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Copyright by Alcotec 2005

Turbo Yeast of high quality is necessary to achieve a good quality moonshine alcohol in the end. It is not enough though, it is strongly recommended that you filter your alcohol through activated carbon before treatment with essences.

There are two main types of activated carbons - granular and powdered.

If you use powdered activated carbons you may find it difficult to filter them out from your moonshine alcohol in the end, sometimes a little residue is left which does not look very nice.

A good fining agent will often do the trick (use Alcotec 24 TurboKlar) even if it may have to be left for longer than normal due to the difficulty to remove powdered carbon from a liquid.

Using granular charcoals is much easier, but requires more coal and a bit more equipment. You need about 2 litres of charcoal (which will last a long time). Fill it into a long pipe (see picture) through a funnel and let it drip through.

Actually the best result will be achieved with a combination - first use powdered charcoal to take out some of the impurities - then filter through a granular activated carbon column (see picture) to remove the remains of the first carbon + other impurities. This works because different carbons have different profiles in removing impurities.

Activated carbon (powdered) - the filtration

You can either buy dry powdered activated carbon (which is a nightmare to work with because of the dust - you won't believe how black it can be...) or use our "Liquid Activated Carbon", that is a high quality powdered carbon dissolved in a water solution. This is considerably easier to handle than traditional powdered products.

Usage: Dissolve one sachet (5L or 25L versions) in the liquid (wash or diluted moonshine), leave it for at least 24 hours, then rack off (best after using a fining agent as well) and continue with a granular filtration.

Activated carbon (granular) - the filtration

Fill the tube with granular activated carbon (0.25 - 1.3 mm size typically). For optimum result, use two different types (the types are: mineral based, cocoa based and peat based) although it will be ok with only one.

Dilute your home distilled alcohol to 40-50% and pour it through the tube. It will take some time, maybe hours. It is important to dilute first - by adding the water, you will actually filter the water as well through activated carbon - it's a bit like having a water filtering system but since most of us lack whole house water purification systems - it works well to do it this way instead. Also - by mixing alcohol and water first, you also filter out any unwanted products created when you mix (you may get some sediments in rare cases or strange hazes from chalk or other components in your drinking water).

You may need to repeat this so it may be clever to have more than one tube, starting with "used" carbon and finishing off with fresh activated carbon.

Pipe dimensions are best as follows: 1-1.5 metres long (tall) and 50 mm (2 inch) diameter. You can get it from any plumber. Fit a large funnel on top and in the bottom you need a metal grid, nylon mesh or similar to keep the activated carbon in place.

Sometimes it may also be necessary to put a bit of filter paper in the bottom.

ActivatedCarbon is also often used for in water purification systems although many of the newer whole house water purification systems and others have started to use reverse osmosis and/or uv (ultraviolet) light. Our carbons can often be used with household water filters although they are primarily designed for purification of alcohol when making moonshine with a reflux still (or pot still).