How to obtain alcohol from wheat. Moonshine from grain: recipes for strong drinks

Preparing malt. Before soaking, the wheat should sit for 2-3 months. Place a layer of wheat (3-4 cm) in deep containers. Fill with warm water so that the water barely covers the grains. Leave the wheat in a warm and dark place with a temperature of 20-25°C. In 2-3 days the first shoots will appear. The wheat needs to be turned over daily to prevent it from becoming moldy. When the sprouts grow 2-3 cm, without separating them, remove them from the water.

We are preparing mash. Fill a 40-liter container with clean well water. Add sugar diluted in hot water. Stir and wait until everything cools down to 28-30°C. Immediately add malt and diluted yeast (see instructions on the package). Mix and install a water seal on our container.

Strain the mash through a colander to filter out the wheat. Add fermented baked milk to the mash so that there is less “fusel oil” in the finished moonshine. We distill the mash using a moonshine still, selecting the distillate until the strength drops below 38 degrees. When re-distilling, the distillate is diluted with water by 50%.

After the second distillation, the moonshine should be cleaned using a regular water filter. It is also a good idea to dilute the moonshine with clean water, bringing it to the required strength (approximately 40-45 degrees). The finished moonshine should sit for 2-3 days before tasting it.

Hi all!

Today I will tell you how to make moonshine with wheat without yeast. In fact, it doesn’t have to be based on wheat - any grain crops will do (rye, barley, millet, etc.).

And mash, of course, can’t do without yeast and sugar. But we will not use the usual alcoholic or baker’s yeast, but wild ones that live on the surface of the grain.

And although this is still sugar moonshine (since the carbohydrates of the grain are not fermented), the gentle work of wild yeast and the presence of cereals in the process give it a special original aroma. Moonshiners call this drink Wild Sam.

Moreover, each type of cereal gives moonshine its own individual taste. One moonshine is made from wheat, and another from barley or rye. You can also collect a blend of different crops in any proportion. In general, there is a lot of room for imagination. Yes, and one more thing - mash can be made with the same grain up to 4 times or more!

If you need a recipe for real grain moonshine, then this is the place for you. simple recipe for moonshine made from flour

Ingredients

In the recipe I will give proportions calculated for a tank with a volume of 30 liters, because... That's what I actually use. You can recalculate it yourself to fit the container you need. The principle is this: take the volume of your fermentation tank and divide it by 7.5. The resulting figure will show the required amount of grain. And then for every kilogram of grain you will need 1 kg of sugar and 5 liters of water.

So, the ingredients:

4 kg of grain (in my recipe and in the photo there is wheat)
4 kg sugar
20 liters of water

The grain must be feed, i.e. that which goes to animal feed. You can buy it at the market, granary, base, etc. Seed most likely will not work, because... it is specially processed for storage. I can tell moonshiners from St. Petersburg where suitable cheap grain is sold.

Making mash

This is the next day. Foam appeared:

On the second day:

On the day when chaos is ready:

Distillation

We distill the mash as usual - without selecting the heads and tails, to the water.
There is no need to clean anything coal, neither oil etc.
We do the second distillation according to all the rules fractional distillation- with the selection of heads and tails. It is advisable to carry out a 3rd distillation.

Impressions from the recipe

I made moonshine with wheat and barley. I liked it better with wheat - it turns out very soft. Perhaps even too much. On barley it is tougher, but also very interesting.

They say that it works very well with a mixture of wheat and barley in a 50/50 ratio. I really want to try it.

In general, I liked Wild Sam so much that I made special labels for him. Don't judge strictly, these are my first attempts at creating my own labels.

Why boar, you ask? The first time I tried this recipe, water seal on the tank, which stood in the kitchen, made loud grunting sounds. At night they could be clearly heard in our bedroom, and my wife once told me, “You have a pig living in your kitchen that constantly wants to eat.” “But the pig is wild,” I thought. That's why there's a wild boar.

That seems to be all. I hope the recipe was explained clearly. If you have any questions, please feel free to comment.

Bye everyone,

The selected grains are placed on a baking sheet or tray in an even layer of about 2 cm, before being thoroughly washed several times with water. Cover with a very wet cloth, maybe gauze, folded several times. Periodically moisten the cloth with a spray bottle and shake the baking sheets throughout 4-5 days until the grains germinate.
You can thoroughly wash the grain several times, pour it into the jar not to the top, and pour room water over the top layer. No more, otherwise it may rot. We turn the jar on its side and periodically roll it from side to side throughout 4-5 days. This way all the grains remain moist and do not stagnate.
If sprouted wheat is allowed to dry well in an oven or in the air, and then ground, it becomes malt flour. It is better to store it in a bag made of natural linen.

Recipe without adding yeast

Such moonshine is considered a living product. It has a special taste with a bready aftertaste. Let's take a step-by-step look at the technology for making moonshine from wheat without yeast.

Ingredients:

14.5 liters of water (preferably soft)
5.5 kg. Sahara
5 kg. wheat

Pour 1 kg of wheat into a saucepan. sugar and fill with water just above the level of the wheat. Cover with a cloth and wait 5-7 days.

Over the course of a week, add water little by little and monitor the sprouts, which should grow to about 5 mm.

Let's learn how to prepare wheat mash for moonshine. It is also called mash made with wild wheat yeast.

Place sprouted wheat in a large saucepan or bottle and fill it with syrup from 7 liters. water and 1 kg. Sahara. The syrup temperature is around 28-30 degrees. Mix and set aside for 4 days. This is our starter.

Then you can add the sugar and water that are left. Now we need to put the future mash under a water seal for 10 days, or simply put a rubber glove with a hole on the neck, if it is a bottle. An inflated glove indicates that fermentation is underway. By the end of the 10-day period, the glove will fall off, and this is a sign that the wheat mash without yeast for moonshine is ready. By the way, the sediment can be refilled, the quality of the moonshine will not become worse.

It is advisable to thoroughly filter the mash and clean it with kefir. This will remove the fusel smell. Let's start distillation. If you wish, you can carry out secondary distillation, then the moonshine will be softer and more pleasant. We dilute the moonshine with water 1:1, drain the first fraction (50 g per liter of moonshine), then wait until the strength of the moonshine drops below 38-40 degrees.

If the wheat moonshine without yeast turns out to be stronger than necessary, dilute it with clean water, let it sit for three days, and invite guests for a tasting.

We examined in detail the recipe for wheat mash, and then moonshine from sprouted wheat grains without adding yeast. Everything is clear with the distillation. Let's look at the following recipes for wheat mash for moonshine.

Malt mash with yeast

At the very beginning, it is described in detail how you can make wheat malt at home.

Ingredients:

3 kg. malt
12.5 l. water
150 gr. alcohol yeast (preferably fresh)

Pour the malt into the pan. Add water in small portions, stirring vigorously to prevent lumps from forming. Add hot water, up to 55 degrees.

Heat the wort to 60-63 degrees, stirring occasionally and leave at this temperature for an hour.

The top of the wort should lighten and sediment should form at the bottom. We try to cool our container sharply, preferably within a maximum of 45 minutes.

Mix the wort that has cooled to 23 degrees with yeast (diluted with water) and place it for fermentation in a darkened room with a temperature of 18-24 degrees under a water seal or a glove.

Making mash from wheat, that is, fermentation, lasts 4-7 days. At least once a day it is worth removing the water seal and stirring the mash or shaking it.

Moonshine is made from wheat flour in the same way. Flour is taken instead of malt, and special enzymes are added for saccharification.

The finished mash is light in color and has a sour taste with bitterness. Don’t forget to carefully filter the mash, and only then start distilling it into moonshine.

Braga with yeast

Ingredients:

2 kg. wheat grains
10.5 l. water
65 gr. alcohol yeast (fresh)
3 kg. Sahara

Let's see how to make mash on wheat. Clean, pre-washed grain is ground in a meat grinder and filled with 1.5-2 liters of cold water. Add 0.5 kg of sugar and 40 g. yeast.

Stir everything well and let it ferment for 3-5 days. After this, add the remaining ingredients and leave to ferment for another 4 days. Be sure to add warm water.

The same way mash is made from wheat groats.

As soon as the wheat mash brightens, it can be distilled.

Braga without yeast

How to make moonshine from wheat without yeast?

Ingredients:

3 kg. wheat grains
12 l. water
3 - 3.5 kg. Sahara

Of all sugar and 0.6 l. boil the syrup with water. Cover the cooked grain with cooled syrup and leave for 4 days. We don't cover it with anything. Perhaps more time will pass. We are waiting for the foam to appear.

Add the syrup from the remaining warm ingredients, cover, and install a water seal.

For wheat mash to ripen without yeast, it should take from 6 to 15 days. We inspect the mash every day so as not to miss the end of fermentation. Then the grain will fall to the bottom, and if the glove serves as a water seal, it will signal by deflating. Wheat mash without yeast is ready.

Recipe with added yeast, but without sugar

This recipe for moonshine from wheat goes back decades. Let's see how to make moonshine using malt and yeast at home.

Ingredients:

6 kg. wheat, of which 1 kg. germinate as written at the very beginning
6 kg. Sahara
25 l. water
25 g dry yeast

We take 1 kg. sprouted grain, grind it in an electric meat grinder. The remaining 5 kg. grind in a grain crusher and leave to boil for 15 minutes. When the boiled grain has cooled to 60 degrees, add chopped sprouted grain. Mix everything thoroughly. Leave for 3 hours, if possible wrapping the container with something, using an old blanket. After this, the wort will become sweetish.

Place the container in ice water to cool it quickly.

Pour the wort into a fermentation container and add yeast. We install a water seal for 3-5 days.

After fermentation stops, the grain mash on wheat is filtered.

The simplest method

This wheat mash recipe is very simple, although the results are usually not disappointing.

Let's learn how to make mash.

Ingredients:

14 kg. Sahara
30 l. water
10 kg. wheat

We combine all the ingredients very carefully and set it to ferment. We use lukewarm water. Usually 4-5 days are enough.

Ancient grandfather's method

Another recipe for mash made with wheat without yeast. This method has been used by more than one generation of moonshiners. A proven method that guarantees excellent results from wheat moonshine. Old people say that in the past only lazy people did not make moonshine in villages.

Ingredients:

6 kg. Sahara
20 liters of clean water
10 kg. wheat

So, here's how to make mash from wheat. Pour well-washed wheat with water 5 cm above the level of the wheat itself. It swells for three days. After this, 3 kg is dissolved in 15 liters of clean water. sugar and pour over the wheat. Mix everything thoroughly. Leave under a water seal for fermentation. At the end of fermentation, add another 3 kg. sugar diluted in 5 liters of water. We install the water seal again.

This wheat mash recipe is time-tested. When using this method, the mash becomes a beautiful golden color and a slight bitterness. Can be distilled.

The sediment can be used three more times. The next time you refill the mash with wheat grain, fermentation occurs three days longer, and the mash loses its bready taste.

Everything is ready. You can distill moonshine from wheat.

Ingredients:

Coarse wheat flour, ground in a household mill – 1 full handful 300-500 g.
Well or purified water – 2 liters.
Dry hop cones - 2 handfuls or fresh - 1 handful.
Wheat grain for food use – 3 kilograms.
Purified water – 6 liters.

Cooking method:

To figure out how to make moonshine on wheat without yeast and sugar, you need to understand that the process will be quite labor-intensive, but it’s worth it.
This ancient recipe results in a strong, powerful product without any foreign odors, as well as a fairly neutral bready taste.
Clean and sort the wheat, and then fill it with warm water so that the liquid covers it by two to three centimeters.
The vessel with grain must be covered and placed in a warm and dark place for two or three days, until foam appears on the surface, which means that wild yeast has fermented.
At the same time, a special steaming is being prepared, for which hop cones and flour prepared in advance are filled with water and left for several days in a warm place under a lid.
After the required period, the malt and the brew need to be mixed.
Since there is no sugar in the composition, it is worth feeding the yeast with something, for which many people use sugar beets, apples, pears, etc., but you can even get by with a loaf or two of fresh or stale rye bread.
All this needs to be thoroughly mixed and about five liters of water added to make a total of six, as required by the recipe.
Jars or bottles with mash are closed with a water seal or rubber gloves are put on the neck.
You need to leave the liquid until it is completely ripe for eight to ten days, and sometimes even fifteen, so be prepared to wait.
When the mash has fully matured and won, it can be sent for distillation, according to the principle indicated in the previous version, when sugar was used.
Naturally, you can choose moonshine at once, but its quality will not be the best, and the smell may not be very pleasant.
If you still have any questions about moonshine made with wheat without yeast, as well as its production, then the best answer to them will be the video below.
There, all the subtleties and nuances of the process are clearly described and laid out on the shelves, so you shouldn’t be afraid, you just need to do it.

Bon appetit!

Cooking recipe

The production of grain mash using wheat occurs in several stages.

Grain preparation

For every 1 kg of grain, 3.5 liters of water and 1 kg of sugar are required. It is strongly not recommended to violate the proportions. The product may not ripen. This amount is enough to produce 700-900 ml of pure moonshine.

The wheat is sorted, debris, stones, weeds and dirt are removed. You cannot wash the collection so as not to kill wild yeast cultures. If there is a lot of dust, you can only rinse lightly. Next, the grains are dried for 3-4 days in the open air (preferably in the summer in the sun up to 30C). You can start wort using regular grains, but sprouted grains are much safer and easier.

Zabrod

Wading is necessary to activate the proliferation of yeast fungi. The initial form of cereal starch cannot act as food for microorganisms, so it must be converted into sugar.

The wheat is distributed in one even layer along the bottom of the glass container, water is poured 4-6 cm higher, and covered with gauze. For 24-36 hours, the workpiece is placed in a dark place at 12-17 C. At the end of the process, a couple of handfuls of sugar are poured on top and mixed gently. At this point, the cereal is already sprouting, the starch begins to break down into glucose and maltose. This means that fermentation will continue to be successful.

If the sprouts do not appear, the mash will not work. Unsuccessful raw materials can be thrown away and the attempt can be repeated with new material.

Making wort and re-fermenting

The goal of this stage is to get the yeast to work at full strength. The untouched volume of water is heated to 25-30 C, the remaining sugar is dissolved in it. The first starter with sprouts is carefully transferred to a larger container. The prepared liquid is poured on top. The container should not be filled more than ¾ full. Active fermentation will produce foam. Flowing out will lead to significant losses in mash volume. If the liquid is actively absorbed into the grain, it can be added little by little. The main thing is that the starter does not dry out. Keep it like this for 7-10 days.

Basic fermentation

At the next stage, a water seal is installed. The mixture in the jar is thoroughly shaken and sealed from unnecessary contact with oxygen.

The role of a water seal can be played by a lid with a straw or a medical rubber glove (non-sterile) with a puncture in one of the fingers.

The mash is left to stand quietly for two days. From the third day they regularly taste the bitterness level. The sprouts should walk on the dishes. If “silence” remains in the dishes for more than 2 days, the workpiece has deteriorated. There is no point in continuing to wait.

The complete disappearance of the sweet taste indicates the death of all fungi and marks the completion of the cooking process. You can also track the final result by drooping grains, a fallen glove (when the yeast is working, it is swollen vertically), and the absence of foam.

The question of exposure duration is strictly individual. With selected raw materials and 25-30C heat, it can be completed in 10-15 days. But more often you have to wait 25-60 days.

Distillation and filtration

The production is completed by distillation and filtration.

You will have to drive twice. Each stream will separate a certain portion of harmful substances from the drink. Before the first use, it is better to dilute the alcohol with clean water to 20%. This composition is easier to clean and does not overload the device. By the end of the second stage, the strength will return to 45-50% due to a decrease in the volume of liquid. Increasing the number of stages always increases the temperature.

The last step is cleaning. For wheat mash, methods with coal, cotton filter or milk are the priority.

Coal or cotton wool is wrapped in a couple of layers of gauze, placed in a funnel, through which the moonshine is poured into a clean container. Coal can also be poured directly into the mash for 6-10 days. Then strain thoroughly.

Working with milk takes longer. For every liter of alcohol, add 100 ml of milk of any fat content. The mixture is left covered for 5 days, then filtered and distilled again. The procedure can be carried out before the second distillation.

Wheat moonshine without yeast

In order to prepare moonshine without yeast, they should be replaced with some kind of substrate. Most often, its role is played by cereal malt. The mash turns out soft, with a pleasant taste. The preparation time is usually about fifteen days.

First of all, you should choose high-quality grain. It must meet the following criteria:

The grain is not used immediately after harvesting. It should be stored for about three months.
The grain should not be wet or contain any impurities.
Before use, sort through and remove foreign objects; under no circumstances should rotted grain be used.
Try to find the most environmentally friendly raw materials. Unfortunately, producers often fertilize future crops with chemicals.

The water for preparing wheat mash is taken clean. It can be spring water or store-bought water, without gas. It is not recommended to use tap water. Even a small amount of chlorine in water can kill living microorganisms that will participate in the fermentation process. The ingredients for the mash are selected in the following proportion: thirty-five liters of water will require ten kilograms of selected wheat grains and the same amount of sugar. To prepare moonshine from sprouted wheat, you must carefully follow the technology.

Moonshine made from wheat or malt with yeast without sugar

Wheat grains contain a lot of starch, which is also a nutrient medium for yeast. But in order to convert it into a form that yeast can convert into alcohol, it is necessary to germinate the grain, turning it into malt.

It is the enzymes formed during the germination of grains that saccharify (break down) the starch found in the cereal.

Preparation of wort without sugar

To make moonshine without sugar you will need:

10 kg of prepared wheat;
0.5 kg pressed (100 g dry) yeast;
20 liters of water.

Place the prepared (washed, soaked) grain for germination, cover with a damp cloth and leave in the dark in a cool room.

For the first 5 days, spray with water daily and stir. This ensures oxygen access.

Then don't touch it for a few days. If the sprouts are about 0.7 mm long and intertwined, grind the sprouted mass in a meat grinder.

Pour into a fermentation container and fill with hot water. When it has cooled to a little lukewarm, add yeast (preferably pre-distinguished) and mix well.

Install a water seal on the container (if it is a bottle, put on a medical glove with your finger pierced with a needle) and place it in a warm place. Fermentation lasts 5-10 days.

The fact that it has ended is indicated by the lightening of the mash and the precipitation of sediment. The glove will fall off, the shutter will not gurgle. Remove the mash from the sediment, but do not throw it away. You can brew mash with this malt up to 4 more times.

Classic recipe

Only since the 20th century has sugar become affordable for widespread use, including for homemade alcohol. Before this, sugar was not used in moonshine, and the product was purely natural. We suggest distilling homemade whiskey using a classic recipe.

Prepare:

1.5 kg of barley or wheat malt;
3.5 kg of cereal (you can prepare a mixture of wheat, barley and corn);
20 liters of water;
200 g of raw yeast or 40 g of dry yeast.

Heat the water to 50°C and gradually, stirring, add the cereal into it.

Advice. Using a construction mixer, you will mix the cereal with water absolutely evenly, there will be no clots.

Heat this mixture to 65°C, wrap and leave for half an hour. During this time, refine the malt, add cold water and, stirring, heat to 65°C. This will activate the enzymes needed to ferment sugars.

Mix grain porridge and heated malt. You will notice how the mixture becomes thinner, acquires sweetness and changes color to yellowish, brownish. Wrap the container and leave for a couple of hours. Every 40 minutes, open, stir and wrap again.

After 2 – 2.5 hours, open the wort and let it cool to 25-29°C. Then pour into a fermentation container, add yeast and put on a water seal (glove). After 7-10 days, the mash is ready for distillation. Filter it.

When distilling in a steam boiler, there is no need to filter, as this will better preserve the organoleptic properties of the product. Homemade whiskey can be aged in an oak barrel or infused with oak chips or bark. Although even without infusion, such grain moonshine compares favorably with other types with its pleasant rich grain taste and softness.

Homemade alcohol can be used to prepare strong noble drinks, medicinal tinctures and sweet fruit and berry liqueurs. The technology for producing alcohol from grains includes the preparation of malt and malted milk, the processing of raw materials containing starch, the preparation of yeast mash and its mashing, the distillation of mash and the rectification of the finished drink.

Malt is needed to make alcohol from wheat without using large amounts of yeast and starch. Sprouted wheat or any other grain that contains the organic substances necessary for fermentation is called malt. For germination, only clean and mature grain is selected, collected at least 3 and no more than 12 months ago.

Checking the quality of wheat and the chemical content in it is simple: soak a handful in hot water for a few minutes and smell. Processed grain will have a characteristic unpleasant odor.

However, this is the most popular technology for making grain alcohol.

How to make malt and malted milk

Begin preparation by sifting and washing the raw materials. This is needed to remove debris, empty and chipped grains, and dust. After cleaning and sorting the grain, the wheat is soaked in a wooden or ceramic container for 6-8 hours. When the first sprouts hatch, the grains are washed in running water and transferred to a flat surface (this can be a basin with low sides, a baking sheet, or a baking board). After soaking, the seeds are germinated in a well-ventilated area at a temperature not exceeding +20°C. To prevent drying out, the raw materials are covered with a damp cloth or gauze. Stir every 4-6 hours.

When the first roots appear, the seeds are placed in a glass bottle. The layer of grains should be from 15 to 25 cm.

The room temperature is increased by 2-4°. This is necessary for the activation of grain and the active accumulation of malt enzymes. Malt is ready for use when the length of the sprouts has reached 13-15 mm.

Green malt is used to make milk: for pure wheat malted milk, only wheat is used. But many winemakers recommend a mixture of 2 parts of sprouted wheat and 1 part of sprouted barley and oats (grain is sprouted in the same way). The mixture is washed three times, then poured into a bottle, filled with hot water and left for 8-10 hours.

From wheat you need to grind 2 kg of flour, add about 200 grams of malt mixture and add a liter of water. Mix well. The resulting malted milk is necessary for saccharification of starch raw materials in the main mash during the preparation of alcohol.

Making mash

To prepare alcohol mash you need to take:

Yeast;
Sugar (for every 5 liters of water, 1 kg of sugar is required);
Clean water;
Products containing starch (mash);
Aromatic additives.

The yield of ethanol alcohol is the result of the vital activity of yeast fungus. You can use regular baker's yeast (10-15% of the weight of the total raw materials), or you can make homemade live yeast.

Hops yeast recipe

Ingredients:

A glass of warm water;
A couple of tablespoons of hops;
Tbsp. Sahara;
A quarter teaspoon of salt;
Potatoes - 110 g;
Wheat flour - 30 g.

Pour the hops into a thermos and pour a glass of boiling water. Leave to infuse for a day. Strain the cooled mixture. Add sugar to the resulting infusion. Dissolve 30 g of wheat flour in warm water and add to the total mixture. Mix well: the liquid should be cloudy in color and homogeneous. Pour into a bottle and leave in a warm place for another 48 hours. Shake the contents periodically. Boil the potatoes, mash, add to the sourdough. Stir the mixture and leave for a day. On the fifth day, homemade yeast is ready.

How to make an alcohol mash

Starch is found in potatoes, legumes and cereals. To prepare wheat mash you will need fresh flour and water (proportions 1:1). Knead the dough and leave for 20 minutes. Then it is transferred to a sieve placed in a container with water (about 1.5 liters of water are needed for 0.5 kg of dough). Rinse thoroughly. The process is necessary for the starch to transfer into water.

The next stage is mashing the mash. It consists of three parts: gelatinization, liquefaction and saccharification. Pour 500 ml of malted milk into a ten-liter bowl, add 500 ml of cold water. Mix the contents of the container well and pour in the starch water. Place on low heat. When the mass reaches a temperature of 58°C, add the remaining malted milk and boil for another 5 minutes.

Preparation of alcoholic wort

To prepare the wort, place the mash in a water bath with a temperature of 65°C and leave for 4 hours. The readiness of the wort is checked by an iodine test - it should show the absence of unsugared starch. To determine the acidity of clarified wheat mash wort, use a strip of special indicator paper. Another indicator of normal acidity is a slightly sour taste. The wort must be cooled to 30°C, after which yeast and ammonium chloride (0.3 g per liter) are added to it. Stir and cool to 15°C.

Pour into a fermentation container and place in a dark room. The bottle is tied with cotton cloth, the contents are shaken every 6 hours.

Conventionally, fermentation can be divided into three phases: initial, main, and post-fermentation. The first stage is accompanied by the saturation of the mash with carbon dioxide and an increase in temperature by a couple of degrees. The stage lasts a little more than a day. The end is determined by the disappearance of the sweet taste. At the next stage, the battle revives: air bubbles and foam appear on the surface. The liquid temperature reaches 30°C. The mash becomes bitter and sour due to an increase in alcohol concentration and a decrease in sugar levels. Fermentation time is from 12 to 26 hours. During post-fermentation, the foam settles. The temperature of the mixture drops by 5-6°C, the taste does not change. At this stage, residual products of starch transformation - dextrins - are fermented.

If you follow the technological process, you will get mash of the highest quality. Its indicators: alcohol level - from 10%, acidity - up to 0.2%, residual sugar - no more than 0.4%.

To distill alcohol, homemade or purchased distillation apparatuses are used. Regardless of the model or manufacturer, their operating principle is the same. When heated, the alcohol from the mash transforms into a gaseous state. The alcohol moves through the pipes and enters the cooling chamber, where it condenses on the walls and flows into the receiver.

In the moonshine still, the mash is heated to a temperature of 82-93°C. To obtain raw material with a strength of 80 degrees, the distillation process is repeated several times. If only one distillation of moonshine has been carried out, then it is not necessary to neutralize the alcoholic undertone. To do this, use soda at the rate of 10 g per liter.

Repeated distillation is carried out under constant monitoring of the amount of alcohol in the receipt using an alcohol meter. When the concentration of secondary alcohol reaches 55-61°, it is poured out. The next fraction is drinking alcohol. It is distilled to a temperature of 98.4 °C. Repeat the distillation if the alcohol concentration in it is less than 30°.

Purification of drinking alcohol

Rectification allows you to obtain high-quality alcohol that does not contain harmful impurities and oils. The process consists of chemical purification with substances that neutralize impurities, separating them through repeated evaporation and condensation of vapors. The drink is divided into several fractions, and the alcohol concentration increases. The process is carried out in a distillation apparatus.

They begin with the first purification - saponification of fusel oils. If there is a lot of acid in alcohol, it must be neutralized with baking soda or alkali. Then prepare a solution of potassium permanganate: per liter of alcohol, 2 g of manganese dissolved in 50 ml of distilled water. Mix everything and leave for 20 minutes. After the allotted time, add a soda solution prepared at the same percentages and clarify for 10-12 hours.

As a result, the level of contamination of fusel oils is reduced by 95-97%.

The purified alcohol is filtered through a thick cloth. Start fractional distillation. It is carried out in a distillation cube with a drop catcher. Crude alcohol is diluted with soft water to a maximum strength of 51° and poured into a moonshine still. The temperature is quickly brought to 60°C, then the heating intensity is gradually reduced and brought to a boil (82-84°C). The resulting alcohol is purified with charcoal. Pour crushed linden or birch charcoal into a glass or ceramic container at the rate of 50 g per liter of drink. Alcohol is poured. Mix everything thoroughly and leave for 20-22 days. After the allotted time, the alcohol is filtered daily through cheesecloth for another 14 days.

Determining the quality of a drink

The color level of the alcohol is determined using a regular glass: the presence of a whitish tint indicates poor purification and the presence of fusel oils. If the mash boiled too actively, the drink will have a cloudy color. Fusel oils can be removed by additional purification and distillation. To check the smell and taste, a little alcohol is poured into a bottle and diluted with cold water (1 to 3). Stir and taste.

Strong alcohol at home is stored in a closed bottle in the refrigerator. The shelf life of alcohol is no more than 5 years. Based on it, various tinctures of berries, roots, herbs, fruits and flowers, jams, fruits and root vegetables are made. It is also used to prepare such noble drinks as cognac, whiskey, absinthe, liqueurs, and gin. Many medical tinctures for hypertension, colds, indigestion and other diseases are also made based on it.