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I love good alcohol, and the only decent one that I met was whiskey. Whiskey – at its core, the same moonshine and the technology of its production is not much different. But you must admit, good drinks cost a pretty penny.
For example, the same Jameson (Jemison), in my opinion, one of the best drinks in terms of price / quality ratio will cost at least 1500 rubles. A more budget option LAUDERS (Lauders) – 800 rubles, but the quality is not at all the same.
I myself am engaged in the production of homemade whiskey, and, it is worth noting, this hobby is also not cheap, so I became interested, and I decided to calculate what is cheaper: to expel the whiskey myself or buy it.
This story was sent by my subscriber Dmitry K.
The cost of a purchased drink
For more objective calculations, we will take budget whiskey, since it is far from always possible to achieve reference quality by distillation at home.
And if you are equal to the same Chivas (Chivas), then the difference in price will be enormous, but not objective.
For example, let’s take whiskey, which I liked to buy in Duty Free – LAUDERS. Its cost is 9 euros, in terms of rubles, for ease of calculation, we will take the amount of 800 rubles.
This is the price of a finished drink that is immediately ready to drink. For more accurate calculations, let’s take 3 bottles to get 3 liters of alcohol. I have a cube – 30 liters, a clean output from it is about 1,5 liters of high-quality 90⁰ drink, and this is approximately 3 liters of 40⁰ whiskey.
Equipment for making homemade whiskey
In order to have a clearer picture, it should be borne in mind that whiskey is not driven in a pot or jar, this requires special equipment, which also costs a lot of money. For instance:
- Stainless cube – 10 rubles.
- Distillation column – 10 rubles.
- Adapters, hoses, seals – 1 rubles.
- Thermal controller – 1 rubles.
- X3 thermometers – 1 rubles.
- Canister for fermentation (30l) – 1 rubles.
- Gates, funnels, adapters – 1 rubles.
- Oak barrel for aging a drink – 3 rubles.
It turns out that the initial investment will be about 30 rubles. At the same time, I don’t have the cheapest equipment, but far from the most expensive either. Moonshine gurus have devices worth 000 rubles or even 100.
It is impossible to talk about the cost of home-made alcohol without taking into account the price of equipment. One column stands like a case of good whiskey
The cost of the drink itself
So, let’s calculate how much it will cost us 3 liters of homemade whiskey. We need high-quality malt, which can only be purchased at a specialized store. I take 150 rubles/kg Pilsner malt.
We need 7 kg of malt. The second point is yeast. Good yeast for single malt whiskey will cost 500 rubles. Total: 750 + 500 = 1 rubles.
Additional costs may or may not be taken into account. But in order to be as objective as possible, we calculate:
- the cost of gasoline to go buy malt – 300 rubles;
- water costs – about a cube – 20 rubles;
- gas / electricity costs (who does what), I drive gas – about 30 rubles.
With all additional expenses, the amount is 1 rubles. It turns out that by making a drink on our own, we get 600 liter more at the same cost. On the one hand, it is profitable, on the other hand, we do not forget that almost $ 1 was spent on equipment.
The hardest part is waiting for the whiskey to mature well in the barrel.
Other nuances and conclusion
If you can buy whiskey in a store and immediately enjoy a delicious aromatic drink, then everything is not so simple with a home-made product. Moonshine must be infused in an oak barrel for 8-10 months, and only after that it will be very similar to whiskey.
Benefits, as you can see, are minimal. I do not think that people who are fond of home-brewing at a more or less professional level do it for the dubious savings of 1 rubles.
This is a hobby that brings pleasure not only from the result of their labors, but also from the manufacturing process.
The benefit will come only after a few years, since at first investments in expensive equipment are beaten off. From my own experience I can say that the benefit is doubtful, it should not be taken into account.
You can, of course, buy the most budgetary device and drive sugar mash, but the result will be appropriate, reminiscent of the cheapest store-bought vodka.
Why do you think moonshine has become so popular today and what drives distillers?