How to make moonshine from rye at home

Finding quality liquor on store shelves is not easy. Making alcohol at home guarantees quality, environmental friendliness and safety.

The article describes how to make real men's drinks - rye moonshine and whiskey. You will learn how to germinate rye for malt, whether you need to use yeast, why and how to saccharify rye starch.

Features of rye moonshine

Moonshine from rye has a bright characteristic taste and aroma.

Aromatic features

The aroma may seem harsh at first. But after standing in a glass for a while, the drink acquires a mild smell of fresh rye bread with a pleasant sourness.

Taste

Moonshine is pleasantly drunk, it tastes slightly sweet. Leaves a long-lasting aftertaste of rye bread crumb.

On a note. Rye moonshine goes well with kvass, which emphasizes its bread bouquet.

How to make rye moonshine without yeast

Alcohol from cereals tastes better than those obtained from sugar-containing raw materials. It is not difficult to cook it at home, although this process is multi-stage and requires care and accuracy.

Ingredients

To prepare a drink you will need:

• rye grain - 6.15 kg (0.15 kg for fording, 1 kg for malt, 5 kg for mash);
• granulated sugar - 0.06 kg for wading;
• water.

Attention! Choose grains that are free of damage or deterioration (dark spots, mold).

Getting malt

The starch contained in the grain is unable to ferment. To start the process, you need malt - sprouted grains of cereals.

During germination, chemical changes occur in the composition of the seeds and the diastase enzyme is formed, which is capable of dissolving and decomposing starch to maltose, one of the sugars that can ferment.

For rye moonshine, malt is prepared on the basis of rye:

1. 1 kg of washed rye is poured into a wide basin or pan and cold water is poured 4-5 cm above the grain level, left for 7-8 hours.
2. All floating litter and empty grains are removed, the water is drained and the soaking procedure is repeated 3 more times.
3. Lay out the cereal in a thin layer in a wide bowl and cover with damp gauze folded in 4-5 layers.
4. Leave the future malt in a cool dark place, gently mix the grains every 10-12 hours.
5. Moisten the cheesecloth regularly to keep the seedlings from drying out, but avoid getting the grains too wet.
6. Germinate the grains until the sprouts reach a length of 5-6 mm. On average, this takes about a week.

Important! In this way, "green malt" is obtained. It must be used within 3 days, otherwise the enzyme activity will significantly decrease.

Cooking ford

To make mash without yeast, you need to make a fermentation - activate the "wild" yeast on the surface of the grains.

Manufacturing steps:

1. About 150 g of rye is thoroughly washed from dust and husks.
2. The washed grain is spread in a layer of 2-3 cm on the bottom of a wide container and poured with cold water 1-1.5 cm above the rye level. There is no need to cover the dishes.
3. Leave the workpiece in a dark place for a day.
4. Add 50-60 g of sugar, mix thoroughly and leave in a warm place for 3-5 days.

Signs of readiness are the appearance of gas bubbles, foam on the surface and a slight smell of fermentation.

On a note! To prevent souring, the finished wading is placed under a water seal.

Saccharification

Before putting the mash, the rye starch is converted into sugar (maltose).

Stages of the saccharification process:

1. Grind the remaining rye in a blender to a coarse flour.
2. Heat 20 l of water to 48-50 ° C.
3. The crushed grain is poured into heated water with constant stirring.
4. The resulting mass is heated to 58-60 ° C and left at this temperature for 15 minutes.
5. Heat is added and the mixture is heated to 62-64 ° C, again kept at this temperature for 15 minutes.
6. Then bring the paste to a boil and cook for 1.5-2 hours. Stir the mixture periodically so that it does not burn.
7. Cool the mass to 63-65 ° C.
8. Grind the previously prepared malt in a blender.
9. In a separate container, heat 3 liters of water to 23-25 ​​° C and add chopped malt. Mix thoroughly. The result is "malted milk".
10. With constant stirring, pour the milk in a thin stream into the boiled rye flour.
11. Close the container with a lid and heat up to 62-63 ° C. The temperature should not rise above 70 ° C, otherwise the enzymes will be destroyed and the saccharification of starch will not occur.
12. Wrap the dishes with the mixture with a warm cloth and leave for 2 hours. At the same time, the mass is mixed every 20-25 minutes.

On a note! To improve the taste of the finished product, use spring or well water.

Fermentation

When all the components are ready, they begin to prepare the mash:

1. The warm flour mass after saccharification (wort) is quickly cooled to 23-25 ​​° C by placing the container in a bath with cold water or ice. This will help prevent the development of pathogenic bacteria.
2. The cooled liquid is poured into a fermentation vessel, filling it with no more than 70-75% in case of violent fermentation and foaming.
3. Add rye ferment and mix thoroughly.
4. A water seal is installed on the neck of the container to prevent air from entering the fermentation vessel.
5. Leave the liquid to ferment in a warm (20-25 ° C) dark place. The process lasts from 7 to 14 days, depending on the temperature and the degree of saccharification. The higher these parameters are, the faster the fermentation will end.

At the finished wash, the release of carbon dioxide stops, the liquid clears up, a sediment falls on the bottom of the container. Completely fermented wort has a bitter taste with no signs of sweetness. Braga, ready for distillation, has a strength of at least 10º.

On a note! A rubber glove is used as a water seal, after piercing a hole in one of the fingers.

Distillation

Distillation is the most crucial stage in the preparation of rye moonshine. The taste and aroma of the final product will depend on the quality of the run.

Attention! An alcoholometer and a thermometer are needed to monitor the progress of the process.

Distillation purifies the product from hazardous impurities formed during fermentation. The main harmful substances in the wash are methanol, acetaldehydes ("heads") and fusel oils ("tails").

First haul

At this stage, insoluble impurities present in the mash are separated and the strength is increased. The process is carried out without separating fractions. For this:

1. In a clean container, a tube or a short hose is carefully drained from the sediment that has played out.
2. Filter the liquid first through several layers of gauze, and then through a cotton filter. If filtration is neglected, sediment particles can burn and clog the pipes of the moonshine still.
3. Braga is poured into a cube of a moonshine still, heated to a boil and alcohol is distilled out to a content of 3-5% in the stream (which corresponds to a boiling point of 99.5 ° C).

Using an alcohol meter, the total strength of the raw alcohol is determined, then diluted with water to 19-20º.

On a note! Before the second distillation, it is possible to clean the raw material with activated carbon. But in the case of making rye moonshine to preserve the aroma of bread, experienced moonshiners do not recommend doing this.

Second leg

The second distillation (or fractional distillation) is based on the difference in the boiling points of the substances obtained during fermentation.When heated, first products with a boiling point lower than that of ethanol ("head", or "pervach") are released, then the drinking fraction ("body") and a vat residue with a high boiling point ("tails") remains.

Second distillation steps:

1. Diluted raw alcohol is poured into the cube of the distillation apparatus and the heating is turned on.
2. When the first drops of distillate appear, the fire is reduced so that the liquid exit rate is 1-3 drops per second. The selection of "heads" is carried out slowly for better separation of them from the drinking fraction.
3. The distillation of the light fraction is continued until the characteristic unpleasant odor of acetone disappears.
4. The receiving container is changed, the heating is increased to form a thin trickle, and the main product is discharged.
5. Finish distillation at 45-48º alcohol in a stream (corresponds to a boiling point of 94-94.3 ° C). With further selection, fusel oils fall into the main fraction.

Dilution of moonshine

The fortress of the product after the correct second run ranges from 50 to 60º. To improve the drinking properties, it is advised to dilute the moonshine with good (preferably spring) water to a concentration of 38-41º.

After dilution, the drink is poured into glass containers, hermetically sealed and left for a week. During this time, the taste and aroma are stabilized.

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Product yield

The output of rye moonshine from the mash depends on many factors:

• completeness of saccharification of starch;
• fermentation technology (temperature, water seal quality);
• distillation quality;
• the design of the moonshine still.

The theoretical yield of moonshine in terms of a forty-degree product is 880 ml from 1 kg of rye. In practice, this figure can be 10% less.

How to make homemade whiskey from rye moonshine

Rye moonshine prepared according to all the rules is good in itself, but connoisseurs recommend trying to make whiskey based on it.

The simplest recipe is to insist moonshine in an oak barrel. The drink should stand in the container from 2 months to a year. The larger the volume of the barrel, the longer it takes to obtain the original taste and aroma.

Another option for making homemade whiskey:

1. In 1.5 liters of homemade rye moonshine with a strength of 45º add 3 tbsp. l. roasted malt, stir.
2. Leave in a dark, warm place for a week.
3. Dilute with water 2 times and distill, cutting off the "heads" and "tails".
4. Oak chips are added to the drinking fraction and infused for at least 1 month.
5. The drink prepared by this method is not inferior in taste to traditional Scotch whiskey.

How to make malt-free rye moonshine

To speed up the process and reduce labor intensity, rye moonshine is prepared using sugar instead of malt. Fermentation is activated by "wild" yeast from the surface of the grain.

Unmalted rye braga

For mash, a sourdough is made from unmalted rye:

• prepare syrup from 0.6 kg of sugar and 3 liters of water;
• 3 kg of washed rye are poured into an enamel or glass dish and poured with syrup;
• leave in a warm place for 3-4 days.

The sourdough is used for further preparation of the mash, when carbon dioxide begins to evolve and a characteristic sour smell appears.

The brew is put like this:

• dissolve 2.4 kg of sugar in 12 liters of water;
• the resulting liquid is poured into a fermentation vessel and the leaven is added;
• leave in a dark warm place to ferment.

From the fermented wort by double distillation, rye moonshine with a rich taste and aroma is obtained.

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Conclusion

Rye moonshine is a drink with an original taste and aroma. To cook it at home is within the power of a novice moonshiner.The main thing is to follow the technology exactly: to properly prepare fermentation and malt, to saccharify rye starch, to create optimal conditions for fermentation.

Double distillation with the removal of harmful impurities will allow you to get a pleasant high quality product.

Rye moonshine, infused in an oak barrel or on oak chips, turns into an excellent whiskey. You should definitely try to prepare such alcohol at home: the labor and time costs will pay off with the pleasure of drinking a quality drink in a pleasant company.