How to make invert sugar. Methods for preparing invert sugar syrup for mash

Invert sugar is a specific culinary product whose main ingredient is standard table sugar. When exposed to fire and acid, granulated sugar is separated into glucose and fructose, which allows you to change the texture of the product, improve taste and increase the shelf life.

What are the benefits of invert sugar?

Invert sugar is hygroscopic and absorbs moisture from the air stream. This prevents the appearance and development of harmful bacteria, increasing the shelf life of products.
When splitting, the crystals are reduced and the dishes take on a smoother texture.
Due to the reduced degree of freezing action, frozen dairy products do not lend themselves to crystallization, while maintaining softness.

What foods are invert sugar good for?

Invert sugar is needed to ensure the safety of bakery and confectionery products, to create high-quality wine drinks.

As a sweetener, it has a lot of invaluable advantages:

baking takes on an airy texture and lasts longer;
confectionery products become smoother, without flaws;
frozen foods remain soft.

This type is useful for cooking homemade types of food, as it dissolves more thoroughly.

It is popular to use invert sugar instead of standard sugar, or as a substitute for honey.

Important! Invert sugar is much sweeter than regular sugar because of the fructose crystals. In this regard, when using it, 25% less sugar syrup should be added than under normal conditions.

What proportions are used?

Depending on the amount of invert sugar used, the volume of liquid according to the recipe is reduced - from 1/5 to 1/4. This change is due to the fact that sugar is represented by a liquid consistency.

When adding instead of honey, it is not necessary to change the proportions.

Note: It is important to always reduce the amount of prescription liquid by 1 tablespoon, regardless of the final result.

How to invert sugar at home?

What is needed for cooking:

a small saucepan (the size is determined depending on the proportions);
mixing spoon;
brush for baked products;
measuring capacity;
thermometer for cooking sweet dishes;
glass jar with a screw cap for 0.5 liters;
plate;
fridge.

Standard components include:

225 g sugar;

For the speed of dissolution, you should take fine-grained sugar - microscopic crystals, help to reduce crystallization.

1/8 dessert spoon of citrus acid;

Instead of acid, it is allowed to use potassium tartrate, the main condition is to choose only one substance from those presented.

3/4 cup of water.

Particular attention is paid to the quality of water, as the final taste of the product depends on it. For the best effect, tap water should be left to stand for two days, then pour it, getting rid of the sediment.

Cooking instructions

Electric burners work more efficiently, distributing heat evenly.

Bring to a boil, increasing the temperature.

After boiling, mixing must be completed.

With a brush, scrape the sugar crystals from the edges of the dish into the syrup.

It is important to rinse the brush with clean water before use.

Reduce heat to low and continue cooking for 20 to 120 minutes.

The sugar mixture must not be stirred, otherwise the microparticles may stick together.

Maintain operating temperature.

Regardless of the boiling time, the temperature of the mixture should be from 114°C.

To give a natural shade, it is important to cook the sugar not too long.

This precaution is necessary when cooking for more than 30 minutes.

Remove from heat, cool at room temperature.

It is important to keep the container closed to prevent dust particles from entering.

After complete cooling, sugar can be used or determined for storage.

How to ensure proper storage?

Pour the chilled mixture into jars, leaving 1.5 cm of free space at the top, close carefully.

Important information! Containers must be tightly closed, no canning is allowed.

Finished products must be stored in the refrigerator. Shelf life: 6-12 months.

What is important to know before using:

it is necessary to check whether mold is present on the product: if it is present, it is forbidden to use the product;
immediately before the sale of invert sugar, it must either be heated so that the crystallization process does not interfere with use, or the process of natural heating at room temperature must be ensured;
It is important to follow the prescription instructions exactly.

Invert sugar to make mash

Why is the inversion process necessary for mash? In terms of ease of manufacture and taste, as well as popularity among the population, sugar moonshine surpasses all other varieties of this drink.

Compliance with technology, love for the process of home brewing and the desire to complete what has been started - guarantees not only quality, excellent taste and smell, but also the safety of drinking alcohol.

Yeast for the manufacture of mash is not able to process sugar in its pure form. By inverting sugar, the quality of the drink is increased.

The process of hydrolysis of sucrose can be done independently at home.

How does sugar invert chemically for mash?

During the interaction of the main components, water particles are attached to the sucrose molecules, and the inversion process, with the help of thermal energy, stretches them in different directions and breaks them into fructose and glucose.

Useful information: to eliminate the possibility of foreign odors or an unpleasant aftertaste of moonshine, you should clean all used containers with hot water and dry them with a clean kitchen towel.

Advantages and disadvantages of invert sugar

The taste of the drink is improved, giving off a light fruity-floral aroma, the sharp smell of mash is eliminated.
The fermentation process starts faster.
Braga has fewer side effects from the work of yeast.
Safety of use, ensured by the destruction of bacteria.

Less quantity of the final volume of the product.
Additional time is spent on providing a high temperature.
Moonshine may contain hydroxymethylfurfural, a potential carcinogen. However, with the right temperature conditions, the manifestation of furfural can be avoided.

How to prepare sugar for mash?

To create an invert sugar syrup, you need to have sugar, water and citric acid. Proper dosage is the key to successful inversion.

For 1 kg of granulated sugar, you should take 400 ml of water and 4 gr. acids.

Sugar is inverted in several stages:

Prepare a deep non-metallic container.

When filling the volume of the container, it is important to leave a third of the space free, in order to avoid foam overflowing over the edges during cooking.

When pouring citric acid, the minimum dosage should be strictly observed so that the syrup does not foam.

At the minimum temperature, bring the syrup to 80 ° C, cover and cook for 60 minutes.

The cooking time affects the taste, tactile characteristics and external data of the finished product, so the number of minutes can be varied until the desired effect is achieved.

Turn off the stove, leave to cool down to 30°C.

After the final cooling, the syrup can be used to mix with water, yeast and additional ingredients.

Acid neutralization

If the dosage of citric acid is exceeded, the fermentation process will take longer, which can lead to the development of side microflora, which is undesirable. Therefore, having a special measuring device for the level of acidity and making sure that it is exceeded, an acceptable level of acid should be reached.

How to neutralize excess acidity:

1.25 soda should be taken per 1 gram of citric acid, diluted with a small amount of water;
carefully pour the soda solution into the syrup.

Attention! After adding soda, the foam will separate, after which the invert sugar is ready.

Acid neutralization is an optional step that simply helps speed up the fermentation process.

To sum it up, inverting sugar compared to regular granulated sugar soaked in water has a lot of advantages:

does not contain harmful microorganisms;
accelerates the working state of yeast;
eliminates negative factors - a pungent odor, an unpleasant aftertaste.

The preparation of invert sugar is a useful procedure to improve the taste of products and ensure a long shelf life.

Braga is prepared in order to process it into moonshine or just drink it. Any sugar-containing product can be used as a raw material, but granulated sugar itself is most often used. This raw material is easy to get, the taste of the drink is pleasant. Braga with citric acid is part of the preparation with a modified recipe.

Citric acid for cooking mash

The fact is that in the process of life, yeast processes the monosaccharides that make up sugar into carbon dioxide. In this process, pure alcohol is released, as well as a small amount of metabolic products. If you use ordinary sugar, then it is worth considering that in it the monosaccharides are linked together in the sucrose molecule. In order for yeast to break down sucrose, they need the enzyme invertase. Energy is spent to produce the enzyme, which affects the amount of alcohol and the quality of the process.

Answering the question why do this, we can say that this makes the task of fungal strains easier, and the inversion can be done independently. Sugar turns into dextrose, that is, glucose with a different orientation of atoms in the structure. There are many ways to convert. For example, you can do an inversion using the Pchelit preparation used in beekeeping, but the technique will take about two days. But the use of elevated temperatures will be much faster.

Pros and cons of the technique

Of course, this process has both advantages and disadvantages. Among the first are arguments such as:

The fermentation of the drink is faster, the amount of harmful substances that is released by the yeast is less, that is, the taste of the distillate will be higher, and the mash itself can be obtained two to three days earlier. Braga on such sugar will not have an unpleasant odor during fermentation and there will be no unpleasant aftertaste in moonshine.
Invert sugar is great for brews made with fruit and grain malt. Citric acid added to the drink does not harm the aroma and does not add acid, therefore it is preferable to use invert sugar in fruit and.
The high temperature during the preparation of the syrup kills the microorganisms that are on the surface of the sugar. Therefore, the mash is cleaner, and the risk of mold is minimal.
When using classic distillers (moonshine stills), the quality of the finished product is somewhat higher due to the initially smaller amount of impurities in the mash. For distillation columns, this does not matter.

But even this method has its drawbacks:

It takes time to invert the sugar and make the mash. The process takes on another stage.
After inversion, furfural appears in the composition of the substance. It is a toxic substance that has the flavor of rye bread or almonds. At a high concentration of furfural, irritation of the mucous membranes and skin is possible upon contact with the substance. But in most cases, furfural is released during the hydrolysis of hemicellulose, a polysaccharide contained in plant cells, which are few in pure sugar. And the substance is a carcinogen. The main problem is that it is impossible to calculate the amount of furfural, which is obtained in this way, and which subsequently enters the distillate. Since there is no device or formulas for counting milligrams of a substance, the question of the harmfulness of sugar inversion remains open. But, you should know that any homemade furfural jam is higher than in inverted sugar. The harmless process of caramelization of berries and fruits is more dangerous than making moonshine on Braga with citric acid.
The yield of alcohol using sugar inversion is less than when using standard mash.

Braga recipe with citric acid

Before you start cooking the mash, you need to know that the proportions remain approximately the same, just an extra preparation step is added. The hydromodule remains standard: 4 liters of water are required for 1 kilogram of sugar. To prepare the syrup you need:

Mix sugar and water in an enamel saucepan. For 1 kilogram of sugar, 520 milliliters of water are added.
The syrup is heated to a boil, during the heating process, foam is removed from it.
In boiling syrup, you need to add citric acid in a proportion of 7-8 grams per kilogram of sugar.
The mixture is kept at a temperature of 95-100 degrees for up to two hours.

Next, the mash is prepared according to a standard recipe. Syrup is added to the fermentation tank, as well as yeast and water. All components in the total volume should occupy no more than 70% of the volume of the container, since foam will form. Before adding yeast, you need to make sure that the temperature of the liquid does not exceed 30 degrees.

Fermentation itself will be faster on sugar syrup. You can feed the yeast with rye bread or other substances to taste. To make the drink even better, it can be clarified before distillation - the smell of the drink will not irritate and spoil the taste. In addition, there are a few additional tips that you can use as desired to improve the recipe:

Some recommendations say that it is enough to boil the syrup for 10 minutes before adding the acid and 20-30 minutes after adding the component.
The color of the liquid depends on the origin of the sugar (cane or beet), as well as the degree of inversion and the amount of furfural.
It is better to use the same type of yeast. The use of different strains and even different packaging leads to the fact that the fermentation is too intense at first, and then freezes at a certain point.
Citric acid in the mash can be replaced with formic acid or vinegar.
Inversion can be done with honey at a temperature of 50-55 degrees Celsius. In this case, it will take place within 6-8 hours using the invertase contained in honey.

Adding citric acid to the wash and inverting sugar is a matter of taste. The drink has excellent qualities, and all the shortcomings of the method are either not proven or do not play an important role. Therefore, you can safely add this recipe to the piggy bank of any distiller, and in the future it is easy to surprise guests with a drink with excellent softness and transparency.

Strong homemade alcohol can be prepared from almost any raw material. However, the most popular among the people was and remains moonshine from sugar mash. This is explained not only by the fact that the recipe for classic sugar mash is elementary simple. And not even because there are more than 20 variations of the basic recipe. The fact is that with strict observance of the conditions and rules of the technological process, the taste of home-made moonshine is better than that of factory vodka.

There are many nuances of the correct preparation of sugar mash. The first rule concerns sanitary standards. The fermentation tank must be crystal clear so that the sugar solution does not acquire an extraneous taste or smell during the fermentation process. Therefore, before putting the mash, all the dishes involved in the process must be thoroughly washed, dried, and wiped from the inside with a clean towel.

Calculation of proportions

The amount of ingredients for classic sugar mash is calculated based on how much distillate is required to be obtained at the exit. In theory, 1-1.2 liters of moonshine with a strength of 40 degrees can be driven out of 1 kg of feedstock (sugar).

In practice, for a number of reasons, the yield is somewhat smaller. The quantity and quality of the finished moonshine is influenced by factors such as the type of sugar, the type of yeast, the temperature maintained during the fermentation of the wort and during distillation. In this regard, the proportions of all ingredients indicated in the recipe should be increased by 10-15%.

On average, 1 kg of sugar will require 3 liters of water, 100 g of pressed or 20 g of dry baker's yeast. If the recipe says that sugar must be inverted, that is, boil syrup from it, the volume of water is increased: 0.5 liters per kilogram of feedstock.

For example, to get 5 liters of high-quality distillate with a strength of 40 degrees, you will need:

Sugar? 6 kg.
Water? 18 liters.
Yeast? 600 g pressed or 120 g dry.

If inversion is performed, an additional 3 liters of water are measured and 20-25 g of citric acid is taken, which will give the syrup a more pleasant taste.

At the stage of calculating the proportions, it is important not to overdo it with the amount of sugar. If the sugar content of the wort is too high, fermentation will be sluggish or not start at all, since sugar is a preservative and its excess will not allow yeast to multiply normally.

On the other hand, if the wort is sluggish but still fermenting, the yeast may not have time to process all the sugar. Part of it, as expected, will turn into alcohol, part will remain unprocessed. In addition, if the alcohol content of the wort exceeds 12%, the yeast will die, fermentation will stop.

You can check the sugar content, the initial density of the mash using a saccharometer (hydrometer). When using baker's yeast, the average of the device should be 20%. If special alcohol-resistant yeast is used in the recipe, the density of the solution can vary from 20% to 30%.

Sugar inversion

The complex term refers to the preparation of a syrup from sugar, water, citric acid. Why is it necessary to include this stage in the process of making mash? Sugar may contain bacteria, the activation of which during fermentation can adversely affect the quality of the product. Long-term heat treatment of raw materials allows you to destroy these microorganisms, which will help reduce the risk of malnutrition, souring of the mash, and mold.

In practice, the inversion process looks quite simple:

Pour 3 liters of water into a large saucepan.
Warm up on fire to 80 degrees.
Pour 6 kg of granulated sugar into a hot liquid, stir until the crystals are completely dissolved.
Bring the syrup to a boil.
Reduce the heat, boil the container with syrup for 10 minutes.
Add 20-25 g of citric acid, stir.
Cover the pan with a lid and continue to heat the sugar syrup over low heat for another hour.
Before mixing with the rest of the components of the mash, the resulting syrup is slightly cooled.

You can skip this step by making syrup by dissolving sugar in warm water. But on inverted raw materials, the wort ferments much faster. And the distillate obtained after distillation has a milder taste.

Water treatment

Good water? one of the conditions for obtaining high-quality moonshine. The liquid should be exceptionally clean, transparent, no taste or smell should be present in it. This rule applies not only to the preparation of sugar wort, but also to other recipes in which mash is prepared without sugar.

Ideally, clean spring water should be used. But since not everyone has such an opportunity, they usually take water from the tap. Before pouring into a fermentation tank, it is filtered or defended.

For filtration use a standard household filter jug? Barrier?. Defend water for 2 days in a clean container, for example, in glass jars, bottles of 3-5 liters. Thanks to such a simple treatment, the hardness of the water is reduced, and foreign impurities precipitate. After settling, the liquid must be carefully drained from the sediment through a tube.

It is not recommended to use boiled and, moreover, distilled water for the preparation of any mash wort, including sugar-free mash. In such a liquid, there is not only the substances necessary for the life of yeast cultures, but also oxygen, without which fermentation is impossible.

Mixing Ingredients

The sequence of adding the wort components to the fermentation room
capacity is an equally important stage in the process of making high-quality home brew. According to the recipe, first of all, hot sugar syrup is poured into the container. Then add 18 liters of water heated to 20 degrees. The solution is stirred vigorously.

Important! The volume of the fermentation tank is calculated depending on how many liters it is planned to put the mash. Since active foaming is observed at the first stage of fermentation, the container must be filled no more than 75% of its volume.

For example, if the total volume of wort together with sugar syrup is 20 liters, the capacity of the fermentation tank should be 23-25 liters. Otherwise, during the period of active fermentation, the solution will overflow over the edges of the dishes.

Introduction of yeast

If pressed baker's yeast is used in the recipe, there are two ways to add it to sugar syrup diluted with water. You can simply knead the briquette with your hands and pour the crumbled yeast directly into the wort. In the second variant, fermentation is performed.

1 liter of warm solution is taken from the fermentation tank, the yeast is crushed and poured into sweet water. Close the lid and set aside for 10-15 minutes. During this time, the yeast will come to life, which can be judged by the formation of foam. It is important that the temperature of the solution at the time of adding the yeast is about 30 degrees.

Dry yeast must be activated before being added to the wort. To do this, boiled water (0.5 liters) cooled to 36 degrees is poured into a separate container, yeast powder is poured into it. The pan is covered with a lid, wrapped on top with a terry towel and left for 40 minutes in a room with a temperature of 23-28 degrees. When a cap of thick foam forms on the surface of the liquid, yeast can be added to the sugar wort.

Fermentation

It is necessary to install a water seal on the container with sugar mash or put a medical glove on the neck. The container is transferred for the entire period of maturation of the mash in a dark, warm room. The air temperature should be stable, in the range of 26-30 degrees. Additionally, it is recommended to wrap the fermentation tank with a blanket, wrap it with a roll of thermal insulation material, or put a compact heater for the aquarium next to it.

How many days does fermentation take? If everything is done exactly recipe, ripens for 4-5 days. If the temperature regime is not observed, fermentation can last up to 10 days.

Important! To remove excess carbon dioxide from the solution, which reduces the rate of fermentation, twice a day, the must from sugar must be shaken without removing the water seal from the fermentation tank.

Determining the readiness of mash for distillation

You can find out that the mash is ripe and completely ready for distillation by a number of characteristic features:

During the last 24 hours, carbon dioxide is not released, the glove has settled or bubbles have stopped appearing in the water seal.
No hiss is heard.
The solution acquired a specific alcohol smell.
A lighted match brought to the neck of the container continues to burn.
The top layer of the mash became light, transparent, the remains of the yeast settled to the bottom.
The taste of the drink is sour-bitter, absolutely not sweet.

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.

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 entails 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 are better off using 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.