Ingredients
a still (a heat source, a boiling chamber, water cooling pipes, and a collection bottle)
Carbohydrates (sugar, grain, potatoes)
Directions
1.
Sanitize all of your equipment with a bleach-and-water mixture. Any foreign particles in any step of the process can add disflavor to your finished vodka.
2.
Create a mash. Starting from your carbohydrate source - sugar, grain, potatoes - you then proceed to turn these complex sugars into alcohol
3.
molecules. Different sources will require different mashing techniques. Consult your expert or a book for the specific mashing technique. For example to make a mash out of grain, add purified water to the grain and heat it for an hour. Add yeast and let it sit for some time (one to two weeks). It is best to use home brewing equipment when creating the mash. Consult your resources for the proper proportions and heating temperatures, which will differ due to variables such as altitude and volume. For the best flavor, remember to use the best water available in every step, preferably distilled or purified water.
4.
Add the mash to the boiling chamber and light your heat source. The alcohol in the mash will evaporate and move through the water cooling tubes, collecting in the collection bottle. Vodka has its clear and pure quality due to its many distillation stages. Clean and sanitize the boiling chamber and distill the vodka at least twice more. For clearer, and smoother, vodka you can distill it a fourth or a fifth time.
5.
ach time you distill, it is vital to discard the first and last fifty milliliters that you collect. This gets rid of the bad methanol (the alcohol in wood alcohol), that can cause serious damage, even blindness. Do not ever drink the first or last vodka.
6.
Filtration is the vital step that takes away the roughness of the vodka creating a smoother vodka. The most popular method of filtration for vodka is by using activated carbon filtration. High quality store-bought vodka can go through as many as seven filtrations through carbon. Some fancy vodkas even claim to filter through diamond! For the home distiller, take a funnel, place a cotton ball in the bottom, stick in some activated carbon, and pour the thrice-distilled vodka into a bottle. Repeat as often as necessary.
7.
Using distilled or purified water, dilute the distilled vodka at a ratio of three to four (or to taste). Distilled vodka is quite strong, and it is recommended that you dilute it.
8.
Your vodka is ready to drink. If you wish to flavor your vodka, you can add fresh berries, peppers, horseradish, orange rind, or a vanilla bean to the vodka. Let it sit for a couple of weeks and the vodka will take on the desired flavor.
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