Simple barley moonshine recipes

The market abounds in strong alcoholic drinks. But some amateurs, connoisseurs and businessmen prefer not to buy but to produce alcohol. For example, good old moonshine. It is made from sugar, wine, bread, beer, berry and grain mash. There are more than 1000 recipes for this strong aromatic drink.

Connoisseurs admit that the softest and richest product is obtained using mash from cereals. Moonshine is an almost alchemical process that has its own subtleties and difficulties for beginners. Therefore, before deciding to make a drink at home, we recommend that you study the technology in detail.

Moonshine is a home-made strong alcoholic drink

Moonshine is any strong drink obtained at home by distillation.... The very name of this drink contains the method of its production. Moonshine is "driven", that is, the original drink with a lower alcohol content is subjected to distillation by the method of low-temperature distillation, obtaining strong alcohol.

During distillation, alcohol with water evaporates from low-alcohol raw materials and then condenses. The condensation of alcohol with water and ballast substances is the goal of the process.

The unrefined distillation was named "Pervak"... It is subjected to purification, re-distillation, infusion on herbs, aging in oak barrels, receiving strong drinks, unique in taste, united by the common name "moonshine".

Attention! Alcohol consumption is harmful to your health.

To begin with, you need a raw material - a low-alcohol product, obtained by the method of alcoholic fermentation, or simply "mash". What it is not made of: sugar, crackers, jam, fruits - everything that contains sugar or starch.

One of the types of raw materials is barley mash... Barley contains 72% starch, which means that from 100 g of barley during fermentation and distillation, you can get up to 37 g of alcohol (in terms of 100% pure substance) or 80 ml of a water-alcohol solution of 40% strength. This makes barley an advantageous raw material to use.

Before making moonshine

Before you start distilling, study the legal side of the issue and purchase the necessary inventory.

The legal side of the issue of moonshine

In the 80s of the last century, administrative and criminal penalties were envisaged for the production of alcoholic beverages with a strength of more than 4%. Later, with the formation of the Russian Federation, the law was abolished. However, the government continues to control the production of hard liquor.

Important! On the territory of Russia, the artisanal production of alcoholic beverages for the purpose of sale is prohibited. Fines are provided for violation of the law.

Manufacturing alcohol for sale requires licenses for the production and sale of alcoholic beverages. The quality of the drink itself is confirmed by a declaration of conformity.An additional tax has been introduced on the production of each commercial alcoholic unit - excise tax, upon payment of which an excise stamp is attached to the product.

In Russia, several types of moonshine are officially produced ("Good Farmer", "Derevensky") with a declaration of conformity and an excise stamp.

It is allowed to produce moonshine "for yourself" in the amount of up to 200 liters per year... You can transport finished products in a volume of no more than 10 liters.

Penalty for exceeding the norms production and transportation:

• RUB 5,000 - for individuals;
• RUB 20,000-50,000 - for officials;
• RUB 100,000-150000 - for legal entities and individual entrepreneurs.

Apparatus for making moonshine

All necessary equipment is purchased in special stores for moonshine.

Inventory for getting mash:

• containers with a volume of 10-25 liters with a semi-permeable cork or a water seal, in some cases latex stretch gloves are suitable;
• wooden spoon with a long handle for stirring;
• alcohol meter with a limit of alcohol determination up to 30%;
• glass thermometer.

Alcohol meters are household and laboratory... The first has a wide range of alcohol determination, but low accuracy. The second has a detection limit for alcohol in a liquid, but is highly accurate.

With the help of laboratory equipment, you can also set the amount of sugar in the liquid, which will help in determining the end of fermentation. The more accurate the device, the easier it is to calculate the volume of the future product and prepare the container.

Inventory for obtaining moonshine:

• moonshine still with an accurate thermometer;
• gas or electric heater;
• uninterrupted supply of cold water;
• glass containers for collecting finished products;
• alcohol meter with a limit of alcohol determination up to 90%.

Preparing barley for mash

Alcoholic yeast does not process complex sugars such as starch and cellulose, so mash will not work if you just pour water over the grains and add yeast... To start the fermentation process, starch-containing raw materials need to be "saccharified". For this, some of the grains are germinated, during which complex carbohydrates are broken down to glucose by the action of the enzymes of the seedling. The sprouted grain is called malt.

Before malt preparation, barley is tested for germination... To do this, select 100-200 medium grains, which are wrapped in wet gauze, covered with perforated polyethylene and left in a warm place. The gauze is periodically moistened. After 3-7 days, the seedlings are checked. If less than 90 germinated out of 100 grains, such barley is unsuitable for malt.

Malt preparation steps:

1. Washing and selection of grains. Barley grains without external damage are washed in cold running water.
2. Soak. Barley is poured with clean water in a shallow container so as to cover all the grains. The process takes 2-2.5 days. During this period, the water is changed every 8-9 hours, leaving the barley without water for two hours to activate the germ enzymes.
3. Germination. Grains without water are spread in a thin layer on a tray, covered with damp gauze and cling film so that the moisture does not evaporate, and left in a warm place. Several holes are made in the film around the perimeter for oxygen access. The grain is periodically sprayed with clean water from a spray bottle and gently mixed so as not to damage the sprouts. On days 6-7, they reach 2-3 cm, the grains themselves become sweetish in taste - which means that the malt is ready.

If desired, it is ground into a gruel in a meat grinder, mill or blender.

Fresh malt can be stored for up to three days... To make it pro-stock, barley seedlings are dried at a temperature of + 45-55 ° C for 16-18 hours. Dry malt suitable for further use has a light shade - discarded grains that have darkened during the drying process.

Ingredients for barley moonshine

If you decide to make moonshine for the first time, keep in mind that losses at each stage of preparation will amount to 10-15%.

Average to obtain about 5 liters of moonshine with a strength of 40%, you will need:

• malt - 1-1.5 kg;
• barley grains - 4.5-5 kg;
• water - 27 liters.

If desired to speed up the fermentation process add up to 1 kg of sugar and up to 12 g of dry (or 60 g of pressed) yeast.

Moonshine stages

Making moonshine from barley includes two stages: preparing mash and distilling it into moonshine.

Barley braga

Grain mash gives a softer and more aromatic distillate compared to sugar... Barley mash is obtained using yeast or barley culture. If it is made without yeast, the barley is not rinsed before use so as not to wash away the yeast from the surface of the barley.

Obtaining barley culture includes the following stages:

1. 100-150 g of pure barley is soaked in clean water and left in a dark place at + 25 ° C.
2. After 1-1.5 days, add 50-75 g of sugar.
3. The container is sealed with a water seal or wet gauze with a glove and left to ferment for a week.

The finished starter culture has a sour smell and foams... The difficulty of yeast-free mash production is the unpredictable composition of microflora on the surface of barley grains. Instead of fermenting, the mash can turn sour, rancid or moldy, so experienced moonshine dealers and brewers add ready-made yeast.

Getting mash:

1. Dried malt is crushed to a coarse flour and poured into a deep saucepan.
2. Then it is poured in a ratio of 1: 4 with hot water + 50-55 ° C with constant stirring so that no lumps form until the mass becomes homogeneous. Malt with water of the consistency of liquid sour cream is called wort.
3. It is heated to + 63 ° С, mixed thoroughly again and covered with a lid. At a temperature of + 55-62 ° C, it languishes for 60-80 minutes. Every 15 minutes he is disturbed. When the upper part of the wort becomes light and the gruel settles, the heating is stopped. If it is too intense and the temperature rises to + 70 ° C, the wort will be spoiled.
4. It is quickly cooled in an ice bath to + 24-27 ° C so that it does not sour ahead of time.
5. The cooled wort is poured into a fermentation vessel, yeast or barley starter and sugar (if desired) are added, mixed thoroughly. Select the volume of the fermentation vessel so that after adding water, 25% of the empty space remains. During fermentation, liquid rises and can overflow or clog the odor trap. Use glass or food grade containers.
6. The container is sealed, covered with a bag or rags from the sun's rays and placed in a warm place.

In order for the raw materials to ferment faster and not deteriorate, a temperature of at least + 18-25 ° C is required... Once a day, the mash is stirred with a wooden stirrer. If the container is covered with a glove, the air is released as it is inflated. Fermentation lasts 3-7 days. Three days later, samples are taken daily to measure sugar and alcohol levels.

Signs of the end of the fermentation process:

• the dregs settle to the bottom, the mash becomes lighter;
• gas separation stops;
• the liquid acquires a bitter-sour taste without sweetness;
• the alcohol meter shows the absence of sugar and at least 10% alcohol.

See the continuation of the video below.

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Making moonshine

Pure moonshine from malt and barley is obtained by double distillation of the mash.

First haul:

1. Braga is filtered through a fine sieve or cheesecloth. There should be no grain particles in the filtrate, as they will burn in the distillation still and spoil the taste of the drink.
2. Filtered mash is poured into the distillation cube and heating begins, water is connected to the coil cooler.
3. The first portions of the run ("heads") obtained at temperatures up to + 76 ° C are poured into a separate container.
4. When the temperature in the cube reaches + 76-78 ° C, the collection of moonshine begins. The fluid will turn out cloudy due to ballast substances. Check the fortress of the stretch periodically. When the sample taken contains less than 30% alcohol, the distillation is stopped. The last portion of the haul is called the "tail"."Heads" and "tails" contain substances hazardous to health, they are used only for technical purposes. Only the "body" is suitable for drinking - the middle part of the stretch.
5. The strength of the distillate is measured with an alcohol meter.
6. Determine the total volume of alcohol by the formula V alcohol = V distillate ×% strength × 0.01 (for example, 10 liters of ferry with a strength of 45% contain 10 × 45 × 0.01 = 4.5 liters of alcohol).
7. The distillate is diluted with water to a strength of 20%.

If desired, the first distillation is cleaned with coal from ballast substances... For this, crushed activated carbon is poured into the distillate, mixed and left alone for 1.5-2 hours. After that, the liquid is filtered through a paper filter or blotter (paper towel or napkins will do). After filtration, the first distillation becomes transparent, unpleasant odors disappear.

Second leg:

1. The purified primary distillate is poured into the cube of the moonshine still and distilled again.
2. The first 12-15% of the resulting haul is collected in a separate container - this is the "head".
3. The “body” is harvested before the fortress falls below 45%. The "tail", like the "head", is collected in a separate container for technical needs.
4. Determine the alcohol content of the distillate.
5. Secondary distillation is diluted with water to the desired strength, poured into a glass container for storage. The finished product will be clear and may have a slight amber tint.

The secondary distillate is left for 3-4 days to stabilize the taste.... It can be refined with milk, insisted in an oak barrel, aromatic herbs can be added, but even without these procedures, you will get a strong drink with a bread aroma and mild taste.

Barley moonshine recipes

Not only whole barley grains are used as raw materials for moonshine, but also other cereals, flour. Let's talk about some of the simplest recipes.

Sprouted barley moonshine

Cooking does not take much time, since completely saccharified raw materials ferment faster.

Ingredients:

• barley grains - 2.5 kg;
• sugar - 4 kg;
• water - 23 l;
• baker's yeast - 50 g.

Cooking steps:

1. Malt is obtained from the entire volume of barley grains.
2. Malt is saccharified, wort is obtained.
3. The wort is poured into a fermentation tank, poured with water, sugar and yeast are added and left until the mash is ready.
4. Braga is filtered and distilled twice in a moonshine still.

Moonshine from yeast-free mash with sugar

In this case, yeast is not needed, which will reduce raw material costs.

Ingredients:

• barley grains - 5 kg;
• sugar - 6.5 kg;
• water - 25 l.

Cooking steps:

1. A third of the barley is fermented with 1.5 kg of sugar.
2. The remaining barley is germinated to produce malt.
3. Wort is prepared from malt.
4. In a fermentation vessel, wort, barley starter, the remaining sugar, water are mixed and left in a warm place to obtain mash.
5. The resulting mash is filtered and subjected to double distillation in a moonshine still.

Barley flour moonshine

If you don't have whole grains, you can use this recipe.

Ingredients:

• coarse barley flour - 10 kg;
• baker's yeast - 200 g;
• water - 15 liters.

Cooking steps:

1. Pour barley flour with hot unboiled water, stir and insist for three hours.
2. When the mixture cools down to + 27-30 ° С, yeast is added to it and the container is closed for fermentation.
3. The finished mash is filtered and distilled twice in a moonshine still.

Moonshine from a yachka

Even a beginner can master this simple recipe.

Ingredients:

• finely ground barley groats - 4 kg;
• alpha-amylase - 4 ml;
• glucoamylase - 4 ml;
• pressed baker's yeast - 150 g;
• water - 12 liters.

For reference. Amylase enzymes are available at home brewing stores.

Cooking steps:

1. Boil 12 liters of water in a deep saucepan.
2. With continuous stirring, add the barley and bring to a boil.
3. The pan is removed from the heat, sealed, wrapped in a blanket and left for three hours.
4. Alpha-amylase is introduced with continuous stirring until the consistency becomes more liquid.
5. When the temperature of the mixture drops to + 65 ° C, add glucoamylase and mix again.
6. The container is closed again, wrapped and left for 60 minutes.
7. The mixture is cooled to + 29 ° C and yeast is added.
8. The ingredients are poured into a fermentation vessel and a water seal is placed.
9. The finished mash is filtered and distilled twice in a moonshine still.

Barley drinks

Barley moonshine can be used to make vodka and tinctureswith a more refined taste and aroma. In addition to strong alcoholic drinks and beer, barley, rich in starch, is suitable for making kvass.

Barley kvass

Kvass from cereals famous for its healing properties and benefits for the gastrointestinal tract... Barley kvass is no exception.

Ingredients:

• barley - 250 g;
• sugar or honey - 2 tbsp. l .;
• raisins - 50 g;
• water - 6 liters.

Cooking steps:

1. The barley is washed several times until clear water, the floating debris is removed. Pure barley is poured into a three-liter jar.
2. Add a handful of unwashed raisins.
3. Fall asleep 1 tbsp. l. Sahara.
4. Pour the ingredients with cold boiled water and stir to dissolve the sugar.
5. The jar is closed with moist two-layer gauze, which is pressed to the edges of the jar with an elastic band, and left in a warm place for a day.
6. The liquid is drained, the remainder is poured again with 3 liters of water, sugar is dissolved in it and left in a warm place until tender.

Barley kvass is prepared on average 3-5 days... Store it in the refrigerator and add honey, mint, grated berries and fruits if desired.

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Barley vodka

Many people know this drink under the more plausible name "whiskey"... But in essence, whiskey is the kind of barley vodka that was produced in England. At home, unfortunately, it is impossible to observe all the subtleties of the technology, but the effect of long aging of barley vodka in an oak barrel can be skillfully imitated.

Ingredients:

• barley moonshine 45% - 3 l;
• oak bark - 3 tbsp. l .;
• charcoal - 50 g;
• dried apricots or prunes - 6-8 pcs.

Cooking steps:

1. Coal is ground into a fine powder. Oak bark is scalded with boiling water.
2. Oak bark, coal and dried fruits are poured into the jar. After that, pour half the volume of moonshine and mix.
3. Top up the remaining moonshine. The jar is not filled up to the neck, leaving empty space.
4. The jar is tightly closed with a lid and left to infuse for two weeks in a dark, cool place.
5. The finished product is filtered and poured into a container for storage.

Problems in the manufacture of moonshine and ways to solve them

Let's look at the difficulties that moonshiners face and give instructions on how to cope with them.

Moonshine smells like acetone

Acetone is a dangerous toxin for the body. The use of an alcoholic product with its participation can lead to acute intoxication, irreversible damage to the stomach and liver. Acetone begins to release into the distillate if the wash is peroxidized.

Solutions:

1. Observe the brew infusion regimen. Do not distill overstocking spoiled mash.
2. Increase the volume of heads and tails to be separated. Do not collect the "body" until the stream of moonshine supply ceases to have an acetone smell.
3. If moonshine has already been obtained, clean it with activated charcoal and distill again. Observe the temperature regime of re-run.

Persistent unpleasant smell of moonshine

This is a sign of the presence of a large amount of fusel oils in the finished product.... They are a mixture of oily volatile products that negatively affect the liver and gastrointestinal tract.

Solutions:

1. The distillate is purified using potassium permanganate. Dissolve 2-3 g of powder in 3 liters of moonshine. When potassium permanganate precipitates, shake the jar, close the lid and heat for 15 minutes in a water bath at + 50-70 ° C, then filter.
2. Cleaning with baking soda. 10 g of soda is dissolved in 1 liter of moonshine and left in a dark place for 12 hours. The purified moonshine is filtered, the precipitate is drained.
3. Activated carbon cleaning. Coal is crushed, poured into a container with moonshine, mixed and insisted in a dark place for 12-24 hours. The purified product is filtered.

After all the tried and tested methods of cleaning, moonshine still has an unpleasant smell and taste.

Some harmful volatile components remain in moonshine after traditional cleaning methods.... This problem occurs if the wash was infused in a metal or plastic container of poor quality. Then, the section may contain formaldehyde, methyl, isopropyl, butyl alcohols, organic acid esters and ethers and other substances hazardous to health.

Another danger - if barley treated with chemicals was used, oxidized organic nitrates will be present in the moonshine, which can cause liver failure when consumed even in small doses.

Solutions:

1. Dispose of the product. Don't risk your health. Prepare a new portion of moonshine from quality raw materials, observing the technology.
2. If you still regret the effort spent and you are a risky person, the only way to save the product is to drive it through the rectifier column. Multi-stage filtration in this device will help get rid of toxic substances. Moonshine is run through a rectifier once, getting alcohol up to 96% alcohol. It can be diluted or used to make tinctures.

Conclusion

Moonshine is a drink that requires special equipment and skills. For the successful production of pure and safe alcohol, observe the recipe proportions and choose good quality raw materials.

Do not overexpose malt and mash so that the raw materials for ferrying do not deteriorate. Distill the distillate twice to get rid of ballast. If you find an unpleasant odor and taste, purify the distillate using one of the suggested methods.