Dilute alcohol with water to make it real vodka, quite simply at home. The resulting product will be no worse in softness than its factory-made counterparts: the mass production technology is similar to homemade ones, and exactly the same alcohol is used. The main thing is to choose the right one for homemade quality components and take into account the required strength.
Making vodka at home
Russian vodka is popular not only in Russia, but also abroad. This one is being prepared alcoholic drink increased strength is quite simple. For preparation, it is usually not 100 percent alcohol, but a solution of 96 percent or less. Additional flavorings can be added if desired.
The strength of vodka is 40%, so the alcohol will need to be properly diluted with water. The dilution method is called “cold”; it is ideal for making alcohol at home. Some distilleries still use the cold recipe, so the final product really will not differ in quality and taste. Or it may turn out to be more enjoyable, and at home you can experiment with additives and flavors as much as you like.
Before you start preparing vodka at home, you need to study the technology and select quality the right ingredients. It is worth paying attention to the alcohol dilution table: you should not take risks and prepare vodka “by eye”, even if you do this regularly. Increased strength can seriously and quickly harm the body. And there is no criminal liability for cooking for yourself (but not for sale!) in the country.
Ingredient Selection
To dilute alcohol with water and prepare vodka, you need the following components:
- Alcohol.
- Water.
- Glucose.
- Natural flavorings if desired.
The alcohol used is ethyl or medical. The difference between them is small: medical is made from the same ethyl, but it already contains a small amount of water. To make vodka, it doesn’t matter which one you use; it doesn’t affect the recipe. Edible alcohol is classified according to different varieties, which differ in the percentage of strength, degree of purification and original raw materials. In order to make vodka, it is better to take Alpha class alcohol made from wheat.
Ethyl technical alcohol will not work at all: it contains a lot of impurities, regardless of the proportion of dilution, it can harm the human body!
It's easiest to take bottled water. Initially, spring water was used to prepare the alcoholic drink; if you have access to this, it’s great; if not, then you don’t need to get it from the tap, there are a lot of salts and unnecessary impurities. You can buy an inexpensive five-liter bottle at your nearest store. Boiled water It will not work, just like distilled one - due to the process of boiling and distillation, it loses some of its properties, so dissolving alcohol in it will be complicated.
Glucose is easy to make yourself and requires only water and sugar. The proportions are 1:1, for 1 kg of sugar you can take 1 liter of water, dissolve it, put it on low gas and boil until you get a white foam. The foam is removed during the boiling process. Cooked correctly glucose syrup will be when the foam stops appearing.
If desired, you can additionally take natural flavors: citric acid, a little honey or citrus juice.
Preparing Ingredients
You can’t just take and mix a certain amount of alcohol with water to make vodka. The ingredients must first be selected and prepared. To prepare an alcoholic drink you will need:
- Choose water with minimal salt content.
- Prepare glucose.
- Determine the alcohol strength.
- Cool the water to dilute the alcohol without becoming cloudy.
When buying water in a store, it is very easy to find out the salt content - you can read about it on the label. If a small amount of the final product is enough for you for one or two feasts, taking a liter bottle will be enough. To prepare “in reserve” (but not for sale!), you can take five. The proportions on average will be 1.3-1.5:1 - about one and a half parts water to one part alcohol.
To accurately determine the proportions, you will need to find out the exact strength of the alcohol you have. There is a special device for this - a hydrometer. It measures the density of the liquid in which it is immersed, the range is quite accurate. The hydrometer determines the alcohol strength in the range from 60 to 100 degrees.
Correct proportions and mixing
The required amount of water is taken depending on the strength of the alcohol and the result needed to be obtained. To get forty proof vodka from 95% ethyl alcohol per 100 ml you will need to take 144.4 ml of water. To determine the amount of water, use the dilution table.
It is not necessary to make adjustments for additional components - they will have a very slight effect on the final strength.
When mixing, part of the liquid goes into a chemical reaction, so it is important to calculate the correct proportions. For vodka, 40% is considered the most optimal degree, but for personal use, a deviation of a few degrees will not be critical, especially if the taste suits you completely.
To mix properly you will need:
- Prepare a container in which mixing will take place.
- All prepared water is poured into the container.
- A small amount of glucose is added to the water.
- If flavorings are used, they are also added at this stage before the alcohol is added.
- Alcohol is poured into the water.
- Mix all contents of the container thoroughly.
It is important to consider that it is alcohol that is poured into water, not vice versa. If you dilute alcohol with water, it will begin to turn white, and you will no longer be able to make vodka.
Vodka filtration
After mixing, the solution must be filtered. To do this, you will need to take activated carbon, 3-4 tablets of which (or more - up to six per bottle) are added to the alcohol solution. After adding coal, the solution is thoroughly shaken and infused for 2-3 hours. There is no need to remove it anywhere, for infusion you need normal room temperature. Then you need to take thick gauze in several layers or thick cloth and strain.
In addition to fabric and gauze, you can use special filter paper for filtering - it all depends on your capabilities and habits. After cleaning, the product is ready.
Storage of the finished product
The alcohol was properly diluted with water, it was infused and filtered - the result was vodka. Now you need to pour it into containers and close it tightly so that no air gets in at all. Bottles should be filled up to the neck and wrapped very tightly. Otherwise, the alcohol will evaporate, and the rest of the contents will oxidize.
You can use the product after a couple of days, the vodka will settle normally and acquire a characteristic soft taste. If no additives have been used, it can be stored indefinitely, subject to storage rules.
In order to be able to prepare liqueurs or tinctures from the harvested harvest, from your garden or from purchased berries and fruits, using your own recipe, you need to know the technology and proportions of diluting alcohol to obtain a drink good taste and a certain strength. Previously, it was customary to dilute alcohol, which is called “by eye.” It is possible to calculate the ratio of alcohol and water using special formulas, but these technologies are gradually fading into the background. Nowadays, especially with the advent of the Internet, it has become possible not to look for a manual for preparing drinks, but simply use ready-made tables or choose a calculator for diluting alcohol with water, where required proportions and which can be found in an online use case on numerous sites on the Internet.
The ease of use of the calculator allows anyone who is interested in preparing homemade drinks, tinctures or liqueurs, using their own recipe, to calculate the amount of water added to alcohol to obtain drinks with a certain strength.
All you need to do to find out the figure needed for your case is to enter the known values into the calculator.
Alcohol calculator
Entered numbers to calculate the strength of the resulting drink
- volume of alcohol used;
- strength of alcohol used;
- the strength of the resulting drink.
To calculate the resulting final strength, these three components are enough to work on online calculator and obtaining the required proportion.
The calculator calculates the composition based on the formula X=NP/M-P
- amount of water – X;
- alcohol strength – N;
- initial volume – P;
- final fortress - M.
It is important to remember that you must first dial required quantity water. Only the required volume of alcohol should be added to the water, and not vice versa. This should be done to avoid chemical reaction when mixing.
Diluting alcohol with water
Prepare a drink at home using your traditional recipe the easiest way is from good alcohol, diluted with water. This is for everyone known method, which is often called the “cold” method. It is worth mentioning that this method is also used in factories producing alcoholic beverages. Sometimes vodka with a strength of 40 degrees is used for dilution, but then the resulting result may not correspond in strength to what was expected to be obtained in the end.
Alcohol happens various cleaning and here you also need to know some nuances
- Prepared from wheat or rye, or other grains, as well as potatoes, are called Alpha, Extra and Lux and correspond to 96.3%.
- Basis and First grade are also prepared from grain or potatoes, but its percentage is already 96.
- The highest purification, ethyl, from which inexpensive vodka is usually produced, with a strength of 40 degrees, corresponds to 96.2%.
It is important to remember that you cannot dilute alcohol with regular tap water. As a result of such dilution, a precipitate may appear, the solution becomes cloudy, because the water contains impurities.
Sometimes it is necessary to dilute alcohol to obtain homemade vodka, with a strength of approximately 40 degrees. To do this, you will need 280 ml of water per glass of alcohol. If the volume is larger, then we add more water, but the proportions are preserved.
A calculator for calculating the ratio of water and alcohol to obtain a 40-degree drink is easy to use, but sometimes you can use a table with more accurate values. This table is known as Fertman's table.
Alcohol dilution table
| P/D | 95 | 90 | 85 | 80 | 75 | 70 | 65 | 60 | 55 | 50 |
| 90 | 6.5 | |||||||||
| 85 | 13.2 | 6.5 | ||||||||
| 80 | 20.8 | 13.9 | 6.9 | |||||||
| 75 | 29.6 | 21.9 | 14.6 | 7.3 | ||||||
| 70 | 39.2 | 31.1 | 23.2 | 15.5 | 7.7 | |||||
| 65 | 50.2 | 41.5 | 33.1 | 24.6 | 16.5 | 8.3 | ||||
| 60 | 62.8 | 53.6 | 44.6 | 35.5 | 26.6 | 17.7 | 8.9 | |||
| 55 | 78.1 | 67.9 | 57.8 | 48.2 | 38.4 | 28.5 | 19.1 | 9.6 | ||
| 50 | 96.1 | 84.8 | 73.8 | 63.1 | 52.5 | 41.8 | 31.2 | 20.7 | 10.5 | |
| 45 | 117.5 | 105.2 | 93.5 | 81.3 | 69.6 | 57.9 | 46.1 | 34.6 | 22.8 | 11.5 |
| 40 | 144.5 | 130.9 | 117.4 | 104.1 | 90.9 | 77.5 | 64..4 | 51.6 | 38.6 | 25.5 |
P – strength after dilution
D – strength before dilution4.4 /5 - 149 user ratings
It would seem that making vodka at home is simple: take (the main thing is that it is food grade) and water, mix, and you’re done.
But how to dilute alcohol the quality and taste of the final product depends.
But we strive to ensure that it is free of foreign taste, odor and transparent. So let's do everything right.
Many people think that for cooking quality vodka, which will not poison you, medical alcohol is best suited. And they are surprised when it turns out that this is not so. The product, which is called “Medical”, is of the first grade, unrefined, with inflated levels of methyl and fusel oils.
It is produced from food raw materials (grain that goes to the distillery, potatoes, molasses, etc. in any proportions). Intended for external use (wiping before injections, disinfection, etc.), and not for internal use!
Yes, after drinking diluted medical alcohol, you won’t go blind and you won’t end up in intensive care, but also great fun you won't get it. In addition, expect a hangover if you overdo your usual dose.
To prepare vodka in Russia, according to GOST, the following alcohols are used:
- highest purification(ironically, despite the encouraging name, it is the lowest-grade among the “vodkas”). It is made from the same raw materials as medical ones, but undergoes additional purification. And later it becomes the basis for cheap vodka;
- "Basis"- grain-potato product, where potatoes - up to 60%. Also for budget alcohol;
- "Extra". They use grain and potatoes, the latter making up no more than 35% of the total amount of raw materials. Used in vodka products mid-price category;
- "Lux"- only from grain mash. Alcohol products made from it belong to the Premium class;
- "Alpha" For mash he uses only rye and wheat. Super-Premium vodkas and liqueurs are made from it.
Important. The degree of purification is higher as the class of the product increases.
Thus, the amount of methyl in “Alpha” is up to 0.003 mg/dm3 in terms of 100% alcohol, and in “Basis” – up to 0.05 mg/dm3, and the tolerance fusel oils higher at Basis.
Today food grade alcohol any brand can be freely purchased in specialized stores and online.
Preparing ingredients for dilution
It is worth recalling that the ingredients for creating vodka or tincture are own kitchen must be of high quality, and also prepared.
1. Alcohol. You need to buy it only at trusted points. And here the right rule is to trust your instinct. But sniffing is not enough. The poisonous technical one has the same smell.
Advice. Drop some liquid onto the back of your hand and rub it dry. Smell it right away.
If it smells the way alcohol should smell, everything is fine, but if it smells sharp bad smell- in front of you, the use of which is deadly.
2. Water. You have read more than once on vodka labels: “corrected water.” What does this mean? What was removed from it? extra salt, chlorine, etc. The water became soft, suitable for combining with alcohol. Thus, we come to the conclusion that tap water, even distilled water, is not an option at all. Someone takes it from springs, deep wells. But the best option- This bottled purified, especially - intended for baby food. You can also distill it from a pharmacy.
note. Hard water and vodka will make it rough and harsh, unpleasant to drink. Even “softening” ingredients won’t help here.
3. Additives. Sugar or honey is usually added to vodka. small quantities. They make the final product soft and pleasant to drink. In addition, with the help of extracts purchased via the Internet of unclear composition, you can imitate cognac, whiskey, rum, calvados etc. and so on. The only question is whether you need it, decide for yourself.
Proportions for diluting alcohol to 40 degrees
The proportion for obtaining 40-proof vodka is 2 parts of 96-proof alcohol and 3 parts of water. And not in milligrams, but by weight(alcohol is lighter than water).
However, if you dream that you will pour 200 ml of alcohol and 300 ml of water into one container, and as a result you will get 0.5 liters of vodka, then you are mistaken.
There will be less liquid! And how much less depends on many reasons, we are talking about 90 - 96% of the summed initial amount of the two liquids.
It was this problem that Mendeleev studied, and his “invention” of vodka is already “ by-product» his scientific dissertation.
The compression of the mixture is called contraction and is explained scientifically. We will not go into details of chemical processes, but will simply take this fact into account.
But Mendeleev determined that with different dilutions (in percentage terms), different hydrates are formed, which dramatically change the taste of the solution. By diluting 96% alcohol with water to 40%, we get the most “tasty” mixture without a pungent odor. But at the same time, there is more “disappearance” of liquid. If we increase the strength to 43-46%, we will get less contraction, but the taste will deteriorate sharply. This is such chemistry!
There is one more axiom: pour alcohol into water, not vice versa. If the rule is violated, you can get a cloudy mixture, and it is difficult to get rid of this cloudiness even by filtration.
Peculiarities. Mixing occurs without clouding if the water is well cooled beforehand.
How to dilute to the desired degree according to the formula?
Mixing liquids “by eye” is a direct path to getting a “babbler” that is undrinkable. To accurately maintain the proportions and dilute alcohol with water to 40 degrees or another strength, you can use the formula 100xKSx10/TK-NS=KV, where:
- KS - alcohol strength;
- ТК – required strength;
- NS – available alcohol (in ml);
- KV – amount of water (ml).
For example: we have alcohol with a strength of 96° - 1 liter. We want to get a strength of 40°.
100x96x10:40-1000=1400.
That is, we need 1400 ml of water, to which we need to add 1000 ml of 96-proof alcohol to get vodka with a strength of 40°.
Advice. If you don’t want to count, use Fertman’s table or a moonshiner’s calculator.
Cleaning
After preparing vodka, it is advisable to clean it. Any of the methods by which moonshine is purified will do:
- birch or coconut charcoal. The worst option is an activated pharmacy;
- milk (whey);
- passing through a household water filter;
- egg white or other methods.
Adding Other Ingredients
Only after cleaning, add other ingredients that improve the organoleptic properties of vodka. It can be sugar syrup, honey, lemon (orange) juice, glucose.
Important. Don't add too much to vodka additional ingredients, otherwise the taste may be spoiled.
For 1 liter of vodka it is enough to add one of the following products:
- juice from half a lemon or orange;
- glucose – 30-40 ml;
- honey - 3-4 tbsp. spoons;
- sugar syrup – up to 50 ml.
After adding, shake the closed container thoroughly to thoroughly mix the ingredients.
Sedimentation of diluted alcohol
After completing the work of creating your own homemade vodka, settling is necessary. In the language of winemakers, the ingredients need to be “married”, so that they naturally “interpenetrate” and the taste stabilizes.
Although there is a large assortment on store shelves alcoholic products, some people prefer to make strong drinks at home. For some, this is a way to save money, while others are simply a lover of homemade alcohol.
One of the most popular alcohol-containing drinks is vodka. It would seem that there is nothing difficult about making vodka - you just need to dilute the alcohol with water, in a certain proportion, and the vodka is ready. But not everything is as simple as it seems at first glance. To get vodka High Quality, some prescription nuances should be observed
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What alcohol is best to use to make vodka?
The best option for these purposes would be to use drinking water ethanol highest degree cleaning "Extra", "Lux", would also work well medical. They all vary slightly in strength, but the main difference lies in the type of grain used to produce them.
Someone may say why dilute alcohol, because you can drink it anyway. Well, firstly, an untrained person can easily burn his larynx, and secondly, the next day, most likely, there will be such a hangover that you wouldn’t wish on your enemy. So alcohol must be diluted and this should be done wisely.
What kind of water should I dilute alcohol with?
To prepare homemade vodka, you should also take care of water to dilute the alcohol. Regular tap water or mineral water In this case, it is not suitable; it is not an option to use boiled water. The water should not contain any impurities or odors. Most it is preferable to use distilled or melt water, undergone a filtration and softening process.
Basic rules for making vodka
Compliance with the basic nuances and proportions will allow you to get a truly high-quality product:
- When diluted alcohol pours into water, not vice versa.
- Classic version of vodka, from Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev (40 degrees), consists of two parts alcohol and three parts water. It turns out that for 200 grams of 96 percent alcohol, you will need 300 grams of purified water.
- After combining alcohol and water, the resulting mixture is required shake thoroughly for mixing (naturally, the container must be tightly closed). Then freshly prepared strong drink needs to be cooled.
- Preferably vodka keep in the refrigerator for some time (from a day to a week).
- Now you can try the resulting product. Some may think that homemade vodka is no different from store-bought vodka. Well then you can try experimenting with the components.
The table shows the ratio of alcohol to water. Select the column with the degrees you want to get and go down to the line with the alcohol strength. As a result we get required amount water in ml.
Recipe for vodka made from alcohol with sugar or glucose
Preparing such an alcohol-containing drink will require a little more time and additional components.
Ingredients:
- 96 percent alcohol - 1 l., 250 ml.
- Purified water - 2 l.
- 40 percentage solution glucose - 50 ml.
Alcohol is poured into a three-liter glass bottle and glucose is added. Everything is mixed carefully. Purified water is added to the resulting solution and the total volume of liquid is brought to three liters. It is advisable to purify the resulting vodka using activated carbon and then filter it. The final stage The drink will be kept in the refrigerator for two weeks.
You can believe that such vodka will be of excellent quality.
Vodka with honey and sugar
Vodka with sugar and honey has a delicious taste. To prepare it, a drink made according to the previous recipe is used.
Added to vodka honey to taste (ratio no more than one to ten), sugar and lemon acid(one teaspoon). After preparation, the drink should be kept at least three days in a refrigerator. Thanks to such additives, vodka will lose its alcoholic taste and it will be easy and pleasant to drink.
Vodka with orange or lemon flavor
The technology for preparing such vodka is practically no different from previous recipes. The only thing you need to add to it is lemon or orange peels and leave for about two weeks. You can also use other additives, for example, pine nuts, birch buds, etc. Or you can make vodka with cranberry or citrus juice.
If you want to ease a hangover, you can add a small pinch of ascorbic acid to a strong drink.
As you can see, making real homemade vodka is not at all difficult, you just need to put in a little effort and you will enjoy an alcohol-containing drink made with your own hands.
Watch an educational video about making good quality homemade vodka!
Alcohol – great base for any alcoholic drinks. In particular, when diluted to 40 degrees, it can perfectly replace vodka. At the same time, the resulting product for consumption is a much higher quality analogue of the vodka that can be bought in stores.
The main reason for diluting alcohol to create noble alcoholic drinks is that it is a fairly powerful solvent. If added in its pure form (96%), it will kill the taste of any drink. Below we will look at how to dilute alcohol with water.
What to breed with?
Contrary to popular belief, you do not need to dilute alcohol with anything other than water. It is the distillate that is best suited for this. Firstly, it is cleared of any microorganisms and debris that is present in the water supply. Secondly, using any other liquids for this leads to the appearance of foreign smell or taste. And then any advice on how to properly dilute alcohol with water loses its relevance.
True, experimental tests show that healthy supplements Over time they lose their intensity, but unwanted odors do not go away. Therefore, when breeding, it is better to abandon them.
The Internet is also full of recipes on how to properly dilute alcohol, which advise mixing water with original product alcohol in equal proportions in different containers, after which it all needs to be mixed together. This is completely pointless. The great chemist D.I. Mendeleev said how to properly dilute alcohol with water: mixing occurs by adding alcohol to water, and not vice versa.
Otherwise, the molecular lattice of the former will collapse and disintegrate into its components. This can be clearly seen by the appearance of the characteristic white color of the liquid. The process of diluting alcohol with water described above is correct. You can safely ignore other advice.
Mixing proportions
To calculate the proportions when mixing, we need a regular calculator. First you need to know the following parameters:
- Initial alcohol strength;
- What volume of alcohol;
- Desired strength of the final drink.
If you need to dilute alcohol at home from 96% to the strength of vodka and you will drink the drink at home and there is no particular need to accurately maintain the proportions, then you can proceed as follows.
For example, there is a liter of initial product. Its strength is 95 degrees. You need to get the drink at about 40 degrees to make vodka. After some thought, we come to the conclusion that the strength needs to be reduced by a little more than half. Accordingly, we will need a little more water than alcohol. This figure is approximately 1300-1500 milliliters.
Variables mean:
- X– required volume of water;
- A– initial strength;
- B– initial volume;
- C- desired strength.
Using simple calculations, we calculate that for the previous example we need to add exactly 1400 milliliters to dilute alcohol with water at home. In total, the final product will be 2.4 liters.
The third method is a little simpler. Here he calculates not how much water needs to be added, but what the final displacement will be. We need to find out all the same data: initial strength, final strength and initial volume. Now we divide the initial strength by the final (desired) and get the amount of drink that we will have after dilution.
Now we will need the initial volume number. If you have a liter of alcohol, then everything is very simple - add water until you get 2.4 liters (in the case of vodka). If it is more, then you first need to multiply the initial displacement by the resulting value - this is where you need to “catch up” the volume. In formula form it will look like this:
- X- the volume to which the amount of liquid needs to be brought
- A– initial number of revolutions;
- B– desired number of revolutions;
- C– number of liters of initial volume.
Well, the simplest thing is to use a table. It can be found in any school chemistry textbook. Also, this table is very widely available on the Internet.
What to do with the resulting product?
Storing alcohol is an important point. It wouldn't be so relevant if:
- Rubbing alcohol (or any other alcohol) did not evaporate;
- No film formed on the surface of the alcohol acetic acid.
That is, the container must be filled to the brim, otherwise the air that remains in the empty volume will react with the hero of our article. The result is partial decomposition and the formation of acetic acid, which in no way improves taste characteristics product. In addition, after filling the container, it must be closed with a ground stopper. If this is not done, then we are again faced with the formation of acid and evaporation of the product.
Now you need to infuse the alcohol. This is done so that it better dissolves water in itself and reduces the strength. On average, this takes from 4 days to a week. This process cannot be accelerated. Neither heating nor shaking will help. If you do not heed this advice, then you can get the same breakdown of molecules and cloudiness of the drink.
Supplements
Various flavoring additives mixed with the product during infusion is one of the most controversial topics. It is better not to resort to using them, since during infusion certain chemical processes. And additives can affect them extremely negatively.
But, if you don’t have time to wait and follow the advice on how to properly dilute alcohol, and then also waste time waiting for it to infuse with additives, then you can use them, but you shouldn’t expect high quality of the final product.
The following can be used as “safe” additives:
- Glucose. Gives a faint sweetish taste. Put no more than 10-15 ml per 1 liter of finished product;
- Honey. It turns out to be mead with all that it implies. It is better to use floral or linden honey. 30 ml per 1 liter of diluted alcohol;
- Milk. Only according to proven recipes. The taste and smell are not for everyone;
- Spices. Strictly to taste.
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