How the moonshine still works and how to make it at home

Today, moonshine is treated differently than before. In the old days, remember, a moonshine is an essential attribute of any house in the village, and sometimes even an apartment in a metropolis. Studying this topic, memories from childhood immediately flooded back: it was -20 outside, and the stove was heated in my grandmother’s house and it was very good …

Today, moonshine is treated differently than before. In the old days, remember, a moonshine is an essential attribute of any house in the village, and sometimes even an apartment in a metropolis. Studying this topic, memories from childhood immediately flooded in: it’s -20 outside, and the stove is heated in my grandmother’s house and it’s very good … There is a gurgling can of 50 l of mash on the coarse, from it there is a spiral through the bathroom with snow, and then, on a stool, a three-liter jar was placed, into which a valuable liquid enters drop by drop.

In those years, moonshine was an unofficial currency. They were paid for various services: plow a garden or mow hay, etc. – without a magician, there is nothing to ask. Today is different…

However, home brewing is flourishing, perhaps more so than ever. At least they don’t go to jail for it today. Moonshine is now in the law. True, it cannot be sold without an appropriate license, but who cares now. Moonshine in modern realities is a hobby, moreover, a rather interesting hobby. In addition, compact moonshine stills can be found even at the bar – many bartenders try to surprise their audience by expelling liquid in front of them, which then falls into their glass. I think it’s effective. Yes, and drinking drinks of our own production is much more pleasant, at least it becomes clear that this is not a pallet and not a surrogate. Well, let’s delve into the right topic.

Distillation of moonshine: the necessary tools

For distillation, we, first of all, need a good moonshine still. There are two options: make your own or buy. Let’s look at both options.

How to make a homemade moonshine

What is mash and how to cook it is a separate topic. For example, you can make mash from sugar, or you can use apples. But we will consider the container for the mash now. As a container for mash, the most optimal option is a milk can for 37-50 liters. It has everything we need: a regular clamp that will provide the necessary sealing, and it is made of materials that can be safely attributed to food. Of course, a large-volume can is designed for serious batches of alcohol production, so you can use any other utensils that can be sealed (for example, a pressure cooker).

The main elements of the moonshine still is a heat exchanger or coil. In fact, this is a spiral, which must be constantly cooled during distillation – the evaporation of the mash will pass through it. It’s time to understand the technology of distillation. The principle of distillation is quite simple: the mash heats up and emits alcoholic vapors that enter the cooler, that is, into our coil. The vapors are cooled, condense on the walls of the coil and, already in the form of distillate, flow into the collection tank.

You can make a coil yourself: take a tube (I’ll talk about the materials below) and wind it around the pipe – that’s the whole coil. To distill 8 liters of moonshine per hour, a two-meter tube is enough for us, so the coil will not differ in large sizes. Next, the coil should be placed in a cooling container. Previously, a conventional container was used for this, such as a bathtub, into which the coil was cooled by a constant supply of cold water or snow, if the distillation was carried out in winter. Now, cylinders are used for this, in which the coil is placed. The cylinders are sealed and have two holes: cold water is supplied to the lower one, which is pushed out under pressure into the upper hole. Moreover, it is very important that the waste water flows exactly from the top of the coil, otherwise there is a backflow of the liquid and the process slows down.

Previously, this was not used, but modern moonshine stills have a so-called sump, which is also a steamer. It is installed at the very top of the distillation system (before the coil) – heavy impurities, that is, fusel oils, settle in it. With this simple device, you can make alcohol cleaner. A sukhoparnik can be with a bubbler if the inlet tube is lowered to the very bottom. The sump topic is quite extensive and interesting, therefore it deserves a separate article.

Important! Before you start distilling moonshine, you need to understand the physics of the process. So, it is very important to know the boiling points of various liquids. Light impurities in the mash begin to boil (evaporate) at t = 65-68^оWith (these are the most dangerous “heads”), ethyl alcohol boils away at (t = 78 ° C), and at a mash temperature of more than 85 ° C, heavy fractions, that is, harmful fusel oils, begin to stand out from it.

Everything you need for a home moonshine is ready. We collect everything together and proceed to forcing. Now it’s time to talk about materials. It is better to seal all connections with food-grade metals: stainless steel or titanium. It is very important to avoid rubber compounds – upon contact with alcohol vapor, a disgusting smell and taste will be absorbed into it. Leather can be used as a sealant. In our country, everything was sealed with dough: they simply smeared all the joints with unleavened dough and lightly burned it. Actually, during the heating of the mash, the dough itself will reach the desired condition.

Important! Despite the generally accepted opinion (they say moonshine should be brewed in food metal apparatus: stainless steel, etc.), the best moonshine, including all its components, is best made from copper. Copper binds sulfur ions, which are collected as a result of fermentation. These are more than 50 different sulfur-containing compounds that can be formed in Braga. Sulfur has a very strong effect on the taste and aroma of the distilled drink, significantly worsening its organoleptic properties. If it is not possible to make an alembic out of copper, try to make at least a serpentine out of it.

How to buy moonshine still

Moonshine has gradually become a hobby, so everything related to it can be found in numerous stores. The traditional copper alambik is not cheap, because it is handmade, and Portugal is the main exporter. Accordingly, the prices are tied to the currency. However, you can buy a small alambik to distill the most aromatic spirits, such as calvados.

As for modern moonshine stills, there are an incredible number of them today. They differ both in design and price. The most expensive will be mini-distilleries, which are both a distiller and a distillation column (about it some other time) and in general everything that one can only dream of. But if you are a beginner and just starting to learn the basics of home brewing, then I recommend paying attention to the most inexpensive models – it’s good to practice on them, like on cats.

Distillation of moonshine at home

We insisted on the mash, connected the container to the apparatus, you can start distillation. It is better to use double distillation, which is used in France for the production of cognac, and in Latin America (rum), and in Mexico (tequila), and in Scotland (malt whiskey), etc. The first distillation is carried out without crushing the alcohol into parts – all alcohol-containing parts (raw alcohol) are separated from the mash. The second distillation must be carried out with crushing, that is, to divide the distillate into fractions: head, heart and tails. All these subtleties are described in the article on the basics of home brewing.

Finally, I propose to watch a short report in which Erkin Tuzmukhamedov, a sommelier, the author of several guides to whiskey and just a great connoisseur of alcoholic beverages, clearly shows how things are in the topic studied in this article: