This is the easiest way of making
alcohol. Probably also the most expensive as sugar is a relatively costly
ingredient.
If you intend using a reflux
still, it's no point using anything other than a thin sugar/water wash,
because the reflux will strip out all the flavors.
By using clean sugar as a basis for
fermentation, you will get a clean alcohol without many flavors. You can
even polish the alcohol with carbon after distillation. Bear in mind
that the alcohol content should be max. 50%, otherwise the carbon does
not work. The neutral alcohol is most commonly used in vodka and
liqueurs.
The sugar you need to use should obviously be a fermentable sugar
(dextrose) such
as:
- Corn sugar (USA)
- Cane sugar (Latin America)
- Beet sugar (Europe)
A basic recipe can be found at:
The six steps to your first moonshine
Create the optimal fermentation
environment
- Maximum sugar concentration:
Only a certain quantity of sugar
in the wash can be fermented. If you add more sugar, it will seriously
harm the yeast. The maximum quantity of sugar can be calculated very
easily:
General guideline:
1% liter of alcohol requires 17 grams of sugar.
In other words,
if you want to make 18 Liter of a 14% alcohol wash, you need 17 x 18 x
14 = 4760g = 4.28 kg of sugar.
- Yeast Nutrients
Healthy yeast, which has access to
sufficient minerals etc. speeds up the fermentation process and
reduces the amount of fermentation by products.
It is not required, but advisable to
add yeast nutrients at the rate of 3 grams per liter of
wash.
- Optimum PH for the mash
The optimum pH for sugar mash is
between 4.0 and 4.5 to keep the yeast happy, and to retard the growth
of lactic acid micro-organisms. The PH level can be influenced by
adding alkaline (gypsum) or acid (citric acid). PH level can be
measured with lakmoes paper.
