The production of alcoholic beverages at home is a common practice of many Russian citizens. At the same time, many experienced distilleries, if I may say so, are well aware of what a steamer in a moonshine is used for. However, beginners do not know this. Let's try to figure it out.
What is a steamer in a moonshine?
To begin with, this element is an important structural part, due to which the mash can not get into the final product. It also reduces the content of harmful substances in the drink. It is important to clarify that although this part is necessary, it serves as an auxiliary element. A moonshine can quite work without it. However, no self-respecting moonshiner will not make a drink without a steamer, because without it the quality of alcohol leaves much to be desired. This device improves not only the taste, but also the composition, making it less harmful to health.
Benefits
This feature has the following advantages:
- When the device is in operation, additional product cleaning is performed, which improves its quality. Physical purification of a drink in a dry steam tank is more effective than chemical cleaning when various reagents are used (soda, activated carbon).
- The use of this element makes it possible to save the time required for cleaning. Without it, in order to improve the quality of the product, they resort to double distillation of the drink. A sukhoparnik in a moonshine still allows this process to be carried out in one cycle.
Note that this device can even be manufactured independently, because the design is simple. But its price in the store is low.
Appointment
The work of a steam generator in a moonshine still consists in cleaning the raw materials during distillation. Also, this element is a kind of physical barrier separating the coil and the mash. Thanks to the steamer, the mash physically cannot get into the final product.
The device operates as follows: when boiling in a distillation cube of liquid (mash), vapors are released that, together with different impurities, fall into the sucker. These vapors contain ethyl alcohol and many other harmful substances, including fusel oils. All this mixture goes through the pipes, and if boiling is very intense, then even the mash can get into the pipes.
If there is a sucker, then all this mixture gets into its tank, cools down a bit, due to which its composition is divided into fractions. The fact is that alcohol boils at lower temperatures than fusel oils. Therefore, when cooling, the latter condenses and settles at the bottom of the sucker, and the persecuted alcohol vapors go to the coil.
Entering the so-called instantaneous refrigerator, alcohol vapors condense, then drop by drop into the prepared container. At the exit, we have pure moonshine without fusel oils and other unnecessary elements in the composition. After the cycle is repeated again.
The sukhoparnik in the moonshine still serves as a sump - unnecessary impurities settle on its bottom, which necessarily stand out when the mash is boiled. Thanks to this component, it is possible to reduce the time for making mash, which usually has to be spent on cleaning the final product. In addition, the use of this element improves palatability, which for many is a key factor.
If there is no dry steam in the moonshine still, then re-distillation is used to rid the product of harmful impurities, but this takes time. Repeated distillation, although effective, but it takes a lot of time, so resorting to it is irrational. It’s much easier to use a steamer. There are so many variants of this device on the modern market that it will be easy to choose the right one. Some craftsmen make it themselves, using an ordinary glass jar with a metal lid.
Conclusion
Now you understand why in a moonshine still a steamer. This is a rather important structural element, which is a simple and effective means of ridding a drink of fusel oils and other impurities. Its use is recommended to everyone involved in home distillation. It is difficult to overestimate the purpose of a steamer in a moonshine still, therefore it is found in all more or less high-quality devices, and sometimes it is even found in cheap models.