the four hour process along with moderating the heat, very important as I now know. Time just whizzed by as it kept me very busy.

The finished result was 45 litres of 51% proof rakia which oozes aroma from the secret ingredients I added. An additional to this 2 litres of 65% from the first sample were given to Baba as medicine to rub on her poorly legs during the coming winter and 10 litres of rakia which is below 35% proof to be add to the wine brought the next time I visit to distil.

All in all another great day with great people talking for 4 hours about rakia and hunting stories, they go hand in hand!

It is a wait for around one month to be infused with apples dunked, mulberry wood for the colour and additional mineral water from my well to bring the alcohol content to around 44%. This will of course give additional litres of rakia which should last until spring 2010!

Image via Wikipedia

Rakia Making Day Looming

It is with great excitement as I set the alarm clock for 5:00 for tomorrow morning. The rakia house has been booked up and 300 litres of my sliva based wine will be rolled into the premises. It will be loaded into the kazan, sealed with a flour and water base, the fire lit and wonderful distilled rakia will result.

This year I have extra secret ingredients that will be added to give it a special aroma and character that has somewhat been missing in previous years. I have done my research on tried and tasted rakia to extract the Bulgarian method of getting a rakia to remember.

The rakia house has been working for quite a few months now and it is now climaxing into a frenzy of Bulgarians looking for distil their sliva or peach based wine and a few with early grape wine now being processed. Many rakia makers get time off work to go through the process, me included!

I hop to report on the day ahead, but my digital camera unfortunately is broken so no pictures this year. :(