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– Why did you start to drive moonshine? is a question that haunts me all my life. In my family, my father and mother did not deal with this business, and I did not think that I would ever do it. But, thanks to one situation, I found not only my favorite business, but also a number of new acquaintances and like-minded people.
Moreover, I gained invaluable experience that home-made vodka made by one’s own hands is not only better and sometimes more budgetary, but also much more reliable than anything bought in a store.
And since this article is about moonshine, I know exactly what ingredients are included, how conscientiously it is cleaned and how many positive vibrations it managed to absorb during creation.
Story from blog subscriber Sergey.
Causes of bitterness in moonshine
Once there was a rich harvest of plums, I picked a lot of overripe fruits in the garden, but the question of what to do with them at first hung languidly in the air. But, later, after thinking it over, my wife and I decided to cook creamy juice, cook a delicious pie and ventured to make moonshine from plums.
And if the first two dishes were prepared by my wife, then moonshine was clearly assigned to me. I meticulously, as it seemed to me, crushed the fruit, then added a little sugar (the plum is quite sweet, you can do without sugar) and yeast, but the tannins from the stones got into the mash.
I didn’t tell my wife that I got moonshine with bitterness, but decided to resolve the situation on my own. As a result, the risk was justified, and the moonshine was appreciated.
For all the time that I have been distilling moonshine, I have read a lot of literature, experimented on my own, listened to fellow experts in distilling art, had numerous discussions with them, and now I can share with the reader that a medium and low degree of unpleasant taste can be eliminated in several simple ways. .
Method 1 – cleaning with egg white
Light spicy bitterness does not count, as it indicates the strength of the drink. However, with a noticeable deviation in the quality of moonshine, it can be cleaned using a product that everyone has in the house – eggs, or more precisely, egg white. Protein tends to fold into flakes, collecting various impurities into its dense pieces.
So, for this, I separate the raw proteins from the yolks and beat the first until foamy. I dilute moonshine to 45 ° and then add in this ratio: 2 fresh egg whites per 1 liter. The resulting solution is mixed and removed for 3 days in a cold place.
Loss of protein flakes in moonshine.
Important! The precipitate remains on the filter, and my drink is ready to drink. This method does not involve re-distillation, since the smallest particles of protein can, when heated, completely spoil the vodka with a hydrogen sulfide smell.
Method 2 – cleaning with white clay
I know another way to clean moonshine, which is also easy to do after the first distillation. Only for this procedure, I already dilute the distillate with soft water to 12-14% alcohol content.
To do this, I need white clay or bentonite, which are sold in pharmacies in powder form at an average price of 42 rubles per 100 g. I take 1 grams of powder per 3 liter of liquid.
First, I pour 30 grams of water and leave it for about 10 hours until a thick consistency appears. I dilute the resulting mixture with a small amount of moonshine and pour it in a thin stream into a container with the rest of the product.
You only need to wait 24 hours and keep moonshine with bentonite at normal temperature. After a day, I again pass the solution through the filter and begin to distill again, cutting off up to 15% of the “heads”.
Method 3 – cleaning with activated carbon
This method is no more complicated than those listed above. When I have a grain or pure sugar spirit distillate that has developed a noticeable bitter taste, I dilute it with soft water to 15% abv.
Then I clean it by passing through activated birch charcoal, which can be ordered in online stores, at a price of 400-420 rubles per 1 kg.
The resulting solution is distilled a second time through a distillation column, but already gradually removing up to 15% of the “heads” from the upper layer. Primary fruit-based moonshine from distillation through coal, along with bitterness, loses a pleasant fruity aftertaste, so I still recommend cleaning it in the first two ways.
Filtration of primary distillate through charcoal.
I know from my own experience that a slight bitterness can be hidden if you make bitter tinctures based on cranberries, ginger, horseradish or hot peppers from moonshine. Have any of you had a positive experience in correcting the quality of homemade moonshine with bitterness, and what methods were used for this?
Dear readers, remember that alcohol abuse harms your body. Take care of yourself!