How to make alcohol at home. Technological process of alcohol production

Although on the shelves of stores and there is a large assortment alcoholic products, some people prefer to make strong drinks at home. For some, this is a way to save money, but someone is just a lover of homemade alcohol.

One of the most popular alcoholic drinks is vodka. It would seem, well, what is difficult in the manufacture of vodka - you just need to dilute the alcohol with water, in a certain proportion, and the vodka is ready. But not everything is as simple as it seems at first glance. To get high quality vodka, you should follow some prescription nuances.

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What alcohol is better to use for making vodka?

The best option for these purposes would be to use drinking ethyl alcohol of the highest degree of purification. "Extra", "Lux", also fits well medical. They all vary slightly in strength, but the main difference is in the type of grain used to make them.

Someone may say why dilute alcohol, because you can drink it anyway. Well, firstly, an untrained person can easily burn his larynx, and secondly, the next day there will most likely be such a hangover that you wouldn’t wish on your enemy. So alcohol must be diluted and this should be done wisely.

What water to dilute alcohol?

To prepare homemade vodka, you should take care of the water to dilute the alcohol. Ordinary tap or mineral water is not suitable in this case; it is not an option to use boiled water. Water should not contain any impurities and odors. Most preferably use distilled or melted water, passed the process of filtration and softening.

Basic rules for making vodka

Compliance with the basic nuances and proportions will allow you to get a truly high-quality product:

• When diluted alcohol flows into water, not vice versa.

• The classic version of vodka, from Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev (40 degrees), consists of two parts alcohol and three parts water. It turns out that for 200 grams of 96 percent alcohol, 300 grams of purified water will be required.

• After combining alcohol and water, the resulting mixture is required shake thoroughly for mixing (naturally, the container must be tightly closed). Then the freshly prepared strong drink must be cooled.

• Preferably vodka, keep in the refrigerator some time (days to weeks).

• Now you can try the resulting product. It may seem to some that home-made vodka is no different from store-bought vodka. Well, then you can try to experiment with the components.

The table shows the ratio of alcohol to water. We select the column with the degrees that you want to get and go down to the line with the alcohol strength. As a result, we get the required amount water in ml.

Recipe for vodka from alcohol with sugar or glucose

The preparation of such an alcohol-containing drink will require a little more time and additional components.

Ingredients:

• 96% alcohol - 1 liter, 250 ml.
• Purified water - 2 liters.
• 40 percentage solution glucose - 50 ml.

Alcohol is poured into a three-liter glass bottle and glucose is added. Everything is gently mixed. Purified water is introduced into the resulting solution and the total volume of liquid is brought to three liters. It is advisable to purify the resulting vodka using activated carbon, and then filter it. The final step will be the exposure of the drink in the refrigerator for two weeks.

You can believe that such vodka will be of excellent quality.

Vodka with honey and sugar

Vodka with sugar and honey has a delicious taste. For its preparation, a drink made according to the previous recipe is used.

Added to vodka honey to taste (in a ratio of not more than one to ten), sugar and citric acid (one teaspoon). After preparation, the drink should be kept at least three days in a refrigerator. Thanks to such additives, vodka will lose its alcohol taste and it will be easy and pleasant to drink it.

Vodka with orange or lemon flavor

The technology for preparing such vodka is practically no different from previous recipes. The only thing to add to it lemon or orange skins and leave for about two weeks. You can also use other additives, for example, pine nuts, birch buds, etc. And you can make vodka with cranberry or citrus juice.

If you want to alleviate a hangover, you can add a small pinch of ascorbic acid to a strong drink.

As you can see, making real homemade vodka is not at all difficult, you just need to make a little effort and you will enjoy an alcohol-containing drink made by yourself.

Watch an informative video about making good quality homemade vodka!

Quality house drink will directly depend on the purity and softness of the water. It is recommended to use bottled, for example, from the line baby food- then the base does not have to be further cleaned. However, alcohol must be prepared.

To clean, pour it into a clean glass jar and add pharmacy activated charcoal, powdered (15 tablets per 3 l). Stir the contents of the container and let stand. After a day, pour the alcohol into a clean dish through ironed gauze or white flannel.

Add purified alcohol to the water in small portions. To achieve the desired strength of the drink, use. If you do not have a special measuring device, stick to common proportions: 2 parts alcohol and 3 parts water.

Vodka does not have to be 40% ABV. According to the State Standard of the Russian Federation, alcohol in this drink can be from 40 (in European countries - from 37.5%) to 56%.

To give softness to vodka, it is desirable to add sugar syrup, which must be prepared from equal parts of water and granulated sugar. In 1 liter of home-made vodka, add 1 teaspoon of syrup, hermetically close the container with an alcoholic drink and let it stand for at least a day. Refrigerate vodka before drinking.

Alcohol tincture

It is customary to call homemade alcohol tinctures a strength from 18% to 60%. Fruits, berries, spices, spices and other additives are often infused in a cold way on diluted with water (45-50% home strength).

You will get wonderful fragrant. Grind a glass of pure berries with the same amount of granulated sugar, pour 0.5 liters of homemade vodka and insist from 2 weeks to a month. After aging, it can be diluted as desired. clean water before desired fortress:

30 to 60% - bitter or semi-sweet drink;
- from 18 to 25% with a sugar content of up to 30 g per half glass - sweet tincture.

If in 0.5 cups of tincture there are from 30 to 40 g of sugar, then this is already considered a liqueur; even sweeter drinks (about 50 g of sugar per half glass) are called liquor.

It remains to strain ready drink and place in the cold.

homemade liqueur

Liqueurs are usually based on fresh fruit and berry juices, which are fortified with purified alcohol and sweetened. In addition, you can insist fruits. You can add various aromatic essences to your taste.

A very fragrant liquor obtained from fresh strawberries. Pour 1 kg of berries into 1 liter of vodka and keep in a warm place in a hermetically sealed container for half a month. After that, strain the drink through cheesecloth. Boil syrup from 0.5 l of water and 1 kg of sugar, cool to room temperature. Mix the infusion of strawberries and put in a dark place for a week.

Cumin, mint, rosehip, marjoram, zest and other additives give a characteristic aroma to homemade liquors. Essences for an alcoholic drink can be made in advance by drying the plants. Grind them into powder, fill them with high concentration alcohol (at least 75% -90%) in a ratio of 1:10 and soak for a week. Using various essences, spices, spices, berries and fruits, you can create your own branded recipes.

Related article

Sources:

• homemade jam tincture
• Tinctures, liqueurs, vodkas

Homemade alcohol tinctures are used to treat many diseases, as well as for rubbing. For their preparation, ordinary medical alcohol is used, which can be bought at a pharmacy, and medicinal plants. Tinctures are used as an adjuvant in the treatment of diseases while taking medicines.

Instruction

Pour 40-70% medical alcohol into a wide jar or bottle and add medicinal herbs. For convenience, first pour herbs, and already pour alcohol. If you are using a jar, then put the herbs in cheesecloth and tie it into a knot, then place it in a container.

Tincture is prepared for 7-10 days. Shake the container periodically, if not, then after reaching a certain concentration in the lower layers alcohol medicinal infusion, enrichment alcohol stop the herbs. Store the container with the tincture in a dark place at room temperature tightly. closed lid.

Sources:

• what can be made from alcohol

High-quality vodka is quite expensive in the store, however, you can purify the alcoholic product yourself, the quality of which you doubt. This can be done in various ways, for example, with coal. Moreover, there are several “coal” options for purifying vodka.

You will need

• Vodka, activated black carbon, gauze or paper napkins, optional carbon water filter, raisins, tricolor violet root.

Instruction

The most way to charcoal

To create tinctures, vodkas, liqueurs, the best alcoholic component is.

Moonshine, even purified, is not so suitable, purchased vodka is low-grade.

Consider how alcohol can be made at home and what raw materials are suitable for this.

However, we immediately note that only moonshine can be obtained on a conventional distiller, and for our purpose we need a distillation column, which is not difficult to purchase.

It is impossible to get pure alcohol from impurities from poor raw materials. Therefore, immediately forget about processing rotten apples or moldy jam.

There will be a way out, but this product can hardly be called high-quality. And since we still drive for ourselves, we will not lose the mark.

How to do at home?

It's time to explore popular recipes and strictly follow them.

Getting from wheat

You can find a lot of wheat recipes, but we will give a simple and effective one. To implement it, you will need:

• 10 kg of crushed wheat (cereals), for which you can use a crusher or other available method;
• 40 liters of water;
• dry yeast (preferably alcoholic) - 50 g or 750 g pressed;
• enzymes (can be bought in special stores, on the Internet) 25 g each of A-Amilosubtilin and G-Glucavamorin.

Peculiarities. Enzymes can be replaced with dry ground brewing malt. This amount of water and wheat will require 2.5 kg of malt.

Attention. If you use malt instead of enzymes, then skip step 2, immediately cool the wort to 63-65 ° C, and add malt.

Braga distilled twice:

• first time - in distillation mode, without separation into fractions, almost to the water. The total strength of the resulting distillate will not exceed 30-35 °;
• secondarily - using a distillation column, with obligatory separation into fractions to obtain alcohol.

Note. A pure product with a strength of 96 ° C at home can only be obtained in a column with a height of at least 120 cm (counting the height above the cube).

In ordinary household columns - 45-60 cm in height - the final fortress rarely exceeds 80 ° C.

From potatoes

A cheap and affordable raw material for the production of alcohol is the familiar potato containing a large number of starch.

In turn, starch under the influence of enzymes and turns into sugar. You can achieve this with the help of malt which one to buy is not a problem.

You can grow green malt yourself. To do this, rinse and soak the wheat well. After three for, sprouts will appear, this is green malt.

To prepare the mash you will need:

• green malt - 150 g;
• peeled potatoes - 1 kg;
• pressed yeast (it is better to take alcohol) - 50 g;
• water - 2 liters.

Potatoes need to be rubbed on a fine grater, it is not a sin to also use a food processor.

We shift the grated potatoes into a saucepan and stir, pour hot water (80 ° C). In order not to be mistaken, it is easy to measure the temperature with a bimetallic, or even better, with an electronic thermometer that your moonshine is equipped with.

We pass the malt through a meat grinder or grind it in a blender bowl.

Cool the potato mixture to 62°C and add malt. Mix well again, cover with a lid and wrap in a blanket for 10 hours.

After infusion, we filter the resulting mixture, squeeze it and send it to the fermentation tank.

We dilute the yeast in a small amount of water and pour it into a fermentation container, on which we put on a glove or put a water seal.

Advice. Considering that the mash will turn out a little, you can use a plastic bottle of water with a volume of 6-9 liters as a fermentation container.

Fermentation lasts 10 days (see:). The first 3-4 days it is stormy, then it gradually subsides and on the 10th day the glove is completely blown away, indicating that the mash is ripe. The remaining starch will settle to the bottom, the liquid will clear.

It must be removed from the sediment with a tube and poured into a distillation cube. Please note potato mash has a sharp unpleasant odor, from which, after rectification, a slight aroma may remain.

As in the example with wheat mash, the distillation is done twice: the first - in the distillation mode without fraction selection. It is better to select about 750 ml of raw alcohol. It will be above 40° fortress. You can take even higher, but the result of the second run can be a little disappointing, since the tails are subjected to worse cleaning.

We dilute the distillate with water up to 25-30 degrees and distill again in the rectification mode. We select 45 ml of heads, then we select the body. The result will be 250 ml of 75 degree alcohol.

To obtain potato vodka, alcohol can be diluted with water up to 40 ° and left for a couple of days so that the ingredients are qualitatively combined.

In the smell of vodka created from potato alcohol, a bready smell may be slightly felt due to the presence of wheat malt in the mash. The taste is not sharp, but peculiar, you cannot call it too refined. As they say - for an amateur. However, it is worth noting that in Belarus, potato moonshine is driven everywhere and drunk in villages and cities.

From an earthen pear

Jerusalem artichoke is almost a weed plant, it can grow without any care. With a large yield, part can be distilled into alcohol. Take:

• 10 kg of washed Jerusalem artichoke tubers;
• dry yeast - 25 g, if pressed - 300 g;
• optional - 1-2 kg of sugar. It is possible without it, but sugar will increase the yield;
• water 5-10 liters plus 4 liters for each kilogram of sugar. The juicier earthen pear, the less water is required, so the approximate amount is indicated;
• citric acid - 5 g for each liter of water added.

To prepare the wort, Jerusalem artichoke must be grated on a fine grater, put in a saucepan, pour in half the water and boil for an hour and a half, stirring occasionally. Ready porridge thick, odorous baked apples. Water is added to it, sugar, citric acid are added.

When the temperature reaches 28-30°C, yeast is added. The must matures for 3-10 days under a water seal. The finished mash is distilled twice, as in previous recipes.

Carefully. There is a statement that alcohol from Jerusalem artichoke contains a lot of methylene.

Therefore, before ingestion, check its quality by Lang test(the method is described at the end of the article).

From flour

We have a popular budget method for distilling alcohol from flour. Take:

• 19 liters of water;
• 4 kg of rye, wheat (or mixed) flour;
• 100 g yeast.

Bring 8 liters of water to a boil and pour 2 liters of cold water into it. In this hot water with constant stirring, you need to dissolve the flour. Leave the "dough" for 1.5 hours, covering the pan. Then add 3 liters of cold water to the mixture.

Stir and let thicken for another 3 hours. Then add the remaining water, pour in the yeast diluted according to the instructions. You don’t need to put a water seal under it, just cover the container (you can with a cloth). After 4 days of being warm, the mash is ready for distillation.

From sugar beet

Raw materials for producing sugar are also suitable for making homemade alcohol. And in order to make it suitable for drinking, it is necessary to strictly follow the technology:

1. Grind 5 kg of sugar beets (other types are not suitable!) into puree in a way convenient for you. Can be grated, chopped and twisted into a meat grinder, etc.
2. Transfer to a large saucepan, finish off with 7 liters of water and cook for an hour.
3. Cover with a lid and wait for self-cooling.
4. Strain through cheesecloth, carefully squeeze out the sediment.
5. Put the resulting juice back on the fire and boil until the mass becomes thick.
6. When it cools down, pour into a fermentation tank and add the same amount of water, that is - 1: 1.
7. Dilute 50 g of dry yeast (250 g pressed) and add to the wort, mix.
8. A water seal is installed, left warm without sunlight for 7-10 days, until fermentation stops.

Attention. Water according to this recipe will need 10-15 liters.

Important. Beetroot mash has a sharp unpleasant odor. To completely get rid of it and not feel it in the final product, you need to clean moonshine after the first distillation with coal or milk, dilute with water 1: 1, and only then overtake through distillation column with selection of heads and tails.

From fruits and berries

From fruits - apples, plums, cherries, pears, cherry plums, etc., as well as grapes and berries, a pleasant-tasting moonshine is obtained while preserving the taste of fruits. But you can also make alcohol.

Often, even after rectification at home easy conditions the aroma of the original raw material remains. Braga is put both with yeast and without it (using wild yeast on fruits). Distilled twice.

From bread

It can be prepared with yeast, using enzymes, and also with mold. Let's talk about the last option.

Take 2 loaves of bread and cut into cubes with a side of 1.5-2 cm. Fold in a plastic bag, tie and leave at room conditions. After a week or two (it is difficult to predict), the entire volume will be abundantly covered with mold.

The mass is transferred to a bottle, 7-8 liters of water are poured and under a water congestion (glove). After a week, you can overtake. Twice, with intermediate cleaning.

From sugar

We put the classic sugar mash: for 30 liters of water - 6 kg of sugar and 0.5 kg of pressed yeast, after ripening we rectify through a column.

From jam

Braga is not particularly different from the previous one, only you need to correctly calculate the amount of sugar in the jam. If it's not too sweet, add sugar.

from apples

You can put yeast mash with the addition of sugar and yeast for quick maturation. For homemade alcohol - that's it. For 15 kg of crushed apples, you need to take 10 liters of water, 2 kg of sugar and 20 g of dry yeast.

From dried fruits

Dried fruits are suitable for mash: apples, pears, plums, cherries. Proportions:

• 2 kg of dried fruits (one type or assorted);
• 2 kg of sugar;
• 10 liters of water;
• 40 g dry (350 g pressed) yeast.

Boil dried fruits, invert sugar, add diluted yeast to the mixture cooled to 28-30 ° C.

From plums

If you have enough ripe juicy sweet plums, you can make mash without sugar and yeast from them.

Do not wash the plums, mash them into a puree, add a little water so that the wort is quite liquid and put a water seal. After a week, you can overtake.

From wild pears

You will need:

• 12 kg of wild pears;
• 4 kg of sugar;
• 16 liters of soft water;
• 100 g pressed or 20 g dry active yeast.

Cut out seeds and stems from pears. We grind. Mix with sugar (you can - syrup), water, diluted yeast. We put under a water seal until ripening (about a week), distill twice.

Rules and shelf life

The resulting alcohol must be stored in a sealed container made of glass or food grade stainless steel not in the light, at a temperature not exceeding +20°C. Plastic bottles are a bad option. It happened that alcohol even burned through such containers, not to mention the chemical compounds that arise there.

Under favorable conditions, pure alcohol can be safely stored for up to 10 years, with additives - at least 3 years.

How to check the quality of alcohol at home?

Having received alcohol at home, you can check it for impurities by conducting a Lang test. Need:

• 3 fractions of one alcohol - heads, body and tails;
• 3 flasks (clean jars will also do);
• a strong solution of potassium permanganate (per 50 ml of distilled water - 0.1 g of potassium permanganate);
• graduated pipette (syringe).

It is done like this:

1. 0.4 ml of potassium permanganate is added to each of the three jars and 20 ml of alcohol fractions are added: heads in the first jar, bodies in the second, and tail fractions in the third.
2. Literally within a minute, reactions occur: the heads become light yellow, the body remains pink, the tails are brown.
3. Immediately after breeding, time is recorded and after what time the sample with the “body” will acquire the color of salmon:

• 10 minutes - alcohol of the first grade, not very high quality;
• 15 minutes - the highest grade;
• 20 - "Basis";
• 22 - "Lux".

If alcohol acquired the color of salmon earlier than after 10 minutes, it is dangerous to use it inside.

The easiest way is to put it on your hand and rub it. An unpleasant pungent odor indicates that alcohol is unsuitable for ingestion.

You can prepare many alcoholic drinks at home. To do this, you need to know the technology of their manufacture (recipe) and have everything at hand. necessary ingredients. Below are recipes for making alcohol and drinks based on it at home.

How to prepare food alcohol (ethyl)

Cooked food 40% alcohol can be used for almost any alcoholic beverage. To make it yourself, you need to take any product containing starch (carbohydrate) - corn, potatoes, wheat, etc. This carbohydrate must be subjected to the saccharification process, in which malt takes part (the latter is obtained from sprouted rye, barley, wheat). Next, we will tell you how to prepare alcohol in stages:

1. Extraction of starch is a fairly simple process. To do this, you need to take raw materials (potatoes, etc.), grind it, pour water in a ratio of approximately 1: 1 and boil for 2 to 3 hours until a viscous liquid is obtained, which then needs to be filtered.
2. Mix starch “paste” cooled to 55-60 ° C with pre-crushed malt (sprouted crushed grain). Then you should maintain this temperature in the mixture for about an hour (you can slightly warm it up or just wrap the container in something warm).
3. After that, let the mixture cool to room temperature (not lower than 15 ° C), add live yeast and leave to ferment for 3 days.
4. After the mixture has fermented, it must be distilled. To do this, you need a distillation column ("moonshine still").
5. After distillation, the resulting alcohol must be purified. Moreover, it is better not to use the beloved first portion ("pervak"), since it contains a lot of fusel oils and other harmful compounds. Alcohol can be purified using a carbon or any other filter.

Such a common alcoholic drink as vodka is very easy to make from alcohol obtained by distillation.

Preparation of alcoholic beverages from edible alcohol

To do this, simply dilute the alcohol drinking water. For these purposes, tap water is not suitable; it is better to take purified or bottled water.

And there is one little trick- so that vodka does not turn out to be cloudy, it is best not to add water to alcohol, but vice versa - pour alcohol into a container with water. This is where a basic knowledge of chemistry comes in handy. To get vodka of 40% strength, you need to dilute alcohol with a certain amount of water, calculated according to the proportion. More accurate information about the rules for diluting alcohol is in our article -.

But it is unlikely that it will be possible to make cognac at home from alcohol, as the French do, but it is quite possible to make a similar drink. For this you will need the following ingredients:

• 3 liters of food alcohol (40%);
• Oak bark - you can buy it at a pharmacy or on the market - 5 tablespoons;
• Burnt sugar- a couple of teaspoons;
• Nutmeg- half a teaspoon.

Ideally, for the preparation of this alcoholic drink, it is best to take wine alcohol, because it is from it that real cognac is made.

Cooking process

• You need to take enameled or glassware with a volume of 4 liters, pour alcohol into it.
• Add sugar heated on fire (it should acquire a brownish-yellow hue - caramelize), stir.
• Pour oak bark and nutmeg into the mixture.
• For a special flavor, you can also add a pinch of vanilla.
• When all the ingredients are gathered together, the dishes must be closed with a lid and infused.
• The future cognac should stand for at least a month in a dark place, periodically it needs to be stirred.
• After the indicated time, the drink must be filtered and after that it can be consumed.

Drinking (wine, ethyl) alcohol is widely used in the household: it is part of strong drinks and wines, it is used as a preservative in home-made preparations of fruits, berries and juices. Of particular note are the healing properties drinking alcohol, the main component of medicinal and healing tinctures, which stimulates blood circulation, due to which it is used for compresses and rubbing (as an effective external remedy).

Drinking alcohol is a colorless transparent liquid with a characteristic smell and taste, easily soluble in water in any quantities. Alcohol is lighter than water and therefore unevenly distributed in the volume of the aqueous mixture, it is more concentrated in the upper layers of the aqueous solution and in the mash. The specific gravity of alcohol is 0.791 g/cm3, the boiling point is 78.3°C. Alcohol is hygroscopic and at high concentrations - 96-98 ° - actively absorbs water from the air, so it should be stored in a tightly closed container.

Alcoholic solutions with a high concentration of alcohol are flammable and require careful handling and compliance with fire safety regulations.

The use of an open flame to heat alcohol should be avoided, steam heating is preferred.

For food purposes, only rectified alcohol is used, obtained from sugar and starch-containing raw materials. This is drinking alcohol, which is used to make strong and healing drinks. The state standard limits the content of alcohol impurities: aldehydes, esters, fusel oils and free acids. At homemade these rules must be respected.

The preparation of alcohol is a complex technological process of interaction of many components, requiring compliance with the temperature regime at individual stages. The following main stages of this process can be distinguished:
1) selection and preparation of raw materials,
2) fermentation,
3) distillation,
4) purification of alcohol,
5) aromatization, i.e. giving alcohol certain taste, aromatic and color qualities.

Selection and preparation of raw materials

The choice of the type of feedstock largely determines the quality of the finished product. So, for example, alcohol from sugar beets and pomace is not suitable for making thin

Juice-quality varieties of alcohol, but it is better than many others for simple, spicy and harsh drinks, which are characterized by a relatively low cost. Alcohol from potatoes is obtained best quality, but needs to be improved (double distillation, additional purification). With appropriate processing, alcohol from fruits and berries approaches the high-quality category and is applicable for quality drinks. For the preparation of high quality strong drinks, we recommend using alcohol obtained from starch raw materials (wheat or other grains).

In addition to starch- and sugar-containing products, yeast, water, mineral and aromatic substances are necessary for the preparation of drinking alcohol.

* Vodka refers to a 40% alcohol solution. The main value of this type of raw material lies in the high content of starch (15-70% or even more), as well as sugars (2-6%). The content of starch in crops is shown in the table below.

Flour and grain include the same chemicals, but the starch and sugar content of flour is greater, which makes it more valuable as a raw material for making alcohol.

Starch is the main carbohydrate in potatoes and cereal flour, has the ability to swell, gelatinize and is converted by enzymes into simple sugars, which turn into wine alcohol during fermentation. To convert into sugar, starch is subjected to saccharification. This operation is carried out in a liquid medium at elevated temperature and in the presence of a special substance (enzyme) - diastase, which is contained in malt.

Starch can be stored for a long time, is easily saccharified, has a high alcohol derivative value and occupies the smallest volume during storage, which makes it the most profitable raw material for the production of alcohol.

Theoretically, 716.8 ml of anhydrous alcohol can be obtained from 1 kg of starch. In practice, this indicator is lower and largely depends on the quality of raw materials and strict adherence to the conditions of all operations of the alcohol preparation process.

The potato ranks first in the ease of extracting starch and converting it into sugar. The temperature of gelatinization of potato starch, i.e., the transition to a soluble state, is 55 ° C. To increase the yield of alcohol, it is better to use potato varieties with high content starch (20-25%). Determining the starch content in potatoes is easy. First you need to weigh, for example, 5 kg of potatoes in the air in a light bag or net, and then re-weigh these potatoes, lowering them into water and not removing them from it. The weight of the potatoes will be much less. Depending on the weight of the potatoes placed in water, the starch content is determined from the table below and the yield of alcohol from the amount of raw material used is calculated.

Rye contains starch, which gelatinizes at a relatively low temperature and is easily saccharified. Rye flour contains soluble proteins - organic nitrogenous substances, but does not contain gluten, which makes the mash more liquid, and therefore more suitable for fermentation.

Soluble proteins of rye flour constitute the main type of nitrogenous nutrition of yeast during fermentation, which makes it possible not to use additional mineral nutrition.

Wheat contains starch, which is more difficult to extract and gelatinize at a higher temperature of 65°C. In addition, wheat flour contains insoluble proteins that, when swollen, form gluten, which makes the mash thick and sticky.

Because thick mash ferments less vigorously than liquid mash, it is desirable to separate the gluten from the starch by washing the dough.

To do this, first the flour is kneaded with water in a ratio of 1: 1 and incubated for 20 minutes, then the dough is washed cold water, the volume of which is 3 liters per 1 kg of flour.

When washing, the dough is placed in a sieve, immersed in a basin of water and washed. The gluten remains on the sieve and is removed, while the starch is washed with water into a basin and used to make the mash. Other agricultural crops, including wild ones, containing starch in sufficient quantities, as well as cereal and bread waste from the kitchen, can also be used to produce alcohol. This type of raw material includes different crops containing different types of sugars. Such crops include, for example, sugar beet, apples and other fruits and berries are also used (see table).

Most of these cultures contain sugars less than 10%, which does not allow obtaining alcohol solutions with a high alcohol content (more than 12%).

It should be borne in mind that the juice obtained from fruits and berries contains many acids that inhibit the activity of yeast. Therefore, in order to increase the concentration of sugars and reduce the acidity of the mash, juices are subjected to special treatment: neutralization and boiling.

Sugar beet contains complex sugar, sucrose, which is not directly fermented by yeast, but is decomposed by the action of yeast enzymes into simple sugars, and these sugars are then fermented. Therefore, the fermentation period beet sugar longer lasting than starchy or fruity.

Apples take second place in the production of alcohol and wines after starch raw materials. They contain a simple sugar called levulose, which is directly fermented by the yeast.

The sugar of grapes and fruits - glucose, as well as the sugar of berries - fructose are fermented quite easily. In addition to cultivated plants, sugar and starch are found in wild plants. These plants can be found in the forest, in the meadow, along the outskirts of fields and swamps, in shallow bays of rivers and lakes (see table).

Acorns are of particular interest because they are easy to find and collect. They contain about 57% starch and up to 10% sugars. Tannins give acorns an astringent, bitter taste and inhibit the development of yeast. If these substances are removed, then a good starch-containing product is obtained from acorns, suitable for the production of alcohol. Tannins are easily removed by soaking. To prepare alcohol from acorns, pulp is made. To do this, acorns, harvested mature at the end of September, are peeled, cut into several pieces each and poured with water for two days. Then the water is drained and the acorns are again poured with clean water (in a ratio of 1: 2), heated to a boil, cooled and drained, and the acorns are passed through a meat grinder. The resulting mass is dried. Dried acorns are crushed or ground into flour, which is used to make alcohol in the same way as the flour of rye, wheat or other crops.

Horse chestnut contains a large amount of starch, so it can be used to produce alcohol in the same way as acorns. Horse chestnuts contain tannins that must be removed by soaking. Chestnut fruits are processed in the same way as acorns, getting flour.

Icelandic lichen contains up to 44% soluble starch (lichenin) and up to 3% sugar. Lichen grows in pine forests on sandy soil in the form of curly bushes with brownish ribbon-like lobes with a white lining. Icelandic lichen is harvested throughout the year. First of all, bitter substances are removed from the lichen, for which it is soaked for two days in water with soda (5 g of soda per 1 liter of water), then washed with clean water, soaked again for a day in clean water, then dried and ground into flour. For soaking 1 kg of lichens, 16 liters of soda solution are needed. Crushed lichen is used to make alcohol.

The rhizomes of cattail, reed and other plants growing in swamps, along the banks of rivers and lakes, contain a significant amount of starch. From the rhizomes, flour is prepared, which is used to make alcohol.

Cattail - a plant with a high stem, straight long leaves, having an inflorescence in the form of a black cob at the top, is widespread and well known. Dry cattail rhizome contains up to 46% starch and 11% sugars. The rhizomes of cattail are cleaned of small roots and dirt, washed and cut into slices 0.5-1 cm thick. Dry in an oven until they break apart With dry crackling. Then the rhizomes are ground to a state of flour.

Common reed (Trest) is one of the most common marsh plants. Dry cane rhizome contains up to 50% starch and up to 5% cane sugar. Cane rhizomes are harvested in spring or late autumn, when they accumulate the greatest amount of starch and sugar. To obtain flour, the rhizomes are dried, crushed and ground.

The common arrowhead is an aquatic plant that can often be found in shallow water bodies. It has characteristic arrow-shaped leaves and during flowering throws out a long flower arrow with white three-petal flowers. Arrowhead is a starchy plant. In the underwater part of the plant, small tubers weighing up to 14 g are formed at the ends of the rhizomes. 12-15 tubers are harvested from one plant. Arrowhead tubers contain a lot of starch: dry - up to 55%, raw - 35%; Sugars up to 7%. The tubers are boiled, cut into small circles and dried. From dry tubers, flour is obtained, which is used as starch.

Susak umbrella is a tall (up to 1.5 m) plant that is found everywhere on the shallow shores of rivers and lakes, along the edges of swamps. The plant has a straight stem with a bunch of erect leaves, at the top of the stem is an umbrella-shaped inflorescence with beautiful white-pink flowers. Susak rhizomes in a dry state contain up to 60% starch. The rhizomes are cleaned, washed, cut into pieces and dried, after which they are crushed and flour is obtained.

Lake reed is a perennial plant with tall cylindrical stems, almost devoid of leaves. Reeds are widely distributed, growing in the thickets of the coastal strip of shallow water bodies. The rhizomes of the reed contain a significant amount of starch (up to 43%) and sugars. From the dry rhizomes of the reeds, flour is made, which is used to make alcohol.

Burdock is a plant widely distributed in many regions. Burdock roots contain up to 45% of a special starch (inulin) that can be converted into sugar. To do this, the roots are boiled for 2 hours in a small amount of water with the addition of acetic acid(20-30 ml vinegar essence per 1 liter of water). After boiling in an acidic environment, inulin turns into sugar. Excess acid is removed by adding honey, crushed marble or baking soda, and alcohol is prepared from the resulting sweet mass.

Juniper is a branched coniferous shrub growing in pine forests on the edges and along old clearings. Juniper fruits - cone berries, contain up to 42% sugars. They make wine and spirits. For this, a sweet syrup is first obtained, which is then fermented and distilled: the juniper fruits are crushed, poured with hot water and infused for half an hour. Then the fruits are taken out of the water and the juice is squeezed out, which is boiled in a water bath to obtain the required concentration of sugar.

The fermentation process of the main raw materials cannot do without yeast.

Yeast is distributed in a liquid medium in the form of a suspension, constantly rising up with a current of carbon dioxide, intensively interacts with the sugars of the solution (wort) and is able to form a large amount of alcohol for a short time, and besides, they are acid-resistant, which is necessary, since fermentation always takes place in an acidic environment. Yeast reproduces well under normal conditions in a liquid nutrient medium, which includes nitrogenous and phosphorous substances and acids.

For the preparation of alcohol at home, pressed yeast is used (10-15% of the mass of the feedstock) in order to immediately ensure their dominant position in the must of the mash and neutralize the influence of "wild" yeast. Pressed yeast is sold in the form of bars weighing 100-1000 g, but you can also grow yeast yourself in the right amount.

Ordinary yeast in the production of alcohol can be replaced with other products, for example tomato paste. Depending on the concentration, it is taken 2-3 times more than yeast. Use for these purposes and a decoction of hops. Before being introduced into the starter, the yeast is grown in a separate vessel on a sterile nutrient medium for 15-19 hours. The most suitable material for culture media are: green barley malt, rye flour, sugar production waste.

For yeast nutrition, there is usually not enough organic nitrogen, which is part of the protein compounds of the raw material. The absence of nitrogenous and phosphorus compounds, as well as oxygen, in the starter leads to a decrease in yeast activity, which delays the process of sugar fermentation, therefore, mineral substances are additionally added to the starter in the form of ammonium salts and phosphorus-containing compounds: ammonium chloride, ammonium sulphate, superphosphate or diammonium phosphate. All these substances are well known to gardeners and farmers.

Alcohol is a waste product of yeast, but when the strength of the mash reaches 15 °, most types of yeast die, regardless of the presence of unfermented sugar in the sourdough.

One of the main components of yeast and basic sourdough is water. Water is also used to wash raw materials and equipment.

The water used for the preparation of alcohol must meet the hygienic requirements for drinking water. It should be transparent, colorless, odorless and foreign taste, and in addition, soft, with a low content of magnesium and calcium salts.

Boiled water should not be used for the preparation of sourdough, because it practically does not contain dissolved air, which is necessary for yeast.

Natural water does not always meet the above requirements, so it is purified by settling and filtering through special carbon filters.

Minerals in the form of small additions are used to keep the yeast active during the fermentation of the starter. Use nitrogenous and phosphorus-containing compounds, as well as acids.

Charcoal, caustic (washing) soda, aromatic substances and traditional spices are used to eliminate the unpleasant odors of alcohol and drinks.

After choosing the raw material, the next step is its preparation.

And although starch-containing raw materials can be cheaper than sugar, in a city apartment the technology for preparing it is very laborious and creates many inconveniences, which makes it difficult to use.

Another thing in the countryside and in the country. There are more favorable conditions for the use of this raw material. The preparation of starch-containing raw materials consists in the preparation of malt and malted milk, the processing of starch-containing products and the preparation of yeast sourdough.

For the preparation of malt and malted milk, it is necessary to germinate grains of cereals. Grain germination periods for different cultures as follows: 7-8 days for wheat, 5-6 days for rye, 9-10 days for barley, 8-9 days for oats and 4-5 days for millet. During germination, active enzymes are formed in the grain, which significantly accelerate the saccharification of starch. If necessary, the malt should be dried, but after drying, the enzyme activity drops by 20% and, accordingly, the germination time increases.

The preparation of malt consists of a number of mandatory operations, which include grain sorting, soaking, germination, degerming and drying. Let's analyze these operations on the example of barley.

The grain is subjected to sieving through a large and fine sieve, then it is washed 2-3 times in hot water at a temperature of 50-55°C. The grain is soaked in a clean wooden or enamel bowl half-filled with water. Floating grains and debris are removed. It is better to pour the grain into the water little by little - it will be easier to remove the accumulated debris. Water should be changed every 7-8 hours. When it is found that the husk is easily separated from the pulp, the skin of the grain is cracked and a sprout is indicated, and the grain itself does not burst when bent, soaking should be completed and proceed to the germination of malt.

For this in dark room scatter grains on a baking sheet with a layer of up to 3 cm and cover them with a damp cloth. The temperature in the room should be maintained no higher than 17.5 ° C and humidity not lower than 40%. The first 5 days, the grain is aired every 6 hours, turned over, and the fabric is moistened. Then, in order to reduce the loss of starch, the air flow into the room is limited, and an increase in temperature in it in the days remaining until the end of the process is tried to be prevented by mixing and cooling the grains.

The main signs of cessation of growth: the length of the sprouts has reached 5-6 mm, and the roots have reached 12-14 mm, the grains lose their floury taste and when they are bitten they crunch and smell of a pleasant cucumber smell, and the roots are linked to each other.

After that, the malt is scattered in a warm, dry room and dried. Then the malt is dried in a dryer until its moisture content is 3-3.5%. The drying temperature should not exceed 40°C. When the malt is ready, it is dry to the touch, smaller than before drying, and the roots are easily separated by rubbing in the hands. The malt is ground by hand, the sprouts are separated and sieved on a sieve. Store malt in a closed container in a dry place.

The stage of preparing a solution from germinated raw materials is also called the preparation of malted milk. For this process, it is preferable to use a mixture of malts: barley, rye and millet in a ratio of 2:1:1. A mixture of malts is poured with water at a temperature of 60-65°C, incubated for 10 minutes and the water is drained. Then the mixture is finely ground in a coffee grinder or in a mortar, and then poured with a new portion of water at a temperature of 50-55 ° C, thoroughly mixed (for this it is better to take a mixer) until a homogeneous white liquid is obtained. At first, water can be poured not all, but 1/3 or 1/2 of the volume.

Consumption rates of mixed malt for raw materials of various types can be seen from the following table.

The processing of starch-containing raw materials involves the release of starch from cells and its transfer to a soluble state. This is achieved heat treatment starch with water. Starch grains, when the temperature rises, absorb a large amount of water, gelatinize, increase in volume and become soluble. As a result, starch is easily subjected to saccharification (enzymatic hydrolysis). Potato processing consists of washing, chopping tubers, boiling and preparing sourdough.

Wash the potatoes in warm water, while for better cleaning, the potatoes are kept in warm water for 1-1.5 hours. The tubers are washed, changing the water several times, the last water should be clear, without turbidity. With a small amount of potatoes (up to 10 kg), you can use ordinary washing tools (brushes, washcloths, etc.) for washing.

Crush potatoes using any grater that is at hand. The slurry after crushing should not contain particles larger than 3 mm. To facilitate this operation, the potatoes can first be boiled, and then mashed and, after adding water, pass through a sieve (colander).

The potato mass is boiled in a water or sand bath for 1.5-2 hours. Then the mass is cooled to 65°C and the starch is saccharified.

The processing of cereal flour includes the operations of mixing with water, gelatinization and boiling. The flour mass is boiled in the same way as the potato mass, while a little sulfuric acid (0.5-0.8%) can be added to the mash. For boiling, you can use pressure cookers, which reduce the duration of the process to 70 minutes.

Getting starch. Upon receipt of starch from potatoes, they are thoroughly washed with a brush and, without peeling, rubbed on a fine grater to obtain potato pulp. The pulp is placed in a canvas bag, tied up and placed in a bowl of cold water. After that, the bag is wrinkled by hand or with a wooden pestle until a milky liquid begins to flow out of it; the water in the basin is changed and, if the water remains clear, the squeezing of the pulp is stopped. Milky liquid should be allowed to stand for three hours. When a white dense sediment forms at the bottom of the basin, the water is carefully drained from above and poured clean into the basin. The starch is once again mixed with water, allowed to settle and the water is drained again. The resulting washed precipitate is potato starch. From 1 kg of potatoes, 150-200 g of dry starch are obtained.

In the same way, you can get starch from wheat flour by preparing a stiff dough first and then washing it in a linen bag. However, the starch of grain crops is more convenient and cheaper to obtain not from flour, but from grain. Due to the presence of gluten in the grain, it is not possible to extract starch by simple washing out, therefore, a fermentation method is used to pre-decompose gluten. To do this, the grains are first soaked in water until they are easily crushed by the fingers. Then they are crushed in a mortar or passed through a meat grinder, placed in a fermentation vat and poured with warm water. To speed up fermentation, add a little leaven left over from the previous shutter to the vat. Soon natural fermentation begins and gas bubbles appear on the surface.

As a result of fermentation, organic acids are formed that dissolve gluten, but do not destroy starch. By the end of fermentation (on the 6-7th day), the release of gas bubbles decreases and the surface of the liquid is covered with a continuous coating of fungi. The sour water must be drained, and the crushed grain mass should be washed through a sieve or linen bag. Then the water is settled and starch is obtained in the sediment. From 1 kg of grain, 400-500 g of dry starch are obtained.

In the same way, starch can be obtained from unripe apples, pears and other plants, including wild ones. Starch obtained from various types of raw materials is saccharified to obtain a sweet wort.

Processing of sugar-containing raw materials involves obtaining sweet sourdough from sugar beets, apples and other fruits and berries.

Sugar beet contains sugar, which is part of the cell sap and can be extracted as a solution by washing beet chips with hot water. The preparation of this type of raw material includes: cleaning beets, grinding root crops into small chips, treating the chips with hot water, extracting juice, neutralizing and boiling the juice until the wort of the desired concentration (15-18%) of sugar is obtained. To do this, beet chips must be kept in a water bath at a temperature of 60-70 ° C, since juice is not extracted from raw beets.

After heat treatment, the beet mass is squeezed out, obtaining juice containing up to 15% sugar. To increase the sugar concentration to 18-20%, the juice is boiled down, and to neutralize the acids transferred from the beets, water or chalk is added to it in an amount of 20-30 g / l of juice. The juice is filtered and used to make must.

Fruit and berry raw materials contain sugar, which is directly fermented by yeast, and therefore the preparation of raw materials is less laborious. The raw materials of this type are washed, crushed and squeezed out of the juice, which is then boiled down and neutralized. After cooling, the juice is filtered and fermented.

The issues of optimizing the use of various types of fruit and berry raw materials are reduced to the choice of one or another type according to the ratio of sugar content and acidity, presented in the following table.

Getting a yeast starter consists in preparing a sweet wort and then adding uterine yeast to it. Sweet wort can be prepared by saccharification of starch raw materials or by using sugar raw materials. The wort is prepared two days before the preparation of the main mash as follows. They take barley malt in the required quantity, depending on the weight of the supply and the volume of the future sourdough (for 2 kg of flour supply of the main mash, take 7-8 liters of water and 1.5-1.6 liters of ready-made yeast mash).

Pour 1.5 liters of water into a yeast vat (3 liter pot) and heat to 35°C. Then rye flour (120 g) is slowly poured into the water and mixed thoroughly until homogeneous mass. This flour mash is slowly heated in a sand bath, brought to a boil and boiled for 1-1.5 hours. The mash is cooled to 60°C, crushed malt is poured into it and stirred for 5 minutes, then the vat is covered with a lid and the mass is left for saccharification, maintaining the temperature within 50-55°C. At this temperature, the mash is kept for 2-2.5 hours

And they check the taste: it becomes sweet, then the mass is heated to 60-63 ° C and kept for another 2 hours. After that, the wort is filtered through a sieve, the thick is separated, sterilized at 85°C for 20-30 minutes, cooled to 50°C and mineral nutrition is added: ammonium chloride 0.3 g/l, superphosphate 0.5 g/l, preliminarily dissolved in hot water. Then the wort is acidified with sulfuric acid to an acidity of 1% (100 g of 10% acid per 1 liter of wort).

Sweet wort based on raw sugar is prepared as follows. For 1.5-1.6 liters of water, take 250 g of sugar, dissolve and heat to a boil. Then they are cooled, mineral nutrition is added, acidified by the previously indicated method and used to grow yeast.

Then seed (uterine) yeast is sown. Pressed or dry yeast in the amount of 60-80 g is dissolved in 200 ml of chilled wort, thoroughly stirred and poured into a yeast vat at 30°C. Then the wort is cooled to a temperature of 15-16°C, closed with a lid and left for the yeast to mature.

After the introduction of yeast, the fermentation of the wort begins and its temperature rises to 27-29°C. When the temperature rises above 30°C, the wort is forcibly cooled. To ensure the breath of the yeast, the wort is shaken twice an hour for 1-2 minutes. After 6 hours, the concentration of the wort is checked (for taste or with a saccharometer). The sensation of sweetness should decrease, and at a concentration of 6-7% (according to saccharometer 1.020-1.025), yeast growth ends. Mature yeast is used to ferment sourdough. Aging lasts 18-20 hours.

In the absence of ready-made yeast, use homemade. At home, yeast for wort fermentation is easy to obtain.

First way. 1/2 cup wheat flour poured over 3/4 cup warm water. To this mixture daily for three days pour a tablespoon of warm water. On the fourth day, the mass is boiled, stirring, over low heat, after which it must be cooled and pour another tablespoon of flour. This operation is repeated 2 times in the next two days. The prepared mass is kept in a dish covered with a towel, with room temperature(20-22°C). By the end of the week, the yeast will be ready. They are stored in a tightly closed glass jar in the refrigerator, without freezing, for 8-10 days and used in the same way as pressed yeast.

The second way. Two tablespoons of hops (dried female seedlings) are poured over two cups of boiling water and boiled for 5-10 minutes. The broth is filtered through a sieve and brought to a boil again. Then, a glass of wheat flour is poured into a clean enameled dish and the hot broth is gradually poured in and thoroughly mixed. Cover the container clean towel, keep in a warm place for 1.5-2 days, after which the yeast is ready. For 5 glasses of mash put a glass of yeast. The remaining yeast is stored in the refrigerator for 2-3 days, if you pour a glass of flour into them and let it stand warm for 4 hours. With further use, the yeast is first diluted in a glass of warm water and placed for 1.5-2 hours in a warm place.

The process of preparation of raw materials ends with mashing (preparation) of the leaven, which consists in mixing supplies, their saccharification and the addition of mature yeast.

Pour 0.5 liters of malted milk and the same amount of cold water into a large 10-liter saucepan. The mixture is stirred with a wooden stirrer (paddle), slowly adding the boiled starch mass, and make sure that the temperature does not exceed 58°C. At a higher temperature, the starter mass is cooled by washing the surface of the tun with cold water or passing water through a coil placed inside the mash tun. At the same time continue to intensively mix the contents of the vat. At the end of the mixing of malted milk and starch mass, the temperature should not exceed 62°C. After that, the rest of the malted milk (0.5 l) is added and the starter is mixed for 5 minutes.

The consumption rates of malt and water per 1 kg of supplies are shown in the following table.

A mixture of malted milk and starch mass is kept in a water bath for 2 hours at 65°C, stirred and incubated for another 2 hours.

The process of saccharification of starch sourdough usually lasts 3-3.5 hours, but with old malt or deviation from the requirements of the technological process, saccharification can be delayed up to 12-18 hours. The temperature is maintained at 55-65°C. In rural areas, the starter can be placed in the evening in a cooled oven (50-60 ° C) and left until the morning. After saccharification, the taste of the wort should be quite sweet.

Starch is diluted with water, stirred to obtain starch milk. Starch milk is poured into boiling water and stirred, preventing the formation of a paste. Boiling should be maintained all the time and starch milk should be added gradually. Then quickly cool the solution to a temperature of 60-65°C. Malted milk is added to the starch solution and mixed. The paste solution immediately begins to liquefy and after 3 minutes an almost transparent liquid is obtained. This solution is left at a temperature of 60-65°C for 3 hours, during which the starch saccharification ends. After saccharification, the wort is filtered through a sieve to separate the husks and grains of malt, cooled and tested.

If sugar or sugar-containing raw materials are used, then a little sugar is taken to prepare the wort (no more than 160-180 g / l of water), the sugar is first dissolved in a small amount of water and heated to a boil, cooled and poured into a fermentation tank.

The starter wort is cooled to 30°C, mineral nutrition (ammonium chloride 0.3 g/l) and mature yeast (yeast starter) from a yeast vat are added, stirred and continued to cool to a temperature of 15°C, then the wort is poured into a fermentation vat (20 l) and leave to ferment in a dark place.

The fermentation tank (pot, flask) is left at a temperature of 15 ° C and is not sealed, but only covered with a dense cloth. During fermentation, periodically, every 6-8 hours, the contents of the fermentation tank are stirred to provide air access and yeast respiration.

Fermentation may be different kind: wavy, overflow, mixed and integumentary. All of these types of fermentation are normal. However, the coverslip is considered normal for barley, oat and wheat sourdough, but if potato sourdough has a cover fermentation, this means that the yeast has weakened and young strong yeast should be added. Foamy fermentation is undesirable, as it often leads to splashing of the wort and loss of raw materials.

To eliminate this shortcoming, a thick yeast dough, which is strongly fermented; use only pure malt; limit the nutrition or respiration of the yeast in the sourdough; use oat or millet malt; defoamers are used: vegetable oil and lard.

Fermentation is the main stage of the technological process of preparation, alcohol. The yield of the finished product and its quality depend on how the fermentation takes place. Fermentation is a complex chemical reaction that requires a strict temperature regime and a certain concentration of components. Schematically, this reaction can be represented as follows:

sugar -> ethyl alcohol + water + carbon dioxide
C12H22O11->C2H5OH + H2O + CO2

One of important factors fermentation efficiency is to maintain the optimum temperature (not less than 18°C ​​and not higher than 24°C). So, a sharp cold snap in the initial period of fermentation can completely stop it, despite the fact that not all the sugar has fermented yet. At low temperatures, the yeast remains alive, but cannot work. In this case, it is necessary to increase the temperature; the yeast will be able to continue working and bring the fermentation to the end, but for this it is first necessary to “disturb” them by stirring. Heat fermentation is much more dangerous, since it can so weaken the vital activity of the yeast that it will not be possible to resume their work. In this case, we recommend removing the wort from the yeast with a rubber tube, adding fresh and placing the container in a room with a temperature not exceeding 20 ° C. The rate of the fermentation reaction under normal conditions is proportional to the sugar concentration in the sourdough, but it should be taken into account that the fermentation reaction stops when the concentration of the resulting alcohol reaches more than 10% by volume. It follows that with an insufficient amount of sugar, fermentation will proceed slowly, and excess sugar will simply not participate in the alcohol formation reaction, which will lead to additional losses.

Fermentation has three stages: initial fermentation - fermentation, main fermentation and post-fermentation. In the initial stage, the starter is saturated with carbon dioxide, the temperature rises by 2-3°C, the taste of the starter is sweet at first, then the sweetness weakens and becomes invisible. The duration of the initial stage is 25-30 hours.

During the main fermentation, the entire surface of the starter is covered with large and small bubbles that form foam. The temperature rises to 30°C, and at a higher increase, forced cooling is required. The alcohol concentration rises rapidly, and the taste of the sourdough becomes bitter-sour. At the end of the main fermentation, the concentration of sugars in the sourdough drops to 1.5-3%. The duration of this stage is from 15 to 24 hours.

During fermentation, the level of sourdough decreases, the foam settles, the temperature decreases to 25-26°C. The taste becomes bitter-sour from the presence of alcohol. The sugar concentration drops to 1%, the acidity of the starter increases. The purpose of the fermentation is the fermentation of the residual products of starch conversion - dextrins. To do this, it is necessary to keep the diastasis in it in an active state, which can be achieved by observing the temperature regime during the saccharification process.

Fermentation of potato mash lasts 15-25 hours, but when using beet sugar, fermentation lasts 90-120 hours.

Completely fermented sourdough acquires a specific, slightly bitter aftertaste; the formation of foam and the release of gas in it practically stops, although when the container is shaken, gas bubbles from the bottom still rise. The smell also noticeably changes from sharp to sweet and sour.

The ability to correctly determine the moment of sourdough maturation is very important for obtaining good alcohol. During the distillation of overripe starter, its quality parameters decrease, and the use of unripe starter significantly reduces the yield of the final product. However, the real ability to catch the moment when the sourdough is ripe comes with experience, since each type of raw material has its own special signs.

Getting drinking alcohol

For the distillation of sourdough, it is necessary to mount a distillation cube, connect cooling, check the tightness of the connection of tubes and seals. Distillation can be carried out using various heating devices, including gas burners with an open fire, but it is preferable to use closed heating devices (TEH). During distillation, the starter is poured into a distillation cube, filling no more than two-thirds of the volume of the cube, closed with a sealed lid and heated. First, heating is carried out at a high rate (up to 5°C/min), then, when the temperature reaches 70°C, the heating rate is reduced to 1°C/min. The temperature is measured with a thermometer 0-100°C.

Boiling starter begins at a temperature of 90-93°C, depending on the concentration of alcohol. When the first distillation appears, it is necessary to reduce the heating rate, set the distillate outflow rate to 120-150 drops per minute and measure its temperature. When the distillation temperature is above 30°C, the cooling and circulation of water in the refrigerator should be increased. Then it is necessary to stabilize the distillate outflow rate and bring it to the maximum possible, but not to allow the release of the leaven into the pipeline of the device. During distillation, its temperature in the steamer of the device will slowly increase, and when 98.7 ° C is reached, the distillation should be completed, since the alcohol content in the starter is less than 1%, and, in addition, at this temperature, fusel oils are intensively accumulated in alcohol.

In order to overtake all the alcohol contained in the original volume of the starter, it is necessary to overtake no more than one third of its volume.

A single distillation gives a distillation 3 times more concentrated. To obtain crude, i.e., crude, alcohol with a concentration of 80 °, the distillation is carried out several times, the number of distillations depends on the device of the distillation device. Some designs of distillation cubes allow you to get an alcohol concentration of 72-80 ° after the second distillation. During the distillation, the temperature of the solution is monitored with a thermometer, and if it has risen to 98.7°C, the distillation should be stopped.

Alcohol distillation after the first distillation is neutralized by adding caustic soda or birch wood ash (10 g of soda per 1 liter of distillate). For re-distillation, the alcohol distillation is poured into the distillation cube, filling no more than 3/4 of its volume. First, they are heated intensively, and when the temperature reaches 70°C, the heating intensity is reduced. The boiling point of the distillate is in the range of 85-87°C, heating to this temperature is carried out slowly. With the appearance of secondary distillation, the heating rate must be increased and the maximum distillation flow should be stabilized.

During the second distillation, the concentration of alcohol in the receiver is controlled by means of an alcoholometer (hydrometer). When the concentration of the secondary distillate reaches 55-60°, the resulting alcohol must be poured into another container and the distillation of the second fraction should be continued until the boiling point rises to 98.5°C.

The resulting alcoholic distillation of the second fraction with a low alcohol concentration (30°) must be distilled again. To do this, measure the volume of distillation, as well as the volume of alcohol obtained. The total volume of alcohol of two fractions, obtained as a result of the second distillation, is not more than 1/2 of the initial volume of alcohol distillation.

The concentration of alcohol can be approximately determined by the combustion method. To do this, a small sample (20 ml) of alcohol is placed in a tablespoon and a lighted match is brought; the concentration of alcohol is determined approximately as follows: ignition does not occur - the concentration is less than 30 °; intermittent ignition, with a flashing flame - concentration 35-38 °; even stable combustion with a high flame, the water residue is less than half of the initial volume - the alcohol concentration is more than 50 °.

The yield of alcohol depends on the type of raw material and the quality of all operations. This indicator characterizes the efficiency of the use of raw materials and the qualifications of the manufacturer.

Preparation of cognac spirit

The distillation of the wine material makes it possible to obtain an alcoholic solution of increased concentration. Fermented wort contains 8.5 to 12.5% ​​alcohol. Distillation is based on the property of alcohol to concentrate in vapors to a greater extent than in aqueous solutions. For distillation, the wine material is placed in a distillation cube and heated to a boiling point, which, depending on the alcohol content, can be 83-93°C. When the wort boils, vapors are formed that contain several times more alcohol than the solution (3-8 times). The process of the first distillation of cognac wine materials is carried out similarly to the process of obtaining drinking alcohol.

A single distillation gives a distillation 3 times more concentrated. To obtain raw, i.e., crude, alcohol, various distillation devices are used. Some designs of distillation cubes make it possible to obtain an alcohol concentration of 72-80 ° after the second distillation.

As a result of the first distillation, a distillation is obtained by volume of not more than half of the initial volume of wine material used in distillation (3 liters of distillation is obtained from 6 liters of wine material).

Raw grape alcohol is subjected to repeated distillation with separation into fractions: head, middle (cognac spirit of the first grade) and tail. Waste liquid remains in the cube.

The second distillation of raw alcohol with the separation of fractions is a very responsible process, since the quality of cognac spirit largely depends on the correct selection of fractions and compliance with the required speed of distillation. The second distillation is carried out in apparatuses with water heating.

During the second distillation, the head fraction with a strength of 82-84% by volume is first separated, containing a significant amount of aldehydes, esters and higher alcohols with a strong odor and unpleasant taste. This fraction is taken within 20-40 minutes in the amount of 1-3% of the crude alcohol volume.

When the distillate reaches a strength of 74-77% of the volume, the pungent smell weakens, and from that moment they begin to select the middle fraction (cognac alcohol). The output of this fraction is 30-35% of the initial volume of raw alcohol. During selection, the strength of the distillate gradually decreases and averages 60-70% of the volume.

With a decrease in the strength of the distillate to 50-40% of the volume, they proceed to the selection of the tail fraction. The volume of the tail fraction is 17-23% of the volume of raw alcohol. The spent liquid remaining in the cube is 37-52% of the volume of the raw alcohol taken.

The selected middle fraction is cognac spirit, which is immediately (without rectification) put into oak barrels for long exposure.

Fresh cognac alcohol is colorless, has a burning taste and is not aromatic enough. When aging in oak barrels, significant changes occur in it.

The barrel is filled with alcohol at a temperature of 18-20°C, leaving free space (1-2% of its volume) for the possible expansion of alcohol when the temperature changes. Filled oak barrels are hammered with tongues and placed in storage. Cognac alcohol is stored at an air temperature of 18-20 ± 3°C and a humidity of 75-85%. It is important to maintain a constant temperature in the storage. The piles are waxed to prevent loss of alcohol. During storage, alcohol is added to barrels annually, tasting is carried out: color, alcohol content and acidity are checked. They also check the condition of the barrels, which should not have even a slight leak and smudges.

The duration of exposure is determined by the purpose of alcohol and the composition of future cognacs. The longer the exposure, the better the quality of cognac spirits.

Cognac is aged in oak barrels made of oak aged 70-100 years. Plates for barrels are pricked from sawn bars. Knots violate the properties of wood, so wood with knots is not used for making barrels. The volume of barrels is usually 30-50 liters. Old cognac barrels are of great value, they cannot be used to store other liquids and wines. Cognac alcohol can be aged in metal tanks loaded with oak plates 60 cm long, 1.8 cm thick and 6 cm wide at the rate of 100 cm2 of surface per 1 liter of cognac alcohol.

Before laying oak plates are washed, treated with a solution of caustic alkali (0.5%) at a temperature of 15 ° C for two days. Then washed and dried. The plates are loaded into the tank, fixed with oak wedges so that they do not float up, and poured with alcohol. During aging, oxygen is introduced into alcohol 1-2 times a year, pouring it from a container. The plates are used 3-4 times, then the top layer (2-3 mm) is removed and reused. Alcohols withstand 3-5 years. After aging, cognacs are prepared from cognac spirit.

The fractions obtained after repeated distillation (head and tail) are mixed, treated with potassium permanganate and caustic soda, allowed to settle for two hours, and then fractional distillation is carried out. The middle fraction is used for the preparation of alcoholic beverages.

Purification of drinking alcohol and its aromatization

Alcohol solution obtained from sourdough, in addition to ethyl alcohol, contains whole line substances that need to be removed, as they are harmful and reduce the quality of drinks. Purification methods include chemical purification using various substances that neutralize impurities, as well as the separation of impurities by repeated evaporation and vapor condensation, which allows you to separate the composition into separate fractions and increase their concentration. The composition and boiling point of impurities are shown in the table below.

During cleaning, acids are removed by neutralization with alkalis or salts (soda), which easily decompose when heated or precipitate. Fusel Mas

La are saponified and converted to a non-volatile state also when treated with alkali, the remaining impurities are oxidized by potassium permanganate.

These impurities are then removed by distillation.

To remove harmful impurities (head and tail products) during distillation, a number of grades - fractions are sequentially selected.

This process can be thought of as a simplified rectification at home, where high-boiling and low-boiling alcohols are removed.

The volume of the first fraction is 3-8% of the total volume of alcohol in solution. This alcohol is unsuitable for food purposes, it can only be used for technical needs. The volume of the second fraction, containing sufficiently pure alcohol, is 75-85%. This alcohol is suitable for food purposes. The last fraction (volume 2-6%) contains a significant amount of fusel oils. This part is collected and distilled again in compliance with all necessary conditions.

Purification by distillation can be carried out using the same apparatus as for simple distillation. However, special devices are used to increase the concentration and degree of purification. Raw alcohol purification includes: first chemical purification, second distillation and second chemical purification.

First, the alcohol content and the acidity of the alcohol distillate (raw alcohol) are checked. In the presence of an acid reaction, alkali or soda is added to the alcohol to neutralize acidity (1-2 g of KOH alkali or 5-8 g of soda per 1 liter). Then the alcohol is treated with a solution of potassium permanganate, which is diluted in a small amount of distilled water. For 1 liter of raw alcohol take 2 g of potassium permanganate, previously dissolved in 50 ml of distilled water. Alcohol and potassium permanganate solution are thoroughly mixed and left for 15-20 minutes to complete the chemical reaction. After that, alkali or soda is added again in the same amount, mixed and left to clarify for 8-12 hours. Then the alcohol is filtered through a linen fabric and a second rectification operation is carried out - fractional distillation.

There are experts who believe that potassium permanganate gives alcohol an unpleasant taste. (But this usually happens if there is no second distillation.) As an alternative to using potassium permanganate, the following two options are offered.

Option number 1. In three-liter bottle with alcohol of the first distillation, a bunch of blackcurrant twigs, peeled from the bark, about 15-20 pieces, is placed, and remains in the jar for about two weeks, until the contents turn black.

Option number 2. A filter is assembled, in which the role of the filter element is played by potatoes cut into cubes about 0.5-1 cm in size. plastic jar from under the sparkling water by about 3/4, and the alcohol of the first distillation is driven through this filter.

According to these experts, these techniques completely replace the use of potassium permanganate (potassium permanganate).

To purify alcohol by a second distillation, it is necessary to assemble a second device, which can be used as a distillation cube with a drop catcher.

Crude alcohol for distillation is diluted soft water up to a concentration of 45-50 °. The required amount of water is poured into a container with raw alcohol and the concentration is measured with an alcohol meter (hydrometer). The diluted alcohol is placed in the apparatus (cube) and quickly heated to 60°C, then the heating rate is reduced and slowly heated to the boiling point, which is in the range of 83.5-84.5°C.

The first fraction of alcohol obtained in the initial stage of distillation is poured into a separate container and subsequently used only for technical purposes. The volume of this fraction is 3-8% of the volume of alcohol in a solution of dilute crude alcohol (40 ml per 1 liter of alcohol).

The second distillation step is carried out at an increased heating rate. Distillation should be carried out to a temperature of 96-97°C, after which a second fraction of alcohol is obtained, which can later be used for food purposes. The volume of alcohol of the second fraction is 80-84% of the volume of alcohol in a solution of dilute raw alcohol (420 ml per 1 liter of alcohol). The second fraction of alcohol is poured into a separate container and the second chemical purification is carried out.

At the third stage of distillation, which proceeds at a temperature of 96-99°C, a low-concentration alcohol with a high content of fusel oils is obtained. This alcohol is accumulated in a special container and subjected to repeated rectification. The volume of the third fraction of alcohol is 8-10% of the volume of the second fraction (60-80 ml per 1 liter of alcohol).

When performing purification by a second distillation, there are several additional tricks to help achieve elimination bad smell and the taste of the first distillation alcohol.

Firstly, this is an addition to the distilled alcohol fresh milk in a ratio of 1:6. Very efficient and effective cleaning method.

Secondly, adding a few tablespoons to the distilled alcohol table salt and 100-200 g of birch coals.

The effect is not so pronounced, besides, the smallest particles of coal clog the coil and pipelines, which can lead to a temporary failure of the device.

Thirdly, the addition of various spices to the distilled alcohol - 5-6 black peppercorns, 5-6 bay leaves, etc. The effect is also not clearly expressed. Chemical cleaning the second (food) fraction of alcohol is carried out by treatment with charcoal. To do this, alcohol is placed in a bottle and crushed charcoal (linden, birch) is added there in an amount of 50 g per 1 liter of alcohol. Alcohol with coal periodically, 2 times a day, shaken and infused for 3 weeks. At the end of the purification, the alcohol is filtered through a linen cloth and through filter paper.

In order to obtain alcohol of a high concentration close to 100%, it is necessary to further process the alcohol obtained after distillation and carry out a dehydration operation, for which special chemicals are used that are capable of adding water and do not interact with alcohol. These substances include calcium chloride and copper sulfate, well known to all gardeners. These salts have the ability to attach and retain water in an amount several times greater than the weight of the dry matter. But since blue vitriol itself is far from a harmless substance, it is recommended to use calcium chloride. It must be calcined in a metal or porcelain dish at a temperature of 150 ° C for 20 minutes and cooled to a temperature of 30-40 ° C. Pour calcined calcium chloride into the alcohol obtained after distillation with a concentration of 70-80 °, mix and let stand for an hour. Then pour the dehydrated alcohol into the still and distill. After distillation, the alcohol concentration is 96-97°. Such alcohol is very hygroscopic and should be stored in a tightly closed container. For 1 liter of purified alcohol with a strength of 70 °, you need to take 80 g of dry calcined calcium chloride.

To check the quality of the resulting alcohol after cleaning, a series of analyzes can be carried out at home with the necessary equipment.

First determine the color and transparency. To do this, alcohol is poured into a glass transparent vessel and its color, shade and presence of impurities are visually determined. A cloudy, whitish shade indicates the presence of fusel oils.

The concentration of alcohol is determined using a simple device - an alcohol meter, which is easy to make at home. A general comprehensive check - a purity test - allows you to generally assess the quality of alcohol.
A second test for oxidizability is carried out using a 1% solution of potassium permanganate, which should not change its characteristic crimson color when mixed with alcohol for 20 minutes.

Alcohol must withstand the test for purity and test for oxidizability.

The presence of individual impurities: aldehydes, acids, esters is determined by smell and taste, but the quantitative content of these impurities can only be determined by conducting chemical analyzes using special chemicals. pure alcohol should not contain impurities more than 0.02 g/l free acids, 0.02% aldehydes, 50 mg/l esters, 0.003% fusel oils, the presence of furfural is not allowed.

To determine the color and transparency, alcohol is poured into a clean dry cylinder with a capacity of 100-150 ml of colorless and transparent glass, and color, shade and the presence of mechanical impurities are observed in the scattered light passing through the cylinder.

Determination of smell and taste. A small amount of alcohol is placed in a vessel with a well-closing stopper, diluted with 2.5-3.0 volumes of cold drinking water and after preliminary strong mixing, the alcohol is immediately tested for smell and taste.

The strength of alcohol is determined with a metal or glass alcohol meter using the data in the table below.

To test for purity, 10 ml of alcohol is poured into a narrow-necked flask with a capacity of 70 ml and quickly added in 3-4 doses with constant shaking 10 ml of sulfuric acid (sp. w. 1.835).

The resulting mixture is immediately heated on an alcohol lamp, which gives a flame 4-5 cm high and about 1 cm wide in the lower (wide) part. During heating, the flask is rotated all the time so that the liquid mixes well and that the fire does not touch the flask above the boundary of the heated liquid . The heating of the mixture is stopped when the bubbles come to its surface, forming a foam; the heating process lasts 30-40 seconds, after which the mixture is allowed to cool. The cooled mixture in the flask should be completely colorless.

For test accuracy, the contents (after cooling) of the flask are poured into a special cylinder with a ground-in stopper and, using a tripod, the color of the mixture is observed, compared with alcohol, as well as with acid, taken in equal volumes and poured into separate cylinders of the same diameter and glass quality.
The test result is considered positive if the mixture is as colorless as alcohol and acid.

To carry out an oxidation test, a cylinder with a ground stopper and a 50 ml mark is rinsed with alcohol, filled with the same alcohol to the mark and immersed for 10 minutes in water at a temperature of 15 ° C, poured into a glass bath above the level of alcohol in the cylinder. After 10 minutes, 1 ml of potassium permanganate solution (0.2 g of potassium permanganate per 1 liter of water) is added to the cylinder, the cylinder is closed with a stopper and, after mixing the liquid, is again immersed in a bath of water. When standing, the red-violet color of the mixture gradually changes and reaches the color of a special standard solution, the appearance of which is taken as the end of the test.

To observe the change in the color of the alcohol, a sheet of white paper is placed under the cylinder. The time during which the oxidation reaction occurs is expressed in minutes. The test result is considered positive if the color persists for 20 minutes.

Determination of the content of acids and furfural is usually carried out in the laboratory.

To determine the acid content, 100 ml of the test alcohol is diluted with 100 ml of water and, having mixed, boiled in a flask with a ball cooler for 30 minutes. After cooling to a temperature of 35-40 ° C (the bottom of the flask can be held by hand), while top part refrigerator should be closed with a tube of soda lime, check the acidity. Alcohol acids are neutralized with 0.1 N sodium hydroxide solution in the presence of phenolphthalein until a pink color that does not disappear within 1-2 minutes appears.

The number of milligrams of acids (G) in terms of acetic acid in 1 liter of anhydrous alcohol is calculated by the formula:

Where V is the amount of 0.1 N sodium hydroxide solution used to neutralize 100 ml of the test alcohol, ml; 6 - the amount of acetic acid corresponding to 1 ml of 0.1 N sodium hydroxide solution, mg; 10 - conversion factor per 1 liter of alcohol; K - conversion factor for anhydrous alcohol K = 100; C is the strength of the tested alcohol, % (by volume).

To determine the content of furfural, 10 drops of pure aniline, 3 drops of hydrochloric acid (sp. w. 1.885) are poured into a cylinder with a ground stopper with a capacity of 10 ml using a dropper and the volume is adjusted to the mark with alcohol. If the solution remains colorless within 10 minutes, the alcohol is considered to have passed the test. The appearance of a red color characterizes the presence of furfural.

As a rule, alcohol purified at home using the above technology meets the necessary requirements for drinking alcohol.

An important technique that can significantly improve the taste and smell of drinking alcohol prepared at home is its aromatization.

To obtain aroma and give alcohol special taste you can use almost all edible berries and fruits, spices and some herbs, flowers and roots. Typically, plants used to flavor drinks are prepared in advance, dried and stored in closed containers. It is more convenient to store not dry plants, but to make an infusion or decoction from them, which take up less space and are better preserved.

Flavoring substances are extracted from vegetable raw materials with the help of solvents - alcohol or water. Before processing, raw materials must be crushed. The easiest way to extract - insisting on alcohol. In the process of infusion, alcohol is saturated with aromatic substances, and the taste of the drink changes. Raw materials should be infused until all the flavoring substances from the plant are dissolved in alcohol.

When insisting, the solution is periodically decanted, and then the raw material is poured again and shaken. Most effectively, plants give off flavoring substances at a solvent strength of 45-50 °. If the alcohol is stronger, which is determined using a hydrometer, then the solution is diluted. Periodically changing to fresh flavoring raw materials, pouring it with the same alcohol, an infusion of a higher concentration is obtained. The same effect is achieved by boiling raw materials in a sealed container, followed by infusion or without it. The boiling time is 10-15 minutes. With the help of concentrated infusions, alcohol is sometimes improved, which has not gone through the infusion stage.

The duration of the preparation of tinctures depends on the type of raw material and the temperature regime and is usually 3-5 weeks. When the temperature rises to 50-60°C, the infusion time for some types of raw materials is reduced to 5-8 days. This tincture is called precocious. If bottles with an infused drink are placed on wooden blocks placed in a pot of water and boiled, then a good tincture will turn out.

Distillation of decoctions allows to obtain concentrated solutions with a high degree of saturation with aromatic substances, as well as essential oils. These substances almost do not change the taste of the drink, but give it the desired flavor.

To add flavor, not only decoctions are distilled, but also infusions. To do this, you need to take some spice, finely grind, pour boiling water (take 3.5 liters of water per 400 g), cork tightly and insist for a day. Then add 2.5 liters of water and distill until the smell of the spice persists. Then add fresh spices and overtake again. You can perform this operation a third time. Such water is called triple, and if 200 g of such water is poured into 1.2 liters of alcohol, then the taste of the resulting drink will be similar to that obtained by distillation with spices.

Most hard way The production of aromatic substances is based on their evaporation by processing raw materials with superheated steam. For this, a special distillation apparatus is used, in which the raw material is exposed to superheated steam, which conducts a deep thermal effect on the raw material, which contributes to a better removal of aromatic substances. In this way, concentrated solutions and essential oils are obtained.

To give drinks the desired flavor, the resulting solutions are added in a small amount to drinks during manufacture. The composition of the components and their dose are of particular interest and constitute the secret of the preparation of the drink.

In addition to those mentioned, a simple method of distillation of alcoholic beverages previously infused with several aromatic components is used, which makes it possible to obtain good flavored beverages at home, in particular vodka, aperitifs and balms.

If plants and spices are added to the sourdough, then the aroma is weak during distillation. To enhance it, you need water, which is diluted with sourdough, first insist on the selected spices. You can make a decoction of them and dilute the sourdough with them.

It is more preferable to prepare the sourdough starter in flavored water, and also place the flavoring in a steamer. Such alcohol will have a stable aroma without the slightest specific smell fuselage. To do this, it is desirable to make the tubes between the furnace and the tank, the tank and the steamer in the form of coils and additionally heat them. You can also heat the steamer itself if it is made of metal. The essence of the process is the processing of the flavor with superheated alcohol-containing steam.

The distillation of infusions produces flavored drinks with a high alcohol content. To give the alcohol the desired taste after distillation, it is mixed with infusions of plants, while the alcohol itself is insisted again. For example, alcohol infused with lemon peel, after distillation, insist again on fresh lemon peel.

The use of spices for the preparation of drinks has its own characteristics. Spices can be introduced into drinks in their natural form and infused for some time, after which they are removed. Often, spices are introduced in the form of an extract, which is previously obtained by infusion in an aqueous or low-alcohol medium. IN strong drinks spices are intensively dissolved, as a result of which the taste of the drink becomes bitter and sometimes pungent, therefore, for sweet wines, it is preferable to use aqueous solutions of spices. The table below shows the approximate doses of spices used to flavor alcoholic beverages during infusion.

A good aromatic agent is berry alcohol, which is obtained by infusing lightly dried berries with a strong natural aroma (blackcurrant, raspberry, strawberry, strawberry). To do this, the berries are dried in the sun or in a drying cabinet until they become dense, but still quite soft. The berries are placed in a glass bottle, filling the entire volume, and poured with strong alcohol 80-90 °, then corked and placed in a warm place. The contents of the bottle are shaken 2-3 times a day. Insist for

7-10 days until the alcohol takes on the color and aroma of the berries. After that, the alcohol is drained and used to fortify berry wines that have a slight natural aroma.

Vanilla infusion is also prepared on alcohol, which is poorly soluble in water. Vanillin should not be put directly into the drink, as it gives bitterness and worsens the taste. To prepare vanilla alcohol, 5-6 teaspoons of vanillin are taken, poured with alcohol (200 ml, 70 °) and infused for several days, then filtered and used to make drinks. For 1 liter of liquid take 50-100 ml of vanilla alcohol.

Essential oils and essences are widely used for flavoring alcoholic beverages. They are concentrated aromatic substances and are used in very small quantities to flavor large volumes of

Pitkov. In some cases, two drops of essential oil (for example, rose) are enough to flavor several liters of the drink.

Essential oils from vegetable raw materials and spices can be obtained using a special device by steam distillation.

The device for obtaining oils (Fig. 1) includes a flask 1 with a volume of 1 l, a reflux condenser 2, an oil receiver 4. For distillation, 20-50 g of spices (vegetable raw materials) are added to the flask and 500-800 ml of water are poured, and for uniform boiling put in a flask small pieces porcelain or shards of baked clay 5. Inside the flask, using a strong thread 3, hang the oil receiver so that the lower end of the refrigerator is above the receiver funnel at a distance of 1-2 mm.

The receiver must be freely placed in the flask, without touching its walls, and be above the water level at a distance of at least 50 mm. The flask was stoppered with a condenser and heated in a sand bath. The contents of the flask are brought to a boil and maintained for several hours until the increase in the volume of essential oils in the receiver stops. The rate of condensate flow should not exceed 50-55 drops per minute. When distilling essential oils whose density is less than 1 g/cm3, i.e., these oils are lighter than water and are on the surface of the condensate, a receiver with a curved elbow of the outlet tube is used. In this case, the oil is on the surface, and excess water flows through the bent receiver elbow back into the flask.

When distilling oils with a density of more than 1 g / cm3, a direct receiver with a hole in the upper part is used. Oils accumulate at the bottom, and excess water flows into the flask through a hole in the receiver. The density of essential oils, which are often used to flavor drinks, is shown in the following table.

In addition to essential oils, essences are used. These are concentrated solutions of aromatic substances that are extracted from raw materials using solvents. Alcohol or vodka are usually used as solvents. Most often, citrus, flower and rum essences are used to flavor drinks.

For the preparation of essences, herbs and roots must be well dried and crushed. They are mixed according to special recipes chosen or invented for each type of essence. A mixture of crushed herbs and roots is poured with an alcohol solution with a strength of at least 40 ° and infused for at least 8 days; then from this infusion, by distillation, essences are obtained for the preparation of drinks. The present solutions are distilled in a special alembic, having in the middle a cylindrical metal mesh (a metal glass with holes), in which there are crushed roots and herbs.
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