How to make a good and inexpensive moonshine with your own hands. How to make a good and inexpensive moonshine still with your own hands Installing a drain valve in a distillation cube

Often, when distilling thick mash, the grounds burn, negatively affecting the aroma and taste of the drink. To prevent deterioration of the quality of the distillate, steam distillation of the mash allows. Making a steam generator at home is relatively simple - you will need another container (pressure cooker, distillation cube, can), connecting hoses and a gas supply tube.

Scope of application of the steam generator

You can steam distill any mash, however, due to the additional time and energy required, this method is advisable to use for the first distillation of thick mash - usually all grains and some fruits made from overripe raw materials with a high pectin content, for example, apple or apricot. Steam distillation is also used for chacha and other moonshine from cake.

To speed up the process, some moonshiners drain the liquid part of the mash separately and distill it in the traditional way, and use a steam generator only for the grounds.

Advantages of steam distillation:

the mash that has won back is not drained from the sediment and is not clarified;
you can get alcohol found in the grounds, which are usually filtered out and disappear;
avoids burning and deterioration of the quality of moonshine;
during distillation, less harmful impurities are "welded";
does not affect the organoleptic properties of the drink in any way, and is the most gentle method of heating mash;
suitable for moonshine stills of any design.

Flaws:

one more container is required, which will be a steam generator;
the distillation time increases (more than 3 hours from the moment the mash boils);
since alcohol vapors are diluted with condensate, the strength of the output drops, for example, if when heated by a heating element the maximum strength in the stream is 68%, then when distilled with steam it will be 50% (calculations are approximate and depend on the design of the distiller);
Due to the high pressure in the steam generator, the danger of operating the device increases.

The principle of steam distillation of mash

In the classic scheme of a moonshine still, a steam generator is a container filled with water, which is installed on a stove (another heating source) and connected through connecting tubes and a bubbler to the bottom of the distillation cube with mash (it is not heated separately). In turn, the distillation cube is connected to the refrigerator of the moonshine still.

After the water boils, the formed steam under pressure through the bubbler enters the cube and heats the mash. Steam bubbles move from bottom to top, causing boiling inside the mash and the separation of substances into fractions. As a result, the alcohol begins to evaporate and moves to the surface of the mash. On the surface, bubbles of steam and alcohol burst and mix, forming a vaporous water-alcohol mixture, which rises to the refrigerator (distiller), where it condenses.

Optimal design with valves and three-way valve

The design of the moonshine still and the distillation scheme remain the same, only one more container with water is added.

How to make a steam generator for mash

You can use a pressure cooker or a distillation cube as a container for heating water. The main requirement is that the container must be airtight and withstand high pressure so that the steam passes through the steam line, and does not seep through the lid. The capacity (volume) of the steam generator is usually 30% less than that of a mash cube. After sealing the lid, a saucepan or can will also work.

Attention! Since we are dealing with thick mash, for safety reasons, there must be blast valves on the lid of the steam generator and the main distillation cube, which will bleed excess pressure if the connecting pipes become clogged with thick, and this happens.

A fitting is also cut into the cover of the steam generator for connection to the steam pipeline.

For the steam line, use a silicone hose or a corrugated gas pipe. In order to reduce heat losses and increase the speed of distillation, it is desirable to install thermal insulation on the surface of the steam pipeline that can withstand temperatures of +100 °C.

For the steam generator bubbler, a metal tube with slots on one side is suitable. The length of the tube should be slightly less than the diameter of the bottom of the distillation cube with mash. The bubbler is installed into the cube through the stillage drain valve with the slits down so that the steam is first reflected from the bottom, and only then begins to heat the mash. If there is no drain tap, you will have to make a hole near the bottom.

Bubbler

Installing a bubbler in a distillation cube with mash. The slots should be at the bottom

The result should be a diagram: steam generator - distillation cube - steamer (optional) - refrigerator (distiller) - receiving container for moonshine.

It is recommended to fill the cube with mash by 50-60%, since during the distillation process the volume of liquid in the cube will increase by 20-30% due to steam, and for the normal formation of alcohol vapor an additional 10-15% of free volume is required.

Home version with a can as a steam generator

The optimal amount of water in the steam generator in relation to the mash is 8:10 (8 liters of water per 10 liters of mash). The minimum amount of water is 6:10. The steam generator is filled to 70-85% of the volume.

The heating power supplied to the steam generator must be as high as possible.

In case of clogging of the steam pipeline, turn off the heating and wait for complete cooling before disassembling the apparatus, the excess pressure must be relieved by the valves. It is dangerous to open a heated steam generator!

Preparation of moonshine and alcohol for personal use
absolutely legal!

After the collapse of the USSR, the new government stopped the fight against moonshine. Criminal liability and fines were abolished, and the article banning the production of alcohol-containing products at home was removed from the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. To this day, there is not a single law that prohibits you and me from engaging in our favorite hobby - preparing alcohol at home. This is evidenced by the Federal Law of July 8, 1999 No. 143-FZ “On the administrative liability of legal entities (organizations) and individual entrepreneurs for offenses in the field of production and circulation of ethyl alcohol, alcoholic and alcohol-containing products” (Collected Legislation of the Russian Federation, 1999, No. 28 , art. 3476).

Extract from the Federal Law of the Russian Federation:

“The effect of this Federal Law does not apply to the activities of citizens (individuals) producing products containing ethyl alcohol for purposes other than sale.”

Moonshining in other countries:

In Kazakhstan in accordance with the Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Administrative Offenses dated January 30, 2001 N 155, the following liability is provided. Thus, according to Article 335 “Manufacture and sale of home-made alcoholic beverages”, illegal production of moonshine, chacha, mulberry vodka, mash and other alcoholic beverages for the purpose of sale, as well as the sale of these alcoholic beverages, entails a fine in the amount of thirty monthly calculation indices with confiscation of alcoholic beverages , apparatus, raw materials and equipment for their manufacture, as well as money and other valuables received from their sale. However, the law does not prohibit the preparation of alcohol for personal use.

In Ukraine and Belarus things are different. Articles No. 176 and No. 177 of the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses provide for the imposition of fines in the amount of three to ten tax-free minimum wages for the production and storage of moonshine without the purpose of sale, for the storage of devices* for its production without the purpose of sale.

Article 12.43 repeats this information almost word for word. “Production or acquisition of strong alcoholic beverages (moonshine), semi-finished products for their production (mash), storage of apparatus for their production” in the Code of the Republic of Belarus on Administrative Offenses. Clause No. 1 states: “The production by individuals of strong alcoholic drinks (moonshine), semi-finished products for their production (mash), as well as the storage of devices* used for their production, will entail a warning or a fine of up to five basic units with confiscation of the specified drinks, semi-finished products and devices."

*You can still purchase moonshine stills for home use, since their second purpose is to distill water and obtain components for natural cosmetics and perfumes.

I got a lot of comments about a fairly simple matter - a tap for a wort brewer or a mash maker. I did not think that they would ask and be interested in such a seemingly simple little thing. In general, all the questions were of the same type; they can be systematized as follows:

What material is the faucet made of?
How much does it cost?
Where did you buy it?
How did you hit it?

Well, and some others.

Given that there were a lot of questions regarding the crane, I decided to answer them in one fell swoop.

The faucet is made of stainless steel, as are all fittings, nuts and other "stray" with the exception of gaskets. The funny thing is that at the time of purchase, I could not find a stainless steel faucet in plumbing stores. And its cost in specialized stores for home brewing was very high, I think now it is even higher.

The assembled crane cost me 500 rubles, at that time almost 3 times cheaper than in the store. And I bought it in parts on the same hackneyed aliexpress. I will try to post links to all parts a little lower, although I’m not entirely sure that at the current exchange rate it will be really cheaper to order it in China.

Speaking of inserting into the boiler, everything is simple. I cut it in with a multi-stage drill, alternately drilling and trying it on. There is nothing complicated about this, besides, if you have read the articles earlier, you know that I have an aluminum boiler. This means it is much softer and easier to drill than stainless steel or any other material.

The tap itself can be used for both the wort kettle and the mash tank. It can also be adapted for a fermenter, but such a bulky design is, in my opinion, unnecessary.

Well, now the faucet itself, piece by piece with the promised links.

I needed two compression nuts (½ inch thread) to secure the faucet itself to the boiler:

Pay attention to the inside of the nut, it comes with a cutout for the sealing ring: As for the seal itself, you can order it or cut it yourself. Doesn't matter. The main thing is that the material is heat-resistant, not afraid of heating up to 100 degrees, and also quite soft so that it can fill the points of contact we need.

Adapter fitting (thread ½ inch) for easy draining of the wort:

Fitting for tapping into the boiler wall:

Do you want to do it yourself cheap, high quality and versatile alcohol mashine? Sure, not a problem. We select the optimal sizes for your home production, study the interesting ideas of moonshiners and get to work. Please have patience, strength and time, as you will need little money (from 300 rubles to 5 thousand rubles for materials).

We are adherents high-quality and pure home-made alcohol, so we will make a moonshine still good and efficient. Don’t be confused by some of the crazy decisions of folk craftsmen who distill moonshine from a bucket or pan. Any ideas can help in the implementation of your moonshine plans.

Any adequate distiller consists of several parts:

Distillation cube (tank). A stainless steel container from 10 to 50 liters, in which the mash is heated. This is the most important and most expensive part of the apparatus. Buying a good 20-liter cube will cost you 9-11 thousand rubles, so making it yourself is much more profitable than buying it in a store.
Steam pipes. The heated mash turns into vapor, which must move from the distillation cube to the steamer, and then to the refrigerator. These are stainless steel or silicone tubes with a diameter of 0.8 to 1.5 cm (the larger the better). In purchased distillers, they are welded to the rest of the device, but in some cases it is much easier to simply screw them in.
Sukhoparnik. Sealed container with two tubes. Heated mash vapor passes through a long tube that almost rests on the bottom. Fusel oils and harmful impurities settle at the bottom, and light alcohol vapors rise to the short tube and evaporate into the refrigerator. You can pour water into the steamer and use it as a bubbler. The efficiency of both devices is approximately the same.
Flow refrigerator. One of the most important and complex, but inexpensive parts of the distiller. This is a container in which a spiral tube with running cold water passes, through which distillate vapor moves. They cool and turn into moonshine, which falls into the receiving container in drops or a thin stream.
Stillage drain tap. After finishing the distillation, you need to pour the remaining mash down the drain, and also rinse it with plenty of clean water. To make it convenient to empty the distillation cube, a tap is installed on it.
Safety valve. For safety reasons, you will need to cut a safety valve into the tank, which will fly out when there is dangerous pressure inside the system. It costs around 150 rubles, but it can save moonshine and your life.
Thermometer (optional). During distillation, it is convenient to focus on the temperature at which various things happen: the selection of harmful fractions, the appearance of the first drops of distillate, the boiling of the mash. All these numbers can be found on our website in the article about the temperature of moonshine.

Most of the money is spent on alembic, so this is what we will do on our own.

What can you use to make a moonshine still with your own hands?

From a flask (milk can)

A fairly common option for rural areas. Can be used only stainless steel can, but you can immediately take old aluminum to scrap metal (the material oxidizes and the taste of moonshine deteriorates).

The flask has optimal volume 20, 25 and 40 liters, comfortable handles, and an airtight lid. This is a great saving for your still, since buying a still would cost you 5-10 times more.

The process is quite simple and does not require much skill. The video will be posted below.

We make a 12 mm hole in the lid of the can. We screw in the transition fitting 12 mm.
We buy stainless steel hose up to 1 meter long and insert it into this fitting.
We make a steamer from an ordinary glass jar - insert 2 tubes of different lengths into the lid, after which we connect the long one to a stainless steam line. You can put regular silicone on a short tube to save money.
The silicone hose from the steam tank goes to refrigerator, which will need to be purchased and somehow fixed. For example, tie it to a mixer.
We take another silicone hose from the refrigerator into a receiving container where our distillate will drip.

Total expenses: 2000 rubles.

Refrigerator 1500 (from Gorilych “Big” on chzda.ru), stainless steel hose 300, silicone hose 200, nipple 150, safety valve 150, drain valve 200.

The most successful video was made by the author of the channel OverCraft. For the first 7 minutes, the author moves step by step from drilling holes to supplying water to the refrigerator, and only at the end the entire assembled apparatus is shown for a few seconds.

If you do not buy a drill and drills, then the price of the entire work (without a milk can) will cost you about 2000 rubles. The approach is very budgetary, but quite adequate - we get decent cooling and a high-quality dry steamer.

From a beer keg

We suggest using in the design purchased coil (3000 rubles), which will completely close the issue with the steam line, dryer and refrigerator.

This purchase will save you a huge amount of time searching for the necessary material and processing it.

The process is quite simple and does not require much skill.

We make a 12 mm hole in the lid of the can. We screw in an adapter nipple with a 12 mm external thread.
We buy a coil (steam line, dryer and refrigerator), after which we fasten it to the nipple.
We make another 12 mm hole for the safety valve (it will also need to be purchased).
We cut or weld the drain valve closer to the bottom of the container. We do this so that the distiller can stand quietly (and not rest against the floor with a tap).
We do the first distillation with ordinary water to check the tightness and clean the steam line.

Total expenses: 3500 rubles.

Coil 3000, nipple 150, safety valve 150, drain cock 200.

There are different ways to prepare a beer keg for moonshine brewing. Most craftsmen preferred a long-term and high-quality approach, which results in a chic and convenient tank for heating mash.

Made the most successful series of videos Andrey Golubenko, who walked long and persistently towards his goal and achieved it. The end result turned out, as they say, to be conscientious. I am posting the entire selection of videos in chronological order.

From the pan

If the hostess in the kitchen doesn’t mind giving it to you for experiments spacious stainless steel saucepan, then the issue of making a distillation cube is significantly simplified. All you have to do is make a hole for the steam line and tightly close the lid.

In this approach, we also use a purchased coil, so the device can be made in just 30 minutes.

We buy a meter of 8 mm silicone hose, cut it lengthwise and put it on top rim of the pan. You do not need to glue anything, since we will use paper clips for tightness.
Depending on the purchased coil, we drill a hole of 10-12 mm and insert a transition fitting there.
Screw the coil into the fitting.
Pour the mash into the pan and put it on the fire.
We press the lid paper clips (6-8 pieces along the rim of the lid).
We connect the cooling using hoses and perform the first distillation. Next time you will need to do a double run with the release of harmful fractions.

Total expenses: 3400 rubles.

Coil 3000, nipple 150, silicone hoses 250.

The most visual video was prepared by the author of the channel Spy Gates. Some kind of “barrel” of 40 liters of chic metal was chosen as a pan, but you can take something much simpler.

The author talks for almost 17 minutes about what tool you will need and how to bring the pan to mind with your own hands. I highly recommend watching it, as the guy definitely knows what he’s doing.

From an enamel bucket

A pretty crazy method shared by a famous moonshiner on Youtube Misha m.

This is one of the cheapest ways to make a moonshine still., since the cost of a bucket is incomparably lower than the cost of a purchased distillation cube.

The process of converting a bucket into a distiller is as follows (instruction from Misha m):

We buy an enamel bucket for 12-20 liters with a lid (about 1000 rubles).
We coat the rim of the lid on the inside aquarium silicone, let it dry.
We prepare 2 wooden plywood that you will need as a stop. Similar to the pan, you can use paper clips.
We drill a 12 mm hole and screw in the adapter fitting.
Use a silicone or stainless steel hose to connect a commercial coil.
The device is ready.

Total expenses: 4400 rubles.

Coil 3000, bucket 1000, nipple 150, silicone or stainless hoses 250.

In simple and understandable language he talks about making this “masterpiece” himself. Misha m.

The video is especially valuable because it is recorded directly during the distillation. That is, you will see the entire system not only assembled, but also during operation.

From a slow cooker

Perfect sealing, pressure relief valve and automatic heating. What else is needed to make good moonshine?

Despite small container volume, you can add mash directly during the first distillation and gradually distill it. During the second distillation, such a topic will no longer work, because it will be necessary to select heads and tails.

Multicooker + cooling in a coil inside a bucket.

To implement a full-fledged distiller, you will need to perform the following manipulations:

Depending on the appearance of the pressure relief valve, you will need to select a silicone tube to match its diameter.
Attach a coil with a ready-made steamer and a refrigerator to the tube. As an alternative, you can watch the video below, which shows a whole series of steamers and bubblers being made.
All that remains is to pour the mash into the slow cooker and start distilling.

Total expenses: 3250 rubles (excluding multicooker)

3000 coil and 250 silicone hoses.

The system turns out to be working and quite simple. Problems only always appear at the stage of creating a refrigerator, but there are no such problems with a purchased coil.

From a pressure cooker

Soviet pressure cookers were very popular in households at one time. Now almost no one uses them anymore, and the remaining pots are collecting dust somewhere in the pantry.

And if you think about it a little, a pressure cooker is a wonderful still. He is very sealed, doesn't explode due to pressure relief and easy converted to a distiller.

Our actions are practically no different from previous ideas:

We cut a 12 mm hole in the cover and insert the adapter nipple there.
Through silicone or stainless steel we lead the steam line to a coil with a steam steamer and a refrigerator.
We connect the water through regular PVC hoses or through leftover silicone.
We are persecuting!

Total expenses: 3400 rubles.

Coil 3000, nipple 150, silicone or stainless hoses 250.

Video from spagyric1 clearly shows how you can make a steamer and a refrigerator without a purchased coil. This is quite tedious, but it saves about 2 thousand rubles in your budget.

We still believe that cooling must be reliable and of high quality. And therefore, you can overpay a couple of thousand for a sealed and high-quality refrigerator without any problems.

The cheapest do-it-yourself distiller (from Georgiy Kavkaz)

The cheapest equipment can be made from materials you already have on hand. Pressure cooker is good. Stainless steel beer keg - excellent!

If you don’t plunge into the wilds, then it’s much easier to still pay 3 thousand rubles for a coil with a ready-made steamer and a refrigerator. This will save you a lot of effort, time and material.

If you are not looking for simple ways, then it will suit you moonshine still in Caucasian style, which was presented in his video by a well-known moonshiner on Youtube Georgy Kavkaz.

The idea is that you just need a still, along with some pipes, adapters and fittings. The manufacturing process looks like this:

We take a polypropylene pipe 1 meter long and 25 mm in diameter. We cut two tees into it with fittings for water.
We insert a copper tube 1.5 meters long and 14 mm in diameter into the polypropylene.
We pour sealant along the edges of the PVC pipe so that the space inside it is airtight. Cold water will move along the contour of the polypropylene and cool the moonshine vapor in the copper pipe.
We connect the copper steam line to the distillation cube through a 12 mm nipple cut into the lid.
We turn on the water, heat the mash and get full-fledged moonshine from a Caucasian distiller.

The final price of the apparatus without a distillation cube: 1500 rubles. Polypropylene pipe 1 meter, copper pipe 1.5 meters, 2 fittings, 2 PVC tees, 1 nipple, silicone sealant.

If our instructions seemed too complicated to you, I recommend that you watch a short video from George the Caucasus. The guy talks to the point and without unnecessary fluff about the manufacture of this device and suggests all the dimensions.

Photos of interesting homemade moonshine stills

Ideas can be drawn not only from standard homemade devices for a beer keg or flask. Craftsmen distill moonshine from such equipment that would never have occurred to a person.

We have made a small selection that will expand your understanding of distillers, steamers and refrigerators. Get ideas and create!

From a beer keg and copper pipes. From a kettle. With 8 bubblers and a homemade distillation cube.

If you have any problems questions, then feel free to ask them in the comments on the website or email me [email protected]- We will try to answer everyone promptly.

We won’t sell you models from well-known brands, but we can give you advice on the choice of material.