For the last 3-4 years I have been collecting vodka. So easy for yourself. There were so many new varieties on the market, and I bought 2-3 bottles every month. One tried, the rest in the “museum”.
My museum.
And last year I bought myself a distillation column to get moonshine and make my own cognac. In a year I caught up with 50 liters of pure alcohol, 20 liters of moonshine and aged 50 liters of cognac in barrels. And, of course, I don’t need the stocks of the “museum” now, and I distribute them for free to friends.
This story was sent by our regular subscriber Michael.
How much is vodka in the store now
Vodka in stores has not risen in price for many years, unlike milk, sour cream and bread.
The cost of vodka.
As you can see in the photo – from 225 to 600 rubles. And I decided to check how much my own vodka would cost if it was made from moonshine.
I had to learn to understand the production technology, what is allowed in vodka and what can get into moonshine, making it completely unacceptable for drinking.
What equipment is needed
Since the goal was not only to obtain vodka and moonshine, I immediately decided to buy a distillation column.
The cost of moonshine stills:
I chose a small distillation apparatus for 23 rubles for 000 liters of mash, because it makes no sense for me to drive a lot of alcohol-containing liquid.
I bought a tsargu for him (an additional pipe for better purification of moonshine, alcohol). In the moonshine distillation mode, the reflux condenser is not turned on in the apparatus, and instead of the coil, the drawers are used.
Of course, you can make a moonshine still yourself, but it used to be just to find a tinker who soldered a copper coil tube to the lid of the pan, and sometimes also with a flask. Now it is easier and even cheaper to buy everything ready-made.
Distillation process
As ingredients, I usually use sugar mash. To do this, I pour filtered water into a large plastic tank, mix 5 kg of sugar into it and pour in special wine yeast. To save money, you can also use bakery. Personally, I did not notice a difference in the resulting alcohol.
Some lovers take grain, apples and even old jam as home brew. But you need to understand that when using these ingredients, in addition to a delicious smell, you also get a large percentage of methyl alcohol, which is formed from pectins during the fermentation of the wort.
My task was to obtain pure ethyl alcohol. 1-2 weeks after the end of fermentation, I pour the resulting mash into the tank and heat it on an induction stove.
The first distillation is done in the distillation mode without the selection of heads and tails (fractions of moonshine at the beginning of the distillation and at the end of the distillation, containing especially harmful substances such as methyl alcohol and fatty acids).
Distillation column in distillation mode
The second distillation to obtain moonshine is done in the mode of selecting heads and tails. Heads are selected in approximately 5% of the total volume, tails – 10%.
Usually I select the tails not even by volume, but by the temperature in the drawers. After heating the vapors to 95 degrees, I change the receiving container and pour the rest into the tails.
To obtain vodka, it is necessary to overtake the mash already in the rectification mode and get pure alcohol of 96,5 degrees. Which is diluted to 40 degrees and vodka is obtained.
Having such a good apparatus, for the sake of interest, I tried to distill factory vodka and got a very impressive result:
- vodka complies with GOST;
- vodka contains industrial alcohol, which, when selected heads, emits such a smell that one wonders how this can be produced, sold, and even more so drunk;
- vodka contains some tails – about 5%;
- as a result, it turned out that out of 4 liters of vodka, only 2,5 liters remained through alcohol distillation, the rest was impossible to drink.
I gave the alcohol obtained from the distillation column for examination and, unlike factory vodka according to GOST, there were 50 times less harmful substances such as methyl alcohol in my raw.
Сonclusion
If you are going to drive your moonshine, you can buy an inexpensive device, but then you will get the whole set of harmful substances that passes through the moonshine coil and does not pass through the reflux condenser if a distillation column is used.
Yes, some connoisseurs say that the smell of “pervacha” should be left in the moonshine. But everyone is well aware that this smell is given by aromatic oils that are not good for the liver from the word in general.
Therefore, I recommend not to do additional purification of moonshine, but simply distill it through a distillation column and then add any flavors you want. But you will be sure that nothing poisonous will get into your moonshine.
If you calculate the cost of the resulting vodka, then judge for yourself:
With such volumes of ingredients, the yield of alcohol of 96,5 degrees is approximately 2 liters, and after dilution, approximately 4 liters of vodka 45 degrees are obtained. Thus, the cost of a bottle of home-made vodka is 50 rubles per 0,5 liter.
For clarity, we will draw up the following proportion: for 400 rubles, you can drive out 2 liters of moonshine. In the store, a bottle of vodka costs 230 rubles, and at home with this money you can get a little more than a liter of pure ethyl alcohol (1,15 liters), which is already 4-5 bottles of vodka.
I’m not advocating for everyone to brew moonshine to save money (although why not?), but it will definitely give you a clean product.
Agree with me that “the game is worth the candle”?