(20 January 2013, 00:50)BDG Wrote: You could use any source of sugars to make vodka - it is at the end of the day just near pure alcohol added to clean water. Cheapest way to go would be to use plain white sugar and one of the turbo yeasts - I think some of them will ferment to 25% or so. Going for a higher % yeast means you are not going to have to brew as much in litres or gallons or whatever you measure in.
It is good practice to discard the first vapours and the tailings from a still, but I read a study someone had done and the actual amounts of bad stuff in the liquid were so small you would have to drink that much you would first die of alcohol poisoning before you were blinded.
However, it is the things at the beginning and end that give you the nasty hang over.
I have been brewing for 20 or so years and was going to do a write up on making spirit some time - just from a theoretical point of view, have never done it, it is a crime against the tax man, one of the few crimes the government will not stand for.
actually alcohol is fermented from the glucose (grape sugar). starch from the potatoes and/or grains first has to turn into sugar under the influence of acids or certain enzymes (e.g. presented in the human saliva).
well that explains the rumours about african women chewing the bananas and spitting them into the fermenting bowls for making the local alcohol drinks.
so you have to first to acidify the mushed potatoes and/or grains.
that means it is easier and quicker to make alcohol from plane sugar.
http://www.publicbookshelf.com/public_ht...c_bgh.html
years ago when mr Gorbachev was in rule with his anti-alcohol policy my friend and i visited his relatives in Moscow. self-made alcohol was natural „welcome“ component from my friends family.
i learned then that almost every household in russia has compact home still for personal use in their apartments. sugar was and still is relatively cheap source for making self-made alcohol. and the ordinary russians very well aware that only fresh bought pack of paste yeast is good enough to have the job done (and not the dried granulated one).
it is „good practice to discard the first vapours and the trailings from a still“ because boiling point of the methanol is lower (65*C) than ethanols (78*C) so you drain methanol first out.
the „trailing's“ are usually just water, since water boiling point is 100*C.
if you want to use your self-made alcohol for fuel or disinfectant use only you don’t have to additionally filter it.
if you want to make your alcohol drinkable you better to filter it through the activated carbon filter.
historically russians used the birch coal to make the best vodkas, but in modern busy times there are shortcuts. the quickest and most available high quality filters are military gas mask filter elements. they are widely available in russia and they are very good at filtering badly smelling and tasting fusel oils from the self-made alcohol. in order to flavor the vodka russians add to the homebrew different things like mint / pepper / pine thorns / citrus peals / berries just before the distilling.
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