Home Distillation of Alcohol (Homemade Alcohol to Drink)

Preparing a Fruit or Vegetable Based Mash

Summary
Fruits that are high in sugar can be used too.

Fruit pips etc don't contain arsenic, but may have very small amounts of cyanide present naturally, though not enough to poison you.


If you have plenty of excess fruit or vegetables available, give them a crack too ..

Jack suggests ...

SourceYield
Sugar100 %
Sugar Cane9-14 %, more if tropical
Sugar Beet12-18%
Molasses 50%
Honey 80%
Grape 16-30 % (usually 20%)
Artichokes17 %
Bananas20-25 %
Barley & Malt68 %
Carob beans 40%
Cassava25 %
Corn70 %
Potatoes20 %
Raisins60 %
Apples 24 %

For more details about sugar content etc of fruit, see http://www.bonkeur.com/contents.shtml. See http://hbd.org/brewery/library/SugAcid.html for details about their acid content.

Keep the ratio of available sugar to water as for the sugar based wash, eg 0.20 - 0.25 kg/L, so as to keep the yeast happy. For example, Wal writes that .. "sugar Cane juice has a 9-14% sugar content so is fermented without dilution. Raw sugar from juice would require dilution. Molasses has a 50% sugar content and requires dilution. Palm tree juice is similar. You can get get palm sugar (or jaggery) and use it as a sugar based wash to produce toddy which can be distilled to arak."

See the Household Cyclopedia for heaps of recipes beginning with different fruits, and different liqueurs to make from them.

Fermented Fruit and Vegetables - A Global Perspective lists the steps taken to make grape wine, banana beer, cashew wine, tepache, colonche, date wine, jackfruit wine, palm wine, toddy, pulque, ulanzi, basi and muratina.

Using Fruits

If tempted to try some of the European use of fruits, the following is somewhat of a guide. Apple brandy is usually 60% apple, 30% pear, and 10% your choice.
A less traditional approach would be.. For schnapps, Jack explains ... Another contributor adds .. Wal writes .. Using citrus. Wal explains ..

Extra Sugar ?

There's a little debate around over the pro's & con's of adding extra sugar to a fruit mash. The traditional approach is that it ain't on - that all you're doing is making extra alcohol without getting extra flavour, hence getting a lower quality product (see Ups's comments below re Brandy - that you want the multiple distillations from a low % to concentrate the flavour).

Gert Strand however, at http://www.turboyeast.com/fruitmash.html, however suggests that the extra alcohol (and CO2 produced) extra MORE flavours from the fruit. See his site for excellent instructions on various techniques & recipes when using his Turbo yeasts.

As Rob explains ..
So the choice is yours. Both ways probably have their own merits and pitfalls.

Brandy

Ups474 writes .. Wal offers ...

Split Brandies

Sam writes ..

Mock Apple Brandy

Jack writes ..

Arak

See also the instructions in the Flavouring section.

Jack writes ...

Arsenic or Cyanide ?

Seeds of fruits like apples, cherries, apricots, etc., do not contain any arsenic. Arsenic is a heavy metal that is too difficult for a plant's metabolism to process, any amount of it would likely kill of the plant. The only time arsenic is likely to be present is if it had been used as a form of fungicide/herbicide spray during the culivation of the fruit (very unlikely these days - I think its mostly outlawed), and hadn't been properly washed off.

Plants do however have the ability to work with vast amounts of carbon and nitrogen, this results in most hard seeds containing cyanide (the cyanide radical is CN-). Not really enough to injure anyone, infact commercially made Kirsch (cherry brandy) uses ground up seeds to give a nut like flavor (cyanide tastes kind of like an intense bitter almond flavor). In some recipes grinding up the seeds of delicate tasting fruits should be avoided but with something more robust (like apple), it should be of no concern.

Wal elaborates ...
Esters and especially organic acids arise from misfermentations of leafs/twigs or rotten parts of fruit, so try to avoid having them in the brew.

Tequila

You might find http://www.georgian.net/rally/tequila/index.html useful for background information. Tequila is made from the nectar of the agave cactus. You might be able to source some bulk agave nectar from a local health / natural food store.

Donald advises ...

Using Potatoes

For those of you interested in making authentic Vodka or Schnapps from potato, the following emails from David Reid should be of interest. The problem with potatoes (as all starchy vegetables) is the need to first break down the starch into basic sugars so that the yeast can use them. This is done by using enzymes, either via malted grains or from a packet.

Potato Mash

Here's one recommended by Andrew, from Eastern Europe. Combine all ingredients and leave until fermented, should take approx. 2 weeks
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