How to get alcohol by freezing brogues. Self-cleaning of moonshine and vodka with cold

One of the most available ways is freezing moonshine. This method was used by our grandfathers and great-grandfathers. If you believe Pokhlebkin, an authoritative connoisseur of old Russian cuisine, then freezing wines is one of the first ways to get stronger and purer alcohol. By the same method, in the harsh non-alcoholic Soviet times, they "extracted" alcohol from the most unsuitable raw materials, including technical liquids, cologne.

Is there any reason?

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In ancient times, vodka in special barrels with a cork in the bottom was exposed to frost. The water froze, alcohol, more precisely, a stronger alcohol, remained in a liquid state, and it was poured out through the hole. Such "strengthening" of vodka and moonshine, that is, increasing the degree of strength by freezing it was considered very effective at that time. True, there was no question of specifically purifying alcohol from harmful impurities.

In modern literature, in particular, in the book of Dorosh and Lysenko, this method is ranked as unpromising. The authors believe that when water freezes in a moonshine solution, the concentration of alcohols () increases. But it is precisely because of the increase in concentration in alcohols that substances begin to dissolve, which at a strength of 20 °, 30 °, 40 ° did not dissolve in them. That is, harmful components do not remain in water (in ice), but "migrate" into alcohol. If you remove the water, it turns out that the alcohol has become more harmful.

Real experience

The theory is a valuable thing, but real practical experience shows that purifying moonshine with strong cooling gives results. A number of practitioners claim that by freezing some of the harmful substances can be removed from the drink.

Braga from sugar usually does not sour, and is stored for a long time before it is distilled. You can put it in the cold. Braga can turn sour from top dressing if its strength is not high, but this can usually only happen during the initial fermentation.

Can you drink mash?

You can drink braga, but there are many harmful impurities, it is better to overtake it. Buy if there is no money, at least cheap alcohol mashine and overtake with the selection of heads, bodies, tails. A cheap device cannot be compared to a normal one, but all the weaves are better than drinking mash.

How much top dressing to add to the sugar mash?

Since we have a limited amount of oxygen in the wash, it cannot get into it during fermentation, since the carbon dioxide released during initial aerobic respiration displaces oxygen from the fermentation tank, the pressure in the tank is greater than outside, oxygen can no longer get there, and therefore not much feeding is needed.

If we use expensive yeast for fermentation and our goal is to increase its amount, then it is necessary to specially aerate (oxygenate) the wort before fermentation. To do this, it can be intensively mixed with a blender or use an aquarium compressor. It is necessary to aerate the wort before fermentation begins or during the addition of the yeast.

What top dressing is best for sugar mash?

The main building blocks for yeast are nitrogen and phosphorus.

• There is a lot of nitrogen in soybeans, milk, cocoa, lentils, peas.
• There is a lot of phosphorus in soybeans, rye or wheat bran, milk, cocoa.

Yeast also needs magnesium and potassium.

• There is a lot of magnesium in the bran of rye or wheat, cocoa, buckwheat, soybeans.
• There is a lot of potassium in apricots, potatoes, rye or wheat bran, cocoa, soybeans, peas, raisins, tomato paste.

Yeast needs B vitamins, there are many of them in tomato paste, rye or wheat bran, corn, millet, peas.

As a mineral supplement, the brig uses:

· Ammonium sulfate, nitrogen source. Ammonium sulphate Food Industry registered as food supplement E517. It is added to flour so that the yeast multiplies intensively and the dough rises.

· In the alcohol industry, together with ammonium sulfate, phosphoric acid, a source of phosphorus, is added to the wort. Phosphoric acid is added to coca-cola, lemonades.

· Instead of ammonium sulfate and phosphoric acid, diammonium phosphate is added to the wort.

• Moonshiners add to the mash mineral fertilizer for plants called azofoska. Azophoska contains nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus and a little sulfur. Add 3-4 grams of it per liter of wort.

Potassium and magnesium are in the pharmaceutical preparation "Asparkam". B vitamins can also be taken from pharmacy vitamins.

Now that's it. Customize your distiller!

By the way ... Possible difficulties

In the process of making mash, some difficulties may arise that will negatively affect the final product:

The mash fermentation time is quite long. This is possible if you did not observe the temperature regime, used low-quality yeast or a small amount of it.

Fermentation has stopped, but the taste of the drink remains sweet. Most likely, you have violated the initial proportions of sugar and water, or the yeast has produced so much alcohol that it simply cannot work further.

This is easy to fix by simply adding more yeast.

Braga is ready, but you have no way to overtake it now... This is undesirable, since the liquid can simply turn sour, but if there is no way out, then the mash can be stored in the refrigerator for several weeks. To do this, it is worth pouring it into an airtight container to reduce infection with harmful microbes.

How much moonshine from mash

Many are interested in the question of how much moonshine is obtained from the mash. The amount of the final product directly depends on the feedstock. So, from 1 kg of sugar, 1 liter of a drink is obtained, while its strength will be 50%.

Cold cleaning of homemade alcohol is a method that has been popular in cold regions for centuries. And today in Siberia freezing of moonshine and even mash is carried out.

Where frosts above 25 ° C are very rare, freezers of conventional refrigerators are widely used today.

And those who have got a chest freezer are practically not limited in their experiments with freezing both mash and finished distillate.

Although freezing is perhaps the oldest of the attempts to improve taste and has been practiced since the time of Ivan the Terrible (15th century), but the method does not guarantee complete disposal of fusel oils and other stinkingly harmful filth that moonshine abounds in.

The method is notable for its availability and is practiced by many distillers to this day. Some (in the North) freeze alcohol on the street in winter, who use the freezer for this. Why freezing is so attractive:

• no need to stand, wait for the flakes to settle and filter. Frozen water remains in the container, unfrozen alcohol is drained;
• moonshine becomes much cleaner, since a large amount (not all) of fusel oils freeze with water;
• the strength increases due to dehydration of the product;
• the smell disappears and the foreign taste becomes weaker. Many people remember the "military way" to make cologne more or less acceptable for drinking.

Disadvantages of freezing

Although some of the substances called fuselage are removed by freezing, but the most dangerous of them low temperatures do not work. The maximum that is given by modern freezers is minus 28 ° С.

Reference. Freezing point of isoamyl alcohol: -117 ° C, isobutyl alcohol: -108 ° C, furfural: -36.5 ° C. Methyl (wood) alcohol freezes at sub-zero temperatures below 96 ° C.

Cold cleanse options

Let's consider several methods known in popular practice.

Important. In all cases, before cleaning the moonshine with cold, it is strongly recommended to first pass it through the coal (coal column or filter).

This will remove the mentioned substances with a very low freezing point.

In the freezer

Option 1. Find a metal container that you can close and fit in the freezer. Pour home distillate and set aside for 4 hours to freeze. During this time, crystals of frozen water with impurities are formed on the walls. It remains to drain pure strong alcohol.

Option 2. The same, but using plastic containers (bottles, jugs). It is advisable to extend the stay in the freezer up to 6-8 hours.

On scrap

The old Siberian method provides for the presence of severe frost on the street - from minus 25 ° C and below.

Place a metal corner (for those with little experience) or a crowbar in a bucket or other dish and support it against the wall at a slight slope.

Pour the moonshine into the hollow of the corner (for scrap). Water and fuselage will freeze to the metal until the trickle reaches the bottom. Only alcohol will enter the container.

Chemistry plus frost

1. Use NaOH (caustic soda) - 2 g per liter of moonshine. First, dissolve caustic soda in a little water, then add it to the home distillate, stir and put it in the freezer for 4-5 hours. Drain the unfrozen part, filter through cotton wool, dilute to 15-20 ° C and distill again.
2. Dilute with water (one tablespoon per liter of raw alcohol). Mix the liquids, send to the freezer overnight. Drain and filter. If the taste suits you, you can not distill again.

After freezing by any of the proposed methods, moonshine invariably becomes softer and more pleasant to drink. The pungent fusel smell disappears. But for high-quality disposal of various impurities in home distillate, it is better to combine this method with other purification methods.

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When making moonshine at home, not the last place is given to its cleaning. This is not done just for fun. In addition to a cloudy color and a pungent odor, unrefined homemade alcohol may have other, more unpleasant surprises. When alcohol interacts with air, aldehydes are formed, the most dangerous of which is acetic. Attending fusel oils cause dire consequences in the form of a severe hangover. Do not forget about acids: formic, acetic. Methyl and amyl alcohols do not even need to be discussed. These are poisons leading, among other things, to death. Esters are also quite harmful. Here you can find diethyl, ethyl formic, ethyl acetate, valerian ethyl and some other ethers. After cleaning, the correct moonshine should contain no more than hundredths of these substances.

At home, several options for filters and improvised means are common. One of the most budgetary and relatively affordable is the cold cleaning of moonshine.

Freezing moonshine

In general terms, the effect of freezing moonshine is as follows. Moonshine, to put it roughly, is a water-alcohol solution. Any liquid lends itself to freezing. But alcohol has an extremely low freezing point, 115 ° C below zero. Water, accordingly, freezes earlier. In this case, it is more correct to say crystallizes. It also collects impurities. Part of fusel and essential oils precipitate, which can be filtered off. Alcohol that is not frozen at the same time is practically pure and has a higher strength than initially.

This method has a very long history. It was used back in the 15th century during the time of Ivan the Terrible. And then, this was done not so much for cleaning, as with the aim of increasing the degree. This method is still considered the most popular of all existing ones.

This is in theory. In practice, there are 3 common methods, differing in some nuances.

Freezing undiluted moonshine

This method requires a metal container with a tight-fitting lid. The distillate obtained after a single distillation is poured into this container and placed in the freezer. Prerequisite: the temperature should not exceed 20 ° C below zero. Otherwise, the result will not be effective enough. After 4 - 5 hours in the freezer, the water, together with impurities, freezes to the metal walls of the vessel. Now all that remains is to drain the remaining liquid alcohol.

Freezing diluted moonshine

This method will differ from the previous one in duration. It will take a little more time to execute it, but it also has the right to life.

At the first stage, it is necessary to dilute the moonshine with water, reducing its strength to 40 °. In this case, it is better to use distilled water so that no additional compounds are added with dirty water.

The diluted moonshine is poured into a plastic container that is placed in the freezer. The temperature regime is also observed at a level of 20-22 ° below zero. Within a day, water will begin to turn into crystals, while combining impurities. At the time of the beginning of crystallization, liquid moonshine must be filtered. As a filter, you can use cotton pads or cheesecloth sandwiched with charcoal.

A feature and a big drawback of this method is the constant monitoring of the state of the liquid in the bottle. If you skip the moment of the beginning of crystallization, all the moonshine will turn into a homogeneous viscous mass. It will be almost impossible to isolate suspensions, water crystals and a fraction of moonshine here.

Siberian moonshine cleaning

This method found the greatest response in the Internet communities and attracted many supporters and opponents alike. In this case, no hardware is required. Only severe Siberian frosts, ingenuity and resourcefulness. Freezing moonshine should be practiced directly in the open air. The main thing is that the frost is strong, 30 ° - 35 ° below zero.

In addition to a set of warm clothes for the moonshiner himself, you will need a long metal product: a crowbar, a narrow tube, a corner, and so on. The principle is as follows. Moonshine should be poured as slowly as possible from top to bottom onto a metal tube located at a slight angle. Moonshine should flow in a very thin stream. As it flows down the tube, it cleans up. Water and impurities freeze to the metal surface, and a pure and strong drink flows down to the base of the pipe into the container for collection.

Of no small importance is the material from which the pipe is made. Ideally, copper or stainless steel. Otherwise, getting rid of the smell of essential oils, you can get a metallic taste.

The only serious drawback of this method is associated with weather and natural factors. As indicated in the name, it is suitable only for residents of northern latitudes and regions located beyond the Urals. Since even for central Russia such frosts are already rare today, not to mention the south of the country.

Freezing efficiency evaluation

There is no single opinion regarding this cleaning method. The main concern is caused by the following fact. During the freezing of water, the structure of the moonshine changes and its strength increases. Therefore, some of the harmful compounds from the water go back to moonshine. After the minus of water, its volume becomes smaller, respectively, the concentration of impurities in the moonshine at the outlet only increases. Thus, the opponents believe, freezing you can achieve the opposite effect.

Supporters call this method the most natural and environmentally friendly, time-tested. In their opinion, it is better to remove at least some of the possible connections than not to do it at all. The following experience clearly demonstrates the actual result of this cold procedure. After freezing and separating the liquid moonshine, you can collect the remaining suspension and icy water. Having thawed them, you can see the extracted impurities.

As an additional cleaning step after freezing, numerous moonshiners still recommend using a charcoal filter.

Once upon a time in fields (geological) we still did this. The outer dishes are a tall enamelled linen tank, which is no longer made. Inside, with an annular gap of a couple of centimeters - a fairly flat pan (the handles were pressed down to fit in) on a support made of bent copper strips from the ground so that the pan was in the upper part of the tank. And already inside this pan - another, much smaller in diameter and slightly less height, suspended by the edges flush with the first with the help of a horizontal stick. The chip was in the shape of a basin, which was used to cover all this - usually the basins have the lowest place along the edge of the bottom, and in the middle it is raised, the same in the center again had a depression, about a third of the diameter (judging by the whole enamel, this one came out of the factory) ...
Braga from wild honeysuckle with sugar was filtered in a tray through a heap of lime sand, poured into a tank and brought to the point of boiling without a lid and other entrails. The vastness of native nature and the absence of neighbors, of course, removed the problems with smell, anti-alcohol laws and more. After a while, the smell became less disgusting (the "taster" had to come up periodically for a few seconds, so as not to get used to it), then a nesting doll from two pots was put inside and covered with a basin with a lining of a damp cloth. By the way, the volume of the mash was several times less than the volume of the tank, it did not even reach the bottom of the pan. Water was poured into the top of the basin and then it was regularly "wrapped" - a warm mug overboard, a cold mug from a bucket into a basin (they scooped a bucket right there in the stream). The heating was regulated by the fact that not primordial firewood went under the tank, but smut from the fire nearby, they were added or subtracted, focusing on the vibrations of the tank - which, by the way, did not hang, but stood on three stones of a suitable shape and at the first attempt to gurgle quietly blink. The process was also monitored, periodically sprinkling a drop of water on the side of the tank and watching to where it rolled down before it evaporated - at first it reached the bottom, then its path ended higher and higher. At a certain moment, the comrade who was in charge of all this (he also designed the device out of cash) ordered it to be removed.
As a result, at least half of the alcohol was distilled out of the mash, and in the two pots there was clearly a different product - in the large or external one, the fortress was lower, with a noticeable fusel smell, and in the inner one - a “tear” with a degree higher than 50%. Our specialist - by the way, a geochemist - explained this in such a way that, firstly, we sent the "head" into the atmosphere, and left the "tails" in the wash, stopping the process at about 97 degrees. Secondly, the first distillate was deposited along the perimeter, on the sides of the basin, and hung in drops on the circumference of the bottom, falling into the outer pan. From there, he evaporated again, because its boiling point was ten degrees lower than that of the mash (all this is from the words of our geochemist), and here it was already precipitated mainly in the center of the basin, because the upward flow of primary vapors, lighter both because of the temperature and because of the molar mass, which, on average, is higher in a mixture more saturated with alcohol, did not let it to the edges. From the center, of course, it dripped into a small saucepan. There must have been confusion, but not much, judging by the result.
In general, the contents of the small pan went off with a bang, and they wanted to distill the liquid from the large one again the next day, but did not have time - the hard workers from the scourges did not find it enough to participate in our culture, and in the morning they quietly finished off the “semi-finished product”. But even they did not get sick.
The process, of course, is wasteful, but under these conditions water, firewood, sand, honeysuckle and fresh air do not count at all, and we had plenty of sugar (geologists were well supplied) and was written off after the season at state prices, i.e. e. and here, all the same, it came out much cheaper than purchased vodka.
Alkofan, do you know anything else about distillation devices, "nesting dolls", where the internal works from the external steam?