Moonshine from apples is one of the most popular fruit moonshine, and indeed, alcoholic beverages in Russia and the countries of the former CIS. Its popularity is caused by the fact that each of us can easily cook it at home, so you can save money and be sure of the quality of the alcoholic beverage.
The general recipe for making moonshine
Before looking for a recipe for moonshine from apples at home, let's find out the general scheme for making any moonshine, especially since cognac, chacha and many other alcoholic drinks are also prepared according to this principle. This scheme consists of only four points.
- Create mash according to the selected recipe.
- Fermentation of mash until the moment in which the desired percentage of alcohol is formed.
- Distillation of the resulting solution until the moment when the desired strength of the alcoholic beverage is not in the distillate.
- Infusion of moonshine or any other alcoholic drink so that its taste and aroma become more saturated.
Selection of apples for mash
In any recipe for homemade moonshine from apples, these fruits are the main ingredient, the choice of which should be approached with great care. Of course, if you want to make ordinary moonshine in the classical way, then any apples will do, because they are easy to sweeten with sugar. But if you plan to make moonshine according to the recipe without the use of yeast, or if you want to prepare tincture or liquor based on this drink, then it is better to remember the ratio of the percent of fruit acids and sugar in certain apple varieties for yourself, then choose the fruits, focusing on the required the sweetness of the drink:
- sweet apples - 1/20;
- tart garden and sweet and sour apples - 1/16;
- sweet and sour apples without a special grade - 0.9 / 10;
- sour apples and wild game - 1.3 / 6.
The classic recipe for making mash from apples for moonshine
According to the proven, classic recipe for apple moonshine, to create a fruit mash we need:
- 15 kg of apples;
- 2 kg of sugar or granulated sugar;
- 10 liters of water;
- 50 grams of "live" wine yeast.
The first stage of creating moonshine infusion on apples begins with the preparation of fruits. Apples must be thoroughly washed, peeled from the top peel, cut out the middle, and then turn them through a meat grinder or blender to obtain a homogeneous mass. In the absence of these kitchen appliances, apples can simply be grated. After that, add 9 liters of water to apples and mix everything thoroughly. We heat the remaining liter of water and add sugar there, so that we get a syrup, which then, after cooling, we add to the apple mass, and again mix thoroughly. At the end, we place the whole mass in a fermentation tank and leave it alone for three weeks.
Apple juice mash
If you want to make homemade moonshine from apples, but you don’t have the fruits themselves, but there is apple juice, then it can be quite suitable for making mash. In this case, we need:
- 5 liters of apple juice;
- 1 kg of sugar if the juice is completely natural and does not contain sugar, and slightly less if the juice contains sugar;
- 30 grams of pressed yeast.
Here, the process of making mash is even easier. You just need to mix the juice with sugar, add yeast to them, and place in a fermentation tank for a week.
Braga without yeast
If you don’t have yeast, but you shouldn’t panic either, because you can easily make homemade brew from apples without them. And in this case, we need only 10 kg of fruit and 4 kg of sugar, to which, if desired, you can add 100 grams of raisins or seedlings of wheat. In this case, you just need to chop the apples, finely chop them, mix with sugar and leave alone, but not for several days, but for as long as 1-1.5 months. The main thing is to remove the middle from them before cutting the apples, but do not cut the skin and do not wash the fruits, because they have bacteria that will contribute to accelerated fermentation.
Moonshine Fermentation
The process of fermentation of moonshine from apples should occur in a special container with a lid, where there is a small hole through which carbon dioxide will escape. Moreover, it will be good if this container is transparent, so that you can observe the fermentation process. The end of the second stage of creating moonshine will come when the boiling in the tank stops, all carbon dioxide comes out, sediment forms at the bottom, and from above we get excellent mash, which we will need for further preparation of moonshine.
Moonshine Cleaning
Then, according to the recipe for moonshine from apples, you should start the process of cleaning the drink using an activated carbon filter in order to rid our moonshine of harmful substances. To do this, it will be necessary to put compressed cotton wool in the funnel, between which several tablets of coal will lie. And through this funnel it will be necessary to drain our moonshine into the moonshine still, slowly filtering our drink so that the output is a clear, clean liquid without the slightest impurities.
Moonshine
The final stage in the creation of moonshine from apples at home will be its distillation using a moonshine or aluminum or copper can. By the way, in order for the drink to retain a powerful fruity smell, distillation of moonshine can be done without cleaning it, however, in this case, it will be necessary to carefully monitor that the pulp does not burn. And if this is done after cleaning, then everything is as simple as possible. First, the container warms up well, then the temperature rises and after a few minutes you can start collecting the final product. True, the first 200 ml of moonshine will need to be cast separately and immediately poured out, since drinking this liquid is strictly prohibited. And the rest of the moonshine can be safely collected in a separate container, bottled and stored until you want to taste a fragrant and tasty alcoholic drink.
Cooking Calvados
As you can see, apple moonshine recipes are simple and easy to make. So the recipe for calvados - apple brandy, so popular in France, is also very simple, so that having prepared moonshine, it will then be easy to make this elite drink from it. You just have to first double distill the moonshine, for which the finished moonshine will need to be distilled again, of course, with the pouring of the first 200 ml of distillate. And after that, for the preparation of traditional calvados, moonshine should be aged for a couple of months in an oak barrel. However, not everyone has it, so it’s better to create an apple brandy just to insist on moonshine in an open container, adding 10 grams of oak chips and 10 grams of sugar for each liter of moonshine. True, before adding wood chips to the drink, you will need to hold it in boiling water for an hour, and then calcine for another hour in the oven at a temperature of 120 0 C. And with this chip moonshine must stand still for a month, after which the drink goes through the purification stage, and calvados he'll be ready.
Dried fruit moonshine
However, for the preparation of moonshine, you can use not only fresh fruits and juice from them. Moonshine on dried apples is also quite tasty and aromatic, the preparation process of which is almost identical to the classic recipe for creating this drink. Actually, it differs only in the creation of mash, for the preparation of which it is necessary:
- 2 kg of dried apples;
- 3 kg of sugar;
- 10 liters of water;
- 300 grams of wine yeast.
The first step is to warm the water, pour apples over it and put them to boil for 10 minutes. After that we add sugar to the water, mix everything well and let the mixture cool to 25 0 . Only then we add yeast there, stir well again and leave it alone for 2 weeks. And then everything goes along the rut - the moonshine will need to be cleaned, overtaken, insisted a little and served to the feast.
Tincture on apples on moonshine
If you have home-made moonshine, but you want to make a more gentle, ladies' drink out of it - an exquisite tincture, then this is a couple of trifles. So you will need:
- 3 large apples of the Grushovka variety or any other fragrant and sweet varieties;
- half a cinnamon stick;
- vanillin on the tip of a knife;
- liter of moonshine.
First of all, to prepare tincture on apples on moonshine, you should prepare the fruits by washing them thoroughly, cutting out the core and cutting them into small slices. After that, we put the apples in a container for insisting, add cinnamon and vanillin, crushed into powder, and pour half a liter of moonshine. Then we cover the container with a lid and send it to a dark place for 7 days. After a week, we pour the liquid from the apples and hide it in the refrigerator, and instead of it we fill the apples with the second half of the moonshine, diluted to a fortress of 40-45%, and also leave the container for a week alone, however, periodically the whole mixture will need to be stirred. In the end, it will remain to merge the second infusion, which then mixes with the first and flows through cheesecloth so that there are no impurities in the tincture. On this, the process of preparing the tincture is completed, unless it can still be softened by adding 2 tablespoons of flower honey to the drink. Before use, tincture is recommended to rest for a couple of weeks, so that its taste becomes more stable and full.
Useful Tips
And in order for moonshine from apples to always work out perfectly, you just need to never forget the several important recommendations collected here from the reviews of those who have already prepared this amazing alcoholic beverage.
- When selecting apples, it should be ensured that they are intact, without rot, otherwise the final product will give bitterness.
- Water for making mash should be taken only bottled or boiled, then the moonshine will turn out to be of very high quality, and even those who made it in spring water claimed that such moonshine could be used to quench thirst.
- When laying the wort in a fermentation tank, a little space should be left for the formation of foam and carbon dioxide, otherwise the lid will break and the contents of the container will spill out.
- In no case should you make moonshine from baker's yeast, since, judging by the reviews, such a drink will be impossible to drink because of its unpleasant smell and taste.
- When preparing mash for apple moonshine, it is not necessary to be limited only to these fruits, you can add other fruits, berries and citrus fruits to them, which go well with apples. However, it will be necessary to ensure that in the future must the amount of sugar does not exceed 20%, because otherwise the fermentation process will not start.