They don’t just distill mash, but everything is written down to the reagents: I tell you how vodka is prepared at the factory and what is included in GOST

I decided not to limit myself to general information regarding the production of alcohol for vodkas, its brands and the preparation process in general terms.

I want to understand this topic a little more in detail, including the requirements for drinks according to GOST, the intricacies of correcting the water that is used in cooking, how everything is filtered, and at what stage other ingredients are added.

So, hello everyone, let’s continue talking about vodka – we need to open the program on television directly. The first thing that comes across in the search results after the query “vodka” is, of course, our beloved Wikipedia.

It turned out that Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev never worked on the creation of vodka. That he invented this drink is a myth that I also believed up to this point.

He was just preparing his dissertation “Combining alcohol with water”, which had nothing to do with all sorts of inventions of alcoholic beverages. As they say: “Nothing personal. Only chemistry.

Raw materials – what vodka is generally made of and what are the requirements according to GOST

When I got into Wikipedia to read about vodka, I decided to scroll to the block with the literature used, where I found a link to GOST under the number 52190 of 2003.

I thought that it was this document that was relevant now, in which I was very grossly mistaken. It turns out that in 2013 a new State Standard was developed with a slight amendment.

Later I saw that this GOST was not the only one – we have our own standard for Russian vodka, the requirements for export drinks are already described in another document. There are also 4362-50 – here about 50% and 56% vodka.

Nevertheless, to answer the question, I decided to take GOST 12712-2013, the same one, with an amendment. It is called “Vodkas and vodkas are special. General technical conditions”.

“Without foreign inclusions and sediment” – these are the requirements for vodka, both ordinary and special. It turns out that a floating pepper in a bottle no longer makes vodka such according to GOST …

Opened – yes, there is a whole science! Not just “they take raw materials, prepare mash, distill”, but up to reagents and methods for determining toxic substances, including mercury and arsenic.

So raw material:

• white sugar;
• rectified food ethyl alcohol (highest purity, Lux, Extra, Alpha);
• drinking water with a hardness of up to 1 W, up to 0,2 for corrected water, 1,5-6 W for water used as an adsorbent for powdered milk;
• powdered milk;
• sodium bicarbonate (soda, reagent);
• acetic acid (reagent);
• lactic acid (reagent);
• hydrochloric and sulfuric acids (reagents);
• lemon acid;
• acetic wood chemical acid (reagent);
• natural honey;
• salt;
• active charcoal (for filters);
• potassium permanganate (for filters);
• potato starch;
• filter cardboard (of course – for filters);
• cotton fabric (for filters);
• glucose, fructose, lactose;
• distilled glycerin (reagent);
• aromatic spirits and infusions (flavors);
• vanillin.

That’s it.

Correction of water and mixing with alcohol

Now the full akhtung, which I will not describe in detail, but the link to all the ways to fix water at the end of the article will be given to those who want to read it in full.

Correction of water – the definition speaks for itself. We are talking about the processing of the corresponding liquid until its “correct” qualities are achieved. These are acidity, alkalinity, hardness, degree and type of purification.

Have you seen on the labels of some vodkas the marks “silver water” or “charged with ions”? Here, this is the very marketing ploy, where the emphasis is stupidly on one of the methods of water treatment.

In short, the methods are:

• softening by boiling or liming water;
• cationization, ionization – cleaning, changing the salt and acid composition;
• charcoal filtration – the composition is optimal, but it is still necessary to clean the water of any unnecessary rubbish;
• coagulation – precipitation of aluminum and iron hydroxides;
• ozonation is the use of O3.

The most common method in the preparation of vodkas is cationization using substances that contain sodium and sulfonated coal (coal treated with sulfuric acid).

Alcohol is mixed with this water by adding it to a huge vat – this is done by the sorting shop. Previously, this was done by mechanical mixing and with the help of pumps, now it is done with compressed air.

The pipe is inside the vat, it all gurgles and mixes. Alcohol is poured, of course, with the calculation of the concentration for a specific recipe, starting from 37,5 and ending with 56%.

Charcoal cleaning and ingredient application

Alcohol was filtered from unnecessary resins and fusel. Water, too. Now we need to clean the resulting mixture, in fact, almost ready-made vodka. That’s just this active carbon, which was in GOST.

The mixture is driven through one filter, with this coal, then, under the pressure of a column of liquid, it passes through a sand filter. Today, most factories still use filtration tanks with cloth, which must be cleaned periodically.

Gradually, continuous filtration technology is being introduced, including two-line filters, where vodka enters both from below and from above, exiting into the middle pipe. Like a tee. Now sand of different grain sizes is used, and blocks with filter cloth are replaceable.

Flavors, extracts and other components, including infusions, are introduced into vodka to make that very special vodka (aka special) on birch buds, pine nuts, lemon, cranberries, and so on.

Control filtration

The penultimate stage, control filtration of simple or special vodka with ingredients already added. This is not a repeated passage of the mixture through the same filter – a different one is needed here.

Now birch or beech charcoal of the BAU-A or DAK grades is used according to GOST 6217, but the technology of control cleaning using stone charcoal – KAU-V is gradually being introduced.

Vodka is passed from bottom to top through a huge layer of this coal, the height of which is approximately 4 meters!

At this stage, harmful impurities are absorbed, the concentration of higher alcohols decreases, and esters increase. The distillate is drained, the coal is regenerated by heating. Vodka is driven into a sand filter to remove particles of coal. Everything can be spilled!

Bottling

Before bottling, vodka goes into finishing vats to adjust its strength. Now we are opening another document, this is GOST 32098 – 2013. There are requirements for bottles, labeling, and even corks.

Vodka is poured into bottles of the third class of water resistance from sodium-calcium-silicate glass, as well as into ceramic and glass decanters.

Look, it is even stipulated here that it is allowed to tie caps to decanters with a cord or silk ribbon, despite the corking with a factory cork.

So, here is GOST for packaging.

This is, as promised, a water fix.

General GOST for vodka is here.

Now I would like to “hear” your opinion about souvenir decanters – where did they go? I remember when I was still little, in ordinary stores they sold bottles of vodka and cognac, also in the form of guitars, sticks for traffic police, shoes …

Now this has not been the case for many years – maybe there are new requirements or “souvenir” vodka is now sold only on the Internet? Why are these products no longer found in grocery stores and alcohol stores?