Moonshine from honey at home – proportions of mash, distillation

If the bees knew what our moonshiner brother was doing with their honey, they would be seriously angry. But you give up principles when your hands reach experiments with home-made alcohol, which are also successful. We offer you the results of successful experiments with moonshine from honey at home.

The idea itself is crazy – to put such a valuable product into distillation seems crazy. But situations are different. For example, now in some regions the demand for honey has fallen sharply, which is why many beekeepers had to close their shops. In such regions, honey is sold for next to nothing. There is also old honey, which is no longer suitable for food, or fermented honey, which, however, indicates its low quality. And when such a product fell into your hands, you have only two options: cook mead or make honey mash, which can then be distilled into good moonshine.

I wrote about how to cook cool mead here and here. If the mead didn’t work out, you can immediately overtake it, but the output will be ridiculous, because there is no degree there, it is minimal (however, what’s the difference, the drink didn’t work out). In order not to be disappointed with the distillate yield, as well as its taste, moonshine brew from honey is prepared a little differently, with yeast, pure yeast cultures (CKD). The proportions of honey / water are different, but better than 1: 5 has not yet been invented. To increase the yield of distillate, sugar is often added to the mash, but although this is insignificant, it still affects the taste of moonshine.

In general, the drink is controversial not only because honey is the most valuable product and there are more suitable raw materials for distillation. It is very difficult to get a decent product from such raw materials. Many moonshiners end up with a cloudy goo without any hint of honey taste or smell. Of course, if you cook it like regular sugar moonshine, then what can you expect? Many people can’t even cope with sugar, but here honey is difficult to process. But in the West, honey has been distilled for a long time, and in almost 100% of cases a good brandy is obtained. Maybe the equipment decides, maybe raw materials, but you can make delicious moonshine from honey. Let’s also try…

Braga on honey for moonshine without sugar

* Good honey is good, but expensive. It is noticed that the quality of honey affects the taste of the distillate, but not significantly. It would be wiser to take old honey, fermented, etc. Candied old honey is best heated in a water bath (just put the jar in a pot of water) to make it easier to work with. Any fragrant product is suitable for our purposes, with the exception of clover honey, which for some reason reveals not very pleasant chemical tastes in moonshine.

** Yeast – need strong strains that can withstand and thrive in harsh honey environments. Spirit yeast from the “turbo” category showed itself well. Any spirit yeast for whiskey, etc. will also work. In extreme cases, you can use dry bakery products, in the same amount as for sugar mash (about 20 g per 5 l).

Of course, the best moonshine is obtained from mash prepared with wine or special brewer’s yeast, but the yield of the product is significantly reduced, as is the fermentation time. Especially the timing – with wine or brewer’s yeast, honey wort can ferment for up to 2 months, so keep this in mind.

Preparation of honey mash:

1. First you need to dissolve honey in water. To do this, you need to take half of the calculated amount of water and heat it up to 50-70^оC, then add honey and dissolve it completely, stirring constantly. Next, to the honey solution, you need to add the rest of the water at room temperature.

2. We take a small part of the wort (0,5 l will be enough), cool it to 21-25^оC and add yeast in the amount indicated on the package. If you managed to get a top dressing for yeast – there (as a top dressing you can use ammonium phosphate at the rate of 0,3 g / l, you can also find top dressing for honey wort in beer stores – take it boldly).
3. The rest of the honey mash is well aerated, because heating the water removed the oxygen from it, which the yeast needs to multiply in the beginning. To do this, it is enough to pour the honey solution from one container to another from a great height.
4. We check the temperature of our future mash – it should be around 21-25^оC. Are you satisfied with the temperature? Pour the aerated wort into the fermentation tank, filling it no more than ¾ – honey mash foams a lot. Add prepared yeast to the wort, mix well and put a water seal.

5. The fermentation tank must be left alone at a temperature of 21-28^оC. Make sure that the temperature of the mash does not fall below 16^оC and did not rise above 30 degrees. In this temperature regime, the mash should be kept for 6-8 days.
6. After the “warm” fermentation, we put the honey mash into the basement for “cold” fermentation. This takes 8-14 days. During the “cold” fermentation, the mash concentrates the taste, so you can add infusions of aromatic plants, as well as berry and fruit juices to it (read the last chapter of this article).
7. During the “cold” fermentation, the mash should become significantly lighter, so we drain it from the sediment and we can start distillation. Additionally, mash can be filtered through several layers of gauze. As an alternative: after the end of fermentation, wait another 10-14 days for the mash to be completely clarified, then remove from the sediment and distill.

Braga from honey for moonshine with sugar

To reduce the cost of moonshine and increase its yield, sugar can be added to the mash. For 6 parts of water and 1 part of honey, it is enough to take 1 part of sugar. Notes from the previous recipe are relevant: old honey, alcohol yeast or dry bakery yeast (20 g per 6 l of mash).

Cooking is not much different from the previous recipe. Honey must be melted in a water bath. Yeast pre-prepare according to the instructions (add to warm sweetened water and wait 15-30 minutes). Heat water up to 40-50^оC and dissolve sugar in it. Add honey to the syrup and place the wort well until it is completely dissolved. Aerate, cool to a comfortable temperature for the yeast to work. Pour the honey-sugar solution into a fermentation tank (no more than ¾ of the tank volume), add prepared yeast, install a water seal. Further according to the instructions of the first recipe, including with “cold” fermentation and with the addition of herbs, spices, juices.

Distillation of moonshine from honey and its refinement

We distill twice (for those to whom this is nothing to say, read this article). For the first time, the task is to get raw alcohol (hereinafter referred to as SS). During the first distillation, the heads do not need to be cut off. We complete the distillation when the strength in the stream drops below 40% (I recommend not to be greedy, and the remaining tails can always be added to the next stage).

If you are a happy owner of a column, then feel free to let it in. As a result of the rectification of raw alcohol, very soft and drinkable alcohol is obtained. Don’t forget to take heads. Moreover, if the mash is left for “cold” fermentation with infusions or juices (juices are better for rectification), then the resulting product will retain the taste of not only these additives, but also the honey itself.

The resulting SS does not need to be cleaned. The main thing is to measure the strength and calculate the absolute alcohol (hereinafter AC) in the solution. Before the second distillation, the SS must be diluted to 20%. During the second distillation, we generously cut off the heads (8-12% of the AC). After that, do not forget to empty the steamer, if one is provided for by the design of the apparatus. We complete the selection of the body with 40% alcohol in the stream. Then we take the tails up to 5% in the stream – they are in the next distillation.

It is quite difficult to calculate the yield of the product due to the different composition of honey. The yield is much less than from sugar moonshine, but this is very individual. For example, according to the second recipe, from 20 liters of mash (about 3 liters of honey and 3 kg of sugar), about 3 liters of moonshine with a strength of 60% is obtained, which is highly dependent on distillation equipment. The resulting distillate must be diluted to the optimal strength for itself (usually 40-50%). You can drink it after 2-3 weeks of rest.

By itself, moonshine from honey, if the technology and proportions were observed, turns out to be soft and with a fairly pronounced honey aftertaste. You can get a more interesting option, which is then not shameful to call honey brandy, by insisting moonshine on lightly roasted oak chips for 2-3 weeks. How to prepare wood chips, read the article with recipes for cognac imitations from Don Pomazan. Barrel aging is also welcome. After the wood chips, you can also add a little honey to the moonshine to emphasize the origin of the distillate. Of course, there will be turbidity that will have to be filtered or defended.

How to improve honey moonshine

The basis for writing this chapter was the patent RU 2346030, owned by the autonomous non-profit research organization “Institute of Mead Making”. Researchers of this organization found that if after the main fermentation at a temperature of 16-30^оWith honey mash subjected to “cold” fermentation at a temperature of 3-5^оC, with the addition of spicy infusions or juice, a higher quality moonshine is obtained. Rather, this “cold” after-fermentation contributes to the concentration of taste and aromatics in distillates, and even rectification cannot cut off these tastes and aromas.

Bottom line: during the fermentation of honey mash at a low temperature, add an infusion of herbs and spices or berry fruit drinks / fruit juices to it. According to the patent for “cold” fermentation, mash should be put in when the sugar concentration in the wort drops to 4-8%. For 10 liters of mash, it is enough to add 0,5 liters of spicy-aromatic infusion prepared from 10-11 g of dry raw materials. Dry raw materials are any aromatic herbs and spices: ginger, nutmeg, cardamom, cinnamon, coriander, cloves, calamus root, basil, oregano, mint, St. John’s wort, etc.

If we simplify everything to homemade crafts, then we take 10-11 g of any spice or aromatic herb (or a mixture of them, that is, we take 10-11 spices-herbs each), pour it with 500 ml of boiling water, insist, filter and add to the mash, after how they moved it to the basement or a suitable refrigerator. With juices, unfortunately, everything is much more complicated. In fact, you need to cook full with the addition of berry or fruit juices, and then ferment the must according to the technology described in the first recipe. Who is interested in working with juices – I indicated the patent number.

The result of such experiments is a wonderful honey moonshine, very soft, with a pleasant honey-spicy aftertaste and aroma. Need to try!