Moonshine from honey is an alcoholic beverage obtained at home using the appropriate product. It is common among beekeepers, but many moonshiners, far from working with bees, are happy to make such a mash. There are several recipes, each of which gives the drink its own flavor and aroma.
True lovers share mead and moonshine made from honey. The recipes for both of these drinks differ, and quite strongly. The main differences are in taste, astringency and production technology. Mead is easier to prepare, it does not need distillation, therefore its degree is too small - it is 5-10 units.
Classic honey moonshine
Classic mead is made from 4 ingredients:
- Honey - 3 kg.
- Sugar - 3 kg.
- Water - 20 l.
- Yeast - 300 g.
Preparation of moonshine from honey is to put all the products in a lime or
oak barrel, then mix thoroughly. First, the future home-brew needs to stand for about a week in a warm and dark place, and then the drink is distilled. If you don’t do the latter, you will get mead, if you refine alcohol in this way, then the output will be classic honey moonshine. Manages to get 6 liters of the finished product.
Mead without sugar
Why add sugar to moonshine from honey? After all, the initial raw material is already quite sweet. But even the best honey does not always begin to ferment if only yeast is added to it. You can cook mash without sugar, but only if you spend a lot more time on cooking.
To do this, you need the ingredients:
- Honey - 3 l.
- Water - 10 l.
- Yeast - 200 g.
First you need to mix water with honey in a saucepan and bring this mixture to a boil over high heat. Then reduce the heat supply, cook, stirring, for 20 minutes, removing the resulting foam. After removing the pan from the stove, you need to cool the liquid to 30 degrees.
Yeast is mixed with warm water and added to the resulting mixture. Then all the liquid is poured into another container designed for fermentation. It is better if it is a lime or oak barrel. Here you should pay attention to temperature, it should not fall below 25 and rise above 30 degrees. At the end of fermentation, the drink is distilled using an appropriate apparatus.
Mead with sugar
If you do not report sugar into the mixture, then it is much more difficult to make moonshine from honey. Recipes using both ingredients are much simpler, and the finished drink can be obtained faster. Therefore, this recipe is most common among manufacturers of domestic alcohol. To prepare it you will need:
- Honey and sugar - 3 kg each.
- Water - 20 l.
- Alcoholic yeast - 200 g.
First you need to mix sugar and honey in warm water, then dilute the yeast and add them to the main mixture. Next, the container is covered with a blanket, if it will stand in a cool place. If its location is initially oriented to high temperature, then you can do without bedspreads. After 10 days, the drink is ready for distillation, as it has enough of this time to ferment.
Since sugar involves precipitation, the liquid must first be drained into another container so that no small particles get into the moonshine. It is advisable to carry out two distillations, and then clean the drink using manganese or charcoal filters. This will save the fridge from fusel oils, increasing the quality of the resulting alcohol.
Moonshine Sweetening
Sometimes moonshiners in the process of making mash make common mistakes. As a result, the drink is strong, beautiful, but has a terrible taste. You can smooth it with honey.
To sweeten the mash, use sugar or honey (1 kg). Any of these products must be mixed with a liter of water and boiled until foam no longer forms. Then the resulting mixture must be placed in a cold place for a couple of weeks to get rid of sediment. After that, it can be added to moonshine.
When added, if the liquid was brewed correctly, gases will start to be released, and as a result of the chemical reaction the mash will heat up. To facilitate and speed up the process, you need to add 2 tablets of activated carbon.
In this case, it turns out not mead, but tincture of moonshine on honey. The drink acquires a pleasant taste, however, completely eliminating the alcohol tint will not work, even if you add a lot of sweet mixture.
Moonshiners Mistakes
Despite the fact that making moonshine from honey is quite easy, beginners, as well as experienced home distillers, make several common mistakes. Firstly, they do not always withstand the temperature regime. If it jumps or breaks, then the wort loses many properties. To prevent this from happening, it is recommended to use only those heat holders that are independent of electricity, gas level and the like. It is better to cover the barrels with blankets, put them in warm wooden rooms, than to rely on appliances.
Secondly, moonshiners often add too much yeast. Of course, this will not spoil the strength of the drink, but it will greatly affect its taste. In addition, an abundance of yeast causes the wort to ferment longer than expected.
And the last: often moonshine deteriorates directly during distillation. This happens only for one reason - uneven heating. Fire can jump through the levels, as a result of which even honey can burn. Therefore, before proceeding with distillation, it is recommended to check the apparatus.
Recommendations
To make moonshine made of honey perfect in strength, astringency and taste, you need to follow a few rules:
- Be sure to filter the wort before proceeding with distillation. Even the purest ingredients give a precipitate that is poorly perceived by the moonshine, small particles burn, which gives an unpleasant aftertaste.
- Double distillation is desirable to remove toxic oils. At the same time, the first and last few grams need to be drained separately, because it is in them that garbage from the apparatus and containers is collected.
- After distillation, you need to clean the drink with charcoal or potassium permanganate.
If you follow these rules, then the drink will turn out no worse than the most expensive elite alcohol.
Speaking about how to make moonshine from honey, one can not ignore containers and devices. It is advisable to insist the wort in oak or linden barrels, use a copper alambic as the apparatus, and pour the resulting drink into glass bottles.