As a raw material for moonshine, various products are used: grain, berries and fruits, sugar beets. We will consider another way to create an alcoholic drink from the raw materials available to most owners - we will brew moonshine at home from potatoes. This will be discussed later.
What to do with excess or unnecessary potatoes
There are times when the “second bread” did not become what it would be like. Or an extra potato, accidentally frostbitten, etc. Many owners give it to the piglets, having previously processed it thermally. But what if there are no pigs? And not only them. In general, none of the animals that would eat it? There is a solution - brew moonshine at home from potatoes. Interesting? Then we read!
Moonshine from potatoes: a recipe without any hassle
One of the easiest ways. To do this, you need 20 kg of potatoes (if you need more or less, you can increase or decrease the proportions several times), 30 liters of boiled water, a kilogram of malt, yeast (preferably pressed) - they need 250-300 grams. As for sugar, when making moonshine at home from potatoes, it does not need to be added at all, which reduces the cost of the natural product to a minimum.
Some information on organic chemistry. Potato tubers are sugar free. And, as you know, it is needed for the formation of alcohol. Otherwise, the strong drink will not work. But the tubers contain starch, the molecules of which are broken down with malt into the necessary sugar. From frozen potatoes it stands out more.
Therefore, without malt, nothing will work. Agree, it is much more economical to use it, rather than sugar. The latter requires a minimum of 5 kilograms instead of 0.5 kg of malt. Their price is about the same in the market. So consider it.
Cooking steps
- Grind the potatoes. You can do this in any way possible. Grater, chopper, food processor to help you. The resulting raw material is lowered into the container.
- Then fill with water. Initially, you do not need to fill in all the water. Take only 2/3 of the required amount.
- Add malt and heat the whole mixture to 60-70 degrees and “hold” it for 1-1.5 hours. This procedure is necessary for the chemical reaction of the breakdown of starch into sugar. Otherwise, both raw materials and work will be wasted. Important! Do not allow the mass to burn, otherwise the drink will have an unpleasant taste.
- We cool the wort and transfer it to another volume for the fermentation process. Prior to this, we dealt with the production stages of obtaining sugar from wort. Without it, the necessary mash would not have come out, from which moonshine from potatoes is then distilled at home.
- In the tank with sediment, where the wort was originally, pour the remaining water (remember that initially we used only 2/3), brought to a temperature of 50 degrees. Mix thoroughly.
- After precipitation, we pour this liquid into the total mass of the wort. Now add the yeast diluted with water for a quick fermentation process. We close the vessel with a lid with a tube for the exit of gases, on which we traditionally put on a medical glove. Just do not forget to make a small hole in one of the "fingers" so that it does not tear. Some install a water shutter. By the way, you can make our moonshine without yeast. But then it will take a lot of time. In this case, the most important and crucial process - distillation of mash - is delayed for several months. And this while maintaining the right temperature! Unprofitable.
Storage conditions for mash
Container with contents is stored in a dark place. At room temperature. The approximate waiting time is about two weeks. How to determine the readiness of mash to distill? To do this, the glove on the container with the contents will help us. During fermentation, the raw materials emit various vapors and gases, including carbon dioxide. By bloating gloves this can be seen. But if our peculiar “steam drain” has fallen, then all the processes are over. Now we know how to determine the readiness of mash for distillation. The process itself follows.
Distillation of mash
For this you will need a moonshine still. It can be done independently. To get moonshine from potatoes at home, you can make a simple unit. To do this, you need a large pan. We pour our mixture into it. Recall that this is a potato mash. Place another smaller container on top. She will float to the surface. The whole mechanism is tightly closed with a lid that needs to be cooled (snow, ice, water). When heated, the vapor of alcohol gas rises and cools, forming condensate, which then falls into a small saucepan. The method is quite simple, but the quality of the alcohol-containing product from such an apparatus leaves much to be desired.
Complex mechanisms are used to improve the quality of alcohol. There are special devices that allow you to quickly get moonshine without high quality yeast. They use various devices with coils and condensate coolers.
Moonshine from potatoes without sugar and hops can be used in the manufacture of various tinctures on berries or fruits. It is also used for medical purposes, making various solutions from it. For taste, you can add flavorings, additives.
What are fusel oils?
Now we know what moonshine is made of. Potatoes are also suitable for these purposes. But we must not forget about fusel oils in the product.
It is a by-product of alcoholic fermentation. Moonshine from potatoes at home will necessarily contain a certain concentrate.
Fusel oils are a group of toxic substances of red-brown or light yellow color. If moonshine, including potato, has a disgusting taste and smell, then most likely it has a large concentration of harmful substances. Using it can be harmful to your health. It is the unpleasant odor that accompanies fusel oils.
What is the danger?
A large percentage of these substances in moonshine can even be fatal. Therefore, do not underestimate such "trifles" as oils. A lower dose can cause dizziness, loss of consciousness, and nausea. There is a possibility of a violation of the gastrointestinal mucosa, kidneys and liver.
The final stage - we clear the moonshine of potatoes from the "sivuhi"
There are various ways. The first of these is activated carbon cleansing. One of the most effective options. Activated carbon is able to remove from our moonshine not only the "fowl", but also various esters, acetic acid.
The substance is placed in tubes. It is advisable to use glass or stainless steel. The length of the tube is at least 70 cm. This is the future filter. At its bottom (moonshine will come from above), we fix gauze so that the coal does not spill out. Pour the “active filling” into the filter and rinse with clean water so that our potato strong drink does not turn black. Pour moonshine from above, and it gradually flows down through cheesecloth, leaving all the harmful concentrates in the tube.
Most mistakenly use activated carbon when cleaning alcohol. They put it in alcohol and leave it for a while. Coal, of course, absorbs all unnecessary and dangerous substances. But after a while, the “sivuha" again dissolves in the drink, forming additional aldehydes undesirable for the body. Thus, with this filtration, the opposite effect occurs.
Milk cleaning
The only drawback is that the product is cloudy, which does not cause credibility at first glance. But milk also does a good job of filtering. When cleaning moonshine, you need to pay attention to the fortress. It is important that it contains more than 60 percent alcohol. This affects the folding of the protein, and hence the filtration efficiency. For 10 liters of alcohol add 100 g of skimmed pasteurized milk.
The process lasts approximately one week. Alcohol is thoroughly mixed with milk and placed in a place protected from sunlight. Room temperature is perfect.
Whitish flakes are a sure sign of filtration. This detaches all harmful elements from the liquid. Sludge is removed by similar filtration. This is a concentrate of fusel oils.
After a week, moonshine must be passed through cotton wool, folded in several layers. Subject to all these rules, the filtering process will be successful. You can not be afraid for your health and the health of loved ones.
Potassium permanganate filtration
In our opinion, the easiest way. A couple of grams of crystals are dissolved in one liter of alcohol and left for a day in a warm room. It is advisable to prevent exposure to sunlight.
If the liquid has become lighter and a precipitate has formed in it, then everything goes according to plan. After that, alcohol must be passed through a regular water filter.
Freezing method
This method is rarely used among fans of making moonshine at home (from potatoes, berries or fruits - it does not matter). Alcohol is placed in freezers and frozen. Real and pure alcohol never turns into ice. It is carefully drained. The remaining ice cannot be added to the drink for the purpose of cooling, because it contains the entire concentrate of harmful substances that can be poisoned. This method is one of the most effective, because at the level of physical laws, the ingress of harmful substances into alcohol at prolonged negative temperatures is impossible.