What is the yield of moonshine during the second distillation. Preparation and technology for the third distillation of moonshine

Everything that we will tell below concerns exclusively the classic technique of distilling moonshine at home. And this applies not only to the first, but also to the second. As before, we continue to insist that the correct distillation is only double, as a result of which the product is pure, moderately aromatic. On this basis, excellent alcoholic drinks are obtained - whiskey, tequila, rum and even cognac.

What we have at the beginning of the journey - Braga. Most likely, it is on sugar, since at home many people prefer not to suffer with grain (braga gives off a very specific aroma) or cake (it often burns, which affects the taste). We lighten it, remove it from the sediment, pour it into a cube and assemble the entire unit. Our task is to get raw moonshine, clean it and get quality product at the exit.

Boiling point - remember the theory

The principle of home brewing is based on heating the mash. Simply put, in the distillation cube, it is heated to a temperature at which it separates into fractions. This applies not only to alcohol, but also to water, and essential oils and methyl alcohol which, for obvious reasons, is a great evil for a person.

Considering that the boiling point of all fractions is different, and they do not evaporate at the same time, during the distillation it is necessary to carefully control it:

You should not immediately bring the heat to 100 ° - most of the harmful impurities will not go anywhere, but the water will quickly evaporate and the raw strength will drop sharply. The first haul implies a gradual increase to 98.5°C, and for the selection of heads, reduce to 78°C.

How to control it

We emphasize right away that this whole theory is necessary in order to squeeze the maximum amount of moonshine not only from the base, but also from the raw material, and clean it from the fuselage as efficiently as possible.

Heating and cooling always occurs gradually - a few degrees per minute

The first stage requires a quick heating of the cube, on average it takes about a quarter of an hour. But we also heat it at intervals - from the beginning to 70 ° we heat it so that on average it rises by 4-5 ° C per minute.
Then we reduce the fire exactly until the moment when the addition already starts at 1 degree per minute and bring it to 89 ° C.
Starting from 66 °, the first drops of fuselage will begin to appear - they can be felt by the sharp smell of acetone, these are heads and they are drained. For every kilogram of sugar in Braga, there are 50 ml of heads. When it rises to 90°, the body will go. Do not forget about the refrigerator - if moonshine with a temperature above 30 ° C is collected in the container, increase the circulation of water. More about cutting off heads and tails will be later in the article.
We constantly use a hydrometer - at the exit, the raw strength should be at least 50 °.

The hydrometer will show the real result only for the cooling raw material (less than 20 ° C). Anything that is hot will knock down the performance.

When the thermometer in the cube shows 98 °, the first stage can be completed.

First distillation

In order to understand whether the mash is ready for distillation or not, you need to use a hydrometer. A small amount of it is poured, filtered and the amount of sugar is checked. If the hydrometer shows below 1.002, you can start. If higher, add more yeast and leave to ferment further.

Experienced moonshiners determine readiness by appearance- foam ceases to form - and to taste - bitter without a sweet aftertaste. But to be sure, it is better to use a hydrometer.

When ready, the base is filtered and poured into alembic. Since the pressure during cooking inside is colossal, it is not worth filling it to the brim. Ideally - 2/3 of the volume, but you can leave a quarter of the place, although this is risky - when boiling, the remnants will splash out and clog the tube.

The temperature is brought to 89°C, it is controlled by a built-in thermometer. At this stage, the first drops begin to appear. It's not raw yet, the heads go first ( harmful impurities). Our advice is to take the heads already on the second distillation, but if you start taking them off already on the first, it will not be a big mistake. Selected based on each kilo of sugar, 30 ml of the head. That is, if you filled up 3 kg of sugar, then you should select 90 ml of heads.

For reference! During heating, the decomposition of proteins begins, which leads to the concentration fusel oils and isoamylol.

When the first fusel oil has been taken, we continue to heat the cube - at this time, the product itself is poured into the accumulator, it is often called the "body". The temperature is brought to 98°C. When we reached the mark of 96 °, we remove the drive and put another one - now “tails” are starting to go, also fuselage and also harmful.

In order to make it more convenient to understand the temperature regime, we refer to the table:

This is useful only for those who have a moonshine still equipped with a thermometer (there is a sensor on the still). If it is not there (homemade or simply not provided for by the design), then you can focus on the strength of the raw material - at the exit it should be at least 40 °. Exactly up to this time, the body is taken away. As soon as it went down, they immediately change the container and take away the tails.

Distillation of moonshine at home with the selection of heads and tails is only needed when working with sugar mash. If fruits, berries or grains were used as a must, the tails are not cut off during the first distillation - they have the very taste.

Separately, we note that if the heads are poured immediately, then the tails can be looped - added to the mash in the second distillation. They will increase the strength and improve the taste (again, if the mash is fruit or grain). But before the second distillation, the raw material is necessarily cleaned in order to have an acceptable quality and taste at the output.

VIDEO: Rules for working with sugar mash

Intermediate cleaning of raw material

It is also a rather controversial point, as some prefer to immediately proceed to a second act. In my experience, it is better to spend some time cleaning to improve the taste and aftertaste of the drink. For cleaning use traditional ways- coal, potassium permanganate or vegetable oil. We described all this in the article "".

It is easier and more efficient to do a comprehensive cleaning with oil, and then pass through carbon filter:

We dilute the raw to 15 ° with water, then add refined vegetable oil at the rate of 20 ml for each liter of raw.
Close the container with a lid and shake vigorously for a minute, repeat after a couple of minutes and shake again after a couple of minutes for a minute, then leave for a day. If there is no time - at least 12 hours must be allowed to brew.
After this time, carefully remove the film from above - oil with impurities has collected here, and what remains is passed through several layers of gauze a couple of times and always through a carbon filter.

Proper distillation means mandatory intermediate cleaning, but only for sugar and grain mash. Raw from fruit and berry mash should not be cleaned, the organoleptic changes too much. This is where fractional distillation comes into play.

VIDEO: Fractional distillation

Second distillation

Objectively, this stage is not much different from the first, with the exception of temperature regime. You also need to pay attention to whether you did the cleaning or not. If intermediate cleaning was carried out, merge raw materials, tails into the cube and start the process again. If cleaning was not done, you need to carry out a series of manipulations:

We dilute the raw material to 15 ° with water - this is necessary so that during distillation the distillate is more actively divided into fractions of alcohol, water and impurities.

For the convenience of separating the raw, you can use the "parrot". It makes it easier to control the fortress

We fill water solution raw into the distillation cube, heat up to 86 ° C and control the appearance of the first drops. In order to make it more convenient, we reduce the temperature to 68 ° and slowly begin to select the heads. In this case, there are already 50 ml per kilogram of sugar.

You can determine the duration of heads by smell - essential oils and methyl smell harsh and unpleasant. As soon as this aroma disappears (somewhat reminiscent of acetone), the body begins to go, it is already collected in a clean receiving container.

If there is a dry steamer in the design of the apparatus, at this stage it is also desirable to clean it - drain the fusel, rinse and return to its place.

When the heads were cut off, we again raise the temperature and begin to select the body. We select exactly until the fortress begins to fall below 55 °. Next comes the tails.

The strength of the body is measured after it has cooled to 20 °, if the hotter hydrometer will “lie”. And one more thing - do not use household alcohol meters, as a rule, in such situations they are useless. Best of all, the ASP-3 hydrometer copes with the determination of the fortress.

Tails can be ringed, as we wrote earlier - the quality of the final product will only improve from this, but dispose of the heads immediately.

As a result, we get the purest product, which in terms of transparency, aroma and concentration will not be inferior to the best drinks. On average, from each liter of mash after double haul ki we get about 400 milliliters of 50-55 ° moonshine, which can then be further diluted with water to the desired condition.

What to do next?

So we come to the most interesting - the final stage of distillation of moonshine at home. To begin with, we dilute it with water - here everyone decides for himself, for someone 40 ° is too much, but for others 50 ° is just right. Then we insist for at least two days in sealed container to improve organoleptic. Be sure to clean.

Those who mainly work with grain or fruit must do not clean up, and in vain. They purify not only sugar distillate, but also all others.

For cleaning, you can use the most common carbon filter, and this is quite enough. Then you can use either a pure product or prepare a wide variety of alcoholic drinks based on it. The article "" has a lot of recipes with detailed description how and from what to cook. We’ll add from ourselves when moonshine becomes your second “I”, do not be greedy and buy a good oak barrel - incredible taste and the aroma of the same whiskey has not yet been canceled.

VIDEO: How heads and tails are cut off and high-quality distillate is made

Almost every moonshine lover sooner or later asks a question; how to improve the taste of this strong drink and make a real "masterpiece", which will be worthy of all praise and admiration. The best and most effective way to improve the quality and purity of brewed moonshine is to re-distill it using a moonshine still.

The second distillation contributes significant cleansing of moonshine from harmful particles, making it stronger and also more palatable. Therefore, many experienced moonshiners don't be lazy to take the time to repeat quality distillation to achieve high quality product which you can't even buy in the store.

If you have a bottle with an old and incomprehensible alcohol content lying around, do not rush to get rid of it, because by distilling this liquid again, you can probably get a good strong drink. Below we will consider all the nuances, as well as the technology for obtaining high-quality home product called moonshine. Following these instructions, you will be able to surprise your loved ones and friends with this "miracle" of your own production.

Many in Rus' used to dabble. People made mash and used it with great pleasure. They were not yet familiar with the distillation method, and the mash was made from what grew in the garden and was at hand. Now doctors unanimously talk about the harmfulness of mash because of the content of aldehydes, fusel oils and acetone in it. And it's far from full list harmful substances that accumulate in the body and can lead to death.

That is why the abuse of low-quality strong drinks is fraught with its consequences. Although ridding the mash of harmful impurities is not particularly difficult. This will require a second distillation of moonshine, and as a result you will get a clean and harmless product.

How to distill moonshine a second time The main three stages of the process

Each moonshine distiller has his own individual secrets and tricks for the production of this drink. But, most importantly, to make the re-distillation qualitatively, and for this it is necessary to follow all the main stages of this process, which are as follows:

1. Race again Dilution.

Regardless of which recipe an alcoholic drink will be prepared for, the raw material before distillation should be 35–40 degrees in strength. Otherwise, you can ruin the equipment used and arrange real fireworks in the kitchen. Therefore, before placing the raw material in the device, it must be diluted. This is necessary in order to:

Alcohol vapors could not break the moonshine still.
Separate faster ethanol from harmful and heavy impurities. With a high strength of the feedstock, molecular bonds will also be stronger.

Moonshine must be diluted with cool filtered water. In order for it to become such, it is first placed in the refrigerator. Water must be added gradually and during this process it is recommended to measure the strength with an alcohol meter each time. The ideal option the alcohol consistency will be brought to 35 degrees, and it is water that is added to the moonshine, and not the other way around.

2. Cleaning.

In the process of fractional distillation, it is necessary to first thoroughly clean the moonshine, which can be done in several ways. For this you will need:

Potassium permanganate.
Filter paper or cardboard.
woody and Activated carbon.

If used special paper the cleanup is pretty easy. A sheet is placed in the funnel and moonshine is poured through it. For maximum filtration quality, overflow must be done very slowly.

When cleaning with manganese requires patience and precision. In this case, the sequence of actions and compliance with necessary proportions, and this is done as follows:

Based on one liter of raw materials, a solution is used hot water(50 ml) and potassium permanganate (2 g). It is poured directly into moonshine, and the raw material is then settled for at least ten hours.

After the above time has elapsed, a sediment remains at the bottom, which is removed by filtering moonshine through a flannel or cotton wool, which is placed in a funnel and alcohol is purified through it. And after filtration, moonshine can be re-distilled.

3. Double distillation of moonshine Direct drive

First you need to prepare the moonshine. To do this, it must be thoroughly rinsed, and then properly and accurately assembled. The second run is carried out in the same way as the first. As a result of this process ready drink more, since the pre-cleaning step has already been completed. Yes, and it will take much less time to do this. Although, despite the purified feedstock, there will still be “tails” and “heads” during secondary distillation. Therefore, you need to monitor what exactly comes out of the device. If necessary, the so-called body should be separated. But when carrying out this procedure, it is necessary to consider the following important points:

For the total volume of the product, about 10 percent of the "head" It can be used for technical purposes: cleaning various surfaces or disinfecting objects, but it is very harmful and you can not drink it.

The main thing is to monitor the speed during distillation. To do this, use a conventional alcohol meter. In the event of a drop in the fortress to 45 percent, you need to collect the "tails" in a specially prepared container.

The moment of collection of the main part of the valuable moonshine is determined by the sense of smell. After collecting 10 percent of the product, it will be enough just to smell it. Usable double moonshine is defined by the absence of harsh, strong odor. Usually the main part is 80 percent of common product. Although, if there is a high-quality and powerful unit, you can get up to 95 percent of the "body", and the "head" comes in handy for domestic needs. "Tails" can be used to increase the strength of new raw materials by adding them to the mash to make a new batch of pure homemade moonshine.

Additional purification of the final product

After the double distillation process is complete, you can do the following:

Additional purification of moonshine carried out different ways. The most common of these is purification. natural milk. One and a half liters of this alcoholic drink is possible (approximately 250 ml). To do this, "cow nectar" must be poured into moonshine and left to settle for a week. Many moonshine experts recommend using milk from village cows rather than store-bought milk swill. Because only natural product copes with the task. And in the end it turns out the purest moonshine that rivals the finest whisky.

Although the cleaning does not end at this stage. The next stage of this process is the next cleaning with charcoal or activated carbon. Potassium permanganate in this case is not recommended to use, so as not to harm health. After all cleanings, the drink can be refined with various recipes for the preparation of medicinal cognac tinctures, which will be discussed a little later.

Cognac from moonshine double distillation

Cognac recipe Pretty easy to do at home. It is enough to put a few lemon peels in a three-liter container with alcoholic drink. You can also add a tablespoon of black tea there, but without aromatic additives as well as a tablespoon bay leaf, peppercorns and three pieces of cloves.

In addition to seasonings, a pinch of vanilla and two tablespoons of sugar interfere with the cognac consistency. Ready mix closed with a lid and placed in a dark place. Literally in a week and a half it turns out noble drink called cognac. It can be served on the table not only among relatives and friends, but also at brutal parties, because a high-quality drink prepared according to this recipe at home will outshine any European spirit brand.

Moonshine Refining Recipes

Cooking is an accomplice not only in cooking original dishes. It also contributes to the creation of a variety of drinks, which in this case and is homemade moonshine . It can be given a variety of flavors and flavors. Almost every moonshiner uses his signature recipe preparation of this strong drink. Some even share their secrets, which are as follows (per liter needed):

One gram of rosemary.
One hundred grams of orange peel.
Three grams of nutmeg.
Two grams of vanilla for a bitter taste.
Ten grams of ginger for pungency.

With these additives, the drink must be infused for at least two weeks, after which it can be consumed. To give moonshine a sweet aftertaste, the following ingredients are added to it:

Syrup of water and sugar in proportions one to one (kg / l).
Jam for every taste.

After adding sweet ingredients to the moonshine, the drink must be heated over a fire until gases are released, and then filtered. Then ready moonshine it is necessary to pour into prepared containers and insist for three days.

If desired, the final product can be given a color palette, but it is best to tint moonshine after secondary distillation. To give a certain color to the drink, you need the following:

It turns red when dried blueberries are added to it.
It turns yellow if you add mint and lemon balm. You can also use parsley or celery for this.
If you add saffron to moonshine, it will turn golden. Orange peels or partitions walnut also suitable for this purpose.
Unpeeled pine nuts or some good loose tea will make this strong drink brownish.
Cornflower flowers will give moonshine an appropriate bluish tint.
bushes blackcurrant(leaves) or feathers green onion(cooked juice) will make the drink green.

Herbal additives give moonshine not only a certain color, but also pleasant aroma and softness, which contributes to the romantic mood during the use of this pure and strong drink. Especially without any special consequences after drinking, since the secondary distillation makes an almost safe product out of the alcohol consistency.

A very important factor for secondary distillation is quality water for the first stage. Therefore, it is not necessary to interchange the purification and dilution steps.

Water is a partial destroyer of the structure of impurities, unlike potassium permanganate and activated carbon, which free moonshine from residues of harmful compounds.

To determine the fractions during distillation, you need to constantly monitor the "turns", which can be determined using a conventional alcohol meter.

No unpleasant odor says that the "body" has gone. At the same time, you should not be greedy, but you need to drain the pervach, because health is more expensive.

Often, the strength of moonshine is determined by the combustion method. To do this, they moisten paper, which should support combustion after arson, if the strength of the drink is above forty degrees.

To make cognac from moonshine you need to add chips to it or oak bark after secondary distillation, which will get rid of harmful substances in this drink.

Using these tips, you can properly distill moonshine a second time. And it is important to remember that the second distillation of moonshine is milestone to get a quality product.

Now you know how to do a second distillation of moonshine and how to filter, purify and dilute the product of a home winery. If you wish, you can even chemical research to make sure the quality own cooking. Although the most the best experts there will be your relatives and friends who will adequately appreciate your alcohol "culinary" masterpiece.

Attention, only TODAY!

Homemade alcohol must be distilled not once, but at least twice. This rule has probably been heard by those who are just starting to make strong alcohol, while they have little experience and, perhaps, do not understand the seriousness of the issue.

Just for beginners, we want to tell how it goes double distillation moonshine at home and why do it at all. Knowing all the stages important process and, most importantly, by correctly implementing them in practice, you will improve the quality of your drink.

Let's start by answering the question: "why?" Let's see why it is worth spending hours of time, electricity (gas) and your own strength on re-distillation.

Double distillation of moonshine is necessary for several reasons for:

purification of future alcohol from harmful impurities;
dilution, that is, reducing the strength to an acceptable number of degrees;
improvement of organoleptic properties.

The fact is that after primary distillation, you get raw alcohol with a strength of about 70 degrees, containing in its composition aldehydes, acetone, a whole set of fusel oils. This is extremely harmful substances, the accumulation of which in the body seriously impairs health and can even lead to death.

This means that all dangerous impurities must be removed from alcohol before bottling and drinking, which is done during the second distillation, which includes the purification of the future drink. Coal, manganese, cardboard (or other filter) will take away all unnecessary volatile fractions.

The fortress of 70 degrees must also be reduced - to 30, and even better - to 25-20. Otherwise, the molecular bonds of raw alcohol with fusel oils, acetone and aldehydes will remain too strong. In this case, the cleaning process will not be able to effectively remove all harmful impurities.

In addition, too strong raw material is oversaturated with alcohol vapors, which, concentrating in the distillation cube, when heated, can break the moonshine still or cause it to ignite. So it is necessary to dilute at least for safety reasons. And finally, after re-distillation, alcohol will become purer in every sense. Fusel oils will disappear from its bouquet, giving an unpleasant pungent smell and taste.

According to the technology, the secondary distillation of moonshine is carried out in 3 stages:

dilution of raw alcohol with the right amount of water;
purification of the resulting liquid solution using the selected filter;
direct distillation with the separation of "heads" and "tails".

How to make a double distillation of moonshine at home

This does not require additional and expensive equipment, which is very convenient. Get it right amount water is not difficult yet, a simple but quite effective carbon filter is not a problem to make on your own, even a moonshine still can be used the same as in the first distillation.

Of course, it will not be worse if you wish to use some additional equipment. For example, you might want to make a do-it-yourself steamer or buy one and use it for filtering instead of coal or manganese powder. But if you are not going to spend money, it is also quite possible to get by with improvised means, moreover, ensuring high purity of alcohol. Well, now, finally, we turn to the consideration of each stage.

How to dilute the second distillation of moonshine

Measure the strength of the raw alcohol obtained from the first distillation.
Take a glass bottle (a material that is resistant to liquids and does not enter into chemical reaction with their components) and fill it with pretreated water.
Pour raw into the container, and not all at once, but gradually, in portions. After each such addition, you can check the strength of the solution with an alcohol meter and stop when it drops to the required mark.

Yes, if you calculate the proportions correctly, you will know in advance how much raw alcohol and how much water you need to pour. In this case, measurements may seem superfluous, but they are still worth taking - at least for self-control.

Did you know? It is necessary to pour moonshine into water, and not vice versa. Otherwise, you risk getting a solution with a sharp and bad smell, which will not completely disappear even after distillation.

Proportions

The key question of dilution during the second distillation of moonshine is: “what proportion of moonshine with water to withstand?” There is no universal answer, because it all depends on the strength and volume of raw alcohol, as well as on the number of degrees you need in the solution.

But there is a formula - proven and working in all cases:

(A x B)/C - B, where:

A and B are the strength and volume of raw alcohol, respectively;
C is the final number of degrees of the solution ready for filtration.
Here are two examples of changing proportions.

Let's say after the first distillation you have 5 liters of moonshine (B) with a strength of 70 ° (A), and you want to dilute it to 20 ° (C) in order to safely purify.

Substitute the values in the formula:

(70 x 5) / 20 - 5 \u003d 12.5
Thus, 12.5 liters of water will be needed. The total volume of the solution in this case will be 17.5 liters (12.5 + 5). Divide each liquid by this figure and get the proportion of "moonshine / water" at the level of 28.6% by 71.4%.
If you received 5 liters of alcohol with a strength of 60 ° and are also going to dilute it to 20 °, the formula looks like this:
(60 x 5) / 20 - 5 = 10
You need 10 liters of water already, and the total volume of the solution will be 15 liters. Then the proportion will be at the level of 33.3% to 66.7%.

We gave these examples to show that it is wrong to dilute moonshine of different strengths with the same volumes of water. In each case, a separate calculation is required - do not be too lazy to do it, especially since the formula is simple.

It is also important to choose the right water for dilution. The best option will be spring (enriched useful minerals), but only if you take it from a trusted and renowned for its purity source. The next priority is distilled, because it is neutral and therefore will not change the final taste or smell of alcohol.

In extreme cases, you can take the usual one from the tap and let it stand for 3-5 days. It is important that the water is pre-chilled. When pouring raw alcohol, its temperature should be 10-20 ° C.

How to clean moonshine for double distillation

We offer classic way carbon filtration. It has already proven its effectiveness in practice, with its help you can quickly and easily remove over 80% of fusel oils and 90% of esters.

The method boils down to the following:

Pour the previously obtained solution into a glass container through a cleaning device.
Repeat the procedure several times (ideally 5, maybe more), after each changing the coal.

That's all - as simple as possible. Plus, you can easily make a do-it-yourself filter for moonshine from plastic bottle, cotton wool and other improvised means.

Did you know? Another popular cleaning option is with manganese powder. Add it in a proportion of 1 g (diluted in 100 ml of hot water) to 1 liter of raw alcohol. Then shake the solution well, let it stand for 20 minutes, add salt and soda in the proportion of 1/3 tablespoon per 1 liter and leave for another 2 hours. Then strain through a cheesecloth or cotton filter.

How to overtake moonshine for the second time

Almost the same as the first one. Just do the following sequence of actions:

Pour the diluted and purified raw alcohol into the distillation cube, which you put on fire.
You select the initial fraction, the “heads” - into a separate container, until the alcohol, which is expressed drop by drop, ceases to smell unpleasant. In the total output, this part takes from 8 to 12%. "Heads" contain fusel oils and other harmful impurities, so it is strongly not recommended to drink them.
Then you select the middle fraction, the “body” - already in another container and up to the appearance of a pungent aroma. This liquid can be safely consumed (diluted to taste), and it makes up about 80% of the total yield.
Next, you select the final fraction, “tails” - into the third container, immediately after the fall of the fortress and the return of the already familiar fusel-acetone smell. This part occupies the remaining 8-12% of the total yield and is also rich in harmful impurities, so you should not drink it either.

Important! Even fractions that are unfit for ingestion should not be lost. Therefore, use the "heads" in domestic needs, for example, wipe various surfaces with the resulting liquid for cleaning and disinfection. And add “tails” to a new portion of mash to increase its strength.

For the secondary distillation, you can use the same as for the primary. Just pre-prepare it: rinse well and carefully assemble.

The resulting “body” with a strength of 60-70 degrees is the moonshine of double distillation, and now that you know how to make it correctly, it remains to heat the cube without further ado and proceed to drop-by-drop collection of precious liquid. And there it is up to you to decide what to do next - dilute and drink or ennoble, insisting on herbs, berries, jams or syrups. We urge you not to abuse alcohol - even the highest quality and personally prepared.

For many, the question remains unclear - why do we need a second distillation of moonshine, if the first, in principle, can be drunk? So what gives a secondary stage?

are improving taste qualities homemade alcohol, the unpleasant fuselage smell disappears.
With properly conducted distillation with separation into fractions, the product becomes largely purified from fusel oils, alkaloids, acetone, methyl alcohol and other impurities.
In this way, you can reanimate any recently kicked out or old "overwhelming", once failed moonshine.
This - effective way increasing the strength of low-grade alcohol. For example, if you accidentally diluted it too much or missed the moment when it was worth stopping the run.
There was a splash or cloudy moonshine (which can be both during distillation and happen after a while), it will also be helped by re-distillation.

Carefully. Repeated haul strong alcohol fire hazard!

Heating high-grade moonshine can cause an explosion and subsequent fire.

Dilution of strong alcohol is necessary not only in terms of fire safety, but also to ensure that the final product contains as few impurities as possible. The fact is that the higher the degree of alcohol, the stronger the bond between alcohol and fusel oils at the molecular level.

And by adding water, we weaken these ties, so that it is easier to divide the moonshine into fractions (read:). It's safer to follow the rules.

Dilution before the second stage

Measure the strength of your distillate. It is unlikely that it will be 20-30 degrees, which means it requires dilution. Continue to follow the rule: pour the moonshine into the water! If you spill it by accident, don't worry. A high-quality device will still take all the alcohol.

Advice. If it is important for you to get a liquid of a specific strength, use the moonshiner's calculator or alcohol with water.

Cleaning moonshine

Remembering that when you decide to re-run, you are striving to improve quality indicators. Therefore, carry out a preliminary cleaning of the existing moonshine. It is more convenient to do this before diluting with water - there will be less liquid for filtration, and less cleaning material will be spent.

The procedure is well known: add a cleaning agent that will bind fusel oils and other impurities and lower them in the form of sediment to the bottom of the container. Then filter the liquid. What to apply?

Potassium permanganate does an excellent job of getting rid of not only impurities, but also odor. Although this method is doubtful if you are preparing moonshine for drinking, it is quite suitable before the second stage. For 3 liters of moonshine, you need to take no more than 6 g of potassium permanganate. Dissolve the crystals in warm water, then mix with alcohol-based liquid. Let stand (10-12 hours) and filter.
woody or activated pharmacy coal. Grind it, pour it into alcohol at the rate of 3-4 tablespoons per three-liter jar. Stir several times over the course of a day or two. Filter.
Milk fresh binds impurities and flakes down to the bottom of the container.
Bentonite(white clay) is perfect for both cleaning mash and ready-made moonshine.
Soda- Another of the effective folk remedies.

Advice. It is most convenient to filter moonshine after cleaning with a cut plastic bottle (from beer, with a narrow long neck).

Insert a few twisted cotton pads into the neck and filter.

Rules and proportions of the second distillation

Pour the diluted alcohol-containing liquid into a cube, connect all parts of the apparatus, ensuring the tightness of the connections, and put on heat. Watch the thermometer readings carefully.

Now every modern moonshine is equipped with a thermometer. If you do not have it, then it is easy to modify the cube in order to be able to monitor the heating temperature.

As soon as the temperature reaches 65 ° C, be careful not to miss the appearance of the first drops of distillate - these are poisonous heads containing acetone and. Collect them in a separate bowl and pour. The number of head fractions - from 8 to 12% of the expected yield of moonshine, with a strength of 40 ° in total mass. Experienced distillers determine the end of the expiration of the heads “by scent”: the characteristic acetone stench stops - they begin to select the body.

Important. When the first drops of distillate appear in the receiving tube, the heating should be sharply reduced to a minimum. Take the head fractions not in a jet, but only drip.

The main drinking part of moonshine goes at a temperature in the cube of 78-80 - 92-96 ° C. Finish the selection of the body when the strength in the jet is 40°. At the same time, the liquid collected in a spoon under a jet burns with a red flame, and when it goes out, about half of the initial volume of liquid is still in the spoon.
Take the tails (separately) while the liquid collected in the spoon flashes and goes out. That is, up to 20 degrees.

Possibilities for improving the second stage

As a rule, even after dilution with water, the liquid for the second stage is not enough. To fill the cube, you can add tails from past hauls. They also need to be cleaned before use. The methods described above will not take away the degree, but only remove impurities.

There are other methods that deserve attention. For example, if you have a tasteless wine lying around, add it to the cube along with diluted moonshine. It will give moonshine new notes of taste. Wine does not need to be diluted or refined.

Answers to questions from distillers

- To what degree should moonshine be distilled a second time?

Usually, the middle fraction (body or heart of moonshine) is taken up to 40 ° in the stream, but you can also find an opinion - up to 50 °, so that it is guaranteed that there is no fuselage in it. Easier to dilute the final product clean water before desired fortress than to consume harmful impurities. Do something for yourself.

— Is it necessary to clean the secondarily distilled moonshine?

Meet different opinions, including this: in moonshine there will be and even must be a certain amount of fusel oils, since this is called the organoleptic of the product. The main thing is that there are not too many of them.

As for the subsequent cleaning of the second stage, many argue that it does not make much sense. Everything that is possible, you supposedly have already done - you can’t improve anything else at home. This is not true. If you still feel that your product has not been perfected, purify the distillate again with charcoal, milk, soda, or another method.

Carefully. It is undesirable to use potassium permanganate for a product that you will use inside. Despite its good cleansing capabilities, there is evidence that when interacting with alcohol, manganese forms other compounds that are not known how to "come around" using this product even after filtering.

- Is there a need for a second distillation if the moonshine is equipped with a steamer?

Sukhoparnik really removes some of the fusel oils, but not all. Especially if there is no possibility of draining during the haul. Therefore, there is a sense in the second distillation with separation into fractions. At the same time, we note that the second distillation with a dry steamer will purify the distillate better than a direct-flow apparatus.

- I am not satisfied with the quality of moonshine after the second distillation. How to improve it?

There are several methods for this:

insist distillate on herbs / spices (bison, anise, etc.) or orange peel;
pour into an oak barrel and let stand for 3-4 months;
use for berry-based liqueurs;
carry out additional cleaning;
overtake again.

- What to do with moonshine after the second distillation?

It is better to give him a week or two to rest and stabilize the taste in glassware. Then put it on the table, help yourself, because it is much cleaner than the first distillate. In addition, it is an excellent basis for medicinal or drinking tinctures.

Does moonshine need a third distillation?

If the smell, taste (and even the fortress), even after the second distillation, do not suit you, no one bothers to carry out the third distillation. But do not rush if the mash is taken from grain or fruit and berry raw materials. Such moonshine needs time (up to six months) to reveal its true taste and aroma. It must be placed in glassware, and even better - in .

Features of the triple haul

Before the third distillation, dilute the resulting secondary distillate again to 20-30 ° and purify sunflower oil. Pour half a glass of oil into 3 liters of moonshine, soak for a day and strain through cheesecloth. Distill according to the same principle as the second time.

In addition, it is advisable to use a dry steamer, it will additionally select a certain amount of fusel oil. When the device is equipped with a second, collapsible steamer, you can put zest, spices, and herbs into it for additional flavoring.

Moonshine - favorite drink, which in our time, when there are practically no special prohibitions on making it for personal purposes, is being driven by everyone and sundry (for some reason, I recalled Gaidai's notorious film "Moonshiners"). But not everyone knows how to overtake moonshine a second time to make it truly magic drink, pure as a tear! And who needs it at all, because pervachok also drinks well?

A few questions

Why distill moonshine a second time? Repeated, more thorough distillation removes many impurities from the home-made drink, and its quality improves significantly. You will spend a couple of hours of extra time on the whole process, and the result will exceed all possible expectations. In addition, you already have everything you need: moonshine, raw materials. And almost all types of intermediate product (pervacha) can be subjected to this execution, regardless of the raw material from which it was created. Re-distillation of moonshine is a rather simple thing, and if you have already learned how to drive the primary product, then it will be easy for you to learn how to make a double distillation drink. You can also ennoble the moonshine that you kicked out earlier without knowing further technology in this way.

A bit of history and theory

Of course, you can make a brew and drink it with great pleasure and success. So, in fact, they did it earlier in Rus' - they frolicked. The method of distillation has not yet been massively mastered by the people, so they prepared the mash from everything that came to hand, and then drank it. But after all, according to doctors, drinking mash is often very harmful. It contains acetone, aldehyde, and various other substances, from the use of which even (if a lot) arises. And if you do not abuse it very much, it still turns out to be quite harmful.

We chop the "heads" and "tails"

With the invention and implementation of the mash distillation method, the first moonshine already appears. Braga is transferred to steam and the part that can boil at 78.4 degrees is cooled (this, in fact, is drinking ethyl alcohol). Such a product is called the "body" of moonshine, and there are also "head" and "tail". The first is what comes out of the apparatus from the very beginning. Previously, this faction was considered the most striking on the brain and was very loved by the people. However, if you figure out what this part is? The head is mostly acetone. The fact is that acetone is much lower - 56.2 degrees Celsius. So he comes out of the apparatus first. Of course, such a pervach hits hard on the head, but normal people still don’t drink acetone! The tail, on the contrary, is made up mainly of fusel oils. They have a higher boiling point than drinking alcohol- more than 80 degrees. Therefore, these snakes crawl out of the moonshine still last. It is also not recommended to drink this burda, even in the most extreme cases.

Why is it desirable to re-distill?

The one we need is in the middle, and we need to extract it. How to do it? An ordinary thermometer, which the apparatus must be equipped with, helps very well. Then you will probably already know what temperature the liquid is coming out of, and cut off the “tails” and “heads” in time. But all the same, it is impossible to filigree cut off, for example, the head, all the way to the last. Some particle of acetone will break into the body of the drink, and this is not good. So, for this, distillation of moonshine is needed a second time. To be safe from the presence of acetone and fusel oils in the noble home-made drink (which appeared as a result of incomplete cut-off). So the product itself obtained a second time becomes much cleaner.

Phased distillation of moonshine

So, you have an already expelled body. There is also a moonshine of your choice of design. In principle, nothing else is technically needed, only water. The right technology double distillation of moonshine includes several stages. Each of them is undoubtedly important for the production of a good, quality product.

Dilution with water

Before distilling moonshine a second time, you must first dilute it with clean (you can spring) water room temperature. The water is cold. It must be added, stirring, up to 40%. This is done mainly for security reasons. Too strong liquid, subjected to distillation, can ignite the moonshine itself. And the strong pasture (first) has a very strong connection with fusel oils. By diluting moonshine with water, we partially destroy these ties. If this is not done, then the distillation of moonshine a second time will not lead to the desired success. So, dilute with water and stir until visible uniformity. And so that the mixture does not become cloudy, it is recommended by moonshiners to pour moonshine into water. If you do the opposite, as a rule, you get a haze.

Additional cleaning

Perhaps you have already cleaned the moonshine that was initially expelled in some way known to you. But do not be too lazy to do it again, for example with manganese. To do this, take three grams of the powder and dilute in a glass of hot water until completely dissolved. The resulting liquid should be poured into diluted moonshine, stir and leave for 15 minutes. After - pour on big spoon baking soda and salt and stir again. Let's brew again for a couple of hours. At the end, filter the mixture through a filter (can be made from cotton wool and gauze folded in several layers). And already with this liquid we continue further fruitful work.

Distillation

How to overtake moonshine a second time? The process itself is not so complicated for someone who has already used moonshine at least once. There is practically no difference from primary distillation. So, we reduce the fortress to about 20 degrees so that the vapors do not ignite, and we begin the distillation. With the help of a thermometer adapted to the apparatus, we monitor the outlet temperature (see above how to determine harmful parts by their temperature). It is important to separate into fractions what flows into the containers. The first 10 percent is recommended to be cut off at the exit. The next approximately 80% is the very thing, what we need. We collect alcohol until the degree drops to 45 (we measure it with an alcohol meter). The rest is also collected and used for future mash. Thus, the question of how to distill moonshine a second time will be resolved, and the answer to it will be received. With the help of dual control (alcohol meter and thermometer), it is quite accurate to cut off the unnecessary, getting a really clean drink. Chemical analysis of such moonshine shows that the content of acetone and fusel oils in it is practically reduced to zero. And if you want to drink this homemade vodka with minimal health risk, then you just need to know how to make a double distillation of moonshine. And finally, a few subtleties and tricks from experienced craftsmen home brewing.

It seems to be completely simple process that does not require special technical training. And they noticed that for some, double moonshine turns out to be tasty, while for others it’s not quite right (or rather, not at all). Probably, you say, it's all about the secret family recipes passed down from generation to generation. Already, they say, I can’t drive out such moonshine, whatever one may say. All this is correct, but not 100%. Of course, there are certain family recipes for production. original drink, but there are also small nuances that everyone needs to know to improve the quality of their products. Let's try to declassify them a little.

It is noted by all specialists that the quality of water is very important for secondary distillation. The higher it is, the tastier moonshine. Some even use structured, melted, oxygenated or electron-rich water to get the desired result. We have nothing against these ideas. It has been noticed that water from an ordinary tap, for example, and water from a mountain river or spring are two big differences. Besides structured water(for example, melt) very well breaks up impurities that have managed to contact alcohol. Therefore, use spring or purified (tasty) water, in no case boiled.
Dilute the primary product with water, before distilling the moonshine a second time, it is necessary to below 20% strength. Ideally, it will be generally 15, plus the natural water of the High Quality. Then the double moonshine will turn out very tasty. Water will dissolve impurities that will go into the "head" and "tail", and the "body" of the drink itself will turn out to be crystal and pleasant in taste and smell.
Use everything available methods additional cleaning before distilling moonshine a second time. Very good activated charcoal. Everyone knows about its properties in case of poisoning of the human body. It removes harmful substances by binding them. A similar thing happens with moonshine, which contains harmful impurities. But the craftsmen still advise to first dilute, and then clean it further. And this is at least logical: water dissolves impurities, destroying their bonds with alcohol at the molecular level, and coal binds them and removes them from the prepared for redistillation raw materials.

So use these tips for production double drink, and your moonshine will certainly please the guests who came to the holiday!