How to make a moonshine still correctly. Making a mini moonshine still

28.10.2023

The quality of alcoholic beverages sold in stores decreases significantly every year, and their cost is steadily increasing. On the other hand, people have been practicing the method of independently producing a high-quality alcoholic product - moonshine - for quite a long time.

To make this drink, it is necessary to follow a certain technology, which requires, in addition to the use of natural ingredients, the presence of a special apparatus. Its various variations can be purchased in stores and on the market, but for maximum confidence in its reliability, it is better to approach the matter responsibly and make it yourself.

How and why to make a personal moonshine still

Good moonshine has always been highly valued both by ordinary people and by people who understand this matter. Most, after trying real homemade moonshine, will no longer look towards the vodka and cognac sold in stores.

High-quality moonshine usually has a high degree of purity from harmful impurities, is soft to drink, transparent and has minimal impact on the condition of internal organs. Considering all these positive qualities, many lovers of good alcohol have the question: “Why not make it yourself?”

The circuit of a moonshine still is very simple and is no different from a laboratory distiller

This requires the manufacture of a moonshine still at home. The advantages of this approach include the following points:

What does a moonshine still consist of?

A home-made and store-bought design for moonshine racing will always have one thing in common - the design of the device.

The structure of these devices includes the following elements:

container for heated mash or other raw materials containing alcohol;
a coil, or as it is popularly called a “refrigerator”, necessary for the process of condensation of the formed alcohol vapor;
connecting hoses and other elements designed to connect the structural components of a system.

More advanced designs are equipped with a variety of devices - reflux condensers, bubblers, carbon or wood filters

Connecting elements

The materials used to connect the constituent components of the apparatus play a very important role in the process of moonshine production itself. When selecting unsuccessful tubes, the color, smell, and taste of the resulting liquid may change.

Distillation cube at home

To make such an important component of a moonshine still as a distillation cube, you will need a large container made of a reliable, non-oxidizing substance. In this regard, it is best to use a food can; its volume can be up to forty liters.

This will allow you to brew moonshine much less often and still get the required amount of moonshine up to twenty liters. In an apartment, it is possible to use even a ten-liter pan as a cube.

Coil

It is popularly called a refrigerator because this part cools the vapor containing alcohol and condenses it into a liquid that is collected at the outlet. Externally, this part is a tube made of various materials that conduct heat well, twisted into a spiral and immersed in a container with cold (ideally running) water.

Most often it is made of copper, stainless steel or even glass. The choice of a suitable material is based on material capabilities and desire; it is only important that rubber and other non-metallic products are not used for this purpose, since they are actively destroyed in an aggressive environment due to hot alcohol vapor and significantly deteriorate the quality of the product.

Sukhoparnik

This simple device is the final step in obtaining the highest quality moonshine, purified from any harmful additives and possessing crystal transparency. The most common cause of morning headaches after drinking large amounts of home- or factory-produced alcohol is the presence of fusel oils.

Design The moonshine still consists of:

Now in more detail about each component.

1. Distillation capacity or - cubic.

As containers For a moonshine still, the easiest way is to use a pressure cooker; it initially has good tightness and easy accessibility.
Pressure cookers are equipped with special fittings to relieve excess pressure.
You can unscrew the valve from the fitting, thereby obtaining an outlet for releasing steam.
The fitting is connected to the refrigerator using a hose or metal tube.

What an old Soviet pressure cooker looks like, suitable for converting it into a moonshine still:

Any other container made of stainless steel, copper or aluminum will do, as long as it is sealed.
For example, a beer keg, a travel thermos, an aluminum milk flask, etc.

2. Refrigerator. He's a snake.

For small volumes it is easiest to use laboratory ball or once-through refrigerator, because it is the easiest to obtain, it is sold in any store with laboratory equipment and is not expensive. You can also buy a ready-made glass distillation apparatus in stores with laboratory equipment, but in domestic conditions its use will not be practical enough, because glass is a very fragile material.
In addition, glass is chemically inert, i.e. does not form any harmful compounds or odors upon contact with hot alcohol steam during the distillation of mash.

The photo shows a laboratory refrigerator installed on a homemade moonshine still from a pressure cooker:

In addition to the glass refrigerator, an equally affordable and proven design is the coil. It can be made, for example, from a copper tube. A tube for air conditioners is well suited and, moreover, it can be bought at any construction market or store, it costs less than a laboratory refrigerator and the design of the moonshine still turns out to be more reliable and practical, but you will have to work more with your hands.

The most basic design is coil inserted into any container that can be easily processed, for example a plastic drinking water bottle with a volume of 5-10 liters. The entry and exit points of the tube into/from the container are sealed. Coolant supply from below.

A more complex design is a metal tube, for example copper, inserted inside any hose of larger diameter.
The hose is sealed on the sides to prevent coolant from spilling out.
The image below shows the simplest one implementation of such a coil, arrows show the main nodes:

You can make it more beautiful and more reliable with the help of plumbing accessories:

3. Connecting hoses.

To connect the distillation tank and the refrigerator, you can make an adapter from a copper or stainless tube, or use silicone hose.
If you choose a hose, then use only silicone hoses.
Silicone the material itself is inert and does not react with hot alcohol-containing steam and does not impart any taste or smell to it, unlike rubber hoses, after which moonshine makes it terribly smelly.
Silicone hoses can be purchased at a laboratory supply store.

You can tell silicone from rubber by burning.
Silicone burns without soot and leaves behind white ash, while rubber, on the contrary, smokes and leaves black soot.

In more complex designs of moonshine stills, various additional components can be used to improve the quality of the resulting product (steamers, drop eliminators, etc.), or for convenient control and monitoring of the distillation process (thermometers, barometers, diopters). Which apparatus is best to assemble depends on what you want to get from it, for example, to obtain raw alcohol it is best to use large stainless steel containers, to obtain fruit and berry distillates it is good to use a copper container and coil, and the distillation of grain wort can only be done with steam or in a water or other bath, so that the wort does not burn, you cannot do without a steam generator.

Quickly navigate to the article

Anyone can make a moonshine still with their own hands. The heart of any distiller is the still. Essentially, it’s a container where the mash boils, evaporating that very valuable substance. First, decide on the volumes: how much finished product you need and how often you will produce it.

Also, the choice of container depends on the production conditions: if you have your own garage or cottage, you can even go for a 40-liter can. This is very convenient: I take out 10-20 liters every three months and it’s enough for myself and for guests, and the product goes well as a gift.

For home production in an apartment, you need a smaller container - up to 10 liters will be enough. This is the optimal cube size for small kitchens located in cramped high-rise buildings. Now you understand that before you make a moonshine still, you need to understand all aspects: how the moonshine still will work, where, what is your experience and all other points. And then we move on to the selection of materials and components.

Container material:

Aluminum: good quality material, capable of working for a long time without significant damage or deformation, almost eternal material for a cube.
Enameled containers are quite common, but they really don’t like aggressive environments, they last for an average of 3-5 years, then problems with repairs begin: due to temperature and impacts, the enamel first comes off, and then rust eats away at the metal. It is repaired with wooden “chopics” (insert made of wood chips) for another 2-3 years, and then thrown away. This container wears out especially quickly when it is used together for “winning” mash and for further distillation.
Stainless steel. This, of course, is aerobatics. But a completely stainless alloy is expensive. Often, under the guise of “stainless steel,” they sell galvanized steel, nickel-plated steel, and anything else. When installing the structure, you will need to disturb this coating (drill a hole, weld something, etc.). And in places where the coating is damaged, rust will form over time, which will destroy the container. This option is enough for different periods: from 2 years (if it’s just a “stainless steel” alloy) to eternal use with the right to inherit it to grandchildren (very expensive).
Glass cauldron. This is a very rare “laboratory version” for everyday use. Beautiful, aesthetically pleasing, but impractical. For moonshine aesthetes.

Type of container:

The aluminum milk can is an excellent, time-tested container for a still. Your task: replace rubber gaskets with silicone ones for food products. This will be safer for health, moonshine will not smell like rubber. This is the most popular cube when referring to a homemade moonshine still.
Pressure cookers are a favorite type of cube container for urban small kitchens. You don't need to change anything, just add a fitting for the coil. The downside is low productivity, the design is ineffective for full-scale production.
Enameled pan: if there is no other container, you can use that too. You will have to tinker with the tightness of the lid thoroughly. The best reliable option: make a gasket; install hinges with holes on the lid and walls of the pan, through which the entire structure is connected with studs and wing nuts. Cheap, cheerful, reliable. All hinge attachment points are also sealed with food-grade silicone.
A full-fledged cube made of real stainless steel: you can buy a ready-made one (but only in trusted places), you can find it in the bins of acquaintances and friends who not only came from the USSR, but also lived in it most of their lives. The volume should be 30 liters at a minimum, otherwise there is no point in talking about mass production to meet the needs of one cell of society.

Important note! When choosing a container, pay attention to the neck: at least your hand should fit into it so that you can wash the device after use. .

A few words about the theory of moonshine

The myth that moonshine is only for the Slavs is, to put it mildly, disingenuous. The production of strong alcohol by distillation is part of the culinary and everyday culture of many peoples living in different parts of the world. It is enough to name such drinks as:

whiskey;
Calvados;
rakia;
gin;
chacha;
tequila;
cognac.

to make sure that our domestic moonshine is not alone in the list of products obtained by distillation.

Homemade moonshine will be no different from factory-made drinks if you follow the recipe for preparing the mash and strictly follow the distillation technology. We’ll talk about the raw materials for fermenting mash another time, but in this material we’ll talk about the distillation process and, based on this, we’ll tell you whether it’s possible to make a simple moonshine still at home, and what you’ll need for this.

How does distillation happen?

Distillation process

This chemical process is extremely simple technologically; it is not difficult to reproduce it at home. The bottom line is that substances dissolved in water (mash) have different vaporization temperatures and are released from the solution sequentially - first lighter, then heavier, and only at 100C does the water itself begin to actively evaporate.

If the solution is not brought to a boil, and the vapors entering a separate container are cooled, then individual substances will condense in it, separated from others that differ in boiling point. The process was invented a long time ago; it is difficult to say who invented it first. The primacy is attributed to Arab scientists, but this is a rather controversial statement.

Temperature conditions for distillation of alcohol (moonshine)

Braga, at its core, is an aqueous solution of alcohol resulting from the activity of special fungi - yeast, well known to everyone who has seen bread being baked at least once in their life. In the process of vital activity, yeast converts the sugar in the wort into ethyl alcohol and related substances - acetaldehyde, methyl alcohol, and various esters.

When the concentration of ethyl alcohol in the mash is 13-14% of its volume, the fermentation process stops naturally, and it becomes completely ready for distillation - the extraction of alcohol, of which there is about 1.4 liters in 10 liters of starter.

The difficulty lies in the fact that when the mash is heated, along with the alcohol, its companions - aldehydes and ethers, which are completely undesirable in the composition of moonshine, evaporate. They begin to evaporate at a temperature of 65C and accompany the alcohol to T = 73C. After reaching this point to T=85C, only alcohol evaporates. At higher temperatures, heavier components appear in moonshine, popularly called “fusel oils.” They spoil both the color and taste of the drink, so you should get rid of them as radically as possible.

Coil transport artery system

Let's move on to the component parts: a coil comes out of the distillation cube onto the refrigerator. It is in the coil that the magic of condensation happens: alcohol vapor turns into liquid. But not right away: before that they must go into the refrigerator.

The coil is made of stainless or copper tube. Here the choice of material is at your discretion: copper transfers heat better, but is more expensive. There are also concerns that copper, as a very active element, reacts with alcohols, after which aldehydes and other harmful substances are formed. But these concentrations are extremely small: to get poisoned by aldehydes, you need to drink at least 100 liters of moonshine. (But you will die before the concentration of aldehydes from the alcohol you drink becomes lethal). Copper is ideal as the most technologically advanced material.

Food grade stainless steel is also expensive, but still more affordable and safer. However, there is another problem with it: the quality may be “lame” even if you purchased the handset at a high price.

Select fittings of the required size for the selected tubes. This is often a ¾ pipe, so use that as a guide.

Last thing: it is prohibited to use non-metallic hoses under the alcohol line. Any PVC or rubber tubes react very actively with alcohol, break down and contaminate the moonshine.

Moonshine still refrigerator

In order to properly make a refrigerator, several parameters should be taken into account:

Material. The first requirement that applies to the coil material is the absence of reactions with alcohol. In addition, it should be able to withstand temperatures up to 100 degrees without any problems and have high thermal conductivity. Copper meets all these qualities better than others. Stainless steel is also suitable, but its thermal conductivity is much lower. Copper also makes sense because it can be easily bent into a spiral. In many countries, copper is considered the best material for making distillers. The disadvantage of copper is that it requires constant cleaning.
Tube dimensions and thickness. The longer the tube, the more the moonshine cools on the way to the receiving container. But there is also a side effect: the colder the liquid, the slower it moves. Again, with a large internal diameter, the alcohol cools faster, but moves more slowly; a small one is difficult to process. Thus, the following parameters will be optimal: length - 1.5–2 meters, internal diameter - 8–12 mm, thickness - 0.9–1.1 mm. In some moonshine stills, the coil is horizontal - this makes no sense at all. Vertical is the best option.

Parameters of the refrigerator itself:

Substance: Usually air, water or ice is used. It is preferable to use water as the most practical means.
Heat removal scheme: open and closed. In open circuits, water circulates. This structure of the apparatus is the most advantageous.
Direction of water supply. It is correct to supply water from below and take it from above. Then the water will move towards the steam, and the cooling efficiency will be as high as possible.
To make a refrigerator, you will need a tube for the coil and a pipe with a diameter of 75–80 mm. First of all, sand is poured into the coil tube so that the metal does not flatten when curling. The ends must be hammered in so that the sand does not spill out; you can immediately weld a nut onto one of them.

Hello friends! Since you have looked at my blog, it means you are interested in making homemade alcohol. And I’m just sure that at least once you have had the question of how to make moonshine at home. That's what we'll talk about today.

Now I will quickly tell you the entire sequence of the process, and then we will talk in more detail about each stage. So, how is moonshine prepared?

First, prepare a special solution consisting of water and sugar. Sugar can be used either in its pure form, or any sugar-containing raw materials (berries, fruits, etc.) can be used. This solution is called wort.

The wort is then processed into mash using yeast. During fermentation, yeast eats sugar and produces ethyl alcohol and carbon dioxide (there are other fermentation products, but not about that now).

The mash already contains alcohol, but the percentage of it there is very low. Typically 8-12%. To extract alcohol from the mash, it is distilled moonshine still. The distillation process is also called distillation.

There is nothing complicated in this process. The whole point is that the mash is heated to a boil, and the steam that evaporates is cooled to a liquid state and poured into a separate container. This condensed liquid is our moonshine.

Then comes the purification of the moonshine. During the fermentation process, in addition to ethyl alcohol, by-products are also formed. yeast waste products. It is necessary to get rid of these impurities, because... they are harmful to health. Some even very much so. And these impurities greatly spoil the taste of the drink. We will talk about types and methods of cleaning in the section below.

The final and completely optional step is flavoring and tinting the moonshine. Moonshine is infused with various herbs and spices, which give it a rich color and smell.

I have listed the main stages of making moonshine. Nothing complicated, right? Now let's look at each point in more detail.

But before that, I want to note that all the stages mentioned are equally important. If the technology is not followed or low-quality raw materials are used, the output can result in a foul-smelling and even hazardous liquid.

Selection of raw materials

As already mentioned, sugar is used to prepare the wort. You can use sugar either in its pure form (granulated sugar), or use products containing sugar (berries, fruits, sugar beets, etc.). Makes delicious moonshine from old jam.

Also, starch-containing products (wheat, rice, rye, corn) in various types can be used as raw materials (for example flour). Starch itself is not subject to fermentation, but it is easily processed into sugar under the influence of enzymes contained in malt (sprouted grain). Or you can use industrial enzymes- they are cheap and work great.

The quality of moonshine also depends on the quality of the raw materials used. A good drink from g…. will not work.

At home, the most accessible raw material for making wort is sugar. And the recipe is also simple.

I'll bring you classical:

1 kg of sugar is dissolved in 5 liters of water
Dissolve yeast (20 g dry or 100 g pressed) in a small amount of water at a temperature of 30°C
Mix the yeast in the sugar solution and let it ferment for several days.

Do you agree that it is very simple? But the quality of such moonshine... no, if made skillfully, it is not bad, it’s just inferior to drinks made from other raw materials.

A much tastier drink is obtained from mash made from fruit or berry raw materials. Even if you have to add sugar to the fruit must to increase the sugar content, it will still taste better.

A very good result comes from mash made with grains. It is not for nothing that GOST prescribes the production of alpha alcohol (the highest quality alcohol) only from grain raw materials. But preparing mash from grain is much more difficult.

Update from 08/13/19 In fact, there are very simple recipes for grain moonshine. Here is one of them - simple recipe for moonshine made from flour

The resulting amount of alcohol per kilogram of product used also depends on the type of raw material. Below is a table that clearly demonstrates this. These numbers are quite approximate.

I would also like to note that you need to approach the choice of raw materials from the point of view of what kind of drink you want to get. So, to make whiskey you need to use grain; to make cognac or Georgian chacha, grape mash is used, and to make Calvados, apple mash is used.

Fermentation

After we have prepared the wort, it must be fermented, during which the yeast converts sugar into carbon dioxide and alcohol. The quality and quantity of moonshine produced also greatly depends on the correct fermentation process.

Compliance with technology at this stage is very important. In the room where the fermentation tank is located, it is necessary to maintain a certain temperature range. Try not to allow strong fluctuations. It is also necessary to monitor the temperature of the mash, because... During the fermentation process, it tends to heat up.

The optimal temperature for fermentation is 30-32°C (more about this Here). At a lower temperature, the fermentation process will slow down, and at a temperature below 18°C it will stop altogether (the yeast will fall asleep). Also, the mash should not be allowed to overheat above 40°C. This is much more dangerous than cooling, because... At this temperature the yeast will begin to die.

Depending on the selected raw material, yeast and temperature, the fermentation process can last from 1 to 14 days or more.

A little about yeast

In principle, any commercially available yeast is suitable for making mash. Pressed bakery products are very popular. You can also use dry yeast. But the best option is special alcoholic and wine (cultured) yeast, which are sold in specialized stores for winemakers and moonshiners.

If you are preparing fruit or berry mash, then you can do without adding yeast at all. Wild yeast already lives on the surface of the fruit, which will take care of the process we need. Although I still recommend using cultured yeast, at least for the first time.

The fermentation period and the possible strength of the resulting mash depend on the type of yeast chosen. So bakery and wild ones ferment 7-12% alcohol, wine and spirits up to 12-14%. There are also special varieties of alcohol yeast, through which you can get a mash with 18% alcohol.

The topic of choosing yeast and the fermentation process itself is quite extensive and this article cannot cover it all. Read more in these individual articles:

What yeast to use

Hydraulic module for mash. What is it and what should it be like?

How to feed yeast

Detailed composition of heads, tails, fusel oil and their influence on the taste of moonshine

The influence of fermentation temperature on the formation of harmful impurities

Recipe for sugar mash with dry yeast

Classic recipe for sugar mash with pressed yeast

Recipe for homemade jam

Wild Sam - a recipe for mash made with wild grain yeasts

A simple recipe for moonshine from flour (XOS technology + enzymes)

Clarifying mash with bentonite

How much moonshine should be made from mash?

Distillation

As I already wrote, in order to isolate alcohol from mash, i.e. To get moonshine, you need to distill this very mash. The distillation process is also called distillation, and the resulting product (moonshine) is called distillate. The mash is heated, and the steam released is condensed and poured into a separate container.

Distillation is carried out using a moonshine still. The classic design of such a device is quite simple. I give its schematic diagram below:

The principle of distillation is based on the fact that the boiling point of alcohol is lower than the temperature of water, of which the mash mainly consists. Therefore, when the mash is heated, the alcohol evaporates first (in fact, everything evaporates together, but in different quantities). In vapor form, it enters the coil, where it is cooled to a liquid state and flows into a collection container.

Now I will describe the classic distillation method. There are others, but don’t worry about them yet.

The distillation is done twice. First, the mash is distilled. The purpose of this distillation is to extract alcohol from the mash as quickly as possible. As a rule, the mash is distilled without separation, i.e. everything that comes out of the moonshine still is collected in one container. Distillation is completed when the temperature in the tank of the moonshine still (called a distillation cube) has risen to 99 degrees Celsius, or the output strength is 10-15%. After distillation, moonshine with a strength of 30-50% is obtained. It is also called raw alcohol (CA). CC can and should be distilled again to get a stronger and higher quality drink.

When distilling raw alcohol, the first drops coming out of the apparatus contain a high concentration of harmful substances. This liquid is called “pervach” or “heads” and is not consumed as food. The “heads” must be cut off, i.e. separate from moonshine. The number of heads is approximately 50 ml per 1 kg of sugar in the mash.

After “cutting off the heads,” the distillation process continues until the liquid leaving the distiller stops burning. This means that the strength of the moonshine that comes out has dropped below 40 degrees and then comes the “tails” - the non-food part that contains harmful and very smelly impurities. The tails are also cut off. Their quantity is approximately 100 ml per 1 kg of sugar used for making mash.

The distillation process is described in more detail in the link below.

As it turns out, the moonshine department is very popular among subscribers. And if earlier the topics concerned mainly individual parts, today we will tell you how to make a simple moonshine still with your own hands.

To begin with, it’s worth deciding that moonshine brewing is the production of alcohol by distilling mash at home. Alcohol is always produced using the same technology, regardless of the scale - for home production or industrial production. Starch or sugar-containing raw materials are produced, to which water and yeast are added. During the fermentation process, the so-called an artificial world where single-celled fungi live. The result of their vital activity is ethyl, methyl, propyl and other alcohols with the addition of aldehydes and acetone.

Since all products, except ethyl alcohol, are harmful to humans, the task of moonshine brewing is to obtain pure ethyl alcohol in a non-lethal concentration. For these purposes, rectification is carried out, that is, the product is divided into several fractions. You can buy or, but it’s much easier and faster to make the simplest moonshine still.

The simplest moonshine still

In order to make such a design, you will need only 2 plates of larger and smaller diameter (in Fig. 2 and 4) and a saucepan (in Fig. 3).

This design works as follows. Braga is poured into the pan. A plate of smaller diameter is placed on top of the spacers so that it does not plunge into the boiling mash. A larger diameter plate is placed on the pan, into which cold water is poured.

During the boiling process, alcohol vapors are released and settle on a small plate. As a result, you get a minimum amount of moonshine (from 1 liter of mash no more than 80 ml) with a high concentration of fusel oils. To be honest, such moonshine is not only dangerous to take internally, but even used externally. This method was very popular in the Soviet Union during the Prohibition era. It is clear that the number of poisonings with such a surrogate was close to the absolute majority, which is where the belief that moonshine is pure poison came from.

In this case, it is not moonshine that is dangerous to health, but the concentration of hazardous substances - fusel oils, acetone and aldehydes. Only double and even triple distillation can produce a product that is pure and safe for life and health.

We have provided this information only to describe previously existing methods. We do not recommend making such a device at home - you will not be able to drink, and the smell in the apartment will linger for at least a week.

How to make a simple moonshine still

In this case, the design includes a distillation cube and a refrigerator. This is also a simple option, but it allows you to get a high-quality drink.

Always distill the distillate at least 2 times and use a steamer. This way you will get rid of harmful fusel oils as much as possible. Afterwards cleaning with charcoal is necessary.

Alembic

Any enameled or stainless steel container with a tight lid is suitable for this. The latter should close so tightly that it is not knocked out by excess pressure from the inside.

The second prerequisite is the presence of an outlet pipe through which steam that has not yet been divided into fractions will move. For this purpose, a through hole is made in the lid and a fitting is screwed in.

The third condition - tightness - smoothly follows from the first. If you ensure that the lid is securely fastened to the cube, the seal will be ensured. Some people cover the lid with dough, others use silicone gaskets. We recommend using pressure cookers. The price of the simplest model is 1500-2000 rubles. If you plan to brew moonshine more than once, it makes sense to buy it.

However, the pressure cooker has one serious drawback - its volume. The maximum we have seen on sale is designed for 6 liters, so you will fill the mash with 4.5 liters (no more than 2/3 of the volume). This yields a little less than a liter of moonshine. It won't be enough, but it's enough for home use.

If this volume does not suit you, buy a special distillation cube with a capacity of 10 liters or more. The average price is 3200-4000 rubles.

A milk can with a lid that screws on tightly will be an affordable and suitable distillation cube. It will really need to be coated with dough after pouring the mash, but this is even a plus - the house will smell not of fusel, but of fresh baked goods.

How to make a still in just half an hour - video

Fridge

The refrigerator in the moonshine still is divided into 2 main types depending on the method of water supply:

filler (storage);
flow-through

The first option is very, very bad in terms of making moonshine. Such a refrigerator can only be used if there are big problems with water in the house. The operating principle of such a refrigerator is based on immediately pouring cold water and replacing it during the brewing process.

What's wrong with this refrigerator? The fact is that the water still heats up, even if you change it often enough. The warmer the water, the slower the separation into fractions occurs, the less, accordingly, you will get the finished product.

A flow-through refrigerator is connected to a water supply and the entire time cooking is in progress, water passes through it, physically not having time to heat it to a critical limit.

A flooded refrigerator can only be used if there is no real possibility of connecting the water supply.

Coil

An essential element of any refrigerator is a coil - a glass, copper or stainless steel spiral tube through which alcohol-containing vapors move from the distillation chamber to the receiving container, simultaneously being divided into vapor and liquid fractions.

Some moonshiners prefer to use laboratory coils made of glass. Let’s say right away that our kitchen is far from a laboratory and people walk here unprepared for such almost sterile conditions. And glass things tend to break. It is best to use a copper coil, which has a high degree of heat transfer, is safe to use and costs literally pennies.

A refrigerator with a copper coil includes the following required elements:

container for water;
coil with 2 fittings - vapor inlet and moonshine outlet;
2 fittings for inlet/outlet of running water for cooling.

The photo shows examples of the simplest and therefore most effective refrigerators.

In the video you can see how to make the simplest refrigerator based on a corrugated gas flexible pipe. Just 1 hour and you can start working.

Final assembly

Actually, at this point the production of the moonshine still is almost completed. All that remains is to put all the components together.

For connection you must use only (!!!) silicone hoses. It is prohibited to use PVC hoses when distilling alcohol; this is very, very dangerous.

In order to distinguish a silicone hose from PVC, it can be set on fire. There will be no smell when burning. At the same time, the hose itself is pleasant to the touch.

Sukhoparnik

No matter what anyone says about the necessity or uselessness of this detail, we insist that the product must be as clean as possible. Not like rectified alcohol, it really is practically poison, but in such a way that in the morning you can clearly remember the events of the previous evening.

A steam steamer is used to separate fusel oils from alcohol-containing steam and prevent the ingress of mash residues into the finished product.

You can purchase a ready-made steamer, which will cost 1800-2200 rubles, or make it from an ordinary can.

Take a 1- or 2-liter jar with a screw-on lid. Make holes in the lid for two fittings, inlet and outlet.

Connect two hoses to the fittings - one comes from the distillation cube, the other goes into the refrigerator.

It is best to make a steamer from stainless steel and provide for draining fusel oils. When distilling a large amount of mash, the latter begin to move, negatively affecting the taste of the final product.

Now the simplest moonshine still is ready!

For those who still have questions - video instructions from experienced moonshiners