Moonshine from fresh fruit. How to cook fruit mash at home

Most fruits can be used as an ingredient in home brew to make moonshine. Fermentation is the process by which sugar is converted into alcohol by yeast.

Adding sugar to fruit allows you to increase the level of alcohol that is produced during the fermentation process. With the help of a fruit mixture, or a stronger alcoholic drink - can be produced. In order for the mash fermentation process to begin, yeast is needed. There are many, they can be purchased in stores or on the Internet.

To prepare the mash you will need:

• At least 2.5 kg of fruit
• Half a kilo of sugar per 2.5 kg of fruit
• 30 grams of lemon juice per 2.5 kg of fruit
• Yeast
• Press
• large saucepan
• big spoon
• Five liter plastic bucket

Preparing fruit for mash:

1. Thoroughly wash and clean the fruit. Be sure to remove the seeds from them. Cut fruit into medium sized pieces.

2. Place the chopped fruits in a saucepan, and fill with water so that the liquid completely covers them.

3. Bring this mixture to a boil. Add sugar and lemon juice and mix well.

4. Remove the pan from the heat. Using a press, grind everything thoroughly. You should get a kind of fruit puree. You can also use a blender for this, but then it will take more time.

5. Allow fruit puree to cool to room temperature.

6. Pour the fruit puree into a plastic bucket and add water (until the bucket is three-quarters full).

Braga fermentation process:

1. Add yeast to the diluted fruit puree and mix everything well.

2. Cover the bucket with plastic wrap to keep air out. Make 5-10 small holes in the film to release carbon dioxide.

3. Let your fruit puree sit for about three days.

4. Remove the plastic wrap and remove any floating mixture from the bucket. Do this with a large spoon. After that, mix everything again, cover the bucket with a clean film. Don't forget to make about 10 holes in the film to let the carbon dioxide escape! We leave the fruit puree to infuse for another 2-3 days.

5. Remove the plastic film, then again remove the rest of the fruit puree floating on the surface. Again we cover the bucket with a clean film, make several holes in it and leave it for 2-3 days.

6. At this stage, the fruit mash is already completely ready. A distillation process may be carried out. If you have such a desire, then you can leave the must to continue fermenting, in which case you will get a fruit liqueur.

Technology for making fruit mash - video:

Fruit mash. Part 1. Theory:

Fruit mash. Part 2. Wort preparation:

Fruit mash. Part 3. Add yeast:

Fruit mash. Part 4. The proportions of the mash:

Fruit mash. Part 5. Adding wort:

Fruit mash. Part 6. Preparation for distillation:

Fruit and berry mash. Part 7. Distillation:

You can use different types of yeast. Even ordinary baker's yeast can work, but it's better to use special yeast designed for making wines and liquors.

The temperature of the mash should remain stable, around 25 degrees Celsius. Temperature fluctuations can adversely affect the fermentation process.

During the fermentation process, fruit mash will smell unpleasant. Therefore, it must be located in places where a not very pleasant smell will not be heard by you and others.

There are cases when during the fermentation process it is necessary to add water to the wort. This happens with intense evaporation. The vessel in which the mash is located must be two-thirds full during fermentation, watch this!

Yeast can be activated by mixing it with fruit puree, then leave for one night, and add it to the mash the next day.

During fermentation, fruit mash should be covered to prevent air and unwanted bacteria from entering, which can spoil its quality, and hence the quality of the future alcoholic beverage.

Most often, fruit mash is used for moonshine, which can be made from any berries and fruits. This is very beneficial, since almost every owner of a private house has a whole garden of free fruits at his disposal. How is fruit mash prepared? That's what we'll talk about today.

Fruit brew is a great way to utilize excess fruits and berries from your own garden.

Everyone knows that alcohol is becoming more expensive on store shelves every day, and it is not always possible to buy an extra bottle of drink even for a very big holiday. Some people have long abandoned store-bought products and make alcoholic beverages on their own. Modern people know how to make almost any alcoholic beverage at home (cognac, rum, liquor, wines and other equally delicious drinks).

How to make fruit mash at home on your own?

You can make mash not only from ordinary sugar and yeast, but also from fruits. As a basis, you can take completely different fruits. Any berry is also ideal for the subsequent production of mash and moonshine, respectively. In the process of fermentation, they will turn into real alcohol.

For mash you will need yeast, sugar and fruit

To get a higher level of alcohol, you should add a little sugar to the fruit. Thanks to the resulting fermented mixture, you can get not only a simple brew, but also high-quality liquor, wine, and even fairly strong moonshine. In order for the fermentation process to begin, yeast must be added to the mixture. Nowadays, there is a huge variety of yeast, which can be bought at any grocery store or on the Internet.

The recipe for fruit mash is very simple. To prepare it, you should take about 3 kg of fruits or berries, half a kilogram of sugar, about 30 g of lemon juice or a few tablespoons of citric acid and yeast. All these ingredients are thoroughly mixed and placed in a fairly large bucket.

It is very important to cover the container with a lid in such a way that the fruits are under the so-called press. It is for this that it is worth putting something very heavy on the lid, for example, bricks or filled three-liter jars.

For more information on making fruit mash, see this video:

Before placing all the ingredients of the future mash in a container, you should prepare the fruit well. To begin with, experts recommend washing them very carefully and cleaning them from bones and damaged areas. It is also very important to cut large components, such as apples, into slices, because it is chopped fruits that can contribute to an accelerated fermentation process.

Sliced ​​fruit must be placed at the very bottom of the container and poured with cold water so that the liquid completely covers the fruit.

After that, you can boil this mixture and add sugar and lemon juice there. All this should be constantly stirred in order to get a puree.

After that, remove the pan from the heat and stir the mixture again. For the perfect consistency, you can use a blender, but in this case it will take a lot of time.

After that, it is necessary to allow the fruit mixture to cool to room temperature. Then the puree is moved to a regular bucket and filled with water almost halfway.

How to make mash from fruit puree?

As everyone already understood, this was not the final result of obtaining an alcoholic mixture, which is necessary for the preparation of alcoholic fruit drinks.

The next step is to add yeast to the resulting puree. It is very important to stir the puree so that the yeast is almost completely dissolved in the mixture. After that, cover the bucket with cling film. This must be done as tightly as possible so that excess oxygen does not enter the container. Nevertheless, for the release of carbon dioxide, 5-10 small holes should be made in the film. An example of making fruit mash based on apples, see this video:

Fruit puree should be infused under such conditions for at least 3 days. After a few days, it is necessary to remove the film and eliminate all the liquid that has formed on the surface of the press. A large spoon or ladle is ideal for this process. After that, it is worth mixing the puree again and again cover with the same sequence. In no case should you forget about the holes, otherwise the brew for moonshine will not appear. Then you need to wait at least another 2 - 3 days.

The same procedure should be repeated again. Already on the 9th day, the mash will be completely ready. The resulting product can be processed to produce almost any alcoholic beverage.

Most often, of course, fruit mash is processed into liqueurs and moonshine, since their preparation does not require a lot of sugar and other components.

Sometimes the mash is left in this position for at least 2 weeks, and then the real liquor comes out without distillation.

If you leave the mash for 2 weeks, you get a real fruit liqueur

Still, do not think that cooking mash is a very simple process. First, you should carefully prepare the fruit. As a rule, it takes a lot of free time. Secondly, it is very important to constantly monitor the state of the mash. The fact is that sometimes, for unknown reasons, the fermentation process does not occur, and fruit puree becomes simply dangerous for further use. And, of course, we must not forget about the press, which should be sufficient to compress a certain amount of fruit puree. An example of making mash on apple pomace, see this video:

Braga on fruit is really a salvation for the current population. Thanks to her, we have the opportunity to independently prepare delicious fruit alcoholic drinks that cost a lot of money in stores.

Braga from berries gives moonshine a pleasant aroma, the taste will also acquire pleasant shades. Even at the stage of preparing the mash, you need to decide what taste the moonshine should have. You can use honey, cereals, vegetables, fruits, but berry drinks are most often prepared.

Rules for preparing berry mash

Brazhka is a composition that is prepared with the help of yeast. During the life of these microorganisms, carbon dioxide is produced. But the most important thing for distillers is the formation of alcohol. That is why at home it is necessary to create the right environment for the reproduction and activity of these cultures.

Here it is necessary to pay attention to the amount of sugar, temperature level, stirring, pressure change.

But at the same time, it must be borne in mind that the alcohol concentration should be no more than 15%, and if the indicator is above the norm, then the microorganisms simply die.

You need to prepare the mash, observing the following rules:

1. Before preparing the product, it is necessary to study the entire process and all its nuances in advance. In addition, you need to pay attention to temperature changes. If the indicator is above 45 ° C, then the yeast will die, and the process of producing alcohol will stop.
2. If the temperature drops to 18 ° C, then the fungi simply hibernate.
3. Yeast produces not only alcohol, but also carbon dioxide. Too much of this product worsens the taste and aroma, thereby making it difficult to make moonshine on berries or other products. To reduce the concentration of this gaseous substance, a degassing process is carried out. To release the gas, special equipment is used. This is the water seal. At home, an ordinary rubber medical glove is used, which is put on the bottle. It needs to be pierced first.
4. If the mash is too sweet, this does not mean that there will be too much yeast, and the alcohol concentration will be higher. This can provoke the appearance of excess hydrogen sulfide and a specific aroma.
5. If the brew for moonshine is not distilled, then the largest indicator of the strength of the final product will be no more than 15 °. For example, the well-known mead, which is considered very healthy, is prepared just in this way. It is not distilled at all, and is already ready to drink.

Making a quality drink is quite simple. The main thing is to follow all the rules and choose what the drink will be prepared from. For more information on making fruit and berry moonshine, see this video:

As a rule, only one raw material is used to prepare the mash, but different products can also be mixed. For example, mixtures of berries, old jam, pears, apples and more are perfect. Quince and rowan together give the final drink an exquisite taste and aroma.

Stages of making berry mash

Before you put the mash, you need to decide on the recipe and buy all the necessary raw materials.

If you choose the classic version, you will need 20 liters of pure water, 0.5 kg of yeast and 8 kg of sugar.

The result will be 30 liters of mash. This option is considered the simplest and most economical. But you can use more complex and interesting recipes. Often berry moonshine is prepared for drinking, and mash is also prepared on the basis of certain berries.

Be sure to use sugar to make sugar mash

All components are subject to certain conditions, as they will affect the final product. The water must be clean. Boiled or spring water is best. It should not contain any impurities or foreign odors. As for yeast, there are practically no restrictions.

Both the baking composition and dry, pressed, raw are excellent.

The main thing is to observe all the necessary conditions for their activity and reproduction.

The main stages of cooking mash:

When the mash is completely ready, you can begin the distillation process to obtain moonshine. Product yield will vary depending on many factors, including the strength of the primary product used.

Berry mash recipes

Preparing berry mash at home is not difficult. There are practically no restrictions on the choice of berries.

Strawberry Braga gives the finished drink a characteristic aroma and a pleasant softness of taste.

The most popular recipes are the following:

1. Strawberry or strawberry. Strawberry mash gives the finished drink a characteristic aroma and a pleasant softness of taste. For cooking, you will need 5 kg of strawberries for 3 liters of clean water. Additionally, for every 1 kg of sugar, another 4 liters of water are required. The sugar itself will need from 1 to 3 kg. Yeast is required dry (15 g) or pressed (70 g). This component is not always used. Strawberries or strawberries need to be crushed and mixed to get a homogeneous mass. Then send the liquid to the fermentation tank. Pour sugar and yeast into it, pour water. Mix everything thoroughly and install a water seal on the container (store or home-made). In the container, you need to leave 20% of the volume for foam. Put the container in a warm and dark room (temperature from 19 to 27 ° C). In the first three days, it is necessary to remove the shutter and stir the mass. Depending on the activity of the yeast, wait from 5 to 40 days.
2. Plum. Excellent berry mash comes out of the plums. This recipe is considered one of the easiest. You will need about 2 buckets of plums. They need to be crushed first. If the berries are not very sweet, then the fermentation process can be stimulated with yeast and sugar.
3. Cherry. It will take a lot of time for cherry mash, because first you need to remove all the bones. You need to take 10 kg of berries. They need to be cleaned, pitted, kneaded, add 1 kg of sugar, 1 liter of water and 100 g of yeast. You can also use cherry juice. Take 20 kg of berries, remove the seeds and mash the pulp. Then process in a blender or juicer. The made cake and juice should be poured into a glass container, pour 2 kg of sugar. Dilute 200 g of yeast in a small amount of water and mix everything else. In the first 2 days, the mass must be stirred. The product is infused for 5 days.

You can also prepare a product based on fermented cherry jam (others will do). It will take about 200 g of yeast and 3 kg of sugar for 6 liters of jam.

Drinking water needs 30 liters.

Infuse the mixture in a dark place for about 5 days. By the same principle, a product is prepared on the basis of any fermented jam. You can also use compote, which begins to turn sour.

Popular Recipes

1. Rowan. The recipe for rowan mash suggests that it is best to take not the berries themselves, but their juice. It will take about 100 g of yeast 4 liters of such a liquid.
2. Grape. Most often, mash can be made on the basis of grape pomace, but the juice is simply drunk or used to make wine. For 5 kg of raw materials, you will need 15 liters of pure water, 2 kg of sugar (a little more can be) and 250 g of yeast.
3. Apricots. At home, you can cook mash based on apricots. To do this, you need 10 kg of berries, 3 liters of pure water, 10 kg of sugar and 100 g of yeast. Before use, apricots should be thoroughly washed and pitted. Then the fruits are ground in a meat grinder or blender. You can also use a regular pusher. Dissolve sugar in water and cool to room temperature. Then mix with the resulting puree and add yeast. All this should be done in a glass container. The product will be ready in a week.
4. Watermelon. At home, you can cook watermelon mash. To do this, you will need for 1 medium watermelon weighing about 6 kg (choose the most ripe), 0.5 sugar, 100 g of yeast and only 20 ml of water. First, it is supposed to wash the watermelon and cut it into slices, removing the skin. All bones from the pulp must be removed. Place all pieces in a container. Dissolve sugar in warm water. It will take about 200 ml. Then pour the syrup into a jar of watermelon. At the end, add yeast diluted in a small amount of water. The container must be put in a warm place for 6 days.

There are recipes when the mash is cooked right in the watermelon peel. For more information on making a watermelon drink, see this video:

To do this, cut off the beginning of the top, and then add yeast and sugar there. But this method is quite dangerous, since the watermelon can simply crack or explode, because the yeast is poured into the pulp of the watermelon.

Conclusion

For many people, the question of how to put berry mash for moonshine is an important question. The preparation of this base of the drink is very important, since it is it that affects the taste, strength and aroma of the drink in the future.

To prepare the product, any berries and fruits are suitable. The main rule is the observance of all proportions.

For example, cranberries require much more sugar than raspberries or strawberries. Dried fruits are actively used. You can also come up with drinks based on wild berries.

Dried fruit moonshine can be used with unnecessary or substandard raw materials that have expired. Even slightly moldy fruits will do (boiling will destroy the mold), but the rotten parts must be cut out to avoid bitterness. If the technology is followed, an aromatic distillate with light fruity notes is obtained.

Theory. Any dried fruits are suitable for making moonshine: prunes, figs, dried apricots, dates, raisins, apples, pears, cherries, etc. In one mash, you can mix different types, getting an original aroma and flavors. The only thing is that prunes give bright smoked notes that stand out strongly in combination with apples and pears.

During the drying process, water evaporates from the pulp, but fructose and dry substances responsible for the taste and aroma of the drink remain. To start fermentation, it is enough to dissolve fructose in water - cook compote, then add baker's or wine yeast (you can make sourdough). In this case, the total sugar content of the wort should not exceed 20%.

The yield of moonshine from dried fruits depends on the sugar content of the raw material, so it is difficult to predict the values ​​in advance. The sweeter the pulp, the more drink you get in the end. To increase the yield, you can add beet sugar - 1 kg will additionally give 1.1-1.2 liters of moonshine (40%). However, sugar somewhat spoils the fruity flavor, so you have to find a compromise between quantity and quality.

On alcohol, dry or pressed baker's yeast, dried fruit mash ferments for 4-10 days, but such yeast worsens the aroma. For fruit mash, it is advisable to use store-bought or wild (from the surface of raisins or berries) wine yeast, on which the mash plays longer (25-60 days), but the organoleptic properties of the drink are preserved.

Ingredients:

• dried fruits - 3 kg;
• water - 18 liters and another 4 liters for each kilogram of sugar;
• sugar - 1-3 kg (optional);
• yeast - 100 grams of pressed (20 grams of dry) bakery or wine according to the instructions for the volume of must, or sourdough (3% of the volume);
• citric acid - 10 grams.

Citric acid is needed to stabilize the acidity of the must, which contributes to fermentation, I recommend adding if you add more than 1 kg of sugar.

If necessary, prepare 3-5 days before working with raw materials.

Dried fruit mash recipe

1. Grind dried fruits with a blender or in any other way. The smaller the pieces, the better the sugars are released, which increases the yield of moonshine.

Attention! It is advisable to first remove the bones. If this is not possible, it is better not to pass the raw materials through a blender, but to leave them as they are, so that the bones remain intact and do not give bitterness.

2. Place dried fruits in a saucepan, add sugar (optional), pour water in a ratio of 1:4 - for 1 kg of raw materials (together with sugar) 4 liters of water. Mix.

3. Bring the mixture to a boil, cook over low heat for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally so that the dried fruits do not stick to the bottom and do not burn.

4. Remove the pan from the heat, add the remaining water and citric acid. Mix.

5. When the wort has cooled down to 28-29°C, add the starter or pre-diluted yeast according to the instructions on the package.

6. Pour the mash into a fermentation tank, leaving at least 25% free space for foam and carbon dioxide. Install a water seal of any design on the neck, you can use a medical glove with a hole in your finger.

7. Put dried fruit mash in a dark place with a temperature of 18-28°C. Depending on the yeast used, after 4-60 days, the water seal will stop releasing gas (the glove will deflate), the mash will no longer taste sweet and will start to taste slightly bitter, and a layer of sediment will appear at the bottom. These signs indicate that fermentation has ended.

Obtaining moonshine from dried fruits

8. Strain the mash that has won back through gauze, squeeze the cake to dryness. If you do not filter, the remaining pulp will burn, spoiling the taste of the drink.

9. Overtake the mash for the first time at maximum speed without separation into fractions. Stop collecting the product when the strength in the stream falls below 30%.

10. Measure the strength of the resulting distillate. Calculate the amount of pure alcohol - multiply the volume in liters by the strength in percent and divide by 100.

11. Dilute the drink with water to 18-20 degrees, then make a second distillation. Collect the first 12-15% of the yield from the amount of pure alcohol in a separate container. This harmful, bad-smelling fraction is called "heads" and can only be used for technical purposes.

12. Select the main product (“body”) until the strength in the jet falls below 45%, then finish the distillation or collect the “tail” separately.

13. Dilute the resulting dried fruit moonshine with water to the desired strength (usually 40-45%), pour into glass storage containers.

14. Close hermetically, before tasting, leave for 2-3 days in a dark, cool place to stabilize the taste.

Long before people learned, and even more so - to make vodka in the form in which we know it, the Slavs did drunken brew. In ancient times, in those latitudes where the Slavs lived, neither grapes nor sweet berries and fruits were grown, so winemaking was not known.

They replaced the wine with mash, which was consumed in its unprocessed form. But today we will talk about what recipes exist for making moonshine - followed by distillation and obtaining a more or less pure alcoholic drink.

With the beginning of the era of moonshine brewing, home brew recipes for moonshine have changed, improved, and this process has not stopped - more and more new varieties are being invented. A couple of decades ago, banana mash or orange mash was not an exotic species, they did not exist due to the high cost, and sometimes scarcity of these fruits. But since bananas have become cheaper than apples, such species have appeared and won their supporters.

Before you start creating moonshine brew at home, take care of quality of ingredients, which will be included in it, as well as on the preparation of dishes:

exotic

Previously exotic fruits for us are not in short supply, so there are unusual recipes. Let's tell you how it's done banana mash, giving moonshine a delicate incomparable aroma. A popular recipe - for 1 kg of bananas (required - overripe) - 10 liters. water, 1 kg of sugar and 100 g of pressed yeast.

Banana peel contains up to 10% alcohol! It is cut and necessarily added to a container with mash.

Fragrant orange mash is known. But oranges must be peeled, rid of the white part, then boiled with sugar, and only after that cook the mash using the usual proportions.

There is also tangerine mash, as well as from any fruit that you have in abundance. Tangerines for mash are cleaned and boiled. Citrus peels are used to infuse ready-made moonshine.

Brazhka is used not only for moonshine or raw consumption, but also to increase the level of CO2 in water. There is a mash for an aquarium; during fermentation, carbon (CO2) is obtained, which is necessary for aquarium fish.

Remember! The above recipes are not “frozen” in their development. Be creative, add your ingredients, share on social networks and don't forget to treat your friends to unusual and delicious homemade spirits!