How to speed up the maturation process of mash. How to effectively speed up the fermentation of sugar mash

Braga is a product resulting from the fermentation of yeast in sugar, and without it it is impossible to imagine the process of making alcohol. Making mash for moonshine at home is possible thanks to great choice recipes to do so. Still, the most popular method of making mash for moonshine is the one according to which sugar must be added to it. From sugar mash receive good moonshine, but, of course, subject to all the rules of distillation. Many moonshiners are interested in how to speed up the fermentation of sugar mash, because this process lasts at least a week. How is the process of formation of mash from water, sugar and yeast?

Features of sugar mash

Sugar mash, as you can understand, always consists of sugar, so its quality depends entirely on the characteristics of this product. It would seem that all granulated sugar offered in grocery stores is the same. In fact, all sugar is usually divided into beet and cane. Which of them allows you to quickly make a brew?

Accelerating the fermentation of sugar mash

Some moonshiners believe that beet sugar is ideal for making mash, and it should be a cream-colored product. The dark shade of sugar indicates its high sweetness, which makes it possible to prepare high-quality mash. However, the disadvantage of such sugar can be considered that it can give the mash an unpleasant odor.

As for cane sugar, it differs little from beet sugar, and even the percentage of sugar content in these two types of product is the same. Experienced distillers advise adding 2 types of sugar to the mash preparation at once, taken in the proportion indicated in the mash recipe.

Many moonshiners who want to speed up the fermentation of the mash add too much sugar to it, believing that thanks to this, the raw materials will ferment faster, but this is an erroneous opinion. The thing is that adding too much sugar to the mash can lead to the fact that the yeast in the mash preparation simply dies, which is why the alcohol-containing raw materials will not work. The reason for this phenomenon will be that sucrose does not have time to turn into alcohol.

The ratio of the components taken to prepare the mash depends on how much the moonshiner wants to get raw materials. If you cook the mash correctly and distill it through alcohol mashine, then from one kilogram of sugar you can get 1-1.2 liters of moonshine with a strength of 40 degrees. As for yeast, 20 grams of dry yeast or 100 grams of compressed yeast are usually taken for this amount of sugar. Citric acid is often added to the must, and its amount should not exceed 5 grams per 1 kilogram of sugar.

To start the fermentation process, it is necessary to connect the components of the mash in series. First, sugar is dissolved in warm water, and then the volume of cold water that is indicated in the recipe is added. Before the introduction of yeast, it is recommended to dissolve in a small amount sugar syrup and after a few minutes introduce them into the wort. As for dry yeast, they should be prepared according to the instructions.

Any mash is poured into a fermentation container, but it is only three-quarters filled. The thing is that at the initial stage, abundant foam is formed, which can flow out of the distillation tank if it is completely filled. Braga from sugar ferments at a certain temperature regime, which is 25-30 degrees. If everything is done according to the rules, then the fermentation period will be 6-7 days. To many, this period seems too long, but if desired, the fermentation period can be accelerated.

How to speed up the fermentation process?

The fermentation time of the mash can be reduced by some methods, for example, by inverting granulated sugar. This method involves a special treatment of granulated sugar, due to which all pathogenic microorganisms contained in it are destroyed. Sugar inversion is the process of making syrup from water and sugar. How to do it:

1. Pour 3 liters of water into the pan and heat it to 80 degrees, and then pour in the sugar and stir it thoroughly.
2. Sugar and water are brought to a boil and the syrup is boiled for ten minutes. Citric acid is added to the syrup according to the recipe and everything is thoroughly mixed.
3. The saucepan with syrup is covered with a lid and boiled for an hour on minimum heat.
4. The syrup is cooled to 30 degrees and yeast is added.

You can speed up the fermentation process by feeding the yeast. This can be done through rye bread, malt, berry juice (50 milliliters of drink are taken per 10 liters of mash) and other additives. Chemical methods of feeding yeast can also be used, for example, adding ammonia, sulfate and superphosphate. Ammonium chloride is taken at the rate of five grams per 10 liters of wort, superphosphate - 3 grams per 10 liters of wort, sulfate - 2 grams per kilogram of sugar.

You can increase the speed of cooking mash using a method such as aeration. This procedure involves saturating the mash with oxygen by stirring it. The thing is that under the influence of oxygen, the fermentation of yeast and the breakdown of sugar into alcohol and water are accelerated.

Many moonshiners practice such a method of accelerating the fermentation of the mash as the gradual introduction of sugar into the wort, which allows the yeast to be activated as much as possible.

To shorten the process of making mash, you should not use such accelerating methods as excessive addition of sugar, since the yeast is not activated in an environment that is too sweet. Also, do not ferment the wort at too high a temperature (above 30 degrees), because in this case all the yeast will die, and fermentation will not occur.

As for the recipes for making quick mash, they allow you to prepare raw materials just 1-2 days earlier. Nevertheless, many distillers also practice such methods of quickly obtaining raw materials for the manufacture of moonshine.

Sugar is used in almost all brew recipes for moonshine. There are also many options for making mash, where sugar is the base raw material. Unfortunately, not all of them and do not always guarantee good result. Mistakes in the proportions of ingredients, incorrect actions in an attempt to speed up the fermentation process of sugar mash, non-compliance with temperature conditions? all this leads to the fact that instead of a high-quality distillate, an indigestible drink is obtained at the output.

In order to properly make sugar mash, and then make moonshine from it, which will be better than store-bought vodka, you need to take into account many important points. Starting with the selection of the starting material for the must.

What sugar to choose for mash?

Types and grades of sugar are different, as are the raw materials for its production. On the shelves of stores, you can most often see sugar obtained from beets or cane. Which one is better to use for mash?

There is no single answer to this question. Some believe that mash is best made from beet sugar. Especially if it has a creamy tint. Allegedly, in such a product, the percentage of sugar content is higher, and, therefore, the fermentation of the wort will proceed more intensively and faster.

There is also an opinion that it is better to make mash from cane sugar. Allegedly, compared to the beet analogue, it has more sugar content. Plus, if the distillate is distilled correctly, the unpleasant smell of the drink is practically absent.

This may be true, but only the percentage of sucrose in beets and sugar cane the same? 16%. Therefore, it does not matter what type of sugar to use to put the mash for moonshine. It is much more important to pay attention to the quality of the product, because it will be possible to prepare excellent strong moonshine with a minimum amount of impurities only from good raw materials.

It is even better to put mash on a mixture of sugars or take fruit raw materials as a basis and add sugar to it for active fermentation. Here you need to be careful, because in a too sweet environment, the yeast quickly dies, not having time to process sucrose into alcohol. If the percentage of alcohol compounds in the wort exceeds 12 units, fermentation will stop, and the finished wort will have a sweetish aftertaste. It is undesirable to distill such a product.

The ratio of ingredients

The correct calculation of the quantitative ratio of the components of the mash depends on the desired volume finished moonshine. On average, from 1 kg of sugar after double distillation, 1100-1200 ml of 40 ° distillate is obtained. It's in theory. In practice, the output of moonshine always turns out to be slightly smaller. Therefore, sugar should be 10-15% more than the specified amount.

The proportions of the remaining components: 3 liters of water and 20 g of dry yeast. If you plan to make mash from live pressed yeast, you should weigh 100 g per 1 kg of base raw material.

Let's take an example. To get 5 liters of moonshine with a strength of 40 ° at the exit, it is necessary to put the mash from the following amount of ingredients:

• Sugar? 6 kg.
• Yeast? 600 g pressed or 120 g dry.
• Water? 18 l.

Sometimes citric acid is added to the main components of the wort. It is not necessary to do this, but if you add citric acid to the must, its amount should be equal to 25 g per 6 kg of sugar.

Fermentation

In principle, the technology for making sugar mash is simple, but it is very important to do everything right, without missing a single moment.

Before putting the mash, sugar must be dissolved in warm water. Pour into a fermentation container and pour immediately cold water(18 l).

Pressed yeast can simply be crushed in your hands and poured directly into the wort. But it would be more correct to first dissolve them in a small amount of warm sugar syrup, wait for the formation of foam (10-15 minutes) and only then pour them into a container.

Does dry yeast take a little longer to activate? 25-40 minutes. To make dry yeast mix correctly, it is recommended that you follow the instructions on the product packaging exactly.

If you put mash on baker's yeast, you need to take into account that foaming can be very intense. To prevent the wort from overflowing, the fermentation tank must be filled no more than? total volume.

You can reduce the amount of foam with the help of so-called defoamers, which are a piece of black bread or a store-bought shortbread. You can add defoamers to the mash wort
boldly? this will not affect the taste characteristics of moonshine in any way.

In order for fermentation to proceed normally, the container with the mash must be placed in a warm room without drafts. The temperature throughout the entire period should be stable, within 25-30°C. The neck of the fermentation tank is hermetically sealed with a lid with a water seal.

If everything is done exactly according to the technology, the mash will be ready for distillation for 5-6 days.

Methods for accelerating the fermentation process

There is different ways, with which the fermentation of sugar wort can be accelerated. Most efficient? sugar inversion. That is, before putting the mash, sugar is not just dissolved in water, but sugar syrup is boiled.

It is performed as follows:

• In a saucepan, water (3 l) is heated to 80°C.
• Pour 6 kg of sugar and stir until the crystals are completely dissolved.
• Let the sugar syrup boil. Boil for 10 minutes.
• Injected into syrup 25 g citric acid, mixed.
• Cover the pan with a lid, reduce the heat to a minimum.
• In this state, leave the syrup for 1 hour.

The invert sugar must be cooled to 30°C before making the wort and pitching the fermented yeast.

In addition to this method, you can speed up the fermentation process by feeding the yeast. As a natural top dressing, ready-made rye, barley or wheat malt, black bread (0.5 loaves per 15 liters of wort), any fruit or berry juice (50 ml per 10 liters of mash) are used. For chemical top dressing, ammonia is used (5 g per 10 l of wort), superphosphate (3 g per 1 kg of sugar), sulfate (2 g per 1 kg of sugar).

Preparation for distillation

To get high-quality moonshine, it is important not only to properly put the mash and ensure optimal fermentation conditions, but also competently prepare the wort that has won back for distillation. First of all, this concerns degassing and clarification of the finished mash.

Degassing is carried out by heating. Braga is drained through a hose into a large saucepan and slowly heated to 50 ° C. When the temperature rises, the remains of the yeast will die, all carbon dioxide will come out of the liquid.

After degassing, the mash is subjected to cleaning, clarification. To do this, white clay (concrete) is added to a warm liquid in a proportion of 2-3 tbsp. l. for 20 liters of mash. Concrete is pre-dissolved in 250 ml warm water, mix, carefully pour into the wort.

Braga is intensively stirred for 5-7 minutes, then left to settle for 15-30 hours. It is drained from the dense sediment formed at the bottom, filtered through cheesecloth. Now you can put the moonshine on the stove and start distilling.

Distillation of sugar mash

The mash, fully prepared for distillation, is poured into alembic. Distillation is carried out over low heat. At the output, moonshine is divided into fractions? head, main (? body?), tail.

The first 50 ml of moonshine in terms of each kilogram of sugar used is taken into a separate container. This liquid is unsuitable for consumption, since the concentration of harmful impurities in it is very high. ?Pervak? ? This is technical alcohol, hazardous to health.

Middle distillate fraction? the desired raw alcohol. The selection of the body continues until the strength of the moonshine at the exit drops to 38-40 degrees. It is most convenient to measure the strength of a liquid with an alcohol meter.

The third fraction of the distillate contains a lot of fusel oils. The product is not suitable for drinking. ?Tails? you can not collect or use them to increase the strength of the next portion of the mash.

To improve the quality of the finished moonshine, it is recommended to overtake it a second time by performing intermediate cleaning and sorting. As with the first distillation, it is necessary to separate the fractions. The selection of the main distillate continues until its strength drops to 40 degrees.

The key point in moonshine is the preparation of mash. Its maturation can last from 2 days to 2 months. And in some cases, a reasonable question arises - how can you speed up the process of its fermentation without harming the quality of the final product.

The duration of fermentation depends on the type and quality of the yeast used, the ambient temperature, the amount of sugar in the initial wort. But the most important thing in the process of accelerated fermentation is the right choice of granulated sugar.

The main food for yeast in wort is sugar. At the moment when beneficial microorganisms begin to absorb it, alcohol is formed and the fermentation process begins.

Most often, ordinary white granulated sugar, which is obtained from beets, is used to make mash. In rare cases, cane sugar can also be used, but its price is several times higher than usual. If preference is given to that raw material, then it is better to choose sugar that has a brown tint. It is considered more fragrant and sweet. In addition to it, for the manufacture of mash can be used:

Important! If we are talking about the accelerated preparation of mash, then it is most reasonable to use standard granulated sugar or inverted sugar. The wort preparation time is reduced by 2 or even 3 times.

Methods for accelerating the maturation process at home

If the fermentation process is too long, the mash may simply turn sour or it may form too a large number of harmful and foreign impurities. Therefore, in some cases, the acceleration of this process is simply extremely necessary.

There are several main ways to speed up the fermentation of mash. Their main advantage is that they do not worsen the quality of moonshine in the future and do not reduce the volume of its output.

Top dressing with nitrogen

This method of accelerating fermentation is considered the simplest and fastest. It is nitrogenous compounds that help yeast to grow and develop faster. There are three ways to carry out such top dressing:

1. For 10 liters of liquid, add 2 cups of ordinary unwashed peas. It is important to carry out such an addition before the start of intensive fermentation. It is better to do this at the time of setting the mash itself. finished product will have a rather specific smell, which completely disappears after two distillations.
2. Dried black bread crusts will not only speed up this process, but also help to cope with increased foam formation. For 10 liters of mash, you need 500 g of dried and crushed rye bread crusts.
3. 75 - 80 g tomato paste mix with 200 ml of water and pour into a fermentation vessel. Such an additive will not only speed up fermentation, but also give the mash an unusual and interesting color.

The most effective nitrogen fertilization is considered to be the use of ordinary peas. The fermentation process is accelerated in this case by more than 30%.

The process of preparing a special inverted sugar syrup takes quite a long time. But as a result, it is not only possible to significantly accelerate the maturation of the mash, but also significantly improve the quality of the finished drink.

• Mix three liters of hot water with 6 kg of sugar and put the mixture to boil over medium heat.
• During the first 25 minutes, the mass must be constantly stirred and the top foam removed.
• After this time, a pinch should be added to the syrup 25 g of powdered citric acid.
• When all the acid is in the syrup, the fire must be reduced to a minimum, cover the container with a lid and cook for 1 hour.
• Then the syrup should be cooled to a warm state and added to the vessel.

These proportions for the preparation of syrup are designed for 24 liters of mash.

Sugar mash temperature

Compliance with the correct temperature regime not only makes it possible to accelerate the fermentation process, but also improves taste qualities finished alcoholic drink. The optimum temperature is considered to be in the range from 26 to 28 degrees. When it drops below 24 degrees, the fermentation process stops.

There are several options for maintaining optimal temperature conditions:

• install a fermentation tank near the heating radiator;
• wrap her in an old warm blanket;
• you can put a thermostat for an aquarium in a vessel with mash;
• wrap the container with a special building insulation.

Reference! Choosing any of the methods, it is worth remembering about overheating of the mash. When the temperature rises more than 29 degrees, the vessel must be overlaid with ice packs.

In this video, you can clearly see how to speed up the fermentation process of mash:

Yeast activation

Too long fermentation of the mash may occur due to an insufficient amount of yeast. You can fix the situation in several ways:

1. Yeast pre-activation. Before adding them to the vessel with mash, they must be allowed to rise. To do this, you need to make a sweet solution of 1000 ml. water and 150 g of sugar. Add the entire volume of yeast to this mixture, mix and leave for 15 minutes. Then pour everything into a vessel.
2. You can simply add another portion of yeast to the vessel. If 30 g of yeast was used for 20 liters of mash, then when adding, it is better to use half of the bookmark rate.
3. The more oxygen in the liquid, the more active the fermentation process is. Therefore, you can install a special aerator from the aquarium into a vessel with mash.
4. Top dressing with nitrogen also allows you to significantly activate the work of yeast.

To further activate the work of yeast fungi, it is necessary to shake the bottle with liquid twice a day. The water seal does not need to be removed. This will increase the concentration of oxygen in the liquid and get rid of excess carbon dioxide.

Batch addition of sugar

A one-time introduction of a large portion of sugar into the mash increases its density and significantly complicates the process of the work of beneficial microorganisms. As a result, the fermentation process is significantly delayed. This situation can be avoided by batch application of this product, which can be done in two ways:

1. Together with yeast, they immediately put half of the entire norm of sugar in the mash. the rest is divided into two more portions. The first of them is placed in Braga after 12 hours, and the second portion after another day.
2. The entire volume of sugar is divided in half and introduced in two stages.. The first portion when kneading the wort, and the second, after exactly a day

In both cases, the liquid should be thoroughly mixed until the sugar is completely dissolved.

Attention! Experienced moonshiners sometimes do things a little differently. After adding the first portion of sugar, the mash is thoroughly mixed until it is completely dissolved. Then the second part is immediately put into the container, but the liquid is not mixed after that. The sugar will dissolve on its own over time.

What to do if it does not wander at all?

Sometimes, especially novice moonshiners. are faced with the fact that the mash does not roam at all. The reasons for this may be:

1. Wrong calculation of sugar. The liquid itself in such cases is very sweet in taste, but there is no fermentation process in it. You just need to add water. New liquid must be added in a warm form and based on the initial sweetness of the wort, but not more than 2 liters per 10 liters of mash.
2. Use of poor quality or unsuitable yeast. Before purchasing this product, it is necessary to study the recommendations of experienced moonshiners. And be sure to check their freshness before adding to the mash. You need to use only special alcohol yeast with a good shelf life and in a whole package.
3. Poor quality tap water was used to make the mash. If you want to get a really high-quality drink, the water must be settled and filtered.

The main strong factors influencing the rate of fermentation are the amount of yeast in the brew and the temperature.

Acceleration of fermentation due to the introduction of an additional amount of yeast.

The fermentation process looks like this, we pour water into the container, let the yeast live there and feed them with sugar.

If we put more yeast into the container, they will eat the sugar faster.

The more yeast in the mash, the faster it will ripen.

The fermentation rate is not quite directly proportional to the amount of yeast, it is slightly less, since alcohol interferes at the end.

If we have mash at the usual dose of 100 grams of pressed or 30 grams of dry baker's yeast per 1 kilogram of sugar, will be ready in 5 days, at a temperature of 25 degrees, then with a double dose of 200 grams of pressed or 60 grams of dry, the mash will ripen in 3 days for sure, but rather in 2 days, as the yeast will raise the temperature in the container to 30 degrees.

If you increase the amount of yeast in the mash to 150 grams pressed or up to 45 grams dry per 1 kg of sugar, then the mash will ripen a day or two earlier, depending on the fermentation temperature, the higher, the earlier.

Another way to reduce the fermentation time of the mash is to use top dressing.

Top dressing is a building material for yeast, using it we will thereby increase the number of yeast due to their reproduction.

Top dressing should not be more expensive than yeast, otherwise the meaning of its use is lost.

Read about yeast nutrition.

Acceleration of fermentation by maintaining the optimum temperature of the mash.

Temperature is energy, the higher it is the faster yeast find glucose and eat it.

The temperature of the mash greatly affects the rate of fermentation.

The optimum temperature for fermentation is 30-35 degrees.

If it is smaller, then fermentation is slower.

It is also not necessary to keep the temperature above 35 degrees, the yeast is stressed and does not eat sugar.

At temperatures above 50 degrees, the yeast dies.

Read about the optimal temperature of the mash

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The maturation of the mash is a relatively lengthy process, usually taking a week or even two. But sometimes there is no time to wait, because a celebration is on the nose, or for some other reason there is no desire to wait for what is due for homemade moonshine term.

In such situations, it is possible to speed up the fermentation of the mash, although it should be noted right away that this can be fraught with a deterioration in the quality of the final alcoholic product.

The very process of making moonshine remains the same, regardless of whether the mash will stand for five or ten days. The following indicators influence the maturation of the mash: the quality and freshness of the yeast, the composition of the mash, the temperature conditions and the location in which the raw material will ferment - it needs to happen in the dark. Based on these four points, you can imagine how you can speed up the fermentation process.

In specialized stores today they sell ready-made dressings - the so-called activators, which increase the speed of the microorganisms in the mash. But the quality of the original product does not decrease from this.

However, since moonshine is natural drink, then top dressing for him can also be prepared at home. As stimulants for accelerating the fermentation process of mash, you can easily use:

1. Crusts of black bread. It is known that they are added during the preparation of kvass, in which they just help to improve its fermentation. The same function will be carried out by adding a small amount of crusts to the mash.
2. Raisin. The surface of dried berries contains wild yeast, which will accelerate the fermentation of the mash, without changing its taste. Raisins do not need to be washed.
3. Tomato paste. Counts unusual option, but still accelerates the fermentation of the mash. To do this, for 15-20 liters it is supposed to add 100-200 gr. pastes.
4. Corn or peas. They are fraught with the formation of an excessive amount of foam that will need to be collected, but at the same time they really greatly accelerate the fermentation of the product. For 10-15 liters of mash, several glasses of these legumes are added.
5. oranges. The juice of one fruit is enough to speed up the fermentation process of 10 liters of mash. But you still need to mix it intensively and often for the first two days.

In general, the use of natural dressings can reduce the maturation process of the mash by several days, but the main thing in this matter is not to overdo it with their addition, otherwise not only the speed of home-brew production will change, but also its taste.

Saturation of mash with oxygen

To provide microorganisms with conditions for normal life, it is important to arrange for them access to oxygen. This can be achieved by periodically shaking the container with mash or mixing it several times a day. The second option will be more effective, especially when it comes to speeding up the process.

To achieve this, you can use a mixer or a drill with a special nozzle.. But it is necessary to saturate the mash with oxygen together with the use of additional dressings, because in the absence of increased nutrition, there will be no rapid reproduction of microorganisms.

Temperature control

Every degree in the room, which contains a container with it, is capable of slowing down the fermentation process of the mash. In order for fermentation to take place around the clock, you need to arrange constant heat, while trying not to overheat the mash, as this can also be harmful.

For example, you can wrap a container with future moonshine with a blanket, exclude all drafts and place heat-insulating material under the bottom. This will not have a significant effect on the speed of the process, but the risk of stopping the work of microorganisms will decrease and only due to this the distillation solution will mature a few days earlier.

But no matter what tricks are used to speed up the fermentation process of the mash, nothing will work if high-quality yeast was not used initially. It is on them that the whole course of the process depends, it is they who determine its duration, and it is from them that the solution acquires a special smell.

The highest quality and most suitable for success in the fermentation of mash are considered wine yeast, but you can use both regular and beer.

To make high-quality, strong and tasty moonshine, you need to choose the right mash recipe, focusing on the dates originally indicated in it. Yes, they can be accelerated, but you should not be overly zealous with this, as this is fraught with a low concentration of alcohol and low nutritional value of the solution, which will necessarily affect the output of moonshine.