Grain distillates, and simply wheat alcohol was prepared by our ancestors in absolutely uncomfortable conditions.
And it was not an anecdotal “booze”.
Centuries later, can we really not repeat the same thing, relying on modern technologies, but without neglecting traditions?
Moonshine from wheat at home: basic principles and technology of preparation
The process of making moonshine usually consists of the following steps:
1. Preparation of malt braga.
2. Distillation.
3. Cleaning.
4. Re-distillation.
5. Dilution of the prepared moonshine to the necessary strength.
These stages should be considered especially at least briefly.
1. Recipes for the preparation of mash, despite the fact that we are limited to the grain option, there are dozens of species. Relatively affordable - are listed below, but something needs to be specified in advance. Malt is the germinated grains of cereals, it can be fresh (green) and dry (light). Fresh is used immediately, and the dry is usually ground into flour. Braga is prepared using yeast and yeast-free technology, which, in addition to taste, also affects the speed of digestion. You have to choose the technique yourself, experienced distillers go through many experiments, but rarely stop at the same recipe.
2. The process of distillation is not at all simpler, the taste of the final product depends on it to the same extent. Here the quality of the equipment used and strict adherence to temperature conditions are important. Self-made, “garage” production distillers give the output of the same questionable quality product. A good device, made of a suitable metal, carefully calculated in terms of performance and equipped with the necessary accessories (filters, thermometers), can be purchased using an Internet search. Usually, it is also provided with an instruction manual, rarely costing without mentioning the process of forcing home-made moonshine from wheat at home.
3. If the used distillation apparatus is equipped with built-in filters, use them, although it is inappropriate if you want to get a distillate with a characteristic wheat or other grain flavor. Ideally, it is better not to use them, collect the product completely, “align” the degree to about 17%, and pour activated carbon (granulated) into the container at the rate of 15 grams per liter of product. You can use charcoal for kebabs, best of all birch, its amount is chosen a little more. The cleaning procedure takes about 48 hours. 4. Repeated distillation is carried out in order, as experts call it, “to cut off tails” - to get rid of “hard” alcohol fractions. In the process of re-distillation, Pervac, in an amount of about 5-8%, is collected and used as a technical alcohol. Further fractions can also be divided, but this is a complex process that requires precise calculations, in principle, it is sufficient to periodically select a product and measure its strength. To obtain high-quality moonshine, it is desirable to stop the distillation, only the strength of the product will go down for 38 degrees. The residue can be re-cleaned and mixed with the next batch or used for infusion and re-distillation.
5. Dilute ready-made moonshine, focusing on personal taste sensations. For making tinctures and liqueurs, they take a stronger one - 55-65 degrees; for use in pure form, they usually use moonshine with a strength of 45 to 50 degrees. For dilution use only very pure water - bottled, spring water, or passed through a reverse osmosis filter.
Moonshine from wheat at home from home brew without yeast, on germinated grain
Ingredients:
• four kilograms of wheat grain;
• four kilograms of granulated sugar;
• 30 liters of purified (filtered) water.
Cooking Method:
1. Pour one kilogram of washed, cleaned from debris and residues of grain husk into a metal container. Smooth it evenly across the bottom of the tank and pour water. Water must be at least two centimeters above wheat. Cover the container with a lid and put it in a cool, two-bottom space without access to light. During this time, the grain will sprout, if this does not happen, change the grain and repeat the procedure.
2. When sprouts appear on the wheat grains, add a pound of granulated sugar and mix the contents of the container well with your hands. If you get too thick mass, you can add some water. Cover the dishes with gauze and leave for a week and a half, at a temperature of 18 to 24 degrees. In such conditions, during this time a starter is formed, which is able to replace the yeast. 3. Then pour the prepared leaven into a large glass bottle, add three and a half kilograms of sugar, three kilograms of purified wheat and fill it with warm, boiled water, with a temperature of less than 20 degrees.
4. Take a rubber medical glove that serves as a water seal and put it on the neck of the glass container. Hold the glove well so that it does not fly off during the fermentation process. At the same time, keep in mind that an excess of carbon dioxide must pass freely enough outside.
5. Approximately for ten days, place the capacity for fermentation in any suitable room, with thermal performance indicators that fluctuate within 18-24 degrees, no more and no less.
6. In about ten days, the glove will deflate, indicating that the fermentation process has been completed and is ready for distillation.
7. Drain the Braga, and, poured into the apparatus, proceed to the distillation of moonshine. You can add four kilograms of sugar to the residue remaining on the bottom of the dish, add water and reuse it. The precipitate can be used up to three times. The highest quality is obtained mash with the second and third use.
Moonshine from wheat at home from home brew on germinated grain, with the addition of yeast
Ingredients:
• two and a half kilograms of high-quality wheat;
• twenty liters of purified, bottled water;
• six kilograms of unrefined sugar;
• instant - 100 grams, or 500 grams of pressed alcohol yeast;
• half a liter of fat kefir.
Cooking Method:
1. On large flat pallets with high sides, lay out the wheat cleared of excess garbage with a two-centimeter layer and fill it with warm water. To ensure that the grain germinates, water should be poured so that it covers the grain quite a bit. After that, remove the pallets with wheat soaked in them for a few days in a dark warm place where the air temperature does not go down for 18, but does not rise above 25 degrees.
2. Usually, when the above recommendations are carried out, on the third day the first sprouts appear on the grains. In the absence of such, you will need to take another wheat and repeat this procedure. The lack of sprouts speaks of poor-quality grain. 3. Next, you should germinate wheat until the moment when the length of the shoots reaches two centimeters. While the wheat grains are growing, they are very carefully turned over at least once a day to prevent the process of souring and mold.
4. After the shoots have grown and started to intertwine, carefully remove them from the pallets. This is the so-called malt.
5. In a large forty-liter container, fill in bottled water heated to 60 degrees, add sugar and mix, ensuring complete dissolution of the crystals. When the water has cooled to 24 degrees, transfer the prepared malt and yeast diluted in water into the tank. Again mix the contents of the container well and place the water seal on top.
6. After the mash has won back (after about 1.5 weeks), strain it through the gauze lined with a colander and distill it into moonshine.
7. Grain, as in the previous recipe, can be used, without changing, up to 3 times.
The easiest recipe for home-made home-made moonshine with yeast
Ingredients:
• 21 liters of filtered or spring water;
• four kilograms of wheat grains;
• six kilograms of sugar;
• 130 grams of pressed alcohol, necessarily fresh, yeast.
Cooking Method:
1. Cleaned, washed from impurities grain, grind through a meat grinder and cover with three liters of warm, but not hot boiled water.
2. Add one kilogram of granulated sugar, one hundred grams of crushed fresh yeast, stir well until they are completely dissolved and, with the lid on, place for five days to ferment in a warm place without too much light.
3. After add the remaining water, heating it. Pour the remaining sugar and yeast, predispose them. Stir everything and leave to ferment for another five days.
4. When the cooked home brew is clarified, strain and distill it.
5. Grain is not reused for this method of preparing the mash.
Simplified version of good home-brewed wheat moonshine without yeast
Ingredients:
• three kilograms of pure durum wheat; • three kilograms of sugar;
• 12 liters of purified, best bottled water.
Cooking Method:
1. Of the three kilograms of sugar and 0.6 liters of water, boil the syrup and cool it until it cools completely.
2. Pour the washed millet into a large enameled bowl and, filling it with the prepared chilled syrup, leave it in an open form in a warm place for four days, until the release of carbon dioxide. In some cases related to the quality of the grain, it may take longer.
3. When the surface of the syrup is covered with foam and an unpleasant sour smell appears, pour the “ferment” into a large glass bottle.
4. Then pour a little cold but still warm syrup from the remaining sugar and water to the “bastard”.
5. Put a water seal made of a medical glove into the container and leave the brag to ferment at room temperature for six days. The process can be delayed for a longer time, up to one and a half weeks. It all depends on the temperature. Do not forget to periodically inspect the fermenting product, it should not be allowed to sour.
6. At the end of fermentation will indicate a grain that has sunk to the bottom, as well as a deflated glove.
7. Upon completion of the fermentation process, you can proceed to the distillation process.
Preparation of high-quality light malt for home-brew wheat from wheat at home
Ingredients:
• water and wheat grain
Cooking Method:
1. Sift the full-sized wheat grain stored for not more than a year, rinse thoroughly with warm water and soak, preferably in a wooden container, until it swells. Change the water periodically, no more than every eight hours.
2. After the grain is completely swollen, lay it in a thin layer in a cool room, without light, cover with a thin layer of gauze. In the first five days periodically turn over the wheat, for airing. Then leave it under gauze for another five days, but do not touch it.
3. In ten days the wheat will germinate, sprouts half a centimeter long will appear on it.
4. Rinse the finished malt under running water, dry in a drying cabinet, with a temperature of not more than 40 degrees or in the open air until completely dry. 5. Then grind the dried malt using a grain crusher to flour. The malt, well dried before grinding, ensures its long-term storage. Store the malt flour in linen bags.
“Babushkin” home-brew wheat from malt
Ingredients:
• 6 kilograms of homemade wheat malt, can be purchased;
• 25 liters of distilled or purified water;
• 50 grams of dry instant (like "Voronezh") or 300 grams of fresh alcohol yeast.
Cooking Method:
1. In the selected “with stock” large capacity, pour the prepared malt and fill it with hot (no more than 55 degrees) boiled water. Add water in small parts, and the malt at the same time intensively stir, so that it does not stick to the bottom and did not form lumps.
2. When the mass becomes homogeneous, heat the prepared wort to 63 degrees and tightly close the lid. Insist about an hour, keeping the temperature in the range of 57-63 degrees, while constantly stirring the contents of the container.
3. After the top of the preparing wort is lightened, and a paste-like sediment forms at the bottom, the wort must be cooled. This should be done quickly, using forced cooling, since time for this part of the process should take no more than 45 minutes.
4. Pour the mash that has cooled down to 25-27 degrees into the container intended for fermentation, add the yeast diluted in water and, having mixed well, put it under the hydraulic lock.
5. Move the vessel with the wort to a dark room where the air temperature does not rise more than 25 degrees, but does not fall below eighteen.
6. The duration of fermentation depends on the sugar content of the prepared malt and the activity of the acquired yeast. Typically, the fermentation process lasts from four to seven days.
7. At least once a day we remove the water seal and stir the mash.
8. The finished brew is slightly bitter, but generally sour taste, it is light in color.
9. Before moonshine distillation, the malt brew should be filtered through a rare sieve, otherwise small particles remaining during crushing into flour can stick to the bottom of the distillation apparatus and burn with intensive heating.
Moonshine from wheat at home - tricks and useful tips
• When choosing wheat, be sure to monitor the presence of impurities, accidentally falling seeds of other plants will spoil the taste of moonshine beyond recognition.
• Also, make sure that the grains are solid, with a small amount they should even be sorted out manually. The “shredder” will not germinate, but, on the contrary, will turn sour and may spoil the entire malt.
• Yeast is preferably alcoholic, not baking.
• A special, “bread” flavor can be enhanced by insisting home-made wheat brew on bread crusts. This is best done with the so-called “tails” - the product of a small fortress. A kilogram of bread crusts per 7-8 liters of moonshine, insist 3-7 days, at the desired strength of the effect. You can add a few grams of ground cinnamon. Bread is suitable and rye and white, white crackers should be a little dry in the oven until light brown. Next, the precipitate is squeezed and discarded, and the infusion is drained through cheesecloth, filtered and sent for further distillation.
