Moonshine is a multi-stage process that requires a clear implementation of a number of actions and strict observance of certain conditions. Making a popular malt-based drink will require much more effort and time than making a common sugar-based version, but the reward will be original taste and aroma.
Malt can be purchased both ready-made in the store, and you can make it yourself. Any grain raw material that is a source of starch is suitable - barley, rye, wheat, oats, corn. Germinating green seeds at home is a rather laborious process, especially for beginners. However, it can be easily divided into several simple sequential steps:
- seeds are soaked in water room temperature, while they need to be stirred from time to time;
- grains that float to the surface are removed with a colander - they will not germinate;
- water is drained to the level of seeds; the mass is left in this form for 24 hours;
- grain crumbles in a thin layer on a baking sheet and remains at a temperature of 17–20 °;
- three times a day, the seeds are mixed and moistened; the procedure should be repeated for 8-10 days.
When the green sprouts reach a length of 12–15 mm, and the color of the grains themselves does not change, the germination process can be considered successfully completed. Sprouted grains must be dried. Remove green parts.
grains of wheat and green malt give a sweetish aftertaste to the drink, which makes it softer; rye and oats, on the contrary, add rigidity, and a drink made from barley will be very reminiscent of whiskey. Depending on the selected grain, the product will acquire its own special, incomparable aroma.
If you are making moonshine from malt for the first time, we advise you to use one type of raw material; in the future, you can give free rein to your imagination and experiment with mixtures. Correct Proportions you will pick up with time and experience. There are many recipes, and we suggest that you familiarize yourself with some of the classic options.
A general step-by-step recipe for mash from ready-made malt
Rye flour moonshine recipe
Rye-based drink has the most pronounced, bright taste. Its preparation has its own characteristics. Firstly, rye flour, when diluted in water, gathers into lumps more strongly than finely ground cereals. Secondly, it is able to form a dense emulsion, and when heated, it begins to burn. And thirdly, although rye-based moonshine has an excellent taste, it also has a heavy, not very pleasant smell.
The main ingredients you will need will be rye flour (4 kg), yeast (100 g) and water (19 l).
IN suitable utensils combine 8 liters of boiling water and 2 liters of cold water, add the entire indicated volume rye flour and mix thoroughly. Let it brew ready mix about two hours and add another 3 liters of cold water. After mixing thoroughly, add the remaining 6 liters of cold water and yeast.
The resulting mixture should be infused for 3-4 days, after which it is distilled through a moonshine still. finished product from rye goes well with kvass, apple and cranberry juice.
Oat moonshine recipe
The technology for preparing rye mash can also be used for oats, but with a slight change. Here on initial stage, in addition to grain flour, water and yeast, the addition of sugar (4 kg) is stipulated. The drink turns out to be rather unusual, moderately tart and moderately soft, and if you insist it on oak bars, the product will resemble whiskey!
barley malt moonshine recipe
Moonshine from barley is rightfully considered one of the best - the drink is valued for its strength and simultaneous softness. barley drink without the use of yeast, it has a more pleasant and natural taste. To appreciate it, you will have to stock up on barley (2.5 kg), sugar (4 kg) and water (23 l).
Barley seeds should be thoroughly washed, poured warm water and leave in a warm place until green sprouts appear. Then you need to dry the seeds in the oven and, using an ordinary coffee grinder, grind them to a state of flour. Pour the resulting malt into large saucepan With hot water, mix until smooth and keep on fire, maintaining temperature regime about 60–70°. Once the malt has precipitated, cool the resulting wort to room temperature.
The next step is to add sugar, which must be stirred well, and the dishes should be placed in a warm place (at least 18 ° C is needed for fermentation).
Infuse the mixture for no more than a week. If by this time it does not ripen, it means that a mistake was made at one of the stages of preparation. For getting quality moonshine from barley malt should be distilled three times.
barley flour moonshine recipe
Making moonshine from ready-made barley flour is a fairly simple process, and even a beginner can handle it. To do this, stock up on barley flour (10 kg), yeast (200 g) and water (15 l).
Pour all the flour into a fairly spacious saucepan, pour hot water and let it brew for about 3 hours. After the wort has cooled, add the yeast, mix well and leave in a warm place for 5-7 days to ferment. Distill the mash through the moonshine still twice. If you want to give the drink an extra flavor, you can add cinnamon or vanilla sugar.
Making moonshine from malt is somewhat more difficult than sugar, but the result is worth the effort. Depending on the selected grain, the finished distillate will have unique flavor notes and a unique smell.
Malt mash recipe
Composition and proportions:
- malt (any) - 6 kg;
- water - 25 liters;
- dry yeast - 50 grams (or 300 grams pressed).
Suitable for both store (beer) and. In the second case, you can not dry the sprouted grain, but immediately make mash from green malt.
Good results are obtained by mixing different types malt. For example, 50% barley, 25% wheat and 25% rye. Or 50% wheat, 40% barley and 10% oats.
The proportions may be different, experienced moonshiners select them at their discretion, guided by taste. For beginners, I advise you to first work with one species and only after several successful distillations take on mixing.
From wheat and green malt, soft moonshine with a slight sweet aftertaste is obtained, rye and oats bring notes of hardness to the taste, barley - beer tones and aroma of whiskey.
Green malt for moonshine
Attention! It is very important to adhere to the temperature ranges indicated in the recipe, otherwise the yield of moonshine will be extremely low.
mash from malt
- Grind white (dried) malt to a coarse grind. This can be done with a grain crusher or a roller mill. Often store-bought malt is sold ground, which saves a lot of time. Green malt is crushed with a meat grinder, blender or grinder with a special nozzle.
- Pour the crushed malt into a large saucepan, pour it with hot water (50-55°C). In the process of adding water, stir the wort with a wooden spatula so that the flour does not clump and stick to the bottom of the container. Stir until the mass becomes homogeneous.
- Heat the wort to 63°C, mix well again, close the container with a lid. Maintain the temperature at 55-62°C for 60-80 minutes, stirring the contents of the pan every 15 minutes. When top part the wort will clear, and the porridge will settle on the bottom, go to the next step.
- As soon as possible (especially if green malt was used) cool the wort to 24-27°C so that it does not sour. There are 30-40 minutes available. You can not wait until the temperature drops by itself, you need artificial cooling. For example, lower the container into the bath with cold water.
- Pour the wort into a fermentation container, add the yeast diluted according to the instructions, mix well.
- Move the container with mash to a dark place with a temperature of 18-25 ° C, install a water seal on the neck.
- Depending on the sugar content of the malt, temperature and yeast activity, fermentation lasts 3-6 days. Once a day, remove the water seal and mix the mash with your hand or a wooden stick. Braga is considered ready when it has become light, has a bitter-sour taste, and gas has not been released from the tube for 12-16 hours.
Malt moonshine
- If not a steam generator is used for distillation, but an ordinary moonshine still, first the mash must be filtered by pouring it into the distillation cube through a colander and a strainer so that small particles of grain do not burn with strong heat.
- After the first distillation, I advise you to clean the moonshine with coal, bread or milk, then, dividing the output into fractions: “heads”, “body” and “tails”. Other cleaning methods can kill the unique smell.
Smell sugar moonshine- this is a smell from youth, you can’t confuse it with anything. As a drink, sugar moonshine does not have a special uniqueness and refinement, but if you add green malt to the mash, the taste will change, characteristic noble notes of grain distillate will appear. I present to your attention a recipe for sugar moonshine with the addition of germinated grains of wheat and barley.
moonshine recipe
To prepare the mash we need:- Sugar - 3 kg.,
- Green malt, barley and wheat in a ratio of 50% to 50% - 1.2 kg.,
- Pressed baking yeast - 300 g,
- Water - 15 liters.
The process of making moonshine
sugar mash recipe
Unlike classic sugar moonshine recipe first you need to germinate the grain, I recommend, namely, the proportion of 50% to 50% barley and wheat, as for me this is the optimal ratio for the final good taste moonshine. You need to germinate until the sprout is the size of the grain itself.
Pour water into the fermentation tank - 70% of the planned volume, temperature about 40 C, dissolve 30% sugar in it. We finely chop the yeast and put it into the mash (at a temperature of 30 C), grind the malt in a meat grinder, finer if possible, and send it into the mash too. We have prepared "confusion", mix well, send to a warm place for 2-3 hours.
After, everything should ferment and gurgle, add the rest of the sugar and water in the form of syrup, the temperature of which should be 30 C. The sugar mash is ready, we send it for fermentation at a temperature of 26-28 C. When adding green malt to the mash, not only the taste of moonshine it gets better, but the mash itself wanders faster, about 4-5 days. You can not put it under a water seal, fermentation is violent and fast.
Braga lightening
We continue the process of making sugar moonshine. After sugar mash it will ferment, namely: it will become lighter, the release of carbon dioxide will stop, it tastes bitter, it needs to be clarified. There are several ways clarification of mash:1. It will cool below 5 C, in winter we simply take it out to the balcony-street. In 1-2 days, a precipitate forms at the bottom of the container and just drain carefully.
2. Lighten yourself, not the best and most reliable way, you have to wait a long time.
3. Clarify with bentonite. Pour 30 grams of bentonite into plastic bottle, half-fill with water, mix well and pour into the mash. We begin to beat the container with mash methodically and intensively for 10-15 minutes, leave it alone until it becomes light.
Fractional distillation
Braga is clarified and already in the distillation vessel. We start the device and distilling moonshine from sugar. Distillation depends on the design moonshine still I usually do two. The first distillation is the selection of raw alcohol without distribution into fractions, all in one dish. sugar moonshine I usually select up to 8-10% abv in the jet. The second distillation, it is already fractional. Approximately goes to head fraction 5% of absolute alcohol, then I select it by smell, if I don’t like the smell, then it also goes to my head. Usually, no more than 10%.I take the heart up to 70% in the jet, depending on the apparatus and settings, you can finish the selection at 80%, and then the tail fractions.
Dilution of moonshine, mixing with water.
If we talk about sugar moonshine, then I dilute it to 54%, in this case the taste is clearer and there is no “wateriness”, the effect is smoothed, bright and cheerful, there is no fumes in the morning, the head works.
I use ordinary tap water, which I pass through a household filter 3 times. I pour the right portion of water into the moonshine, mix thoroughly and vigorously. Drinking moonshine must necessarily rest for at least 2-3 days before use, and better than a week 2. During this time, all the processes will go through, the taste will become round and clear.
Moonshine from malt and sugar has a clear, bright grainy aroma, barley sweetness is well felt in the taste, the aftertaste is pleasant, moderately sharp. I recommend eating chilled and with good fatty foods.
Below are the videos recipes for making sugar moonshine with the addition of malt at home.
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Malt mash, unlike sugar mash, has very interesting flavor notes of germinated cereals. The time and effort spent will fully pay off when you drink moonshine made with malt and realize that it is really good. Braga on sugar is easier to put, but you will never achieve such a result with it.
It is important to know which malt is best to use and in what proportions to mix it. It will be important to study the technology of making mash and distilling moonshine in order to close the production chain and get a high-quality end product. All this we will analyze in detail further.
Maintaining temperature limits is a secret good moonshine on malt
You can use both purchased (for beer) and assembled with your own hands. In the second case, after germination, the malt can not be dried, but directly green malt can be used.
Proportions:
- Malt - 6 kg.
- Water - 25 liters.
- Yeast - 50 g dry or 300 g pressed.
Which cereal do you prefer? To do this, you need to know the taste notes that remain after a particular cereal, as well as the yield of alcohol from each culture. To this end, I propose to study alcohol yield per kilogram of raw material:
Example of rye malt
- Potatoes: 140 ml.
- Peas: 240 ml.
- Oats: 280 ml.
- Barley: 350 ml.
- Rye: 360 ml.
- Millet: 380 ml.
- Beans: 390 ml.
- Wheat: 430 ml.
- Corn: 450 ml.
- Rice: 530 ml.
- Sugar: 640 ml.
- Starch: 710 ml.
As you can see, sugar is not just used to make home brew, its yield is more than 2 times greater than that of average malt. Popular among moonshiners, wheat has a very good yield - 430 ml per 1 kg of raw materials.
Each type of malt has its own alcohol yield per kg of raw material.
If this is your first time putting mash on malt. it is better to take any one kind of cereals, for example, wheat, barley or oats. When you work out the technology, it will be possible to mix cereals in various proportions, achieving the taste you need.
Rye and oats "weight" the taste of moonshine, green malt gives sweet notes, barley gives a beer flavor. Each cereal has its own range of taste, which is revealed in the process of fermentation and distillation.
Fermentation and distillation technology
I propose to study the whole process in the form step by step instructions. Remember that in the matter of malt mash it is very important to observe all temperature conditions and time. This can seriously affect the fermentation process and the final alcohol yield in the distiller.
- We crumble the purchased malt to the consistency of flour or grind the green as much as possible. To do this, you can use a grain grinder, blender or coffee grinder.
- Pour the resulting mixture into a saucepan, fill with water at a temperature of 60 degrees and stir until smooth. To do this, you can use a blender or mixer.
- We heat the wort to 63 degrees, keep the temperature at 55–60 degrees for an hour and stir occasionally. As soon as the mash is clarified and a precipitate forms in the form of porridge, we proceed to the fourth step.
- We cool the wort as quickly as possible to 25 degrees, placing the pan in cold water. This should be done within 20-30 minutes, until the mash is sour.
- Pour the wort into a fermentation tank, add yeast, put a water seal and put it in a dark place for 3-7 days, and mix the contents of the tank once a day.
- Braga can be considered ready when no gas is released for 12 hours, the taste has a bitter tint, and the mash becomes noticeably lighter.
- We filter the finished mash through a sieve, getting rid of particles of malt, which can burn when heated.
- Continue the first distillation until the strength falls below 30%. Muddy Moonshine at this stage is considered normal.
- We determine the fortress and consider the total amount of alcohol.
- We dilute moonshine to 15% of the fortress and carry out cleaning with charcoal, butter or milk.
- We carry out the second distillation with the separation of the distillate into the “head” (the first 10-12% of the yield), the “body” and the “tail” (below 45% strength).
- We dilute the resulting distillate to the desired strength and infuse for 2-3 days to stabilize the taste.
It takes an average of 5 days to prepare the mash, 1 light day to distill, and another 2-3 days to infuse. As a result, the entire process of home brewing takes a little more than one week.
Moonshine is transparent and almost odorless
Common Mistakes
If you carefully follow the instructions, then you should not have any problems. However, as always, something is missed or forgotten in the cooking process, so let's highlight the important points.
- Be sure to observe the temperature. Step left or step right and immediately under the tribunal. Deviations from recognized norms will violate the technology and lead to a deterioration in the quality of moonshine, a decrease in the yield percentage and the appearance of wrong tastes.
- Grind the malt intensively. In the store, you will most likely buy a mixture that is excellent in consistency, but homemade and green will need to be crumbled as much as possible. Here it is better to overdo it than to grind weakly.
- Second distillation and separation of fractions are required. In order to increase the yield, people save on distillation and separation of fractions. Remember that this is your health, so saving on it is simply not advisable.
It is believed that sugar-type moonshine is much easier to make than malt. However, the result will be worth your work. The finished distillate will delight you with an interesting aroma and taste, which will acquire different shades depending on the grain used.
Classic malt recipe
First of all, let's turn to classic recipe products based on malt. Grind it until it turns into flour. Assistants for this are either a grain crusher or a roller mill. And if you make flour at home, then a blender with a meat grinder, or already crushed kind of malt from the store.
Next, place the powder in the right utensils, pour not boiling, but hot enough water, 50 degrees. It is important to constantly stir the malt and add water to avoid lumps, so that a homogeneous mass is obtained.
Next, it must be heated to a level of 65 degrees and do everything possible to maintain it for 60 minutes. Periodically, the wort can be stirred with a wooden spatula. As the wort clears and sediment settles, start chilling the contents to 25 degrees.
To prevent possible souring of the product, everything must be done promptly, so it is recommended to finish this stage in half an hour. If you cool in an unnatural way, then the sour contents will not make sense. Experts recommend using a bath with cold water for a more rapid decrease in temperature.
After that, the resulting product is placed in an already prepared container, where the fermentation process itself will already take place. Add dry yeast and mix thoroughly. And so, we carry out the installation of a water seal and place the resulting mixture in a place without light and heat. The process takes approximately one week or less. Do not forget to stir the product once a day.
Read also:
The finished product should be decanted through gauze and placed in the distillation part of the apparatus for preparing a drink. Otherwise, the malt particles are capable and the taste will suffer. And when planning the initial run on a steam-water boiler or with a steam generator, then the mash does not need to be filtered.
Braga from malt for moonshine
So after filtering the product, you should turn the first stage. The distillate is withdrawn until the level of the degree in the jet drops to 30 percent. It is possible to get a cloudy liquid, this is within the normal range.
After the first distillation, moonshine is cleaned with or.
Braga is diluted with water up to 20 percent and distillation is applied again. About an eighth of the amount of alcohol in pure form should be placed in a separate container. This is done because of this so-called fraction - the “head”, which includes harmful substances that are applicable only for technical purposes.
The resulting moonshine from malt should be diluted to 40-45 degrees, poured into a glass container and closed in an airtight manner. We store it like this for 3-4 in order to establish the taste, let the product rest in the glass. You can make an infusion on a sliver of oak.
Solot sugar mash
Creating classics from sugar and malt will require 3 kilograms of sugar, 1.2 kg of malt, 300 grams of yeast. They must be of the pressed type.
We start cooking by heating the water base to 40 degrees. Then we fill her container for fermentation. A third of the amount of sugar also goes there. Grind the yeast until crumbs form and place in a mash. Mix everything thoroughly.
Read also: moonshine cleaning,
Grind green type malt to the consistency of grits. Also place in a bowl for the fermentation process. Mix everything again and leave to rest for a couple of hours in a not cold place.
If you follow the recipe exactly, then this duration is just perfect for starting fermentation. Next, add the sugar that has not yet been used. It is recommended to dissolve it with tepid water before pouring it.
And now, the drink is ready. We put the drink in a warm place without light and wait for it to ripen. It should ferment faster, as the green must will help. The drink will be ready for distillation after five days.
Whiskey at home
Is it possible to enjoy whiskey made at home? Yes, by using barley malt specially prepared for this purpose. You don't need sugar in this recipe. Save 8 kg. malt, barley, yeast and water - about 32 liters.
First of all, we heat the water base to 70 degrees. Pour the malt in a thin stream, remembering to use a wooden spatula to stir. We have homogeneous mass similar to porridge. We warm it up to 65 degrees, then the flame decreases, and the product is left on the stove for an hour and a half, again stirring constantly.
Then the resulting product should be cooled to 25 degrees, after removing it from the stove. Then add already fermented yeast, already placed in a fermentation container. Mix everything again. We install a water seal on the neck of the dishes. Now it remains to place it in a place without light and coolness. Braga should ripen in about ten days. Do not forget to stir it constantly to avoid souring the wort.
Malt version without yeast
Thanks to sprouted grains and malt, this type of moonshine will please you with a soft and natural flavor. We prepare it on the basis of grain, 4 kg of sugar and 23 liters. water. As a result - 30 liters of moonshine.
