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To be honest, I never thought that I would be engaged in moonshine brewing. The memory of the turbid liquid that was driven in the countryside by relatives desperate in the era of perestroika shortages brought up a great distrust of this process.
Relatives belonged to persistent teetotalers. But at that time the bottle played a key role in natural exchange: without it, you can neither buy hay, nor cut firewood, nor plow a garden. So moonshine and teetotalers, and ulcers were driven, and my grandfather got used to it. And as for the quality … Hunters to moonshine were quite satisfied with it.
How did I decide on this experiment?
About seven years ago, a wave of interest in moonshine again covered the inquisitive people. Judge for yourself, the market offers a huge selection of devices and all sorts of “prichindaly” for this exciting business from the category of “not a very young chemist.”
Somehow, out of curiosity, my wife and I looked into such a store, and even her eyes ran wide!
In addition, it is possible to bring the drink to a quality that is not inferior to the industrial one. Moonshine masters use both folk remedies and completely modern sorbents.
The classic whitish color of the liquid in the bottle, which Georgy Vitsin gently hugs, clearly portends a severe hangover
What is not added to home-made alcohol, fighting fusel oils and other impurities! Milk, soda, egg white, vegetable oil, rye bread – in a word, an appetizer meets alcohol long before the stomach.
Water and water treatment technologies to help
Of course, I respect folk recipes, but the XNUMXst century has long been in the yard! And when I have to deal with another present from the village, I arm myself with the achievement of scientific and technological progress – an ordinary water filter.
Filter manufacturers guarantee that their brainchild removes organic compounds, which is what we need. The most convenient – jug filters with replaceable cartridges.
This is how the Geyser company clearly demonstrates the working part of the filter cartridge
The filter operation scheme is simple – it is, first of all, mechanical cleaning by filtration and adsorption. The filter element is a cartridge in which the fibrous material retains mechanical impurities, activated carbon – chlorine, heavy metals and organics.
For cleaning moonshine – more than enough. An ion exchange resin is often used as an additional layer. Here it is undesirable for moonshine.
“Fire water” through a household filter
And although water filters are not designed to clean alcohol-containing liquids, they do an excellent job of this function. Moreover, the simpler the filter, the better it is suitable for this purpose.
Ideally, cleaning through mechanical fibers and activated carbon. Troubles with the addition of fluorine, bromine, silver ions for moonshine are unnecessary. “Classic” and “Standard” models, the most suitable for the process, are in almost every line of pitcher filters.
For moonshiners who are proud of the strength of their drinks, cleaning an alcohol-containing liquid through a water purification filter is fraught with losses of 0.5-3 degrees. Here you have to choose from two evils: fusel oils and other evil spirits, or a slightly fallen fortress.
The mysteries of alchemy or how many in liters
The resource is indicated on the replaceable cartridges of water treatment devices. For jugs, this can be 250-350 liters, depending on the modification. But do not flatter yourself: these are data for cleaning drinking water.
Fusel oils are a serious pollutant with toxic properties, and the cartridge must be changed after filtering 15-20 liters of distillate, as I have seen from my own experience.
Anyone can handle changing the cartridge in a jug.
The capacity of the upper part of the jug is about 1,5 liters. The cleaning process is unhurried, besides, for the best effect, the filtering procedure is repeated 3-4 times.
We trust professionals
Manufacturers of water purification devices are not asleep: demand creates supply. “Samogonych”, “Makarych” – colorful names of purification plants speak for themselves. The Geyser company was especially successful in this: both household appliances are its developments.
“Samogonych” is a serious product equipped with a pump, a power supply, with a resource of 50 liters. Ozon offers to buy it at a price of 6143 rubles, Geyser itself promises a 10% discount to the cost of 6900 rubles.
“Samogonych” looks like a small rocket launcher.
His colleague “Makarych” is simpler, but no less effective. Easily copes with cleaning two buckets of alcohol-containing liquid, removing aldehydes and fusel oils. The price is quite budgetary: a jug can be bought up to 900 rubles, and replacement cartridges cost 345 rubles.
Every trip to the village I take with me a cartridge of Makarych for my relatives.
At the Barrier and Aquaphor companies, I did not find special filters for moonshiners. However, inexpensive models of jugs using activated carbon do a good job.
At the end of this summer, my cousin solemnly handed me a three-liter can of moonshine of delicate lemon color. A rich harvest of apples went for distillation, and, by the way, had a good effect on the taste. I did not raise my hand to filter the precious liquid.
I have not decided for myself the question of what to do with the cleaning of tomato, berry and other exotic types of moonshine?
Dear readers, remember that alcohol abuse harms your body. Take care of yourself!