Contents
My brother and I, when we always lived together, tried to prepare food for the future. At home there were always bags of sugar, cereals and other things. Fruit was no exception. There were always several boxes of them. Vitamins anyway.
Once, when I opened a box of bananas, I saw that they were, to put it mildly, overripe. Having poured them into a bag, I was going to take the spoiled fruit to the trash, but my brother, a truly economic man, said that spoiled bananas can be used for more interesting purposes, namely for making moonshine.
The story was sent by a subscriber Alexey from Norilsk.
What ingredients and equipment will be needed
Of course, I heard that alcohol is made from overripe fruits, but moonshine from bananas in Norilsk, you see, sounds a little ridiculous. However, the brother was not going to give up his plan.
Apparently, it was not in vain that in the old days he went on business trips to hot countries. Driven by curiosity, I agreed to this adventure.
To begin with, we decided to decide on the ingredients. So, to make banana moonshine, we needed:
- 10 kg of bananas. We already had them, so we didn’t have to spend money on them. I think in any store there are bananas intended for write-off. If they are not given away for nothing, then the price for them will obviously be reduced several times.
- Sugar, 2 kg – 120 rubles.
- Dry yeast, 60 gr. — 69 rubles.
- Cookies – 50 rubles.
- Water, 5-8 liters.
Of the equipment, in addition to containers for mash and kitchen utensils, a moonshine still is needed. We rented it from a neighbor.
Important! Bananas for moonshine should be overripe, but not rotten.
The cooking process
We started making moonshine in the evening of the same day when we found a box of overripe bananas. They acted according to the following scheme:
- Peeled fruits.
- The pulp was passed through a meat grinder.
- We put the resulting puree in a saucepan, added sugar to it and poured water over it.
- Heated to 60°C and maintained this temperature for about an hour. I had to stir it all the time to keep it from burning.
- Cooled down to 30°C.
The standard of bananas for moonshine
Important! Do not overheat the liquid above 65 ° C.
- The wort was poured into a fermentation vessel and yeast was added. At this point, we needed cookies. Braga gave off a lot of foam. The crushed biscuits absorbed it perfectly.
- We closed the neck of the container with a medical glove, having previously pierced one finger.
- Next, the mash was placed in the pantry for a month. During this time, all the added components settled at the bottom, and the liquid itself stopped emitting gas, which indicated that the fermentation process was successfully completed.
- The liquid was filtered through several layers of gauze.
- Then the most interesting thing began for me. I have not come across a moonshine still before this moment. The brother was more experienced in this matter. With filtered mash, we filled the distillation cube on a moonshine still.
- Raced twice. After the first haul, I had to dilute the moonshine a little, and pour the first liter into the sink altogether. The brother motivated this by the fact that it contained some substance harmful to health. I did not argue, although it was a pity to part with the labor of my hands just like that.
- After the drop of the strength in the jet to 44%, the selection of the main product was completed. The rest also went to “marriage”.
- We poured the collected liquid into glass jars and placed it in the pantry for another 2 days. It seems that this was done to stabilize the taste.
What will be the result
After the allotted time, my brother and I decided to celebrate the successful completion of the first joint experiment in moonshine brewing. While dinner was being prepared, we decided to have a drink.
The color of moonshine turned out to be transparent, like morning dew. Well, at least that’s what I thought after the first sip. Yes, I wouldn’t say that there, the banana turned out to be very strong!
There was a light fruity note in taste and smell.
First tasting.
How to serve and with what to use
In the evening, a neighbor came to visit, from whom we borrowed the apparatus, and several other friends. In general, a small feast was planned.
The moonshine has already been pre-bottled and chilled. There were glass glasses on the table. We decided to have a snack with our traditional products: potatoes, meat, bread and cucumbers.
And even though the moonshine on the table was made from bananas, the spirit at the table was truly Russian. In general, it was not in vain that my brother stopped me when I was about to throw bananas away. And from what unusual fruits have you tried to drive moonshine?