Cognac from moonshine at home

Real cognac is made from grape alcohol, but this has never stopped the moonshiners. Experienced distillers know how to make cognac from moonshine with minimal costs, which will resemble the real one. We will look at two of the best recipes that have received popular acclaim.

A warning! After preparation, you get a drink that only vaguely resembles cognac in color and smell. We will not use grape alcohol, adhere to the classic technology with two fractional distillations and keep the distillate for at least 3 years in oak barrels. This recipe has nothing to do with real grape brandy.

Ingredients:

  • moonshine (vodka) – 3 liters;
  • walnut partitions – 1 handful;
  • black tea – 1 tablespoon;
  • carnation – 6-7 buds;
  • caraway seeds – 1 tablespoon;
  • vanilla sugar – 1 tablespoon;
  • citric acid – 2-3 grams.

Moonshine cognac recipe

1. Purify moonshine for cognac by any available method, for example, coal or make a double distillation, after diluting the distillate to a strength of 18-20 degrees. The main thing is to get a high-quality alcoholic base without a pungent smell.

2. Add to the jar a handful of well-dried inner partitions of walnuts, black tea and clove buds.

3. Add caraway seeds and vanilla sugar.

4. Add citric acid last on the tip of the knife. Mix.

5. Close the jar tightly with a nylon lid and infuse the cognac drink for 3-4 days at room temperature in a dark place (you can cover it).

It is pointless to keep homemade cognac for more than 7 days, as it does not improve the taste.

6. At the last stage, filter the resulting drink through a clean cotton cloth or cotton-gauze filter. Pour into bottles for storage and seal. Shelf life away from direct sunlight – up to 3 years. Fortress 36-38%.

There is an alternative recipe for homemade cognac from moonshine (video). The cooking technology is no different from the first method, but different ingredients are used. Imitation of color, aroma and taste is achieved by adding prunes, cloves and allspice to the distillate.


Purification of moonshine from an unpleasant odor

Many novice moonshiners encounter the unpleasant smell of moonshine. Craftsmen have come up with several simple methods that allow you to quickly and effectively eliminate the problem at home, without spending a lot of time and effort. We will consider the most effective options that have been tested in practice.

6 methods to remove odors from moonshine

1). Pour 2-3 grams of potassium permanganate powder into a 3-liter jar of the finished product. Wait for a precipitate to settle. To speed up the process, it is enough to close the jar, shake it several times and put it in a water bath with a temperature of 50-70 ° C for 10-15 minutes.

2). For 1 liter of moonshine, add 8-10 grams of regular (baking) soda, mix, leave for 20-30 minutes. Then stir again and leave for 10-12 hours. Then drain the top layer of the liquid and remove the sediment at the bottom. Soda removes fusel oils well, which cause an unpleasant odor.

3). Soak the moonshine on the violet root for 12 days (100 grams of crushed plant per 3 liters of moonshine). This old recipe is of little use for city dwellers, since it is very difficult to find the violet root on sale, but its effectiveness is very high.

4). Freeze moonshine in a metal barrel or glass container. Water freezes to the edges of the keg (bottle) along with harmful impurities. After the water turns into ice, pour the moonshine (remains liquid) into another container. Repeat the process several times if necessary. The method is simple and cheap, only a refrigerator is required.

In some villages, large quantities of moonshine are cleaned by freezing all year round. For this, the peasants build special underground glaciers, in which snow can lie until late autumn.

5). Re-distillation. Dilute the moonshine with water to 15-20% and re-distill, dividing the finished product into fractions. The method is laborious, time-consuming, but the most effective.

6. Cleaning with charcoal. We need charcoal obtained from birch (BAU-A and BAU-LV brands). Technology: grind coal, wrap it in several layers of gauze. Pass the moonshine through the resulting filter.

In this case, activated charcoal from a pharmacy is ineffective, tablets can only absorb large molecules of fusel oils, and most of the harmful impurities will pass freely.


Alcoholic and non-alcoholic homemade ginger beer

Among all the beers, there is one that stands alone – ginger beer (ale). It is interesting that the drink only resembles real beer in color and foam, and in the classic version it is generally non-alcoholic, also does not contain malt and hops. Next, we will look at several recipes for making alcoholic and non-alcoholic ginger beer at home. These options differ from shop counterparts exclusively in natural ingredients.

Ginger beer is a sweet, highly carbonated drink of a dull brown color with a pronounced ginger aroma, which is drunk strongly chilled in its pure form or used as a component of cocktails with spirits (whiskey, gin, vodka, etc.).

Ginger beer tastes like regular kvass, but a little sweeter. Instead of a malt base, a blend of lemon, cane sugar and ginger is used. The inventor of the drink is an American pharmacist and surgeon Thomas Cantrell. The first recipe appeared in the 70s of the XIX century.

A quick recipe for non-alcoholic ginger beer

Ingredients:

  • ginger root 2-2.5 cm;
  • sugar – 2 tablespoons;
  • lemon – 1 pc.
  • mint – 2-3 leaves;
  • mineral water – 1-1.5 liters.

Recipe

1. Grate the ginger root and mix with sugar.

2. Add juice squeezed from lemon, mix.

3. Pour the mixture with cold carbonated mineral water, leave for 5 minutes.

4. Strain the ginger beer through cheesecloth, add mint and a few slices of lemon, serve.

Alcoholic Ginger Beer Recipe

Ingredients:

  • crushed ginger – 25 grams;
  • sugar – 400 grams;
  • white wine – 150 ml;
  • water – 4 liters;
  • dry yeast – 15 grams.

Recipe

1. Mix ginger with sugar and wine, pour over boiled hot water, let cool to 30 ° C.

2. Add dry yeast.

3. After 2-3 hours, when fermentation becomes noticeable, pour the ginger beer into a bottle and place it under a water seal (you can wear a medical glove with a hole in one of your fingers).

4. After 2 days, strain the drink through cheesecloth, pour into bottles, close tightly with corks and refrigerate.

5. After 24 hours in the refrigerator, the alcoholic ginger ale is ready and, thanks to the carbon dioxide, foams almost like a real beer.

Features of ginger beer:

  • the second name is ginger lemonade;
  • goes well with whiskey;
  • non-alcoholic ginger beer is often drunk by the heroes of the Harry Potter books;
  • used to treat indigestion, headaches, and coughs;
  • people who do not drink alcohol replace champagne with non-alcoholic ginger ale.

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