How to clean alcohol at home? How to purify alcohol at home. Purification of alcohol with auxiliary means

Fans of their own alcoholic tinctures should know all the ways to clean alcohol at home. After all, high-quality cleansing of home-made moonshine, vodka or alcohol creates a drink not only much tastier, but also makes the next morning much more pleasant by the absence of a hangover.

Each of us has repeatedly wondered why a person gets slightly intoxicated from some drinks and does not suffer from a hangover, while others simply knock him down, turn off his consciousness and significantly undermine his health. The problem lies in the presence of foreign impurities in alcohol, which appear during low-quality purification of alcohol.

Moonshine or is considered one of the highest quality alcoholic beverages obtained through the distillation of raw materials. But the increased content of fusel oils in home-distilled products gives a not very pleasant smell and taste.

Those who make moonshine themselves or make alcohol tinctures know very well that cleaning is required mandatory step making high quality liquor.

It should be noted that all options for cleaning alcoholic beverages from fusel oils give an effect, but differ in the degree of effectiveness.

Experts recommend cleaning a product diluted to a fortress less than 35 degrees. This concentration of alcohol allows fusel oils to separate more quickly from the water-alcohol mixture. Therefore, the lower the degree of the drink, the higher the quality of its purification.

In any case, moonshine must be defended for 1-2 days, and alcohol should be diluted with soft spring water. and product best to clean cold. You can check alcohol or vodka for purity at home. For this, a piece of glass or a small mirror is suitable, which must first be washed with hot water and soda.

The glass does not need to be wiped, let it dry itself and become crystal clear without streaks. Now you can drop a few drops of alcohol on it and leave to dry. If there are no stains left on the glass, then there are no fusel oils and other harmful impurities in the alcohol.

And the last stage of verification - you need splash glass with distilled water. The liquid should not roll off, as if it had been spilled on a greasy surface. If the alcohol has passed the test and no harmful impurities were found in it, then there is no need to clean it.

Methods for cleaning moonshine at home

Home winemakers claim that cleaning moonshine or vodka with charcoal and activated charcoal is the fastest and most reliable. Coal perfectly absorbs unpleasant odors and absorbs harmful impurities.

Vodka purification. You will need activated charcoal, Enterogel or birch charcoal (it gives the best result). Pour into a saucepan, finely crush and pour alcohol at the rate of 50 grams per 1 liter.

This mixture is infused for 7 days and it must be stirred periodically. The drink is then filtered. To improve the result, this procedure can be carried out several times, replacing the coal with fresh one.

Two ways to clean moonshine:

1. In the process of the first distillation of moonshine, a funnel is used to drain into a jar. It is necessary to lay a cotton pad in layers in it, small fractions of coal, then larger ones and cover with several cotton pads.
2. Pour coal into a container with moonshine at the rate of 50 grams per 1 liter of liquid and let stand for 7-14 days, then strain through gauze with cotton.

These two methods are an excellent option for cleaning moonshine before re-distillation.

The well-known potassium permanganate quickly and efficiently cleans both moonshine and vodka. It is necessary to take 3 grams of potassium permanganate and dilute in 300 grams of warm water so that the solution is homogeneous.

Next, a spoonful of baking soda and a spoonful of salt are added to the solution. Then the mixture is poured into 3 liters of alcohol and settled for 12 hours. Drink must brighten up and settle down. Settled moonshine or alcohol must be filtered through a layer of cotton wool.

Milk is an excellent cleaner for vodka or moonshine. The protein of this product contains albumin and casein - substances capable of binding molecules of harmful impurities and fusel oils of an alcoholic beverage, causing them to precipitate.

The result is a high quality drink with a mild taste. For 20 liters of vodka or moonshine with a strength of 40–50 degrees, 200 ml of milk is required. Milk must have fat content not more than 1.5% and be pasteurized.

Milk cleaning steps:

• pour milk into alcohol or moonshine;
• to stir thoroughly;
• close the lid and leave for 7 days in a dark place, at room temperature;
• for the first five days, the mixture must be shaken periodically so that the reaction starts;
• and then two days are needed for the mixture to settle;
• at the last stage, the drink is filtered through several layers of cotton wool.

If the drink is still cloudy, you can throw any citrus peel into it and leave it for a day. Milk is believed to be best cleanser for alcohol and moonshine, since it is in this way that vodka is purified in production. Under the influence of alcohol, the milk coagulates, harmful particles stick to it and fall out along with the sediment.

Interesting! Some distillers right make moonshine from milk. For this, sugar, yeast, peas, milk and water are taken, which are mixed with each other. This mixture is infused for a day, and then it is distilled twice and this drink does not require purification.

Egg white

Purification of moonshine or alcohol from fusel oils can be carried out with egg white, by analogy with milk cleaning. For this, 3 liters of alcohol need to take two proteins.

The protein is whipped in one glass of warm water and poured into the drink. For five days, the mixture is shaken, and then it settles for two days and is filtered through cotton wool.

Freeze

An old proven and effective way to clean vodka or moonshine is freezing. A container with a drink (an aluminum pan with a lid is suitable) is left in the freezer for 12-14 hours.

During this time, water and fusel oils remain on the walls of the vessel, and only pure alcohol will remain in the container. At the same time, the strength of the drink becomes higher. It remains only to pour the vodka into another container.

fruit cleaning

To remove harmful impurities from the product and give it a special flavor, you can clean alcohol or moonshine with fruits.

For 3 liters of a product with a strength of about 25 degrees, one carrot and one apple. Fruits are cut into large pieces and added to the drink. After 2-3 days, fibers will begin to peel off from the fruit. So, it's time to pull them out and filter the liquid.

Soda

Baking soda can be used to neutralize the acetic acid formed in moonshine. This inexpensive product can be found in any home.

Soda is used in proportion 10 grams per liter of moonshine. It is enough to defend the mixture for 12-14 hours, more is possible, but this is not important. To remove the sediment, cotton wool is used, through which moonshine must be passed.

Oil

Cleaning alcohol with vegetable oil is one of the unusual and original ways. This procedure becomes possible only because alcohol and oil cannot mix. But fusel oils are attracted to oil drops like a magnet.

For such cleaning it is necessary to take 20 grams of unscented oil per liter of alcohol. Shake the vessel with the mixture well and repeat this procedure 5-6 times, every five minutes. Settling of the mixture is 12 hours.

After the alcohol has settled, it is necessary drain it through a tube lowered to the bottom. You can turn the bottle over, let the oil film rise and carefully drain the suspension through a slightly loosened cork. The rest of the liquid is filtered through the usual cotton wool.

Rye bread for cleaning alcoholic beverages

In previous years, cleaning moonshine or alcohol with fresh rye bread was considered the most effective and safe.

Fusel oils are well absorbed into bread, alcohol becomes transparent, loses its specific taste and acquires a pleasant aroma.

When choosing this method of cleaning alcohol or moonshine, the following conditions must be observed:

• Moonshine or alcohol must first be cleaned with egg white or other absorbent.
• Exactly 100 grams of bread is taken per liter of moonshine.
• Only the crumb without the rind is used to purify the alcohol.
• For greater effect, the crumb is better to crumble well.
• Bread crumbs are poured into a bottle of moonshine or alcohol and mixed well.
• The container must be tightly corked and left in a dark, cool place for three days.
• The precipitate must be filtered off, but the bread pulp is not squeezed out.
• Careful filtration helps to get rid of the yellowish tint that the drink acquires.

Cleaning alcohol with a water filter

The easiest and fastest cleaning method is to clean alcohol or moonshine with a home water filter. Any filter, such as Aquaphor or Barrier, will do.

To do this, you need to drive alcohol or moonshine through the filter at least twice. These filters cannot be used for water!

Obviously, even the most expensive alcohol or homemade moonshine needs to remove harmful impurities. If you apply one or more cleaning methods, as well as secondary distillation for moonshine, then make a great product, which in quality will be better than any factory products.

And no hangover will threaten, but only if you know the measure! It is important to remember that excessive alcohol consumption is injurious to health!

Attention, only TODAY!

There are many simple ways to clean vodka from fuselage using simple and affordable means. You need to know how to purify vodka from impurities in order to be able to consume the drink that is as safe as possible for health. Most lovers of this drink know how to purify vodka with potassium permanganate at home, but it is worth learning other options for exposure to filtering and adsorbing substances in order to capture and remove harmful impurities. We offer you to learn how you can purify vodka at home using activated charcoal tablets and milk. All methods are described in detail and are accompanied by detailed instructions.

How to clean homemade vodka with potassium permanganate from fusel oils and smell

Harmful impurities contained in homemade vodka, except for ethyl alcohol and water, must be removed. There are various purification methods that are used for a certain type of impurities. Most often, charcoal and potassium permanganate and milk are used.

Before you clean vodka with potassium permanganate at home, choose the right raw materials. Homemade vodka from good raw materials achieves "crystal" purity if the cleaning is carried out correctly.

We offer several old recipes on how to purify homemade vodka and make it crystal clear.

How to clean vodka with milk at home

First, we will talk about how to get rid of bad (bad) taste.

Depending on the size of the container, put from 3 to 6 handfuls of sifted birch wood ash and a few handfuls of salt (this is the first distillation). The second distillation will be carried out without ash and salt.

Chemical purification, special distillation, filtration and infusion- this is the process of cleaning bad homemade vodka. Before you clean homemade vodka from fusel oils, you need to take the moonshine that was obtained after the first distillation. It should be at room temperature, since at elevated temperatures many harmful substances are not captured. It is also better not to use high-grade alcohol, because it is very reluctant to part with its impurities.

The required amount of potassium permanganate is pre-diluted in a small amount of water. Water must be boiled. About 1-2 g of potassium permanganate is taken per liter of vodka. This solution is used to process vodka.

A solution of potassium permanganate is poured into vodka and mixed thoroughly. Then leave for 10-12 hours for clarification and precipitation. Next, the vodka is filtered through a cloth and a special distillation is carried out.

Such recipes were popularly called "How to take away the bad spirit from vodka." Everyone knows perfectly well that homemade vodka has a specific smell. And if we can get rid of it, we will only win. After all, they often complain that, if there were no bad smell, we would use home-made vodka. Well, let's get rid of it. This will require:

• 1 l fresh milk
• 6 l draft homemade vodka

Before cleaning vodka with milk at home, the drink is poured into a prepared container and distilled until a pure product is obtained.

How to clean bad draft vodka at home

Before cleaning vodka from the smell, we take 12 liters of homemade drink, 800 g of raisins and 400 g of pure birch coals. Pour clean birch coals into a container containing vodka. We insist until the coals settle and the vodka becomes clean. As soon as this happened, you need to carefully get rid of the coals, that is, pour the vodka. Before cleaning bad vodka at home, we dilute it with water in a ratio of 2: 1, where two parts are vodka, and one is water. We add raisins here and insist for two days, after which we distill again.

Production of charcoal.

Usually, after distillations, filtration is carried out through various filters. Many distillers are limited only to activated carbon. Perhaps this is due to the fact that the tablets are sold in all pharmacies. But it is much easier and more efficient to use charcoal. It's easy to get at home and worth the time, as woodpeeled vodka is of high quality, which affects our health.

To make good charcoal, you must first get rid of the bark, and also remove the knots from the chocks and the core (in the center of the stump).

Before you clean draft vodka, you should understand that it is not necessary to use chocks of old trees that are more than 50 years old to make the filter medium. Trees will fit different, depending on where you live and which species is more accessible to you: birch, pine, beech, linden, spruce, oak, poplar, aspen, acacia, alder, etc. Linden, birch, pine, beech. They are used to make high quality varieties.

Coal is prepared as follows: kindle a fire, it is best to do this in a barbecue or other similar device. As soon as the firewood burns out, but the heat is still strong, the coals must be collected in a container and the ash blown off. The container is tightly closed and wait until the coals cool down. Then they are taken out, very finely rubbed and sieved.

How to clean vodka at home

Most often, cleaning is carried out according to the following recipe: coals are placed in a container with vodka in a ratio of 1 liter 50 g. Infuse for 7 days, shaking the contents 3-4 times a day, and the same number of days, but no longer shaking. After that, the vodka is filtered through a flannel.

A moonshiner who is interested in producing a quality product must strictly follow the technology from the very beginning.

Before you clean vodka at home, you need to know that it is important to maintain the temperature regime, constantly change the water cooler ...

Alcohol evaporates at 73.4° heat. If there are more of these degrees, fusel oils begin to evaporate and pass into the finished product. You can get rid of them only by cleaning the finished product.

Full cleaning consists of several stages: preliminary, special distillation, main and filtration.

How to clean cloudy vodka with manganese

The first stage of how to clear cloudy vodka is commonplace- pour an aqueous solution of potassium permanganate into a container with ready-made moonshine and mix thoroughly. 2 g for every liter of moonshine. The required amount of potassium permanganate is diluted in warm water at the rate of 2 g per 50 ml of liquid. After you pour the solution of potassium permanganate into the moonshine, a chemical reaction will begin, accompanied by the precipitation of a flocculent precipitate. When the precipitate falls out completely, and the moonshine brightens - this will happen in 7-8 hours - the drink should be filtered through a rag or gauze folded several times. Before cleaning vodka with manganese, it should be poured into a wider bowl.

There is another way. In addition to potassium permanganate, alkali is also used - caustic sodium or caustic potassium.

Alkali is added to the moonshine distilled from the mash at the rate of 2–3 g per liter of drink. The mixture is stirred and allowed to stand for twenty to thirty minutes. Then add an aqueous solution of potassium permanganate. The proportions and method of preparation are described just above. After about thirty minutes, alkali is again added to the moonshine, mixed and allowed to settle. After ten to twelve hours, the liquid is drained from above, and the precipitate is removed. The semi-finished product is ready for cleaning of the second stage.

The second stage is technologically more complex. It is carried out in a distillation apparatus equipped with thermometers - this allows you to monitor how the process temperature changes.

Moonshine with a high concentration of alcohol is reluctant to part with impurities, so it must be diluted with water to the strength of ordinary vodka.

The drink poured into the distiller is quickly heated to a temperature of 60°C. Then the heating rate is reduced, gradually bringing to a temperature of 82–84°. At the beginning of the haul, the first fraction is allocated - the so-called pervach. The approximate volume from the initial mass of raw materials is from 3 to 10%. It is strong, but the taste is disgusting, as it contains volatile impurities. It is better to use it not for food, but for technical purposes. When the primary moves away, the heating temperature and heating rate increase. The allocation of the second fraction of moonshine begins - this is approximately 40-45% of the original volume of moonshine. The process must be controlled with a thermometer and an alcoholometer. The normal concentration of alcohol in the second fraction is 55–60°. If it fell, and the temperature of the liquid increased to 95–97 °, this means that the second fraction has departed, the third has gone ...

However, if the original product is of poor quality, then long before reaching the critical temperatures at which fusel oils evaporate, the strength of moonshine may not exceed 30 °. In this case, the second fraction should be distilled again to obtain a more concentrated drink.

If a normal second fraction has come out, it can be used to make high-quality alcoholic beverages based on moonshine.

The third fraction contains little ethyl alcohol, but a lot of fusel oils. There is also wine spirit. Don't skimp on your health. Either distill the third fraction again, or pour it into the toilet for simplicity. Together with the remains of moonshine from the distillation cube.

How to clean vodka with activated charcoal tablets

The third stage of purification of moonshine is made by activated carbon.

Activated charcoal sold in pharmacies is best suited. Although you can use fine river sand, sifted and calcined on fire. Before purifying vodka with activated charcoal tablets, an artisanal but correctly working filter is made. Take a glass funnel of the right size. A thin layer of cotton wool is placed in it, covered with a piece of gauze. A layer of activated carbon is poured over the gauze. So that the coal does not float, the third layer in the filter is gauze again. The amount of coal is determined by the size of the funnel and the volume of filtered moonshine. It is believed that for 1 liter of moonshine you need 50 g of coal.

There is another way to filter: just throw activated charcoal into a container of moonshine and leave for 2 weeks. The ratio is the same - 50 g per liter. You just need to remember to shake the container several times a day or shake it. Then, of course, filter the contents through a clean rag or gauze. I would like to draw your attention to the fact that coal from replaceable cylinders is not suitable for decommissioned gas masks or household filters for purifying drinking water.

In the first case, coal has already absorbed a lot of harmful substances, you can get poisoned ...

In the second case, in addition to coal, household filters contain a lot of chemistry, it can pass, partially or almost completely, into the finished product, causing poisoning ...

You can, of course, prepare the filter carbon base yourself. To do this, you need to kindle a fire made of wood chocks. Chocks must be cleared of bark and knots. The most suitable types of wood are beech, birch, pine. When the firewood burns out, but the heat is still strong, put the pieces of coal in a clay pot, blow off the ashes and cover with a lid. After a while, the coals will go out. Now they must be removed from the pot, cooled and crushed to pieces the size of a grain of wheat.

As an option for the third stage of purification, you can use the coal-free method - the so-called freezing of fusel oils.

Moonshine is poured into bottles with thick walls. Perfect, for example, "dishes" from under champagne. Then the bottles are securely corked and placed in the freezer compartment of the refrigerator for several days. Water, along with unwanted impurities, turns into ice. All you have to do is drain the alcohol before the ice melts. But do not think that in this way you will get almost 100% ethyl alcohol.

To prepare ethyl alcohol with a concentration close to 100 ° from moonshine, you need to buy copper sulfate at a hardware store.

Vitriol is calcined on fire in a glass, aluminum or copper dish. This results in dehydration. When it cools down, pour it into a vessel with undiluted moonshine. Such vitriol dehydrates moonshine. If you overtake such a hellish drink again, it will become almost 100-degree.

It is necessary to store such concentrated alcohol in a tightly corked bottle.

The fourth stage of cleaning - filtering through several layers of clean cloth - does not need special explanation. As soon as the fabric becomes dirty, it must be changed. Filter the drink a couple of times, and it is ready. Either for use or for further refinement.

See how to purify vodka at home in the video that shows the whole process:

To eliminate the specific smell and improve the taste of vodka, additional home cleaning and aromatization is used, adding a variety of fruits, berries, herbs, and various spices to it.
So how are we going to clean it up?

To clean vodka on the floor of a liter bottle, add 5 tablets of Karbolen (activated carbon) bought at the pharmacy, slightly crushed into small pieces with a knife handle (but not crushed into powder).
Then the bottle is closed and actively shaken for 2-3 minutes, while the vodka turns black. After 10 minutes, shaking is repeated. After half an hour, the bottle can be shaken again.
After that, the bottle is left completely alone in the dark for 2-3 days.
At the end of settling, a dense black layer of activated carbon is deposited at the bottom of the bottle, and above it is the purest vodka, which is very carefully drained from the sediment with a siphon.
Do not try to filter the vodka to speed up the process - the filter will instantly become clogged with coal and the filtration will stop.
It is necessary to patiently wait until the coal itself completely precipitates.
The loss of vodka in this case is about 5%, which remain at the bottom in a black coal sediment. The more Karbolen is put in, the greater the loss of vodka will be.
Purified in this way, vodka is superior in purity and taste to any of the most expensive ones.

More efficient and more affordable than other methods is filtration, in which vodka passes through filters made of adsorbing substances; activated carbon is most often used in their role.
You can also strain the vodka through a vessel with charcoal or place the charcoal directly into the vodka at the rate of 50 g of charcoal per 1 liter of vodka. Leave the charcoal for 3 weeks, remembering to shake the container in which the cleaning is taking place daily. After 3 weeks, filter the liquid. Now you can see for yourself by tasting that vodka has become cleaner. It is better to use coal left over from burning birch firewood.

You can pass vodka through household filters for purification such as "Spring", "Barrier", etc.

An old Russian method for cleaning homemade vodka:
it is necessary to pour a little milk or egg white into the made vodka. These products bind fusel oils and together with them form a sediment at the bottom. Carefully pour the vodka into a clean vessel and distill again. After that, put freshly baked rye bread in it. The product obtained as a result of all these operations is practically pure alcohol, devoid of any impurities.

According to the same principle, vodka can be purified with potassium permanganate. Pour 2-3 g of potassium permanganate powder into a 3-liter jar and wait until a precipitate forms. Next, carefully pour the purified vodka into another bowl, avoiding sediment getting into it.

Freeze cleaning.
Place the bottle in the freezer of the refrigerator, defrost after a while and carefully pour into a clean dish, and try not to get ice from the walls of the bottle into the purified drink. The mechanism of the proposed method is not complicated: the water in the vodka freezes, creating an ice crust on the inner surface of the bottle and absorbing harmful impurities, including fusel oils. Try defrosted vodka, and you will feel that its taste, and hence the quality, has improved significantly.

Flavoring vodka
To eliminate the specific smell and improve the taste of vodka, aromatization is used by adding a variety of fruits, berries, herbs, and various spices to it. They are also added to the finished purified vodka, which is infused for a certain time to obtain the desired effect.
Initially, hops were used to flavor vodka and moonshine. Even in small quantities, it can almost completely destroy the fusel smell and taste.
Bee honey, which is also an effective aromatic additive, is distinguished by similar qualities.
Many medicinal herbs can be used for aromatization. Such vodka, in addition to a pleasant smell, also acquires medicinal properties.
If the plant infused in the same vodka is changed from time to time to a fresh one, then a concentrated infusion will be obtained, which can then be used to improve the taste and smell of vodka, simply by adding it in a small amount.
It is most practical to infuse the flavor with vodka in a glass bowl. If you need urgent flavoring (for example, for the arrival of guests), it is best to put the bottles in a pot of water on wooden blocks and boil for an hour. After cooling in cold water.
When making homemade vodka, the flavoring agent can also be added to the sourdough. Herbs, lemon and orange skins are very appropriate here. However, the aroma is barely noticeable. To enhance it, it is better to first insist on the flavor of your choice the water used to obtain the mash (or prepare a decoction), and only then dilute the sourdough in this water.

Here are some recipes for vodka and moonshine with improved taste and smell.

orange vodka
Ingredients: refined sugar, water - 1 l, vodka - 2 l, peels from 4-5 oranges.
Preparation: boil the syrup from refined sugar and water. Mix with vodka. Pour into the bottle and throw in the same orange peels. Put in a place protected from light for 3-4 days. Then filter and bottle.
Varenukha
Ingredients: dried fruits (pears, apples, cherries, plums, figs), vodka, horns, honey, pepper pods to taste.
Preparation: Rinse dried fruits and horns, fill with vodka, add honey and pepper to taste. Cover the dish with a piece of bread and spread with unleavened dough. Put for 12 hours in a very warm place (in the village - on a hot stove). Drink hot. Fruit can also be eaten.
grape vodka
Ingredients: grape juice - 1 l, sugar - 1 kg, tea - 1 tbsp. l., bay leaf - 5 pcs., black peppercorns - 5 pcs., vanillin - 0.5 tsp., vodka - 1 l.
Preparation: add the listed ingredients to the vodka. Insist 5-6 days, stirring regularly. Strain. These flavors perfectly eliminate moonshine smell.
cherry vodka
Ingredients: vodka, cherry fruits.
Preparation: fill the bottle 3/4 with ripe cherries (half of them should be pitted), fill with vodka and put in the cellar for 1.5 months. After the above time, drain the vodka and squeeze the cherries through the canvas. Let them rest. After a day, mix the juice with vodka, bottle it, seal it. It is recommended to try in a year.
Usually women prefer drinks that are weaker and sweeter than classic moonshine. Especially for them, we will give several recipes for drinks with a pleasant, mild taste.
strawberry vodka
Ingredients: strawberries or strawberries - 3 kg, sugar - 1.5 kg, vodka - 1 bottle.
Preparation: Grind strawberries or strawberries with sugar, add vodka.
"Cognac"
Ingredients: strong moonshine - 3 l, sugar and high quality tea - 1 tbsp each, bay leaf - 3 pcs., black peppercorns - 5 pcs., clove buds - 3-5 pcs., A few orange or lemon peels.
Preparation: mix all the ingredients thoroughly and let the vodka brew for 10 days.
Robin
Ingredients: raspberries, vodka, sugar syrup to taste.
Preparation: fill the bottle 3/4 with ripe raspberries. Fill with vodka and keep two days in the shade. Drain, discard the raspberries, put them in 1/2 bottles of fresh ones and again fill them with the same vodka for two days. Drain, strain. Dilute sugar syrup and add to taste.
Absinthe
Ingredients: vodka, leaves and flowers of field wormwood.
Preparation: dry the upper leaves and flowers of the field wormwood in the shade, then immerse in vodka so that they take up a quarter of the container. Vodka can be consumed in 1-2 weeks.
Caraway vodka
Ingredients: cumin - 350-400 g, water - 1 l, sugar to taste.
Preparation: distill water with cumin through a distillation apparatus. The resulting caraway water can be stored in the refrigerator or in the cellar for several months. When you need cumin vodka, sweeten the water quite a bit, pour it into vodka to taste - and the drink is ready.
colored vodka
Vodka can be given a very beautiful color without the use of any artificial dyes.
For her to buy:
- blue color - insist it on cornflowers;
- green - on mint;
- red - on blueberries;
- purple - on sunflower seeds;
- yellow - on saffron.

Alcoholic beverages, both homemade and industrial, come in a variety of qualities. Therefore, the question of how to purify vodka so that it becomes pleasant to drink is not an idle one.

In addition, low-quality alcohol causes a severe hangover and poisoning.

Therefore, it must be at least partially rid of toxins (fusel oils, aldehydes, acetone and others). You can do it at home, and we will teach you how.

Actually, you need to clean any strong alcohol produced at home or industrially:,. At alcohol and distilleries, purification is carried out using huge coal columns, in which multi-stage purification is carried out, eliminating fusel oils. At home, it's a little different.

What exactly is vodka? This food grade alcohol diluted with water. Alcohol can be of the highest grade (the dirtiest food, despite the name), and Alpha, in which there is such a minuscule amount of fusel oils, which is not even worth talking about.

So what you can do at home to keep vodka clean and soft:

1. Raw alcohol is produced by distillation at home, which must first be purified, then diluted and distilled again with separation into fractions. After that - clean again and only after that to the desired strength and use or do some other manipulations: soften, flavor, insist on various components or in an oak barrel. And only after that, serve a completely different drink to the table.
2. With the help of a distillation column, it is possible to produce good quality, not inferior to the highest grade in the industrial classification. But it also needs to be brought to the correct organoleptic conditions.
3. You bought alcohol to make homemade vodka (today you can do it through online stores), but you doubt the quality. In order to prevent poisoning by the future finished product, subject it to special treatment.
4. And finally - about the finished vodka from the store. You bought one bottle or bought a box for a family celebration and are not satisfied with its taste, doubt the quality - this can be fixed. Of course, in the event that the alcohol is not completely “scorched”, made from methyl (technical, wood) alcohol. And - from ethyl but, perhaps, not too high quality.

To the treasury of knowledge

How to check the origin of alcohol? Unfortunately, it is impossible to determine by sight and even by taste what kind of alcohol is in front of you. But still there are indirect indicators:

1. In order to prevent mass poisoning of the population, dyes are added to industrial alcohol during production, which cannot be removed from it. Therefore, first of all, colored alcohol (blue-violet) should alert. Sometimes they try to disguise it with the addition of other dyes, marking bottles for various 40-degree tinctures.

Carefully. It is impossible to exclude situations when alcohol was stolen from the enterprise before staining. And also - the dishonesty of the manufacturer.

1. If you have normal vodka (alcohol) without additives, conduct a comparative test. Drop a tested product on the back of one palm, and dubious alcohol or vodka on the other. Rub it on your skin and compare the scents. If it's methyl, you'll smell a strong bad odor.
2. The flame color of ethylene and methylene is different. A food product burns with a blue flame, a wood product with a green one.
3. Take a piece of copper wire, heat it up and drop it sharply into the alcohol to be tested. Ethyl practically does not react to such a trick, technical one gives out a sickening smell.
4. Dip a piece of potato in liquid and leave for a couple of hours. If the color remains the same - everything is fine, turned pink - you are dealing with methyl alcohol.

Important. Do not even try to clean it, it will never become drinkable, because it has a different chemical composition.

How to clean at home?

In order to purify vodka with high quality, people have come up with many ways, about which we will try to give as much information as possible.

Peculiarities. Before using any of the methods, dilute the alcohol with water to a strength of 1-2 degrees higher than required.

Firstly, fusel oils and other harmful impurities are adsorbed this way, since the stronger the alcohol, the stronger the bonds between the components at the molecular level. Secondly, during cleaning, a decrease in strength by a couple of degrees is possible.

Application of coal

We need charcoal, stone is not applicable for our purpose. It happens:

• Berezov. For the purposes of the distiller, the best is BAU-A, that is, birch activated carbon.
• coconut(KAU-A). Today, this type is most in demand in the vodka industry. Its feature is the presence of pores of various diameters, as a result of which more alcohol impurities are retained.
• Homemade or for barbecue. When buying the latter, make sure that it does not contain substances for ignition, otherwise you risk spoiling the alcohol.
• Activated from the pharmacy(pills). The option is risky, because due to additives to tablets (talc, starch, etc.), a bitter aftertaste sometimes appears in purified vodka.
• Household coal water filter.

The charcoal is crushed before use. The usual way: beat a bag of coal with a hammer, and then sift through a fine sieve. Do not use dust, as well as large pieces (then grind them further), and add a fine fraction to vodka for cleaning.

Proportions for 0.5 liters of alcohol:

• When using crushed coals - 25 g or 1 tablespoon (about as much is placed in it) per 0.5 liter of raw alcohol or vodka with a strength of 42-45 °.
• 1 crushed pharmaceutical activated charcoal tablet.

After preparing the coal, technologies should be followed that differ depending on the chosen cleaning agent. Pharmaceutical tablets are placed between two layers of cotton wool, this filter is placed in a watering can and alcohol is passed through it.

Even simpler is to pass vodka through a charcoal filter into a jug.

Note. Have a separate alcohol filter, store it in the refrigerator. Through the new filter, as required by the instructions, pass the water three times, otherwise it can take up to 50% of the strength of the alcohol base passed through it. A trained one takes no more than 2 °.

Wood (coconut) charcoal does not require filtering, but insisting:

1. Pour the prepared coal into a bowl with vodka and close the lid.
2. Shake the dishes and leave for 3 hours, 3 days or 3 weeks.

Such different recommendations are dictated, apparently, by their own experience. And in the case of a three-hour infusion - the theory that coal absorbs harmful impurities during such a time, and when the pores become clogged, it begins to return them back to the drink. Whether this is so, we do not undertake to judge, but if you decide to apply this method, you should filter and refill vodka with coal 3-4 times.

1. During a long infusion (except for the last day), the dishes must be shaken.
2. A layer of sediment forms in the jar (bottle), from which it is better to remove the liquid to facilitate filtration with a tube.
3. Prepare a watering can filter. To do this, cut off the bottom of a plastic bottle with a long neck. The cork can be thrown away or holes can be made in it. Insert cotton pads twisted into a tube into the neck with a slight tightness.
4. Put your watering can in a jar and pour the vodka removed from the sediment.
5. The liquid will flow through the discs in a thin stream, coming out perfectly clean.
6. When everything leaks, you can pour in the sediment with the remaining vodka. Cover with a cut bottom to prevent the alcohol from evaporating, as the leak will turn into dripping, and then may stop altogether. In this case, drain the fluid and replace the discs.

2 ways using milk

The first method - with the subsequent filtration of ready-to-drink alcohol, the second - with repeated distillation:

1. Milk must be taken with low fat content, pasteurized. From fatty homemade, the drink may become cloudy (it becomes whitish, as in films about moonshiners:

• for 10 liters of vodka, take 100-150 ml of pasteurized milk 1-1.5% fat. You can also separate fresh homemade milk (skip);
• Pour in the milk and watch the flakes form and fall out. It is they who select fusel oils and other impurities from vodka;
• leave the closed container to settle for a week, shaking daily;
• strain through several layers of gauze, then pass through a cotton filter several more times.

Important. If there is a slight cloudiness in the vodka, filter it through a home-made cotton-charcoal filter.

1. If you are planning a second distillation, you can take milk of any fat content. Its quantity is much larger than in the first case - 1 liter per 10 liters of raw alcohol.

After a week of infusion and shaking, remove from the sediment, strain, dilute in half with water and distill a second time, taking the heads and tails into a separate bowl.

Recipe with potassium permanganate

We will not argue whether such a method is harmful or useful, it exists to this day, so we will talk about it.

For every liter of vodka, you need to take 1 g of potassium permanganate. This amount is like on the tip of a knife. Manganese is sometimes recommended to be first diluted with water, and only then mixed with vodka. But, since this will slightly reduce the degree, and we are already dealing with a 40-degree product, you can pour the powder directly into the container with vodka.

Then mix well (the substance dissolves in alcohol as well) and leave to settle for a week. During this time, the natural transparent color will return to the vodka, and flakes will settle at the bottom. Drain and filter.

Cleansing with egg white

The basis of the method is protein binding of impurities and sinking them to the bottom. It is better to take vodka (alcohol) with a strength of 45 °, since liquid is also added, which can slightly reduce the strength.

For 1 liter of alcohol you need 2 raw proteins. Beat them with a whisk, adding water (up to 1 cup, or less) until smooth. Lush foam we do not need. Add to vodka, stand, sometimes shaking, for a week. Filter.

rye bread

Take freshly baked rye bread in the amount of 100 g per 1 liter of vodka. Crumble it into a container with alcohol and leave to infuse for 5-7 days. Filter. This method gives the drink a bready aroma, eliminates unpleasant odors and turbidity.

Carefully. This method can give vodka a faint cognac color!

Oil painting

Unrefined sunflower oil, and even better - odorless corn oil tends to mix with fusel oils (these are also oily substances) and keep them in the total mass of the oil. Add 100 ml of oil per liter of alcohol. Cover with lid and shake well.

After a day, when a film of oil floats on top, lower the tube down and drain all the vodka without affecting the oil. You can filter further.

soda

Soda will help not only clean the alcohol, but also make it taste better. For each liter, take 10 g of baking soda, mix with vodka, leave for a day. This method requires careful filtration, preferably two to three times through a cotton filter.

fruits

Getting rid of the fuselage, you are at the same time flavor vodka. Cut into pieces 1-2 oranges, lemons or apples. Insist 3 days - a week and strain.

cold

Place the vodka in a metal saucepan, cover with a lid and put it in the freezer of a modern refrigerator for 12 hours. Drain what isn't frozen. This product is much cleaner than the original, but will become stronger.

If you are not satisfied with the fortress, dilute the vodka with clean (preferably bottled) water to the desired level. Pour vodka into water. And for exact proportions, use.

Attention. The more fusel oils will be extracted from vodka, the cleaner it will be in terms of chemistry, the tougher it will become.

Therefore, in addition to cleaning, softening is also used to make the product more pleasant to use.

How to make vodka soft and pleasant to taste?

Vodka is a mixture of alcohol and water. Without softening, it leaves the mouth feeling dry. Softeners are often used in distilleries to make the product more pleasant to drink. In addition, additives neutralize the specific alcohol smell.

But even at home, this is easy to do by adding special components to the product.

It is important to adhere to reasonable proportions, since an overabundance of ingredients will spoil the product. The main substances used to soften industrial vodka are sugar, glucose, glycerol and fructose. It is they who can be seen more often than others on the label. Sometimes they just write - taste stabilizers.

Softening additives

Consider what can be added to vodka at home to soften:

1. Burnt sugar. It is better if it is refined sugar - it is better refined than ordinary sugar. Lightly moisten the refined sugar with water and melt in a dry frying pan without oil. Do not overburn, otherwise it will be felt in alcohol. A teaspoon of the resulting caramel is enough for a liter of alcohol.
2. Glucose in the form of a solution or powder from a pharmacy - an excellent component for correcting strong homemade alcohol. For 1 liter of vodka, take 20 ml of the finished solution or 3 g of powder.
3. Fructose. Sweeter than sugar, so half a teaspoon per liter is enough. Dissolves in alcohol.
4. Glycerol. Only food is needed, no more than 5 ml per liter.
5. Ascorbic acid(usual vitamin C) - up to 5 g per liter. You can use your favorite ascorbic tablets with glucose from childhood. 1 tablet is enough.
6. Lemon acid- 2-5 g per liter of alcohol, does a good job of softening.

Flavoring homemade alcohol

After carrying out the cleaning and softening measures, you can proceed to aromatization. For this apply:

• Herbs: St. John's wort, thyme, bison. The list is long.
• Roots: galangal, ginger.
• Zest of citrus fruits.
• Fruits and berries such as cranberries, rowan, quince, etc.
• Oak bark and chips. And many others.
• Purchased flavors - but this is not for everybody.

Important. Do not use aromatization to eliminate an unpleasant odor (taste). First, vodka needs to be cleaned and softened. Only in this case you will receive an ennobled drink.

Thanks to the simple manipulations described, it is possible to make a quite decent, and even elite drink out of vodka of the “So-so” category.

(2 ratings, average: 5,00 out of 5)

Earlier in everyday life, water-alcohol solutions were purified from impurities by the following methods: 1) filtration; 2) freezing; 3) treatment with protein-containing substances. In the industrial alcohol and vodka, along with the last two, methods based on the following phenomena were used: 1) the preferential dissolution of impurities in certain substances, such as oils; 2) salting out.

Filtration. Filtration was carried out by passing a water-alcohol solution through certain filter materials, due to which fusel oil droplets and mechanical particles were partially separated from it. Filters were made from various materials, but preference was given to charcoal, felt, flannel, soldier's overcoat cloth, washed sand with particles of a certain size. Often these materials were used simultaneously.

Freezing. This method is based on the rule that the solubility of substances decreases with decreasing temperature, and this decrease in solubility is different for different substances. Here is how this method is described in: “Freezing was a purely Russian and very cheap ... technique. But it gave a wonderful effect. Thanks to Russian severe frosts, as well as the preservation of huge glaciers in summer, which practically held ice until autumn, freezing large batches of vodka was not possible difficult. Vodka was frozen in special small barrels that had an exposed bottom or a special plug, through which the alcohol that did not freeze in the cold was poured in. All the water contained in the vodka with fusel oil frozen to it in the form of a thin layer turned into an ice piece, which was easily thrown away ".

It should be noted that, in our opinion, since the proportion of water in the solution continuously decreases during freezing, and alcohol increases, and all impurities that are poorly soluble in water are readily soluble in ethyl alcohol, this purification method is ineffective. At the same time, there is no purification from impurities that have a high solubility in water. So, according to "... it turned out that with a content of 1-2% isoamyl alcohol, the ice is pure, and isoamyl alcohol remains entirely in the alcohol solution."

Processing with proteins. This method is based on the ability of ethyl alcohol to coagulate (coagulate) colloidal particles of proteins in water and form large flocculent aggregates from them. The resulting flakes capture the smallest solid particles and droplets of fusel oil present in the solution being cleaned and slowly settle. According to some data, proteins selectively absorb (adsorb) molecules of other impurity substances present in a water-alcohol solution. As follows from the literature, a single treatment of alcohol is not very effective. But repeated, although it leads to an increased loss of alcohol and a lengthening of the purification process, gives a product of very high quality. Milk, egg white, whole eggs, Karluk fish glue are used to purify alcohol. Cleaning is carried out as follows.

Take 1-2 (possibly more) egg whites or the same number of whole eggs per 1 gave a water-alcohol solution. First, they are beaten, then mixed with a small amount of water, added to the solution to be cleaned and mixed, since protein flakes are formed almost instantly. After that, the mixture is either left alone for several days until the flakes completely settle, after which the purified solution is separated from the flakes with impurity particles trapped by them by decanting, or filtered several hours after treatment.

Alcohol purification and sorting technologies using milk are given in. According to Wilke's recipe, "... about 3 liters of milk is consumed per 100 liters of alcohol, the effect of which is explained by the fact that the clot (protein flakes) formed when mixed with alcohol envelops particles of fusel oil and entrains them in the sediment. After mixing with milk, the alcohol was subjected to rectification and since in the old days distillation was carried out on a naked fire, straw was laid on the bottom of the cube in order to avoid burning the milk.Today, one can find in the recipes for the preparation of liqueurs indications for the use of milk, which is believed to give the product a lighter taste, liquid along At the end of the action, it is not distilled, but only decanted from the sediment.

According to "... Whole milk is considered unsuitable, because the fat contained in it can change the taste properties in an undesirable direction. Skinny milk is more suitable for all high-percentage alcohol liquids, especially for all kinds of vodkas. Use from 0.25 to 1 liter of milk per 100 liters First, a small amount of water is added to it and after thorough stirring with a whisk, this mixture is immediately added to the main mass of the liquid to be clarified.The protein then coagulates into flakes and after 1-2 days, and often after a shorter time, clarification is observed. When, after a long exposure, the product becomes crystal clear, it is drained from the sediment and only the cloudy part is subjected to special filtration. "

Here is how the modern technology of sorting cleaning with the help of powdered milk is described in the work: “Powdered skimmed milk is introduced into the sorting of Posolskaya vodka in the amount of 6.2 kg per 1000 dal.

Powdered milk is preliminarily poured with 20 dal of water, stirred and after 2-3 hours it is introduced into the water-alcohol mixture. After adding milk, the sorting is mixed and left alone for settling for 2-3 hours. Under the action of alcohol, milk protein coagulates, which ends with the precipitation of a flocculent substance. The flakes adsorb organic and coloring substances contained in the water-alcohol mixture on their surface, dragging them into the sediment. Thanks to this, vodka acquires a crystal luster and high taste.

Currently, in the industrial technology for the preparation of high-quality vodkas from the listed protein-containing substances, only skimmed milk powder according to GOST 10970-87 is used. This milk is produced from pasteurized skimmed cow's milk or its mixture with buttermilk by thickening and subsequent drying and must comply with the following physical and chemical parameters (in%): mass fraction of moisture - no more than 4.0; mass fraction of fat - no more than 1.5; mass fraction of protein - not less than 32.0; mass fraction of lactose - not less than 50.0. Purification of impurities with oils. The method is based on the experimentally established fact of the ability of fusel oil alcohols to be highly soluble in certain liquid hydrocarbons and edible fats, in particular in heavy and light petroleum oils, paraffins, poppy and olive oils, etc. Ethyl alcohol, if it is sufficiently diluted with water , does not dissolve in these substances. Due to the fact that impurities such as aldehydes also do not dissolve in hydrocarbons, before treating the water-alcohol solution with oil, the latter is treated with an alkali solution. In this case, the aldehydes are semi-imerized and become soluble in oil. Various oils can be used to extract fusel oils, but in industrial production, preference was initially given to liquid vegetable oils, later to petroleum oils, having a boiling point of about 240 ° C and a density of 0.85-0.88 g / ml (note that the characteristics close to to the above, it has oil, which, according to modern classification, is called solar oil). So, according to, to purify alcohol from fusel oil "... back in 1858, Breton (later Martinet) used poppy and olive oils, soaking flannel or pumice with them and filtering crude alcohol through filters prepared in this way, while it was assumed that fusel the oil is retained in the filter material.The filtered alcohol was then subjected to rectification, and in the distillate, according to the observations of I. Kozlov et al., no smell of fusel oil was noticed, but the smell of used fatty oil was noticed.To regenerate the latter, the filter material can be subjected to heating by means of superheated steam, moreover, fusel oil is distilled off, but part of the vegetable fat is also lost.

In 1884, Bang and Ruffen published a method for purifying crude alcohol by treating it with petroleum hydrocarbons, which, not mixing with water or a weak alcoholic liquid, can extract higher alcohols, esters and other substances from the latter, forming fusel oil. According to initial assumptions, light hydrocarbons (petroleum ether) were used for this purpose, but then Bang and Ruffen preferred heavier ones, having a density of 0.81 to 0.82 ... Recently, petroleum oil with a specific gravity of 0.85 is taken - 0.88 g/ml."

According to, in industrial conditions, this technology was carried out as follows: "The purified alcohol, previously diluted with water to a strength of 25-30 °, enters the neutralization vat, where the appropriate amount of milk of lime is poured. The vat is equipped with a stirrer, the blades of which can be raised or lowered using a chain attached to the upper end of the vertical axis.Stirring is continued until the litmus paper, lowered into the vat, takes on a blue color, i.e., it does not show an alkaline reaction.The purpose of lime treatment is to neutralize free acids, as well as to decompose complex esters and polymerization of aldehydes.At the end of the reaction, the stirrer is stopped and the liquid is allowed to clear, and when the lime settles to the bottom, the solution is lowered into the extraction apparatus, and the solution is washed with petroleum oil.A new portion is poured onto the lime mortar, the strength of which is far from being lost at once. water-alcohol solution, after which the mixer is again activated, etc. Only after many operations, the old lime, almost completely neutralized, is replaced by fresh lime milk, which, in turn, serves for a number of operations. The extraction apparatus, where the processed lime water-alcohol solution enters, consists of a conical vat ... A pipe for petroleum oil enters the lower part of the vat, perforated inside the extractor with thin holes upwards; there is a drain pipe hole under the cover and the level of the solution to be cleaned must be 15 cm lower than this hole, and the gap from this level to the drain hole is filled with petroleum oil, under which alcohol cannot evaporate.

The operation of the apparatus is as follows: after pouring in a water-alcohol solution and a protective layer of petroleum oil, the pump is set in motion and oil is injected through the lower pipe. Rising up, the streams of oil are saturated with fusel impurities and merge with the oil layer on the surface, and the latter, as it thickens from below, flows through the drain pipe into the cleaning vessels. In these vessels, petroleum oil leaves all the impurities it has extracted from the water-alcohol solution, and, leaving from there, in a state of original purity, it is again taken by the pump and injected into the extraction apparatus. Such a circulation of oil from the apparatus to the purifiers, and from there through the pump back to the apparatus, continues continuously until the water-alcohol solution is completely purified. After that, the pump is stopped and the liquid is allowed to settle, and all the oil floats up, carrying impurities with it. The water-alcohol solution purified in this way is sent for distillation. " According to D. I. Mendeleev, "... liquid oils, petroleum lubricating oils and other similar substances (for example, paraffin), almost not dissolving in alcohol, fusels are extracted from it oils ... and purify alcohol, which, after the second distillation (or during it), is purified by this method from most impurities. I personally experienced purification through shaking dilute alcohol with lubricating oils, combined with filtering through coal and distillation, gave alcohol of very high purity ... "According to the use of paraffin, it is more advisable, since the alcohol purified by it, in contrast to that purified by liquid petroleum oils, has no smell of oil.Usually, when cleaning, pieces of paraffin were loaded into the cube together with the distilled liquid in such an amount that after they melted (melting point - 55-60 ° C) a layer of liquid paraffin 1.5-2 cm thick formed on the surface of the distilled liquid The ethyl alcohol evaporating during the distillation passes through this layer, while the fusel oil alcohols dissolve and remain in it.

We have tested the purification of a water-alcohol solution using refined sunflower oil. Roasted seed oil is less suitable for this purpose due to its strong aroma. The water-alcohol solution with a strength of 28-30 ° was subjected to purification, obtained as a result of the distillation of the mature mash "to the end", that is, until the alcohol was completely separated. The liquid had an unpleasant fuselous odor and a cloudy appearance. 20 ml of oil was consumed per 1 liter of solution.

Purification was carried out as follows. After pouring 10-15 liters of the solution to be cleaned and the corresponding amount of oil into a 25-liter bottle, the container was vigorously shaken. within 40-60 s. This operation was repeated 2–3 times with 1–2 min intervals between shaking. Immediately after stopping shaking, the liquid begins to separate into two layers: the upper one, which is sunflower oil with substances dissolved in it, and the lower one, which is a water-alcohol solution with tiny oil droplets. The amount of the latter decreases over time, however, even after 20 hours, complete separation of the oil does not occur. 12 ^ after the end of shaking, the lower layer was drained using a siphon. Visually, this liquid has a cloudy color, a slight smell of sunflower and fusel oils. The upper layer remaining in the bottle has a pronounced smell of fusel oil, drowning out the smell of sunflower oil. The oil with the substances contained in it was poured into a metal

Capacity and subjected to regeneration by heating at 140-150°C for 20-30 min, until the smell of fusel oil completely disappeared. The regenerated oil was reused and the oil-treated hydroalcoholic solution was distilled. At the same time, the first and middle portions of the distillate had an extremely weak smell of fusel oil, which somewhat intensified as the distillation ended. However, even in the last fractions it was insignificant and the distillate was completely transparent.

In our opinion, incomplete cleaning is due to a number of reasons. First of all, this is due to the presence of fusel oil components in the solution, which have significant solubility in water and ethyl alcohol, due to which they are poorly absorbed by sunflower oil. In addition, a solution with a certain amount of tiny droplets of sunflower oil containing fusel oil components dissolved in it, which are also released during repeated distillation, is supplied for re-distillation. The smell of sunflower oil is completely eliminated, and the smell of fusel oil is even more weakened if, before re-distillation, the oil-treated solution is filtered through charcoal or bone charcoal.

The purification effect is enhanced if the water-alcohol solution to be purified is diluted with water to a strength of 20-25 ° or lower before mixing with sunflower oil and (or) the mixture with oil is kept for 3-4 days. However, much more effective in terms of reducing both the time and the degree of cleaning, re-cleaning the solution with fresh or regenerated oil, combined with filtering through coal.

It is also effective to add caustic acid (NaOH) to a solution purified with sunflower oil, which is introduced into the distillation cube as a solution immediately before distillation. Under the influence of soda during boiling, saponification of sunflower and fusel oils esters and neutralization of acids with the formation of non-volatile substances occurs. About 1.5 g of NaOH is enough for 1 liter of oil-treated water-alcohol solution. When using NaOH, filtering the oil-treated solution through charcoal can be omitted.

Salting out. The starting point for this purification method is the experimentally established facts of the limited solubility of many components of fusel oil in a water-alcohol solution and a decrease in their solubility when certain substances are added to this solution. Simplistically, we can assume that the water-alcohol solution obtained as a result of the first distillation is a system in which one part of the fusel oil molecules is evenly distributed between the molecules of water and ethyl alcohol (that is, it is in a dissolved state), and the second part is combined into the smallest droplets. These droplets have a density close to the density of a water-alcohol solution, and as a result, as well as small sizes

evenly distributed throughout its volume. It is clear that an increase in the density of the solution will lead to an increase in the lifting (buoyancy) force acting on these droplets, as a result of which they will float to the surface of the solution, from where they can be removed even mechanically. In practice, this increase in density is easy to implement by introducing into the solution substances that have significant solubility in water, but are insoluble in droplets of fusel oil. However, an increase in the density of the solution will not lead to its complete purification from all the components of fusel oil, since some of them still remain in it. Therefore, it is desirable that the substance introduced into the solution not only increase its density, but also simultaneously weaken the bond between water and ethyl alcohol molecules and fusel oil molecules, that is, reduce the fusel oil solubility in water and ethyl alcohol, as a result of which the fusel oil molecules should stand out from solution, unite into droplets and also emerge. The water-alcohol solution treated with such a substance will be freed from fusel oils, but it is not suitable for consumption due to the low concentration of ethyl alcohol in it and the high concentration of the solute. This disadvantage can be eliminated by distillation. But this purification method places new demands on the solute; it must be non-volatile, chemically inert to ethyl alcohol and the material of the containers used. The method of purification by distillation requires that this substance contribute to the reduction of the bond between water and ethanol molecules. The fulfillment of this requirement is especially important, since it leads to an increase in the coefficient of rectification of ethyl alcohol and provides the possibility of its additional purification during the distillation process. At the same time, a decrease in the bond between the molecules of ePhilo alcohol and water should not lead to the fact that Water and ethyl alcohol will separate and ethyl alcohol, together with fusel oil, will be on the surface of the water.

It would seem that common salt (NaCl) could be the most acceptable substances for the purification of a water-alcohol solution from poorly soluble components of fusel oil, due to its availability, low cost, relatively high solubility in water (36.0) and density (2.16 g / cm), 3 also calcium chloride (CaCl2) is an extremely hygroscopic substance, highly soluble in water (59.5 °, 159). However, due to top), that in comparison with the solubility in water, the solubility of NaCl in water-alcohol solutions is greatly reduced, for example, in a 30 ° aqueous-alcoholic solution it is only 14, table salt is of little use for these purposes. As for CaCl, using it, one can easily provide the necessary density of a water-alcohol solution, but this salt chemically interacts with ethyl alcohol, which is why it is also unsuitable for these purposes.

In the technology of industrial purification of alcohol, potash (potassium carbonate K2CO3) is most widely used. (Potash is a salt of white or, depending on the degree of purification, yellowish in color, very hygroscopic, density - 2.43 g / cm3, solubility in water: 112 g in cold and 156 ;:. solubility in 30 ° solution of about - 30. Note that in industry and in everyday life for a long time only ash from trees, grasses, cereal straw, sunflower stalks, from which it was extracted by dissolving in water, served as a raw material for producing potash for a long time. On average, 10 %, from grasses, straw and, especially from sunflower stalks, - about 30% of potash from the mass of ash.

Methods for purifying alcohol from fusel oil using potash are described in. Below we quote excerpts from both of these works, since the information given in them, complementing each other, makes it possible to form a more complete picture of the mechanism of this process.

The work states that "... if salt solutions of a certain concentration - potash, ammonium sulphate, magnesium sulphate - are added in a certain ratio to Crude alcohol, then it is observed that a dark liquid layer with an unpleasant odor settles over the liquid, which, when selected the proper concentration contains all the fusel oil, as well as the head products.Potash later turned out to be the best, because, already thanks to the neutralization of acids and the decomposing effect on aldehydes, it was always a valuable cleansing agent for raw alcohol. Purification by this method is carried out as follows: per unit volume of crude alcohol in 80 vol.% I take "about 4-5 volumes of potash solution, specific gravity 1.235 ^ 1.240 g / ml at 15 ° C, corresponding to a content of 295-302.5 g of salt per liter. Potash solution is heated in an iron cylinder * up to approximately 60 ° C and, with constant stirring, 80 vol.% alcohol is added to it until it stands out: yferhu layer equal to 1/30-1/60 of the total volume of liquid. For spirits of other strengths, the concentration of potash solution should be changed accordingly. Add crude alcohol with a pipe reaching almost to the bottom of the vat, mixing with a stirrer. When it is noticed that the upper layer has the proper thickness, then, by means of a special draining device, it is lowered into a separate vessel and proceed to the selection of the next layers. After the removal of the layers, distillation is started.

The same method is described in the following way: “The method ... is based on the isolation of fusel oil from alcohol by specific gravity. Purified alcohol is poured into a specially arranged vessel and a certain amount of potash or sulfate is added to it, in dry form or in the form of a concentrated solution * ammonium. After some time, the mixture will clearly separate into two layers, which can be accelerated by slightly heating the vessel. All impurities, i.e. esters and fusel oils with a small amount of alcohol, should pass into the upper layer. The thicker this layer, the more it entrains alcohol, and therefore, to reduce the loss, it is necessary to regulate the thickness of the upper layer by successive additions of water, heating or cooling.If the case is properly managed, in addition to the added salts, pure alcohol with an insignificant admixture of fusel oil (we will add water from ourselves) will remain in the lower layer.

The following proportion of materials gives the most favorable result: dissolve from 30 to 40 kg of potash or the corresponding amount of ammonium sulfate in 100 liters of water and add 40 liters of purified alcohol to this solution, the strength of which is assumed to be 80 vol.%. The temperature during the operation should be from 20 to 40 C. At this temperature, the mixture of liquids is clearly divided into two layers and the top layer can easily be increased or decreased at will by moderately heating or cooling the vessel, or by adding water or salt. You can do the opposite of the above, namely: first pour crude alcohol into the vessel, and therefore already add a solution of Salt, maintaining, however, the same proportions and temperature. The addition of salts in solid form, although possible, is less recommended. Having decanted the upper layer of the liquid, if necessary, a small amount of potash can be added to the lower layer or the liquid can be moderately heated, on the surface of which a new layer is formed containing the remains of fusel oil. By combining both decanters, first of all, ethyl alcohol is extracted, which has passed into this part of the liquid along with fusel oils, for which the decanter is treated according to the above method with a concentrated solution of potash or ammonium sulphate.

The final result is a very concentrated fusel essence, which can be utilized in the perfume industry, turning it into aromatic esters. The lower layers of the liquid, which are a mixture of salt solutions with ethyl alcohol, enter a simple distillation apparatus for distillation of alcohol, which is obtained in this case in its pure form. As for the salts remaining from distillation, they can be used for the following operations. In addition to potash and ammonium sulphate, many other salts can be used to purify alcohol according to the described method ... All these substances tend to release fusel impurities of alcohol into the upper layer. The order of the process and the temperature do not change. When alkaline materials are used, partly chemical purification also takes place, namely, the neutralization of the acids contained in the solution, but the main result is achieved here in any case mechanically.