Why Homemade Drinks?
Everyone is accustomed to the fact that homemade food is much tastier and healthier than purchased food. Eating homemade dishes, we know exactly what they are made of, which cannot be said about purchased ones. An exception may be respectable restaurants and exclusive shops, but the price level there is much higher than the average buyer can afford. So why should the liquor situation be different? Homemade drinks recipes and a lot of information about spirits can be found at site, dedicated to all types of homemade drinks and everything related to their production and consumption.
The History of the Emergence of Homemade Alcoholic Drinks
Alcoholic drinks have existed for more than one hundred years, and initially they were all homemade. The first alcoholic drink was probably beer, which was consumed in Egypt during the time of the pharaohs. In ancient Greece, grape wine was widespread. For many years, people have eaten the primary fermentation of fruits or grains – wine and beer. But this continued until the invention of the distillation process, the features of which were used by medieval alchemists to obtain the philosopher's stone. The Philosopher's Stone was never found, but mankind has received a unique technology that makes it possible to obtain stronger alcoholic drinks from wine, beer and other raw materials containing alcohol.
Invention of the Distiller or Moonshine Still
The invention of the distiller, or, as they say now, the moonshine still, marked the beginning of the era of drinks. With the help of a moonshine still, everyone could distill wine or beer at home, and get cognac or whiskey alcohol, which they could consume immediately, or send for aging in oak barrels. Also, on the basis of grain distillates, many drinks, liqueurs and other things were prepared – from gin and rum to aniseed vodka and horseradish. But most of both industrial and homemade alcoholic drinks had one significant drawback – the moonshine still made it possible to get a strong drink, but did not give the opportunity to get rid of impurities, not all of which had a pleasant aroma, and not all were healthy. But at a certain stage in the development of technology, this problem of alcoholic beverages was also solved.
Rectification Column and Home Drinks
The invention of the rectification process and the equipment that allows it to be carried out – the rectification column, made the largest revolution in the production of alcoholic drinks, and at the same time alienated some of their types from home made. Before the appearance of rectification columns, everyone could make or purchase a home moonshine still and use it to make alcoholic drinks at home. But the rectification column is a structure with a height of several tens of meters, equipped with many additional equipment that ensures the stability of the rectification process and obtaining pure alcohol at the outlet. The industrial rectification column had such a design – a vertical pipe, inside of which there were placed many horizontal partitions of a special design – trays with holes or overflows. The trays were located at a certain distance from each other, and to obtain an acceptable quality of alcohol, these trays had to be several dozen, which determines the large dimensions of the rectification column. The alcohol obtained in the rectification process had a high strength and a minimum amount of impurities, in fact, it had practically no taste and smell, therefore I can serve as an ideal raw material for the production of alcoholic beverages from any suitable raw material. But this separated home alcoholic drinks from industrial ones for a long time – they continued to make moonshine at home, but nothing more.
Homemade Drinks and Sugar
The situation was aggravated by the appearance of such raw materials for the production of alcoholic beverages as sugar. Oddly enough, moonshine made from fruit or grain brews has both pleasant and unpleasant taste and aroma impurities, and by proper distillation on special equipment (Charenta alambic and other distillers), you can get an acceptable quality drink, which, after aging in oak barrels, turns into whiskey or cognac with a unique taste and aroma. But sugar mash contains only harmful and unpleasant taste and aromatic impurities, which no distillation equipment and no distillation technology can help get rid of – sugar moonshine will remain stinky sugar moonshine. A rectification column could save the day, but this equipment has always been of industrial scale, and it was unrealistic to use a rectification column to produce homemade alcoholic beverages. But that was until recently.
Rectification Column and Obtaining Pure Alcohol at Home
In the industry, for the production of alcoholic beverages, huge disc-type rectification columns of continuous operation have always been used, which have a high productivity and an acceptable degree of purification of alcohol from impurities. At home, everyone continued to drive moonshine, often stinking sugar, and considered this the height of the perfection of homemade drinks. At the same time, laboratory rectification columns were invented quite a long time ago, having a different design – packed, and operating cyclically. This design was not suitable for industrial conditions for various reasons, and for a long time it was not thought to be used for the production of homemade alcoholic drinks. But not so long ago, enthusiasts decided to adapt the packed rectification column to home conditions, and the production of homemade alcoholic drinks immediately ceased to be inferior to the industrial one in terms of the quality of the alcohol produced. Moreover, the analyzes carried out on the alcohol obtained on the rectification column at home show that home alcohol often exceeds the industrial alcohol in the content of impurities. The use of alcohol rectification at home has ushered in a new era in the production of homemade drinks. Now everyone can get high-quality pure alcohol at home, knowing exactly what raw material the alcoholic drink is made from, without worrying about the fact that you can get poisoned with a counterfeit bought in a store. The only caveat is that the production of alcoholic drinks at home is regulated by the legislation of a particular country. In some countries, the manufacture of moonshine and homemade alcoholic drinks is allowed, in some it is prohibited, and in some, permits are required for this.