Ripe blackberries contain 4-7% fermentable sugars. This means that the maximum yield from 1 kg of raw materials is up to 80 ml of moonshine with a strength of 40%. In practice, there will always be losses of at least 10-15%. To get more distillate, you will have to add sugar (1 kg gives 1,1-1,2 liters of forty-degree moonshine). But the more sugar, the less the smell and taste of berries remains in the drink. You have to look for the golden mean, the recommended proportions are indicated in the recipe.
To improve the organoleptic properties, it is desirable to use wine or wild (from the surface of the berries) yeast, since spirit, bakery dry or pressed almost completely neutralize the subtle berry aroma. There is only one drawback of wild and wine yeast – fermentation lasts 3-5 times longer than with ordinary ones.
Ingredients:
- blackberries – 3 kg;
- sugar – 0,5-1 kg (optional);
- water – 3 liters (and another 4 liters for each kilogram of sugar);
- yeast – 20 grams dry or 100 grams pressed (undesirable).
Blackberry mash recipe
1. Grind unwashed (only if wild yeast is used) berries by hand or in any other way until smooth.
2. The resulting slurry is placed in a fermentation tank. Add water, sugar and yeast (optional). Mix. It is desirable that the container has 25-30% free space for foam and carbon dioxide.
3. Install a water seal on the neck or a glove with a hole in the finger. Transfer the must to a dark place with a stable temperature of 18-28°C.
Depending on the selected yeast, sugar content and temperature, fermentation of blackberry mash lasts 4-45 days (4-10 with alcohol or baker’s yeast, 15-45 with wild or wine). The finished mash tastes bitter and unsweetened, the water seal will not release gas for a couple of days, and a layer of sediment accumulates at the bottom.
Obtaining moonshine from blackberries
4. Filter the washed mash through several layers of gauze and pour into a distillation cube. Press the cake well, the hard part is no longer needed.
5. Make the first distillation at high speed without fractionation. Select distillate before the drop of the fortress in the jet below 30%.
6. Measure the total strength of the resulting blackberry moonshine, determine the amount of pure alcohol (multiply the volume by the percentage of strength and divide by 100).
7. Dilute the distillate with water to 18-20% and do a fractional distillation. Collect the first 10-12% of the amount of pure alcohol separately, this harmful fraction is called the “head”, due to the high concentration of harmful substances it is not suitable for drinking.
8. Select “body (main product)” until the strength in the jet falls below 45%. Then finish the distillation or accumulate “tails” separately.
9. Dilute the resulting blackberry moonshine with water to the desired strength (40-45%), pour into glass containers and seal tightly. Before tasting, leave for 2-3 days in a dark, cool place.
