How to clean moonshine from smell and fusel oils at home

The content of the article

• Causes of the unpleasant smell of moonshine
• How to remove the smell of moonshine at home
• Potassium permanganate
• Soda
• Activated carbon
• Charcoal
• Freezing
• Milk and eggs
• Lemon
• Honey
• Re-distillation

Quantity and quality are the basis for drinking alcohol. The first is simple. It is only necessary to observe an acceptable dose. Then the painful and destructive dependence does not threaten, but with the second it is more difficult. Many people make alcohol at home to their personal preference. Knowing how to clean the moonshine from the smell is a matter of final quality. It even affects product safety. An unprocessed drink with poisonous oils, acetone and methyl alcohol will definitely affect human health..

Causes of the unpleasant smell of moonshine

Everything that is unpleasant to the scent and harmful when consumed is formed during the fermentation of sugar, yeast and water. At this stage, the mash is filled with ethyl and methyl alcohols, formic acid, aldehyde, acetone and other substances. Ethyl alcohol is the final product that the moonshining process is aimed at. Side elements, like methyl alcohol, aldehyde, acetone and other poisons, are guaranteed to cause harm to human health. And often with a fatal outcome. A clear sign of their presence in a liquor is an unpleasant pungent odor..

On top of that, home-made alcohol is full of fusel oils. Experienced home-brew lovers are well aware of these toxic substances. They have a brownish-yellow color and in the same way characteristically stink. To clean the drink from fusel oils is necessary not only for taste. A severe hangover and headache is their minimal effect on the body. Worse is only the poisoning that often occurs when consuming such oils.

How to remove the smell of moonshine at home

Craftsmen invented and published many ways to rid alcohol of harmful substances. All filtering methods are divided into two categories:

• apply before the second distillation;
• applied after the second distillation.

Cleaning with coal and potassium permanganate are universal methods. They are equally effective in both cases. Milk and eggs are recommended to be used only at the end of the final distillation. This will avoid partial loss of moonshine. Other popular discoveries are applicable only before the second distillation. It is worth noting one important nuance: any of these methods, with the exception of coal, can spoil home-brew. If the quality of the beverage is affected by filtration, then the distillation will solve the problem..

Purification of alcohol (as well as any other liquids) with the help of coal is a proven way to get rid of side impurities without risks for the product. Other methods are not so effective. They will reduce the concentration of harmful substances to varying degrees, but will not completely eliminate them. But at home, you can experiment with double filtering. For example, after the first distillation, clean the moonshine with coal, and after the second – with milk.

Potassium permanganate

It can kill the stink of acetone, neutralizes the harmful effects of side poisons. Filtration will require manganese crystals – half a teaspoon (2-3 grams) per 3 liters of moonshine:

1. Add manganese to the drink.
2. Mix thoroughly and leave to infuse for a couple of hours.
3. Gently pour the purified moonshine so as not to affect the sedimentation of harmful impurities that accumulated at the bottom of the tank during filtration. Before this, the hose must be cleaned in advance..

Soda

Another way to turn raw alcohol into a delicious home-made drink. Suitable only for drinks with a strength of not more than forty degrees. Otherwise, the product must be pre-diluted with water. For 1 liter of moonshine, it is necessary to prepare one tablespoon of salt and a similar portion of baking soda:

1. Add the indicated portions of salt and soda to forty-degree moonshine.
2. Stir the drink and leave for half an hour to infuse.
3. After this, mix the moonshine again and place the container with it in a dark place where the sun’s rays do not penetrate.
4. When the liquid exfoliates, remove the upper formations from it. So fusel oils are excluded from alcohol, giving the drink a pleasant aroma.

Activated carbon

As mentioned earlier, this method has been tested by time and practice. Helps to reliably clean moonshine at home from harmful substances without compromising its quality. For 3 liters of alcohol, one pharmacy package of activated carbon is enough. Filter paper with a plastic funnel will also come in handy:

• First grind the activated carbon tablets to a powder state.
• Next, you need to create the filter itself:
  1. Lay paper at the bottom of the funnel.
  2. Pour powdered powder on it.
  3. Cover it with paper.
  4. Slightly “load” with something its upper layer. Thanks to this, the filter will not pop up when a drink is passed through it..
• Slowly pour moonshine into the same funnel through “loaded” paper with activated carbon powder.
• After that, dilute the drink with water so that its strength does not exceed 28 degrees.
• At the end of the filtration, moonshine is distilled again. In this case, coal cleaning is carried out according to the same algorithm..

Charcoal

Similar to the previous method of how to clean the moonshine from the smell of fusel oils. It differs in the main ingredient – in this case, the drink is filtered with charcoal from birch wood (preferably BAU-A). For 3 liters of moonshine you will need a handful of this cleaner, powdered:

1. Grind the charcoal to a fine crumb.
2. Form the same filter as in the activated carbon method.
3. Slowly let moonshine through it.

There is an alternative recipe technique. The cleanser is added directly to the drink. The ingredients and their proportions are still the same, a plastic funnel is not required:

1. Grind charcoal to powder.
2. Pour the appropriate dose of this cleaner into moonshine.
3. Leave to insist on a week. During this period it is necessary to shake the container once a day.
4. Then leave the drink for 10 days without any external influence..
5. Strain alcohol through gauze or filter paper.

Freezing

How to remove the smell in moonshine without unnecessary costs? You need to freeze everything except ethyl alcohol. So the main product of home brewing is separated from other components. A simple method that does not require additional ingredients is suitable for this:

1. Pour moonshine into a suitable pan.
2. Leave the dishes with the drink in the freezer for about 4-5 hours.
3. Take out the pan with frozen alcohol and drain the unfrozen liquid – this will be the same ethyl alcohol.
4. If necessary, repeat the procedure until the product is completely cleansed of impurities.

Milk and eggs

Milk filtration is based on the coagulation process – the combination of albumin and casein proteins with fusel oils. As a result, harmful substances settle to the bottom in the form of flakes. Experienced lovers use milk powder. For 1 liter of distillate, 100 milliliters of the ingredient in diluted form will be required. In addition to this, it is necessary to stock up on water in a ratio of 1: 1. For filtering, gauze or filter paper is suitable. The method is applied after the final distillation, and only on moonshine with a strength of up to 40 degrees:

1. Dilute milk powder in warm water. Stir thoroughly and leave for 3 hours..
2. Pour the resulting solution into alcohol.
3. Leave it for a week.
4. After this period, strain the moonshine through gauze or filter paper, sifting out the precipitate.

Purification of moonshine from fusel oils through protein acts in a similar way. It will take 2 raw eggs per 10 liters of alcohol. The permissible strength of the drink is still the same – 40 degrees maximum:

1. Beat the protein with a little water. Do not foam.
2. Slowly pour the resulting liquid into moonshine, while constantly stirring.
3. After some time, the same flocculent precipitate forms at the bottom of the can. Strain the drink.
4. Sometimes both of these procedures require repetition, since cleaning moonshine from fusel oils is not an easy task.

Lemon

An additional measure that is applied after traditional cleaning through a charcoal filter. For a liter of alcohol, you need 3 peels of lemon / orange / lime:

1. Rinse citrus skins. It is advisable to scald them with boiling water..
2. Beat to ground.
3. Refill the drink with them and insist it for 3-4 days.
4. Strain.

Citrus varieties do not matter. It is acceptable to use the peel both from one species and from several different fruits..

Honey

An interesting way to give the drink a soft taste. Although it does not compare with how carbon filters can clean the moonshine from the smell. There is no guarantee that after this cleaning, the alcohol will no longer smell like sivuha. Therefore, honey is only good as a supplement after the second distillation. For a liter of distillate, 4 tablespoons of the ingredient will be required. Moonshine must be diluted to 45 degrees:

1. Add ingredient to drink and shake well..
2. Allocate 2-3 days to brew.
3. Strain, getting rid of the same sedimentary flakes as in the method with milk and egg white.

Re-distillation

This is a long and time consuming process. On the other hand, it provides high-quality filtration. Of the ingredients, only water is required:

1. We dilute moonshine to a fortress of 15-20%.
2. Distill the drink again, dividing it into “layers”.

The first 15% of the distillate cannot be drunk – this is enough to kill an adult. The remaining 70% should be diluted with water to 40-45 degrees so that they are suitable for use. The last 15% is also banned due to health hazards..

Even the old “single” product can be re-distilled. True, with some reservations in the methodology.

An alternative cleaning method is as follows:

1. Dilute the drink to 35 degrees. An important subtlety: alcohol is poured into water. Not the other way around. This will save the drink from clouding..
2. To clear a product of impurities. Any suitable method as previously described is allowed. It is advisable to resort to coal filtration.
3. Strain.
4. Distill. It passes in the same way as the primary.