Such a calculator is simply necessary to correctly calculate the volumes of mixing water and alcohol. The fact is that undiluted alcohol, the strength of which is 96%, is rarely used in everyday life. It is practically not suitable for drinking or for any other purposes, for example, preparing alcoholic beverages. Therefore, vodka is most often used at home.

But using vodka also presents its own difficulties. So, we know that during the preparation of tinctures, homemade cognac, etc. the alcohol base loses its strength. As a result, the final product is disappointingly low in alcohol content. While alcohol diluted to the required strength will give us an ideal 40-degree product.

Let's try to explain how to properly mix alcohol and water to achieve the desired strength. So..

With this calculator you can easily calculate how much water you need to add to moonshine to get the result you need.
Many people who brew moonshine at home are interested in the question of how to dilute moonshine. An undiluted drink can burn the mucous membrane, which in turn makes breathing difficult. It is customary to drink alcoholic drinks with water or dilute them. The strength of diluted moonshine immediately decreases. In order to calculate the correct ratio of proportions of water and alcohol, there is a special calculator.

In order not to spoil the drink and reduce the alcohol concentration, there are several methods of diluting it with water.

The Fertman table is the easiest way to calculate the required proportions. She clearly demonstrates how to reduce the strength of the drink to 15% vol. This option is suitable if you don’t have a calculator at hand.

Before diluting moonshine, you should measure the actual ethyl alcohol content. To do this, you can use a household alcohol meter. The resulting indicator must be found in the first horizontal column.

How it works in practice

Presumably, a person wants to dilute a drink with a strength of 60% vol.

• At the exit, he is going to get moonshine, the strength of which will be 40% vol.
• In order to understand how much water is required for this procedure, you need to find the cell of intersection of the desired row and column.
• In this case, the following results are obtained: 1 liter of a sixty-degree drink should be diluted with 514 ml of water in order to obtain a forty-degree moonshine.
• The result can also be checked with a home alcohol meter.

A drink with an initial strength, for example, 80% vol. to obtain thirty-degree moonshine, according to the table, you need to dilute 1709 ml of water.

Thus, a person brewing moonshine at home will be able to get the ideal mixture for his needs.

Special formula for diluting moonshine

Sometimes the table may not contain the necessary indicators. In this case, other methods of calculating proportions come to the rescue, for example, a special calculator or formula.

Today, there are various resources that offer, using a certain calculator, to calculate the required volume of water for diluting moonshine. Using such resources is very convenient and simple: in the appropriate field you need to enter the volume of the original alcohol, the strength of the drink before dilution and the desired degree of strength. Next, the user clicks on the “Calculate” button and automatic calculation occurs.

To calculate proportions using the formula, you will also need a mathematical calculator. This formula is as follows: X = 100NP/M - 100P.

According to this method, the letter N denotes the amount of drink before all manipulations are carried out, M is the amount of moonshine that will be obtained at the output, the letter P denotes the coefficient resulting from dividing the original solution by 100 ml, X is the amount of water spent for dilution. Using a calculator it will be easy to make all the required calculations.

For example, a person needs to dilute 200 ml of alcohol with a strength of 95% vol., as a result he wants to get a drink whose strength is 45% vol. In this example, the following calculations are obtained: 100*95*2/45-100*2 = 222 ml of water. This is exactly the amount of liquid required to obtain a drink with a strength of 45% vol.

Another modified version of this formula looks like this: M= (W1/W2)*V - V:

• M is the amount of water that will be required;
• W1 - initial strength of the drink;
• W2 - desired strength;
• V is the volume of moonshine in ml before the start of the procedure.

What water to dilute

People who brew moonshine at home are concerned about the question of how to dilute moonshine with water. In this matter, it is important to approach the choice of liquid used responsibly. It must meet certain requirements, because the quality and taste of the final drink, be it vodka or tincture, directly depends on this.

The following requirements apply to water:

• transparency;
• colorlessness;
• content of a minimum amount of salts;
• slight rigidity;
• temperature not higher than +20 °C;
• purity;
• It is strictly forbidden to use tap or distilled water.

Tap liquid will not work, even if you boil it. It will only significantly spoil the taste of the resulting drink. This moonshine will be cloudy and have a pungent odor of ethyl alcohol. This occurs as a result of the fact that such water has an increased level of hardness, and alcohol may contain a large amount of fusel oils, which precipitate and leave cloudy stains.

If moonshine is purified with charcoal or filtered, the color may change.

Desirable options

For dilution, spring or artesian water is best. If possible, it is better to conduct a chemical analysis before the procedure. This is necessary in order to determine the composition of the liquid. This analysis can be carried out in the SES. With an increased level of hardness, the water can be passed through a regular home filter.

The water can be bottled, but it is important to monitor the content of mineral salts. This information can be found on the label where the composition is stated. A product with a minimum amount of additives is best. If necessary, such water can also be softened using a home filter.

As a last resort, you can use tap liquid, but it should be carefully filtered. But the quality of the resulting moonshine will be significantly lower.

For taste, you can add citrus fruits, walnuts, various berries, pepper, cinnamon and honey to the diluted drink.

Quality control

You can measure the strength of moonshine with an alcohol meter, but, as practice shows, it gives absolutely accurate readings when analyzing only alcohol with water. On moonshine, the error is a few degrees, but this is not critical. But it won’t be possible to measure how “vigorous” the tincture or liqueur is. The device cannot determine this due to the large number of additional components that change the density of the liquid, including sugar.

Scientific approach

Even pure moonshine is tested with an alcohol meter in compliance with certain rules. The accuracy of the result will depend on this:

1. Alcohol must be brought to a temperature of 20 degrees.
2. The product should be poured into a tall transparent container. If it is in a jar that is almost full, you don't have to overfill it.
3. The alcohol meter is smoothly and carefully immersed in the moonshine and the level of its “freezing” is examined and on what part of the scale the liquid level is located.

To study homemade wine and tinctures, you will need another measuring instrument - a household vinometer or a refractometer. They allow you to determine how much alcohol and sugar a particular drink contains.

Light as a feather. Clean as a tear

Some craftsmen try to determine the strength of moonshine by eye. In a very real sense:

1. Absolutely transparent liquid – high degree.
2. Muddy - low.

In fact, this method only exists as an addition to other, more accurate ones. The water is also not cloudy, but...

It is much more reliable to weigh the moonshine. The method will not give exact indicators, but it will allow you to determine which side of 40°C the drink is located. To do this, you will need an electronic kitchen scale, containers and a measuring cup.

• The containers are placed on the platform and the scales are turned on; they will show zero on the display.
• Using a measuring cup, separate 1 liter of moonshine.
• Pour it into containers on the scales and study their readings.

Song of Ice

A liter of classic forty-proof vodka without impurities weighs exactly 953 grams. If the scales exceed this number, it means there is more water in the alcohol, and therefore its strength is less than the “reference” sample. If the numbers on the scales show less, then the moonshine has more alcohol and its strength is higher than 40°C.

You can freeze alcohol to determine its degrees. The drink will have such a strength at which minus indicators it will turn into ice. For vodka this is 40 degrees. Sometimes at home this turns out to be a difficult task.

Another popular method to find out the strength of moonshine is ignition. Many generations of home-made alcohol lovers have polished it to fairly accurate indicators with a small error. Any liquid containing more than 20% alcohol can ignite. But, depending on the strength, this happens somewhat differently.

And flames

Moonshine is poured into a tablespoon to the brim, set on fire and the combustion process itself and what is left after it are studied.

1. The liquid ignites, but the fire goes out immediately. Approximate strength is about 20 degrees. This indicator is typical for the “tail” fraction. It is always separated from the body. At your discretion, the tails are added to the mash to increase the alcohol content or discarded altogether.
2. Moonshine burns only when in contact with a match flame - 30 degrees.
3. The flame is red and goes out quickly. The spoon is filled half or more with water - approximately 40 degrees.
4. The fire is similar to the flame of a gas stove burner: the bulk is blue, but red tongues are visible. The remaining water is less than 1/3 of a spoon – 60 degrees or more.
5. The flame is blue without inclusions, burns confidently and evenly. The liquid burns out almost completely in the spoon - this is a characteristic of alcohol with an alcohol content of 80% or more.

Of course, all these methods are not suitable for accurately determining the degree of moonshine or calculations that assume minimal deviations from the specified parameters. They provide only an approximate idea of ​​how strong the product is and whether it needs to be diluted before use.

Breeding rules

Moonshine is bred in two cases:

• to prepare for use of a finished product (after the settling procedure);
• second distillation of moonshine to reduce the strength (this is necessary in order to obtain more purified and stronger moonshine).

For consumption, moonshine is diluted to 40 degrees.

Instructions for diluting moonshine:

Before the settling procedure, it is recommended to pour the moonshine into bottles, filling them to the brim. This must be done in order to prevent contact with air. Otherwise, unwanted chemical reactions may occur, leading to the formation of acetic acid. In this case, the taste of moonshine will be completely ruined.

Base for liqueurs

Often people who brew moonshine at home not only consume the resulting product in its original form, but also prepare various tinctures based on it. Similar drinks are made using:

• Spices (cinnamon, vanilla, mixture of peppers, chili)
• Roots (ginger, horseradish, garlic).
• Medicinal herbs (St. John's wort, oregano, wormwood, etc.)
• Berries (raspberries, cherries, currants, gooseberries, etc.).
• Fruits (lemons, oranges, plums, apricots, pears, etc.)
• Dried fruits (prunes, dates)
• Other (pine nuts, walnut membranes, oak bark).

Spicy and herbal tinctures are most often made bitter and quite strong. These additives do not favor excessive sweetness. They contain a small amount of juice. What exactly is juice? This is water containing sugar. That is why, when making fruit variants, it should be taken into account that the strength of the tincture will decrease. The base for it should be taken with a pre-inflated degree and pre-calculate what the output will be.

For a real, passionate producer of homemade spirits, a moonshiner's calculator can be a serious helper. Moreover, you can use either an online calculator or download it directly to your PC.

At the moment, the best calculator for moonshiners in the form of an application for Windows operating systems is the program created by Rudy, which is distributed free of charge. Download:

It is especially important to download this small program where there are interruptions in the quality of the Internet. Then you can contact her at any time and immediately learn about all the necessary operating parameters with, distillation, further.

This saves a lot of time, and not everyone can do the necessary calculations correctly. And for the calculator it is - instant operation.

In addition, you can download the moonshiner calculator for android, so that it is literally at hand, on your smartphone. Let's find out what exactly can be calculated using the electronic assistant.

If you need to dilute alcohol to the desired degree, most often add water to alcohol and measure it with an alcohol meter, determining when it is enough to add water. This method is inconvenient and even fraught with the following consequences:

• resulting drink may become cloudy, as if mash had been splashed into it (immediately, or after standing for a while). This is due to the fact that not everyone knows how to dilute alcohol with water to prevent this from happening;

The main rule is that You don’t need to pour water into alcohol, but rather, mix alcohol with water. Then the mixture will become cloudy only if low-quality water is used. And experienced moonshiners know that water needs to be taken only soft, filtered or at least boiled.

• and from this another problem arises: how to correctly calculate the required amount of water? You can’t pour a little water, then add alcohol, measure the temperature, and see that you made a mistake - the drink is too strong. Filling the water again into another container... Few people will like this kind of pouring game. What if there is too much water and there is no more alcohol? There is also special formula, but even knowing it, it is not always possible to make an accurate calculation.

To properly dilute alcohol, you just need to use a calculator for diluting alcohol with water and within a minute you will already know what the proportion of the required ingredients for dilution is.

Calculator for diluting alcohol with water

This is the simplest calculator for diluting alcohol with water, it will show the right amount of water. This immediately implies that your water is of the required quality and necessarily - soft. You are required to set three parameters:

1. Volume of alcohol in ml.
2. His initial strength.
3. Required strength of the final product.

you as a result get the optimal amount of water, which will be needed for breeding. This way, you will immediately know exactly how to dilute alcohol with water. It is enough to use a measuring cup to pour out the exact amount of water indicated by the calculator and add alcohol to it.

See for yourself - you will achieve the ideal result! The moonshine dilution calculator works in a similar way, because the available and desired strength of the product is still indicated.

Dilution formula to the desired degree

You can also use the usual formula for diluting moonshine or alcohol with water, i.e. calculate the same thing manually:

(A / B) * C - C= amount of water required for dilution.

A - alcohol strength, up to;

B - required strength, after;

C is the volume of the processed product.

As for how to dilute moonshine, there is not only a calculator, but also dilution table, which will tell you the proportions of alcohol dilution. Its only minor drawback is that you need a certain amount of a high-strength product, and online you can make a calculation even if, say, you have 120 ml of alcohol with a strength of 96%.

Moonshine dilution table

Making the right brew

Someone will say: why do you need to know how to dilute moonshine with water, because initially you can distill the product of the required strength. And he is very wrong!

In order to not only have a pleasant time with friends and have a heartfelt conversation, but also not to harm your health, you need to initially know how to cook properly, meeting safe organoleptic parameters.

It all starts with mash (read:), which must be prepared according to all the rules, including:

• premium raw materials;
• clean water without chlorine;
• maintaining proportions.

For moonshine brewing, proportions are extremely important, because if there is not enough water (yeast, sugar) in the mash, this will negatively affect the quality of the final product. In addition, it will reduce the yield of the finished product.
With the help of a calculator, the calculation of the amount of ingredients for sugar and glucose mash occurs instantly.

Distillation to water

Stillage is the liquid that remains in the still after distillation. It still contains a minimal amount of alcohol, which can be taken away instead of being left and then poured out.

Why do this? Moonshine distilled “as is” from mash, without cutting off the heads and tails, is an extremely harmful product that Absolutely no drinking. You can only consume secondary moonshine, that is, a product that is produced only by the second distillation (read:), in which the heads and tails are taken into a separate container and poured into the sewer.

The rules are as follows: the selection of heads is carried out in the amount of 10 - 12% of the total amount of moonshine received. Here it is better to “overdo it” a little than to be greedy and allow heavy impurities to penetrate into the final product.

The body is taken away until the moonshine flowing out of (not all of it already in the jar!) reaches a strength of 40°. Some select while it is burning, which almost corresponds to the required parameters.

It is impossible to correctly determine the strength of warm raw alcohol, which usually goes into the receiving tube of the device. They do it when it reaches 20°C, otherwise after cooling it will show other parameters. Knowing what temperature the moonshine is, use a calculator to correct alcoholometer readings at different temperatures.

Useful videos

Mobile calculator for diluting alcohol solutions, determining and correcting strength, as well as other functions in the application in the Play Market:

» Distillate dilution calculator

Calculator for diluting distillate (alcohol) with water

This calculator will help you determine the required amount of water to dilute your batch of distillate, moonshine or alcohol to the strength you need.

How the calculator works

To calculate the amount of water for diluting the distillate, a fairly simple formula is used:

M= (W1/W2)*V – V

M – required volume of water (in liters);
W1 – initial percentage of ethyl alcohol content in the distillate;
W2 is the desired percentage of ethyl alcohol in the distillate;
V – volume of distillate before dilution (in liters).

What kind of water is needed to dilute the distillate?

In order for the drinking quality of the diluted distillate to be at a high level, you only need very soft and clean water. Distilled or reverse osmosis purified water is ideal for these purposes. If it is impossible to get such water, then spring water or at least tap water, but boiled for 10 minutes, will do. and chilled water.

How to properly dilute alcohol with water

First, the required and measured amount of clean water is poured into the dilution container. Then alcohol is poured into the water in a thin stream, and the resulting solution must be mixed well.

Online moonshine calculators

• This calculator is an indispensable assistant for any moonshiner, which will determine the sugar content of your wort before fermentation, based on the amount of added sugar in the resulting volume of mash. The calculator will also calculate the need for water and the final alcohol in the finished mash, as well as the approximate distillate yield of 40% vol.

• This calculator will help you determine the required amount of water to dilute your batch of distillate, moonshine or alcohol to the strength you need.

• This calculator will determine the actual strength of the distillate, adjusted for the temperature of the sample

Homemade alcohol in moderation is cleaner and healthier than store-bought alcohol, and every adult knows this. But in order for the drink to turn out the way it should, you need to know the technology of fractional distillation. In this article, we will look in detail at how to correctly separate the “heads” and “tails” during moonshine brewing and obtain the desired quality at the output.

Proper division of moonshine into fractions allows you to obtain a high-quality drink without harmful by-products resulting from the fermentation process.

There are three main fractions of moonshine:

• "heads"
• "body"
• "tails"

Head faction

“Heads” (“pervach” or “pervak”) are a low-boiling fraction with a boiling point lower than that of ethyl alcohol, have a sharp and unpleasant odor, and are the first to evaporate during distillation; this allows them to be selected and prevented from getting into the main product.

The “heads” contain concentrations of methanol in moonshine that are dangerous to humans, acetone in moonshine, vinegar derivatives and much more, this is the answer to the question why moonshine smells like acetone. Therefore, separating the “heads” is one of the most important tasks.

Some naively believe that you can drink “heads” and even get drunk faster than from the main product. However, this is pure harm and misconception and is best sent down the drain.

So what to do with the selected moonshine heads? Can be used as ignition for fires, fireboxes, etc., just do not drink.

Moonshine body

“Body” (or “heart”) - the drinking part, it is for this that a rather long and capacious process is carried out from the preparation of the mash to the main distillation.

Contains water, alcohol and other impurities that give the drink its distinctive taste. During distillation, it is impossible to clearly and one hundred percent separate into fractions; all the same, some substances with a similar boiling point will end up in the selection. Rectification is suitable for precise separation into fractions; this is the only way to obtain pure ethyl alcohol, but along with impurities, the organoleptic properties of the drink are also removed.

Therefore, the taste and smell of a product made from different raw materials will be absolutely the same, because the drink will only contain ethyl alcohol.

It is also important to note the content of fusel oils in moonshine. It is completely impossible to get rid of them; their benefits are quite contradictory. But the difference between poison and medicine is in dosage, the same with alcohol. When taken in small quantities during the holidays, fusel oils can act on the liver, protecting it from the harsh effects of alcohol.

Tail fraction

“Tail” is the third fraction of moonshine that comes out last. Its usual sign is a cloudy color and a pungent odor. This part has a high content of fusel oils and isopropyl alcohol, therefore it is also not suitable for consumption.

The boiling point of fusel oils is much higher than that of ethyl alcohol; it is necessary to stop the selection in time and the tailings will not end up in the product.

What to do with moonshine tails? You can simply pour it out or distill it in a distillation column and get pure alcohol (since after distillation up to 40% ethyl alcohol remains), then dilute it to 40% strength with water and purify it with activated carbon, so you can get good vodka.

Calculation of the number of goals

In order to understand how many goals to select, you must first calculate their number; let's look at the basic methods for calculating the number of goals.

By amount of sugar

It is suitable if the initial sugar content of the mash is known, which can be measured with a vinometer (sugar meter) or the amount of sugar added to the mash is known. If 2 kg of sugar was used to prepare the mash, then the “head” will be 120-200 ml (60-100 ml for each kilogram of sugar).

Or if you have 10 liters of mash and you know that the initial sugar content of the mash was 20%, it turns out 10 * 0.2 = 2 kg of total sugar content, and we know that for each kilogram of sugar we select 60-100 ml of heads, it turns out that you need take 120-200 ml.

It is best to cut off the “heads” twice, half the calculated volume (based on the calculations above) during the first distillation and the second half during the second distillation.

By absolute alcohol

This is the simplest and most reliable way to determine the number of heads to be selected. Let's consider an example: if you get 10 liters of raw alcohol after the first distillation with a total strength of 40%, then it contains 4 liters of pure alcohol (calculated using the formula 10 * 0.4 = 4 liters). To simplify calculations, we take the alcohol strength as 100%, although such a strength can only be obtained in the laboratory. Heads need to be taken 8-15% of the absolute alcohol which we calculated above, we recommend taking 10%, it turns out that heads need to be taken 400 ml. (4*0.1= 0.4 l.).

By smell

The method is only for moonshine professionals. If the distillate stinks when you rub a few drops on your palm, it means they are going crazy. An unpleasant smell is the first signal that these are heads; as soon as it disappears, you can change the dishes and collect the body of the moonshine. This method should only be used to check the correctness of the calculations for the number of heads to be selected.

How to select moonshine heads

The designs of moonshine stills are different and the methods for separating the heads and tails of moonshine may differ slightly; in this example we will consider a classic column-type distiller with a reflux condenser (additional refrigerator).

1. Pour raw alcohol into the cube and heat at maximum power until it begins to boil; as soon as the temperature at the very top of the column begins to rise and approaches 78 degrees, you need to turn off the heat so that the temperature in the column is 60-64 degrees, let it work in this mode for minutes 10-15.
2. Start adding heating power so that the temperature at the top of the column is in the range of 64-77 degrees (methyl alcohol boils at a temperature of 64.7 degrees) and at the same time drops are taken into selection at a speed of 1 drop per second (neither faster nor slower) and select that the number of goals that you calculated using one of the methods above.
3. When you have finished collecting the heads and the drinking distillate begins to flow, change the receiving container, increase the heating power so that the distillate flows in a thin stream and collect the body until the tails begin to flow, see below how to determine when to pump the collection of the body and start collecting the tails.

How to separate the tails

The tails in moonshine go immediately after the body, and in order to understand when they will go, we need to know when the body ends. Let's look at the basic and most reliable methods.

1. By absolute alcohol. Same as when calculating goals in the example above. We determine the amount of absolute alcohol, for example we have 10 liters of raw alcohol with a strength of 40%. We calculate using the formula 10*0.4=4 liters. it turns out 4 liters of absolute alcohol, and we take 70% of this volume (4 * 0.7 = 2.8 liters) in the end we should have 2.8 liters of pure alcohol in the body. But since it is impossible to obtain pure alcohol during distillation, the output is usually 90-92% or, depending on the equipment used, it may be less.
   Then how do you understand how much needs to be taken given the strength that is going on? Everything is simple according to the formula T = A/(K/100), food T is the amount of body that must be collected at a given strength, A is the amount of body calculated by absolute alcohol, K is the total strength of the product obtained during distillation. As a result, we get 2.8/(92/100)=3.043 liters; in order to completely collect the body, we need to select 3.043 liters of distillate with a strength of 92%
2. By temperature in the cube. The tails begin to flow when the temperature in the cube reaches 92-95 degrees, when this temperature is reached, stop selecting the case and start selecting the tails

For more accurate and correct selection, combine these two methods and get the perfect drink.

Collect the tail fractions at maximum power in a separate container for further distillation of the tails on a rectification column; this is the only way to collect the remaining good alcohol; there is no point in re-distilling in a distiller, only rectification.

Remember, excessive drinking of alcohol in any form is harmful, but in moderation it is beneficial!