Moonshine color. Changing the color of moonshine with natural dyes. How to color moonshine - the best home remedies

For coloring moonshine, there are a wide range of special chemical dyes on sale that can easily be used at home. However, they can degrade the properties natural product. An alternative is natural dyes. Moonshine can be colored in a variety of colors.

In particular, saffron gives the drink a golden color. The peels of unripe oranges can enrich homemade alcohol with a similar golden hue. You can give moonshine a yellow color by infusing the drink with parsley, mint, horseradish or lemon balm leaves. You can even color moonshine bluish by infusing it with cornflower flowers. You need to infuse moonshine with natural dyes for a week at room temperature. After dyeing, it is filtered.

How to color your moonshine yourself

Green

This color is given to the moonshine by the infusion of feathers. green onions or sheets black currant. These types of raw materials are washed, filled with hot water, boiled several times and then transferred to cold water. Then the juice is squeezed out and boiled down by half. The resulting extract can be added to moonshine for coloring.

Brown

The simplest coloring method that does not change the taste of moonshine is coloring with black tea. For 1 liter of moonshine you need 1 teaspoon of high quality black tea. All this is mixed and infused in a dark place for a week, after which it is filtered. The hue of the moonshine changes throughout the week, becoming light brown at first and then deep black.

To give the moonshine a cognac color, you need to heat 1 tbsp. spoon of sugar until the sugar reaches a dark brown color. The resulting caramel is added in a warm state to 1 liter of moonshine, everything is thoroughly mixed. Caramel gives the drink a beautiful color, while simultaneously improving its taste and eliminating the shortcomings of the moonshine smell, if any.

You can add a cognac tint by adding pine nuts, still in their shells, to the drink.

Granules instant coffee instantly change the color of moonshine, while at the same time giving it a unique aroma. For 1 liter of moonshine, take 1/2 teaspoon of freeze-dried or granulated coffee.

St. John's wort colors the drink a light shade of brown. 1 tbsp. a spoonful of this herb is added to 1 liter of moonshine, which is then placed in a dark place for a week and shaken daily, and after a week filtered through cheesecloth. St. John's wort has a calming effect, so consuming such a tincture in large quantities is dangerous. The maximum permissible single dose is 300 g.

An interesting shade and taste of cognac can be obtained by infusing moonshine with prunes. 30 g of prunes are taken per 1 liter of moonshine, it is infused for a week or a little longer. During this period, the drink acquires a new pleasant taste and changes color.

Red

To give moonshine this color, you can add jam to it in the amount of 1 teaspoon per 1 liter of drink. Any berries give moonshine not only color, but also flavor. In particular, blueberries give a rich ruby ​​color.

Golden

Lemon peels give the moonshine a golden-pistachio hue, and orange peels give it a yellowish-golden hue. It also acquires a fresh and subtle citrus aroma. For 3 liters of moonshine you need the zest of one medium lemon or orange. In this case, the drink is infused in a closed jar for about 2 weeks at room temperature.

You can significantly improve the aroma and taste of moonshine and give it a rich golden color with a greenish tint that plays in the rays of the sun using thorns. To do this, pour 1 glass of sloe with moonshine and leave it in a dark place for 40 days. The result is a fairly soft drink, devoid of the smell of alcohol.

An aesthetic golden color can be obtained using a tincture of cinquefoil root. This drink will also have healing properties.

Are you tired of the exquisitely transparent color of moonshine? Would you like to give your spirits a more sophisticated character? Use proven tinting methods that are guaranteed to provide your alcohol not just with new visual characteristics, but also with remarkable organoleptic properties. Next, you will learn how to paint over moonshine at home and remove all bad smell, which filtering could not handle previously.

Did you know? Today, you can expel the mash and, accordingly, create moonshine from almost any product. Buckwheat is even suitable for this.

Color, just like taste and smell, can seriously influence the overall consumer impression of the product being tasted. Numerous studies by psychologists have shown that correctly selected colors in alcohol can give the consumer more vivid emotions from tasting certain alcoholic products. And then we will look at the variability of the fundamental ingredients, which will change the color of the drink for the better, and also take care of the unpleasant aromas formed during the distillation of the mash.

The tinting procedure itself must be carried out based on a number of fundamental nuances, namely:

• Follow the recipe. Try to strictly follow the coloring technology, as incorrect proportions can lead to a distortion of the taste of the strong assemblage.
• Use clean dishes. Foreign elements on the glassware can seriously affect the taste of the drink. Before using any ingredient, be sure to clean the container you are using.
• Use a wooden spoon. To prevent metal oxidizing agents from getting into the structure of the alcohol, use only wooden spoons when mixing the dyes in the composition.
• Tight sealing. After mixing, it is necessary to seal the container so that air does not enter it.
• Careful straining. After any coloring, it is necessary to filter the drink from foreign elements. This should be done through gauze.

Did you know? Russian moonshine was very popular in Europe in tsarist times. It is for this reason that the nobility always carried with them several containers with this drink.

So, having familiarized yourself with the basic rules of the coloring procedure and deciding how to paint moonshine at home, pay attention to:

Black tea

If, even after using other available means, you notice a smell or you simply have a desire to decorate your alcohol, you can pay attention to black tea. The use of this product is the most in a simple way improve the characteristics of home-made alcohol. That is, when deciding how to color the moonshine and quickly remove the smell, you just need to pour a small amount of tea into a container with alcohol. The proportion is as follows: for 3 liters of moonshine, 1 tablespoon of tea is enough. In this case, you should only choose high-quality large-leaf tea.

As soon as you add the natural dye to the alcohol, you will need to mix it thoroughly, then close the lid tightly and place it in a dark room for 5-7 days. Every day the drink will change its color palette from light brown to amber or black. You can also use aromatic teas with bergamot, barberry, cloves and other notes.

Citrus peels

When it doesn’t help you get rid of the sharp pungent aroma, and you think that tinting with tea will also not demonstrate effectiveness, pay attention to orange and lemon peels. Experienced distillers most often use these ingredients to improve their drinks. When deciding what you can use to color moonshine so that there is no odor, and using citrus peels, you can count not just on getting rid of unpleasant odors, but also on an additional effect in the form of a pleasant sourness, which will be reflected in both the aroma and taste.

Only well-dried peels are suitable for the procedure. For 3 liters of moonshine you will need to put the peel of one orange or two lemons. Next, you should close the container and place it in a dark room with room temperature for 10-14 days. As a result, the color of the alcohol in the case of lemon will take on a light green tint, and in the case of orange it will become slightly yellow.

Prunes

It happens that it cannot even bring the drink to the proper state in terms of aroma. In such cases, wanting not only to get rid of the unpleasant trail, but also to tint the product, experienced craftsmen use prunes. For a 3-liter jar of the product you will need only 100 g of prunes. The product is directly poured into the container, after which the bottle is sealed and sent to a dark, dry room for 7-10 days. After the expiration date, the alcohol will acquire a delicate aroma and an elegant dark amber color, comparable to premium representatives of the cognac segment.

Nuts and partitions

One of the most effective ways to filter homemade alcohol is, but in practice it does not always cope with the strong aromas inherent in the mash distilled through the apparatus. In such cases, when you want to get rid of the smell and do not mind coloring your product, you can use a variety of nuts.

If you plan to add walnuts, then you will need 15 medium walnuts per 1 liter of alcohol. All this is mixed and placed in a dark place for seven days. As a result, the alcohol acquires a delicate nutty aroma and an attractive brown color. In the same case, if you use pine nuts, then for 1 liter of alcohol you will need 150 g of nuts. And this composition is infused much longer, for 30 days.

Did you know? Moonshine is an order of magnitude cleaner and better quality than any factory product. This is because every modern experimenter strives to achieve ideal organoleptic characteristics in it, carrying out numerous distillations and adding a variety of ingredients.

Burnt sugar or caramel

A simple and quite effective way to change color and highlight flavor and aroma ambitions. For 1 liter of moonshine you will need 1 tablespoon of sugar, heated until brown. As a result of adding this element, the alcohol will acquire a pleasant yellow color after mixing.

Instant coffee

Instant coffee, added to the composition in the proportion of half a tablespoon per 1 liter of drink, helps to quickly paint over a strong assemblage. The only drawback of such a dye is its overly strong nature, which can interrupt the fundamental tasting properties of the distilled alcohol.

Calming tincture of St. John's wort

Just 1 tablespoon of St. John's wort can color 1 liter of strong homemade alcohol. At the same time, the alcohol acquires not only a light brown color, but also an elegant aroma. After staining, the container with alcohol must be moved to a dark room for 7 days. The container must be shaken once a day.

Food colorings

One of the easiest and most time-saving ways to color homemade alcohol is to use classic food coloring. The only caveat is that they will not remove foreign odors, but will only change the color to the one that will be most suitable for you. The only point that needs to be taken into account in this case is whether the dye is combined with alcohol. It is best to clarify this nuance directly with the manufacturer’s representatives.

Don't neglect the opportunity to improve your spirits using proven methods and technologies. Carry out coloring using any of the above methods, and also complement the aromatic nature of the drink with more interesting and charismatic trails. Go for right now, in order to complement the recreated strong assemblage today with new elegant organoleptic notes.

Good alcoholic drink- this is not only a worthy combination of flavor and aromatic components, but also a color that stimulates appetite. And when it comes to homemade alcohol, the question of how to color moonshine is very relevant. Especially if the original raw material has a slightly cloudy tint. And there is no way to get rid of it.

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Any food products- fruits, vegetables, spices - give drinks, and especially alcohol, a certain color. You just need to know what to add to get the desired shade. Here are some popular options for painting over homemade alcohol:

Read also: What are the harms and benefits of moonshine?

Popular moonshine mix tinctures

It is not necessary to add any individual herbs and spices to get an interesting shade. Can immediately make a mixed tincture with a beautiful color.

Coffee infusions

To obtain a rich coffee flavor and aroma palette, instant coffee is most often added to moonshine. A freeze-dried drink performs best, that is, frozen from a brewed one. With this additive, moonshine does not become cloudy and has a stable brown color. The saturation depends on how much powder you add. Here are some recipes.

1. An elementary recipe, the drink will be ready in 1 minute. Required:

• freeze-dried coffee (ground coffee will also work) - 6–10 g. (3–5 teaspoons);
• moonshine 40° strength - 0.5 liters;
• sugar syrup(1:1 sugar and water) chilled - 100 ml.

Dissolve coffee powder in syrup. Carefully pour the mixture into the moonshine and also carefully mix so that no cloudiness appears. Can be refrigerated or consumed immediately.

1. This option is called, although its taste is faintly similar to “Courvoisier” or its brothers. But citric acid, a little oil from coffee beans and zest, as well as the smell of coffee perfectly clean the moonshine and fight off the “bad spirit”. We will need:

• orange or lemon - 1 pc.;
• roasted coffee beans - 20–30 pieces;
• dried cloves - 5–6 pcs.;
• sugar syrup (sugar to water 1:1) - 50 gr.

Pour the moonshine into a jar, add chilled syrup to it. We stick coffee beans and clove inflorescences into the citrus fruit. Place the orange or lemon at the bottom of the jar. After 3-4 weeks the drink is ready. There will be sediment in it, which is better to strain off. For beauty, the fruit can be placed back in the jar. Moonshine infused this way has a beautiful cognac color.

St. John's wort infusions

St. John's wort moonshine has an equally pleasant light brown color. True, this is extremely insidious grass, so you shouldn’t sprinkle it according to the “too much is not too little” principle. In case of an overdose, memory loss, prolonged sleep or insomnia, headaches and other side effects are possible.

1. For 1 liter of strong (about 50°) moonshine you need to add 1 tablespoon of dried St. John's wort. After 7 days, the tincture will be ready, all that remains is to strain. It is not recommended to take more than 300 grams at a time. due to St. John's wort in the tincture.

1. For Voskresenskaya bitter tincture you will need:

• thyme - 10 g;
• oak bark - 10 gr. (or oak chips- 50 gr.);
• sage - 5 gr.;
• cilantro seeds (coriander) - 5–7 g;
• St. John's wort - 30 g;
• marjoram - 25 gr.;
• strong moonshine - 0.8 liters;
• moonshine infused with blackcurrant branches - 0.1 liters;
• water - about 0.1 liter.

It has long been transformed from a forced activity for the sake of reducing the cost of alcohol or covering its shortage into an art that requires a creative approach.

Drinks of various colors and tastes are placed on the table, using strong, purified moonshine as the basis for further implementation of the master’s plans.

Both its visual perception and taste depend on how to paint moonshine. After all, you must admit, simply taking food coloring and adding it to the alcohol base is not interesting and will not reward you with the title of craftsman. It’s much more pleasant to watch the reaction of people trying a masterpiece born of a flight of your imagination.

And in order not to “mess up” with various ingredients and not spoil the product on which you have spent time and money, adhere to the well-known rules.

1. Use only food raw materials for your own safety. When using wood chips or bark, find out whether the wood has been chemically treated.
2. Do an experiment first With a small amount moonshine. Sometimes, when interacting with alcohol, the coloring matter can create a “wild” color. Therefore, it is better to find out exactly the dosage of raw materials using a small quantity. For example, per liter.
3. Mix the ingredients in glass or enamel(stainless) dishes.

Carefully. When working with glass, use only wooden spoons/spatulas for mixing. With a stainless steel spoon you can easily break through the wall of the jar and lose the fruits of all your efforts.

1. Stick to it recipes.
2. After insisting strain moonshine so that the remaining particles of the coloring matter do not oversaturate it over time.
3. Colored moonshine store in glass under a tight lid in a place inaccessible to light, otherwise it may fade over time.

Why do you need touch-up?

Psychologists have long been studying the issue of a person’s perception of the taste and smell of what he ingests. And they unanimously say: in food and drinks Not only taste is important, but also color.

Let's say you have excellent grape moonshine. It has already stood in the glass for a month or two, remaining transparent.

But if you paint some of it “cognac” color and invite people who don’t know the trick to taste the same drink, but in different colors, then the notes of real cognac alcohol will be detected in the colored alcohol!

What to paint over to improve the aroma?

Moonshine has a pungent odor. The situation is slightly corrected by high-quality cleansing. Be sure to go through both of these procedures so as not to be disappointed with the final result.

Even tinted, but hard and smelly moonshine will not get any better. Therefore, take a high-quality alcohol base. And then you create what you want to see on your table, which will surprise your family and guests.

Burnt sugar – softening and color

Sugar is added to soften the taste of hard strong alcohol when creating vodka. It also helps moonshine. But burnt sugar, or as it is also beautifully called, can combine two functions, softening and coloring. caramel color.

To create it, take sugar, pour it into a dry frying pan, slightly moisten it and bring it to the desired color. Many people probably made candy this way in childhood.

Add burnt sugar to moonshine. Caramel perfectly colors “cognac” and eliminates the pungent smell and taste.

Reference. For a liter of homemade alcoholic distillate you need 1 spoon of sugar, which has turned into caramel.

Tea for three

Of course, we are not talking about pouring boiling water over tea leaves, but about mixing tea with moonshine. Only tea is suitable for this method. good quality without additives. Like the one on whose packet long ago elephants were drawn. Although many today, on the contrary, use tea with specific flavors, such as barberry, mint, etc.

Carefully. It is unknown how the “natural-identical” flavoring will perform in alcohol. Therefore, try on a small dose, do not do too much at once.

On three liter jar Add a spoonful of dry tea to the distillate. And the color of the drink will depend on the aging. Usually 3-7 days are enough. Once the color has reached the desired level, strain the infusion through cheesecloth.

Coffee moonshine

Moonshine infused with coffee beans, ground or instant coffee has a pleasant color and organoleptic properties. But gourmets say that the most delicious is made with grains.

• For grain tincture, take 30-40 roasted grains per liter of distillate. Leave for two weeks to two months.
• To use ground coffee, grind 30-50 g of coffee and pour in a liter of moonshine. Leave it overnight and strain through coffee filters in the morning.
• It is easiest to use instant coffee, but the taste of the tincture will differ, just as it differs natural drink from soluble. This method is often used on unsuccessful moonshine. Take 1.5 tablespoons of powder per three-liter jar of moonshine. Dissolve and you're done. After this tinting, the taste also improves.

Infusion on citrus peels

Our grandmothers used this method of coloring and improving the taste of homemade strong alcohol. First, orange or lemon peels need to be dried. Then throw the peels from two fruits into a three-liter jar of moonshine and let it sit for a couple of weeks.

Attention. Orange peels will color the alcohol yellow, lemon peels will color the alcohol greenish.

Staining with nuts and partitions

Use 15 walnuts per 1 liter of alcohol 45-50° strength. Leave for a week, then strain.

An excellent infusion is made with pine nuts. First fry 150 g of nuts to remove the resin, then add to a liter of moonshine. Exposure time – 1 month.

Try making a coffee infusion with beans by adding a handful of kernels walnut.

“Cognac” with prunes in three days

The drink imitates cognac quite well, drinks well, and if poured into beautiful bottles, it’s pleasing to the eye.

Prepare three liters of moonshine in a jar. Add:

• 6 pieces of prunes with pits;
• a bag of unflavored black tea;
• 10 cloves;
• a small glass of sugar;
• half a packet of vanilla.

Cover tightly and leave in a dark place for three days. Shake daily. It’s not scary if turbidity appears - it will be filtered through cotton pads.

Food colorings

This is the easiest thing to do - pour a little into a jar of alcohol, stir with a wooden spoon. If the color seems faded, add more. You can also make unusual colors in this way, for example, by mixing red dye with blue, you get purple. Strange, but cool, although not all guests will be brave enough to try it.

Important. Food coloring practically does not change the taste of the product, so for this method, take moonshine that is purified and soft, without a strong odor.

Homemade food dyes

Most often, various plant materials are used to give moonshine its color. It is important that it is not poisonous and does not give the moonshine an unpleasant aftertaste. Most often they use fruits and berries, ready-made jam with a rich color, which will add not only color, but also taste.

Over time, alcohol colored with the help of plant raw materials can “burn out”; the color will become lighter and then disappear altogether.

This is typical, for example, of cranberry, peony, and rose. But this does not happen immediately, but after about half a year, and when stored in the basement it can last for a year or two.

Keep in mind that each product will add its own note of taste; your moonshine will acquire a new aroma as it changes color. By “loosening the temperature” a little and adding honey and sugar, you can get excellent drinks that will delight women.

What color moonshine can be made?

Without exaggeration, moonshine can be any color you want. Fortunately, food coloring comes in any color, including black. Be sure to find out before purchasing whether this dye is suitable for alcohol.

Get blue moonshine

Blue color is considered natural for blue absinthe, Bombay gin. To get it at home, infuse moonshine on unpeeled sunflower seeds, then add concentrated blueberry decoction to it. At the end, literally dip a handful of fresh yarrow leaves into the prepared infusion for 20 minutes. And strain.

Will give a delicate blue color fresh cornflower or chicory flowers.

Give alcohol yellow, red and orange colors

It is most common to see homemade alcohol either transparent or with a brown tint of varying intensity. However, making it truly colorful, even without resorting to chemical dyes, is within the capabilities of every distiller.

• Yellow color is given by lemon balm, turmeric, and celery leaves.
• Golden – St. John's wort, nut membranes, orange peels, bison.
• Get the red color by adding blueberries, burgundy peony petals, cumberlain berries (black raspberries) or blackberries. Pre-ceiling them. Blackcurrant jam will also give a red color.
• For bright yellow, almost orange alcohol, saffron is suitable. Since we have very little natural saffron and it is too expensive, Imeretian saffron (made from a special type of marigold) will perfectly replace it. By choosing the zest of brightly colored oranges for this purpose, you will also get an orange color.

What to add to moonshine to get scarlet and green colors

The scarlet color will be obtained if you adjust the amount of dyes for the red color. But if you want a pop of color, use cream of tartar and carmine food coloring.

You should take 4 g of both substances per liter of hot water. First, crush the cream of tartar, mix it with paint, add water and let it boil. Cool, strain, and add enough solution to the moonshine until it turns scarlet.

Green is obtained using blackcurrant or parsley leaves. Scroll the selected fresh raw materials through a meat grinder and pour in moonshine. After a day or two, look and try. If you couldn’t get the result you wanted, you can use a dye.

What other color of moonshine can you get at home?

Simple recipes, giving a brown color of varying intensity to almost black, involve the use of walnut partitions, black tea, burnt sugar, oak bark, instant coffee.

You can find information that blueberries can give black color. It’s unlikely that no matter how much you add, you can only achieve a very rich burgundy. Apparently, you can only get black sambuca at home by using black food coloring.

Dark red, almost burgundy alcohol is obtained by infusing hibiscus with homemade distillate.

Although the surest way to get colored moonshine is to use a dye, it is much more interesting to “extract” the dye from plant materials. Playing with color and taste, you will learn how to create excellent imitations of absinthe, cognac, whiskey, red Campari liqueur, Bombay blue gin, black sambuca and much more.

And you will not drink a product of unknown origin (the amount of counterfeit in stores is countless), but natural, high-quality alcohol prepared with your own hands.