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How to distinguish good vodka from bad. Low-quality vodka: how to distinguish fake

Recently, in the press and the Internet, there are more and more reports about the facts of poisoning with surrogate alcohol. Experts say that almost half of all vodka on sale is fake. Her drinking at best ends with a severe headache. However, most people who are poisoned by such vodka become disabled. It happens that poisoning ends in death.

Surrogate alcohol poisons not only chronic alcoholics. Those who do not understand how to distinguish a fake from pure vodka fall into the category of victims. It should be noted that surrogate producers are improving their “skill”, but still there are signs that allow you to determine the quality of vodka already in the store. What are they?

When buying vodka in a store, you need to be able to determine the quality of the drink so as not to purchase alcohol that is dangerous to health. It is advisable to learn to recognize a fake before buying. In order to protect yourself from poisoning, you should follow a few rules.

You can not buy vodka anywhere. Stalls, small shops on the outskirts are ideal points for selling surrogate. In supermarkets, large stores, customers are issued a check. They will not risk their reputation, since in case of poisoning this check can be presented and prove the time and place of purchase of vodka.
Don't skimp on cheap vodka. If it costs much less than the same brand of vodka in other stores, then it is a fake. The seller may say that the goods came directly from the supplier, which is why he has such a low price. You can't trust him. It is quite possible that the origin of the vodka is not known to the seller at all.
When buying alcohol, you need to carefully inspect the bottle. Official manufacturers create a specific degree of protection. What it should be, you can find out on specialized sites. When checking the bottle, pay attention to the cork. If it is scratched, then the bottle was closed manually. In production, this is done with special equipment.

Bottles with expensive vodka are laser marked. Letters printed on them, numbers are created from black dots. They do not rub off, do not leave marks on the fingers. Labels on dishes with expensive alcohol are glued evenly. Products of well-known manufacturers are protected by a hologram. The strips of adhesive on the label are placed at the same distance from each other. The paper is covered with a layer of varnish.

High-quality vodka is bottled on a conveyor, filling the bottles to a certain level. If there are bottles filled in different ways in the store on the same shelf, it is better to refuse to buy it. Real alcohol is completely transparent. To test vodka, you need to turn the bottle over and hold for a few seconds. If streaks appeared on the glass, the color of the liquid changed, crystals became noticeable, sediment - singed vodka. If you shake the bottle strongly, large bubbles will surely go through it. In normal vodka, they will be small. But what to do if the vodka has already been bought? How to check it at home?

Determining the quality of alcohol at home

If the product has already been purchased, and its quality is in doubt, you can check the vodka at home. First of all, you need to pay attention to such factors as:

Smell. To determine the smell, a little vodka is poured into a glass, which is slightly heated in the hand. After that, alcohol should be sniffed. Vodka should smell like alcohol! If it contains other odors, it is a fake. The liquid can give off vinegar, fusel oils, chemicals. Drinking it is dangerous.
The weight. Half a liter of vodka without a bottle weighs approximately 480 grams. A liter has a mass of 960 grams. Accurate scales are needed to determine the gravity of vodka. But even with an approximate weighting, these figures should not differ significantly.
Burning ability. To check, vodka should be poured into a small container and set on fire. Good alcohol does not flash instantly and burns with a blue fire. If the vodka does not catch fire at all, it is less than 40º. Momentary flashing means that there is foreign alcohol in the liquid. A green light indicates the presence of methanol. High-quality vodka, after the fire goes out, becomes a colorless liquid without sediment.
Cold check. In this case, the bottle should be put in the freezer and left for two hours. High-quality vodka does not freeze, it only becomes a little thicker.
Testing with copper and acid. Sulfuric acid helps to determine the presence of fusel oils. It is mixed with vodka in equal proportions. Surrogate alcohol darkens from this. Copper wire reacts to methyl alcohol. It is heated and lowered into a bottle of liquid. If there is methanol in vodka, it will smell like formalin. You can't drink this kind of alcohol! He is deadly.
Litmus and potassium permanganate. In some industries, sulfuric acid is added to vodka to increase its strength. If a litmus marker is dipped into such alcohol, it will turn red. Potassium permanganate dissolves slowly in high-quality vodka.
Excise stamp. Counterfeiters usually do not counterfeit stickers, as this is expensive and troublesome. In supermarkets and large stores, the authenticity of the excise stamp is checked by a scanner. If the sticker is forged, it will immediately become clear.

Evaluating vodka by taste is a risky business. Toxic methanol is not much different from pure alcohol. Its use is very dangerous! Therefore, it is better to play it safe, buy vodka in specialized stores and check before pouring into glasses. Otherwise, the feast can turn into a tragedy.

Everyone knows that domestic market alcoholic products is overfilled with low-quality vodka, or rather fake. In the people it is simply called "burnt". Unfortunately, the use of such a drink can lead to disastrous results, which can eventually result in disability or death. In this regard, it is important to buy vodka only in stores that you can trust, but still it is even more important to independently determine where high-quality vodka is and where crafts are. Of course, only special laboratory tests can absolutely determine the quality of vodka.

Low-quality (singed) vodka is a surrogate that is obtained using raw materials of the lowest quality. The production of such drinks is illegal, therefore it is carried out in clandestine workshops, where sanitary and hygienic conditions are not even observed. Criminal producers pass off fake vodka as well-known brands, sticking labels and excise stamps on it, as well as falsifying other documents. Facts are a stubborn thing, and they show that death occurs from a pallet in 53% of cases, since it causes severe poisoning. The production of such vodka requires a minimum of costs, so the profit is unusually high. Only one illegal workshop is capable of bringing its owner several million dollars a year.

There are two such concepts related to vodka, like “palyonka” and “leftist”. "Levak" is vodka of sufficient quality, but not listed in the company's reports. Such vodka has a lower price because it is not taxed at all. And, nevertheless, it is also undesirable to buy left-handed vodka, because under the pretext of selling such vodka, they can sell singed vodka. Such forgery is carried out by those swindlers who are not able to forge an excise stamp, without which it is impossible to hand over such vodka to the store. It is for this reason that they realize it to those who are too trusting.

How to identify low-quality (singed) vodka

To distinguish real vodka from fake vodka, there are several signs that should alert the buyer right away.

Price. Before buying vodka, it is better to ask about its average price. When you find such an alcoholic product with a price one third lower, you should think about it, because it is doubtful that someone would just become generous. It is in such situations that they often fall for the purchase of burnt vodka. Basically, in every store the cost of vodka is approximately the same. Not always only the price is a sign of falsification, because the dealers, realizing this, set exactly the same price.
Place of sale. Stores with a small sales area are more likely to take risks and sell counterfeit products. In large supermarkets, at least the customer is given a receipt confirming the fact of purchase. It is thanks to the presence of such a check that it is easier to prove the fault of the store, so supermarkets do not agree to sell paleonki. But despite this, you can still find a pallet in such a supermarket. This happens when the craft has the same certificates and excise stamps as high-quality vodka.
Color. High-quality vodka is absolutely transparent, without sediment. To see if there is any sediment in the vodka that they want to buy, they turn the bottle over and look at it. No foreign particles, especially yellow or orange, should be observed inside. If the color of the product has been changed, then the real fake is in the hands.
Lid (cap). A bottle of vodka, which was released at the factory, has a neat cap that does not scroll and does not let liquid through. A bottle with a ball-point dispenser most likely contains quality vodka, because it is much more difficult to counterfeit such a bottle outside of the production process.
Label. Labels must be legible. She herself must be glued evenly. The label must contain information about the legal address and the address of production, about the composition of the alcoholic product. By the way, scammers often give out a surrogate for new brand vodka, about which there is very little information. When copying labels, the paper will be duller and the letters will be harder to read. It is important to pay attention to the date of the spill. It is indicated simultaneously on the cap and on the label. Of course, it must match. You should not be lazy to check, because this is badly reflected when purchasing burnt vodka.
Producer Protection. Some self-respecting manufacturers specifically use additional protection systems that are practically not amenable to forgery. This includes relief application of coats of arms, quality markers and more. On the websites of manufacturing companies, those who wish to purchase high-quality vodka can familiarize themselves with information about it, with an additional protection system, after which, when purchasing vodka in a store, carefully examine it according to the prescribed characteristics.

It is quite difficult to distinguish real vodka from a fake fake, so you should pay attention to appearance, and the smell of vodka itself. A sharp and unpleasant smell should instantly alert, it is better to throw away and not use such vodka than to risk and lose health or life.

Vodka is very often counterfeited. Statistics show that 46% of the domestic alcohol market is filled with “palyonka”. Fortunately, there are a number of ways to distinguish “scorched” vodka from the real one, which we will share with you.

Note that only laboratory tests can give a hundred percent result. However, there are signs that help you make the right choice without leaving the store counter.

Bottle:

The label must contain the full legal address of the plant, license number, certification mark, GOST and composition of the drink.
The label should be evenly pasted, the color is bright and clear, the letters are readable.
The barcode on the excise stamp must also be clearly printed.
Often underground workshops do not attach importance to the date of the spill, which must necessarily match on the cap and label.
The unusual shape of the bottle makes counterfeiting more difficult.
Buy vodka with a dispenser, as it is more difficult to fake in "artisanal conditions". The cap should fit snugly on the bottle and not scroll.

Content:

Singed vodka has a sediment, it is worth turning the bottle over and the liquid will become cloudy.
Look at the contents through sunlight. real vodka does not contain impurities, suspension, foreign particles.
If large bubbles form during shaking, then there is a lot of water in vodka, which is not acceptable for a quality product.
Classical vodka is mild in taste and does not have a strong smell.
The purer the alcohol, the better. Look for alcohol brands Lux, Eksta, Alfa in the composition.

Remember, the purchase of counterfeit alcohol entails more than negative consequences. Be careful when buying, pay attention to small details, which are often forgotten by “underground” manufacturers. Most importantly, know the measure and do not abuse. Be healthy!

Memorable events, holidays and celebrations rarely do without alcohol. But a hundred grams under good snack hasn't hurt anyone yet, especially if it's a quality drink. And it's good if you firmly believe in the manufacturer. But in most cases, we choose a bottle at random, guided by the advice of a consultant who is not an expert in liquor production. Wherein burnt vodka- this is not a synonym for cheap. There are fakes for elite, expensive alcohol, choosing which you can also get severe poisoning. And even if this time you were lucky, and the use of counterfeit products did not affect your health in any way, it is not a fact that tomorrow everything will end just as well.

Burnt vodka - poison for the body

I would like to get better a little: any alcohol is destructive to some extent. It all depends on the amount drunk and the quality of the drink produced. Unfortunately, the number of counterfeit products on the market is very high. Low-quality vodka contains fusel oils and impurities that poison your body. But the most dangerous option is when it is made on the basis of not ethyl alcohol, but methyl alcohol. They cannot be distinguished by taste and color, which is why burnt vodka causes so many deaths. Methyl alcohol poisoning is much more dangerous, it can lead to blindness and even death.

How to suspect a fake

Even in the store, you can assume that what you have in your hands is not at all the product that can be called high-quality. Burnt vodka is not bottled on branded equipment, which means that it will be possible to find some defects:

Pay attention to how the cap is screwed on. If the thread scrolls, the cap itself dangles, rests on a transparent, polyethylene cover, then this indicates that even if the product was spilled at the company, then it was opened and replaced with a surrogate.
Since it is not easy to distinguish burnt vodka from real vodka, you will have to study the bottle very carefully. If the bottling stamp on the label does not match the stamp on the cap, then you should not buy such a drink.

Attention to the label

And we continue to consider how to identify burnt vodka. It is very important to check the label. It must be glued evenly, and all inscriptions must be legible. This also applies to excise stamps. The plant is obliged to indicate the full legal address, the composition of the drink and the GOST according to which it is made. But here there is one important point. So only little-known brands are checked. Sometimes a surrogate is issued under a new brand that is just entering the market.

But if a well-known brand is faked, then such a check will not work. The fakers just copy finished label. In this case, only a true professional will be able to show how to distinguish burnt vodka from real. If the manufacturer decided to save money, then dull paper, traces of glue and poorly readable letters will give it away. But a well-made fake will not give itself away so easily. We will have to compare other parameters.

Price - quality - appearance

Speaking about how to understand that vodka is singed, you need to take into account not just one sign, but their combination as a whole. The first is the point of sale. The smaller the store, the higher the chance to purchase low-quality goods. This is especially true of kiosks that operate in remote areas of the city. In large supermarkets, the risk of buying counterfeit goods is less, but it also remains. Most often, they themselves become victims of fraud, buying a fake with all the "certificates".

The second thing to pay attention to is the price. If a person prefers a certain brand, then he knows how much it costs. If in one point of sale If you have found similar products, but 30% cheaper, know that the risk of buying a fake is too great.

Don't forget to inspect the drink itself. By itself, vodka is completely transparent, without turbidity and sediment at the bottom. To check this, you need to turn the bottle upside down and hold for a few seconds. Any turbidity and suspension is a reason to immediately put the bottle in its place.

Producer Protection

Today there are many ways to protect your goods from fakes. But not everyone knows about them, which is why today we are talking about how to check whether vodka is singed or not. I would like to emphasize that this applies only to expensive brands, in this case, manufacturers can afford such a luxury. She put on the bottle embossed signs, coats of arms. But here lies the main catch. Brands there are many, and each of them has its own ways of protecting. Therefore, before going to the store, you will have to decide on the brand and study them on the official website of the manufacturer.

Note!

Price. It must be marketable.
The presence of an aluminum divider on the cap.
Compound. Choose from luxury, extra or alpha alcohols.
Unique code. Using it, you can find out via the Internet about the authenticity of a particular bottle.
Excise stamp. It is printed on special paper without color inclusions.
The barcode must be legible.
The protruding inscriptions on the bottle cannot be faked, for this you need to purchase the same equipment as from the manufacturer.

Home experiments

It so happens that you did not buy alcohol. Or you bought in a hurry, but at home you want to make sure once again that the product is of good quality. There are several ways to do this, but none of them are highly reliable. First, pour vodka into a spoon and set it on fire. When the fire goes out, smell the contents. A sharp and unpleasant smell should be a reason to refuse the drink. An additional experiment will be a sharp shaking of the contents of the bottle. If large bubbles form, it means that there is a lot of water in the vodka.

If acid has been added to a low-quality drink, then this can be determined in several ways. Dip a litmus paper in it, onion peel or cornflower flowers. The reddening of any of these indicators suggests that it is better to refrain from drinking alcohol today.

If you have a car, get some sulfuric acid. It will be required in order to determine whether there are fusel oils in vodka. Sulfuric acid mixed with alcohol should darken. The same goes for manganese. You can see the result in the photo below.

To determine whether the composition contains poisonous methyl alcohol, the consumption of which threatens death, you can lower a red-hot wire into the drink. It will react with the liquid, and if the alcohol is of poor quality, then a strong smell of formalin will appear.

Signs of methyl alcohol poisoning

If you are not a connoisseur and connoisseur of alcohol, then it will be quite difficult to evaluate the drink. It all depends on what exactly is contained in vodka besides the usual ethyl alcohol, water and softening components. In any case, it will not be superfluous to sniff alcohol. A sharp, unpleasant smell suggests that it is better to throw away the bottle than to endanger your health.

Instead of a conclusion

Vodka falsification is produced in Russia, and also brought from neighboring countries. It can be very good, even superior in quality to the original, but it can also be deadly. Therefore, it is best to buy alcohol in specialized stores. Feel free to ask the seller for a certificate for each type of product. These must be originals with manufacturer's watermarks. Then you can be sure that the purchased drink does not threaten the life and health of the people who will use it.

And finally: do not forget that even the highest quality alcohol should not be drunk in excessive quantities.

The presented article will tell you how to check if vodka is singed or not. Having carefully studied it, you will learn about the symptoms of poisoning with burned vodka, as well as the consequences of its use. Among other things, find out how to clean burnt vodka with various proven methods at home.

First of all, let's figure out what the expression "singed vodka" means. Singed vodka is an alcohol-vodka product that is made from low-grade cheap raw materials. Its cost can be both low and high. The purpose of counterfeiters is to sell scorched goods under the guise of branded vodka brands.

How to distinguish from the real

To begin with, let's figure out what signs indicate that the presented alcohol is burned. You can recognize a fake even at the initial stage, before buying products, if you are serious about choosing a product. When purchasing alcohol in a supermarket or store, first of all, pay attention to the following signs that indicate the falsification of strong alcohol.

The cap on a bottle of alcohol scrolls slightly, and may also not fit snugly against the neck.

The bottling stamp on the label may not match the stamp printed on the cap.
The label is glued on the bottle crookedly, glue strips applied unevenly can be seen.
The label looks dull, and the font on it is fuzzy, erased. To date, this sign is rare, since counterfeiters have improved their skills in this matter.
Labels are misspelled. Quite often there is a substitution of some letters or their replacement in the name of a branded product.

The liquid in the glass container is cloudy, not crystal clear, and also has a yellowish tint.
A burnt drink very often has a sediment or extraneous microparticles can float in it.
Burnt alcohol is less strong in taste.
After 2-3 days after the opening of the alcoholic, the liquid acquires a matte color.

home check

Burnt vodka and a quality real product are easy to distinguish in ordinary home conditions, using the experience of ancestors with the help of one or more folk methods. Let's consider some of them:

Ignite. Pour a small amount of strong drink into a tablespoon or a metal lid, and then set fire to the liquid. If alcohol flares up smoothly, and also burns with a small blue flame, then you can be sure of the worthy quality of purchased alcohol. The absence of a flame indicates that the intoxicant was diluted with water or the presence of fusel oils. If the fire has a green tint, then this is a sign that methyl alcohol was used during the production of alcohol.

Freezing. Real product in no case will it freeze and turn into a piece of ice, no matter how long it is kept in the freezer. High-quality alcohol can only acquire a more viscous and thick texture. A fake prepared by the artisanal method in violation of the rules will very quickly turn into a piece of ice.
Weighing. The weight of one liter of real, high-quality alcohol should be equal to 953 grams (an error of 2 grams is acceptable). If the weight differs significantly up or down, then this means that the alcohol has been diluted with water or contains a decent amount of impurities in its composition.

Testing with copper wire. A small piece of copper wire must be heated strongly on fire, and then immediately sharply lowered into a bottle of alcoholic liquid. If a sharp smell of formalin spreads around the room, then the drink contains methyl alcohol.
Testing with litmus paper. Pour a little into a glass alcoholic drink, after which we lower the strip with the reagent into the liquid. If the paper has turned red, then you have purchased a singed product. When litmus paper comes into contact with high-quality alcohol, the color of the strip does not change.
Dissolution of potassium permanganate. Pour 20-40 ml of alcoholic beverage into a small container, then put a few crystals of potassium permanganate there and try to dissolve them in the liquid. In a good quality product, grains of potassium permanganate are diluted very slowly and poorly, but in burnt alcohol they will disappear almost instantly.

Symptoms of poisoning and consequences

What happens if you drink burned vodka? A fake product quite often causes intoxication in a person drinking it, which is the result of exposure to methanol. Methanol is contained in the composition of various impurities that are used as additives for the manufacture of an illegal alcohol product. Such impurities significantly reduce the cost of the entire production process.

Did you know? Intoxication with burned vodka is a rather lengthy procedure. Its peak occurs 10-12 hours after drinking alcohol. Often consumers confuse this condition with a severe hangover.

Consider the standard symptoms and consequences after alcohol poisoning:

general severe weakness;
confusion in the mind;
slurred speech;
partial loss of vision;
the presence of fainting;
gag reflexes, accompanied by the release of foam from the oral cavity;
complete or partial absence of any reaction to external stimuli;
fatal outcome.

Cleaning methods

Egg or milk

Both components belong to the biological class of cleaning, during which the coagulation of fusel impurities and oils occurs. The main condition for carrying out this procedure is an alcohol strength of not more than 70%.

egg

Separate the yolk from the protein, then beat the protein together with a small amount of water.
The resulting protein mixture is poured into alcohol and left in this form for settling for at least 10 hours. During the infusion, periodically shake the contents of the container.
After this period, the liquid is thoroughly filtered through a gauze filter, and then a coffee or cotton filter.

milk

We mix skim milk with alcohol, based on the calculation of 50 ml per 3 liters of vodka.
The resulting mixture is thoroughly stirred and sent to a warm place, hidden from sunlight.
In order to completely purify the alcohol in this way, it will take approximately 5-7 days. During this period, periodically shake the contents of the vessel.
After this time, we filter the liquid through a gauze filter. If necessary, repeat the procedure twice.

Did you know? The long period of milk cleaning is justified by a very favorable effect on taste qualities product - vodka acquires a softer aftertaste.

activated charcoal tablets

This technique is the most effective and is carried out using a substance that is designed to absorb harmful substances in the body. There are two ways to clean with activated carbon.

First option

For cold cleaning, it is necessary to proceed from the calculation of 50 g of activated carbon per 1 liter of alcohol.

First you need to crush all the tablets to a powder state.
Pour the powder into the alcoholic liquid and mix well.
In order to completely clean the burnt vodka, it will take about 17-20 days, during which it is necessary to periodically shake the contents of the bottle.
After the specified time, we filter the alcohol through paper filter- funnel or homemade cotton-gauze filter. It is best to use both methods alternately.

Second option

An alternative way to clean burnt vodka is to run alcohol through a charcoal filter.

Grind activated charcoal tablets to a powder state.
We put a homemade filter into the funnel, consisting of two or three layers of gauze, interspersed with cotton wool and a layer of coal powder. It is very important that the crushed coal is well clamped on both sides with cotton wool and does not seep into the alcoholic beverage.
Slowly, in a thin stream, we pass the alcohol through the filter.

Potassium permanganate

To carry out this cleaning, you will need powdered potassium permanganate, based on the calculation of 1 gram of the substance per 1 liter of alcohol.

Pour potassium permanganate into a vessel with vodka, mix well and leave until a precipitate forms.
Next, you need to filter the liquid by passing it in a thin stream through a cotton or paper filter, or simply carefully drain it from the precipitate that has formed.

Freezing

This technique does not guarantee high-quality filtration from fusel oils, so it should be combined with other cleaning methods.

Alcohol is sent to the freezer, where the temperature is not higher than -30 ° C.
After 5-8 hours, ice forms in the bottle, after which it is necessary to drain the remaining liquid - a purified drink.

From such an impact, the strength of alcohol increases significantly, since part of the water turns into ice. Also pay attention to the strength and volume of the container in which you freeze the burnt vodka: it should not be completely filled, otherwise it may explode, and it should not be fragile so as not to crack during the freezing process.

rye bread

This method is also not ideal and is more auxiliary than the main one. Its advantage is the fact that after cleaning the drink acquires a pleasant bread aroma. An excellent combination would be the combination of charcoal filtration, then milk, and after rye bread- you will get excellent alcohol with excellent tasting qualities.

After filtering with coal, and then with milk without filtering the liquid, we send several slices of rye bread into it.
We leave the alcohol to infuse for a couple of hours, then carry out a thorough filtration.

Useful information

For general development, I recommend finding out, and.
The younger generation may be interested in information - how many years have vodka been sold -.
In order to appreciate the taste and aromatic bouquet of alcohol, I advise you to study.

I hope that the information provided will help you avoid buying burned vodka. If you purchased it, now you know how to clean it at home. If you have another useful information regarding singed vodka, then share it in the comments. Thank you for your attention!