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Night track, frost -25 and I look at the “emergency” car, a man jumped out of it and waves his arms. Suspiciously, but stopped, the weather is not spring, you never know what.
It turned out that he did not calculate the gasoline, so they are standing (there was a lady in the cabin). Saved a couple, they gave me a bottle in gratitude. It was inconvenient to take it, but they directly assured me that I would not regret it.
That’s how I got acquainted with high-quality moonshine. Not with the one that smells of yeast, cloudy and impossible to drink, but with alcohol that is not inferior to elite alcohol (I have experience, I tried it).
I was interested in this topic and off we go … I hasten to convey important information to readers, perhaps among you there are future “colleagues in the shop.”
The story was shared by my subscriber Semyon P.
General description of the device of the most primitive apparatus
The principle of any moonshine still is to obtain an alcohol-containing elixir from a mixture containing yeast, or rather, their metabolic products.
This happens by heating the solution, condensing alcohol vapors and obtaining a long-awaited product, the strength of which changes as the liquid evaporates.
To organize the moonshine brewing process, you can purchase a ready-made apparatus or, if you wish, design it yourself, which I did not so long ago.
To make it clear or who urgently needs to overtake the mash, I will explain using the example of the most primitive scheme:
- Distillation cube. It is in it that the mash will heat up and evaporation will occur. The container is sealed, a fitting leaves the upper part, through which steam with fractions of the future alcohol will move.
- Refrigerator. Steam will condense in it. For beginners, I explain that this is a compact thing, often with a coil. The coolant is water, it can constantly circulate (flow cooler) or filler (just a lot of stagnant water). Flow coolers are more commonly used. There are many types of them, so you can’t choose immediately from a run.
- Connecting elements, well, or hoses. Where hot media silicone or metal tubing should be used as the PVC will melt.
Here is a simple but functional design
Attention! When assembling the system yourself, you must strictly follow the technological rules, otherwise you risk ruining everything!
What else can be added to the design to improve the quality
A primitive device will not produce very high-quality alcohol, so the design needs to be improved. To do this, I advise you to attach a dry steamer. It is needed to settle the heaviest fractions of fusel oils.
There is also a useful thing for controlling the strength of alcohol, it is sometimes called the “Parrot”. The device is attached to the unit, and an alcoholometer is placed in it. So you can track what happens and when to stop the process.
Here’s what the same “Parrot” might look like
I would definitely screw the thermometer in order to understand the temperature situation in the distillation cube. In purchased moonshine stills, all these attributes are already there, as well as much more for the convenience of distillation.
What types of moonshine are
Now you can buy a variety of models of moonshine stills, in principle, as well as make it yourself. I built a simple one myself, but it was at the beginning of my journey as a “moonshine driver”. Then he saved some money and took a more serious unit.
For myself, I divided the devices into the following types:
- A simple distiller consisting of a cube and a refrigerator.
- Apparatus with dryer.
- Distiller with column.
- Distiller with sukhoparnik and column.
There are also copper moonshine stills, but, as for me, they are more for pampering, and more expensive. So let’s say, for an amateur, these alambiks.
What to look for when buying a moonshine still
No matter how much you want to try your own alcohol as soon as possible, first you need to think through everything, and only then invest money. Based on my experience, here’s what we pay attention to together:
- Cube volume and power. The performance of the “home workshop” will depend on this. If you plan to periodically experiment with alcoholic beverages, then it makes no sense to take a device for 20 liters.
- Complete set, design features. Additional details will help to get a better product and not strain during the distillation process.
I don’t give advice on the price here, since everyone has their own piggy bank.
I sort of explained the main thing, but it will be useful to know the opinion of other craftsmen of home brewing. I understand that there are a lot of secrets and so-called life hacks in this topic. Let’s share our experience.