Honey moonshine: ingredients, recipes, tips and tricks

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

Honey moonshine is an alcoholic drink produced at home using the corresponding 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 honey moonshine. The recipes for making both of these drinks differ, and quite a lot. The main differences are in taste, astringency and production technology. Mead is easier to prepare, it does not need distillation, so its degree is small - it is 5-10 units.

Classic honey moonshine

Classic mead made with 4 ingredients:

1. Honey - 3 kg.
2. Sugar - 3 kg.
3. Water - 20 l.
4. Yeast - 300g

Preparing moonshine from honey is to put all the products in a lime or oak barrel, then mix thoroughly. First, the future home brew needsstand for about a week in a warm and dark place, and then the drink is distilled. If the latter is not done, then you get mead, but if you ennoble alcohol in this way, then the output will be classic honey moonshine. It is possible to get 6 liters of the finished product.

Sugar free mead

Why add sugar to moonshine from honey? After all, the original raw materials are 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 cooking.

For this you will need ingredients:

• Honey - 3 l.
• Water - 10 l.
• Yeast - 200g

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 the 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 add sugar to the mixture, it is much more difficult to make moonshine from honey. Recipes withusing both ingredients is much easier, and the finished drink can be obtained faster. Therefore, this recipe is most common among manufacturers of homemade alcohol. For its preparation you will need:

• Honey and sugar - 3 kg each.
• Water - 20 l.
• Alcohol yeast - 200g

First you need to mix sugar and honey in warm water, then dilute the yeast and add it 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 focused on high temperature, then you can do without bedspreads. After 10 days, the drink is ready for distillation, as this time is enough for it to ferment.

Since sugar involves sediment, 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 purify the drink with manganese or carbon filters. This will remove fusel oils from the wash, increasing the quality of the resulting alcohol.

Sweetening moonshine

Sometimes moonshiners make common mistakes in the process of making mash. As a result, the drink is strong, beautiful, but has a terrible taste. You can smooth it out 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 stops forming. Then the resulting mixture must be placed in a cold place fora couple of weeks to get rid of the sediment. After that, it can be added to moonshine.

When adding, if the liquid has been cooked correctly, gases will begin 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 charcoal.

In this case, it turns out not mead, but a tincture of moonshine with honey. The drink acquires a pleasant taste, but it will not be possible to completely get rid of the alcohol shade, even if you add a lot of sweet mixture.

Mistakes of moonshiners

Despite the fact that it is quite easy to make moonshine from honey, beginners, as well as experienced home distillers, make several common mistakes. Firstly, they do not always withstand the temperature regime. If it jumps or is broken, then the wort loses many properties. To prevent this from happening, it is recommended to use only those heat holders that do not depend on electricity, gas levels and the like. It is better to cover the barrels with blankets, to put them in warm wooden rooms, than to rely on appliances.

Second, 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, the abundance of yeast causes the wort to ferment longer than intended.

And the last thing: moonshine often spoils directly during distillation. This happens for only one reason - uneven heating. Firecan jump through the levels, as a result of which even honey can burn. Therefore, before proceeding with the distillation, it is recommended to check the apparatus.

Recommendations

To make moonshine from honey perfect in strength, astringency and taste, you need to follow a few rules:

1. Be sure to strain the wort before distilling. Even the purest ingredients leave a residue that is poorly perceived by moonshine, small particles burn, which gives a nasty aftertaste.
2. Double distillation is preferred to remove toxic oils. At the same time, the first and last few grams must be drained separately, because it is in them that garbage from the apparatus and containers is collected.
3. After distillation, you need to clean the drink with coal 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 cannot ignore containers and appliances. It is advisable to infuse the wort in oak or linden barrels, use a copper alambik as an apparatus, and pour the resulting drink into glass bottles.