A simple question, but extremely confused by careless and thoughtless quotations on the Internet. Various forums and websites contain the most conflicting data on the theoretical yield of alcohol. It's time to put an end to it!

To start with the formula:

• С12Н22О11 – sucrose;
• C6H12O6 – formula common to glucose and fructose (they differ in molecular architecture);
• H2O – water;
• CO2 – carbon dioxide;
• C2H5OH – ethyl alcohol.

Now about what happens during the formation of alcohol. Often the formula for the formation of alcohol from sucrose is simplified as follows:

C12H22O11 + H20 = 4 C2H5OH + 4 CO2;

But in fact the process occurs in two stages:

Stage 1. Sucrose undergoes hydrolysis under the catalytic action produced by the yeast enzyme invertase. As a result, glucose and fructose are formed:

C12H22O11+H2O = C6H12O6+C6H12O6;

Stage 2. Under the influence of enzymes secreted by yeast, a reaction occurs with the appearance of alcohol:

C6H12O6 = 2∙C2H5OH + 2∙CO2.

Now about the alcohol output. To do this, we rewrite the equations in molar masses:

• 342 + 18 = 180 + 180 sucrose → glucose + fructose;
• 180 = 92 + 88 glucose → alcohol + carbon dioxide;
• 180 = 92 + 88 fructose → alcohol + carbon dioxide.

As we can see, 184 units of alcohol are formed in these reactions. This requires 342 units of sugar.

Alcohol yield: 184 / 342 = 0.538 kg/kg, or 0.538 / 0.7893 = 0.681 l/kg (0.7893 kg/l – alcohol density). If the raw material is glucose or fructose, the maximum theoretical yield of alcohol will be 184 / 360 = 0.511 kg/kg or 0.511 / 0.7893 = 0.647 l/kg glucose (fructose).

We're done with arithmetic too. Now the mistakes made on many forums are also clear. On some resources, glucose was confused with sucrose and received 0.647 g/l, on others, they got confused in the units of measurement and magically assigned kg/kg as liters per kilogram. Some went even further and arbitrarily assumed the density of alcohol to be 0.8 kg/l, resulting in even more interesting figures.

Competent moonshiners should remember that the theoretical yield of alcohol from 1 kg of sugar or maltose (the saccharification product of starch in grain) is 0.681 l/kg, and from 1 kg of glucose or fructose 0.647 l of alcohol is obtained.

Checking the readiness of the mash by weighing

The simplest practical conclusion from the above is that during fermentation, 508 grams of carbon dioxide are formed from 1 kilogram of sugar, which goes into the atmosphere.

So, they put the mash in a plastic bottle with 5 kg of sugar and weighed it, then, when the bubbles ran out, they weighed it again. For example, the container has become lighter by 2 kg, which means that 4 kg of sugar has already been consumed, 1 kg remains. Let the mash be good.

When 1 kg of sugar is fermented, the mash becomes lighter by about 0.5 kg

If the barrel is large, take a 5-liter bottle, fill it with mash from the barrel, weigh it and put it back into the barrel. This will give the same fermentation conditions. Naturally, a multiple amount of mash was poured into a 5-liter bottle. For example, there are 200 liters of mash in a barrel, then pour 4 liters into a 5 liter bottle - this will be 1/50th of it.

65 comments

What is the normal yield of moonshine from mash?

Hi all!

A couple of days ago I received a question by email: “how much moonshine comes out of 10 liters of mash?” And indeed, when I was just starting out, I myself often wondered what kind of moonshine yield from mash is the norm?

True, the formulation of the question is not entirely correct - it is necessary to count not by the volume of mash, but by the amount of raw materials consumed (a kilogram of sugar or starch).

In this article I will tell you everything in detail, so make yourself comfortable and start reading.

To begin with, I will give the standards that exist in industrial production. I won’t bore you - I’ll limit myself to a couple of phrases and a summary table. For those who want to see the chemical formulas of the process, I will provide a link below.

Then I will give the numbers that you need to strive for in home brewing and comment on them a little.

In the article I sometimes use the term “absolute alcohol (AS)” - as you might guess, this is 100% ethyl alcohol.

And so, let's go.

Alcohol yield from mash. Industry standards

As you know, alcohol is the result of the vital activity of yeast. They eat sugar and turn it into this valuable product for us. Sugar can be either in its pure form or obtained from sugar-containing (fruits, berries, honey, etc.) or starch-containing (cereals, potatoes, etc.) raw materials. The sugar and starch content of different foods naturally varies.

For those who are interested in reading about this in more detail and looking at the chemical equations of the process, I recommend turning to the book “Production of Alcohol Beverages” by A. Dorosh, V. Lysenko, starting on page 120. I will limit myself to a few excerpts from this book.

So, in theory, 0.537 kg of absolute alcohol should come out of 1 kg of sugar, and 0.568 kg from 1 kg of starch. Provided that 100% ethyl alcohol at a temperature of 20 oC weighs approximately 0.7893 kg, we obtain 0.682 liters of alcohol from sugar and 0.72 liters of alcohol from starch.

But this is under ideal conditions. In practice, the numbers are 10-28% lower, because... sugar is spent on the reproduction of yeast and the formation of aldehydes, fusel oils and other harmful impurities that we then fight against proper distillation and various cleaning methods. Alcohol is also lost (due to evaporation) during the fermentation process itself and during distillation.

In the distillery industry, there is a table describing how much sugar or starch is contained in a particular product and how much alcohol can be obtained from it. Here is the table.

As you can see, from 1 kg of sugar under good conditions you should get 1.5 liters of 40% vodka. But this is in industrial production. We moonshiners have different standards. More on this later.

Standards for home brewing

The standards for the yield of alcohol, or rather moonshine from mash, for home distillation are lower. This is not surprising and is explained by the imperfection of the technological process. And our equipment, with rare exceptions, is simpler.

I note that this volume should be obtained after the first distillation, before cutting off the “heads” and “tails”.

Now let me show you with a simple example how to determine whether you got a good result in the alcohol yield after distilling the mash.

Initial data:

There were 10 liters of mash containing 2 kg of sugar. 2.3 liters of 40% moonshine were distilled out of it. Good or bad result?

Calculation:

• 2.3 x 0.4 = 0.92 l – we get the absolute alcohol content in moonshine;
• 0.92/2 = 0.46 l – AC obtained from 1 kg of sugar
• 0.46*2 = 0.92 liters of moonshine with a strength of 50% was obtained for each kilogram. Comparing with the reference 1 liter, we can say that the result is satisfactory.

Why is there a small exit?

Sometimes it happens that the yield of alcohol from the mash is noticeably less than expected. There may be several main reasons for this:

1. The mash is not fermented and initially has a low alcohol concentration. Either it was sent to distillation early, or the yeast fell asleep because the temperature was too low. It may also have been too small hydraulic module and the yeast could not process all the raw materials.
2. There is too much fusel oil in the mash, so we had to cut off the “tails” very early. The reason for this may be too long and poor-quality fermentation. To avoid this, you need to feed the yeast and maintain a constant temperature (preferably in the range of 28-30 degrees). It is also advisable to precipitate mash in the cold.
3. During the distillation process, steam leaks occur due to unsealed equipment. In case of emergency, leaks can be sealed test without stopping the process. And in the future, think about purchasing quality equipment.

Well, it seems that I explained it clearly? If you have any questions, feel free to write them to me by email, or better yet, ask them below in the comments. It is also interesting to know how much moonshine you can distill per unit of product.

And I'm finishing.

Bye everyone. Dorofeev Pavel.

The basis for the production of alcohol-containing drinks or food alcohol is the fermentation process - the conversion of sugar in a water solution (wort) by yeast into alcohol. The technology for preparing this primary product - mash (wine) can be written as follows:

raw materials + water => processing => wort (mash)

wort + yeast => fermentation => mash (wine)

The simplest raw material is sugar or sugar-containing products (fruits, berries, etc.). In this case, the wort is prepared either by diluting sugar in water, or by grinding fruit raw materials, or by squeezing juice from it.

Less often, starch-containing raw materials (grain, potatoes, etc.) are used at home. Then the process of saccharification of raw material starch under the influence of enzymes is introduced into the wort production technology.

If we carry out theoretical calculations of the chemical transformations of starch into sugar, and sugar into alcohol, we obtain the following results:

(C6H10O5)n+n·H2O+ENZYME=n·C6H12O6 1 kg of starch => 1.11 kg of sugar;

C6H12O6+yeast=2∙C2H5OH+2∙CO2 1 kg sugar => 0.511 kg (or 0.64 l) alcohol.

Alcohol yield from various products

Now, knowing the sugar or starch content in any raw material, you can easily calculate the theoretical yield of alcohol from it. For example, if wheat contains 60% starch, then from 1 kg of this grain you can get:

1 kg of wheat => 0.6 kg of starch. => 0.6x1.11=0.67kg sac. => 0.67x0.64=0.426l alcohol

The results of such calculations for average values ​​of sugar content and starch content (from reference data) for some main products are shown in the table.

Theoretical yield of alcohol from various types of raw materials

Starchy		Sugar-containing
Raw materials	Alcohol, ml/kg	Raw materials	Alcohol, ml/kg
Starch	710	Sugar	640
Sago	600	Molasses 50%	320
Rice	530	Grape	115
Corn	450	Gooseberry	110
Wheat	430	Beetroot 16%	102
Beans	390	Raspberries	100
Millet	380	Apples	65
Rye	360	Strawberry	58
Barley	350	Cherry	57
Oats	280	Plum	55
Peas	240	Currant h.	54
Potatoes 20%	140	Birch juice	25

The table shows theoretical data without taking into account alcohol losses. At home, alcohol losses can reach 15% and depend on the accuracy of technological discipline at all stages of alcohol production.

Optimal sugar concentration

Alcohol is a powerful sterilizer, so there is a maximum concentration of alcohol above which ordinary yeast fungi die. This concentration is close to 13% by volume (for sugar in the original wort - 13% / 0.64 = 20.3%). It is because of this that we never see dry wines with an alcohol concentration above this threshold (unless they are fortified table wines).

Yeast last 3% vol. (from 10% to 13%) before their “death” are especially difficult and the fermentation process slows down greatly. In industrial distilleries, where time is an element of profitability, the yeast mash is prepared with a sugar concentration of 14% sugar - significantly below the limit. As a result of this, the duration of fermentation does not exceed 72 hours, and the alcohol concentration in the mash never rises above 9% vol.

When the sugar concentration is above 20% wt. “low quality” of sugar occurs, which reduces the yield of alcohol, and at sugar concentrations of less than 10%, fermentation can turn into acetic fermentation - an almost complete loss of alcohol will occur.

Making alcohol. Moonshine

Moonshine, a product of the distillation of weak alcohol-containing liquids, became widespread in Russia back in the 15th - 16th centuries. Over the centuries, a huge variety of recipes have appeared, and the taste of the moonshine has been improved.

However, all this great variety of folk recipes comes down to a triune combination: yeast, sugar and water. After fermentation, this mixture, called mash or mash, is distilled through a special apparatus and turns into a product widely known from books, films, and even from one’s own practice, the smell of which “turns one’s nose up.” But you can get almost odorless moonshine, and it will successfully replace store-bought vodka, and even more so low-quality and life-threatening drinks of unknown origin. And you can make it from berries and fruits that grow in abundance in your garden plot.

So where to start?

The main thing is to get sugar.

Sugar is found in many fruits and berries. Its solution (squeezed juice) with a small amount of yeast, fermented, gives an alcohol-containing liquid, which must be distilled to release the alcohol.

However, if alcohol could be produced only from ready-made sugar, then such production would become quite expensive: due to the shortage of sugar-containing raw materials. The solution is to use substances that, when processed in a certain way, can break down to form sugar. These substances include plant starch, which can be decomposed into sugar by enzymes, in particular with the help of the diastase enzyme contained in malt.

Starch is converted into sugar especially easily and completely if it is pre-boiled in water under pressure and the paste is converted, and if a certain temperature is maintained during the action of diastase on this paste. This operation of processing boiled starch paste with malt (with the addition of water to liquefy the mass) at a fairly high temperature is called boiling with wort, and the resulting liquid is called wort. This wort is further fermented by introducing yeast into it.

Making mash from grain is more difficult. The starch contained in the grain must first be converted into sugar, which is done with the help of malt. The malt itself is obtained from sprouted grains - barley is best, but rye or millet can also be used.

When making mash from fruit and berry products, you should first rinse the raw materials well and remove spoiled specimens. Then the raw materials are crushed (using a meat grinder, masher, etc.) until a homogeneous mass is obtained, called pulp.

To separate the juice, the pulp is poured into a container (a glass bottle with a wide neck, a wooden barrel, an enamel pan). Pulp that is too thick must be diluted with water. The pulp from sour fruits or berries should also be diluted with water.

Yeast is added to the prepared pulp, the dish is covered with a clean linen cloth and placed in a warm place for fermentation. The temperature should be between +20 -22 degrees. C, if it is lower, then the pulp is heated.

2-3 days after the start of fermentation, the pulp is squeezed through gauze and separated from the marc. Sugar syrup (ratio of sugar and water 1:1) is added to the squeezed juice (wort) at a temperature not higher than +25 degrees. C and set to ferment again at a temperature of +18 - 22 degrees. WITH.

In any case, when making mash, as a result of fermentation and distillation, an alcohol-containing drink called moonshine is obtained.

Thus, the first place in popularity of use is regular sugar. There are many recipes for making mash using sugar, both in pure form and in the form of jam, sweets, etc.

The second most important is starch and various starch-containing products (wheat, rye, peas, barley, potatoes, etc.). In this case, in the process of making mash, it is necessary to saccharify starch using malt.

Cultivated and wild fruits and berries can also be used as raw materials.

The alcohol yield from 1 kg of some types of raw materials used is given in Table 9. It can be seen that the maximum alcohol yield is obtained when using grain raw materials.

9. Approximate yield of alcohol and vodka (l) from 1 kg of raw materials used

Raw materials	Exit
	alcohol	vodka (40% alcohol solution)
Starch	0,72	1,52
Rice	0,59	1,25
Sugar	0,51	1,10
Buckwheat	0,47	1,00
Wheat	0,43	0,92
Oats	0,36	0,90
Rye	0,41	0,88
Millet	0,41	0,88
Peas	0,40	0,86
Barley	0,34	0,72
Potato	0,11-0,18	0,35
Grape	0,09-0,14	0,25
Sugar beet	0,08-0,12	0,21
Pears	0,07	0,16
Apples	0,06	0,14
Cherry	0,05	0,12
Acorns	0,25	0,56
Chestnuts	0,26	0,57

All alcohol-containing drinks are so called because of the presence of ethyl alcohol in them, otherwise called alcohol. Alcohol is a waste product of yeast fungi, which convert sugar or fruit glucose into it.

To obtain ethyl alcohol from starch-containing raw materials at home, you need malt, malted milk, yeast, raw materials for the main mash, fermentation of the mash, distillation of the finished mash, purification of the moonshine, checking its quality.

Getting malt

Malt is a grain that has stopped growing at the very beginning of germination. Almost exclusively barley grain is used to make malt.

If you cut the grain in half, you can see that the embryo is located next to a large supply of nutritional materials prepared by the mother plant: these are starch and nitrogen-containing substances. The embryo is separated from this material by a scutellum, the outer layer of which consists of so-called absorptive cells capable of transferring nutrients to the embryo. However, all of these materials are in solid and water-insoluble form. The embryo can only perceive nutrition in the form of a solution, so for its germination it is necessary, firstly, to have a solvent, and secondly, for nutrients (starch and proteins) to be transferred into solution. In this case, water always acts as a solvent, which must be given to the grain so that it is saturated with it. Enzymes act as agents that transform the insoluble nutrients present in the grain into a solution state. These complex organic substances accelerate chemical processes in plants millions of times and play a vital role in metabolism. Among the enzymes that develop in grains is the enzyme diastase, which converts starch first into maltose (an intermediate product of starch breakdown) and then into glucose.

In order to force the grain to produce the required enzyme, it is placed in conditions under which it will begin to germinate - at the same time, it produces a significant amount of diastase for the purposes of its own nutrition. Once the grain has begun to sprout, it is dried to stop its growth.

Thus, the essence of making malt comes down to forcing the grain to produce the enzyme necessary for moonshine brewing, and this happens at the very early stage of germination. To start the process, two factors are needed: water and the appropriate temperature.

The barley grains are first thoroughly washed and then soaked so that they can absorb water. Washing and soaking are carried out in wide dishes with low sides. The dishes are washed clean and filled with water to half the volume. The grain is not poured in immediately, but in small portions, stirring constantly. After 2-3 hours, any debris, damaged or weak grains that float to the top are removed with a colander and thrown away.

Then part of the water is drained, leaving enough of it so that it covers the grain with a layer of no more than 2.5 - 3 cm. Leave for 1-2 hours and remove the debris that floats to the top again. Soaking is carried out until all the grains swell, which happens after about 3-5 days. The water is changed daily.

Signs that it is time to stop soaking: the husk is easily separated from the pulp; the grains bend between the nails and do not break; at the end of the grain to which the sprout is adjacent, the skin is cracked; With crushed grain you can draw a chalk-like line on a wooden board.

After soaking, the grains are germinated in a well-ventilated area. They are scattered on the floor in an even layer no more than 15 cm thick, and after 5-8 hours they are turned over. As soon as root shoots appear, the layer is reduced to 10 cm, and when the grain temperature reaches +18 - 20 degrees. C, they begin to stir it constantly, sprinkling it with water to avoid premature drying of the malt.

Grain germination must be stopped when: root sprouts have reached 1.5 grain lengths; the sprout of the grain itself has reached 1/2 - 1/3 of the grain; the roots are so intertwined with each other that if you take one grain, then 4-8 more grains will follow it; The grains have completely lost their floury taste."

Grain germination begins with the development of the root; first one appears, then a whole bunch of them is formed. The germinal leaf, directing its growth in the opposite direction, goes under the scales for some time until it reaches the top of the grain, where it first inflates the scales, and then breaks through it and comes out. This occurs approximately 10 days after malting begins. The amount of diastase in the grain continues to increase with further growth.

When the grains have sprouted to the required size, they are dried or their temperature is lowered using a strong flow of air.

The grain is harvested when it acquires a special smell characteristic of malt and when the sprouts are easily separated from friction in the hands.

If green malt is required, then malting continues for 12-14 days, until the sprout becomes 2-3 times longer than the grain.

For every 100 parts by weight of barley, 140 - 150 parts of green malt or 80 parts of dried malt are obtained.

Malt is considered good when it is: full and so light that, thrown into water, it does not sink to the bottom; crunches when bitten; sweet in taste and white inside; easily separated from sprouts; has a pleasant smell.

Store malt in a dry place. Grind at home using a coffee grinder or mortar.

Before using dry malt or a mixture of malts, malt "milk" is prepared. To do this, the malt is soaked for 10 minutes in water at a temperature of +60 -65 degrees. C and mix thoroughly with a mixer until a homogeneous white liquid is obtained. Ready-made malt “milk” is added to starters made from grains.

Malt "milk" - a solution of malt with water - allows you to obtain a solution with enzymes capable of saccharifying starch. In malt “milk,” the main enzyme, diastase, is removed from the malt into solution, which is why it acquires a huge surface area for interaction with the starch of the wort.

Starch saccharification

The best malt "milk" is prepared from barley, rye and millet malts, taken in a 2:1:1 ratio. When making malted milk, the malt is thoroughly washed with hot water (temperature +65 degrees C) at least three times. The mixture of components is placed in a bowl with water, kept for 7-10 minutes and then the water is changed. For 1 kg of starch-containing raw materials, 65 - 80 g of malt and 0.45 - 0.5 liters of water are required.

To ensure saccharification of starch, malted milk and a mixture of starch-containing raw materials and water (called mash) are heated to a temperature of +55 -65 degrees. C and stand for a certain time. The duration of starch saccharification largely depends on the starting material. If pure starch is used, then saccharification lasts 7-8 hours, but if potato mash is saccharified, then 1-2 hours. It is important that the temperature regime is strictly maintained.

Mixing malt milk and starch mass is carried out in a mash tun (a saucepan with a capacity of at least 10 liters). 0.5 liters of malted milk and cold water are poured into the bowl, everything is vigorously stirred and the boiled starch mass is slowly added.

The solution is heated, making sure that the temperature does not exceed +60 degrees. C. If the temperature rises higher, the mash tun should be cooled by washing its surface with cold water. The mixture must be constantly stirred. When it becomes homogeneous, pour the remaining malted milk into the vat and mix thoroughly again.

During mashing, malted milk is mixed with steamed or boiled starch mass and saccharifies the starch. The resulting liquid is filtered and the wort is tested. After this, yeast is added to the wort and left to ferment.

The consumption rates of malt and water for saccharification of 1 kg of starch raw materials are given in Table 10.

10. Consumption rates of malt and water for saccharification of 1 kg of starch raw materials

Type of raw material	Norm of mixed sutege malt, g	Amount of water, l	Volume of malt milk, l
Potatoes with 15% starch content	40-50 ;	0,25
Potatoes with 20% starch content	50-60
Wheat flour	90-120
Rye flour	80-100
Oat flour (oatmeal)	80-100
Pea flour	80-100		0,4 ^

After the saccharification time has expired, the concentration of sugars in the wort is measured and the presence of unsaccharified starch is checked using an iodine test.

To carry out an iodine test, approximately 10 ml of wort is taken from the upper clarified layer. The sample is filtered, poured into a saucer and 2-3 drops of an aqueous solution of iodine are added. If the sample does not change color (it remains brown-yellow), then it is considered that saccharification has occurred completely. If the sample has acquired a red tint, it means that the saccharification process has not ended and must be continued. If the sample turns purple, it means that saccharification is not going well and you need to add malted milk.

An iodine solution is prepared from 0.5 g of iodine crystals, 1 g of potassium iodide and 125 ml of water, mixing everything thoroughly. Store the solution in a dark place.

Saccharification is carried out until the iodine test shows the complete absence of unsaccharified starch in the mash. If the malt is old or the technology is broken, the saccharification process can take up to 20 hours, instead of the usual 3-4.

If the house has a wood-burning stove, then it is better to put the mash in it overnight, cooling it under the stove to +60 degrees. WITH.

After saccharification, the sugar concentration in the wort should be about 16 - 18% (1.06 - 1.0"7 g/cm3).

The sugar concentration is determined as follows. Drain off the clarified layer of wort, filter through linen cloth and pour 200 ml into a measuring glass. A saccharometer is lowered into a glass. A wort with a sugar concentration of at least 16% and a sweetish taste is considered high-quality.

Acidity can be determined using indicator paper placed in a measuring glass: the degree of change in its color will indicate the acidity of the wort. Acidity is determined less accurately by taste: with normal acidity, the wort has a slightly sour taste.

Wort fermentation

When control measurements are made, the wort is cooled to +30 degrees. C, add ammonium chloride at the rate of 0.3 g per 1 liter of wort and yeast mash. Stir everything and continue cooling to a temperature of +15 degrees. C. At this temperature, the wort is poured into a fermentation tank (a container of appropriate volume) and placed in a dark place for fermentation. The fermentation tank is covered with a linen cloth and stirred periodically, after 5 - 6 hours.

Fermentation has three stages: initial fermentation, main fermentation and post-fermentation.

During the initial fermentation, the mash is saturated with carbon dioxide, its temperature rises by 2 - 3 degrees. WITH.

The sweetness gradually disappears. The initial stage can last up to 30 hours. During the main fermentation, the surface of the mash becomes covered with bubbles and a lot of foam is formed. The temperature rises to +30 degrees. C, the alcohol concentration increases rapidly, the taste becomes sour. By the end of the main fermentation, the concentration of sugars in the mash decreases to 1.5 - 3%. The duration of this process is 15 - 24 hours.

At the post-fermentation stage, the foam settles, the temperature of the mash drops to +25 - 26 degrees. C, the taste becomes bitter-sour, the concentration of sugars decreases to 1%, and the acidity increases. The main purpose of this stage is the fermentation of starch transformation products (dextrins), therefore it is necessary to keep diastase in an active state in the mash. To do this, the temperature regime during the saccharification process must be strictly maintained. So, potato mash ferments for 15-25 hours, beet mash - 90-120 hours.

At the end of fermentation, the quality of the mash is checked.

The readiness of mature mash is determined by the following indicators: alcohol content, residual sugar concentration (low-grade) and acidity.

To determine the alcohol content, you need to take 100 ml of mash filtrate and add 100 ml of water to it. Then distill half the volume of the mixture, measure the density (strength) of the solution with an alcohol meter at a temperature of +20 degrees. C and determine the alcohol content.

To establish the residual concentration of Sugars (unkindness), you need to take 200 ml of mash, filter through several layers of linen cloth into a measuring glass and lower the saccharometer into it. The device readings should be no higher than 1.002, which corresponds to a sugar concentration of approximately 1%, and the sweetness of the mash cannot be tasted.

The following is considered good mash: alcohol content of at least 10%, concentration of residual sugar (poor quality) - no more than 0.45%, acidity - no more than 0.2%.

Alcohol distillation

After fermentation is completely over and the mash has turned into mash, the stage of separating the resulting alcohol from the rest of the substances that make up the mash begins. The process of separating alcohol from mash is called distillation or distillation (from the Latin word stilla - drop).

The distillation process is based on the fact that the boiling point of alcohol differs from the boiling point of water and fusel oils. Pure (absolute) alcohol boils at a temperature of +78.3 degrees. C at an atmospheric pressure of 760 mmHg. At the same pressure, water boils at +100 degrees. C. The essence of distillation is that the mash is heated to the boiling point, and the resulting steam is cooled, and the steam collects in the refrigerator in the form of drops, merging into a stream when sufficiently accumulated. This liquid, collected by cooling the steam, is called distillate.

If there is a mixture of alcohol and water boiling in their pure form at different temperatures, then the boiling point of this mixture will be somewhere between the boiling points of water (+100 degrees C) and alcohol (+78.3 degrees C). And the more alcohol in the mixture, the lower the boiling point of the mixture. When the mixture boils, the alcohol will evaporate much faster than water. The more alcohol evaporates from the mixture, the less of it remains in the water and the higher the boiling point of the mixture rises.

For example, from 100 volume parts of mash containing 14 volume percent alcohol, you need to distill 35 volume parts of liquid to remove all the alcohol from there, while the distillate will contain 38.8 degrees. alcohol, which corresponds to 32.3 weight percent. To obtain alcohol of 88 degrees, the resulting distillate must be distilled 5 more times. This repeated distillation of alcohol is called rectification. By distilling 100% volume parts of a mash containing 10 volume percent alcohol, you can distill all the alcohol with the first 40 volume parts, and the alcohol strength in the distillate will be 25 degrees. These 40 parts of distillate give: during the 2nd distillation, 20 parts alcohol strength 50°, with the 3rd distillation 14 parts of alcohol with a strength of 71°, with the 4th distillation 12.5 parts of alcohol with a strength of 80°. In the end, you can reach a strength of 96 - 97°, but not higher, because the last 3 - 4% of water is retained by alcohol very strongly and cannot be removed by distillation.

Distillation of alcohol is a complex process and requires strict adherence to temperature conditions at all stages.

To obtain high-quality moonshine, heating the mash must be carried out in stages. To justify the choice of temperature regime, you can use a graphical representation of the distillation process (Fig. 7), where the curve is somewhat idealized, since in real conditions strict adherence to the temperature regime is fraught with great difficulties and is often impossible. In order to avoid mistakes often made by moonshiners who do not have sufficient experience, it is necessary to pay attention to the main points of the distillation process: the first critical point (1) corresponds to the boiling point of light impurities contained in the mash (+65 - 68 ° C); the second critical point (2) corresponds to the boiling point of ethyl alcohol (+78°C), and at a mixture temperature above +85°C (point 3), intensive release of heavy fractions - fusel oils - begins. The mode of heating the mash to critical point 1 is practically unlimited, and the higher the heating rate, the more efficient the operation of the moonshine still. When the temperature reaches +65 - 68 degrees. The intense release of light impurities begins. Therefore, moonshine, popularly called “pervach”, is obtained by heating the mash from +65 to +78 degrees. C, is the most poisonous and unsuitable even for external use as lotions and other alcohol-saturated infusions.

The beginning of the process of intense evaporation (point 1) is easily determined if there is a thermometer in the evaporator chamber. If it is not there, the temperature corresponding to critical point 1 can be determined visually without much difficulty: moisture begins to condense on the walls of the refrigerator - “fogging”, the first drops appear on the outlet neck of the refrigerator and the walls of the receiving flask, and a slight alcohol smell appears. The moment of transition of the process from point 1 to point 2 is the most critical, since it requires a sharp decrease in the heating rate in a relatively small temperature range - otherwise the mash may be released. Critical point 2 corresponds to the beginning of the main process of moonshine distillation. It should be borne in mind that during distillation the concentration of alcohol in the mixture will constantly decrease. This will cause an involuntary increase in the boiling point of the mash, which will worsen the distillation conditions.

The ideal conditions for obtaining a high-quality product is maintaining a temperature regime in the range of +78 - 83 degrees. C during the main distillation time. Critical point 3 corresponds to the minimum amount of alcohol content in the mash. To extract these residues, it is necessary to increase the temperature of the mash, which, in turn, will cause intense release of fusel oil fractions and a deterioration in the taste and quality of the distillate. The temperature at which the intensive release of fusel oils begins (point 3) corresponds to +85 degrees. WITH.

The distillation process should be stopped when the mash temperature exceeds +85 degrees. C. If there is no thermometer in the distillation apparatus, then this stage can be determined using a piece of paper soaked in the distillate currently obtained. If the piece of paper flashes blue, then the distillation can be continued; the cessation of burning indicates that the concentration of ethyl alcohol is low, and fusel oils predominate in the distillate. In this case, distillation should be stopped or the resulting product should be collected in a separate container and processed with the next portion of mash.

The presence of fusel oils in moonshine or vodka can be determined as follows. An equal amount of sulfuric acid is added to the sample from the liquid being tested (electrolyte for car batteries can be used). If the mixture turns black, it means there is fusel oil in the moonshine or vodka.

Equipment and containers

Thermometers used to control temperature must be liquid with a scale of up to +120 degrees. C. The quality of the final product depends on the accuracy of determining and maintaining the temperature during distillation, therefore it is necessary to use thermometers with a scale division of 0.5 degrees.

The hydrometer is used to determine the absolute alcohol content in alcohol-containing liquids. This is a glass float with a ball at the bottom where the weight is placed. At the top there is a graduated scale to determine the relative weight of the liquid.

For measurements at home, you will need a hydrometer with a measurement range of 0.82 to 1.00 g/cm3.

The measurement is carried out like this. The liquid is poured into a glass vessel, a hydrometer is lowered into it; when it becomes motionless, read from the scale the value that it shows.

Filters are used to purify alcohol-containing liquids from impurities. In addition to homemade filters, you can also use household filters designed to purify tap water.

Connecting elements and seals. When using any design of a moonshine still, it becomes necessary to use various tubes, hoses, plugs, etc. It should be remembered that fermentation and distillation products are chemically active substances, therefore, whenever possible, stainless steel, glass or special materials should be used to connect individual components of the apparatus chemical resistant rubber.

Putties can be used to seal connecting nodes and parts.

Putty made from water and flour. Fry the flour, dilute it with water until it becomes mushy and cover the cracks with it.

Yellow wax putty very fusible, but this drawback can be avoided if 1 part by weight of coniferous resin is added to 3 parts of wax. This putty is especially suitable for glass parts of distillation apparatuses.

Grease puttyprepared from dry clay and boiling linseed oil. The putty easily adheres to glass and metal, but only if the surfaces are dry.

English putty consists of 2 parts of finely ground lead oxide (lightweight), 1 part of river sand crushed into powder and 1 part of fine lime powder. All components are thoroughly mixed and mixed with linseed oil until sour cream thickens.

Alcohol distillation devices

To distill alcohol, there are many designs of distillation apparatus based on the same principle.

The essence of the process is as follows. The alcohol contained in the mash transforms into a gaseous state under the influence of temperature. Its boiling point is much lower than the boiling point of water. Entering the cooling chamber (refrigerator) through the pipes, the alcohol condenses and flows as a liquid into the alcohol receiver. This is the principle. The difference lies in the design of units and parts of the devices (plate or coil type of refrigerator), as well as in a number of special devices designed to increase the concentration of alcohol in vapor and purify it from harmful impurities and odors.

The simplest distillation apparatus (Fig. 8 a) consists of a pan of the required size, which is half filled with mash. A stand is placed at the bottom of the pan, which can be made from a used tin can (the stand should be higher than the level of the mash). Numerous holes must be punched in the jar so that it does not vibrate under the influence of steam. A plate with a diameter 5 - 10 mm smaller than the inner diameter of the pan is placed on the stand. Place a bowl of cold water on the pan.

However, using such a device it is impossible, or almost impossible, to obtain high-quality alcohol. It comes out cloudy, and some of the alcohol simply evaporates into the air.

Another version of a similar apparatus is shown in Fig. 8 b, c. When the mash is heated, alcohol-containing steam rises until it comes into contact with the cold bottom of basin 2, where it condenses, turning into moonshine, and flows into collection 3.

Evaporator 4 is sealed with basin 1 using dough or other putties, the recipes for which are given above.

These device designs are simple due to the use of ready-made elements and are convenient for use in any conditions. Their main drawback is that it is necessary to periodically remove the basin with coolant in order to remove moonshine from the collection (this does not apply to the diagram shown in Fig. 8, c.)

If you apply skill and use metalworking skills, you can make the device shown in Fig. 9. The prototype for it was the previous schemes. The essence of the improvement is to install an additional funnel 2 and an outlet tube with a tap 4. Due to this, it becomes possible to move the collection 5 outside the evaporator. The funnel is placed on a wire basket or tripod installed at the bottom of the evaporator 3. The joint between the refrigerator 1 and the evaporator is sealed with dough, as a result of which a possible explosion is prevented when excess pressure is formed. At the same time, the dough does not allow alcohol-bearing vapors to evaporate, and the smell of fusel will not linger in the room.

Rice. 8. Schemes of the simplest distillation apparatus:

a - with a floating collection of moonshine; b - with collections installed on a stand (1 - basin, 2 - cold water, 3 - collection, 4 - evaporator, 5 - mash, 6 - heat source, 7 - stand, 8 - tube); c-with distillate discharge to the outside.

Rice. 9. Schemes of isothermal distillation apparatus:

a - with a receiving funnel on a tripod;

b- with a funnel attached to the refrigerator (1 - refrigerator, 2 - funnel, 3 - evaporator, 4 - tap, 5 - moonshine collection, 6 - tripod, 7 - funnel fastening).

Rice. 10, Diagram of a distillation apparatus made from improvised means;

/ - heat source; 2 - stand; 3 t-vessel with water 4 - jar with a volume of 10 l; 5-thermometer; 6- connecting tube; 7 - water supply tap; 8-can with a volume of 3 l; 9 - outlet tube; 10 -sink with drain.

When using this apparatus, it is necessary to carry out some research related to the volume of the evaporator 3 and the amount of mash poured into it. To guarantee the quality of the final product, you should periodically, using tap 4, drain the moonshine into collection 5. To determine the regularity of draining the finished product, experiments are necessary on devices of this design.

From scrap materials, you can quickly build a simple distillation device (Fig. 10). It consists of glass jars with a capacity of 10 and 3 liters. The large jar is used to heat the mash, and the smaller one is used as a refrigerator.

A large jar is filled 1/2 full with mash and placed in a water bath (take a basin or wide low pan with water and place it on an electric or gas stove). The jar is closed with a stopper with holes for the thermometer 5 and tube 6. The small jar is also closed with a stopper with two holes - for the connecting tube 6 and the outlet tube 9 - and is turned over. The end of tube 6, which goes into a small jar, should reach almost to its bottom; along it, alcohol-containing vapors enter the refrigerator, condense on the walls of the jar and flow down. For greater efficiency, the refrigerator jar is placed under running cold water. Tube 9 serves to equalize the pressure inside the refrigerator. Some of the vapor that did not have time to condense will escape through this tube to the outside. They can be caught if you place a water seal at the end of the tube: the alcohol will dissolve in. water. This liquid can be distilled with the next portion of mash.

To distill small quantities of mash, you can make a very convenient apparatus from a pressure cooker (Fig. 11). The valves are removed from the lid 1 of the pan, and in their place plugs are installed for the thermometer 2 and tube 3, which is connected to the refrigerator 4, which has forced water cooling. The movement of the cooling water flow is shown in the figure by arrows. The device works more efficiently the colder the water flowing through the refrigerator. The refrigerator itself is connected to the receiving flask 6 by a glass tube 5 with an elongated narrow end. This end should reach almost to the bottom of the flask.

Rice. 11. Diagram of a distillation apparatus based on a pressure cooker:

1 - lid; 2 - thermometer; 3 - connecting tube; 4 - refrigerator; 5 - drain tube; 6 - collection of moonshine; 7 - cold water bath.

Pour mash into the pressure cooker in an amount of 2/3 of the volume of the pan, close the lid tightly and place on a gas or electric stove. Then connect the inlet pipe of the refrigerator to the water tap, and lower the outlet pipe into the sink. Open the tap and ensure a constant flow of water. After bringing the mash to +65 - 70 degrees. Reduce heat slightly. The beginning of the boiling of alcohol is determined by the appearance of drops of distillate and a characteristic odor.

This distillation apparatus is particularly compact, practical and easy to maintain. After some experience and acquisition of skills in working with the device, you can obtain a product of fairly high quality. The disadvantages of the device are low productivity and small volume of the evaporator, which requires frequent refilling of the mash.

The distillation apparatus shown in Fig. 12 differs from other designs in its compactness and availability of individual elements. However, it has low performance.

The design of the device allows you to distill mash and flavored solutions in small volumes (from 0.5 to 7 l).

Rice. 12. Diagram of a compact distillation apparatus:

./ - tripod; 2 - asbestos mesh; 3.9 - flasks; 4 - thermometer;

5.8 - connecting tubes; 6 - refrigerator; 7 - water outlets;

10 - cold water bath.

A flask 3 is installed on an asbestos mesh 2, fixed in a stand 1, closed with a stopper with a hole for a thermometer 4. The hole in the side plug serves for a tube 5 connecting the flask to a refrigerator 6, which has outlets 7 for connecting cold water and a connecting tube 8 for drainage of condensate into receiver 9, installed in bath 10 with cold water. Flask 3 is filled to 2/3 of its volume with liquid for subsequent distillation.

The improved design of the device is shown in Fig. 13. It uses a water bath 1 and a drop catcher 3. A flask 2 is placed in the water bath, into which pieces of ceramic are placed to ensure uniform boiling of the mash. Droplet eliminator 3 catches drops of liquid emitted along with steam into the pipeline and returns them to the evaporator.

Alcohol vapor, passing through the drop catcher and connecting tube 4, rises into the refrigerator 5, where it condenses and flows into the receiving area as a finished product.

Rice. 13. Diagram of a distillation apparatus with a drop eliminator:

I - water bath; 2 - flask; 3 - drop catcher; 4 - connecting tube: 5 - refrigerator; 6 - collection of moonshine.

Nick 6. When working with such a device, it is necessary to pay attention to the correct connection of water to the refrigerator and the direction of its movement (indicated in the figure by arrows), which increases the efficiency of the device.

The still with a coil (Fig. 14) has become the most widespread. It consists of a tank 1, closed by a lid 2, in which a thermometer 3 and a pipeline 4 are mounted. The latter is connected to a coil 5 located in the tank 6 and cooled by running water. Tank 1 is filled with mash to 2/3 of the volume and brought to a boil. When heating the mash to +75 degrees. With the heating rate reduced

Rice. 14. Diagram of a distillation cube with a coil:

/ - tank; 2 - cover; 3 - thermometer; 4 - connecting tube;

5 - coil; 6 - cold water tank.

Rice. 15. Diagram of a distillation cube with a device for increasing the concentration of alcohol in the distillate:

/ - tank; 2 - thermometers; 3 - safety valve tube;

4 - pipeline; 5 - additional tank; 6 - refrigerator; 7 - moonshine collection: 8 - water bath with cold water.

And they achieve stable boiling with a fully controlled heating process.

The productivity of this design is 1 - 1.5 liters of moonshine per hour of operation. The strength of the product after a single distillation is 35 - 45 degrees.

To obtain higher quality moonshine, use the apparatus circuit (Fig. 15), which includes a design for cleaning and increasing the concentration of the distillate. It consists of a tank 1, thermometers 2, a tube 3, which serves to protect against a sudden increase in pressure, a pipeline 4, an additional tank 5, a refrigerator 6 and a product receiver 7.

When working with such a device, first heat the water in additional tank 5, then heat the mash in tank 1 and begin distillation. Alcohol-containing vapors pass through tank 5 with a water temperature of +80 - 82 degrees. C. In this case, the water component of the vapor is condensed in tank 5, and the alcohol-containing vapor released from it enters the refrigerator 6 and, after condensation, into the receiver 7.

Since some of the alcohol vapor condenses in tank 5, the water in it is saturated with alcohol. This water is distilled either separately or with the next portion of mash.

To obtain a good quality alcohol distillate, a convenient diagram (Fig. 16, a), where the so-called reflux condenser 3 is placed between the evaporator and the refrigerator - a device that allows ethyl alcohol to be separated as completely as possible from all components. In the primary chamber of the reflux condenser, due to air cooling, heavier fractions of alcohols with a boiling point of more than +80 degrees are condensed. C, which flow back into the evaporator. In the upper part of the reflux condenser, a liquid with a boiling point of about +78 degrees condenses. C (ethyl alcohol). It is this that flows into the refrigerator 5 and into the receiver 6 of the finished product.

Rice. 16. Distillation apparatus diagram:

a - with a reflux condenser (1 - evaporator. 2 - thermometers, 3 - reflux condenser, 4 - connecting tube, 5 - refrigerator, b - moonshine collector); b - diagram of the reflux condenser (1 - thermometer, 2 - reflux condenser, 3 - refrigerator connecting pipe, 4 - evaporator).

Rice. 17. Diagram of a distillation apparatus with an additional vessel:

/- tank with mash; 2.4- thermometers; 3 - connecting cabin; 5-refrigerator with coil; 6 - collection of moonshine; 7 - additional vessel.

Distillation processes are monitored using thermometers 2. After heating the mash and the alcohol begins to boil away, it is necessary to drain the lower boiling fractions, and then, by adjusting the heating strength and distillation speed, achieve a stable condensate temperature of +78 degrees. C at the top of the reflux condenser. After establishing the required temperature, you can begin collecting the highest quality fraction of the distillate.

At home, to obtain high-quality moonshine, you can use a dephlegmator, the diagram of which is shown in Fig. 16, b.

If you use a distillation apparatus with an additional vessel (Fig. 17), it will allow you to better clean the product from impurities and increase the alcohol concentration to 70 - 80 degrees. Its main difference from other distillation devices is the presence of an additional vessel with water. The operation of the device is based on passing the vapors of a mixture of alcohol and water through an aqueous medium with a set temperature of 80 - 82 degrees. C, as a result of which the water vapor of the mixture condenses and remains in the vessel, and the alcohol vapor passes through the refrigerator, cools and condenses in it, and is then collected in a collection.

Two vessels are connected to each other by a pipeline. A thermometer is installed in each of them. A cube with a coil can be used as a refrigerator. Tank 1 is filled to no more than 2/3 of the volume with alcohol-containing liquid (mash or moonshine after the first distillation).

Moonshine cleaning

After distilling an alcohol-containing liquid at home, harmful impurities are always present. To reduce their quantity, it is necessary to follow certain rules throughout the entire technological process: when preparing mash, be sure to use high-quality raw materials; after the end of the fermentation process, keep the mash until it is completely clarified; When distilling, carefully observe temperature conditions.

Complete purification of the alcohol-containing liquid obtained during distillation consists of the following processes: preliminary chemical purification, special distillation, basic chemical purification and filtration.

During preliminary chemical purification, the resulting alcohol-containing liquid is treated with a solution of potassium permanganate. For each liter of liquid, add 2 g of potassium permanganate, diluted in 50 ml of distilled water. The vessel with the alcohol-containing liquid and the cleaner is thoroughly mixed and left for 10-12 minutes at rest until a precipitate forms and the solution becomes lighter. After this, the liquid is filtered through a filter made of 2 - 3 layers of linen fabric.

Special distillation is carried out in a distillation apparatus equipped with thermometers, which allows you to control the temperature of the process. It should be noted that with a high alcohol content, the alcohol-containing liquid does not easily part with impurities. To avoid this, the liquid must be diluted with water to 40 - 45% concentration.

The liquid poured into the distillation apparatus is quickly heated to +60 degrees. C, and then the heating rate is reduced, gradually bringing it to a temperature of +82 - 84.5 degrees. C. The first fraction obtained at the beginning of distillation (it is usually 3 - 8% of the original volume) is poured into a separate container. This fraction is used for technical purposes.

The next stage of distillation should take place at a higher heating rate (up to +95 - 97 degrees C). As a result, the next fraction is released (its volume is 40 - 45% of the original volume). This fraction is poured into a separate container. It can be used to make drinks.

The third fraction contains the highest content of fusel oils and a small amount of wine alcohol.

The main chemical cleaning is carried out using activated carbon, which is quite accessible at home and gives good results.

Activated carbon can be obtained from different types of trees, but it should be borne in mind that the absorption capacity of carbon varies. Experience has determined that it increases in the following order: poplar, alder, aspen, spruce, oak, linden, pine, birch, beech. It should also be borne in mind that when preparing coal, it is necessary to use wood lumps, without bark, knots and cores from trees no older than 50 years old.

The prepared chocks are burned on a fire until there is no longer a flame, but only heat from the coals. From these, larger coals are selected, placed in some kind of container and covered tightly with a lid. When the coals have cooled, they are taken out, blown off coal dust, crushed into pieces of 7 - 10 mm and sifted on a sieve to remove dust and fines.

To obtain activated carbon, it is better to put the coals from the fire in a colander and hold them over a bowl of boiling water until they cool to extinguish them with steam. You cannot put coals in water.

A filter is made from prepared activated carbon. Take a funnel (preferably glass) of suitable size, put in it a thin layer of cotton wool, a layer of gauze, and on it a layer of activated carbon at the rate of 50 g per 1 liter of liquid to be purified. The edges of the gauze are wrapped inside the watering can so that the coal does not float up.

The alcohol-containing liquid is filtered through charcoal 2-3 times.

You can clean with activated carbon in this way: put carbon into a bottle with an alcohol-containing liquid (50 g per 1 liter of liquid), then this mixture is infused for 2-3 weeks, shaking twice a day. Then filter through cloth or filter paper.

One of the ways to purify moonshine is freezing. The distilled alcohol is poured into strong containers, for example, champagne bottles, sealed and placed in the refrigerator freezer for several days or, if it is winter, in the cold. The water contained in alcohol, along with impurities, turns into ice. Before the ice melts, the alcohol must be drained.

How to make alcohol that is close in strength to 100 degrees. ? To do this, you need to take copper sulfate, calcine it in a glass, copper or aluminum container and pour it into the alcohol obtained after distillation. Since one molecule of vitriol attaches to itself seven molecules of water, the alcohol is dehydrated. If you distill such alcohol again, it will become 100 degrees. It must be stored in a very tightly sealed container, because this alcohol is extremely hygroscopic.

Distillation of the primary distillation

After the first distillation, the alcohol distillate is neutralized with ash obtained from burning birch firewood. When re-distilling, alcohol distillate is poured into the apparatus, filling no more than 3/4 of the volume.

Up to a temperature of +70 degrees. The heating of the alcohol distillate is carried out intensively, and then the degree of heating is reduced. The boiling point of the distillate is +85 - 87 degrees. From and until this temperature is reached, heating is carried out slowly. When secondary distillation appears, the heating rate must be increased.

During the second distillation, it is necessary to constantly monitor the alcohol concentration in the receiver with an alcohol meter. When the concentration of the secondary distillate is 55 - 60 degrees. the resulting alcohol is poured off and the distillation of the second fraction is continued until the boiling point of the mixture rises to +98.5 degrees. WITH.

The distillate of the second fraction with a low alcohol concentration (30 degrees) should be distilled again.

When distilling an alcohol distillate, it is necessary to take into account the initial volume of the distillate and the volume of the resulting alcohol. The total volume of the two fractions of the second distillation should be no more than half the volume of the initial alcohol distillation.

The alcohol concentration in the distillate product is usually determined by the combustion method. To do this, take a tablespoon (about 20 ml) of distillate and set it on fire. It is believed that if the combustion is even and stable with a high flame, and the water residue is less than half the initial volume, then the alcohol concentration is more than 50 degrees. ; if the combustion is intermittent, with a flashing flame, then the alcohol concentration is 35-38 degrees. ; if fire does not occur, then the alcohol concentration is less than 30 degrees.

Upgrading of moonshine

So, alcohol is obtained. But this is not vodka yet - it has to be made. Therefore, first you need to learn how to flavor the drink.

To create a supply of plants for obtaining aromas, such plants must first be dried and stored in a tightly closed container. Plants are crushed using any available method. Aromatic substances are extracted using a solvent: water and alcohol. It is better to use alcohol of 45 - 50 degrees strength. Infused plants should be no more than 2 cm covered with solvent.

Fresh plants are infused for 3-5 days, dry ones - from 8 to 15 days. If it is desirable to obtain an alcohol solution infused with orange or lemon zest, the process should last 3-4 months.

The vessel for infusion can be a regular saucepan or can.

Concentrated alcohol solutions of aromatic substances are called essences. Essences with a strength of 65 degrees. can be stored for a long time without losing their quality.

To prepare the flavor more quickly, make a decoction - a solution obtained by boiling the raw material in a closed container, followed by infusion or without it. Boil the raw materials for 10-15 minutes (the ratio of raw materials and water is 1:2 - 1:5). If the decoction is distilled, you can obtain concentrated solutions with a high degree of saturation with aromatic substances.

Essential oils and glucosides contained in plants give drinks a special aroma. Various spices (pepper, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg) or combinations of them are widely used as flavoring additives.

Various parts of plants can be used for flavoring: seeds (mustard, anise, cumin, dill), fruits (pepper, cardamom, vanilla), flowers (saffron, cloves), flower buds (capers), leaves (laurel, tarragon, marjoram, savory, etc.), bark (cinnamon, oak), roots (horseradish, ginger, maral root, etc.). By selecting combinations of various additives, you can obtain flavored drinks to suit every taste.

It should be remembered that to prepare vodkas with essences, you need to take alcohol with a strength of 60 degrees, and for liqueurs and other alcoholic drinks with aromas of essential oils - 80 - 90 degrees, since oils do not dissolve in weaker alcohol.

Spices and substances, in turn, are divided into two classes: firstly, plants with essential oils - cumin, anise, dill, celery, juniper berries, lemon peel, bitter almonds; secondly, aromatic plant substances with the presence of non-volatile aromas and bitter substances in them - cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, vanilla, nutmeg, galangal, wormwood, etc.

Flavoring additives

Many substances can improve and correct the taste of the drink. The corresponding taste appears after infusion on these substances for at least 2 weeks. For ease of use, the taste and required amount of flavoring additives are summarized in Table 11.

11. Flavoring additives

Name of flavor additive	Taste	Quantity, g/l
Orange zest	bitter	50 - 100
Lemon zest	bitter	60-250
Grapefruit zest	bitter	2,5 - 50
Rosemary	bitter-spicy	0,5-1
Saffron	bitter-spicy	0,1-0,5
Star anise	bitter	3-20
Cinnamon	bitter	3-15
Vanilla	bitter	0,5 - 20
Bay leaf	bitter	0,5 - 20
Cardamom	spicy-hot	4-20
Nutmeg	spicy-hot
Allspice	spicy-hot
Ginger	burning	1,5-12
Carnation	burning	0,5-3
Black pepper	burning	2-25

The flavoring additives listed in Table 11 (except for saffron) can be used in any combination, but they should be taken in strictly defined proportions, as indicated in the corresponding recipes.

To give drinks a sweetish taste, you can use added sugar, honey or jam.

Sweetening

To sweeten moonshine and drinks based on it, syrup is used, which is prepared from 1 kg of sugar boiled in 1 liter of water. During the cooking process of the syrup, foam is removed until it stops appearing. After this, the syrup is cooled and kept for 10-14 days.

When mixing syrup and moonshine, the liquid heats up and gas is released. When gas bubbles stop appearing, the sweetening process is considered complete. Place several tablets of activated carbon into the sweetened moonshine, shake the container thoroughly and leave for 1 - 2 hours at room temperature. Then filter through thick linen cloth, bottle, seal tightly and incubate for 48 - 72 hours at a temperature of +3 - 4 degrees. C. After this, moonshine acquires a pleasant taste.

Sweetening can be done with honey or jam. For 1 liter of moonshine, usually add 1-1.5 teaspoons of honey or jam.

After sweetening the moonshine, you can tint it. With this sequence of operations, the color and transparency of the moonshine will not be damaged.

Tinting

Tinting (tinting) moonshine is used to give a pleasant or original color to the finished product using natural dyes.

YellowThe drink is obtained by infusing moonshine with herbs (melissa, speedwell or mint), as well as with parsley, horseradish or celery leaves. You can infuse moonshine with saffron and distill it, and use the resulting essence for tinting. The essence is stored for quite a long time in a tightly sealed dark glass bottle.

Red colorMoonshine is infused with dried blueberries. You can use a mixture of edible carmine and cream of tartar in a ratio of 6:1. The components are crushed into powder and dissolved in hot water. After filtering, the solution is added to the moonshine.

The color will be red if 4 liters of alcohol are infused on 1 kg of dried blueberries for a week. You can use extract and juice from blueberry jam for liqueur.

For getting scarlet color 4 g of edible carmine and 4 g of cream of tartar are boiled in 1.1 liters of water, allowed to settle and filtered through cheesecloth. With this solution, moonshine is tinted in various shades of scarlet color (depending on the amount of coloring solution).

To give moonshine purple, Moonshine tinted with edible carmine is filtered through the flowers of femoral saxifrage or yarrow. You can add a few drops of thick blueberry decoction to moonshine tinted with carmine or infuse moonshine with sunflower seeds.

Blueacquires moonshine filtered through the flowers of femoral saxifrage or yarrow.

Light blue color - when infusing moonshine on cornflower flowers.

If you strain the moonshine through a funnel into which 3-4 handfuls of finely crushed chervil are placed, it will turn green. This color will also appear when moonshine is infused on black currant leaves, the juice of parsley leaves, mint leaves or onion feathers. If onions are used, then the feathers are washed well, placed in hot water and boiled twice, then transferred to cold water, squeezed out the juice through a linen cloth and boiled to half the volume.

Brown color will acquire moonshine when distilling mash together with galangal roots. And if you melt granulated sugar in a copper basin and keep it on the fire until it turns dark, dilute the resulting mass with water or heated moonshine and add a little to the moonshine, then it will also acquire a beautiful brown color.

To obtain a brown color, you can boil crushed refined sugar with a small amount of water in a frying pan, avoiding burning, until the sugar takes on a dark brown color. Then pour a little hot water on it (for 1 kg of sugar - 1 liter of water). The prepared liquid, mixed with alcohol, is used for coloring from brown to yellow.

Home brew recipes for moonshine

Sugar

1. Take 10 kg of sugar, 10 liters of water, 200 g of yeast. In warm water with a temperature of +22 degrees. Dissolve the sugar, add yeast and place the dishes in a warm place. After 7-10 days, the mash will be ready for distillation.

2. Take 6 kg of sugar, 30 liters of water, 200 g of yeast. Pour warm water over the sugar, add the yeast and stir everything well. Add a handful of blackcurrant leaves and a bunch of dry dill to the solution. Place everything in a warm place for 6-7 days, then distill. Product yield - 6 l.

3. Take 10 kg of sugar, 3 liters of milk, 30 - 40 liters of water, 100 g of yeast.

Place all components into the tank of the washing machine (the tank must be thoroughly washed beforehand). Turn on the machine for 2 hours. Then let the solution settle and distill it.

4. Take 5 kg of sugar, 1 liter of milk, 15 liters of water, 1 kg of split peas, 500 g of yeast.

Pour the components with warm water, leave for a day and distill. Product yield - 5 l.

5. Take 5 kg of sugar, 0.6 l of milk, 25 l of water, 4 loaves of rye (black) bread, 25 pcs. medium-sized potato tubers, 500 g of yeast.

Pour warm boiled water over all components (pre-crumb the bread) and mix. Leave for a day and distill.

Mix the ingredients thoroughly, leave in a warm place until they ferment, and distill. Product yield -7-8 l.

Honey

1. Take 3 kg of honey, 3 liters of syrup, 27 liters of water, 300 g of yeast.

Mix all components thoroughly, leave for 7 days and distill. The yield of the finished product is 7 liters.

2. Take 3 kg of honey, 2 liters of sugar syrup, 300 g of yeast. Dilute honey and syrup in 25 liters of water at a temperature of +22 - 25 degrees. C, add yeast diluted in a small amount of water and leave for 7-8 days in a warm place. Then distill. Yield - 7 l.

Cereal

1. Sprout rye (or wheat, barley, millet, corn, peas), to do this, soak the grains, pre-treated with a 2% solution of potassium permanganate, in warm water, spread them in a layer of up to 2 cm on trays. Cover the trays with plastic wrap or glass and place in a well-lit place. To prevent the grains from souring, they are periodically irrigated with water as it is absorbed. The malt will be ready in a week, when the sprouts reach a length of 2-3 cm.

Dry the sprouted grains and grind them into flour. Add boiling water to the resulting flour, stirring constantly, and stir the mixture until jelly-like. Then cover and stand for 10-12 hours. Pour into bowls or basins, cool to room temperature, add yeast at the rate of 3 g per 1 liter of mash and leave to ferment for 5-6 days. Then distill.

If there is no yeast, then add 1 kg of dry peas, and the fermentation process will increase to 10 days.

2. Sprout the wheat, grind it in a meat grinder or coffee grinder, add water, yeast and place in a warm place. For 10 kg of wheat you need 500 g of yeast and 30 liters of water.

After fermentation is complete, distill.

3. Sprout wheat (or rye) in a wooden trough, stirring occasionally. Boil the potatoes and mash them. Brew hops. Add 3 liters of brewed hops to the leftovers (1.5 - 2 liters) of mash (from last time). Mix the wheat (or rye), potatoes and the resulting mash with hops, place in a warm place until the mash stops fermenting.

For 12 kg of grain you will need 13-15 kg of boiled potatoes. Yield - 2 l.

4.4 kg of wheat flour, 500 g of yeast. Mix flour with 1 kg of sugar and pour in 3 liters of water. Leave in a warm place for 5 days, then add another 5 kg of sugar and 18 liters of water. Infuse for a week. When the mash begins to taste bitter, strain the infusion and distill. Add 5 kg of sugar and 8 liters of warm water to the waste. Leave for 8 - 10 days. Then strain and distill. Yield - 15 l.

Bread. Take 6 kg of rye or barley grains, 10 liters of water, 8 loaves of black bread, 10 kg of potato tubers, 1 kg of yeast.

Sprout the grains, then grind. Soak bread in water and grind. Boil and mash the potatoes. Mix all ingredients, add yeast and leave in a warm place for 7-8 days. Distill the mash 2 times. Yield - 10 l.

Starchy. Take 10 kg of starch, 20 liters of water, 1 kg of sugar, 500 g of yeast.

Dilute starch with water and brew like jelly. Add after cooling to a temperature of +20 - 22 degrees. With yeast and sugar. Leave for 3-5 days, then distill. Yield - 11 l.

Beetroot

1. Take 8 kg of sugar beets, 5 - 6 kg of sugar, 10 liters of water, 500 g of yeast.

Peel the beets, grate and boil. Add 10 liters of water (temperature +25 degrees C) and yeast diluted in a small amount of water to warm beets. Infuse the mixture in a warm place for 3-4 days. When the beet mass sinks to the bottom and becomes crusty, mix everything and distill 2 times.

2. Take 5 - 6 kg of sugar, 10 liters of water, 15 - 20 kg of sugar beets, 500 g of yeast.

Peel the beets, grate and bake in a Russian oven in cast iron with a capacity of 10 - 15 liters. Cool to a temperature of +22 - 25 degrees. C, add sugar, water at the same temperature and yeast diluted in a small amount of water. Cover the mixture with a lid and place in a warm place for 3 to 4 days. Then stir, and when the beets sink to the bottom and a crust forms on top, distill.

Potato

1. Take 20 kg of potato tubers, 100 g of yeast (calculated for every 5 liters of solution), 1 kg of rye or wheat flour and a little (a handful) of chopped wheat straw.

Peel and grate the potatoes, add, stirring, 10 liters of water at a temperature of +60 degrees. C, flour and straw. When the mixture turns light, drain it and fill the sediment again with water at a temperature of +50 degrees. C, stir, leave until lightened, then drain. Mix both liquids, add yeast and leave for 10-15 days, then distill.

2. Take 10 kg of potato tubers, 6 kg of oats, 1.8 liters of diluted yeast.

Peel the potatoes and grate them. Grind the oats, pour boiling water over them and mix well, adding the potato mixture. After 3 hours, add 37 liters of water and mix everything again. Add yeast and stir again. Seal the container tightly and leave for 3-4 days in a warm and dark place until sediment settles and bubbles appear. After that, distill.

Apricot. Take 10 kg of apricots, 10 kg of sugar, 100 g of yeast, 3 liters of water.

Peel the apricots and grind them in a meat grinder. Dissolve sugar in 3 liters of water at a temperature of +60 -70 degrees. C, then cool the syrup to a temperature of +25 degrees. C. Pour the apricot mass and syrup into one container with a capacity of at least 15 liters and add yeast. Leave to ferment in a warm place, and at the end of fermentation, distill. Yield - 2.5 l.

Plum. Take 12 kg of plums, 1 - 1.5 kg of sugar.

Peel the plums, mash, add sugar and leave for 12-15 days. When fermentation stops, distill 2 times.

Apple. Take 15 kg of apples, 1 kg of sugar, 65 g of yeast.

Thoroughly peel and seed the apples, then squeeze out the juice. Add sugar and yeast to 12 liters of juice. Infuse in a warm place for 7 days, then distill 2 times. Yield - 1 l.

Rowan

1. Take 3 kg of ripe rowan, collected before frost, 12 liters of bread kvass, 80 - 100 g of yeast, 6 liters of moonshine.

Mash the berries, add yeast and pour in fresh kvass. Infuse at a temperature of +16 - 17 degrees. C. When the bubbles stop, stir and distill. Then add moonshine and distill until any foreign odors disappear.

2. Mash the rowan berries, pour the mixture with moonshine so that the berries are covered and the container is half filled, add yeast (at the rate of 15 - 20 g per 1 liter of liquid), close tightly and leave in a warm place for 2 weeks, then distill 2 times .

Pear

1. Take 10 kg of rotten pears, 400 sugar, 40 - 50 g of yeast.

Boil the pears, add sugar and yeast, as well as 1-1.5 liters of water. Infuse in a warm place for 7 days, then distill 2 times.

2. Take 2 kg of sugar, 5 buckets of pears, 200 g of yeast.

Boil the pears, pour in 5 liters of water, add sugar and yeast. Place the mixture in a warm place for 7 days, then distill it 2 times. Yield - 10 l.

Grape. Take 1 bucket of grape marc, 5 kg of sugar, 100 g of yeast.

Pour the marc into 30 liters of water, add sugar and yeast, stir everything thoroughly. Leave for 7 days, then distill 2 times. Yield - 7 l.

Cherry. Take 20 kg of cherries, 2 kg of sugar, 200 g of yeast.

Peel the cherries, mash the pulp, add sugar and diluted yeast. Place in a moderately warm place, stirring occasionally for the first two days.

Crush the removed seeds and, after fermentation is complete, mix with mash and distill it. Yield - 8 l.

Caramel. Take 5 kg of caramel with filling, 200 g of yeast.

Dissolve the candies in 20 liters of warm water, add diluted yeast and leave for 4-5 days. Then distill. Yield - 5 l.

Rice. Take 3 kg of rice, 3 cups of ground malt, 200 g of yeast.

Boil rice in 10 liters of water, cool to room temperature, add malt, stir and let stand for 10 - 12 hours. Then mix again, add yeast and let stand for 5-6 days. Strain the mash and distill. Yield - 4 l.

Pea. Take 3 kg of peas, 3 cups of ground malt, 200 g of yeast.

Grind the peas into flour, add it to the water, stirring constantly, and cook until a thick, homogeneous mass is obtained. Then cool, add malt, mix thoroughly and let stand for 2-3 hours. Drain everything into a bowl, add yeast and leave in a warm place for 5 days. Distill. Yield - 3 l.

If the peas are pre-sprouted, then there is no need to add malt.

Pumpkin. Take pumpkin and barley malt.

Cut the pumpkin into small pieces, removing the peel and seeds. Pour 1 part of water into 2 parts of crushed pumpkin and cook until tender, then grind into a uniform mass and mash with ground malt at the rate of 100 g of malt per 10 liters of pumpkin mass. Mix everything well, add cold water, cooling to the temperature of fresh milk. Add the yeast, let it ferment and distill.

Cranberry. Take 2 kg of cranberries, 8 liters of water, 800 g of sugar, 1 pack of yeast.

Rub the cranberries through a colander, add water to the juices and boil for 15 minutes. Add granulated sugar and boil for the same amount. Cool the syrup to the temperature of fresh milk and pour raw cranberry juice into it. Add yeast, stir and leave to ferment. After fermentation, distill.

You always want to at least know approximately what the yield of alcohol from the mash will be in the end. This information helps to estimate the cost of your own labor costs for preparing moonshine. The calculation of the alcohol yield from the mash is influenced by quite a few parameters, which is why there is no one special formula for this. The type of yeast used, adherence to distillation technology, and even the serviceability of the moonshine still are important. However, the most important factor influencing the yield of alcohol from the mash is the type of raw material for its preparation. And since the content of sugars (or carbohydrates) in the raw material is approximately constant, it is quite possible to predict the amount of alcohol produced, all other things being equal.

Usually, in the tables of alcohol yield from mash, the yield of a forty-degree drink is also indicated. Since no one drinks pure alcohol (96%), I would like to immediately understand the yield of the diluted distillate, as if in terms of store-bought vodka. Also, such reference tables indicate the maximum volume values ​​achievable in industrial conditions. In everyday life, in practice, the volumes obtained are 10-15% lower than the reference ones, and this must be remembered. In addition, the yield of raw alcohol from the mash will exceed the final yield of the distillate. For example, for sugar mash it is considered normal to yield 550-600 ml of absolute alcohol from one kilogram of sugar, but this indicator does not take into account the division of the distillate into fractions, that is, it refers specifically to the resulting raw alcohol. In the final “body” fraction there will ultimately be about 480 ml of “absolute alcohol” (the yield is about a liter of a forty-degree drink with a kg of sugar). It is important, of course, (we recommend choosing a device with a distillation column of the brand or with a steam steamer of the brand), which will give minimal losses in alcohol during distillation. If you are planning, then do not neglect the diagrams and calculations for its design, as well as recommendations on manufacturing materials.

Table of alcohol and moonshine yield from mash (maximum values):

Type of raw material (calculation per 1 kg)	Alcohol yield (96%), ml	Moonshine yield (40%), ml
Granulated sugar	510	1100
Starch (corn, potato)	720	1520
Rice	590	1250
Buckwheat (green, core)	470	1000
Wheat	430	920
Oats	420	900
Rye	410	880
Millet	410	880
Peas	400	860
Barley	340	720
Potato	140	350
Figs	133	280
Persimmon	128	270
Grape	110	250
Sugar beet	100	210
Pear	70	165
Apples	60	140
Cherry	50	121
Kiwi	47	100

As can be seen from the above data, the yield of alcohol from sugar mash is slightly higher than the yield of alcohol from grain mash. However, in the preparation of the latter, saccharification of starch plays an important role. The more complete the saccharification (the breakdown of starch into simple sugars), the greater the yield of the final product.

The yield of alcohol from the mash will also vary depending on compliance with all the rules and modes of distillation, as well as on the reliable operation of the distiller itself. so that it will surely work properly for many years? First of all, you should pay attention to the offers of official manufacturers, because only they are the guarantor of the quality and safety of their own products. And you can learn about that from the articles on our portal.