potato liquor
Do you dream of making your own potato alcohol? Vodka, also called schnapps, can be produced from different ingredients including potatoes which will ferment to produce alcohol. Be careful, we don’t improvise ourselves as distillers because the process can be dangerous and is, in any case, very regulated by the legislation.
Ingredients :
- 10 kg of potatoes
- 1 kg of crushed wheat
- Yeasts
Preparation :
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1
Wash the potatoes and cook them without peeling them for a good hour. Then discard the cooking water and mash the potatoes well. Then put them back in a pot, adding 20 liters of water. Mix well and heat to 66°C. Then add 1 kg of crushed wheat, mix well, cover, and stir regularly for 2 hours, until the temperature drops to 30°C. The enzymes in the wheat will break down the starch in the potatoes.
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2
Strain the mash and collect the liquid. Add the yeast to ferment the alcohol. Stir well, and leave the liquid in a room between 27 and 30°C. This process takes 3-5 days.
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3
Then collect the liquid, leaving the yeast sediments in the bottom of the pot.
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4
Then heat the liquid in a still. The alcohol will vaporize and condense in the cooling chamber of the still. Warning: always discard the first methanol-rich distillate. Collect the rest, which is called in the jargon “the body”, and filter it.
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5
Finally, dilute your potato brandy with purified water to achieve the alcohol level you want, and drink in moderation.
Tips
Please note: you should never distill at home for safety reasons. In addition, it is mandatory in France to apply to own a still. Finally, be aware that the first distillate contains methanol, a poisonous substance for the optic nerve and fatal if ingested.
