Contents
Vodka has risen in price again. Something often in recent years it has become more expensive. Agree, more than 350 rubles for a half-liter bottle of Svoyak is somehow too much.
One Sunday afternoon, as I hung out at Hearthstone, frowning, the intercom buzzed dejectedly.
The story was sent by our subscriber Victor R.
From what it all began
To the doors of my apartment is often drawn to all sorts of mysterious and unkempt personalities. Either the Jehovists want to talk about God, or the old alcoholic Uncle Vanya asks for a glass.
However, I do not refuse Uncle Vanya: when he is sober, he makes wonderful things for fishing.
I open it: my friend, Gennakha. Haven’t seen him for a couple of months. He is also a mysterious person, who has the ability not to call before coming, to disappear for a long time without a trace, and every time he emerges from the “wormhole” to arrange a grandiose booze.
“I won’t drink today,” I said to Gennaha from the doorway, “I’ll work tomorrow morning.”
“Today you don’t have to. Let’s go downstairs and I’ll show you.
Greed, creativity and profit
In the open trunk of the beat-up Logan, something fervently gleamed with rounded edges.
– What is it?
– Like you don’t know? Gena answered a question with a question.
I’m ashamed to admit that I saw the moonshine for the first time.
Distillation cube “Slavyanka”
Gennakha told me that the pot-bellied contraption was the Slavyanka moonshine, a small, in principle, but quite profitable tool.
The tank is the distillation cube itself, and a distiller with a built-in dry steamer (such a thing for cleaning and flavoring) and a coil hidden in the depths of the “refrigerator” is attached to it.
Distiller “Slavyanka”
We took the Slavyanka out of the trunk, and from the back seat, a rather large container with a lid, in which hoses, packages with “ram” screws, some plumbing adapters and a curved plastic squiggle, the purpose of which I can’t even imagine could.
– Everything is according to Feng Shui, – Gena happily shared, – Not a drop of oxygen in the mash – the head will not hurt in the morning!
It turned out that the darkened container from the back seat was for fermentation. A hole was checked in the lid, where the gasket was inserted, and a plastic krivula was inserted into the gasket, the purpose of which I did not immediately understand.
It was called a water seal and, being half filled with water, did not let oxygen inside the barrel, and removed carbon dioxide.
Fermentation tanks
Gena said that he was given “Slavyanka” for only a couple of weeks, and he does not want to miss the opportunity.
– Are you going to chase me, or what? – I was rightly indignant, – Have you lost your mind?
“Sam, well, you know my Svetka,” the newly-minted crafter grimaced annoyedly, “I’m going to fly from the eighth floor along with the apparatus …
– And what is all this in terms of time? – I did not let up.
“On the seventh day we’ll taste it,” Gena rubbed his palms, “My father-in-law treated me to ambrosia!” Only that Svetka did not see.
– Well, what about the money for this barrel? And how much will he give? – doubts about the undertaking did not let me go.
It turned out that to completely fill the tank you will need:
- 6,5 kg of sugar;
- 150 grams of dry wine yeast;
- a few handfuls of raisins;
- half a tablespoon of citric acid;
- one dry cookie;
- water at utility rates.
Gena promised that “we will take one to one”, that is, for every kilo of granulated sugar, a liter of forty-degree moonshine will turn out.
Quickly orienting on the prices, I gave up.
– Okay, but you will knead it yourself.
Tricky Syrup or Kitchen Sugar Inversion
It turned out that the fermentation tank is 32 liters, but we will fill it with only 27.
– My father-in-law explained everything, – Gena explained, – Sugar also has a volume in water – 0,63. Just an almost full barrel will turn out. And if you fill it completely to the brim, the water seal will block.
Having drawn 27 liters of water from the tap into a container, we left it standing open on the table, while we ourselves went to the store for supplies.
“So that free chlorine can escape from the water while we walk,” Gennach shared another test wisdom.
We decided that we would fold the money in half and then we would also divide the moonshine in half. We bought everything, returned to my lair, and Gena willingly took on the role of chef.
Having demanded from me a ten-liter pot and a measuring container, he poured exactly 3 ml of water from the prepared barrel into it. With the help of a funnel, he poured another 250 liters from it into a soda bottle.
It turned out that the sugar needs to be inverted, and the yeast needs to be activated before the whole batch.
– You see, if sugar is boiled for about an hour and lemons are added, it breaks down into fructose and glucose. Yeast eats it faster, and then the head does not hurt – Gena lit the gas over the pan and quickly began to unpack the bags of sugar.
Still, he had to help. When the water began to boil, I poured whole packs of sugar into the pan at his command, and he famously stirred it inside with a long wooden spoon with the eloquent inscription: “Mom is always right.”
The sugar rapidly dissolved, and the solution became more and more yellow.
Finally, the sugar was over. A few minutes later, the syrup boiled, and after another five minutes, Gennaha turned the gas down to “below average” and poured “lemons” into a tablespoon.
“The “gas” command is given to everyone,” the newly-minted moonshiner laughed and banged half a tablespoon into the pan.
If I had not gone in for sports at one time, I would hardly have had time: the reaction was so swift. The syrup reared up in white flakes of foam, but I, turning off the burner with lightning speed in one motion, saved Gena from burns of at least the second degree, and myself from the painful scrubbing of the stove.
– Exactly, the father-in-law said to slowly pour, – Gena sighed guiltily.
– Oh you! I answered shortly.
While the syrup was boiling for another 45 minutes, we drank beer and discussed the bite of carp on the nearest lake.
Gena turned off the gas, deftly picked up the pan with the infernal brew and poured all the contents into a barrel of cold water. At the bottom, he left quite a bit of syrup, two hundred grams.
Let’s activate the yeast.
The contents of the two-liter bottle flowed into the hot syrup, so that the solution turned out to be warm. Gena poured yeast into sweet water, mixed thoroughly and covered with a lid. After about twenty minutes, a huge cap of foam grew over the pan, and my friend sent everything into a barrel.
Another twenty minutes passed and the barrel came to life. It seemed that the solution was boiling without heating, contrary to all the laws of physics.
– Wound up, – Gena rubbed his palms and crumbled the cookie inside, carefully rubbing it between his fingers.
– And what is she for? – I became curious.
– Foam extinguishes, once and for all.
We threw raisins into the barrel, fitted the lid tightly and inserted a water seal.
Quickly, a lot and the head does not hurt
For a week I slept under the cheerful gurgling of a water seal, I recalled my friend Gena. The container was in the kitchen, but the sound carried perfectly throughout the apartment, like the trilling of a cricket, which one day appeared out of nowhere under my sink.
And on the seventh day, the sounds died down and Gena came: with an alcohol meter in his pocket and a satisfied grin on his face.
“Slavyanka” was collected, filled and hoisted onto the stove. We stuffed lemon zest for flavoring into the steamer, Gena supplied the tap with an adapter for a hose, and the process began.
Faucet Hose Adapter
By evening, we really had 6,5 liters of vigorous moonshine with a mild taste and a very predictable effect.
To my surprise, the head was fresh in the morning despite a fair amount of tasting. Gena said goodbye to me, taking the overworked “Slavyanka” and his share of “nectar”, splashed in a five-liter eggplant.
Now I’m sitting here and thinking: why is this vodka from the store at all? I am looking on the Internet where to buy the device. But not Slavyanka, I liked Zhar. It is larger in volume. What do you advise?