People have been making alcoholic beverages since time immemorial. However, not everyone succeeds in obtaining a quality product even when using excellent feedstock and yeast. Why? The fact is that not many people know how to clean alcohol at home, and without it, the drink will have an unpleasant odor and contain a variety of harmful impurities.
So what time-tested traditional methods can be used to remove aldehydes, fusel oils and esters from homemade vodka?
Primitive alcohol cleaning
It has long been proven that the quality of a home-made alcoholic beverage depends on its strength. More precisely, the lower the degree, the cleaner it is, therefore, in order to clean the alcohol from unpleasant odor, harmful impurities, it is diluted with soft, and if possible, spring water up to 45 degrees using a hydrometer.
The method of purification of alcohol at home using potassium permanganate
Good results can also be achieved with potassium permanganate, which is sold in any pharmacy. For this, 2 g of potassium permanganate is added to 1 liter of moonshine or other home-made alcohol-containing drink, it is thoroughly stirred and wait about 10 hours (preferably a day). After a precipitate has formed, the mixture is filtered, for example, through a device made with a piece of cotton wool and a plastic bottle with a bottom cut off. To intensify the process, you can advise after adding potassium permanganate to close the jar with a lid and place it for 10 minutes in a water bath at a temperature of about 60 degrees.
How to clean alcohol at home with soda?
A fairly common method of removing harmful impurities from moonshine or vodka is based on the use of sodium bicarbonate. The fact is that such a drink contains acetic acid formed by the oxidation of alcohol, so it can be neutralized by adding soda. For this:
- take soda at the rate of 10 g per liter of moonshine;
- dilute sodium bicarbonate in the same amount of pure water;
- soda solution is poured into moonshine;
- close the drinkware with a lid and shake it;
- insist on moonshine for about 30-40 minutes;
- shake the drink again and put it in a dark place at night;
- pour moonshine so that the precipitate remains in the dishes;
- filter the drink through cotton or a layer of charcoal.
Purification of moonshine with milk and chicken egg protein
Among the methods for removing harmful impurities from alcohol, there are also quite unusual ones. For example, sometimes chicken egg protein or fresh milk is used for these purposes. To clean alcohol at home, they act the same way as when clarifying meat broth. For this, 2 well-beaten egg whites are taken per 1 liter of moonshine and poured into a jar of drink, constantly stirring it. Then the mixture is allowed to settle, the liquid is carefully drained, trying to keep the precipitate in the bank, and filtered. In the same way, moonshine can be cleaned with milk, which, like chicken protein, is curtailed from contact with alcohol-containing mixtures and, curdling, carries particles of harmful substances into the sediment.
Brown bread alcohol purification
This is one of the oldest ways to get rid of fusel oils present in moonshine. However, before you clean the alcohol at home with brown bread, you will need to first resort to some other method. For example, you can use the previous method with protein. Then you need to take a piece of black bread, put in a jar of moonshine, wait a few hours and, when harmful impurities are absorbed, remove it. By the way, after such a procedure, alcohol not only cleans well, but also acquires a piquant aroma.
Low temperature purification of homemade vodka
If you are interested in how to clean alcohol from fusel oils, then the most effective way is to freeze it. The fact is that when freezing, harmful impurities settle on the walls of the dishes, and in the frozen state only pure alcohol remains, which is poured into another container. Those who decide to resort to this method should know that it is recommended to freeze vodka at a temperature of about -29 degrees.
Coal purification
Today there is a huge variety of absorbent substances. In particular, activated carbon, which can also be used to remove harmful oils from moonshine, is widely used in various fields. Before you clean alcohol at home, you should buy tablets of this substance in a pharmacy (for the same purpose, you can use the drug "Enterosgel"). Coal is poured into dishes, turned into powder and poured with homemade vodka at the rate of 50 g per liter. Then, periodically stirring, the mixture is insisted for a week, and after this period is filtered. To achieve the best results, it is recommended to repeat this process 2-3 times, replacing the used coal with fresh.
The ancient method of purification of moonshine
There are a variety of ways to clean alcohol and vodka. For example, in the old days to remove extraneous odors and smacks 3-4 roots of violets with one spoon of granulated sugar per liter of drink were taken, the resulting mixture was insisted for 12 hours and filtered.
Checking the “purity” of alcohol
It is believed that alcohol with a strength of 100 degrees does not need to be cleaned. However, it is not always possible to be sure of its “purity”. To check if the drink really has no impurities, you can take a mirror or glass, rinse it thoroughly with hot water and let it dry naturally. Then a few drops of alcohol are applied to it and wait until the liquid evaporates. If after this there are no traces left on the glass, this means that there are no fusel oils and other impurities in the alcohol.
Improving the taste and smell of homemade vodka
To improve the taste and smell of vodka, aromatization is used, for which a variety of berries, fruits, herbs and spices are added to it. In addition, in Russia for this purpose traditionally used hops, which almost completely destroys fusel flavor and smell, and natural bee honey. To flavor vodka, you can apply infusion on medicinal herbs, which gives it also healing properties. If you want to surprise guests and urgently need to flavor vodka, you can put wooden or metal bars covered with a cloth in a pot of water, place bottles on them and boil for an hour. However, such vodka can be served only after cooling. The flavoring (herbs, fruits, peels of lemon or orange, etc.) is also added to the sourdough, but in this case the taste and smell are hardly noticeable.
Now you know the most effective ways to clean vodka at home, so you can make a drink that will decorate your holiday table.