Invert sugar with acetic acid. What gives the inversion of sugar for mash

A bit of theory.

We have a yeast fungus, sucrose molecules float around it in the wash, and it itself moves, everything moves in chaos. The fungus secretes an enzyme called invertase. The sucrose molecule collides with the enzyme, and it splits the sucrose into two parts fructose and glucose. These two new molecules enter through the membrane of the fungus inside, and the fermentation process is already taking place there if there is no oxygen. If oxygen is present in the fungus and the building material, then it begins to divide, multiply by budding, a new yeast fungus grows on the side.

The enzyme invertase is present in all organisms that feed on sucrose. In humans, invertase is located in the small intestine, where sucrose is broken down into fructose and glucose and transported by insulin to the cells of the body. In bees, invertase is found in saliva.

Separate sucrose into fructose and glucose, you can invert it yourself, with the help of water, acid and heat. Water molecules stick to the sucrose molecule and under the influence of heat, heat is energy, they begin to pull it in different directions and break it into fructose and glucose. The process of hydrolysis, the separation of sucrose in water, proceeds faster in the presence of acid. The acid acts as a catalyst and acts as an enzyme.

By inverting sugar into glucose and fructose, we are doing some of the work of the enzyme. Glucose and fructose immediately penetrate the yeast fungus, saving time. The most important advantage when using invert sugar for making mash is the absence of a mash odor. Braga smells like fruit, and this is important if it is at home. We also add inverted syrup to mash on various fruits, berries, for the preparation of distillates.

Now let's move on to practice.

When preparing invert syrup, questions arise.

What is the proportion of sugar and water for invert sugar syrup?

How much citric acid should be added to the syrup?

To prepare a syrup from invested sugar, take 1 kg of sugar and 400 ml of water. Why such a proportion, because with such a ratio of sugar and water, 1 liter of syrup is equal to 1 kg of sugar. If you need to add 500 grams of sugar to the container, you simply pour 500 ml of syrup. If we immediately pour the syrup from inverted sugar into our container, then the accuracy of the proportion is not needed, you can pour more water, for example 500 ml, it is convenient to calculate the hydromodule.

I pour 2 kg of sugar into an enamel pan and pour 800 ml of water. Why an enamel pan, because there will be acid, and it should not come into contact with the metal.

Second question. How much citric acid should be added to the syrup? The acid itself does not take part in the reaction, it is only a catalyst, it accelerates the process of inversion. Enough and 1 gram per 1 kg of sugar, but we need more to be sure. By adding citric acid to the syrup, we acidify our mash. How much citric acid is needed to keep the Ph level of the mash above 3.5. I did tests, put mash on 2,3,4,5 grams of citric acid, per 1 kg of sugar, and only at 5 grams the Ph level was below 3.5. Therefore, citric acid can be safely poured up to 4 grams per 1 kg of sugar. If you pour more lemons, you will have to neutralize it at the end with soda. Instead of citric acid, you can use another acid, you can squeeze an old lemon and throw it into the pan for flavor.

I pour 3 grams of citric acid per 1 kg of sugar into our pan, this is 6 grams of lemon per 2 kg of sugar, this is a teaspoon. I also add orange peels to the pan for flavor. I put the pot on the fire.

How long does it take to invert sugar?

The longer you heat the syrup, the greater the degree of inversion, but you need to find the optimal time. Usually, they heat for an hour or two. From prolonged heating, poisonous furfural is formed in the syrup. The boiling point of furfural is 161.7°C, which means it will be in the tail fraction during the distillation of mash. Furfural is not a problem for moonshiners. Some people heat the syrup to 100°C, wrap it in a blanket and let it sit for an hour or two. I heat it on the smallest fire so that it barely gurgles. If you heat it over high heat, the water will evaporate and the syrup will turn into caramel.

Here we see 4 three-liter jars, with 500 ml syrup. The syrup boiled for 30 minutes in the first jar, 60 minutes in the second, 90 minutes in the third, and 120 minutes in the fourth. The longer the syrup boiled, the darker it became. For me, the organoleptics of the syrup became more pleasant with 60 minutes of bubbling. Choose for yourself the optimal heating time for your taste. After an hour of heating, my syrup still stands for 1 hour, cools down and inverts while I prepare the container.

I compared the fermentation time of the wort on sugar and inverted syrup. On inverted syrup, mash ripens 1 day earlier. Also consider the water in the syrup when preparing the mash.

is a solution consisting of water, yeast, and sugars (including those found in grains, fruits, and some vegetables). The easiest option is sugar mash. What is simpler: I mixed warm water, sugar and yeast, overtook it in due time.

However, someone inverts sugar for mash, while others miss this operation, considering it a waste of time. Who is right - there is no clear answer. Therefore, we will tell about the facts, and you will decide for yourself whether you need it.

The crystalline sugar we are used to is a disaccharide (containing two substances in one molecule) sucrose. Yeast can only digest monosaccharides. Therefore, they first break down the sugar contained in the mash, and only then process it. That is, fermentation, albeit for a couple of days, is delayed.

But we can artificially help yeast by hydrolyzing it in our kitchen, splitting sucrose into two molecules and turning it into two monosaccharides - glucose and fructose. Hydrolysis, also known as inversion, occurs at high temperatures (80°C and above). The catalyst that starts the process is the acid.

That is, it is impossible to boil syrup and say that in this way you carried out hydrolysis. The chemical structure of this will not change. Therefore, add acid and heat for a long time (an hour or even two). It takes time for complete hydrolysis.

Advantages of hydrolysis

Converted into two simple substances, cane or beet sugar benefits the moonshiner because:

facilitates the work of yeast, which multiply more actively, absorbing glucose with sucrose and producing alcohol and carbon dioxide;
fermentation time is reduced by a couple of days. In this regard, the distillate is cleaner than with the addition of a crystalline substance;

Reference. The longer the fermentation lasts, the more fusel oils are fermented, which then turn into moonshine.

during fermentation, there is no unpleasant odor, which is especially important for residents of apartment buildings;
the flavor-aromatic set of raw materials is preserved and enhanced. Berry or grain distillate has a wonderful smell, softness and a slight honey note on the palate. Therefore, for these brags, inversion is desirable;
prolonged exposure to temperature kills microorganisms that live in abundance on the surface of sugar crystals, which makes the mash cleaner;
greater output of moonshine. Due to the low content of fuselage, the tails are cut off later than on ordinary sugar mash.

Flaws

Where do without them:

You need to spend your own efforts and some time to invert. Although it takes longer to talk about it than to do it. And the fact that the process takes an hour, or even more, because you don’t need to stand vigilantly over the syrup. At this time, for example, you can go to the Internet, read our interesting articles, learn something new and put it into practice.
Hydrolysis produces furfural as a by-product.

In our opinion, the harmfulness of furfural is greatly exaggerated by popular rumor. So far, its only scientifically proven harm: in a concentrated form, it corrodes the skin and mucous membranes. But the same can be said about many substances, including those that we regularly ingest.

Besides: in inverted syrup of furfural micro doses.

It is many times more in sweets from childhood - jam, confectionery, especially those that use fruits and berries.

Proportions and features of sugar inversion

Only when preparing invert syrup for the first time, you will have to check the recipe, then you will make it “on the machine”. Calculate proportions like this: for 1 kg of sugar, take half a liter of water and 5 g of citric acid. And you can easily recalculate the amount you need.

Consider a number of features when inverting sugar:

Use only enameled or stainless utensils. Aluminum may darken the syrup.
Fill the container in which you carry out hydrolysis, no more than 2/3 of the volume, since the addition of citric acid provokes a sharp swelling of the solution.
Whether you need to add soda or chalk to neutralize the acidity before adding the syrup to the wort is up to you. This is also a controversial issue.

Reference. Yeast fungi develop most actively if the environment is slightly acidic (pH level is from 3.7 to 5.8). For home brewing, pH values below 4.2 are considered the best. In addition, the acidity increases slightly during fermentation.

If you decide to "extinguish" the syrup, then add a teaspoon of baking soda for 1 kg of sugar. But if you have an aluminum still, a tablespoon of chalk is better.

How to invert step by step

Prepare invert sugar according to the rules so that the resulting syrup, in terms of its chemical properties, has more in common with honey than with sugar, and is absorbed by the yeast without additional processing. Technology:

Heat up the right amount of water.
Add sugar, stir to dissolve.
Remove the foam, boil for 10 minutes.
Gradually add citric acid.

Important. Add acid little by little. Even in this case, you will see how the syrup foams. And by pouring the entire dose at once, you can cause the syrup to run away onto the stove.

Turn the heat down to low and cover the pot with a lid.
The syrup should languish, preferably without a noticeable boil, for an hour.
Turn off heat and leave covered until cool.

Proper preparation of mash on inverted syrup

Any kind of mash can be put on inverted sugar. How much sugar according to the recipe, so much of it should be in the syrup you cooked.

Attention. The water in the syrup does not count towards the recipe total!

When setting the mash, correctly calculate the ratio of proportions - -. If it is more or less clear with yeast: for 1 kg of sugar - 20 g of dry or 100 g of raw, then with sugar it is not so clear. The hydromodulus is important, which also depends on the yeast:

baker's yeast ferments the wort up to 12, maximum 14 ° fortress. Therefore, the hydromodule is usually taken 1:5 (a kilo of sugar, 5 liters of water);
for alcohol, capable of operating up to 16-18 °, a hydromodule 1: 4 is suitable;
turbo yeast can bring the strength of the mash up to 20°. For them, a hydromodule 1: 3.5 is suitable. Some manufacturers indicate 1:3.

Braga is put according to the general rules: mix water with a temperature of 25-30 ° C with inverted syrup, add yeast. Put on a glove or install a water seal and leave in a warm room until cooked.

It is commonly believed that yeast converts sugar into alcohol. Actually this is not true.

During fermentation, the first breakdown of sugar(which actually consists of sucrose molecules) to fructose and glucose. In chemistry, this process is called hydrolysis.

To facilitate the work of yeast, while obtaining a better one, you need to invert sugar for mash at the first stage. This process is simple, but requires some patience.

You will need:

sugar - in the amount you need;
a little water - for syrup;
citric acid: 3-4 grams for every kilogram of sugar.

In hydrolysis, citric acid acts as a catalyst that starts the process of converting one complex molecule of sucrose into two simple ones - glucose and fructose. The process takes place under the influence of a temperature exceeding 80°C.

We talk about making mash in almost every article on home brewing. But it makes sense to recall: for 1 kg of sugar you need 100 g of alcohol yeast, a little more - about 110-120 g, if you use bakery pressed or 10 g of dry and 4 liters of water.

In this form, we serve the proportions so that it is easy to translate them into any quantity and calculate how many ingredients you need for the container you have in which the mash will ripen.

Don't forget: you need to fill the container with mash no more than three-quarters, preferably two-thirds of the volume, so that during fermentation your product does not run away like milk on fire without supervision.

Syrup preparation

Although many have heard that it is better to cook sugar syrup for mash, not everyone knows how to cook it correctly in order to get the most out of it.

Here's how to properly prepare mash syrup:

We choose - it should be such that after filling it with water and sugar, at least a third of the volume remains, since a lot of foam is expected.
We select the proportions: for example, for 1.5 liters of water - 3 kg of sugar and 9-12 g of citric acid.
Pour water, heat it and pour sugar into the hot one.
Boil for about 10 minutes, constantly skimming off the resulting foam.
Reduce the heat to a minimum and, when the boil almost stops, add citric acid.
We close the pan with a lid and let it simmer (you can - without boiling, but do not allow the temperature to drop below 80 ° C) for an hour.

Important point: citric acid must be added slowly, literally by the gram. Watch the foam rise. If you pour all the acid at once, the syrup can foam up sharply and pour onto the stove.

This completes the preparation of the syrup, but before preparing the mash, it must be cooled to 30 degrees and only then mixed with water and yeast, as well as other ingredients, if you add them.

The Benefits of Inverting

What is better than mash on inverted sugar compared to regular mash, without all these "troubles"?

Compared to sugar simply dissolved in moderately warm water, inverted syrup does not contain pathogenic microorganisms (in particular, fungi), which are often present on the surface of sugar crystals. Therefore, it will not infect the mash with them and will not spoil the final product.
Having facilitated the work of yeast, we get accelerated mash and, accordingly, less accumulation of harmful substances in it, which is facilitated by prolonged exposure to yeast fungi.
When used to prepare the wort of fruits, berries, products with a high content of starch, sweet syrup, used instead of regular sugar, eliminates the sharp and unpleasant smell of mash. Therefore, when preparing moonshine with additional ingredients, you should definitely use inversion.
Hydrolysis has a positive effect on the taste, smell, organoleptics of the finished product during conventional or distillation using.

Inversion does not play a special role if you do not use a distillation plant in your work, but. In this case, the hydrolysis step in the preparation of the mash can be skipped.

Disadvantages of hydrolysis

Among the main disadvantages of inversion, many call the formation of a harmful by-product - furfural, considering this the main argument against using invert sugar for mash.

How to independently determine that furfural is present in moonshine? This substance has an odor reminiscent of bitter almonds or a crust of black bread. If you did not use any bread ingredients, then this is how the mentioned chemical element manifests itself.

In fact, this furfural is present in many foods. For example, in coffee it is much more than in moonshine. It must be in alcohols according to GOST. But have you ever thought that during the preparation of jam, sugar inevitably undergoes hydrolysis and furfural is also formed in it, which is silent in cookbooks and indications of the composition on jars in the distribution network.

And why blow it, because it’s clear enough - to poison yourself with jam, you need to eat several kilograms of it in one sitting. And they eat it with teaspoons! The same with moonshine. If you drink a lot of it, then you can get into intensive care, if not worse.

And - regardless of whether the sugar was inverted in the mash or simply dissolved. After all, it was not in vain that Avicenna said a thousand years ago the wisest words that there are no absolute poisons in our world, as well as absolutely useful substances - there are doses and prescriptions.

Let your invert sugar mash help you quickly create high-quality moonshine that has a mild, pleasant taste and contains a minimum of harmful substances. Do not forget to spread the information received among your friends in social networks, leave your comments, share your experience.

Making moonshine at home is a whole philosophy, a real art. Manufacturing experience has been accumulated by enthusiasts for many years bit by bit. Nowadays, thanks to the Internet, information is available, and we have the opportunity to take advantage of the best practices, as well as small tricks of real moonshine gurus, without stuffing bumps from failures. Inverting sugar for mash is not a mandatory process and yet let's try to see if it is worth spending our time on and what proportions to use. Let's see what practical benefits we can get from this.

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So why invert sugar for mash

The expediency of this frankly tedious process is being discussed at specialized forums and groups, and they have not received a definite answer. Someone is preparing syrup for mash, while someone prefers not to do nonsense. Consider the pros and cons of this "action"

Process Chemistry

As you know, moonshine is made not only from sugar. For example, sugar beet, grain, grain malt, these ingredients are available and often cost nothing. But the sugars of plant crops in terms of chemistry are complex sugars. Yeast fungi for better absorption are more suitable for monosaccharides, which are a better digestible product for them. The inversion process is necessary to separate the complex plant-derived sugar molecule into the simple sugars glucose and fructose. Temperature and acid serve as a catalyst (assistant) for the process of inverting sugar.

Of course, the decision to bother with all this, everyone decides for himself. But at the output, the strength of the mash obtained from inverted sugars will be higher and, accordingly, when preparing moonshine, you will receive a significant increase in the finished product.

Positive sides

The absence of an unpleasant odor during the fermentation of invert sugars, agree that not everyone lives in their own home. Amber standing for a week in an apartment will not cheer you and your loved ones up.
Acceleration of the fermentation process, since the wort contains only simple sugars, yeast fungi do not have to spend time breaking down complex carbohydrates. It is difficult to say how long the fermentation process takes, since fructose ferments longer than a simple sugar solution from the store.
Preservation of the taste of the feedstock is also important. After all, it is for this inimitable taste and aroma that many appreciate real moonshine.
During cooking, sugar is subject to prolonged heat treatment, which leads to the death of harmful micro-organisms.
Increasing the volume of the finished product. With fast fermentation, the amount of fusel oils in the mash is reduced, which allows you to collect more product later by cutting off the leftovers.
Despite so many advantages in each process, there are also disadvantages that are worth paying attention to.
Loss of time. The cooking process itself is not very complicated, it still takes some time.
When complex carbohydrates are broken down, the substance furfural is formed. This toxic substance in high concentrations irritates the mucous membranes and the surface of the skin. Although it should be noted in the production of "home" volumes of mash, it is not possible to obtain a critical amount of this toxin.

How to cook invert syrup for mash

The cooking process itself is not very difficult. Required ingredients: 1 kg of sugar, 0.5 liters of water, and 5 grams of citric acid, using these proportions you can easily calculate the amount you need. Choose the appropriate container so that there is always a third of the free volume of the dishes, you should not use aluminum dishes - the syrup may darken.

Bring water almost to a boil and add sugar to it.
Stir the sugar well and turn the heat down to medium.
Let the syrup simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring constantly so it doesn't burn. Do not forget to remove the resulting foam.
Slowly add the citric acid to the syrup little by little. CAUTION chemical reaction results in strong foaming.
Next, cover the pan with a lid, you can add a little temperature, but your syrup should not boil.
Cooking is necessary from forty minutes to an hour. The easiest way to determine the readiness of the syrup is as follows: drip a couple of drops into cold water. If strings or hairs form when a drop of syrup enters the water, then your syrup is ready, remove the pan from the heat and leave it to cool.

A rather serious question is whether it is necessary to neutralize the acid in the resulting syrup. As you know, a moderately acidic environment is necessary for the normal existence of yeast fungi. Therefore, it will be correct to use baking soda at the rate of one teaspoon (without a slide) of baking soda per gram of acid. Remember that aluminum is not friendly with soda, and if your alembic is aluminum, then you should use powdered chalk instead of soda, at the rate of two teaspoons per gram.

Ready, chilled syrup must be diluted with water at the rate of 3.5 liters of water per kilogram of sugar. Next, pour the syrup into a fermentation tank, where the mash will be prepared. Then we add crushed and steamed malt to the fermentation tank. Malt will give your drink an unforgettable taste and aroma. We cool the wort to a temperature of 28 degrees and add the yeast, previously diluted in a small amount of syrup. We put the wort in a warm place for fermentation. After about a week, your distillation mash is ready.

So you got acquainted with one of the many secrets of experienced home brewers, how to properly invert sugar for home brew.

What is invert sugar and why is it needed?

In the course of their life, yeast processes monosaccharides in the form of fructose and glucose into carbon dioxide, ethyl alcohol and a small amount of other elements. But in ordinary sugar, monosaccharides are linked together in the sucrose molecule. So, for its assimilation, yeast must break down sucrose with the help of an enzyme (invertase), which is synthesized by them. Yeast consumes energy to synthesize the enzyme, which in turn affects the growth of their population and the rate of sugar absorption.

To speed up and minimize the release of by-products of the fermentation process, sugar can be broken down or inverted artificially. You can invert sugar with the help of the drug "pchelit" used in beekeeping, but this method takes about two days. There is a faster way using acid and elevated temperatures - we will use it.

Recipe:

The amount of sugar for mash is taken similarly to conventional recipes, that is, for 1 kg of sugar, we will add a total of about 4 liters of water. But first you need to prepare the syrup. For this:

Syrup is made from sugar and water in enamelware. For 1 kilogram of sugar, 520 ml of water is added.
The syrup is heated to a boil and foam is removed from it (if any).
7-8 grams of citric acid is added to the boiling syrup for each kilogram of sugar added.
Next, you need to withstand the syrup from one and a half to two hours at temperatures of 95-100 ° C.
Then the mash is placed according to the usual system, taking into account the fact that we have already added some water to the syrup. Before adding yeast, make sure that the temperature of the mixture does not exceed 30 ° C, otherwise you can kill it.

Results:

Adding inverted syrup to mash
Fermentation proceeds noticeably faster in mash with properly prepared invert sugar syrup, especially if you give the yeast a little bread or other nutrients. Also, according to our observations, when forcing on classic distillers, the smell and taste of the final product are significantly improved. This is especially noticeable if the mash is clarified before distillation.

Opinions and features:

When sugar syrup is inverted, not only glucose and fructose are formed, but also the carcinogen Oxymethylfurfural. Since at home it is impossible to accurately calculate the number of milligrams received per liter of syrup, as well as the content of this substance in the resulting moonshine, the question of the negative consequences of making mash on sugar inverted at home remains open.
According to some recommendations, it is enough to boil the syrup for 10 minutes before adding the acid and 20-30 minutes after making it.
The color of the resulting syrup depends on the specific sugar (cane or beet), as well as the degree of inversion and the amount of hydroxymethylfurfural formed.
When using different yeasts, incomplete fermentation may occur. More precisely, the main part of fermentation occurs quickly, but then the speed drops and fermentation is less intense.
Instead of citric acid, you can use formic acid or vinegar.
Inversion can be done with ordinary honey at a temperature of 50-55 °C. In this case, the inversion will take place within 6-8 hours using the invertase contained in honey.