>>10049676sugar won't cut it unless you boil it in acidic condition for a while to break down to fructose and glucose
yeast itself will die off at abv 6 to 10%
you pretty much have to go with champagne yeast otherwise your yields will be atrociously low
not to mention all the cost of the cookware, all from the boiling pot to condensor unit... though your condensor unit can aswell be just be a coil of copper pipe soaked in a bucket of water
nonetheless you absolutely must have a thermometer to know at what temps your stuff is coming out off, as you need to take methanol out of the final product (which can only reasonably be done if you throw it out in the beginning as it starts coming off first) but you'd also like to fraction what comes off at different temps (terpenes, ethers, esters etc) as if you just boil off all the ethanol part your brandy will taste like shit and will worth even less
