How to make vodka at home. Purification of vodka obtained from alcohol. What is most often added

Moonshine making in Rus' was first mentioned in chronicles under Ivan the Terrible, that is, more than 550 years ago. But since at that time there was no sugar, as such, the most popular raw materials for the preparation of strong alcohol were cereals: rye, wheat, barley. Honey was used as an additional feeding, although you can do without it.

Today, technology has changed a little: honey is too expensive a product and it has been successfully replaced by sugar. You can do without using yeast, which will only affect the taste of the finished product for the better, since there will be no characteristic yeast taste.

Let's look at some classic homemade wheat recipes.

So that homemade wheat vodka has a characteristic aroma and grainy taste, it is necessary to select high-quality raw materials and strictly follow the recipe. Before use, wheat is washed 2-3 times and left covered with water for several hours so that the husks float up.

Properly prepared ripened mash contains pure alcohol from 10 to 15%. Thus, from 10 liters of mash, theoretically you can get from 1 to 1.5 liters pure alcohol. Or 2 - 2.5 liters of 50-degree moonshine.

Classic recipes

According to the classic recipe, mash for moonshine made with wheat is used without sugar. You will need:

1. 5 kg of wheat grain.
2. 300 – 350 g of yeast.
3. 15 liters of water.

Preparation requires patience and scrupulousness. The process is divided into several stages:

• wheat germinate;
• when the sprouts reach the size of the grain itself, dried. Previously, this was done on a Russian stove. Today you can use an oven or dryer (temperature - no higher than 70°!);
• grind, having obtained dry malt from sprouted wheat;

Malt is the raw material for yeast because it contains simple sugars. Yeast converts it into alcohol.

• into boiling water gradually, stirring, add ground malt. It should turn out to be jelly. He is carefully wrapped and left overnight;

It is ideal to brew jelly in 15 liters of water at once, but it is also possible in a smaller container, with subsequent dilution after infusion.

• to warm wort (30 degrees), add yeast and place at room temperature;
• After 5 days they begin to try the mash. A bitter taste without sweetness is a signal of readiness for distillation.

According to experts, it is this recipe that produces moonshine with a classic wheat taste.

What to do with black bread?

This recipe contains not only wheat, but also bread vodka, since we use not only grain, but also bread (necessarily black). We will cook with green malt.

Green malt is sprouted and ground grain without pre-drying.

1. We germinate 4 kg of wheat.
2. Grind using a meat grinder (even better - a blender).
3. Soak 5 kg of bread (about 8 loaves) in 10 liters of water. You need dark bread, maybe with cumin or anise. This will add additional notes to the final product.
4. Add a half-kilogram packet of raw alcoholic yeast.
5. We ferment for about a week.
6. We check and distill.

For high-quality vodka at home, you need alcoholic yeast, not baker’s yeast (dry or raw). 100 g of dry will replace half a kilogram of pressed.

How to cook with wild yeast?

Enthusiastic moonshiners are quite capable of preparing wheat vodka using wild yeast grown with their own hands. Let's look at how to make excellent moonshine without industrial yeast. He has two advantages:

• no need to look for and buy alcoholic yeast;
• The aroma of moonshine will be more pronounced and natural, with a characteristic taste characteristic only of wheat vodka.

For 20 liters of water you will need 4 - 5 kg of sugar and 4 kg of wheat.

Stage 1 – yeast cultivation. To do this, you need a container with a volume of 25 liters.

• Wheat is poured into a container and filled with water a couple of fingers above the grain.
• Add 0.8 - 1 kg of sugar and stir.
• Leave open (cover with gauze or cotton cloth to prevent insects) in a warm place for 4 - 5, until fermentation and a characteristic smell appear.

The advantage of growing wild yeast is the possibility of their repeated use(up to 4 times). They simply add sugar (preferably syrup), water and leave to ferment.

Stage 2 – fermentation. It is necessary to add lukewarm water (for the indicated amount - 17 liters) and sugar to the activated wild yeast at the rate of: 1 kg per 5 liters of water, taking into account what has already been poured into the container for activating the yeast.

Stage 3 – fermentation. A water seal is already needed here (in extreme cases, the container should be covered with a lid). It is important that the temperature in the room where the mash matures is not lower than 22°C. Fermentation continues for about a week until the sweetness disappears.

Simple yeast-free recipe

2 kg of ground wheat is poured into 1.5 liters of warm water, half a kilo of sugar is added, stirred well, and left warm for 5 days. Add another 2.5 kg of sugar and 9 liters of water. They ferment for another week. Taste, when ready, filter and distill. Wheat vodka is ready at home.

The remainder can be reused once. Usually, wheat vodka is distilled twice(the second time - with cutting off heads and tails). Then cleaned.

It is important to know! The above recipes can be used not only with wheat, but also with rye, barley, and other grains. The taste will be different, but always pleasant.

How to improve taste by cleaning?

The most popular methods among moonshiners are using coal or potassium permanganate.

1. It is better to use crushed wood (from the stove, fire) at the rate of 1 full spoon per 1 liter of product. Set aside, stirring daily, for a week, then filter.
2. Activated carbon tablets are crushed and added to moonshine. Next - as in the previous paragraph.
3. (at the tip of a knife) add to a three-liter jar of moonshine, stir thoroughly. Leave for several days until flakes fall out (these are various impurities bound with potassium permanganate). Then filter.

As for the choice of cleaning method, you can argue about this endlessly. Some people consider cleaning with manganese harmful. We suggest you try it yourself: purify part of the alcohol from one distillation with charcoal, part with manganese.

Naturally - with subsequent filtration. Now feel the difference! Purified with potassium permanganate will be softer, the smell and taste will be muted, without harshness. But of course it’s up to you to decide!

Now you have the necessary knowledge on how to make vodka from wheat at home, and choose the method based on your own preferences and capabilities. Don't forget to leave comments and share the information received with your friends on social networks.

There are people who, after mixing alcohol with ordinary water, sincerely believe that they have prepared real vodka. But in fact, this mixture will very vaguely resemble the store-bought version. Real homemade vodka is prepared using strict technology. It includes some features. You can't exclude any of them if you want to get high-quality homemade alcohol.

A mandatory device that you cannot do without in the process of making vodka is an alcohol meter. It will determine exactly how strong the alcohol is at the right time. You can make an alcoholic drink without it. But the alcohol you take according to your prescription may have a different strength than what is indicated on the label. Therefore, you will receive vodka with the required degree only if you take all the ingredients with pharmacy precision.

Making homemade vodka

Choosing the most important ingredient - alcohol

We will need ethyl alcohol - either regular food grade or medical grade. The further organoleptic properties of our drink depend on its quality. If you doubt that this is pure ethyl alcohol, be sure to check it for methyl content, and do this in several ways. Remember that methyl alcohol can not only be harmful to health, it is deadly to a living organism. Moreover, organoleptics will not help in this case - it does not have any differences in color, taste, or smell.

Alcohol is divided by grade. GOST defines several of them that are suitable for preparing alcoholic beverages. This:

1. Alpha.
2. Luxury
3. Extra.
4. Basis.
5. Highest purity.

Wheat, rye or a mixture of these grains - it is from these raw materials that the best alpha alcohol is prepared. If you mix potatoes and grain, you can get either extra, basic, or luxury varieties. The quality of these alcohols is lower. The less potatoes are used in their production, the better. But highly purified alcohol is made from any raw material that contains starch. This could be potatoes, molasses, beets, and other types of raw materials. The cheapest vodka is made from the highest purity variety.

In theory, you can also use strong moonshine that has been double distilled. However, this will no longer be a classic recipe for making homemade vodka. Therefore, use this option only as a last resort.

Choosing water

This ingredient is extremely important. Do not neglect the choice of water, because it affects both the transparency and the softness and taste of alcohol. Do not use mineral or tap liquid. To make alcohol you need H2O, which is minimally saturated with minerals and salts. However, water cannot be boiled or distilled. After all, in this case the ingredients will mix extremely poorly.

To make vodka at home, it is best to use bottled water. Be sure to ensure that the concentration of minerals and salts in the bottle you choose is minimal. The most chic option is to use water that is intended for baby food.

Prepare the rest of the ingredients

If you simply dilute alcohol with water, you will get alcohol that tastes very strong and slightly dries out the tip of your tongue. So we need to do a little magic to give it a milder taste. For this we need one of these ingredients:

• glycerin – per 1 liter of alcohol – up to 5 mg;
• glucose (from the pharmacy) – per 1 liter of vodka – 10-20 ml;
• granulated sugar - per 1 liter of alcohol - 1 tablespoon.

If you are preparing vodka from expensive alcohol, then it is best to add glucose to the recipe. It is considered the best option.

In addition, you can add lemon juice to your “masterpiece”. It will not only soften the alcohol, but also give it a pleasant aroma. For 1 liter of vodka, 30 ml of freshly squeezed lemon juice is enough.

Mixing ingredients

In our country, Russia, vodka has a minimum strength of 40 degrees, and a maximum strength of 56. These are the indicators we will look at when we choose the proportions for dilution. Many people like alcohol at 45% ABV, however, you can choose any option that suits you. Let's say you took 10 liters of alcohol with a strength of 90%, and you want to get vodka at 45%. This means you will need exactly 10 liters of water. If you need vodka with a strength of 40 degrees, then add 12.5 liters of water. Calculating all this is extremely simple.

So, the mixing process itself must be consistent; this is the only way homemade vodka from alcohol will turn out to be of excellent quality. Take a large container, thoroughly rinsed before preparing the alcoholic drink. There should be no foreign odors in it. Pour water into it, and then add the ingredients necessary to soften the drink. This can be sugar, glucose, glycerin, freshly squeezed lemon juice. Introduce alcohol into the liquid in a thin stream. Close the container with a lid and stir it for a few minutes, shaking it. Now the vodka should stand for at least 2-3 hours.

Purification and filtration

This stage is optional, however, it should not be neglected. The fact is that during filtration, all impurities that are considered harmful to the body are removed from your alcoholic drink. The easiest way to do this at home is to pass the vodka through a new water purification filter (for example, “Barrier”).

The second option is to take a funnel, put cotton wool on it, then either activated carbon tablets or birch charcoal. Of course, this option cannot be compared with the first in terms of effectiveness, but if you chose quality ingredients to mix at the very beginning of the recipe, then it is quite enough.

The last stage is settling and bottling

To improve the organoleptic properties of your homemade vodka, put it in the refrigerator for 3-10 days. After this, it can be poured into glass bottles and tightly closed. Now you can taste it!

And if we didn’t distill vodka from sawdust, then what would we get from five bottles!

from the song “Police Protocol” by V. S. Vysotsky

I will not dwell here on the history of vodka and its significance for world culture, especially in Russia. Enough has been said about this without me.
Let me just remind you that after the abolition of the state monopoly on vodka, its quality on average deteriorated sharply. And the price has increased. Naturally.
When the only way to fight for the “health of the nation” is to raise prices and introduce all kinds of excise taxes and bans on the sale of alcoholic beverages, the result is clear - " we wanted the best, but it turned out as always"Actually, this government couldn’t do anything differently.
And if you remember that the Caucasus has become almost the main alcohol and vodka producing region in Russia, then you really don’t even want to drink its “damned” stuff.

I mean, purchased. This is what people demonstrate en masse.
Well, I’m there too.

No, of course, I’m not going to start making moonshine yet. This is a troublesome task and not easy without the necessary preparation. Although, another trick by our authorities, another excise tax, and we will have to master this side of cooking.
Nowadays, moonshine is easier to “get” - not to buy, God forbid! They almost promise time for this, no, just ask friends, acquaintances or neighbors who have already mastered this home production and now spit on all the attempts of deputies and presidents from the heights of their distillation column.

But for now we are talking about vodka. Why do we need moonshine? Not yet.

***
Take a bottle of decent vodka and carefully read its composition:

- "corrected water"- this means they removed the “excess” - iron, calcium, etc. - everything that we have in tap water in full.
- "rectified ethyl alcohol"- that is, after distillation. Next, look at the source, what type of alcohol is according to GOST. I’ll say right away that there are several approved brands of “C2H5OH”, which differ mainly in the raw materials from which they are produced: from various types of grain, from a mixture of grain and potatoes, sugar beets, molasses, and so on. Plus " In the production of rectified ethyl alcohol, auxiliary materials are used that are approved for use in the alcohol industry by the Russian Ministry of Health".
As a result, if you specify “Alpha” alcohol, there are no problems, grain alcohol. (except for "auxiliary materials")
- "sugar syrup"- what is this for?
- "glycerin thickener"- more about this later...

For now, there is only one thing to understand: vodka- the product is complex and has nothing to do with the 40% solution attributed to Mendeleev. Alas.
And making her “darling” at home is not so easy.
Let's try to collect the necessary ingredients to get started.

Vodka is made from ethyl alcohol.
Did not know? Here...

And you can buy alcohol. Or get it - I really like this euphemism of “Soviet times”. Everything develops in a circle. Or in a spiral? Doesn't matter.
The important thing is that very, very many people can get alcohol for very reasonable money. Medical alcohol, technical ethyl alcohol, etc. - all this is the alcohol from which vodka is made on an industrial scale. We don’t need so much, which means our results will be no worse, at least. From what we can get.
(Can’t buy alcohol? Even on the Internet? Surprisingly, but it doesn’t matter. Ask your “neighbor” to distill her “homemade product” a second time - it’s quite suitable for the production of our vodka!)
So, we got hold of some alcohol.

Vodka is 60% water.
Also a discovery.

And according to GOST, the strength of vodka in Russia should be from 40.0 - 45.0%; up to 56.0%. In the EU countries, the minimum strength of vodka is 37.5%.
If we take it in fact, then on the shelves you can find something with a real strength of 35%, according to the hydrometer.
But for us now it is important that the basis of our favorite drink is determined by water - its taste, purity and softness. Remember, “corrected water”!
Therefore, we will buy water for the production of homemade vodka in cans. It’s unlikely that we’ll get anything good out of the water supply. Even if you boil it and filter it with home drinking water filters.

Choose water according to your taste and the composition on the label. But from experience I will say that the optimal water for good vodka is from baby food. Although, tastes may differ here.

So, the main ingredients are ready - water and ethyl alcohol (even “moonshine”).
Now you need to clean it all and mix it properly.

Making homemade vodka

We don’t purify the water, we’ll assume that it’s already good. Although, if you need to clean it too, then the steps are exactly the same as with alcohol.
We only purify vodka.

Stage 1. Potassium permanganate.

We take a three-liter jar of alcohol and literally pour a few crystals of potassium permanganate into it. Shake and let sit.
Carefully pour the alcohol into another jar so as not to disturb the precipitate that has formed. (In the case of water, potassium permanganate removes iron and excess salts)
There may be a problem here - getting potassium permanganate. In another brilliant decision of the party and government, it was removed from free sale to make it more difficult for terrorists to make explosives. Except for laughter. It is for this purpose. Nowadays it’s easier even for children to buy ready-made firecrackers than to bother with “explosive packages” made of magnesium and potassium permanganate, as in my “dashing” childhood during perestroika.

Stage 2. Activated carbon.

Throw 10 - 15 tablets of medical activated carbon into the same jar and shake thoroughly until a cloudy suspension is obtained. (it’s strange that coal has not yet been removed from free sale - the main ingredient for black powder, by the way)
Let it sit and pour as before.

Stage 3 cleaning. "Tangerines".

This stage can be included in the process of making vodka at home if you plan to make liqueurs or any tincture in the future. For “pure” vodka, this step is already unnecessary, since it will not so much purify the alcohol as give it taste and aroma.
Dried “skins” from tangerines or other citrus fruits should be poured into a jar of alcohol and allowed to brew. Approximately 50 gr. for three liters. In terms of their action, the skins work similarly to activated carbon, so there is no particular point in this step.

*** there is another way...

It's called milk filtration. They pour milk into the alcohol and wait for a precipitate to form... In industry, supposedly, after this the solution is distilled again and the purest alcohol is obtained... Yep. I believe.
Only I don’t take vodka “purified with milk” myself - I can’t get rid of the feeling that the vodka tastes like curdled milk...
But some people clean alcohol this way - pour it and wait. A day, or even two... Until the milk settles, as shown.

In fact, it should be especially noted that only women can filter alcohol this way!!!
Almost all methods require a whole day (!) of time for sediment to form. (if it comes up, of course)
Men, on the other hand, usually drink alcohol along with potassium permanganate (it helps against intestinal infections), with activated carbon (to cleanse the body) and with milk or tangerines (for a snack), especially!

The water has been corrected, the alcohol has been prepared and purified - mix!

Here, by the way, it’s worth remembering Mendeleev again and all the myths about “40 degrees” - they say this is the optimal “magic” number at which everything dissolves, etc. All this is nonsense. If you want 40, please, but remember GOST and do at least 56%! To your health.

You will need more dishes. Pour water.
And we begin to gradually pour alcohol into the water. Not the other way around!!! (some even claim that if you pour water into alcohol, it will be unfit for consumption... - yeah, for about 15 minutes it will be cloudy and warm, so what? Are you ordering us not to drink it?)

How much alcohol should I pour in? Roughly - 1:1. Vodka will be fine. At best it's about 46 degrees. At worst - about 40.
If you use “smart” tables from some sites or your own calculations, do not delude yourself. Even if the initial raw material was 96% (which is doubtful), then after filtration and our transfusions the degree had already “lowered”.
The only solution is to buy a hydrometer. It costs a penny, but will provide full assistance. Especially if you are a fan of clear numbers according to Mendeleev or GOST.
We poured alcohol into the water and measured it. We need to add more. As much as you want. (By the way, if you somehow end up making absinthe, the strength there is as much as 80%, so don’t overdo it with water)

We mixed vodka with alcohol and got a “solution” of vodka. Almost real vodka. (don’t forget - the final volume of the solution is less than the sum of the volumes of the ingredients)
They sealed it hermetically and let it brew.

Here there is a small detail that people usually forget to mention - how does vodka taste different from diluted alcohol? - Alcohol “dries out” the tip of the tongue!
That is, after drinking a dose of diluted alcohol, you may feel an unpleasant dryness on your tongue.

In industrial production, glycerin was and is still used to this day to impart softness and eliminate alcohol “dryness.” Not cosmetic, God forbid, but food.
If you want, you can also use glycerin - approximately 5 mg per liter of our solution. You can do less - try it, you won’t be disappointed.

But in more expensive varieties of vodka, glucose is used at the rate of approximately 20 ml of glucose per liter of product. These are two 10 ml ampoules if you buy them at the pharmacy.

You can also use fructose, grape sugar or honey.
"How much to weigh in grams"? It is almost impossible to say in advance - it very much depends on the raw materials for our homemade vodka.
The only way out is to add a little bit at a time and try the result. Just wet the tip of your tongue! Don't over-taste, inadvertently.

You can also use sugar syrup as a softener - we will still need it later for liqueurs and the rest.

Preparation of syrup for alcoholic drinks

Sugar and water are taken in a 1:1 ratio by weight.
The sugar needs to be finely crushed (you can immediately take the powder).
Water must be boiled and cooled. (at a minimum. Here we take prepared, from baby food)

When cooking syrup, you need to constantly skim off the resulting foam until the foam stops appearing.
After this, the syrup must be poured into a suitable container and allowed to settle.
If the syrup turns out to be too thick, it must be diluted with water and boiled again.

There is a little secret here - leave the syrup to cool for a day - after that a crust will form on it! This is what needs to be removed and thrown away! Then the syrup will dissolve without a trace!

Syrup for liqueurs is usually added to 1/4 of the volume of the product. For vodka, literally a teaspoon per liter is enough.

In fact, after adding syrup, glucose or glycerin to the vodka solution, VODKA can be considered ready!

The vodka should be allowed to stand in a large sealed container.

(For additional final cleaning (conscience), you can pass the solution through a Barrier-type filter jug. You can run it 2-3 times if the moonshine was single or everything was poorly filtered at the first stage. Of course, there will be losses, but cleanliness is the key to health!)

Pour vodka into bottles and seal carefully.
Homemade vodka is completely ready.
Cheap and excellent quality, mind you!

We hide the entire batch of vodka received (from my husband) in a secluded place!
We cool one portion in the refrigerator and celebrate our next glorious victory over our beloved state.

Drink to your health and health!

By the way, pay attention to the indicated strength of Soviet table vodka! And forget forever the fairy tales about grandfather Mendeleev and his invention of the “forty-degree” one.

The technology for making vodka from alcohol is quite simple. The basis is high-quality ethyl or medical alcohol. Their difference from each other is that ethyl alcohol contains various additives in small quantities. Technical alcohol is not suitable for the production of vodka; the resulting mixture can cause poisoning, in some cases it can be fatal.

Water

The second component when preparing vodka is soft, clear water. For diluting alcohol, it should be spring water or the kind that is sold in bottles in stores. Pay attention to the salt content in the purchased water. Manufacturers indicate the amount of salt on the labels. The lower its content, the better for the vodka preparation process. Distilled or boiled water will not give the required result - such water does not contain the necessary substances that allow it to better dissolve alcohol.

Glucose

The third ingredient for making vodka is glucose. It can be prepared as follows: dissolve 1 kg of sugar in 1 liter of water and bring the mixture to a boil. Remove the foam that appears on the surface of the boiling liquid periodically. As soon as the foam has disappeared, the syrup is ready. Sometimes citric acid, orange or lemon juice is added to improve the taste.

The process of making vodka from alcohol

To obtain 40-proof vodka with 90-proof alcohol, you need to mix water and alcohol in the following proportion: 1.3:1. This means that glucose syrup is included in the mixing water. With this ratio of substances, maximum dissolution and mixing of molecules occurs, so a vodka strength of 40 degrees is considered optimal.

The mixing process itself has its own characteristics. First, a non-alcoholic mixture is prepared from water and chilled syrup. Then alcohol is added to this mixture (not vice versa), according to the above proportion. If you pour water into alcohol, the liquid will immediately become cloudy, and the quality of the product will be poor. After thorough mixing, the container with vodka must be placed in the cold for several hours.

Purification of vodka obtained from alcohol

The next stage is the purification of vodka. It is necessary to throw activated carbon and several tablets into the resulting alcohol. Shake the vodka thoroughly so that the tablets dissolve in it. Leave the mixture at room temperature for 2 hours. Strain through a thick cloth and pour into containers, filling them to the very brim. Then you need to carefully seal it and leave it to brew for several days. If air gets inside, oxidation of the vodka will occur. If there are no additives in vodka, its shelf life is unlimited.

To prepare various alcoholic drinks at home, the ability to make vodka from alcohol yourself will be useful. You can use herbs, spices, berries as food additives or product colorants. So, when adding ginger, the color of vodka will turn yellow, and lemon balm or horseradish will turn green. The taste changes accordingly. You can infuse vodka on the peel of a lemon or orange for several days, and you will get an alcoholic product with a citrus aroma. By experimenting with additives, you get the desired taste in the drink.

No matter what advertising says, no matter what popular sellers of alcoholic beverages advise, know that the best raw material for making alcohol is rye, but centuries-old practice has shown that instead of rye you can use wheat, potatoes, beets and even some types of berries, adding to them optional buckwheat, oats or barley - this is natural if you want prepare quality vodka, if not, then it can be prepared from anything that will ferment, even corn leaves - anything will do. But, nevertheless, vodka made from rye grains is always distinguished by its taste and low content of essential oils; after taking it in excess of the norm, a hangover is not severe.

For getting soft vodka You must initially use soft water to prepare the mash. Any manufacturer of high-quality vodka pays great attention to water for the production of alcohol and takes it in strictly defined places - in the upper reaches of rivers or natural springs.

Another very important component for the preparation of high-quality alcohol is malt, for which rye sourdough was used in the Middle Ages, and later they began to use beer. Today, specially naturally grown, initially pure yeast cultures are usually used.

The vodka production process begins with the preparation of mash, which is obtained by combining the listed components in a certain proportion. The finished mash is distilled using a special apparatus and vodka is obtained. High-quality alcohol is obtained only as a result of triple distillation.

Vodka recipes
This section provides traditional recipes for making vodka from grain, potatoes and sugar beets. As for alcohol, the raw materials for which are various berries, the technology for its production is not much different from the technology for producing alcohol from chokeberry described below.

Bread vodka with hops

Ingredients: rye or wheat grain - 1 bucket, boiled potatoes - 2 buckets, boiled hops - 3 l, mashed - 1.5-2 l, water.
Preparation of vodka: Sprout wheat or rye in a wooden trough. Boil the potatoes and remember them well. Add boiled hops to the mash, that is, the mash left over from last time. Next, thoroughly mix the grain, potatoes and mash. The grain can be ground or passed through a meat grinder.
Place the mash in a warm place. When the fermentation process is complete, distillation can begin.

Bread vodka with potatoes

Ingredients: malt (sprouted, dried and ground rye, wheat, barley, millet, corn and peas) - 2 buckets, potatoes - 4-5 buckets, yeast - 0.5 kg, water.
Preparation of vodka: Boil the potatoes and mash them in the water that remains after cooking. Place in a tub. Sprinkle malt flour on top. Pound again until you obtain a smooth, jelly-like mass. The mixture should be very hot during cooking. Sprinkle the mixture with the remaining flour again and leave overnight. After 10-12 hours, stir, pour into a barrel, add yeast. Leave to ferment for 5-6 days. After this you can distill it.

Potato vodka

Ingredients: peeled fresh potatoes - 1 kg, rye flour - 1 kg, rye straw - 50 g, water.
Preparation of vodka: finely chop the potatoes, then mash them with a rolling pin and place in a container. Add boiling water to obtain a mixture with a volume of 20 liters. Add rye flour and straw, let it brew for 2 hours. After this time, you will see that a cloudy sediment has appeared in the container. Carefully drain the liquid, and again add water at a temperature of 50°C to the resulting sediment. Mix everything thoroughly. Wait a while and drain the liquid again, combine it with the liquid from the previous drain and place the fermentation container. Distill the finished potato mash. As a result you will get soft vodka strength not exceeding 20%.

Sugar beet vodka

Ingredients: finely chopped beets (to fill a 10-liter container), Poltava cereal - 2 kg, water.
Preparation of vodka: fill the container with beets, then fill it with water, cover with a lid and put on fire. Boil the mixture for 1.5-2 hours, then drain the water into a separate container, and boil the beets in the container again, filling them with new water. Repeat the operation again.
Pour 5 liters of the resulting beet water into the cereal and place the mixture in a warm place. After 5 days, add 15 liters of the same beet water and leave the mash to steep. After 2 weeks, the finished mash can be distilled.

Vodka from syrup

Ingredients: syrup (any) - 6 l, yeast - 200 g, water. Preparation of vodka: dilute the syrup in water, add yeast. After a week, the mash can be distilled.

Vodka from chokeberry

Ingredients: ripe berries - 1 kg, fresh kvass (bread) - 10 l, yeast - 50 g.
Preparation of vodka: thoroughly crush the berries, add kvass and yeast. Leave the resulting mixture for fermentation (the temperature should not be lower than 17 ° C). After the fermentation process is complete, you can proceed to distillation. It must be done 3-4 times to getting vodka of the highest quality.

Sugar vodka

Ingredients: sugar - 6 kg, yeast - 200 g, water - 30 l, dry currant or cherry branches and/or dry dill. Preparation of vodka: Dissolve sugar in warm water and add yeast. Place in a warm place. To obtain a pleasant smell, you can add currant or cherry branches or dry dill. Through. After 6-7 days, the mash is ready for distillation.

Vodka from apple juice

Ingredients: apple juice - 35 l, sugar - 3 kg, yeast - 200 g. Preparation of vodka: chop and grind the apples, squeeze out the juice. Add sugar and yeast. Let the mash brew in a warm place, after a week you can proceed to distillation.

Vodka from pears

Ingredients: boiled garden pears - 5 buckets, sugar - 2 kg, yeast - 200 g, water - 5 l.
Preparation of vodka: Add pears, sugar and yeast to the water. Place in a warm place for a week. After this time, distill the finished mash.

Vodka from plums

Ingredients: plums - 3, buckets, sugar - to taste.
Preparation of vodka: Mash the plums and leave to ferment for 2 weeks. No need to add water. If you add sugar, the product yield after distillation will be greater.

Vodka from grapes

Ingredients: grapes, yeast - 100 g, sugar - 5 kg, water - 30 l.
Preparation of vodka: crush the grapes, use the juice as wine, and add yeast and sugar to the grapes (1 bucket). Dilute in water. Leave for 1 week, then distill.

Vodka from halva

Ingredients: halva - 10 kg, water - 15-20 l. Preparation: dilute the halva in warm water. Infuse the mash for about 8 days, distill.
To vodka had no odor sunflower oil, add a sprig of mint to it.

Vodka made from candies

Ingredients: candies (with filling) - 5 kg, water - 2 buckets.
Preparation: Dissolve the candies in warm water. Leave for 4-5 days, then distill.

Vodka made from starch

Ingredients: starch - 10 kg, yeast - 500 g, sugar - 1 kg, water - 2 buckets.
Preparation of vodka: pour starch with water and brew like jelly. Then add yeast and sugar. Leave for 3-5 days, then distill.

Vodka made from tomato paste, beer and sugar

Ingredients: tomato paste - 250 g, beer - 1 bottle, sugar - 10 kg, water - 30 l.
Preparation of vodka: Pour water over the mixture of tomato paste, beer and sugar. Stir, let ferment in a warm place, then distill the finished mash.

Vodka "Medovukha"

Ingredients: honey - 4 jars of 700 g (that is, 2800 g of honey), syrup (any) - 3 l, yeast - 300 g, water - 27 d.
Preparation: mix honey, syrup and yeast, add water. Leave in a warm place for about a week and distill.

Vodka “ready in a day” (method 1)

Ingredients: peas - 1 kg, sugar - 5 kg, yeast - 500 g, fresh milk - 1 l, water - 15 l. Preparation of vodka: mix peas with sugar, add yeast, add warm water. Add fresh milk. Leave for a day, then distill.

Vodka “ready in a day” (method 2)

Ingredients: sugar - 5 kg, yeast - 500 g, medium-sized raw potatoes - 25 pcs., milk - 3 glasses, bread - 4 loaves, water - 25 l. Preparation of vodka: mix all ingredients, add boiled water, mix well. The mixture ferments within 24 hours. After this time, distill the finished mash.

Vodka “ready in 2 hours”

Ingredients: sugar - 10 kg, yeast - 1 pack, milk - 3 l, water - 3-4 l.
Preparation of vodka: Quite unusual. Pour sugar, yeast and milk along with water into the washing machine. Spin for 2 hours, then let it sit for a while and start distilling.

Vodka made from grain
Pour 20 liters of hot soft water into a large container and add 8 kg of grain, preferably rye. Mix everything thoroughly and add another 20 liters of hot water, and after a while - the same amount of cold water.
Add 100 g of yeast to the resulting mixture and close the container. The fermentation process lasts 3-4 days, after which the mash is distilled.

Potato vodka
First chop 1 kg of fresh peeled potatoes, then mash them with a rolling pin, put them in a container and add boiling water to get a 20-liter volume. Add 1 kg of rye flour and 50 g of rye straw. After 2 hours, a cloudy sediment forms in the container. The liquid is carefully drained from the container, and the sediment is again filled with warm water (50 ° C). The mixture is thoroughly mixed. After some time, the liquid is drained, combined with the first drain and left to ferment. The alcohol strength after distillation of potato mash does not exceed 20%.

Sugar beet vodka
Fill a 10-liter container to the top with chopped beets, fill it with water, cover with a lid, put on fire and boil for 1.5-2 hours. After the specified time, drain the liquid, the so-called beet water, and fill the remaining beets in the container with water two more times and boil. Pour 2 kg of Poltava cereal into 5 liters of beet water and place in a warm place. After 5 days, add another 15 liters of beet water to the mixture. You can start distillation after 2 weeks.

Chokeberry vodka
Crush 1 kg of ripe berries, put in a glass container, pour in 10 liters of fresh bread kvass and add 50 g of yeast. Place the mixture in a warm (not lower than 17° C) place. After the fermentation process stops, you can begin distillation, which is recommended to be repeated 3-4 times.

Everyone knows that vodka is a mixture of water and ethyl (wine) alcohol, the content of which in most cases is 40 volume units. Wine (or ethyl) alcohol - C2H5OH - is an organic compound and is a colorless, pungent-tasting liquid with a boiling point of 78.30. Alcohol mixes well with water in any ratio. It also dissolves fats, resins, etc. well. Wine alcohol is obtained by fermentation of sugary substances or synthetically as a result of ethylene hydration. To separate impurities (fusel oils) and obtain water-free wine alcohol, various types of distillation are used.

Vodka is made by distilling certain food products. Vodka requires raw materials (and they can be very varied), good quality water, as well as a starter, which is most often yeast.

What happens to alcohol when it enters the human body? At first, it “gives off” heat quite intensively, and the person becomes hot. Remember how, at the height of the feast, guests take off their jackets and unbutton their shirt collars. The feeling of heat is stronger in thin and active people than in overweight and lazy people. Therefore, in order to dissipate heat evenly throughout the body and improve blood circulation, modern scientists advise performing at least a little physical exercise after a meal accompanied by drinking vodka or other alcohol.

Where does the generated energy go? Some of it leaves our body with sweat, urine and water vapor released during breathing. Approximately 20% goes to energy supply to the brain, nervous system, and red blood cells. Unfortunately, the energy received during feasts does not nourish muscle tissue. With an excess amount of vodka, a considerable portion of the energy can turn into fat reserves, localized in the liver.

If you drink vodka in reasonable doses, it is an effective protection against cardiovascular diseases. The results of independent studies conducted in different countries lead scientists to the conclusion that mortality from coronary insufficiency is inversely proportional to vodka consumption. This healing effect of vodka has been noticed for a long time, but most scientists and doctors did not openly recognize it against the backdrop of anti-alcohol propaganda. However, in fairness, lovers of excessive consumption of vodka should also be warned: by exceeding reasonable doses of alcohol, coronary protection decreases and, conversely, the risk of various diseases of the cardiovascular and other body systems increases. Moderate and regular drinking vodka, according to American doctors, not only improves the cardiovascular system, protects artery walls from atherosclerotic lesions, but also reduces the risk of arthritis.

Back in 1951, the American cardiologist Professor White put vodka in second place on the list of the most effective drugs for the heart after nitroglycerin drugs. What is the mechanism of this beneficial effect of vodka? It turned out that vodka has an effect on two levels: firstly, it helps lower the content of so-called bad cholesterol in the blood, prevents the deposition of lipids on the walls of blood vessels, reduces blood clotting, and secondly, vodka expands the diameter of the coronary arteries and blocks vascular spasms caused by stressful situations.

Making vodka at home

As already mentioned, for getting vodka you need three components: raw materials, on the basis of which alcohol will be prepared, water and starter culture.

The most useful is considered to be vodka made from cereals - rye, wheat, oats, buckwheat or barley, etc., as well as potatoes and sugar beets. In addition, berries, fruits (especially apples, plums and pears), beer, starch, sugar, honey, halva, jam, molasses and even candies are used as a base for vodka. But rye grains are still in the lead, since the product obtained from them vodka is the most pleasant tastes good and doesn't give you a bad hangover.

If you want to get a pleasant, soft-tasting vodka, place high demands on the second necessary component - water. Water hardness for vodka should not exceed 4 mg/eq. For example, in Moscow before the revolution, water intended for making vodka, were delivered exclusively from certain, proven places, which were springs in Mytishchi, in the upper reaches of the Klyazma and Moskva Rivers.

The third component is no less important. The quality of the prepared vodka also largely depends on it. Previously, rye sourdough was used to prepare vodka, then brewer's yeast, and later they began to use artificially grown yeast cultures. If yeast is not available, you can replace it with ripe hop cones, from which a decoction is prepared, then added to the starter.

The first stage making vodka is to produce mash, for which all three mentioned components are combined in certain proportions. Here are some tips that are useful for both beginners and professionals in the “art of brewing.”

How do you know if the mash is ready? To do this, bring a lit match to the container. If the match goes out, it means the product is not ready yet. Another way is to taste the mash. The sweetish mash has not yet “reached its condition.” A bitter taste indicates the product is ready.
Braga should be infused in wooden or enamel containers.
Quality also depends on temperature. Fermentation must take place in a warm place. The optimal temperature is considered to be 50-60° C. In villages, the vessels in which the mash is prepared are usually placed on the stove.
To obtain vodka with a pleasant taste, smell and color, you can add galangal root to the starter before preparing the mash. The resulting vodka will be light brown in color, pleasant in taste and smell. For the same purpose, you can add bison grass, a dried mint sprig, and ripe red pepper to the starter.
Never throw away waste. Everything necessary to start a new fermentation is added to the used mash. Vodka obtained from such mash is always of the best quality.

For making vodka When the mash is ready, it is distilled. Note that vodka produced by single distillation is significantly higher in quality. inferior to vodka obtained by triple distillation.

And now we will give recipes for making vodka for every taste, because the basis (raw materials) for vodka can be a wide variety of products.

Bread vodka

This is the most quality vodka and perhaps the most popular. Quite strong, it nevertheless has a mild taste. There is no severe hangover after drinking bread vodka.

Ingredients: grain (rye is preferable) - 4 kg, yeast - 50 g, water - 30 l.
Preparation of vodka: pour 10 liters of water into a sufficiently large container. It should be hot and not hard (remember, water hardness should not exceed 4 mg/eq.). Pour the grain into the water and mix well, then add another 10 liters of the same hot water, and after a while pour in the same amount of cold water. After adding the yeast, close the container and let the mash brew. After 3 days, the finished mash can be distilled.