Preparation of moonshine and alcohol for personal use
absolutely legal!
After the collapse of the USSR, the new government stopped the fight against moonshine. Criminal liability and fines were abolished, and the article banning the production of alcohol-containing products at home was removed from the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. To this day, there is not a single law that prohibits you and me from engaging in our favorite hobby - preparing alcohol at home. This is evidenced by the Federal Law of July 8, 1999 No. 143-FZ “On Administrative Responsibility legal entities(organizations) and individual entrepreneurs for offenses in the field of production and circulation of ethyl alcohol, alcoholic and alcohol-containing products" (Collected Legislation Russian Federation, 1999, N 28, art. 3476).
Excerpt from Federal Law RF:
“The effect of this Federal Law does not apply to the activities of citizens (individuals) producing products containing ethyl alcohol for purposes other than sale.”
Moonshining in other countries:
In Kazakhstan in accordance with the Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan On administrative offenses dated January 30, 2001 N 155, the following liability is provided. Thus, according to Article 335 “Manufacture and sale of home-made alcoholic beverages”, illegal production of moonshine, chacha, mulberry vodka, mash and other alcoholic beverages for the purpose of sale, as well as the sale of these alcoholic beverages, entails a fine in the amount of thirty monthly calculation indices with confiscation of alcoholic beverages , apparatus, raw materials and equipment for their manufacture, as well as money and other valuables received from their sale. However, the law does not prohibit the preparation of alcohol for personal use.
In Ukraine and Belarus things are different. Articles No. 176 and No. 177 of the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses provide for the imposition of fines in the amount of three to ten tax-free minimum wages for the production and storage of moonshine without the purpose of sale, for the storage of devices* for its production without the purpose of sale.
Article 12.43 repeats this information almost word for word. “Production or acquisition of strong alcoholic beverages (moonshine), semi-finished products for their production (mash), storage of apparatus for their production” in the Code of the Republic of Belarus on Administrative Offenses. Point No. 1 states: “Manufacturing individuals strong alcoholic drinks (moonshine), semi-finished products for their production (mash), as well as storage of devices* used for their production - entail a warning or a fine of up to five basic units with confiscation of these drinks, semi-finished products and devices.”
*Purchase moonshine stills For home use It’s still possible, since their second purpose is to distill water and obtain components for natural cosmetics and perfumes.
People who produce their own wines, or even just pickle cucumbers, know very well that there is no better container than a wooden barrel. Why? Firstly, wood is environmentally friendly pure material, secondly, wines contain alcohol, which means interacting with synthetic materials– plastic or nylon, it can dissolve chemical composition container, and it will be mixed with the components of the wine.
The process of producing an oak barrel is not complicated, but it requires strict adherence to instructions, accuracy and attentiveness.
Buying a barrel is not a problem, but if there is a desire and the owner of a home wine factory cares about quality, then a wooden barrel with your own hands will be the main proof that the wine and cognac are made using the right technology. In addition, making wooden barrels is a labor-intensive and time-consuming process, but without any tricks.
Stages of work
Oak, ash and cherry are considered the most suitable trees for the production of barrels from them.
It is well known that the most reliable material for making wooden barrels is oak. It is suitable for both wines and cognacs, and for pickles. Oak is a natural antiseptic; nitrous oxide and mold will not grow there. But if this is a problem, you can exchange oak for cherry or ash - these trees contain hydrocyanic acid, which will also prevent the development of pathogenic organisms, although their properties are weaker than those of oak. There is no need to be afraid that acid will get into the food: firstly, the barrel is thoroughly soaked before pouring the wines, and secondly, a certain percentage of hydrocyanic acid is contained in the wines themselves; it is not dangerous to the body.
Timber calculation. The boards, called staves, have biconvex sides to give the cooperage product a convexity. To make them like this, you need to take the lower part of a tree trunk and split it, similar to chopping wood. If you cut it carefully, the natural integrity of the fibers will be disrupted, which is bad for such a product. Get started right away figure sawing It’s not worth it - the logs need to be dried for 2 months. And do not dry it under scorching sun, but in a dark, cool room.
Processing logs for future barrels is done using a plane. When giving them the desired shape, the top and bottom need to be thicker than the middle. How much - the owner will decide. Usually this is 1.5 cm. The movements with the plane intensify towards the middle of the log, then you can get the same shape as classic barrels. Basically, barrels can be given any shape - pot-bellied, log, trapezoidal. The main thing is to do everything right.
Preparation of fastening hoops. They can be either iron or wood. Wooden ones have advantages in beauty and protection against corrosion, but they are not as durable as iron ones, but the owner wine cellar it will be important to preserve the wines and barrels, including from mechanical damage. Therefore, iron is preferable. So, stainless steel is cut into strips; for better bonding, it can be forged at the points of connection with each other. After this, holes are punched at the ends for nails, which will act as rivets.
Stuffing finished hoops and preparing the frame. Three prepared boards are attached to small-diameter hoops using clamps. They need to be placed at the same distance from each other. If the calculation was correct, the remaining boards will fit flush. After complete insertion, using a hammer and a nozzle, you should push the hoops until they can no longer be removed. Tapping with opposite ends, you can achieve a good effect.
But you can’t overdo it: boards prepared over a long period of time will crack, and the process will have to start all over again. Prepared dies can also crack due to prolonged drying. This is how one edge of the barrel is prepared. Hoop larger diameter you need to put it on immediately after the first edge, using a hammer. Now it’s the turn of the second edge: the workpiece is steamed for a long time before installing the second end. This is done so that the wood becomes soft and pliable. After this, the workpiece is turned over with the open side up and a rope is thrown over the steamed wood, which is twisted so that the ends of the rivets meet. Without letting go of the rope, you need to put on the hoop. Such work is not done alone - someone twists the rope, and someone puts on the hoop.
Shutdown
When the frame is ready, it is hardened.
There are many ways, mainly roasting. At the same time, the smell and astringency of burnt wood will be transferred to the wine, which will also be appreciated. This is done this way: shavings of some kind are placed inside on the side of the finished frame. fruit tree– Cherry is preferable. Set it on fire and slowly roll it from side to side to ensure even smoldering. There is no need to light a fire inside the workpiece; due to inexperience, you can burn the product. Do not use any lighter fluids - they contain chemical elements, which the tree will absorb. You can use a blowtorch, but with caution - strong fire may leave undetected smoldering in the frame, causing the product to burn.
The final stage of creating a barrel is sanding its outside, drilling holes for the fill and cutting a gutter for the bottoms.
Next, the process of making a barrel is as follows: the workpiece is processed with a tool - the uneven ends are cut off, the outside is polished, a hole is drilled for the fill and gutters are cut for the bottoms. The bottoms of the barrels are two circles, cut out of the likeness of shields. The boards are prepared as follows: the boards are nailed together overlapping each other and additionally fastened with staples. The circles are sharpened so that their edges go into a bevel. It is necessary to accurately calculate the diameter of the bottoms. This is done after final assembly skeleton, because this cannot be done right away. Then the bottoms are inserted by loosening the outer hoops. After inserting one, you need to fill the hoop again, then do the same with the second bottom.
Checking for leaks. Naturally, the barrel is tested with liquid, that is, water. It will leak at first until the tree swells. The time allotted for the barrel to stop leaking is no more than an hour. If it still flows, you need to find the gap and seal it. Coopers use reed stems for such purposes. They are stuck between the rivets with a sharp and thin object, for example, a knife. In addition, the outside of the barrel can be coated with wax. You just need to take something that is truly bee-friendly - the products should not contain chemicals.
After the production of the barrel is almost completed - it is hardened, fired and tested for leaks, it is steamed or allowed to settle with water so that all foreign odors are removed from the wood, which the wine can pick up. You can treat the inner surface of the barrel with hydrogen peroxide or potassium permanganate.
Summing up
It’s not difficult to make a barrel with your own hands if you carefully follow the recommendations. Caring for it is extremely simple - you need to regularly steam or boil it, and then dry it very carefully if its use is postponed.
One more thing important rule: If the barrel is intended for liquid products - brines, alcohol or water, then it cannot be left dry for a long time. If it is used for storing dry products, then it cannot be wetted.
There are not many masters of cooperage left today, but the tradition of making pickling in tubs, or storing honey and wine in barrels has remained in Russia to this day. It often happens that for one reason or another it is not possible to acquire wooden containers. Then you can make oak barrel with your own hands. Even if this is not the easiest task, however, if you set yourself a clear goal and follow all the features of the technology, you can make quite decent wooden containers for storing food and drinks. We will talk about how to make an oak barrel with your own hands below.
Making blanks
To make a container, you first need to select the material. If you want to store beekeeping products inside, pay attention to linden or aspen raw materials, plane tree. Honey is stored quite well in barrels made of poplar, alder wood, and willow. An oak barrel is ideal for pickling, fermenting or soaking.
If you have figured out the raw materials, you should choose an old tree. Its lower part is best suited for rivets. During preparation, be sure to make sure that the block is a couple of centimeters more sizes future barrel. This reserve is needed for sanding the edges.
The wood must be damp. Initially, the block splits into 2 parts. To do this, use an ax and a small log, which is gently tapped on the butt. Each half splits in two again. It is necessary to ensure that the separation occurs radially. Do the same with each subsequent half - the number of blanks depends on the diameter of the oak barrel. It’s easy to prepare raw materials with your own hands, the main thing is accuracy. Please note that blanks may have different widths, but it's not scary.
The rivets are dried indoors, where there is good natural ventilation. The period is at least 1 month, and ideally even about 1 year. After drying, it is processed with special tools. It could be:
- plow;
- sherhebel;
- plane.
Processed first outside rivets, be sure to check the degree of curvature using a pre-prepared template. It can be cut from a thin piece of wood by applying it to finished product. After all the outer surfaces have been processed, you can proceed to the side ones. They are also leveled according to a template, and after processing they are jointed. The inner surface of the riveting is processed with a plane.
Rings
Both steel and wood can be used to make hoops. The latter option is less durable, so it is better to immediately give preference to metal. For hoops, hot-rolled steel in the form of a tape is used. Its width is about 3-5 cm, and thickness: 0.16-0.2 cm.
You need to take measurements at the place where the hoop will be stretched. After this, the width of the strip, doubled, is added to a certain value. Using a hammer, the workpiece is bent to take the shape of a ring, and then holes are punched or drilled in it and rivets are placed. The material for them is mild steel wire, the diameter of which is 0.4-0.5 cm. One of the inner edges of the hoop must be flared with the pointed end of a hammer.
Subtleties of assembly
Making oak barrels with your own hands requires patience. However, the result is worth the time and effort. So, to assemble a barrel for pickling, you need flat surface. To get a finished barrel you need:
The skeleton does not need to be boiled or steamed before pulling, although there are those who insist on this. There are times when the workpiece may crack. Then experienced coopers replace it with a new one.
Bottom
To make the bottom, first you need to cut a groove from the bottom at a distance of 4-5 cm from the edge of the end; its dimensions can be 0.4-0.5 mm. For this purpose it is used special tool- morning. Using a chisel, you need to make a chamfer of 0.1 to 0.2 cm on both sides of the groove.
The bottom is made from a special shield. It is assembled using metal pins or nails. Having drawn a circle, you need to step back from it by 1-1.5 cm and cut out the future bottom. After this, it is cleaned with Sherhebel, and chamfers are cut along the edges. As a result, the thickness of the rivets there will be no more than 0.3 cm. This ensures complete tightness of the structure.
To do the fitting, loosen the bottom hoop and insert the bottom. It is inserted into the groove from one side, and from the other it is adjusted with a hammer to the desired size. lung level tapping. If the movement is tight, you can loosen the hoop a little more; if it moves too loosely, it is better to tighten the hoop.
Next, the hoop is stuffed again, and the barrel is checked for leaks. To do this, pour some water into it. If there is a leak between the rivets, you need to reduce the bottom a little. If water seeps through the bottom or groove, you will have to disassemble the frame and narrow one of the blanks.
Before installing the second bottom, make a hole in it, the diameter of which is no more than 3 cm, and make a plug for it. Correct sizes It is assumed that it will be slightly larger than the thickness of the bottom and will not protrude beyond the frame. That's the whole sequence that needs to be followed to make an oak barrel with your own hands.
Repair
Can it be repaired? old barrel? Of course yes. If it has been stored for a long time alcoholic drink, it is worth disassembling the structure and removing a layer of about 2 mm thick from the wood. The drink does not penetrate further into the wood. After this, the rivets are processed and reassembled.
You can repair an oak barrel with your own hands, even if it is leaking. To do this, you need to repeat the same manipulations as when making containers - adjust the hoops.
This is what it is, cooperage. Make wooden products You can do it yourself, but this requires a lot of time and effort. But is it worth spending them if today you can order online on the website of the Russian Bondar company?
(Last Updated On: 09/19/2017)
How to make a wooden barrel with your own hands modern society? Surely, today you won’t have to hollow out a product from a solid tree trunk, as it was before. The modern barrel is very different from its predecessors. The most important step Its production was prompted by the appearance of metal hoops, which pulled the conical dishes very tightly together.
What wood is best to make a barrel from?
oak tree
It pricks perfectly and, when steamed, acquires extraordinary flexibility. It is this quality that is highly valued. But, most importantly, in oak wood There are preservative substances called tills, which protect the wood from rotting. Therefore, products in oak barrels can retain their properties for many decades.
Cedar
Also used in the manufacture of barrels. Its properties are soft, flexible and lightweight. Previously, it was believed that cedar itself contained substances that destroy microbes. Therefore, you can make a cedar barrel with your own hands, in which drinks will be stored for a very long time and will not spoil.
Juniper
The inside of the trunk has red-brown wood, and the sapwood is much lighter, yellowish in color. The wood of this tree is characterized by density, strength and heavy weight, and is very easy to process - it cuts well and does not crack.
Pine wood
It has average characteristics - low hardness and average strength, high elasticity, bends well. Due to the specific tar odor, food products are not stored in pine barrels.
How to make a barrel at home
The question of how to make a wooden barrel with your own hands worries many craftsmen who would like to master new secrets of working with wood.
To make cooperage products, rivets or frets are used. These are rectangular wooden planks obtained by sawing the butt or trunk of a tree into separate parts. Another way is to split decks or logs.
Sawn frets are very durable. Chopped ones are more difficult to make. The most important thing is to be able to split the wood so that the rivets are clean and even, and there is little waste of wood chips left.
To make a wooden barrel with your own hands, you need to correctly split the wooden block in the direction of the radius, preferably getting into the core. If the ax hits slightly to the left or right of the core, then the chip line is called tangential. In this direction, almost all tree species split much harder.
Ordinary blocks will also be used to make rivets. Of these, you need to choose only those where the layers are located lengthwise and not across. The finished frets are dried and neatly folded.
How to make screed hoops
Iron hoops began to be used a very long time ago. Initially, they were used to tighten buckets consisting of sixteen rivets. Moreover, for strength, they were additionally pierced with nails.
Nowadays, hoops are cut from durable sheet steel, then the blacksmiths decorate them with all sorts of stamped designs. The finished hoops are coated with bitumen varnish or drying oil. If the drying oil layer is dried blowtorch, you will get a beautiful light brown color.
How to assemble a conical barrel base
First, we will try to connect the prepared side rivets and temporarily tighten them with permanent hoops. To do this, attach two or three initial rivets to one of the hoops (it is better to take a small diameter one). Carefully holding each inserted board with your hand, we fill the entire space with the missing rivets. You need to insert the last rivet especially carefully. It may turn out that there is not enough space left for it. Take it and trim it a little, attaching it evenly to the rest of the rivets. This type of work is usually done with two or three assistants.
Barrel assembly diagram:
Using a hammer and a wooden drift, you need to hammer the hoop so that it sits tightly on the base of the barrel. A hoop of larger diameter is also settled.
The last operation is installing the bottom. It is carefully placed in the groove, the barrel is turned over and a large hoop is secured. If the connection is strong and reliable, then the temporary hoops are replaced with permanent ones.
Now you can imagine how to make a wooden barrel with your own hands, using only the material that everyone has on the farm.
Making barrels is called cooperage. Cooperation is an entire art that arose back in Ancient Greece. People needed vessels of large volume, and the most in an accessible way make a vessel large size It turned out to be the making of barrels with my own hands.
Initially, barrels were used to transport and store water, wines, and vegetable oil. Since those ancient times appearance The barrels haven't changed much. This simple design turned out to be so simple and convenient that it is useful and is very popular to this day. Despite the abundance of new materials and the emergence of new technologies, for some branches of human activity nothing better has been found than an ordinary wooden barrel.
How did wooden barrels come about?
The history of the barrel began with the fact that ancient people hollowed out niches in the barrels with their own hands. large trees. To make their task easier, they initially chose trees with hollows. Most likely, an observant person took note of how animals used natural hollow volumes - our smaller brothers built houses for themselves in them and stored food supplies there.
Among other things, people at that time collected honey from wild bees, that is, they were engaged in beekeeping. Wild bees, in turn, inhabited the same hollows of large trees. However, in order to get the desired honey, one often had to go deep into the forest, and there were various dangers lurking there, and it was simply inconvenient. In addition, there were sometimes a lot of candidates to take delicious honey from a particular hollow.
To make the honey of wild bees more accessible, people resorted to a trick and began to cut out parts of the tree trunk in which the hollow with the honey harvest was located. Part of the trunk was placed closer to the house, and then significant changes occurred with this section of the tree. A modest hollow hive was transformed into an apiary of impressive size. Over time, caring apiary owners even made a roof for the bee house with their own hands. It was made from bark or a trimmed sheaf of straw.
After a young bee colony emerged, it was moved to a new hollow. However, it was not always easy to find a new hollow suitable size, so the owner of the apiary had to hollow it out with his own hands in a thick log.
However, the service life of a hive is far from eternal - over time, the hollow begins to crack. To save from complete destruction valuable section of a tree trunk, people resorted to new tricks - they began to use a metal hoop. The invention of such a hoop is a huge step forward, new design, combining wood and metal, can already be called cooper's utensils. To tighten a section of a trunk with a hollow or a niche hollowed out with your own hands, they also used ropes, strands, wire or a wooden hoop.
The diameter of the very first barrels directly depended on the thickness of the tree trunk. It was not possible to make the container wider than the tree trunk. However, when people learned to tighten a barrel using metal and wooden hoops, ropes, strands and wire, it became possible to make vessels from wood of absolutely any diameter.
Later, such a useful invention as a barrel turned out to be indispensable in some industries. For example, huge containers were simply necessary in leather workshops.
Why choose oak for making a barrel?
When the need arises to purchase or make a barrel with your own hands, the question arises: what type of wood should you prefer? To make barrels, the following types of wood are used: kedo, juniper, linden, pine, aspen, spruce, and, of course, oak.
In this article we will tell you how you can make an oak barrel with your own hands. But first, let's talk about the features of using oak in cooperage.
It is worth noting that a tree such as oak is used much more often than any other deciduous trees in the manufacture of barrels. And this is quite natural - the consumer qualities of this type of wood are much better than those of other trees. Let us list some features of working with a tree such as oak:
- cutting oak is quite problematic, but chopping this type of wood is a pleasure;
- You will probably have a question about how you can make a barrel from such a durable tree, but cooperage masters are helped by such an important property of oak as the fact that after steaming it becomes incredibly elastic;
- but after drying, oak, on the contrary, changes its shape only minimally, waves and cracks practically do not form, and this fact is another advantage of oak;
- however, the most important property of a type of wood such as oak is the presence in it of a special preservative component; this component prevents wood from rotting, having an antiseptic effect;
- oak is not at all afraid of moisture; under its influence, on the contrary, it only becomes even more durable.
The wood of oak, which fell into the river and remained in the water for a long period of time, has unique qualities. After all, in water, wood is saturated with iron salts. Such wood lying in a pond is called “bog oak”. Bog oak especially durable.
Thanks to all the qualities listed above, this type of wood, such as oak, has long been recognized as the best raw material for making cooperage utensils. It is the oak barrel that will serve you faithfully for decades.
It is worth noting one more interesting fact regarding oak barrels. Such wood contains some specific components; it is thanks to these components that, as a result of oxidative processes inside the wood itself, a unique pleasant aroma is formed - the aroma of vanillin. It is thanks to this property of oak wood that it is used to make barrels for cognac. Cognac from oak barrels takes on this pleasant aroma. Among other things, a type of wood such as oak promotes faster leavening of the dough.
Even if you put a barrel made of oak in a damp basement, bury it in the soil or leave it in the rain - all these are negative factors external environment will in no way affect the amazing positive qualities barrels based on oak wood - like this unique properties this powerful tree has.
Making an oak barrel with your own hands
Now, having learned all about the benefits of oak barrels, we will finally figure out how to make such a container with your own hands. We present to your attention a master class on making a barrel based on oak wood with a volume of 25 liters.
The process of making an oak barrel begins with the procurement of material. Suitable wood should be brought from the forest in the spring, cut into acceptable pieces, then taken to the basement and covered with sawdust. In a basement in this condition, your wood should dry out throughout the summer months.
As soon as the wood has dried, we proceed directly to preparing the parts for our future barrel. We take a block of wood, approximately half a meter in diameter and 42 centimeters in height, and split it into four pieces as carefully as possible.
After this, we also dismember the quarters: by gently tapping the butt with a mallet, as in the picture with number 1, we make 14 blanks. Blanks are made for rivets; the thickness of each blank should be approximately three centimeters. Please pay special attention When making blanks with your own hands, the split must be radial, otherwise cracks will form in the wood in the future.
After the workpieces are ready, they should be processed on each side with shavings. This is necessary so that they turn out a little concave. This process can be seen in the photo with number 2.
To make an oak barrel we will need two mounting hoops. In this case, the diameter of the middle one should be slightly larger. The most important thing in the design is the so-called shutter hoop, which is responsible for the quality of the future barrel. The shutter hoop should be handled with the utmost care; under no circumstances should you hit it with a sledgehammer.
Using staples based on hoop iron, we attach three rivets to the shutter, as was done in the picture with the number 4. After this, we fill the entire perimeter of our barrel with the blanks made earlier, and then immediately put on the middle hoop - at this stage we should get the same the same as in the picture number 5. For this stage to go like clockwork, it is necessary from the very beginning to accurately calculate the width of all the blanks, based on knowledge of the diameter of our future barrel.
Once the two hoops are tight, you will need to tighten the remaining piece of the barrel. Professional coopers have a special tool for this purpose called a yoke. However, many craftsmen resort to cunning, inventing and making their own tools for tightening the barrel.
After the barrel is well tightened, it is necessary to lower the upper hoop as low as possible. In the figure with number 8, a special chisel with a groove is used for these purposes.
Next, the barrel needs to be dried. To speed up the process, you can place the barrel not far from the stove, if you have one. However, this stove should be heated for two hours every day, but no more.
P After two weeks of drying, work on the barrel can be continued. Using a straight plow, thoroughly clean all outer part keg.
After this, it is necessary to make permanent hoops to replace the mounting hoops. In our case, these are four painted steel hoops of two different sizes.
Replacing hoops is done as follows:
- first remove the middle hoop;
- after this, place a permanent hoop at a height of ten centimeters from the bottom of the barrel;
- then you should trim it using electric jigsaw both sides of our barrel, as shown in photo number 9;
- Next we install two more hoops on top.
Having done all this, we align inner side the barrel using shaped plows, as in the picture number 10. After this, you need to make a groove around the circumference inside the barrel. The depth of this groove is approximately 5-6 millimeters.
The bottom of the barrel can be made from pre-prepared boards. The connection is made using nails without heads, which must be stainless and galvanized. To prevent our barrel from leaking, the ends should be lined with cattail strips - here’s a little trick.
The difficulty that someone who wants to make an oak barrel with their own hands may encounter is the question of how to calculate the size of the bottom. You can do it like this:
- fix a point next to the groove;
- Approximately estimate the radius of your barrel in this place;
- after that, using a compass, lay out 6 such radii along the groove;
- In order for the beginning and end of the path to fall exactly on a fixed point, the radius will have to be selected using trial and error methods;
- The resulting size is indicated using a compass on a shield, which we lay out from pre-prepared boards for the bottom of the barrel, as in the figure with number 13.
After this, you should cut the boards along the sketched circle using circular saw. Next, we clamp our bottom and, using a plow, make a jump along the entire perimeter of our barrel.
By the way, it is useful to put a white roll previously soaked in water in the groove; this is also a little trick that will prevent your barrel from leaking.
And finally the keg is ready!
