Yeast is able to give moonshine a specific, not the most pleasant aftertaste. In addition, products that do not contain artificially grown microorganisms are now popular.
Like bread, confectionery. In our case, this is mash without yeast, although it’s not entirely correct to say so.
The fermentation process just won't start. Let it be involved not industrial, but "wild" yeast(microscopic fungi that are found on the skin of fruits), malt from cereals.
In addition, some products contribute to fermentation: honey, jam, hops, sweets, raisins etc. As a result, we get a natural product, “not clouded” with unknown components, which is easy to drink, pleasant and even healthy (if not abused).
So let's talk about how to cook mash without factory-made yeast.
It should be remembered about simple recipes known to our ancestors, who were driven a hundred years ago, when there were no pressed or dry turbo yeast in stores. At best, they were made independently from bran, flour and hops.
Wheat mash with sugar
Do you want to receive natural wheat vodka, before which even expensive store views fade? Then take advantage of this recipe. If possible, take full-weight wheat, without garbage and broken grains.
You will need:
- 4 kg of wheat;
Important. Wheat should not be older than a year and not younger than two months. The young (recently harvested) grain has insufficient germination energy, like the old one, and according to the recipe we need friendly seedlings.
- 4 kg of granulated sugar;
- 30 liters of water.
You can take half of this norm, everything will work out too. But the sourdough still needs to be made from 1 kg of grain and 500 g of sugar.
Leaven
Rinse 1 kg of grain several times with clean water without the use of chemicals to remove litter and dust. Evenly distribute along the bottom of the container and pour water so that it covers the grains for a centimeter or two. Measure water, its amount is included in the total amount of water according to the recipe!
Put in a cool and dark place, covered with a lid. Do not miss the moment when the grains sprout (after 1-2 days). Add 0.5 kg of sugar, mix by hand. If the mass is thick, add more water. At this stage, the container must be placed in a warm place and tied with gauze (cloth). The sourdough will be ready in 10 days.
Gate
You will need:
- 3 kg of washed selected grain;
- 2 cups dry hops (can be bought at a pharmacy);
- 1 cup rye or wheat flour;
- 15 liters of water;
- to choose from: unwashed apples, pears, berries, peeled boiled crushed potatoes. The total weight is 2-3 kg.
Germination of grain
We put the grain in an even layer in the bottle and fill it with water so that it is exactly flush with the top grains. We close with a capron lid. We leave it in this form for 3 to 4 days, “turning” the bottle daily so that all the grains are wetted and germinate evenly.
You can also germinate on a baking sheet by covering the grain that is wet after washing with a well-moistened cloth. Spray the fabric twice a day with a spray bottle, shake the baking sheet. Germination takes 3-4 days.
Steam cooking
Pour hops with boiling water (1.5 - 2 liters) in a saucepan or other heat-resistant dish, cover, leave for 15-20 minutes. We filter, squeeze the hops. Gradually adding, knead the flour so that there are no lumps. It is not forbidden to use a mixer and blather the whole steam at once. Let's stand for an hour.
Braga
haul
As a rule, fermentation lasts 10-12 days. Then the wort is clarified, the precipitate falls out. Braga is removed from the sediment and distilled twice. The first time - directly, without division into factions. Secondarily - diluted to 20 °, selecting the heads and tails in a separate bowl.
The moonshine obtained from this mash has a thick aroma and a rich, pungent taste. Not everyone likes it, and it is difficult to achieve a large yield of alcohol.
Rice mash without yeast
They make such a braga on unfiltered unpasteurized "live" beer. The taste is reminiscent of traditional rice vodka, but with a peculiar aftertaste.
You will need:
- 4 cups of polished rice;
- 6 glasses of granulated sugar;
- 1 liter of beer.
Advice. Try adding a handful of dried fruits to the mash, they will improve fermentation, add flavor to the final product.
All ingredients are mixed in a suitable container and left warm (the best temperature is 24-28°C) under a water seal. Braga matures in 10-12 days.
Yeast-free mash with fruits and berries
In another way, we can say that this is a braga on wild yeast, which in nature live on the skin of fruits and on the surface of berries. It ferments longer than on purchased yeast, but the moonshine turns out to be natural, with a taste of the product from which the mash is made.
During a long fermentation, fruits and berries have time to transfer their aroma to the future distillate, and those who try it will feel a fruity smell, not yeast. Here are some berry and fruit mash recipes without yeast.
Plum
Very popular in Balkan countries slivovitz- moonshine, cooked on plums. The main reason is the ease of preparation. But we will not discount the pleasant taste. For mash, you need 12 kg of plums and 2 kg of sugar. Ripe fruits are not washed, kneaded with sugar, left to ferment in the heat for 15 to 20 days.
Braga from plums is prepared without sugar. 3 buckets of ripe plums are mashed and left for 3 weeks to ferment in the heat. Then they distill.
Note. The difference in ingredients does not affect the taste of the distillate, but with sugar it turns out more.
Rowan
Rowan is harvested after the first frost, as the frozen berry is juicier. Each berry is mashed (today you can puree in a blender) and left warm for fermentation.
No water or sugar is added. Rowan wort ripens for 7-10 days. It is worth distilling twice to remove astringency and sharpness in moonshine.
Apple
Apples are taken only ripe and unwashed. Not necessarily plucked, those that have fallen from a tree will also go, the main thing is that they are not rotten. Cut out the cores, if any, spoiled places and pass the apples through a juicer.
In no case should the cake be thrown away, but poured with water so that it only covers and is allowed to brew. Juice is added at the rate: for 1 liter of cake with water - 5 liters of juice. They let it ferment and distill.
Peculiarities. Apple mash is not only moonshine, but also, in a mug of which it is nice to drink with a friend.
Berry
Any unwashed berries, both individually and assorted, are crushed and fermented, then distilled. If you add sugar, then a little: for 10 liters of liquid - 2 kg, no more.
Properly prepared fruit and berry mash gives soft fragrant moonshine, which is pleasant to drink yourself, and it is not shameful to put it in front of guests.
Experimental Brag Recipes
Here are a few mash recipes that are not very popular among distillers who want to be 100% convinced that they can easily get mash and a good yield of moonshine.
Filled caramel
For today's young moonshiners, stuffed caramel mash may seem experimental. But for those who remember the 80s - 90s, this is classic. In those days of sugar shortage and the ban on self-production of alcohol, it was sweets with jam inside that became a godsend.
Candy moonshine was distinguished not only by the availability of “material”, it still did not need to “get” yeast for it.
Historical fact. At the time of Gorbachev's "prohibition" manufacturers forcibly added substances to bakery pressed yeast that did not allow normal mash to be made on this yeast. Bread turned out, mash - no.
Caramels also gave a pleasant candy flavor to the homemade alcohol distillate, which depended on the variety of sweets purchased. Try it and you, especially since the way out: from 5 kg of caramel - 5 liters of moonshine.
Necessary:
- 5 kg of caramel with filling;
- 2 buckets of warm water (10 liters).
Candies are dissolved in water, stirring and checking how the process is going. Cover with a lid, put in heat. After 4-5 days you can overtake.
Fruit chocolate
You need to take 3 liters of unfiltered beer and any fruit juice. Add 1 kg of sugar, 2 chocolate bars and 10 liters of water.
First, beer and juice are mixed, sugar is diluted in liquid, grated chocolate is added. Stir, cover and put in heat. Water is added when fermentation becomes noticeable. Braga ripens for 3 weeks. Moonshine is soft, without the smell of fuselage.
Carefully. When setting yeast-free mash, the risk of souring is higher than when using yeast.
Therefore, keep an eye on the temperature in the room. Use a water seal (glove) and proceed with the distillation when air bubbles stop escaping or the glove deflates.
You can share your own experience of setting yeast-free mash in the comments. Like if the article was helpful to you.
Moonshine from various sweets became popular back in the days of the Soviet Union. Then, when substandard goods appeared in large quantities at a low price in stores, and the local population bought them to make a drink at home. At that time, by the way, it was not always possible to make moonshine legally. But since it was quite easy to get the goods, and the cost was low, moonshine from sweets gained particular popularity.
Candy moonshine
What sweets are suitable for making moonshine? Actually very different. It can be prepared from chocolates, caramel, marshmallows, halva and other sweets are good for this. However, the feasibility of such raw materials for preparation is debatable, especially now, with a large number of additives in the composition of sweets.
These may be aromatic substances that will not affect the quality and taste of the drink in the best way. In addition, it is believed that alcohol from sweets will turn out no better than from sugar, and in some cases even worse. Although some moonshiners note a milder taste of a drink prepared according to this recipe.
In any case, since sweets are more expensive than sugar, the point of making moonshine from sweets is only to use substandard raw materials that you got for nothing. For example, if it has passed the expiration date and it is not suitable for eating.
Another problem with such raw materials is that they contain large amounts of starch and dextrins, which are polysaccharides and are not directly fermented by yeast. Therefore, raw materials must be prepared before installation for fermentation. Namely subjected to heat treatment to remove excess aromatics and parallel sterilization. To convert starch and dextrins to monosaccharides, green malt must be used.
Preparing a drink
This is the standard recipe. To prepare the wort for 1 kg of sweets, 1.5 liters of water and 130 g of green malt are taken. It is possible and even desirable to use the latter and in large quantities, since in the must of these ingredients it is a source of nutrients. And also desirable is the introduction of ammonium sulfate and superphosphate. The technology of preparation is as follows. The water is brought to a boil, stirring, the main raw material is poured out and then stirred until it is completely dissolved.
The most appropriate processing temperature for candy raw materials is 85–90 degrees. The complexity of choosing the mode is as follows: at a higher temperature, the caramel dissolves faster, but the amount of sugar that caramelizes increases, which leads to losses. The duration depends on the temperature, the recipe, the type of raw material and the degree of contamination.
For example, mint caramel requires approximately 3-4 hours at 85 degrees. This time can be significantly reduced if the raw material is blown with an air flow from the compressor. During the heat treatment of caramel raw materials, good ventilation in the room must be ensured so that aromatic substances do not accumulate. In addition, during heat treatment, it is necessary to compensate for the significant losses of water that occur in this case.
After that, the mass is cooled to a temperature of 65 degrees and soy milk is added. The saccharification technology is usual: for two and a half hours the raw material is kept at a temperature of 65 degrees. Upon completion, it is cooled to the fermentation temperature, superphosphate and ammonium sulfate are added.
Pour no more than 70% of the volume into the fermentation tank of the raw materials required. For 3 kg of sweets, approximately 15 liters of water and 200 g of yeast are taken. All this is mixed and installed in a container, on which a water seal is put on.
Candy mash is transferred to a dark room and aged for 5-14 days, depending on which candies are used. It is believed that the fastest fermentation occurs when using chocolates, but this also depends on the amount of yeast and its proportions with sugar in the sweets. And, accordingly, the way saccharification is performed.
The fermented candy mash is drained from the sediment through two or three layers of gauze and clarified. To do this, it is desirable to use bentonite or another proven method. After that, moonshine is prepared. The distillation cube of the moonshine is filled with mash, as always, the first 30–50 ml are collected separately, these are the heads. If the fortress reaches 30-40%, the selection of the body is stopped, then the tails go. In this case, the selection of the head and tail fractions must be carried out sufficiently, otherwise the amount of harmful substances in the drink will be high.
Moonshine can turn out to be cloudy, it is advisable to dilute it to 17–20% and clean it with coal or another method. Then overtake again. At the second distillation, the process is stopped when the fortress falls below 45% at the exit.
At the exit from five kilograms of sweets, 5 liters of a drink are obtained, which will not require aromatization and contain the smell of moonshine. Be sure to filter it using charcoal. Then you can use a filter, which consists of water and soda, it will make the drink very soft and gentle.
In addition to standard recipes, the ingredients can be mixed in different ways, inventing your own combinations. For example, such a recipe: for a kilogram of chocolates, you can take the same amount of caramel or halva, depending on your own preferences. Chocolate creates an incredibly delicate and unusual taste, and besides this, a pleasant aroma. However, moonshine on chocolates is a delicacy that not everyone likes. But it is a good alternative to a sugary drink that has a chocolate aftertaste and is not bitter. In addition, this is a rational way to dispose of candy that has already gone bad.
The process of making moonshine will always be relevant among the Russian population. Despite attempts to track down violators and punish home-brewing, the Russian people still continue to produce moonshine. Making a moonshine with your own hands and preparing a delicious and unusual alcoholic drink with any taste is not a problem for a real man.
But driving this drink in the apartment is not so convenient, the smell, no matter how hard you try, spreads and reaches the neighbors. Of course, there is nothing terrible in this, but not everyone wants the neighbors to know that the resident in the neighborhood brews moonshine for himself. Therefore, during cooking, you can use various additives that will hide the smell. For example, chocolates, any sucking candies or halva can be used for these purposes.
If you decide to make such moonshine, then get ready that the taste will be quite specific and unusual. Only gourmets will rightly appreciate this taste, and if you like it, you can also make various drinks from it. The taste of moonshine in this drink will not be felt at all. Many people perceive moonshine from sweets as a joke, they say, who will make moonshine from chocolate? But after trying 
this unusual drink can you say for sure what to brew moonshine from sweets? worthwhile business.
Its biggest plus? it's a pleasant smell. For cooking, it is not necessary to use expensive fresh sweets. Decommissioned, slightly stale sweets are perfect. The quality of this product will depend on the master, because you can spoil any product, even this one. For distillation, it is better to use a good quality apparatus.
Cooking process
Chocolate moonshine began to be driven back in Soviet times. It was very popular in villages and villages, where there was a general store nearby with various Soviet-era candies. There were always different caramels, toffees, chocolates and marmalade sweets that were subject to disposal and write-off, so the locals were happy to buy them at a cheap price for moonshine, because the expiration date, windiness and bad appearance of sweets will not affect its taste in any way.
If you make moonshine from caramel sweets, then we need 5 kg of stuffed caramels or chocolates (they can be used a little less than 3 kg). Caramels should be soaked in 19 liters of heated water and wait until they are completely dissolved. At this time, we breed 290 g of yeast and add to our sweets. We fill it all in one large container, cork it and put it in a warm place to ferment. A week later, when the mixture has fermented well, you can start distilling, it is best to overtake such moonshine twice.
At the output, you will get 5 liters of an excellent, tasty and aromatic drink that will smell exclusively of sweets and will not require any flavoring. It is necessary to filter: we pass through a dense layer of gauze and cotton wool using activated charcoal. To better filter for every 3 sheets on cotton wool, pour a tablespoon of sugar and 50 g of soda. While these ingredients will flow through the tube, they will dissolve and give the drink a delicate and mild taste.
In addition, you can mix the drink in completely different ways. You can add a few kilograms of chocolates, mixed with sucking caramels, and add halva if you are a fan of such sweets. Such a mix will create an incredibly delicate and unusual taste, plus the aroma of the drink will be really pleasant.
Moonshine from chocolates is more of a delicacy and will not suit everyone's taste, but it is an excellent alternative to a sugar-based drink, it is not bitter and has a chocolate aftertaste. In addition, you can quickly dispose of sweets that lie idle for a long time or do not like the taste and lie until better times. They are great to use in this recipe.
Moonshine in Russia was driven and will be driven. The classic was right, mentioning the recipe for moonshine even from a stool: almost any raw material containing simple and complex carbohydrates can be processed into a strong drink with more or less success. And even more so sweets, since they are almost nothing but carbohydrates. One of them is a candy-based recipe. Let's talk about the recipe for mash from sweets for moonshine below.
Candies are bought, candies are given, candies are forgotten and lie in lockers for years. And on holidays there are more candies than you can eat. Throw away surplus and substandard? There is a better way out: put the mash and overtake, especially since it is very simple! To prepare a homemade candy mash recipe, both caramel and chocolate candies are suitable. They can even be mixed if desired, the taste will not suffer from this, it will only become more original. Regardless of the type of sweets, the taste of the resulting moonshine will be very unusual, but here it’s not for everyone.
Candy mash recipe (caramel)
Ingredients:
- caramel - 1 kg
- clean water - 4 liters
- pressed yeast - 40 grams (dry - 8-10 grams)
Braga preparation:
- Caramel is completely dissolved in heated water.
- The syrup is poured into a fermentation tank, activated yeast is added.
- Everything is mixed well and removed to ferment in a warm dark place for 5-7 days.
Ready mash is distilled. It is important to remember that the resulting raw alcohol must be distilled again, and the final product must be passed through a cotton-gauze filter with charcoal. For high-quality distillation with complete separation of non-potable fractions, we recommend (we recommend choosing a device with a distillation column brand). When choosing a model, it is always useful to read - this is a proven way not to miscalculate and take a truly reliable and easy-to-use distiller.
Recipe for chocolate mash
Ingredients:
- chocolates - 1 kg
- water - 1.5 liters
- pressed yeast - 50 grams (dry - 10 grams)
Braga preparation:
- Pour sweets with 500 milliliters of warm water, stir until smooth.
- Add activated yeast to the candy mass, mix and leave for 30-40 minutes.
- Add the remaining liter of warm water, close the lid and leave for fermentation in a warm, dark place for 5-7 days.
The finished mash (bitter in taste, there is no sweet aftertaste, the process of gas formation has stopped) is distilled with the same reservations as in the recipe with caramel. The taste of the drink turns out to be very unusual, but if you have a sweet tooth, you will appreciate the light chocolate aftertaste and a pleasant candy aroma. Such moonshine is hardly suitable for, but you can try to insist on berries if the sweets were with berry filling.
History is silent about where this name came from, but it is in this form that it is found in most sources:
- caramel - 5 kg;
- water - 20 liters;
- fresh yeast - 200 gr or dry - 40 gr.
The raw materials that we got must be cleaned of wrappers and diluted in water. To do this, dip the caramels in warm water and heat until they are completely dissolved. The water temperature should be above 70°C, but not boiling. Otherwise, some of the sugar will evaporate along with the water. Boiling water should be constantly topped up. It will take about an hour to dilute the sugar syrup. During this time, you need to activate the yeast. The finished syrup will need to be cooled to 25 ° C - 30 ° C and mixed with yeast. The fermentation tank must be selected with a margin of free space in case of active foaming. For fermentation, you need a warm place and a water seal. Check its condition periodically. Spots of oils and emulsifiers will appear on the surface, which must be constantly removed. In about a week or two, our candy mash is ready. We drain it from the sediment, filter it and preferably clarify it (for example, with coal or soda). Now you can start distillation.
Distillation is carried out with separation into fractions. The first 50 ml should not be used. Then we collect the drink until the fortress drops to 40 °. It is better to pass the primary distillate through the filter and repeat the distillation. To do this, first reduce the strength to 20 °, diluting with water. A few days of aging will allow the flavor to fully round and connect.
Use the same recipe if you got chocolates instead of caramels. Small adjustments need to be made for the ratio of the components. We use 3 kg for the same amount of water and candy yeast. Before adding to water, we process them into a homogeneous mass, for example, using a meat grinder. Complete dissolution will take quite a bit of time, no more than 20 minutes. Then we cook using a similar technology.
If there are different varieties of sweets, but in small quantities, it is not forbidden to mix them with each other. A prerequisite is that the solutions must be cooked separately. And mix ready-made syrups.
Traditional candy moonshine
A. Dorosh and V. Lysenko in their work on the production of alcoholic beverages give a pre-revolutionary recipe using sweets:
- assorted sweets - 1 kg;
- water (for wort) - 4.5 - 5 liters;
- green malt or malt flour - 0.15 - 0.2 gr;
- water (for malt) - 500 ml;
- ammonium sulfate - 2 gr;
- superphosphate - 3 gr;
- fresh yeast - 40 gr or dry - 8 gr.
The method of making the wort is the same as described earlier. Sweets are thoroughly dissolved in warm water. The vaporization process removes volatile flavors. The remaining starch is proposed to be saccharified. The original recipe recommends making "malted milk" from germinated malt. We suggest taking ready-made malt flour as a basis and mixing it with water in a ratio of 1:3. The resulting mixture, which will be "malted milk", is added to a slightly cooled wort and wait 2.5 hours. Approximately so much will take the process of saccharification of starch.
Phosphorus, sulfur, nitrogen will help create a nutrient medium for the vital activity of yeast. We introduce these substances in the form of supplements: ammonium sulfate and superphosphate, which also require special preparation. Even the day before, you need to make an extract from superphosphate: soak in boiling water, mix and let it brew for a day. Ammonium sulfate can be easily diluted in warm water. The amount of these additives given in the recipe is used per 1 kg of sugar. We exaggeratedly equated 1 kg of sweets to 1 kg of sugar. We feed the already saccharified wort, prepared for fermentation.
Experienced moonshiners claim that malt and sulfates can be used as alternatives to each other, not necessarily together. The result of the impact of the latter is quite enough. And here the question is more environmental friendliness than process efficiency. A drink made with malt is more pleasant to drink than with fertilizers. Even in the moral and psychological terms. Sulfates are used to get faster results and for sale.
The subsequent fermentation process does not differ from the standard technology used by the first recipe: we ferment sugar, remove sediment, filter. Then we subject it to a double distillation with the obligatory division into fractions.
