Recipe for making alcohol. Drinking alcohol production technology

Distillation column for home use

Vodka doesn't have the best reputation. This traditional alcoholic drink has become a banner of alcoholism and poverty. Successful and famous people don’t drink vodka, and neither do young people. Much more popular is whiskey.

The bad news is that it's as easy to get poisoned as vodka. There are no less fakes. Connoisseurs know that real vodka is one of the purest alcoholic drinks. Especially if you cook it at home. We tell you how to make vodka at home using the Doctor Guber distillation column.

What is vodka

Vodka is a pure sort, that is, a mixture of alcohol and water. Unlike distillates, for example, whiskey, vodka cannot have the characteristic smell of raw materials, and receives its special vodka aroma as a result of purification. Traditionally, the strength of vodka is 40 degrees, but connoisseurs and researchers note that the human body better perceives a strength of 38 or, for example, 42. In general, GOST 12712-2013 “Vodkas and special vodkas. General technical conditions" determines the strength of vodka from 37.5 to 56.

Quality is determined by the category of alcohol that is used in the process of making vodka. There are four degrees of alcohol purification; they differ in the starting materials and degree of purification:

Alpha. Grains and their mixtures. Methyl alcohol no more than 0.003%
Luxury Mixtures of grain and potatoes, starch content no more than 35%. Methyl alcohol not more than 0.03%.
Extra. Mixtures of grain and potatoes, starch content no more than 60%. Methyl alcohol not more than 0.03%.
Highest purity. Mixtures of potatoes, beets, raw sugar. Methyl alcohol no more than 0.05%

The highest quality and purest alcohol is alcohol of the “Alpha” category. However, in home production, raw materials for vodka do not play a key role. When working with a rectifier, you can achieve the highest purity of alcohol using almost any raw material, and any aroma completely disappears.

This is especially true for aromatic vodkas, such as anise or juniper. The aroma of these herbs will still unconditionally dominate, so you can make it with regular sugar.

Raw materials

And so, it doesn’t matter what you use to make raw alcohol: the main condition is that the product must contain sugar, so regular sugar mash will do. This distinguishes rectified alcohol from distillate, which is valued precisely for the taste and aromatic properties of the raw material.

Equipment

To produce distillate, a regular still will do. But the rectification of vodka will require a more serious superstructure - . The column is designed on the counterflow principle - in it the steam-water mixture is divided into fractions due to the difference in boiling point.

To simplify greatly, the process looks like this: the liquid in the cube heats up and begins to evaporate. The steam-water mixture enters the column and at the very top - into the reflux condenser. In the reflux condenser, the steam condenses and can be sent to selection. The components with a low boiling point evaporate first - the very fusel oils from which the alcohol must be purified.

Process

The production of rectified alcohol takes place in two stages:

Distillation

Here we obtain raw alcohol for future purification. We do not select heads and tails, because we will deal with this in the second stage. As a result of distillation, raw alcohol is obtained with a strength of about 30-40%.

Rectification

This process begins with diluting the raw alcohol. Let's take it plain water and dilute it to a strength of 35-40%, if the strength of the raw alcohol is higher than these values. This is important for safety reasons, so don't forget. Now let's move on to the actual rectification.

Pour the liquid into the cube and get started.
We select the “heads”, 3-5% of the volume of liquid in the cube.
We collect the food part, from which we will make vodka.
We collect the tails and the remaining stillage.

Mixing

The most technological part is already behind us, but it’s still too early to relax. Incorrectly combining alcohol with water can ruin the future drink. There are several nuances:

Use water with minimal mineralization. The more minerals in the water, the more cloudy the mixture will become. Bottled water will do. Water should have a hardness of no more than 2 mg. eq per liter In simple terms this is called "softened water".

Mix alcohol with water. By and large, it doesn’t matter what and where to pour first. In large factories, for example, water is poured into alcohol. Water has a higher density, so natural mixing occurs.

Ideally, mixing occurs quickly and in one motion.

It is not at all necessary to bring the mixture exactly to 40%. To get the desired strength, use Fertman's table:

Strength of diluted alcohol (1000 volumes), %	Desired strength of diluted alcohol
Strength of diluted alcohol (1000 volumes), %	30%	35%	40%	45%	50%	55%	60%	65%	70%	75%	80%	85%	90%
35	167
40	335	144
45	505	290	127
50	674	436	255	114
55	845	583	384	229	103
60	1017	730	514	344	207	95
65	1189	878	644	460	311	190	88
70	1360	1027	774	577	417	285	175	81
75	1535	1177	906	694	523	382	264	163	76
80	1709	1327	1039	812	630	480	353	246	153	76
85	1884	1478	1172	932	738	578	443	329	231	144	68
90	2061	1630	1306	1052	847	677	535	414	310	218	138	65
95	2239	1785	1443	1174	957	779	629	501	391	295	209	133	64

* at the intersection of the vertical and horizontal lines is the volume of water that should be added to 1000 ml of alcohol to obtain the desired strength.

Note for the curious. Mendeleev did not think at all about how to make homemade vodka. He studied how alcohol mixes with water, and was delighted that the volume of the mixture was less than the total volume of the components.

Cleaning

So we have sorting. This is just an intermediate product, which is too early to be called vodka. We have a cleanup phase ahead of us.

Question: what should you clean rectified alcohol from if pure alcohol comes out of the rectifier anyway? Yes, we have mechanically purified alcohol from fusel oils and removed the tails and heads by hand. However, a small part of harmful impurities still penetrates into the liquid. And secondly, the taste of diluted alcohol is quite harsh. Cleaning solves both problems: it binds harmful impurities and softens the taste.

Purification is a favorite vodka production process for many companies. Here, manufacturers organize a traditional competition in ingenuity: some clean with silver, and some even with gold. But at home, the easiest way is to use activated.

We have information about cleaning with coal, in short it looks like this:

Pour charcoal into the liquid, 3 tablespoons per liter.
Leave for at least an hour, stir occasionally.
Filter the liquid through a thick cotton filter.

Here you go, homemade vodka ready. It’s not all that complicated; the whole process of making vodka can be done in five steps:

Preparing mash using any sugar-containing product
Distillation of raw alcohol
Rectification and production of ethanol alcohol
Diluting alcohol to the desired strength
Coal sorting cleaning

But there is no limit to perfection, since you can make vodka at home and be more aromatic. The most striking examples are anise and juniper vodka. Vodka can also be used as a base for liqueurs.

Alcohol is often used to make various homemade alcoholic drinks. But it can be difficult to get a quality product, so you can make it at home. The basis for making alcohol is wheat, potatoes, corn, and cereals are used to create malt.

Malt for making alcohol

Cereal grains must be sprouted in a small and shallow container. Grains should be scattered at the bottom, but not more than 3 cm; before this, the grain will need to be moistened in a manganese-potassium mixture. Next, the prepared grain is moistened with water and left on the sunny side. It is recommended to cover the grain container itself with glass or film. As water is absorbed, it should be added to the dishes, and also ensure that the cereals are constantly in the water.

After the first shoots appear and are 3 cm long, you can proceed to the next step. This length of sprouts indicates that the malt is ready. To obtain this length, it takes about a week, perhaps a little longer.

Starch for alcohol

When the malt is prepared, you should use any type of starch that is diluted in water. You can buy the starch itself or make it yourself, for example, from potatoes. Even potatoes that have begun to spoil can be used to remove starch and create alcohol. The root vegetable should be finely chopped and water should be poured into it at a ratio of 1:1. It turns out that for 1 kg of potatoes you will need 1 liter of water. After this, the contents are placed on low heat and everything is cooked for about 2 hours until a glue-like substance is obtained.

If corn or wheat is used to remove starch, then the grains will need to be initially crushed and ground, most importantly, the shell of the grains will need to be crushed. For grain you will need twice as much water, and the ratio will be 1:2, for 1 kg of grain 2 liters of water. Cook the ingredients until the porridge is thick, but not very dense.

Now you need to extract the starch from the resulting mixture. First let it cool ready mixture up to about 60 degrees. While the mixture is cooling, you can grind the malt using a meat grinder or blender. Next, malt is added to starch mixture and you will need to keep the temperature at 60 degrees. To do this, you need to put the container in hot water for an hour or simply wrap the container in a blanket. After this, the container is taken out and left indoors for final cooling and separation of starch.

Fermentation and distillation

After the mixture has completely cooled, yeast is introduced. For normal fermentation you will need a temperature of 18-20 degrees, but a little more is possible. The higher the temperature, the faster the fermentation will be. As a rule, for room temperature 3 days will be enough. At a temperature of 18 degrees, fermentation will take about a week.

When the mash is ready, you need to distill it, and for this you need a distillation apparatus. By the way, the strength of the final product – alcohol – depends on the distillation device. In order to get 1 liter of alcohol at home, with a strength of 60 degrees or more, you will need 100 grams of yeast per 2.5 kg of cereals.

After distillation, homemade alcohol is usually cloudy and not very pleasing to the eye, so it can be clarified. To purify alcohol, you can add a little potassium permanganate and mix the contents, then leave everything for a day. Next, the alcohol is drained so that the sediment is not agitated, and then everything is filtered through cheesecloth.

To improve the smell you can put it in a bottle of alcohol Activated carbon and leave everything for 14 days. Periodically, the container must be shaken and then filtered.

Other methods for making alcohol at home

Exist different ways making alcohol at home using different ingredients:

Sugar beet. It is best to remove the juice from the beets and ferment it, but you can go the other way. The beets are washed, then grated, malt is added to it, which can be used from the recipe described above, and hot water is added. The contents must be boiled until the beets become soft, then grind them through a sieve. The wort must be cooled to room temperature and the yeast must be added without removing the grounds. To create such a mash you will need 500 grams of malt, 5 liters of water and 10-15 kg of beets. Before obtaining alcohol, you need to squeeze out the grounds. The output is 1-1.5 liters of the finished product.
Fruits and berries. Berries or other types of fruit can be used to create alcohol. They need to be crushed, then add 5% malt, counting from the total mass, and add water. Next, water is added and everything is thoroughly mixed. Boil the contents over low heat, then grind using a sieve and leave to cool and ferment. When creating homemade alcohol, it is recommended to use unripe fruits and it is better that they are tart, since green fruits contain a lot of starch, which will turn into sugar only at the ripening stage.
Bread. Alcohol can be obtained from bread mash, for this you need 10 liters warm water put 10 loaves of black bread and leave everything to cook until the bread is completely dissolved. Next, the contents are cooled to 60 degrees and 3.5 kg of malt is added. The ingredients must be left for 3 hours, maintaining a constant temperature of 60 degrees. Next, the mash is cooled to room temperature and 350 grams of yeast is added to it. Everything needs to be left for a week to ferment, and after distillation you should get 2 liters of alcohol.
Sugar. Sugar mash will allow you to get up to 4 liters of alcohol. To prepare it, you will need to use 30 liters of water, about 7 kg of sugar, and 500 grams of yeast.
Jam. If the jam has already been candied and no one wants to eat it, then alcohol can be made from it. To prepare you need 6 kg of base, 30 liters of water, and 200 grams of yeast. This amount of ingredients will yield approximately 3 liters of alcohol.
Candies. If you have candies with filling, you can also make alcohol from them. To do this, you need to dilute 1 kg of sweets in 5 liters of water and add 40 grams of yeast. This amount can yield 500 ml of alcohol, which will have a delicate and unusual taste.
Wild pears. It is from such fruits that the maximum amount of alcohol can be obtained. To do this, it will be enough to boil 2.5 buckets of pears, then add 1.5 kg of malt and 2.5 kg of water. The prepared contents must be supplemented with 2.5 kg of sugar, as well as 100 grams of yeast. The output from the resulting raw material will be 3 liters of alcohol.

Using such simple recipes, you can make alcohol at home and the better the distillation apparatus, the larger, stronger and better quality the alcohol will be.

Not so long ago, the production of alcohol was an absolute monopoly of the state, and its production by citizens was considered a violation of the law. However, now the situation has changed. Almost anyone can engage in activities related to the production and sale of alcohol products.

Subject to all norms and legal requirements, of course. This opens up wide opportunities for running such a specific business, which in reality can turn out to be a very profitable, promising and, of course, profitable business.

Overview of the main issues related to the start of alcohol production

But, before taking any concrete steps and starting to build own production, associated with such a difficult task as making alcohol, you need to get answers to a number of important questions. They cover the following topics:

supply of your production (sources);
sales finished products(channels and end consumers);
the method by which ethanol production will be carried out;
the type of alcohol that is planned to be produced (drinking or technical);
equipping your workshop or plant (equipment);
possibility of obtaining a license (collection of necessary documents).

Only after clear and detailed answers to all of the above questions have been received can you begin to organize production itself. Namely: buy/rent a workshop or plant, purchase equipment for the production of alcohol and raw materials, start producing trial batches, etc. In this article we will try to analyze the main points associated with starting an alcohol business. They will form the basis of your business plan, without which it is impossible to start a business (and especially such a specific one) and make it a truly successful and well-functioning production.

Choosing the type of alcohol produced and distribution channels: to whom, how, for what purposes

Alcohol is used in a wide variety of industries: both food enterprises (for the production of alcoholic beverages and not only), and pharmaceutical, chemical and other factories. Manufacturers of cosmetics, perfumes and other things also need it. The demand for this product is high, and therefore you can choose the direction that is more interesting to you.

In addition, when deciding what type of alcohol to produce - industrial or drinking, you should analyze this market in your region. Don’t be surprised if there are major competitors: the business is still profitable. Therefore, make a qualitative overview of the main sales channels and compare planned production volumes with existing demand. You may have to export your products to other nearby regions, which means additional costs (in particular, transport) and new competitors.

It is also possible that you yourself will want to expand your business in the future, and the production of alcohol will grow into something larger, for example, into a wine and vodka factory. This is a completely feasible and promising idea, since the final product ( alcoholic products) is significantly more expensive than the cost of pure alcohol. And if the proper level of production and quality of the product is maintained, there will always be a consumer.

Having assessed all the main points (competitors, sales channels, development prospects), decide on the type of alcohol you will produce and move on to the next question. And it is connected with the choice of raw materials and the search for sources of supply.

Selection of raw materials and sources of their supply

Another, no less important, smoothly follows from the previous question - the choice of the types of raw materials used for production and the sources of their production.

The production of alcohol by distilling mash can be carried out using a variety of raw materials. First of all, it is sugar. Its productivity is maximum: 10 kg of such raw materials gives approximately 5-5.5 kg of the finished product, that is, pure alcohol.

However, it is also the most expensive. In addition to sugar, you can use various starch-containing products: grains (rice, corn), as well as sugar beets and fruits (apples, grapes, plums, etc.). It is also possible to produce alcohol from potatoes. From wheat you can get up to 3 liters of alcohol, and from beets/potatoes and fruits only about a liter.

In any case, the choice is quite large. In addition, you can use several different sources at once, as well as mix brews obtained from different components. This is unimportant if you produce technical alcohol. But in the production of drinking alcohol, and especially of high quality (extra and higher categories), such mixing is unacceptable. The raw materials must be of high quality (and not rotten or frozen fruits, beets, etc.) and single-component.

Assessing the capabilities of raw material suppliers

What raw materials will be used depends on the ability to obtain them uninterruptedly in required quantities(it’s easy to calculate them based on the above data and planned production volumes). Analyze the situation with raw material suppliers in your region.

This could be a sugar factory located nearby, or a state farm that can supply you with fruits, beets, etc. Estimate the volume of possible supplies. A rash approach to this issue may not work in your favor; as a result, the productive capacity of the workshop or plant will be idle. Find out in advance about the terms of cooperation with potential suppliers.

Production planning: premises, equipment, technology

After all the main issues have been resolved: the type of alcohol and possible sources of its production have been chosen, marketing methods have been determined, competitors have been analyzed - you can proceed to the most important thing. These are questions about where (room) and on what (equipment) to produce alcohol, as well as how to do it (technology). Let's look at them in more detail.

Choosing a room

As for the premises, its choice must be approached with all responsibility. Let's look at the main parameters that it must meet. We hope you are not planning to produce alcohol at home? This option is quite acceptable if you make it for personal needs, but we are going to do business. But here everything is already serious, and the appropriate premises are required to organize a fully functioning workshop in it.

Criteria for choosing production areas:

Dimensions - your workshop should be two or even three times larger than the area occupied by all the equipment for the production of alcohol (in particular, fermentation tanks). The same applies to ceiling heights.
Temperature - the room where production is planned should be warm enough. That is, there are two options - a well-organized heating system or good thermal insulation. This is essential to maintain fermentation processes on a continuous basis.
Ventilation is also a very important point. It can be either forced or natural (only if a water seal is used).
A separate room must be intended for the installation of distillation equipment (distillation part).
Other important parameters. The workshop itself must have a sewerage system, floors with equipped drains, and also running water.

As you can see, it is important to take into account various nuances before deciding whether the premises are suitable for organizing a distillery in it. Keep in mind that the larger production volumes you plan, the larger the dimensions of the equipment (as well as its quantity), and the larger the area required for the workshop or plant.

We purchase equipment

Before moving on to choosing equipment and searching for sellers from whom purchases will be made, you need to understand the production process itself. The technology for producing alcohol is not very complicated. However, it is important to have a complete understanding of all stages of production and the equipment required for each of them. This is necessary to understand what equipment to buy for alcohol production, what size/volume and in what quantity. This section of the article is devoted to this issue.

There are two most important components - the mash tank and the distillation unit:

The first component is a so-called technical bath - a container made of stainless material into which raw materials are loaded at the first stage of processing. The mash tank must have a drain valve and a hatch for a water seal, since carbon dioxide is released during the fermentation process.
The second (distillation unit) consists of two parts: mash (here the process of distillation of mash takes place) and rectification (here the resulting ethanol is purified).

In addition to the main equipment, you will need various additional devices and components: refrigerators, thermoelectric heaters, separators, alcohol meters, etc.

Make a detailed list of what alcohol production equipment you need, in what quantity, with what physical and technical characteristics. It is best to determine the full set of production equipment and its specific characteristics with the chief technologist of your future workshop.

As for the cost, you need to calculate it in advance (at least approximately) and include it in your business plan. The price largely depends on the planned capacity.

Thus, a distillation unit for the production of alcohol for a small workshop (productivity about 12 l/hour) will cost approximately 150 thousand rubles. If we talk about a large plant, then the prices here are much higher - from 1 to 3 million rubles for just one column. But the power is several times greater.

It may be worth starting with a small workshop, and if production develops favorably, expand and grow into a larger factory production. It all depends on your desires and capabilities at the moment, especially financial ones.

Drinking and technical alcohol: production

The process of making alcohol is almost the same regardless of what raw materials are used and for what purpose the final product is intended. However, there are still differences and they are associated with the preparatory (or initial) stage of production.

If we describe the technologies of how to make alcohol from apples, oats or sugar, they will be different. The fact is that starch-containing products pass pre-treatment- sugaring. The result is sugar wort, which is then fermented. That is why it is easiest to make alcohol from sugar, but not cheaper. Let's consider how to prepare plant raw materials for the main stage of production.

Grain processing

For production you can use rye, wheat, rice. First, the grain is cleaned of foreign impurities and passed through an air sieve apparatus. It is dried and ground before use. Wort is prepared from the resulting flour: the flour is combined with water in a special container, where they are mixed. Next, the batch is heated by steam to 75 degrees and fed into the contact hole of the installation. Here the mixture is heated to 100 degrees.

Then the grain gruel is sent to the cooker, where it is boiled for several minutes at high temperature (up to 172 degrees). As a result, the cell walls of the grain rupture. Malt milk is added to the already cooled mass to break down the starch. As a result of this saccharification process, sugar wort is obtained, which is used for further alcohol production.

Fruit processing

Preparation of wort from apples and other fruits is somewhat simpler than from grain. The fruits are crushed and wort is added to them (in a proportion of approximately 5% of the fruit mass). Then the same thing happens as with grains. Water is added, everything is mixed and heated in the cooker. Then the received homogeneous mass cool, grind and ferment.

Alcohol production technology: main stages

Raw materials (sugar or sugar wort obtained from other products) and yeast are loaded into a special mash tank. The mash is prepared within a week, as a result of which the alcohol content in it should reach 15% (if it is more, the fermentation process will stop).
Next, the finished mash is sent to the distillation apparatus. In the first part, the distillation itself occurs: heating (ethanol evaporates) and cooling of the vapor (condensation).
In the second part, ethanol is purified from fusel oils. The process is called fractional distillation. The result is the same finished product- pure ethyl alcohol.

Since the mash is prepared within 7 days, it is loaded into the distillation apparatus weekly norm raw materials. This must be taken into account to ensure continuity of the production process. Thus, approximately 7 times more containers will be required than the capacity of the rectifying apparatus.

In general, we can say that the technology is quite simple and understandable. Anyone can understand the process of making ethyl. This is not a production methyl alcohol, which requires serious knowledge of chemistry and can be very dangerous if not organized correctly. However, in both cases there is no point in joking, this process Compliance with all standards, technology and safety regulations is the key to successful production and the absence of accidents. By the way, you still need to obtain the appropriate license. More on this later.

Legal alcohol production . Obtaining a license

Once you have understood all the intricacies and nuances of your future business, have studied how to produce alcohol and what is needed for this, you can move on to one of the most important stages - obtaining a license. Without this document, no matter what knowledge you have and no matter how much money you have, it will not be possible to implement plans to build and launch production. So, what documents will be required to obtain the coveted permit? Let's review them:

Constituent documents (memorandum of association, charter, etc.) - original or copies certified by a notary.
Registration documents (certificate of state registration) - original or notarized copies.
Certificate of registration with the tax authority - original/copy.
Payment order for payment of the fee for the provision of a license (required with a bank mark).
Certificate of absence of tax arrears.
Document confirming the availability of premises suitable for organizing production ethyl alcohol(on the basis of ownership or lease).
Conclusion on the compliance of the premises with sanitary and epidemiological standards.
Conclusion on the compliance of premises with fire safety requirements.
Conclusion on their compliance with environmental standards.
Documents confirming the availability of certified equipment (for the production and storage of alcohol products, control over production volumes).
Certificate of technical competence (it must reflect the list of analyzed equipment, raw materials and finished products and their compliance with state standards).
A document confirming the availability of sufficient authorized capital.
Extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities.
Goskomstat codes.

Before collecting a complete set of documents, you will have to run around. However, the presence of all the required certificates, conclusions and certificates is the guarantee that you will receive the coveted license and will be able to begin legal activities in the production of ethyl alcohol.

It would seem that there are no more obstacles to the long-awaited start of your activities - you can safely start the production process. This is true. But it is very important to always be on alert in this matter, especially with regard to maintaining the quality of finished products and compliance with excise legislation.

Prospects for the development of alcohol production

In the process of developing your business and delving deeper into this area of activity, you will be able to find a number of tempting prospects for yourself. In particular, the reorganization of production in order to increase its scale and expand its specificity.

This could be our own perfumery, cosmetics or food production, alcohol-related, chemical or pharmacological activities. The choice is quite large. Of course, these enterprises require additional costs, capital investments and time. However, they will be able to take your business to a new level, including making a profit.

In addition, you can expand your production without large capital investments. In parallel with the production of alcohol, start producing feed for farm animals. When producing ethanol, a light brown waste is formed, called stillage. It is a very valuable secondary raw material due to its protein, carbohydrate and fiber content, and therefore can be used to feed cows, pigs and other animals. And its yield is no less than 13 liters for every liter of alcohol. A very profitable business that does not require large expenses.

Conclusion

In this article we tried to highlight for you all the main points related to organizing such specific type business, such as the production of ethanol or, more simply, alcohol. We considered issues related to the selection of raw materials for the production of alcohol and the search for its sources; methods of marketing finished products; features of the workshop premises required for the production of equipment. The technology for producing alcohol from various raw materials was also described.

We also did not ignore the legal issue, presenting a list of necessary documents to obtain a license to carry out this type of business. In conclusion, we briefly discussed the prospects and opportunities for obtaining additional profit in the production of alcohol. We hope this information will help you create your own business plan and start this profitable activity soon.

To create tinctures, vodkas, liqueurs, the best alcoholic component is.

Moonshine, even purified, is not so suitable; store-bought vodka is low-proof.

Let's look at how you can make alcohol at home and what raw materials are suitable for this.

However, we immediately note that with a regular distiller you can only get moonshine, and for our purpose we need a distillation column, which is not difficult to purchase.

It is impossible to obtain alcohol free of impurities from poor raw materials. Therefore, immediately forget about processing rotten apples or moldy jam.

There will be a solution, but this product can hardly be called high quality. And since we still race for ourselves, we won’t lose our brand.

How to do it at home?

It's time to explore popular recipes and strictly follow them.

Derived from wheat

You can find many recipes made from wheat, but we will present a simple and effective one. To implement it you will need:

10 kg of crushed wheat (cereals), for which you can use a crusher or other available method;
40 liters of water;
dry yeast (preferably alcoholic) - 50 g or 750 g pressed;
enzymes (can be bought in special stores, on the Internet) 25 g each of A-Amylosubtilin and G-Glucavamorin.

Peculiarities. Enzymes can be replaced with dry ground brewing malt. This amount of water and wheat will require 2.5 kg of malt.

Attention. If you use malt instead of enzymes, then skip step 2, immediately cool the wort to 63-65°C, and add malt.

We distill the mash twice:

first time - in distillation mode, without separation into fractions, almost to water. The total strength of the resulting distillate will not exceed 30-35°;
secondary – using a distillation column, with mandatory separation into fractions to obtain alcohol.

Note. Clean product a strength of 96°C at home can only be obtained in a column with a height of at least 120 cm (counting the height above the cube).

In ordinary household columns - 45-60 cm in height - the final strength rarely exceeds 80°C.

From potatoes

A cheap and accessible raw material for producing alcohol is the familiar potato, which contains a large amount of starch.

In turn, starch under the influence of enzymes is converted into sugar. This can be achieved using malt Which one to buy is not a problem.

Can be grown green malt and independently. To do this, you need to rinse and soak the wheat well. After three minutes, sprouts will appear, this is green malt.

To prepare the mash you will need:

green malt – 150 g;
peeled potatoes – 1 kg;
pressed yeast (it’s better to take alcoholic yeast) – 50 g;
water – 2 liters.

The potatoes need to be grated on a fine grater; it’s also a good idea to use a food processor.

Transfer the grated potatoes into a saucepan and stir, pour hot water(80°C). To avoid mistakes, it is easy to measure the temperature with a bimetallic one, or even better - electronic thermometer, which is equipped with your moonshine still.

We pass the malt through a meat grinder or grind it in a blender bowl.

Cool the potato mixture to 62°C and add malt. Mix well again, cover with a lid and wrap in a blanket for 10 hours.

After infusion, filter the resulting mixture, squeeze it out and send it to a fermentation container.

We breed in small quantity yeast water and pour it into the fermentation container, on which we put on a glove or install a water seal.

Advice. Considering that you will get a little mash, you can use a plastic water bottle with a volume of 6-9 liters as a fermentation container.

Fermentation lasts 10 days (see:). For the first 3-4 days it is stormy, then it gradually subsides and on the 10th day the glove is completely deflated, indicating that the mash is ripe. The remaining starch will settle to the bottom and the liquid will become clearer.

It must be removed from the sediment using a straw and poured into the distillation cube. Please note that potato mash has a sharp bad smell, which may leave a slight aroma after rectification.

As in the example with wheat mash, the distillation is done twice: the first - in distillation mode without selecting fractions. It is better to select approximately 750 ml of raw alcohol. It will be above 40° strength. You can take it higher, but the result of the second distillation may be a little disappointing, since the tailings are subject to worse cleaning.

We dilute the distillate with water to 25-30 degrees and re-distill it in rectification mode. We select 45 ml of heads, then we select the body. The result will be 250 ml of 75 degree alcohol.

To make potato vodka, you can dilute the alcohol with water to 40° and leave for a couple of days so that the ingredients combine well.

The smell of vodka created from potato alcohol may have a slightly bready smell due to the presence in the mash wheat malt. The taste is not sharp, but peculiar, and cannot be called too refined. As they say - not for everyone. However, it is worth noting that in Belarus potato moonshine driven everywhere and drunk in villages and cities.

From an earthen pear

Jerusalem artichoke is almost a weed and can grow without any care. If the harvest is large, some can be distilled into alcohol. Take:

10 kg of washed Jerusalem artichoke tubers;
dry yeast – 25 g, if pressed – 300 g;
optional – 1-2 kg of sugar. You can do without it, but sugar will increase the yield;
water 5-10 liters plus 4 liters for every kilogram of sugar. The juicier earthen pear, the less water is required, so the approximate amount is indicated;
citric acid - 5 g for each liter of added water.

To prepare the wort, you need to grate the Jerusalem artichoke on a fine grater, put it in a saucepan, pour in half the water and boil for an hour and a half, stirring occasionally. Ready porridge thick, fragrant baked apples. Water is added to it, sugar and citric acid are added.

When the temperature reaches 28-30°C, yeast is added. The wort matures for 3-10 days under a water seal. Ready mash distilled twice, as in previous recipes.

Carefully. There is a statement that alcohol from Jerusalem artichoke contains a lot of methylene.

Therefore, before ingesting, check its quality with Lang's test(the method is described at the end of the article).

From flour

A budget-friendly method of distilling alcohol from flour is popular among us. Take:

19 liters of water;
4 kg of rye, wheat (or mixed) flour;
100 g yeast.

Bring 8 liters of water to a boil and pour 2 liters of cold water into it. In this hot water With constant stirring you need to dissolve the flour. Leave the “dough” for 1.5 hours, covering the pan. Then add 3 liters to the mixture cold water.

Stir and let it thicken for another 3 hours. Then add the remaining water, pour in the yeast diluted according to the instructions. There is no need to place it under a water seal, just cover the container (with a cloth). After 4 days of staying warm, the mash is ready for distillation.

From sugar beets

The raw materials for sugar production are also suitable for cooking homemade alcohol. To make it drinkable, you must strictly follow the technology:

Grind 5 kg of sugar beets (other types are not suitable!) into puree in a way convenient for you. You can grate, cut and twist into a meat grinder, etc.
Move to large saucepan, add 7 liters of water and cook for an hour.
Cover with a lid and wait for self-cooling.
Strain through cheesecloth and squeeze out the sediment thoroughly.
Put the resulting juice back on the fire and simmer until the mass becomes thick.
When it cools down, pour it into a fermentation container and add the same amount of water, that is, 1:1.
Dilute 50 g of dry yeast (250 g pressed) and add to the wort, stir.
Install a water seal and leave it in a warm place without exposure to sunlight for 7-10 days until fermentation stops.

Attention. This recipe will require 10-15 liters of water.

Important. Beetroot mash has a strong, unpleasant odor. To completely get rid of it and not feel it in the final product, you need purify moonshine after the first distillation with coal or milk, dilute with water 1:1, and only after that distill through a distillation column with the selection of heads and tails.

From fruits and berries

From fruits - apples, plums, cherries, pears, cherry plums, etc., as well as grapes and berries, a pleasant-tasting moonshine is obtained while preserving the taste of the fruit. But you can also make alcohol.

Often, even after rectification at home easy conditions the aroma of the original raw materials remains. Braga is made both with and without yeast (using wild yeast on fruits). Distilled twice.

From bread

It can be prepared with yeast, using enzymes, and also with mold. Let's talk about the last option.

Take 2 loaves of bread and cut into cubes with a side of 1.5-2 cm. Fold into plastic bag, tie and leave in room conditions. In a week or two (it’s difficult to predict), the entire volume will be abundantly covered with mold.

The mass is transferred into a bottle, 7-8 liters of water are poured and under a water mash (glove). After a week you can distill. Twice, with intermediate cleaning.

From sugar

We put on the classic sugar mash: for 30 liters of water - 6 kg of sugar and 0.5 kg of pressed yeast, after ripening, rectify through a column.

From jam

The mash is not particularly different from the previous one, you just need to correctly calculate the amount of sugar in the jam. If it is not too sweet, add sugar.

From apples

You can use yeast mash with added sugar and yeast for quick ripening. For homemade alcohol, that’s it. For 15 kg of chopped apples you need to take 10 liters of water, 2 kg of sugar and 20 g of dry yeast.

From dried fruits

Dried fruits are suitable for mash: apples, pears, plums, cherries. Proportions:

2 kg of dried fruits (one type or assorted);
2kg sugar;
10 liters of water;
40 g dry (350 g pressed) yeast.

Boil dried fruits, invert sugar, add diluted yeast to the mixture cooled to 28-30°C.

From plums

If you have enough ripe, juicy sweet plums, you can use them to make mash without sugar and yeast.

Do not wash the plums, mash them into a puree, add a little water so that the wort is quite liquid and put on a water seal. After a week you can distill.

From wild pears

You will need:

12 kg of wild pears;
4 kg sugar;
16 liters of soft water;
100 g pressed or 20 g dry active yeast.

Cut out the seeds and stems from the pears. Grind. Mix with sugar (you can use syrup), water, and diluted yeast. Place under a water seal until ripe (about a week), distill twice.

Rules and shelf life

The resulting alcohol must be stored in an airtight container made of glass or food-grade stainless steel, out of light, at a temperature not exceeding +20°C. Plastic bottles- bad option. It happened that alcohol even burned through such containers, not to mention the chemical compounds that arise there.

In favorable conditions, pure alcohol can be stored quietly for up to 10 years, with additives - for at least 3 years.

How to check the quality of alcohol at home?

Once you have alcohol at home, you can test it for impurities by performing a Lang test. Needed:

3 fractions of one alcohol - heads, body and tails;
3 flasks (clean jars will also do);
a strong solution of potassium permanganate (per 50 ml of distilled water - 0.1 g of potassium permanganate);
graduated pipette (syringe).

This is done like this:

Add 0.4 ml of potassium permanganate to each of the three jars and add 20 ml of alcohol fractions: heads into the first jar, bodies into the second, tail fractions into the third.
Literally within a minute, reactions occur: the heads become light yellow, the body remains pink, the tails remain brown.
Immediately after breeding, time is noted and after what time the sample with the “body” acquires the color of salmon:

10 minutes – first grade alcohol, not very high quality;
15 minutes – premium;
20 – “Basis”;
22 – “Lux”.

If the alcohol has acquired the color of salmon earlier than 10 minutes, consuming it internally is dangerous to health.

The easiest way is to drop it on your hand and rub it. An unpleasant, pungent odor indicates that the alcohol is unsuitable for internal consumption.

We present to your attention a sketch and description of the operation of a plant for the production of high-quality alcohol from mash made from sugar or various fruit raw materials.

The design of the installation is simple and does not require large investments. It is quite possible to make it in a home workshop or garage for a person who knows how to hold a mechanic’s tool in his hands.

The installation consists of scraps of stainless pipe of various diameters connected to each other in a certain sequence by partitions using conventional soldering or welding and filled with filler.

Any room with a 220 V electricity supply and running water for cooling is suitable for the installation. In addition to electricity, you can use other heating sources: gas or electric. stove, cooking oven, hot steam, etc.

Take a stainless steel pipe Ø57 mm (preferably thin-walled) with a length of 1500-2000 mm. The ends of the pipe are processed on a lathe or with a metalworking tool.

Then, on one side, at a distance of 40-60 mm in one cross section, drill 4-8 holes Ø8-10 mm.

Prepare cylinders pos. No. 4 and No. 5 are also made of stainless steel pipes of appropriate diameters. If possible, turn the cylinders on a lathe; if not, select thin-walled pipes.

Partitions pos. No. 2, pos. No. 3 and pos. No. 12 are cut from a stainless steel sheet with a thickness of 0.8-1.0 mm using scissors for cutting metal and cut out with a chisel, followed by processing on a sharpening machine or a file.

The dimensions of the partitions and the Ø8 mm holes are adjusted to the location.

Tubes for water and alcohol outlet do not require special preparation and can be of any configuration and length.

We begin assembling the installation by soldering or welding the partitions pos. No. 3 and pos. No. 12 to cylinder pos. No. 5 on both sides, so that the holes for the water tubes are on different sides.

Then the outer cylinder pos. No. 4 is put on the inner one so that it rests on the partition, pos. No. 12, on the other side, the partition is put on, pos. No. 2, further details pos. No. 4, No. 2 and No. 12 are connected by soldering or welding. The water drainage tube (pos. No. 11) is soldered to two parts pos. No. 2 and No. 3. At the same time, tubes No. 7 and No. 13 are soldered.

Space between cylinders pos. No. 4 and No. 5 remain empty and serve as a refrigerator for alcohol vapor. Space between pipe Ø57 pos. No. 8 and the inner cylinder pos. No. 5 is intended for the flow of cold water under pressure, thereby cooling the alcohol vapor located in the reflux condenser (empty zone in the Ø57 pipe, item No. 8) and the refrigerator.

Crimping

After all connecting operations have been completed, the installation must be pressure tested. To do this, it is necessary to plug the pipe Ø57 pos. No. 8 with plugs or plugs on both sides, fill it with compressed air through the alcohol outlet tube pos. No. 13 and anoint soap solution all seams.

If any seam is missing, bubbling will be visible.

Pressure testing of the water cavity is easier to do. Connect water under pressure to the water supply pipe and plug the water drain pipe. Water should not seep through the seams, much less flow or drip through the alcohol outlet tube.

Pressure testing is completed.

Preparing for work

The installation is attached to a container of 40 - 200 liters different ways and connect the water hoses. It is advisable to have polyethylene hoses Ø8 mm.

Cans, pressure cookers, canisters, milk flasks and other containers made of stainless steel or food-grade aluminum are used as containers.

If the heat source is used gas stove, it is necessary that the installation and capacity are not high and that the entire structure fits in height in a house or apartment.

If the heat source is electricity, it is necessary to install 2-4 heating elements of different power at the bottom of the tank. This will allow you to regulate the boiling process. For example, 2-3 pieces of 1 kW each. and 1 pc. by 0.5 kW.

The container must be sealed, have a filler neck, a valve for draining waste, and a tube for a thermometer.

After everything is ready, pipe Ø57 pos. No. 8, filler is poured through the top, a heat insulator is inserted and the plug is closed.

The installation can be performed in several options depending on performance and power consumption, as can be clearly seen from the table:

Specification:

No.	Name	Material/size	Qty	Note
	Cork	Wood, rubber, PVC
	Partition with hole	Sheet. stainless steel = 0.8-1.0		Rep. Ø8
	Partition with hole	Sheet. stainless steel = 0.8-1.0		Rep. Ø8
	External cylinder	Tr. stainless steel Ø102/3.0 L=420
	Cylinder internal	Tr. stainless steel Ø76/3.0 L=400
	Thermal insulator	Not specified	1
7	Water supply tube	Stainless steel tube Ø8 mm	1	Allowed colors. meth
	Distillation column	Stainless steel pipe Ø57\2.0-3.0 L = 1500-2000	1
9	Net	Sheet. stainless steel = 0.8-1.0 s. Ø3.0-4.0	1	Drill holes as often as possible.
10	Coupling or ring	Stainless steel	1	Non-ferrous metal is allowed. as well as a threaded or flanged connection.
	Water drain pipe	Stainless steel tube Ø8 mm	1	Non-ferrous metal is allowed.
	Partition with holes	Stainless steel sheet = 0.8-1.0		Rep. Ø8 mm 2 pcs.
	Pipe for alcohol release	Stainless steel tube Ø8-10	1
14	Filler	Not specified

3. Description of the installation

Mash or other alcohol-containing raw materials are poured into the container through the neck ( Home wine, beer, substandard vodka, etc.) and heats up. When the temperature of the mash rises to 80 o C, the heating rate is reduced and such a stable boil is achieved that the heating is completely controlled.

At a temperature of 82-84 o C, the installation will completely warm up and raw alcohol (high-proof moonshine up to 96 o) will flow from the alcohol outlet tube.

The rate of release of raw alcohol depends on the heating of the mash. During the distillation process, the temperature of the mash rises. Monitor the temperature using a thermometer, which is inserted into the tube on the container. The tube is plugged from the inside. Before inserting the thermometer, pour water or vegetable oil into the tube.

When the temperature reaches 98 o C, distillation must be stopped because at this temperature there is almost no alcohol left in the mash, but intensive evaporation of fusel oils begins.

The distillation can be completed at a lower temperature, but then some of the alcohol will remain in the mash, and the amount of fusel oils will decrease.

Note that the resulting raw alcohol differs significantly in purity from ordinary moonshine, but to obtain high-quality alcohol it is recommended to purify it.

You don’t have to clean it, it all depends on the subsequent actions, because During further distillation, an “automatic” purification of the alcohol occurs. It is enough to distill it twice (the mash into raw alcohol, and the mash into pure alcohol). But some fractions (not of sufficient quality) are distilled several times.

After the initial distillation, it is necessary to drain the waste from the container and rinse it.

To obtain alcohol, purified raw alcohol (diluted with water to 40 - 60 o) is loaded into a container instead of mash and heated. When the temperature reaches 76 o C, the heating rate is reduced and slowly brought to 78 - 82 o C (the boiling point of alcohol).

After a while, alcohol will flow.

The first fraction obtained, the volume of which is approximately 3-8% of the volume of alcohol (40 ml per 1 liter of 45 o crude alcohol), is subsequently used only for technical purposes. It contains low-boiling impurities.

The alcohol release rate should be such that the strength is 96 o. Distillation is carried out to a temperature of 100-101 o C.

When the temperature reaches approximately 88 - 95 o C, the flow rate of the alcohol will decrease and a characteristic unpleasant odor will appear. In this case, it is necessary to increase the heating speed so that the remaining alcohol, which is subject to re-distillation with a new volume of raw alcohol.

The middle fraction should be of excellent quality, with a strength of 96 o, and it is used for its intended purpose.

All of the above dimensions correspond to installations with a capacity of 25-30 l/day.