To make this moonshine you can use substandard kiwifruits, which are no longer suitable for sale. However, be sure to remove any rotten or moldy parts of the pulp. The resulting drink has a light kiwi aroma and a mild berry aftertaste.
Theory. Kiwis contain up to 9% of sugar. Thus, with 1 kilo of kiwifruits you can get a maximum of 108 ml of moonshine with a strength of 40%, but in practice, the real yield is 10-15% lower. In order to increase the amount of the beverage, you can add beet sugar to the wash. Adding 1 kilo of beet sugar gives 1.1-1.2 liters of distillate with 40% ABV, but it also neutralizes part of kiwi’s aroma and taste. Therefore, it’s important to find the sweet spot between the quantity and quality of moonshine. Experience has shown that it’s optimal to use 1 kilo of sugar per 5 kilos of fruits max.
Kiwifruit pulp doesn’t contain yeast and that’s why it is necessary to add yeast (distiller’s yeast or wine yeast).
Wine yeast ferment takes a long time to ferment (up to 50 days), but they don’t affect moonshine’s aroma and taste. On the other hand, kiwi moonshine prepared with distiller’s yeast will be ready in 3-10 days, but its organoleptic properties can deteriorate. For this reason under otherwise equal conditions it’s preferred to use a fermentation starter or store-bought wine yeast.
Ingredients:
- Kiwifruits – 5 kilos
- Sugar – 0.5-1 kilo (optional)
- Water – 1 liter (additional 4 liters per 1 kilo of sugar)
- Yeast – (Distilling Yeast or Wine Yeast)
Kiwi Wash Recipe
- Peel the fruits and make sure that their pulp is not tainted, moldy or spoilt in any way. Carefully crush the pulp by hands keeping the seeds intact.
- Put the crushed pulp in a fermentation container. Add water, sugar, and your chosen yeast. Mix until homogenous. Fill the container up to 75% of its volume to keep enough space left for carbon dioxide and foam. Install an airlock of any design on the neck of the container.
- Leave the wash in a dark place (or cover it with thick fabric) with a temperature of 20-28°C. Depending on the temperature and yeast used the wash can ferment for 3-50 days. You can tell that the fermentation process stopped if the airlock is not emitting gas anymore, the wash has become lighter, it’s not sweet, and there’s a layer of sediment at the bottom.
This wash is ready to be distilled
Making Kiwi Moonshine
- Decant the fermented wash and then filter it through a few layers of cheesecloth to remove any residual pulp which can burn during heating.
- Distill the wash using moonshine still of any design, for the first time at maximum speed without separating it into fractions. Stop collecting the product when its ABV is lower than 20%.
- Determine the ABV of the distillate. To do this, calculate the volume of pure alcohol: ABV percentage multiplied by the volume in liters divided by 100.
- Dilute the moonshine with water up to 18-20%. Run the second distillation. Gather separately the first 10-12% of the pure alcohol calculated at the previous step. This harmful part is called “heads” and can only be used for technical purposes.
- Collect the middle run (“hearts”) until the ABV goes below 45%. After that, you can finish the distillation process or collect the last fraction called “tails” separately.
- Dilute the obtained moonshine with water to get the required ABV of 40-45%. Bottle and seal it. Leave the beverage in a dark cold place to let its taste stabilize.
