Carbonation of moonshine with activated carbon. How to choose an absorbent for cleaning moonshine? How to make charcoal for cleaning moonshine

As masters of creating strong homemade alcoholic drinks know, coconut charcoal for cleaning moonshine does the best job - getting rid of harmful impurities.

It is significantly superior in this to the birch or pharmacy activated, well-known to every distiller.

So what is coconut charcoal? This coconut shell burned without oxygen. In the process of charring, a kind of natural filter is formed.

Attention. You can not use coal to clean moonshine for hookah. Although it is also made from coconut shells, it may contain additives that are undesirable for moonshine.

In addition, its adsorbing properties are incomparable with the "correct" coal, which is labeled KAU-A. The abbreviation stands for: grade A coconut activated carbon. It is he who is intended for cleaning from fusel oils.

When should you carb?

It is worth resorting to the help of KAU-A in two cases:

1. In order to qualitatively clean the primary distillate from fusel oil, kicked out without selection of heads and tails before re-distillation.
2. For improvements already finished product, if it is noticeable turbidity, or the taste and smell are not satisfied.

Peculiarities. Do not forget that some drinks (for example, or) it takes two to three months to acquire the final taste and too thorough cleaning can ruin this product.

How to properly clean?

Proportions and dressing

Usual dosage: per liter of alcohol-containing liquid - 2 tablespoons of KAU-A.

Stir thoroughly, insist at room conditions.

The warmer (25 - 30 degrees) moonshine, the faster the adsorption of harmful impurities and their precipitation.

Recipe for infusion

And then - interesting chemistry. Known among lovers of the study of the properties of alcohol, the author of a book on this topic, Dorosh-Lysenko, claims that moonshine seasoned with coconut charcoal is maximally loses fusel oils in the first 20 minutes of infusion.

There is another recipe. In exactly the same dose, KAU-A is poured into a drink and insisted for 1 hour.

Who is right? This can only be learned through practice. According to the organoleptic (taste, smell, softness) of the drink, it will be easy to compare the initial sensations with those that arise after cleaning.

Important. You should not use KAU-A when cleaning moonshine from grain or fruit and berry raw materials.

It is thanks to the presence of these components in the mash that the specific taste and aroma of the drink is achieved, which cleaning can destroy. But it is the most suitable for. This is where you often need to remove the fuselage.

How to use filtering?

With any method of infusion, moonshine must be filtered. This is done in a way known to every distiller:

• Take a plastic bottle of 1.5 - 2 liters, cut off the bottom.
• Several holes are made in the lid with an awl or a thick needle.
• A piece of cotton pad or cotton wool is placed in the neck.
• If they strive for perfect filtration at a time, they may not use the cap at all, and fill the neck with cotton wool or insert several cotton pads twisted into a roll.
• They put this “filter” on a jar, pour moonshine from the container where it was cleaned, wait until it leaks, periodically adding new portions.

Sometimes required three to four filtrations for the result to be excellent.

They also resort to filtration without insisting. Create a filter bottle as described above. A layer of KAU-A washed with water from dust is poured over the cotton wool, about 5 cm high, and the existing moonshine is poured through it several times, requiring cleaning.

Why is coconut sorbent better?

Decaying, the shells turn into coals with the likeness of multilayer cells, which easily pass alcohol (or water), retaining all the impurities contained.

Naturally, the structure of the cells can only be seen under a microscope.

So, at the cooked coconut charcoal cells are very small, the same components of fusel oils will not "slip" through them.

A birch or pharmacy tablet cell has more, and therefore lower cleansing properties. Coal made from coconut shells has been proven to have special properties:

• selects from an alcohol-containing liquid up to 80% (according to some sources - 86%) of fusel oils and up to 90 - 92% of esters contained in moonshine;
• its use is economically beneficial, since coal is required five times less than other types (the same birch);
• due to the lower dust content, after cleaning it is easier to cope with the filtration of moonshine, the materials used for filtration (cotton wool, filter paper, thick cloth, etc.) do not clog so quickly;
• gives the drink crystal clarity;
• due to the elimination of fusel oils and esters, the pungent odor and taste disappear when drinking.

Reference. In the industrial purification of alcohol, coconut charcoal is used, as the most suitable for this purpose.

How many times can KAU-A be used?

The same coconut charcoal can be used three times, after which its adsorbing capacity drops as its micropores become clogged.

It is claimed that coal can be restored, for which:

• fill the spent coal with distilled water. Water should be 3 times more in volume. Shake, hold for 20 minutes, drain;
• repeat washing 3 times;
• put in a heat-resistant container in the oven at 190 ° C;
• at first, neither the coal nor the oven door is covered. When the smell of alcohol disappears, cover the container leaky, close the oven;
• fry for 6 - 8 hours.

After cooling it can be used as a new product. But it is advisable not to rinse again, it is not so expensive to risk your health due to poor-quality moonshine.

Helpful videos on cleaning with coconut charcoal

The process of cleaning moonshine with coconut activated carbon:

Charcoal with coconut to eliminate turbidity and give moonshine:

An overview of coconut charcoal for cleaning moonshine, the benefits and uses, see:

Are you ready to use coconut charcoal to improve your homemade alcohol? Share it in the comments, recommend the article to friends on social networks.

To get clean “like a tear” moonshine, it needs to be cleaned, but how can this be done quickly and without unnecessary labor? Experienced "moonshiners" know many secrets of getting rid of turbidity and fusel smell, and among them - cleaning with charcoal, soda, potassium permanganate and the freezing method. The first method may seem quite laborious, but after that alcohol turns out to be excellent. Other methods are simpler, but the result will not disappoint you.

How to clean moonshine with charcoal for barbecue (with video)

For filtering, you can use charcoal prepared by yourself or purchase ready-made charcoal for the barbecue. Firewood for charcoal must be properly prepared before burning by removing the bark from it. It should be remembered that firewood from old trees (more than 50 years old) is not suitable for making coal. The absorption capacity of coal depends on the type of raw material. The best from this point of view is the coal obtained by burning firewood from beech, birch, pine and linden. You can also use coals from spruce, oak, aspen, alder and poplar, but their absorption capacity is slightly lower.

Most often, charcoal for alcohol purification is prepared from birch and oak firewood.

Before cleaning moonshine with charcoal for barbecue, firewood is cut into small dies of 3-5 cm, chopped into logs, dried for 2-3 weeks in a warm room, then placed in a cast-iron or iron pot with a lid and heated over high heat in the oven or at the stake until completely burned out, which lasts 1.5–2 hours. The burnt coal is cooled together with the kettle with the lid tightly closed. The charcoal is then used to process alcohol and make filters. Store in a tightly closed container.

To clean moonshine with charcoal as thoroughly as possible, wood pieces are crushed to a size of 5–7 mm, sifted through a sieve and the dust that is not used is separated. Coal can be used repeatedly if its properties are restored before use. To do this, it is necessary to treat the coal with a 2% hydrochloric acid solution, rinse with water and dry, and then again ignite the coal over a fire in a closed pot.

It would seem that getting charcoal in a city apartment is impossible because of smoke and soot. But by making a simple device, these inconveniences can be avoided. It is necessary to take a massive cast pan like a goose dish (by no means enamelled). Drill a hole in the cover and cut the thread. On a piece of tube 80-100 mm, cut the thread according to the thread of the hole. Screw the tube into the hole - you get a fitting.

Then put a rubber tube tightly on the fitting, and lower the other end of the tube into a jar of water. Put fragments of birch, alder, willow twigs into the bottom of the pan, cover with a lid, smear clay around the perimeter of the lid so that there is no smoke leakage. Put the pot on fire and heat it up. The smoke will enter the water and be filtered. After heating, cool the pan, remove the finished charcoal.

Coals are poured with moonshine (at the rate of 50 g per liter) and, shaking the container 3-4 times a day, insist. After three weeks, insist another week, but no longer shaking, and then filtered.

Watch the video on how to clean moonshine with charcoal to get crystal clear alcohol:

How to clean cloudy moonshine with potassium permanganate and sodium

In order to clean moonshine from a cloudy color as efficiently as possible, you need to take the one that was obtained after the first distillation. It should be at room temperature, since at elevated temperatures many harmful substances are not captured. It is also better not to use high-grade alcohol, because it is very reluctant to part with its impurities.

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

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

There is another way to clean cloudy moonshine quickly; alkali is also used for this - caustic sodium or caustic potash.

Alkali is added to the moonshine distilled from the mash at the rate of 2–3 g per liter of drink.

The mixture is stirred and allowed to stand for twenty to thirty minutes. Then add an aqueous solution of potassium permanganate. The proportions and method of preparation are described just above. After about thirty minutes, alkali is again added to the moonshine, mixed and allowed to settle.

Caustic potassium (or sodium) is added a second time to accelerate the precipitation of oxidation products and neutralize the excessive acidity of the solution.

After ten to twelve hours, the liquid is drained from above, and the precipitate is removed.

The following describes how to quickly clean moonshine at home by freezing.

Freezing moonshine cleaning

For cleaning by freezing, moonshine is poured into bottles with thick walls. Perfect, for example, "dishes" from under champagne.

Then the bottles are securely corked and placed in the freezer compartment of the refrigerator for several days. Water, along with unwanted impurities, turns into ice. You will only have to drain the alcohol before the ice melts.

But do not think that in this way you will get almost 100% ethyl alcohol. Yes, it will be very strong, but not to that extent.

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

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

Cases when it is necessary to clean moonshine happen quite often. As a rule, sugar, starch and some grain distillates are subjected to purification. Often the question of this question arises when it was necessary, and the distillate is not quite of decent quality. Distillers also practice the purification of raw alcohol before re-distilling it. And even if you had a chance (we recommend choosing an apparatus with a distillation column of the brand or with a dry steamer of the brand) of high quality, cleaning may be required to save the situation in case of gross violations of the distillation technology.

The practice of cleaning moonshine with activated charcoal is widely known. Natural charcoal is an excellent sorbent: it captures and retains a variety of molecules that are in solution. You can prepare coal for cleaning moonshine right in your kitchen. More precisely, charcoal can be activated. To understand why activation is needed, consider the essence of the process of purifying moonshine with coal.

What is charcoal activation for?

Fragments of coal have pores and cracks. They, in turn, have a tree-like structure: wide pores-“tunnels” branch into narrower ones, and those into even narrower ones, and so on. The smaller the pore diameter, the smaller molecules get stuck in it, held by the charges of carbon molecules emerging into the lumen of the pore.

Molecules of "fusel oils" - the main enemy of a good drink - are for the most part large molecules of alcohols. They are well adsorbed by coal, while small molecules of ethyl alcohol freely leave its pores.

Of course, it would be better to know that it would allow to cut off impurities as much as possible, and additional purification was simply not required. But when working with any apparatus, there is a human factor, so always be careful when distilling. And if you are thinking about purchasing a reliable distiller, then visit the websites of official manufacturers, you can guarantee it in just one click.

Activated charcoal differs from ordinary charcoal in that it has many more branched pores, it is literally riddled with them. The more pores, the greater the absorbent capacity, the more impurities coal can absorb. Below we will talk about how to make activated carbon for cleaning moonshine from plain charcoal.

The choice of coal and the procedure for its activation

Coal is taken charcoal, for barbecues. However, it is important that it does not smell of smoke, otherwise it will inevitably be transferred to the drink. The best choice is natural birch charcoal for barbecues.
The process of activation (manufacturing) of coal for cleaning moonshine is reduced to the expansion and even greater cracking of the pores in its particles. This is done using the physical properties of ordinary water. Due to the heating of the water impregnating the coal, its molecules begin to “pound” into the walls of the pores with great force, contributing to their cracking.

Thus, to make coal for cleaning moonshine, you will need:

1. Put the charcoal for the barbecue in a bag of sugar and grind it with a hard blunt object. For these purposes, a hammer is well suited if applied flat. It is best to do this outdoors, as the dust will still fly.
2. Place a colander or sieve on a bowl (pan) and pour crushed coal into it. Dust and very fine particles will pass through the filter, you will need the ones left on the sieve.
3. Place coal in a saucepan, cover with water and boil for 60 minutes.
   

   By the way. Coal can be crushed after boiling, then there will be less dust. However, coal “dust” itself can also be used to clean moonshine.

4. After boiling, drain the water from the coal, spread the coal on a baking sheet and send it to the oven for 60-90 minutes, preheated to the maximum temperature. The charcoal will begin to crackle. Heating can be stopped when the characteristic smell of coal appears.

Checking the resulting coal is very simple: put a few pieces in water. The hissing and release of bubbles indicates that the coal is ready to fight harmful impurities to guard the purification of moonshine. Activated carbon is one of the safest substances for purifying not only distillates, but also liquids and air. And you can learn more about it in our articles.

A fairly common method of removing harmful substances from raw alcohol is carbonization. After primary distillation, the mash produces a product with a characteristic odor and a high content of foreign impurities that are far from healthy. After purification, their concentration is minimized, the taste and aromatic qualities of the product are improved. For these purposes, activated carbon is used, which has a high adsorbing coefficient. Moonshine specialists know how to clean moonshine with charcoal. Here you need to have an idea which coal can be used to clean fusel oils, and which one is unsuitable for this.

What coal to choose for cleaning moonshine

Most often, birch charcoal is used to clean moonshine with charcoal at home: for general purpose and for alcoholic beverage production, labeled BAU-A and BAU-A-LVZ, respectively. You can use OU-A and DAK charcoal, as well as KAUSORB brand coconut charcoal. All this can be purchased in departments and stores specializing in the sale of distillery equipment or via the Internet.

Many moonshine makers combine coconut charcoal with birch charcoal, observing the following proportion: for one liter of distillate - 6 tablespoons of wood adsorbent and 2 tablespoons of KAUSORB or KAU-A.

What coal should not be used to clean fusel impurities

Pharmacy activated carbon

A very controversial question: what is the pharmaceutical coal preparation made of? There is an opinion that this is a woody product, and there is a belief that it is made from a bone substrate. Regardless of the nature of the origin of pharmaceutical coal, it is undesirable to purify moonshine. It contains binder starch additives, which do not have the best effect on the taste and transparency of moonshine: starch reduces the adsorbing properties of coal.

Coal from a gas mask, aquarium and household filters

Some distillers pass the moonshine through a household water filter. Filter the distillate in this way should be at least 5 times. However, moonshine specialists do not use this method, since ionizing substances are added to household filters. It is also not recommended to use aquarium filters.

It is highly unacceptable to take carbon filters from gas masks, especially if it is not known whether the gas mask was in use. But even in new gas masks, the filter media contains substances that can give an undesirable reaction with alcohol-containing liquids.

Purification of moonshine with charcoal for barbecue

To obtain high-quality distillate, moonshiners often use cleaning of moonshine with charcoal for barbecue. It is quite suitable for these purposes. Just keep in mind that the coal product intended for barbecues is used after burning out. Moreover, it should burn out without air access. This process is called pyrolysis. As a result of pyrolysis, the structure becomes more porous, which increases the absorption capacity of the adsorbent.

To carry out this process, smoldering coals from the barbecue are transferred to a metal container and hermetically sealed. Completely burnt material is already suitable for carbonization. Moonshine purified with such an adsorbent absorbs the smell of a fire. For those who do not like this taste, it is recommended to re-distill: after the second distillation, the smoky taste will disappear.

Distillate purification and filtration process

Coal preparation

Before starting cleaning the pervach with charcoal at home, the adsorbent is first washed and dried, then crushed. You can crush it in some kind of bowl or put it in a bag and crush it with a hammer. The finer the coal mass, the more the adsorbing surface will interact with the liquid, therefore, the cleaning will be better. It should be borne in mind that both options are a dusty ceremony. Therefore, it is better to carry out manipulations on grinding coal outdoors.

Purification and filtration of moonshine

It is usually practiced in one of two common ways:

• Filtration of moonshine with coal
• Infusion of distillate on coal.

But here, too, there are variations.

Using a homemade charcoal filter

1 option

Cotton or gauze folded in several layers is placed in an ordinary funnel (you can also wrap a little cotton with gauze), pour a small amount of the prepared adsorbent. The filter is ready, and moonshine is poured through it. This procedure is repeated five times, each time replacing the filter.

Option 2

To make a filter, you will need an eggplant from beer or mineral water, cotton wool, coal. At the eggplant, you need to cut off the bottom and make several holes in the cork, like those that many made in childhood on sprinklers, only a little larger. A tightly folded cotton swab is inserted into the neck of such a homemade watering can, then a cork with holes is twisted. After that, this unit is filled with wood adsorbent at the rate of 60-80 grams of coal per liter of distillate (1 tablespoon holds about 10 g of coal).

Next, the eggplant with a charcoal filter is filled with moonshine and waited for it to be filtered. This option is convenient because it does not require constant presence during the filtration process. But from time to time you need to check if the filter is clogged. If the liquid has stopped flowing out of the plastic container, then shake the eggplant or unscrew the bottle cap a little.

Such a purification can be repeated by replacing the used coal with clean, but someone believes that after the first run the desired result is achieved. Here everyone will be prompted by personal experience. You can pass part of the moonshine through the filter once, and the other part twice or thrice, then take samples and compare.

Infusion of moonshine on coal

The disagreements that apply this method of charcoal cleansing at home mainly relate to the time of infusion. Some recommend adsorption in several two-hour periods, filtering and replacing the adsorbent. They motivate this method by the fact that after two hours the reverse process can begin, and the coal will not absorb impurities, but give them back to the liquid.

Others believe that you need to insist from 4 to 7 days. Still others suggest that the optimal duration of cleaning by immersing the adsorbent in moonshine is two weeks. Here, too, we can recommend empirically to determine how long it will take for high-quality absorption of the distillate. If someone chooses the option of multi-day adsorption, then the cans with purified alcohol must be shaken daily.

There are no special differences regarding the proportions: from 50 to 80 grams of coal are required per liter of liquid. The quality of moonshine will not deteriorate if the adsorbent material is taken a little more than it should be according to the norm. After infusion, the alcohol-containing liquid should be removed from the sediment and passed through a cotton or sand filter. The sand must be thoroughly washed and calcined, it is wrapped in cloth or multi-layered gauze and placed in a funnel. You can use filter paper to remove the adsorbent from moonshine. If a suspension of coal dust is observed in the filtered moonshine, you can repeat the filtration or let it settle, then remove it from the sediment.

And another warning

It is not always possible to be sure of the good quality of coal. If the material for carbonation is in doubt, then it is a good idea to test its adsorbing properties on a small amount of moonshine, so as not to spoil the entire volume of alcohol produced at home.

Attention, only TODAY!

Guessing that there is not always a high-quality alcoholic product on store shelves, they often resort to moonshine brewing (although alcohol and moonshine are also used for other purposes, for example, in medicine), because. it is quite easy to make at home, does not require special ingredients, and is also available in a price range.

When moonshine is driven out, it has a specific unpleasant odor that you want to remove, various harmful impurities remain (for example, amyl and isopropyl alcohol) and fusel oils that negatively affect the human body and which must be disposed of to take moonshine inside.

In order to eliminate these two parameters, various methods of cleaning moonshine are used, the most accessible of which will be discussed in the proposed article, namely, how to clean moonshine with activated carbon.

There are different purification technologies, we will consider the features and fundamental differences of only two:

• Absorbent in tablets;
• wood absorbent.

How to clean moonshine with activated charcoal tablets (with video)

To begin, consider how you can clean moonshine with activated charcoal tablets. Professional moonshiners say that this is wrong, because. absorbent tablets have small pores, which are not enough to clean large-pore particles of fusel oils, are sometimes made from animal bones, and also have additives such as talc and starch that change the taste of an alcoholic beverage. Nevertheless, many dwell on this technology due to its general availability and ease of execution.

One of the methods on how to clean moonshine with activated charcoal tablets is to take a plastic bottle with a cut bottom and a small hole made in the lid, and fill it with a large amount (about 100 pieces) of absorbent tablets. Insert the bottle into an empty jar with a volume of at least that which will be cleaned, and you can begin the purification process. Pour moonshine (1-2 l) into a bottle of water, waiting for the blackened liquid mixed with coal to drain into a jar. Drain the alcoholic drink into the jar in this way completely, repeating this procedure at least 2-3 times.

After the liquid has sufficiently mixed with the charcoal particles and becomes a rich black color, let it stand for several minutes. Next, you need to take a watering can and put a fairly large piece of cotton wool (cotton swab) into it. Insert the watering can into a clean jar and start filtering by pouring black liquid into the watering can. Pour it also in parts so that it does not spill on the table. For the best effect, you should filter the alcoholic beverage twice.

More clearly, you can see how to clean moonshine with activated charcoal in the video:

Cleaning by the specified method has been completed, but for greater certainty, we will consider another option, using charcoal activated charcoal.

How to clean moonshine with activated charcoal

Considering how to properly clean moonshine with activated charcoal, you should immediately make a reservation that activated birch and coconut charcoal, which are specially produced for the alcoholic beverage industry, are most suitable for filtering. You should not risk your health and use coal from gas masks, water filters or other improvised means, because. they in most cases contain other harmful impurities.

In order to filter in this way, it is necessary, first of all, to grind the absorbent in a large saucepan. Moonshine with a strength of 40 - 55 ° C should be poured into this pan. For 1 liter of moonshine, you should take 50 g of activated charcoal. Now you need to defend the liquid in a tightly closed container. Opinions were divided on this matter. Someone is of the opinion that the mixture should be kept for about a week, shaking every 1-2 days. Others advise not to overexpose for more than half an hour in the solution, then stand for 2 hours until the absorbent particles settle, because. prolonged contact of alcohol and carbon will lead to the oxidation of alcohol and the appearance of additional aldehydes.

The result depends on the quality and type of activated charcoal chosen for purification. Choose the option that works best for you (sometimes by trial and error). After that, the settled liquid should be filtered through a watering can with a cotton swab, preferably several times.

The technologies considered, how to clean moonshine with activated carbon, will help remove harmful impurities. How much the specific smell and taste will change can be tested in practice. If you wish, you can ennoble the taste and aromatic properties of the drink by insisting it on various aromatic herbs and roots.