The best way to improve the quality of any moonshine product is to re-distill. The resulting drink will be stronger and cleaner than raw alcohol: foreign impurities and odors will leave it, the taste will become softer and more pleasant.
It will take a couple of hours more to prepare a “double” moonshine, but the loss of time will more than pay off with the excellent characteristics of the final product.
Why you should double distill
Re-distillation is the most reliable way to protect yourself and loved ones from drinking low-grade alcohol containing poisonous and toxic compounds.
In this way, you can ennoble not only freshly prepared moonshine, but also a product that was expelled earlier.
The type of raw material and the technology of its processing do not matter: fruit, sugar, starch and other types of mash can be subjected to “double distillation”.
Stages of obtaining high-quality moonshine:
Braga preparation and first distillation.
Dilution with water and/or purification of the distillate.
Secondary race.
Reducing the fortress to the desired level.
First distillation
Before pouring the mash into the distillation cube, it should be removed from the sediment, filtered and clarified. Read about the methods of cleaning raw materials in this article.
Then you can proceed to distillation: pour the mash into the distillation cube, filling it no more than ¾ (and preferably 2/3), assemble the apparatus and put it on fire. The main task at this stage is to obtain the maximum amount of raw alcohol by removing insoluble compounds from the mash.
Separation of the product into fractions at this stage is not necessary if a re-distillation is planned. But if you want to get a perfectly clean product, it is better to do it. This will result in three components:
“Heads”
The most dangerous fraction of moonshine, including the bulk of harmful impurities and occupying approximately 10-15% of the total volume of the product.
In no case should you use it inside, it is better to pour it out immediately.
The exact amount of this part depends on the category of mash.
When working with sugar, it is usually recommended to remove 30 ml for each kilogram of sand, that is, about 6 ml of “heads” will be obtained from 180 kg of raw materials.
“Body”
The disappearance of a sharp acetone odor indicates the beginning of the second fraction separation.
This is the purest part of the product and is the basis for the next distillation.
“Tails”
When working with grain or fruit mash, it is not necessary to separate this fraction of moonshine, with sugar it is desirable.
“Tails” begin to be collected after the fall of the fortress below 42-40 °.
You can completely stop the distillation process at this stage or add the final fraction to the mash to increase the degree before re-distilling.
Second distillation
This stage is performed in a similar way. Before pouring the mash into the cube, it is diluted with water and subjected to “intermediate cleaning”.
To reduce the strength of raw alcohol, first a “degree” is measured, then the drink is diluted with water to 18–20%.
Some moonshiners prefer to distill the product undiluted, but this is quite dangerous and can cause the cube to catch fire.
In addition, the addition of water reduces the strength of the bonds between alcohol and impurities, which contributes to a better product.
Fruit distillate usually does not require purification, while grain and sugar distillates are best “processed”.
You can choose cleaning methods from this article.
You can combine several methods. Then the drink is passed through a cotton, coffee or gauze filter.
After lowering the strength, cleaning, filtering, the distillate is poured into a cube and distilled in the traditional way – with separation:
“Heads” (while the smell of acetone is felt – about 10% of the total volume)
“Body” (until the strength drops below 45-50% – approximately 80% of the total product)
“Tails” (before the presence of signs of alcohol in the collected liquid – approximately 10% of the total amount)
From the “heads” and this time it is better to immediately get rid of or use them exclusively for technical purposes, for example, to disinfect surfaces.
“Tails” can be left to be added to the next batch of raw alcohol or run in a distillation column.
The resulting “double moonshine” 60-70% of the fortress must be diluted to the desired “degree”. Additional cleaning is not required, but zealous fans of perfection can perform it. Carbon filtration will bring the product closer to vodka. If you plan to use it in its pure form, you need to let the moonshine stand a little.
Relevance: 19.01.2019
Tags: vodka, mash, moonshine