To make homemade moonshine not only strong, but also tasty, aromatic additives are often used. In this capacity, both fruits or berries and medicinal (pharmaceutical or freshly picked) herbs are suitable. An alcoholic drink infused with ground or grain coffee is no less aromatic. Well, if you want to insist moonshine as quickly as possible, use potatoes, peas or milk.

The purified moonshine is already ready for use, but if desired, you can make a variety of drinks from it. Special additives - aromatic substances - help to improve the look and aroma of the drink, to give it a certain taste. Some additives have a tonic and therapeutic effect, for example, tincture of golden root, zamanihi, eleutherococcus, hawthorn.

Plants are usually harvested and stored in closed vessels, but it is not always convenient to use them in this form. Aromatic infusions can be prepared on their basis.

Aromatic substances are extracted from plant materials using solvents - water or alcohol. Plants must be ground into powder before cooking.

On this page you will find out what moonshine can be infused at home to get a delicious alcoholic drink.

How long does it take to insist moonshine?

The taste of the drink largely depends on how long to infuse moonshine. The easiest way is to infuse alcohol for 3-5 weeks, depending on the type of raw material. Moonshine is saturated with aromatic substances, its taste changes. When insisting, the solution is periodically decanted, and then the raw materials are again poured and shaken. Plants give off fragrances more efficiently when the strength of the solvent is 45–50 °. When heated to 50-60 ° C, infusion in some cases can be reduced to 5-8 days.

Decoction - a solution obtained by boiling raw materials for 10-15 minutes in a closed vessel, followed by infusion or without it. The ratio of raw materials and solvent can be in the range from 1: 2 to 1: 5. When distilling broths, concentrated solutions can be obtained. They are added in small amounts to drinks during preparation to add flavor.

The distillation is carried out as follows... Vegetable raw materials need to be finely crushed, pour boiling water (take 3.5 liters of water for 400 g), seal tightly and insist for a day. Then add 1.5 liters of water and distill until the spice smell remains. Then add fresh spices and distill again. Can be repeated three times - such water is called "triple". When 200 g of "triple" water is added to 1.2 liters of moonshine, its taste will be similar to that obtained from distillation with spices.

If plants and spices are added to the mash, the aroma will be weak during distillation. To enhance it, the water used to dilute the mash should first be infused with spices. It is preferable to cook the mash in flavored water. Moonshine will have a lasting aroma.

So, what can moonshine insist on to make it tasty?

How should moonshine be infused correctly?

In order to insist moonshine, practice, as practice shows, when adding spices, one must take into account the specific taste and aroma of each of them. The harshest and hottest spices should be added in small quantities. For example, anise, vanilla, allspice, dill seed, bay leaf, cloves can give a strong aroma to the drink, even if they are taken for infusions in quantities of 1-3 g per 1 liter. Spices such as rosemary, saffron or hyssop, and cayenne red pepper are not recommended to use more than 0.5 g per liter. Star anise, ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, black pepper, fennel, sage are used in the amount of 3-20 g per 1 liter, and orange and lemon zest - in the range of 200-300 g per 1 liter.

Concentrated solutions of aromatic substances are called essences. Essences with a strength of 65% of turns can be stored for a long time, retaining all their qualities.

Recipes on how to insist moonshine on cherries

There are many ways to make moonshine on cherries. Four of them are suggested below.

1st way... Clean the moonshine by steeping it over coals. Pour the pulp of cherries and crushed bones with peeled moonshine and distill. Fill the bottle prepared for moonshine with fresh cherries and pour over distilled moonshine so that the moonshine covers the cherries by 8 cm, and leave. The readiness of the drink is determined by the density: if the moonshine sticks to the glass, then it can be drained and it is ready to drink. Sometimes sugar is added to such moonshine at the rate of 100-300 g of sugar per 0.6 l.

2nd way. Remove the seeds from the cherries, mash the pulp and put in a cool place for 2 days to extract juice. Then squeeze the pulp through the canvas, and mix the pomace with the crushed bones, pour in French vodka and distill. Dilute the resulting moonshine with cherry juice at the rate of 2: 1, add sugar, mix well and filter.

Components:

• french vodka - 3.5-4.5 l
• cherry juice
• sugar

3rd way... Take cherries, remove seeds, squeeze the pulp through a canvas or double cheesecloth. Pomace and bones crush and put in a bucket cube, pour French vodka, add milk and distill. Add cherry juice and powdered sugar to the distilled moonshine, stir well and filter (the amount of cherry juice and powdered sugar in the recipe is given per 1 liter of moonshine).

Components:

• cherries - 30-36 l
• french vodka
• milk - 1.2 l
• cherry juice - 3 l
• icing sugar - 600-650 g

4th method... Double moonshine, 65 g of cinnamon, 25 g of cardamom, 15 g of cloves, nutmeg, water, crushed cherry pits, distill until pure vodka comes out. Squeeze the juice from fresh cherries, pour it into a container, let it stand, and when the thickets fall off, strain. Pour the juice into a saucepan, add sugar and cook until boiled 1/3, then add 15 g of cinnamon, 6 g of cardamom seeds, 10 g of cloves, cover and simmer over low heat without boiling, then cool. In the recipe, the amount of sugar, cinnamon, cardamom and cloves is based on 1.2 liters of juice. Dilute the obtained moonshine with the prepared juice at the rate of 2: 1 (one part is moonshine), mix and filter.

Components:

• double moonshine - 5 l
• cinnamon - 80 g
• cardamom - 31 g
• cloves - 25 g
• nutmeg - 15 g
• water - 0.6 l
• crushed cherry pits - 4 handfuls
• sugar - 400 g

Below you will find out what else moonshine can insist on to get a rich taste.

How to infuse moonshine with anise

1st way... Crush 200 g of anise seeds, fill them with the specified amount of purified double moonshine and leave for 4 weeks. Add water and distill. Add 200 g of crushed anise seeds to the distilled moonshine and infuse again for 4 weeks. Filter and dilute 1/3 with soft spring water.

Components:

• anise seeds - 400 g
• refined double moonshine - 10 l
• water - 5 l
• soft spring water

2nd way... To insist moonshine on anise, you need to coarsely crush the seeds, pour them 6 liters of purified double moonshine and leave for 3 days. Add 9 liters of purified double moonshine and distill.

Components:

• anise seeds - 1.2 kg
• refined double moonshine -15 l

3rd way. Crush anise seeds, add dill seeds, add double moonshine and leave for 4 weeks. Then dilute the water and distill. The volume of distilled vodka should be equal to the original volume of moonshine. Then add lemon zest, ginger, table salt and leave for 4-5 weeks. Filter out.

Components:

• anise seeds - 300 g
• dill seeds -150 g
• double moonshine - 10 l
• water - 5 l
• lemon zest - 1-1.5 kg
• ginger - 20 g
• table salt - 20 g

How to insist moonshine on grapes and apples

Grape moonshine

Take grape pomace, add sugar, yeast, add water. Insist for 7 days, then overtake twice.

Components:

• grape pomace - 10 l
• sugar - 5 kg
• yeast - 100 g
• water - 30 l

Apple moonshine

Pour fresh apples with moonshine so that they are all covered with liquid, and leave for six months. Then strain, pour into a saucepan, sweeten to taste and let it boil 3 times, making sure that the moonshine does not flash. Allow to settle in a cool place so that the thick settles to the bottom, strain and add water at the rate of 2.5 liters per 10 liters of moonshine. Then overtake and filter.

How to infuse moonshine with fruit and juniper

Fruit moonshine without yeast and sugar

Components:

• 5-6 kg of fruit
• 30 g fresh hops
• 30 g rye flour
• 3 kg barley malt
• 2-3 liters of water

To infuse moonshine on fruit, fresh hops need to be brewed in a little water. Let stand, strain and add flour to the warm broth. After 30-40 minutes, the park will be ready. Mash the fruits in mashed potatoes (you can boil them a little beforehand), dilute with water to a semi-liquid state, add steaming and malt, mix. Leave in a dark warm place to ferment. When the mash is ready, overtake in the usual way. The yield is about 3 liters of moonshine.

Moonshine "English" with juniper

Components:

• 800 g juniper berries
• 100 g violet root
• 50 g ginger
• 50 g cinnamon
• 25 g salt
• sugar to taste
• 10 l moonshine

Mash the juniper berries. Chop the violet root. To insist moonshine on juniper, you need to add ground ginger, cinnamon and salt. Pour all this with moonshine and leave at room temperature for 14-15 days. Distill the prepared infusion in the usual way, sweeten it with sugar syrup to taste and filter.

Below you will learn how to infuse moonshine on the branches and leaves of black currant.

How to insist moonshine on the branches and leaves of black currant

Moonshine with currant branches

Composition:

• 200 g currant branches with buds
• 6 kg sugar
• 200 g yeast
• 30 l of water

Before insisting moonshine on currant branches, you need to mix sugar, water and yeast. Then add the berry twigs. Put the mixture for fermentation in a warm dark place for 7 days. Distill the resulting mash in the usual way. To enhance the aroma, you can add 5-7 currant branches to the finished drink and let it brew.

Mint moonshine with currant leaves

Composition:

• Dry mint - 120 g
• moonshine double distillation - 3 l
• black currant leaves - 50 g

Sugar syrup:

• sugar - 1.2 kg
• water - 0.6 l

Insist dry mint on moonshine for 3 days, distill. Re-insist on fresh blackcurrant leaves until light green in color. Sweeten with sugar boiled in water, filter.

How to insist moonshine on galangal

Moonshine infused with galangal

Composition:

• 400 g mint
• 400 g sage
• 300 g anise
• 100 g galangal
• 150 g ginger
• 14 l double moonshine

The resulting mixture is infused in a warm place for 20 days, shaking occasionally, then distilled.

Pepper vodka

Composition:

• 3.2 g black pepper
• 1.6 g red pepper
• 0.8 g galangal root
• 0.1 g cloves
• 150 ml of 40-degree moonshine

Before insisting moonshine on galangal according to this recipe, you need to grind all the components. Then mix them and pour the mixture with 150 ml of forty-degree moonshine and leave for 2 weeks. For 1 liter of the prepared drink, you need to take 1.5-3 ml of essence.

How to insist moonshine on galangal and coffee beans

Composition:

• Galangal root (erect cinquefoil) - 7 g
• licorice root (licorice) - 5 g
• coffee - 5 beans
• moonshine 50 ° - 0.5l

To insist moonshine on coffee beans and galangal, the roots of plants and coffee need to be poured with alcohol, the container should be tightly corked, insisted for 3 weeks in a warm, dark place, shaken periodically. Strain the finished tincture through cheesecloth, pour into a bottle with dark glass, close tightly. Store at a low temperature (basement, refrigerator).

Licorice root and coffee beans soften the taste of the drink, they do not need to be added, but then the taste will be very sharp.

Kalganovka has traditionally been used to treat diseases of the stomach, liver, to increase immunity, male strength.

How to infuse moonshine with ground coffee

Components:

• 1.5 kg sugar
• 3 l of water
• 600 g ground coffee

Boil the syrup from the sugar.

Pour 400 g of toasted ground coffee into the finished sugar syrup.

Place the container with the mixture in a warm place for a week. When the mixture is fermented, distill the mash.

Add another 200 g of roasted ground coffee to the distilled drink, pour into a tightly sealed vessel and put in a warm place for a few more days. Then overtake.

Similarly, you can make a chocolate drink from chocolate or cocoa.

How to insist moonshine on tarragon and barberry leaves

Tincture on tarragon

Take:

• 800 g anise
• 400 g tarragon

To insist moonshine on anise, you need to pour the ingredients in 10 liters of alcohol, stand for 2 weeks and then distill.

Tincture of barberry leaves

Composition:

• moonshine - 1 l
• dried barberry leaves - 200 g

It is very simple to insist moonshine on barberry leaves. They need to be crushed, filled with alcohol and kept in a tightly sealed vessel at room temperature. After 1 week, the tincture is drained, filtered through a cotton-gauze or paper filter until it becomes transparent (2-3 times).

This tincture can be used as an alcoholic drink (in small quantities), as well as as a remedy for uterine bleeding (30 drops 3 times a day for 2-3 weeks).

Recipes on which it is better to quickly insist moonshine

Moonshine in a quick way

1st method. Pour peas, sugar and yeast with warm water. Stir and add a small amount of fresh milk. Stand the jam for 1 day. Then overtake in the usual way.

Components:

• peas - 1 kg
• sugar - 5 kg
• yeast - 500 g
• water - 15 l
• milk -1 l

2nd way. Whisk together chopped medium raw potatoes, crumbled bread, sugar and yeast. Pour boiled water and milk. Stand the jam for 1 day.

Then overtake in the usual way.

Components:

• sugar - 5 kg
• yeast - 500 g
• water - 25 l
• potatoes - 25 pcs.
• milk - 600 ml
• bread - 4 loaves

Moonshine in 2 hours

Place all components in the washing machine. Twist for 2 hours, then let stand and overtake.

Components:

• sugar - 10 kg
• yeast - 100 g
• milk - Evil
• water - 30-40 l

How to infuse moonshine with cranberries and blackthorns

Cranberry moonshine

Composition:

• 5 liters of double moonshine
• 4 kg of cranberries

Pour moonshine into a large container (at least 12 liters) and put 4 kg of cranberries. All to insist for 3 weeks. Drain and distill the moonshine, and pour the remaining fruits in the container again with double-distilled moonshine. Leave to ferment and can be distilled.

Thorn moonshine

Composition:

• sloe - 10 kg
• sugar - 1.5 kg
• water.

To insist the moonshine on the sloe, the berries need to be mashed, added sugar, water (to a liquid consistency), and infused for 12-16 days. After the termination of fermentation, pour the mash into a cube and distill twice.

Ternovka

Composition:

• 5 kg sloe
• 2.5 kg sugar
• 4.5 liters of vodka or moonshine

Before insisting moonshine on sloe berries, they need to be rinsed and dried well. Then put in a bottle and sprinkle with sugar. Tie with gauze and put in the sun for 6 weeks. When the thorn ferments, pour 0.5 liters of vodka into it and let it stand for 4 months, then strain the liqueur, pour in 4 liters of vodka, pour everything into an enamel pan, boil, cool, bottle, cork tightly, pour paraffin, put in box, cover with dry sand and keep in a cool dry place. The filling will be ready for use in 6 months.

After watching this video, you will find out what moonshine can be insisted on at home:

Any alcohol is first evaluated by its external properties, followed by aroma and taste. This applies not only to wine and cognac, but also to high-quality moonshine, which can give odds to the so-called "noble" drinks. But in its pure form it is almost impossible, so we will figure out together what to insist on the moonshine in order to give it a pleasant taste, rich aroma and pure shade. Let's consider in more detail the recommendations of experts.

general information

Thanks to a wide range of herbs, moonshiners have endless opportunities to give their product unique taste. The nutritional value of ingredients such as cinnamon, pine nuts, peppercorns, bay leaves or vanilla is close to zero, but they contribute to the quick absorption of the alcohol in the body. In addition, additives give fortified alcohol a new taste and smell.

Tinctures on berries and fruits, simultaneously with a bright color and pleasant taste, have a healing effect.

The greatest aromatic qualities are possessed by spices that contain glucosides and essential oils. At the same time, glucosides themselves are not aromatic substances; a characteristic aroma is released under the influence of water or alcohol, which leads to the decomposition of glucosides. Under natural conditions, these components are found in different parts of the plant, it can be fruits, leaves, bark or core of the trunk.

Depending on the part of the plant used, spices are divided into the following groups:

• seed - nutmeg;
• fruit - coriander, cardamom, allspice, cumin;
• flowers - carnation;
• leaves - bay leaf, marjoram;
• bark - cinnamon;
• root - ginger, calamus, etc.

Most of the spices have bactericidal properties. We are talking about cloves, peppers, cinnamon, bay leaves, nutmeg.

The time for infusion depends on the type of aromatic plants and the temperature at which aging is carried out. The estimated period lasts from 3 to 5 weeks. In order not to wait such a long period, some moonshiners shorten it by increasing the temperature in the storage area. This is how "early ripening" alcohol is created, it will also have a smell and taste, but not as pronounced as with prolonged infusion.

To increase the concentration of essential oils, it is required to re-distill the finished product. The result is a more delicious and aromatic fortified drink. But the main thing to remember here is that additives for alcohol are not mixed into the wash, but into the finished alcohol.

When adding spices to the mash, the effect will be insignificant, the smell is muted, and the herbs will not affect the taste at all.

VIDEO: Lemon tincture on moonshine

How to change taste and aroma

Recipes for odorless moonshine consist in mixing dry, fresh herbs, herbal supplements, extracts into the tincture. In addition to the aroma in an alcoholic beverage, the taste also changes.

To improve the effect, the exposure process can be repeated a second time. For example, if orange peels were used, which moonshine had insisted on earlier, then after the second run, you can put fresh citrus zest in a jar and send it to stand for a certain time.

Lemon tincture is often called ladies' vodka - it is easy to drink and gives a pleasant aftertaste

Dried herbs, fresh leaves and spices for moonshine should be used with extreme caution, these components have strong taste and aroma qualities that will react with alcohol in different ways. Therefore, you should first study what effect the result will be if you add the selected component.

Before deciding on what is better to insist on a homemade fortified drink, you should know that these components can be combined and used in different proportions.

How to change the color

In order for the infused alcohol to acquire the desired shade, certain additives should be used. But if the goal is only color, without improving the taste, natural ingredients will not work for you, since they have a direct effect on the smell and taste of the product. Therefore, before insisting moonshine on the selected component, you should make sure that it does not change the taste properties of the drink by checking its presence in the table above.

1. For alcohol to have an amber hue, it must be infused on the membranes of walnuts, orange peel, saffron.
2. More intense yellow color will give the product mint, lemon balm leaves, celery or a little saffron.
3. To get a red tint as a result, it is required to insist alcohol on blueberries.
4. Sunflower seeds are what moonshine should insist on at home for a bluish tone. To increase the saturation, you need to mix in a little blueberry broth.
5. Cornflower flowers will create a delicate, slightly noticeable blue color.

The coloring of odorless and tasteless moonshine is carried out with a dye. Spices, berries, herbs and other natural products necessarily give their own tonality in organoleptic

1. Alcohol will get a green tint with prolonged infusion on black currant leaves or parsley stalks.
2. A rich brown color comes from the addition of burnt sugar, strong tea brew, instant coffee drink or oak bark.

When diluting alcohol with liquid additives, keep in mind that the increase in volume reduces the degree of the drink. In order not to get a low-alcohol product, you need to use components in reasonable amounts.

Herbal tinctures

For some, it is important that the homemade alcoholic beverage not only tastes good, but also brings health benefits. To do this, you need to know how to insist moonshine on medicinal herbs. In this process, it is very important to distill twice and hold the product for a long time. That is, the first time the alcohol was kicked out, filled with herbs, sent to infuse, after a predetermined time, the sediment is removed, the liquid is distilled in the second circle and once again stands on the necessary additives. Then it is discharged from the residue and packaged in bottles. You can add several branches to the container itself for visual effect.

"Healing elixir"

For 5 liters of alcohol, you will need 4 medium sprigs of mint, 200 gr. sage, 80 gr. ginger and 50 gr. galangal. All ingredients are mixed, transferred to a container with a tight lid, sent to a dark place for 2 weeks. Shake the contents every 2 days.

At the end of the infusion period, the liquid is filtered, distilled and once again infused with subsequent filtration.

The history of horseradish goes back to the reign of Peter I. It was from that moment that it gained great importance in folk medicine. To prepare it you will need:

• alcohol - 1 liter;
• horseradish - 350 gr.;
• honey - 4 tbsp. l .;
• cloves - 10 g;
• peppercorns - 4-6 pcs.

It is very important to wait for the full infusion period, which lasts 2.5-3.5 months.

For cooking, you need 4 cinnamon sticks, 10 gr. cardamom, carnation flowers, 20 gr. nutmeg and zest from one grapefruit. Everything is added to 1 liter of moonshine, left to infuse for 1 week, after which 150 g of pistachios, 250 gr. honey and a small piece of a crust of black bread.

When making homemade absinthe, it is very important to get a high percentage of alcohol, so it requires a double, and sometimes even triple distillation.

What needs to be prepared:

• tops of dry wormwood - 20 g.;
• moonshine - 1 l;
• fennel stems or seeds - 55 gr.;
• stems or seeds of anise - 55 gr.

All components must be mixed and kept for more than 2 weeks, then add 0.5 liters of water and expelled. Here, make sure that the herbs are not burnt and damp. To give the distillate a green color, 12 g is added to 400 ml of liquid. hyssop, 7 gr. melissa, 11 gr. wormwood.

This consistency is heated with steam to a temperature of 50 ° C - with this mode, the herbs begin to actively release chlorophyll and saturate the alcohol with aromas. Then the liquid is cooled. The strength of homemade absinthe must be at least 70%.

The last stage is exposure, the more it is infused, the lighter its color will become. The most valuable drinks are yellow absinthe, which is a sign of compliance with the recipe during production and of good quality.

There are many recipes for cognac from moonshine, differing in ingredients and cooking time. We will give a classic recipe, aka Oriental, aka Precocious.

For 3 liters of moonshine with a strength of 40-45 ° you will need:

• 3 tbsp Sahara;
• 3 tbsp instant coffee;
• 15 carnation stars;
• 1 tbsp cinnamon;
• on the tip of the knife there is vanilla (you can use vanilla essence, you can't - vanilla sugar).

Mix coffee and sugar, dilute with a little hot water so that there are no lumps and the sugar dissolves. All other spices are added here and poured with alcohol. Insist from 2 weeks or more - in this case, time is only for the benefit of the drink. Drain or filter before use.

The recipe for real Greek Metaxa has been kept secret for centuries. There are many different recipes, more or less similar to the classic Greek brand. None of them uses moonshine, but this is where we decided to include this drink, since for its preparation we need cognac alcohol obtained by distilling dry white wine.

So, the procedure is as follows:

1. 5 liters of cognac spirit is infused for 6-6.5 months in an oak barrel.
2. After infusion, a bottle of Tokay wine is added - a white dessert wine obtained from dried grapes. In the original, ice wine made from frozen grapes is added. Both wines are very aromatic. They close it again for another 5-5.5 months.
3. 2 months before the end of the term, cognac alcohol (300 ml) is prepared again, 100 g is added to it. dry rose hips, 3-4 cloves, a couple of cinnamon sticks, 0.5 vanilla sticks (all natural, no powders), 20 gr. Sahara. Close in a bottle and leave for just 2 months. Shaking occasionally (once every 2-4 days).
4. After this time, filter, pour it into a barrel with cognac and ice wine and for another month and a half. After that, it remains only to bottle.

VIDEO: How to Make Limoncello - Italian Lemon Liqueur

Release form: powder or liquid... Moreover, the liquid immediately dissolves in the drink, the powder must be shaken until dissolved.

The liquid preparation is measured with a syringe according to the recipe: usually 5 - 7 small divisions on a syringe (less than a cube) per 1 liter of alcohol... Dry dose - 1 tsp. per liter.

Usually the expiration date is 1.5 years... So, buying a little fresh product in reserve, you will not go wrong.

Reference. Bonifiers are tested for harmlessness to humans and the environment.

Classified as nutritional supplements... Recommended for poisons and harmful impurities of alcohol-containing drinks: moonshine, brandy, etc. When applied, the degree does not "steal", nor does the color change.

Can I make this harmful scavenger and flavor enhancer myself? Basically, everything that we add to alcohol for cleaning and softening is a bonifier.

But if you want to be exactly like a purchased one, look at the composition. For example, Khlebniy Dar contains glucose, fructose, lactose, tartaric acid and vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid).

Buy all the components separately and "stir up" your own booster. Instead of tartaric acid, you can use succinic or malic acid, instead of lactose - milk whey.

Attention. Although manufacturers claim that you can drink alcohol immediately after adding a bonifier, white flakes may fall out in initially crystal clear alcohol, which is confirmed by user reviews.

Therefore, it is recommended to put purified alcohol in the refrigerator for several days so as not to embarrass yourself in front of guests. If flakes (sediment) appear, filter the drink through cotton wool, filter paper or coffee filters.

How to improve the taste of moonshine?

The ingredients that influence the taste of alcohol can be added in the following ways:

• improvement in the taste of moonshine occurs after adding chopped ingredients to the finished product ( vegetable raw materials, prepared bark and wood of trees, spices);
• add liquid ingredients in the form of a decoction, infusion;
• to change taste use essential oils, essences, plant extracts;
• liquid or dry ingredients can be added to, placed in a dry stew.

Homemade or factory made bonifiers designed to soften the taste characteristics of alcohol, eliminate or replace fusel odor with a more acceptable one.

What can be added to moonshine:

• lemon or orange zest cut from two fruits, insist on three liters of alcohol for 2-3 weeks. Then strain the liquid, you can taste;
• walnut partitions (15 fruits are designed for 1 liter bottle of alcohol). It is recommended to insist for 3-5 weeks, after which the alcohol should be carefully filtered;
• 150 g pine nuts soak in hot water for half an hour. After drying, plant raw materials must be placed in a liter container with home-made alcohol. Monthly infusion of raw materials colors the infusion in a beautiful brownish color, giving the moonshine a pleasant taste and smell;
• when infused, 100 g dried or smoked prunes an alcoholic drink produces 3 liters of delicious moonshine with a unique smoky smell and cognac color of the drink;
• a sprig of mint can be combined with a few slices of fresh lemon or orange per liter of alcohol;
• beautiful shade, pleasant taste are guaranteed to alcohol when infused on dry black or green tea, hammer or instant coffee;
• 10 peas black hot pepper soften the taste of moonshine after two weeks of infusion. The red chili pepper also works, from which it is preliminarily recommended to remove all the seeds that give the drink bitterness;
• vanilla pod and 1-2 sticks cinnamon turn 3 liters of homemade alcohol into a delicious moonshine for the ladies' society.

The addition of sugar, glucose, honey, glycerin... However, it is necessary to observe the measure.

What to add to the dry pot?

You can add an original taste to moonshine by using a dry stew for aromatization (read:). A layer of dry additives in moonshine should not exceed 2 cm in height... Fill the device with fruits and berries to half the volume. Use gives the drink a light pleasant aftertaste, slightly audible aroma.

How to improve the taste of moonshine with a dephlegmator:

• raisins gives the drink a grape aroma, you can add light notes of cinnamon by putting a piece of sticks in a dry pot;
• cherry leaves enrich alcohol with a tart berry taste;
• multi-aroma reward alcoholic pieces of various dried fruit;
• apple peel gives the drink the scent of Calvados;
• citrus peels with a sprig of mint or lemon balm make the drink refreshing;
• tile 75% black chocolate with addition oak bark or chips imitates taste;
• a pair of stars star anise gives anise flavor.

Additives to moonshine for taste

You can experiment with how to fill the moonshine by adding to the container spices and herbs in various proportions:

• mint, rosemary, sage, wormwood in a ratio of 3: 1: 1: 0.5;
• for 5 liters of strong drink add 6 laurel leaves, 10 pieces of black pepper and clove spices, 2 tablespoons each. tablespoons of granulated sugar and large leaf black tea, half a vanilla pod, zest with half a medium orange. The mixture is infused for 10 days and filtered. It turns out an analogue of cognac.

When choosing bonifiers, you should determine the purpose for home brewing:

1. Improve the taste of the drink for home consumption.
2. Do it.
3. Prepare sweet.
4. Imitate famous brands.

Be very careful when using recipes in which flowers and leaves of bitter wormwood are added to improve the taste of alcohol:

• wormwood in large quantities causes hallucinations, poisoning;
• gives an extremely bitter taste, unpleasant for human perception;
• not excreted, but accumulates in the body.

How to fill for color?

Giving a beautiful color to an alcoholic beverage is one of the conditions for preparing delicious alcohol. Many plants or their parts (seeds, fruits, roots, bark, leaves) give the liquid a certain color and smell.

What to add to moonshine for flavor and color:

• hibiscus tea" imparts a pinkish color and a pleasant taste with a slight sourness;
• natural saffron enriches the drink with floral aroma and bright yellow color. The tincture should not be stored in sunlight, since the color of the product is discolored under the influence of ultraviolet radiation;
• berry bouquet with a pink color is obtained when infused raspberries, blueberries, blueberries;
• the blueness associated with the smell of meadow grasses is obtained after infusion cornflower petals;
• yellow - salad color with a refreshing taste is obtained after insisting alcohol on lemon zest;
• greenish color with pleasant taste gives tarragon leaves.

To make the drink tasty and transparent, it is recommended to add sugar before coloring.

Cook a cool moonshine at home according to the strength of everyone. But beginners should memorize the basic alcoholic beverage in order to get a drinkable product.

After the process of cleaning and filtering is completed, the moonshine is poured into glass containers for storage. Often, to improve the quality of moonshine, various additives are used that give different tastes and aromas.

How to improve the taste of moonshine and add zest to your drink? For this purpose, natural products are most often used. Flavors can be berries and fruits, as well as their waste not suitable for human consumption, but with tasty odors, spices, bee products, fresh herbs, etc.

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How to improve the taste of moonshine with sugar?

If you like the sweetish taste of drinks, then you can refuel the moonshine in a fairly simple way. Make a 1: 1 solution of water and sugar, bring to a boil and cook, stirring and skimming off the foam. It is necessary to cook the syrup until the foaming stops. Then turn off the pan and cool. Leave for 14 days until sediment forms at the bottom.

You can add honey flavor to moonshine. To do this, honey must be diluted in a small amount of warm water. When moonshine and syrup are combined, gas can be released. In this case, it is necessary to wait until the gas ceases to evolve, then add 6 crushed coal tablets, shake and stand for 2 hours. Then the moonshine must be filtered, poured into a hermetically sealed container and put into the refrigerator for 2-3 days. These simple steps will help improve the taste of the moonshine, make it softer and tastier, and also get rid of the smell of fusel oils.

How is the aromatization process going?

Moonshine gets a pleasant aroma not due to repeated distillation, but due to infusion. The simplest and most convenient additions to moonshine for taste and smell is the addition of juices, balms, extracts or other aromatic components. After that, the container should be hermetically closed and put into the cellar. In a basement at a low temperature, the holding time will be from 14 days to 4 months and depends on the components used, recipe, humidity, ambient temperature. Conversely, if it is possible to provide the holding temperature up to 50-60 ° C, then the tincture process is reduced to 1 week.

How to make a flavoring yourself?

Tinctures, decoctions, or other flavors can be easily purchased at the store, or you can prepare yourself using the cold or hot soak method. Before soaking, it is necessary to grind the herbs and fill in with a solvent, the volume of which should be such as to cover the raw material by 5-6 cm. Most often, the solvent is taken in relation to the amount of raw materials at the rate of 1 to 2 or 1 to 5... It is recommended to soak fresh herbs for 3-5 days, dry - for 8-15. For richer moonshine additives, distillation can be used. With the help of a distillation system, even a concentrated essence with a pronounced aroma can be obtained.

How to fill moonshine for taste and color?

To give the moonshine a pleasant smell, flowers, fruits, roots, leaves, plant bark are used as additives. Spices and herbs are especially popular. What is not added to moonshine, etc., etc. It is important to remember that the additives used change, in addition to the smell, the taste of the moonshine.

• So when using vanillin, peel of oranges, lemons, tangerines or any other citrus or bay leaves, you get a delicious moonshine with a bitter taste.
• Ginger, chilli or chili and cloves add a pungent flavor.
• A bitter-spicy aftertaste is characteristic when using saffron or cinnamon.

How to prepare raw materials for flavoring?

The herbs must be harvested and dried during their flowering stage. The fruits contain the most active ingredients when fully ripe. When collecting seeds, you should pay attention to the timing - they should be collected in wet weather in the early morning before the dew melts. Buds, in particular birch buds, are harvested in spring, like oak bark.

Homemade moonshine flavoring recipes

Delicious home-made cognac. Components:

• sugar (1 tablespoon);
• tea (1 tablespoon);
• moonshine (3 l);
• bay leaf (3 pcs.);
• peppercorns (5 pcs.);
• cloves (3-5 pcs.);
• citrus peels.

Preparation: mix all ingredients and leave for 10 days.

Wormwood moonshine

Components: fresh wormwood (leaves and flowers) and moonshine.

Preparation: grind and dry the raw materials in a shady, ventilated place. Pour flavor into ¼ container, pour in moonshine. Insist one to two weeks.

Cherry recipe

Components: fresh cherries, moonshine.

Preparation: fill the container with cherries ¾ volume, after removing the seeds from half of the berries. Add moonshine and put in the basement for 6 weeks. Drain the moonshine. Squeeze the cherries and strain. After a day, add the cherry juice back to the moonshine and bottle. Close hermetically and stand for 1 year.

Robin

Components: fresh raspberries, sugar syrup, moonshine

Preparation: Fill 75% of the container volume with berries and fill with moonshine. Defend in a dark place for two days. Strain off the raspberry cake. Fill the container up to half with fresh raspberries, where pour the old moonshine. Dissolve sugar and add to the total mass. Strain and leave to infuse for 1 month.

Nut tincture recipe

Components: moonshine, sugar, young nuts in green peel

Preparation: twist the nuts together with the peel in a meat grinder or chopper. Add moonshine and leave in a glass container for 30 days (it should darken, turning brown). After a month, drain the moonshine, and add sugar to the remaining nuts. Then the nuts with sugar must be corked and left for another 2 weeks. After that, combine the sugar syrup with the previously drained moonshine, mix and leave to lighten for 7 days, then pour into bottles for storage. Nut tincture is not only tasty, but also healthy.

Add color to the moonshine

You can surprise guests with both delicious moonshine and its color. By adding certain herbal additives, you can change the color of the finished product. Saffron will color the drink yellowish. Purple moonshine is obtained by insisting on sunflower seeds. The product turns red when blueberries are used, green is obtained from mint. Even blue moonshine can be obtained by tinting it on the flowers of cornflowers.

Basic rules for obtaining a pleasant aroma

If you periodically change the raw material in the moonshine to a fresher one, you can get a concentrate, which can then easily and simply improve the aroma and taste of drinks.

The most suitable container for flavoring is glass. If necessary, you can use this method to shorten the aromatization time. Place the bottles of alcohol and flavor in a large saucepan with wooden planks in the bottom. Bring to a boil and simmer for 1 hour, then cool the product in cold water.

To impart a light unsaturated aroma, you can add flavor to the starter culture. To enhance the effect, you can preliminarily prepare water that will be used to make mash, insisting it also on the same raw materials.

There are many recipes, so choose the best way to improve the quality of moonshine and experiment!

Many of us love to make homemade alcoholic drinks. In this case, you can apply your knowledge, show your imagination. Having received pleasant and, possibly, exclusive drinks, you can later treat your loved ones with pleasure. Such a traditional drink as moonshine remains popular. Its taste and smell depend on raw materials, adherence to technology, and also on some nuances and additives that will ennoble it. How to make delicious moonshine?

Ways to improve taste

To get the perfect drink, you need to accurately follow the distillation technology and know some of the nuances. However, it is often necessary to make additional efforts to make the moonshine more pleasant to the taste and remove the specific fusel smell. There are three main ways to improve:

• re-distillation
• additional cleaning
• improving additives

Re-distillation

Fusel oils are the ones that give an unpleasant smell and taste, and they are the worst component of this drink.

The most effective way to improve the quality and taste of moonshine is the re-distillation of raw alcohol, the so-called fractional distillation with the separation of the head and tail fractions, if everything is done correctly, some additional ways to improve the taste are not required. The result will be a more transparent beverage with a more pleasant taste and smell. A good result can be obtained if apples are added to the moonshine before distillation. For 5 liters, you need several slices of fresh fruit and a handful of dried ones. All this is infused for three days, filtered, diluted to 20-30% alcohol and distilled, an excellent apple moonshine is obtained.

Each distillation improves the quality of the alcohol, it can be distilled twice or three times.

Additional cleaning

You can improve the taste of moonshine and get rid of the fusel smell by cleaning. It is aimed primarily at getting rid of fusel oils from the drink. The fewer there are, the more pleasant it will taste and smell.

Freezing

Freezing Is the old way of cleaning. The bottom line is that water with fusel oils freezes pretty quickly if you put a container of moonshine in the freezer. As soon as a layer of ice appears on the walls of the container, carefully drain what is not frozen, this is the cleanest part of the drink. This cleaning can be repeated 2-3 times.

Activated carbon cleaning

Activated carbon cleaning - also a good way to refine moonshine. As a rule, activated carbon acts as a filter, which absorbs fusel oils and removes unpleasant odors, at the same time improving the taste of the drink. The essence of filtration is to pass the moonshine through the coal. To do this, it is folded into a fabric bag, which is placed over the container, and at a low speed the drink is poured through such a filter in detail and.

You can buy activated charcoal tablets at the pharmacy.

Any household water filter () can be used, as the filter elements are always based on activated carbon.

Other cleaning methods

Improving the quality of homemade alcohol is easy enough. Soda combines very well with fusel oils, but when using soda, it will take longer to clean.

Sugar syrup, cooked in 1: 1 proportions, will give the moonshine a pleasant taste and add sweetness. The amount of syrup depends on taste preferences and may vary. You can use. You can use honey instead of syrup. When adding jam, you need three to four teaspoons per three-liter jar. This will change the color of the moonshine, and the berries from the jam will add flavor. It takes 3 days to infuse a drink with syrup, honey or jam.

Of the fruits, citrus fruits are most commonly used. For a three-liter jar, the zest of one lemon or orange is enough. You can add a tablespoon of tea leaves or coffee beans to the same jar and be sure to insist for several days. If you need to get a more noble drink right away, then instant coffee will do. Add one and a half teaspoons per liter of moonshine, mix, and the drink is ready.

Any dried fruit will enrich the flavor palette of homemade alcohol. Prunes are often used, which impart a smoky-sweet flavor and cognac color. The same color, but with a less pronounced taste, can be obtained by insisting on dried apples. Blueberries or blueberries will give the drink a beautiful reddish color and soften the fusel flavor and smell. Any spices are used: cardamom, saffron, pepper, cloves.

In the stores for moonshine, you can find essences and ready-made kits that improve the taste and allow you to make famous branded drinks from moonshine.

Bonifiers

Bonifiers are food additives specially designed to improve the taste of alcohol and further purify it. They come in liquid or powder form. The choice of a bonifier depends on the preferences and purposes of its use. Before buying, you need to carefully study its composition and method of application.

Now you know how to improve the taste of your moonshine using various methods, as well as their combination. The process of making homemade alcohol is a creative activity, the result of which is the most delicious homemade moonshine.