What are electric moonshines, why are they needed and what are their features? Unfortunately, cases of poisoning with "scorched" alcohol in our country are not uncommon. Moreover, the damage to health is caused not only by the infamous “hawthorn” or glass washer fluid, you can easily run into poison in the night stall and in the eminent chain supermarket. Therefore, it has not been surprising anyone for a long time that more and more of our citizens are switching to home-made alcoholic drinks, in particular to moonshine.
Good moonshine is in many ways a good moonshine. As experienced moonshiners testify, even from ordinary beet sugar you can get a decent, high-quality drink without a fusel smell and an unpleasant aftertaste. But there is a condition - competently maintained sublimation temperature conditions.
And in this sense, electric moonshines are much more convenient than the rest of their "brothers."
How does it work?
The work of any moonshine is based on the physical principle of separation of liquids according to their boiling points. So, ethanol at normal atmospheric pressure boils at about 78 ° C, while the boiling point of water, as you know, is 100 ° C.
Thus, if a temperature between 78 and 100 ° C is maintained in a container containing a solution of water (H 2 O) and ethyl alcohol (H 6 O 3 ), it is alcohol that will boil away. Moreover, water will partially evaporate, and the higher the temperature in the vat, the more intense its evaporation. Therefore, devices that maintain a temperature slightly above 78 degrees work most effectively. An electric moonshine with a temperature controller is an ideal solution to the problem.
What makes a moonshine still
Electric moonshines still differ from ordinary ones only in a source of heat, but otherwise their device has not, by and large, changed since the invention of the still cube by Arab physicians at the very beginning of the second millennium. A mixture of ethanol and water is poured into the tank (evaporator), as a rule, this is mash. Under the influence of a heat source, the components of the mash begin to boil, the first, of course, is boiling alcohol.
Alcohol vapor enters the cooler through the tube. Lowering the temperature leads to the condensation of alcohol vapor. Thus, the alcohol again becomes liquid, only without water. But this is in theory, in practice, everything is not so simple. Vapors of water, together with vapors of alcohol, enter the tank, lowering the degree of the drink. An electric moonshine with a steamer allows you to get a stronger product due to the partial condensation of water vapor in a special glass.
Electric moonshines of direct heating
The diagram shows various electric moonshines, depending on the method of heating the mash. The simplest option will be the first on the list - a direct heating apparatus. Its device differs from the traditional one placed on fire by the presence of an electric heating element mounted in one of the walls of the tank of the evaporator.
The heater is inserted into pre-prepared holes through special threaded bushings with gaskets made of heat-resistant rubber. This option will work perfectly with sugar-based brew, but it can be difficult to make malt or grain moonshine on it: the grain mass will burn to the heating elements, become carbonized, and then the taste of the drink will be hopelessly spoiled. Sublimation of bread raw materials in such a device can only be done by first filtering it through a flannel fabric, but this will lead to a decrease in the yield of the product.
Heating through an intermediate tank
The problem is solved by indirect heating of the mash. How to make an electric moonshine with your own hands so that the remaining grain in the bread does not burn? The simplest technical solution is to place the evaporator in a basin with boiling water (option No. 2 in the diagram). Water in a basin or in another tank is heated by electricity, heat is transferred to the brega through the wall of the evaporator.
In this case, the temperature inside the evaporator, by definition, cannot exceed 100 ° C, which eliminates the burning of plant residues. In such a machine, the mash is poured without filtering it first, and this increases the yield of the drink from the N-th amount of raw materials (degrees do not go with the extraction).
The disadvantage of this option is that the water in the basin will gradually evaporate, so it will have to be periodically added. And so that the process does not stop, it is better to add boiling water.
Professional electric moonshine
And finally, the last one in the picture is a professional electric moonshine. It is quite difficult to create such a mini-factory with your own hands, but it is devoid of the drawback of the previous option (water evaporation) and can be made of any size.
The device for heating water in it is a full-fledged electric hot water boiler with an expansion tank.
The heated coolant is driven through a special heat exchanger made of a bent pipe and mounted in the evaporator body.
Such moonshine stills are produced, as a rule, for a volume of at least a ton of mash (it is problematic to place a container of this size in any basin). The movement of the coolant through the pipes is most often carried out under the influence of natural heat circulation, although the process can be helped by installing a conventional pump for heating systems.
Providing temperature
So, ethyl alcohol begins to evaporate at a temperature of 78 ° C. How to withstand the required temperature conditions? The easiest option is to control the thermometer and turn on / off the electric heater manually.
However, technological progress does exist to facilitate and automate certain processes. How to make an electric moonshine still capable of independently maintaining the optimum temperature for the process? Just use the ready-made regulator designed to maintain the set temperature in heating and water supply systems.
The assembly diagram is shown in the figure. The heater will turn on and off on its own, maintaining the temperature of the liquid in a given range.
The advantages of moonshine on electricity
Compared to traditional electric moonshines, they have several advantages:
- compactness (if we keep in mind the dimensions of the entire apparatus with a gas or wood heat source);
- the ability to withstand very accurately and even in automatic mode the temperature conditions of the sublimation process;
- installation mobility: the device can easily be placed anywhere in the house or cottage, even in the yard, a simple electric extension cord is enough.
Security measures
When doing home brewing, it is necessary to remember that the mash is heated in a closed volume at a sufficiently high temperature and a product is made that is to be consumed inside. And therefore:
- it is necessary to monitor the purity of the steam pipes, to prevent them from clogging, in order to exclude the increase in pressure in the apparatus and, accordingly, its explosion;
- at the beginning of the sublimation, a small amount of methyl alcohol evaporates (there is a small amount of it in any brew), its boiling point is 64 ° , which is 12 ° lower than the boiling point of ethanol. Therefore, the first 50 milliliters of moonshine from every 10 liters of mash must be collected separately and in no case should not be used as a drink.