What is a bubbler in a moonshine still. The original device - the bubbler replaces the dry steam generator. Comparison of body materials

Home brewing has become even more popular today than it was during Prohibition. At that time, only a few moonshine was brewed and sold, today every third person is engaged in this, but he brews a potion mainly for personal consumption. The reason for such popularity of the units was, firstly, their affordability, and secondly, the abundance of information on how to make at home. And in this article we will tell you how to make a bubbler for a moonshine still with your own hands, what it is and what materials will be needed.

The principle of operation of the bubbler

Initially, we will figure out what a bubbler is and what it is for. It is a device designed to pass hot, high pressure steam through a liquid. In the case of a moonshine still, the mash in a distillation still acts as such a liquid. If we are talking about liquid wash made on the basis of water, yeast and sugar, there is no need for a bubbler (as an extension of the steam generator). This device is necessary when a thick mash is cooked, prepared on the basis of grain, flour, berries and fruits.

On the basis of such products, bread vodka, beer, bourbon or whiskey are prepared.

It is forbidden to cook such mash on direct fire or in an electric pressure cooker. You will not be able to stir the substance; accordingly, it will begin to stick to the walls of the container, imparting a bitter taste to the finished drink and an unpleasant burnt aroma.

Some might argue that a distiller can do just that. It's a delusion. The bubbler heats the substance with hot steam bubbles, which allows the distillation still to warm up evenly. With this method of heating, localization of overheating and even more burning is excluded, therefore, for home brewing, it is necessary to use a steam generator-bubbler bundle.

This is how an approximate diagram of a moonshine still working with a bubbler looks like

Steam generator- a pressure cooker or any other hermetically sealed container where water boils.
- a metal hose through which hot steam enters the container with home brew and heats it to a certain temperature.
Distillation cube - tank with wash, where heating and decomposition into separate fractions (alcohol-containing steam, fusel oil, water) occurs.
Sukhoparnik- an empty container (jar), where spray of wash settles and partial condensation of steam occurs.
Refrigerator with coil - the main element of the system, where alcohol-containing vapors pass, settle in the form of condensate on the walls of the coil and go out in the form of a finished product into a receiving container.

How to make a bubbler with your own hands

Let's start by making a steam generator, from where hot steam will flow into the distillation cube. A regular pressure cooker is ideal for this. A nine-liter will cost you 1.5-2 thousand rubles. Why exactly the factory one - because the hermetically sealed lid ensures complete steam penetration into the cube, and not outside.

In a hardware store, buy separately fittings for pneumatics, a bellows hose (for gas) and plugs. Everything should be stainless steel.

This is what a bellows hose looks like, which is in our design a bubbler.

First you assemble the pressure cooker, just tighten the handles very carefully. In the presence of very good steel, for some unknown reason they save on the quality of the handles.

Punch holes in the lid of the pressure cooker. Please note that drilling stainless steel is a very complex object. It is viscous, so turn on the drill at minimum speed. Take the largest drill.
Make 3 holes - one in the wall and two in the lids.

You can do without a hole in the body, but then the bubbler will only come in from above. In this case, the wash will heat up on such a steam line and a local combustion zone may form. Namely, this is what we are trying to avoid by collecting the bubbler with our own hands.

A few more words about holes. Some will ask why they are needed if the pressure cooker already has fittings. In the photo you can see how much they differ from each other in diameter and, accordingly, in throughput.

Making a bubbler. To do this, take a bellows hose and make cuts along the entire length - hot steam will flow through them into the cube. Plug one end, which remains in the container, and remove the other through the side opening.

Be sure to place the bubbler in the container with the slits down.

Connect the steam generator and distillation cube with silicone hoses.

As a dry steamer, you can use an ordinary laboratory Bunsen flask, which is sold at a chemical reagent store. The refrigerator is, in this case, a store distiller, but a standard container with a coil immersed in cold water may also work.

In order to make it clearer why you need it and how to make a bubbler with your own hands, watch the training video

In the United States, homemade whiskey (moonshine) is called moonshine, because during Prohibition it was "driven" exclusively at night.

The main raw material was corn wash, which was driven twice through the apparatus and insisted on burnt oak sawdust for 2-3 days. This was necessary not to impart a spicy aroma, as many believe, but in order to drown out the pungent smell of booze.

Advanced moonshiners use not only a dephlegmator, but also a bubbler to clean the moonshine from fusel oils and to increase the strength of the drink. Despite the apparent simplicity, the bubbler really has a lot of weight in the distillation cycle. On average, a properly installed bubbler makes the final product at least 20% cleaner. Thus, moonshine stills with a bubbler give a stronger and cleaner product at the exit.

Why do you need a bubbler in a moonshine still?

The bubbler is a fairly simple device. In fact, it can be any cylindrical container with two holes in the lid. A long tube is inserted into the first hole, which extends almost to the very bottom of the container. The second hole also accommodates a tube, but much shorter. During distillation, alcohol vapors travel through a long tube to the bottom of the bubbler and condense to form a layer of liquid.

This liquid gradually fills the bubbler, rising above the steam inlet tube. As a result, new alcohol vapors must pass through the liquid layer to pass further along the distillation channel. Actually, all sorts of harmful substances in this liquid remain. For greater efficiency, liquid (regular water) can be added to the bubbler prior to distillation.

With the help of a bubbler, as well as with the help of a dry pot, moonshine can be flavored. To do this, pour water into the bubbler so that it immediately covers the pipe for supplying alcohol steam, and add some aromatic raw materials to the water, for example, lemon zest or cinnamon sticks.

Advantages of a moonshine still with a bubbler

It is no coincidence that the bubbler is widely used in home distillation. This is perhaps the simplest and most effective extension for a moonshine still:

cleans moonshine from booze;
increases the strength of moonshine;
it is easy to do it yourself;
you can put up to 6 in a row;
almost does not affect the rate of distillation.

A moonshine still with a bubbler can produce a fairly pure product even without re-distillation. Once the heads have been collected, the bubbler can be used to flavor the beverage.

We do not have moonshine stills with bubblers on sale yet, but they will appear in the near future. In the meantime, you can read other useful articles on our website or buy equipment of a more advanced design, for example,

Previously, to improve the quality and strength of the moonshine, it was necessary to distill it several times. Nowadays, additional devices are used for this purpose, allowing purification and even aromatization during the distillation process. You can buy them complete with a moonshine still, or make them yourself. Do-it-yourself barbater can be done by anyone with minimal skills in handling tools.

In the mash, during fermentation, substances harmful to health are formed. During distillation, they get into the moonshine with alcohol vapor. Tasting such a product can result in severe poisoning and even death. Potassium permanganate, activated carbon and other chemicals used to neutralize harmful impurities require additional time and are not as effective as we would like.
Much better results are obtained by physical methods that produce cleaning during the manufacturing process. Most often, moonshine stills with a bubbler are used for this, which separates the alcohol-containing steam into fractions. The moonshine is then ready for consumption without additional processing.

The device and principle of operation of the bubbler

Structurally, the device is made in the form of a container with a hermetically sealed lid. Two tubes are inserted through the holes in it. One reaches almost to the bottom, while the other protrudes only slightly from the lid. The long tube connects to the distillation tank, the short one directs the alcohol vapors to the next device. To bring the bubbler into working condition, before the start of distillation, it is filled with water in such a way that the end of the long tube is recessed.

A moonshine still with a bubbler and a dry steamer is a unique device that allows you to produce drinks that are distinguished by nobility at home. A similar device will help the owner to make whiskey, calvados, bourbon and other elite alcohol.

The Finlandia moonshine still is a good example of such equipment. The name of the device was not chosen by chance, because Finland is a country where high-quality alcoholic beverages are treated with special love.

But if the device is already available and you only need to modify it, then you can buy the modules separately or, in order to save money, make a dry steam room and bubbler with your own hands.

What is a dry greenhouse for?

In a moonshine still, everything is not as simple as it seems. The device has several modules, during distillation they perform different functions, but at the same time their activity is invariably aimed at making alcohol better.

Experienced moonshiners for distillation supply devices with such a module as a reflux condenser (dry steam tank, settler). It performs the following functions:

Helps cleanse the product from harmful impurities and fusel oils.
Improve the quality of alcohol, its taste and aroma.
Helps to increase the strength of the drink.

The unit can be equipped with several dry hoppers at the same time - these devices help to get rid of the booze, make it soft and pleasant.

If the device has several reflux condensers, then one of them is used as a kind of storage for aromatic substances. After the pasture, the taste and aroma of moonshine, which passed through such a dry pot, improves significantly.

You can compare a module with a sump in which harmful substances accumulate. At the same time, the design of the module is simple, it can be made at home without any problems using a glass jar, a metal screw cap and a couple of fittings with nuts.

Studying various videos and collecting information, one may come across the fact that the moonshine stills collected during the Soviet era or even earlier did not have a dry steam generator. It was believed that it was not needed, its functions raised doubts among ordinary citizens, and for this reason the craftsmen managed to dismantle the dephlegmators, deliberately simplifying the design.

Today, the question of whether a dephlegmator is needed or not and what functions it performs in a moonshine still interests only inexperienced distillers.

But in the process of making moonshine, not only a dry steamer is involved, along with this module there is another one that affects the quality of alcohol - this is a bubbler.

What is a bubbler and what is it for?

Distillation of mash is a complex process; to obtain a high-quality drink, chemical purification and a second distillation may be required. All this will help to improve the quality of the product, but it will take some time. However, the moonshiners managed to find an alternative - to equip devices for the production of alcohol with additional modules.

A bubbler is one of those devices that helps in the process of distillation of moonshine to clean it from fuzzy, make it stronger and cleaner.

Why do you need a bubbler and how does it work:

helps to increase the strength of the drink by 19-20 degrees;
save time on re-distillation;
make it cleaner and more aromatic.

The module is used for various purposes, for example, in the Finlandia moonshine still, it serves as a device that increases the strength of the drink. The Finlandia appliance is also equipped with a dry steamer, for this reason it can be used to produce elite alcohol, not just moonshine.

One of the containers is used as a storage, spices, lemon peels or other aromatic substances are placed in it that can affect the quality of the drink. At the same time, additives can be stored both in a dry steamer and in a bubbler.

Why do you need a dry steam generator and a bubbler in one device? There are several answers to this question:

The devices help to significantly improve the quality of the final product, to cleanse it of harmful impurities.
Eliminate the unpleasant smell of moonshine, make it softer, give it a pleasant aroma and eliminate bitterness or pronounced aftertaste.
Make the drink stronger. This happens not only due to cleaning, but also due to the fact that the bubbler collides alcohol vapors with the liquid and "sends" the condensate for additional cleaning. Ultimately, this increases the quality of the product.

Neither a bubbler, nor a dry steam generator will help to produce alcohol with a strength of 100 degrees at home - this is worth remembering. The production of such a product will require special equipment and laboratory conditions.

At home, you can produce alcohol with a strength of up to 96 degrees, but for this you will need to purchase a rectifier.

With your own hands

Making a dry steamer and bubbler for a moonshine still with your own hands is not such a difficult task. The fact is that the design of the modules does not differ in the presence of complex microcircuits and other elements. You can make a reflux condenser with a glass jar, 2 silicone connecting hoses and 2 fittings.

Algorithm of actions:

We select a 0.5 liter glass jar with a metal lid, which should twist and fit tightly to the jar.
We make two marks on the cover, they must correspond to the diameter of the fittings. After at the place of the marks, we cut holes using an awl or other tool.
We fasten the fittings into the holes made, process the structure with a sealant or glue to ensure tightness, mount the steam bath using silicone hoses. The device is located between the distillation cube and the refrigerator.

It is possible by analogy to make another reflux condenser or give preference to a bubbler. You can also do it yourself. The bubbler is made in two ways. Often, a number of glass cans are called a similar name; they help filter alcohol from harmful impurities.

How to make a bubbler from a bellows:

The cost of the apparatus "Finland" is more than 6 thousand rubles, and the cost of a hose for household gas is 200 rubles. A bubbler can be made from a hose (bellows).
A plug is installed on one end of the hose.
Then, small cuts are made on the surface of the bellows (the length of the cuts can reach several millimeters, the distance between them is 1 centimeter).
You do not have to make cuts, but drill holes in the hose.
A stainless steel hose is folded into a ring and placed on the bottom of the distillation cube.
Hose diameter from 10 to 20 millimeters; it should be positioned so that the hole is at the bottom.

The device can be made not only from a bellows, but also from a copper tube. This will require:

purchase a copper pipe, after which it is worth soldering it from one end;
lay on the bottom of the distillation cube, wrapping it in a ring;
drill or saw holes in the pipe walls;
holes should be in the same row, their diameter should not exceed 2–3 millimeters.

The device works on the principle of ensuring the strong boiling process of the mash. When liquid is poured into the cube, it fills the holes. After it begins to boil during distillation, the liquid is released and rises in the form of vapor, capturing the wort particles. This leads to the fact that the pressure in the tank rises, and the alcohol boils more intensively, begins to evaporate at a temperature of 87 degrees.

To make the moonshine still work even more efficiently, it must be equipped with a steam generator - it will help control the pressure level inside the still.

You should not pin any fantastic hopes on a bubbler or a dry steam room. The devices will not turn the mash into 100-degree alcohol, but they will help to significantly improve the quality of the product, make it cleaner and stronger, and affect the taste and smell. Such alcohol will not harm human health and will not cause severe intoxication.

Dryer and bubbler - 2 devices, primarily responsible for filtering the distillate. And if the presence of the first in the design of the moonshine still does not cause doubts among people, then with the second everything is much more complicated. Some consider the bubbler an unnecessary rudimentary appendage, others say that purity and final aromatization cannot be achieved without it. Still others do not see the difference between a bubbler and a dry steamer at all. There are many opinions. To determine the role and significance of a bubbler in a moonshine still, we will analyze its structure and principle of operation, and also consider the fundamental differences from a dry-brew.

How does a bubbler work in a moonshine still

A bubbler is a sealed vessel with two holes, into which tubes of different lengths are inserted. Through the first, longer and almost abutting the bottom, alcohol vapors enter the reservoir. Through the second, short, they leave. The device is quite simple, but very effective. Alcohol vapors enter the tank, where they are sharply cooled by several degrees. As a result, impurities, the boiling point of which is higher than that of pure alcohol vapors, condense on the walls and drain to the bottom of the bubbler. After some time, a layer of liquid forms in the bubbler from the condensed residues, which hides the lower edge of the long tube. Subsequent vapors will have to overcome this layer in order to enter the cooler. Heavy impurities settle in the liquid, and pure alcohol vapors "bubble" and enter the coil. For greater efficiency, water can be poured into the bubbler before distillation so that the vapors pass through the filter with liquid immediately. But you need to know that the water will warm up under the influence of hot alcohol vapors, evaporate and get into the final product. This can affect, albeit slightly, the strength of the product and its chemical composition.

Sukoparnik and bubbler - what's the difference?

Outwardly and structurally, these two devices are very similar. Both of them are reservoirs where the incoming alcohol vapors are cleaned of heavy fusel impurities. But there is a difference between it, first of all, in the cleaning methods. Sukhoparnik separates alcohol vapors from fusel mixtures due to the difference in their boiling points: in alcohol it is 78 ° C, in fusel oils it is much higher. Once in the dry chamber, they condense on the walls and no longer evaporate, since all the thermal energy is spent on the evaporation of ethyl alcohol. At the beginning of the distillation, the bubbler uses the same cleaning method. But after the incoming tube is hidden under the layer of liquid, the vapor is purified with the liquid.

This cleaning method has the following advantages:

in the bubbler, additional final cleaning of vapors from harmful impurities that have passed through the steam chamber is carried out;

by increasing the purity of the product, the taste is also improved. The taste becomes more accentuated and pure;

using a bubbler helps to increase the strength of the product by several degrees.

And with the help of a bubbler, you can flavor drinks. Flavors (fruit zest, berry leaves, etc.) are added to the tank. The aromatization of a drink in a bubbler is more effective than in a dry-brewer due to the fact that alcohol vapors pass directly through the liquid in which the flavors are located. In a dry greenhouse, the contact of vapors and flavors is less dense.

Should you buy a moonshine still with a bubbler?

Despite the fact that the bubbler is not an obligatory element in the moonshine still, it is very useful for the design of the moonshine still. This is an additional filter that "cleans up" all the flaws of the dry stew, thereby improving the taste, quality and strength of the drink. For those distillers who value these parameters in their drink, we recommend not neglecting the bubbler. In conjunction with a dry steam tank, this is a very effective device. On our website you can familiarize yourself with the Hanhi Grand moonshine still, which has a built-in bubbler in its design.