Alcohol today is an integral part of our culture. On store shelves it is exhibited in all its diversity, as they say, for every taste and color. However, many prefer to make it themselves. And in order to cook, for example, moonshine, the presence of certain components is necessary. One of the main participants in the fermentation process is yeast, which is an indispensable fungus that converts sugar into alcohol under the influence of enzymes. Today, yeast for moonshine also has many varieties that differ among themselves by resistance to the external environment, breeding temperature, habitat, and so on.
Let's consider them in more detail.
Baker's yeast
This product is usually used for baking bakery products, for moonshine it is a bad option, because the quality of the drink is very low. However, in ancient times, bread moonshine was in great demand. It was prepared from barley, millet, wheat and other things. Consider what yeast for moonshine was used in ancient times.
Homemade Bread Yeast
Ingredients : rye, barley, wheat, peas, corn, millet, water.
Cooking
All ingredients sprout. To do this, soak them in warm water and spread them in a two-centimeter layer. At the same time, it is necessary to ensure that the grain does not sour. When it sprouts, it is dried and ground into flour. Then the water is boiled and added, constantly stirring, the flour. The mixture should be the consistency of liquid jelly. She is sheltered and insisted for twelve hours. Then the mass is poured into bowls and cooled, add peas at the rate of kilograms per twelve buckets of sourdough. Leave to roam for ten days, after which you can brew moonshine.
Wine yeast
Special yeast for winemaking, called wine, is not used in home brewing, as it is very expensive. However, they are sometimes used to enhance the fermentation of moonshine.
To cook them yourself, you need to take five kilograms of fermented grape wet squeezes, add two kilograms of sugar and ten liters of water. This mixture is left to ferment, then transgressed to distillation.
Consider another recipe on how to make your own wine yeast for making moonshine.
Raisin Yeast
Ingredients : one spoonful of sugar, four hundred grams of water, one spoonful of raisins.
Cooking
Sugar is put in a half-liter bottle, it is poured with boiling water, closed with a cotton stopper and cooled to room temperature. Then they put raisins in the container and again close the cork, leave to roam for seven days. I must say that such yeast must be used immediately, since they are not stored for a long time.
"Wild" yeast for making moonshine
Ingredients : two glasses of mashed berries of cherries or grapes, half a glass of sugar, one glass of water.
Cooking
To make yeast for moonshine, all the ingredients are mixed, put in a glass container, corked and put in a warm dark place for four days. Over time, the mixture is filtered through cheesecloth and used instead of yeast. For ten liters of mash take three hundred grams of such yeast. This product is stored for no more than ten days.
Brewer's yeast
Such a product can be purchased as vitamin supplements, but it is not suitable for brewing moonshine, because it can withstand a small concentration of alcohol in the brew. However, sometimes they are used in moonshining. How to make them yourself, we will now consider.
Brewer's yeast at home
Ingredients : one glass of flour, one glass of water, one glass of sugar, one glass of beer.
Cooking
Considering which yeast is better for moonshine, we note that if there is no alcohol available, then beer is used. Of course, an alcoholic drink will turn out to be of less strength.
So, warm water is poured into the bowl, flour is added and stirred so that there are no lumps, you can use a mixer for this. The bowl is put in a warm place, covered with a lid, for six hours. Then unsterilized beer and sugar are added to the dough, they are well mixed and put back into heat. After some time, homemade yeast is poured into a glass container and placed in a cold place to store.
Homemade Fresh Hop Yeast
To make yeast for moonshine at home, you need to fill the pan with hop, pour it with hot water, cover and cook for one hour. Then the broth is filtered, added to its two liters, one glass of flour and sugar, stirred and put in a warm place for thirty-six hours. Over time, two grated potatoes are added to the mixture, mixed and again placed in heat for one day. The finished product is poured into glass bottles and used for its intended purpose.
Liquid-thick yeast
Ingredients : two hundred and fifty grams of hops, two liters of warm water, five hundred grams of malt, one hundred and twenty grams of honey, fifty grams of old yeast (dry).
Cooking
Hops and malt are poured with boiling water and boiled for half an hour, covered with a lid and stirring occasionally. The mixture is then filtered through gauze or a sieve, honey is added and heated to a boil, then it is cooled, covered with a towel. When the mass has cooled, add old dry yeast for moonshine to it, after diluting it with warm water. The mixture is left for two and a half hours. During this time, the mass should rise. But when it begins to fall, this will be a signal that the yeast is ready and can be used for its intended purpose, putting the leftovers in a cold place for storage.
Alcoholic yeast (top and bottom fermentation)
Such a product promotes the production of alcohol. For this, alcohol yeast for moonshine is best suited. This is due to the fact that their vital activity takes place at the same temperature at which the mash is prepared. Moreover, they have high resistance to high alcohol content.
Alcohol supports all the functions of yeast, but upon reaching the fortress of mash more than fifteen percent, many of them die. Alcoholic yeast is obtained from a single cell, only it can produce a pure yeast race, on which the quality of fermentation and the quality and quantity of the final product depend. It is interesting that a pure culture can not only be bought, but also brought out on its own. However, many today purchase such a product in specialized stores, trusting professionals. At the same time, yeast for moonshine "Saf Levure" is in great demand.
Making yeast based on Saf Levure
Ingredients : four hundred and fifty grams of water, fifty grams of vodka with a fortress of forty degrees, one spoon of flour, one spoon of sugar and one spoon of Saf Levure.
Cooking
To get high-quality brewing yeast, it is recommended to put Saf Levyur in warm water for twenty-five minutes. Then add sugar and alcohol (so that the total strength of the mixture is five percent). This mixture is left for one day, covered with a lid and periodically shaking.
What is the advantage of spirit yeast?
Alcoholic yeast for moonshine is an indispensable component in creating high-quality alcohol. Alcohol immediately kills weak strains, leaving representatives stronger, with high alcohol resistance, so yeast aromas will be eliminated. In addition, the mash will ferment evenly, the yield of alcohol increases slightly. The fractional application of sugar contributes to the achievement of sixteen degrees in the wort. After six days, the mash itself will be ready for distillation. Moonshine is obtained without harmful impurities, therefore, its additional purification with potassium permanganate or other methods is not required.
It often happens that there isn’t any yeast at hand, but plans still need to brew quality moonshine. In this case, a brew for moonshine without yeast can be prepared.
Wheat moonshine
Ingredients : five kilograms of wheat grains, fifteen liters of water, six and a half kilograms of sugar.
Cooking
Wheat grains are washed and poured with a small amount of water. After a while, add one and a half kilograms of sugar and wait until the wheat sprouts. When this happens, add fifteen liters of water and the rest of the sugar, put the mass in a warm place for ten days, securing a water seal on the tank. Over time, the mash is passed through a moonshine.
Braga on rice
Ingredients : two glasses of peeled rice, three glasses of sugar, half a liter of beer.
Cooking
We already know how to make yeast for moonshine. But when there is no way to cook them, you can make rice-based mash. For this, all components are placed in a three-liter jar, closed with a lid with a water seal and left in a warm place for twelve days, periodically shaking the container. At will, dried apricots, raisins or prunes are added to the mash.
To obtain high-quality alcohol, the latter is purified during distillation, after the first pass through the apparatus. To do this, many use activated carbon. So, tablets of coal are ground into a powder (fifty grams of powder are taken per liter of moonshine), combined with alcohol and put in a warm place for seven days. Then the liquid is filtered and again passed through the apparatus.
Finally ...
It should be noted that yeast is the most important component of the fermentation process. They are mushrooms that, under the influence of enzymes, convert sugar to carbon dioxide and ethyl alcohol. There are a lot of varieties of them, which differ in the temperature of reproduction, resistance to environmental influences, and so on. Speaking about which yeast is better for moonshine, it must be said that it is alcoholic, because their vital activity takes place in the same temperature range in which the mash is prepared, so they are more resistant to the high alcohol content in it. If alcoholic yeast is not available, beer or bread yeast can be used, rarely wine.
The ability to brew moonshine has come to us since ancient times. Then people used the gifts of nature to make mash. Some recipes have survived to this day and are widely used among lovers of home-made quality alcohol. Be that as it may, each moonshiner has in his arsenal his own recipe for making a drink, which has already been tested. And what kind of yeast he uses for this depends on his personal preference.