How to Make Raki at Home as a Hobby?

Things to Know to Make Raki at Home

Dear friends, today, unlike my previous articles, I am writing a Sunday article. I will explain how to make raki at home with my own experiences as a hobby. Of course, there is no need to explain the negative effects of alcoholic beverages on health. In addition, alcohol use that reaches the level of addiction can turn one's life into a nightmare that is difficult to recover from. For this reason, I strongly recommend that the things I have mentioned here should be done only to relieve stress, to focus on a job, and to enjoy the resulting product as a hobby. 

Another dimension of the issue is that when it comes to alcoholic beverages, due to the excessive tax burden, people try to produce alcoholic beverages for intensive consumption rather than as a hobby. The harm to your health of a drink that you can access much cheaper than the market is certainly not reduced. It is only the cost to you that decreases. However, I would like you to know that if you want to sell the alcohol you produce at home, this is a legal offence. Because when you do it for profit and not as a hobby, you are harming the tax revenues of the state, which is an aspect of sovereignty. In this respect, the sale of alcohol produced for hobby purposes constitutes a serious offence all over the world. 

Alcoholic beverages are very important for the national economy. Whether fermented or distilled, alcoholic beverages are the highest value-added product obtained from agricultural products in the world. In this respect, they create a serious export potential in the countries where they are produced and make a great contribution to the development and welfare of farmers. It is not possible for a political power that loves its homeland and wants to improve its economy to impose production restrictions and prohibitions in this field. However, it is quite understandable to limit the use of alcoholic beverages and to introduce certain regulations for the protection of children and young people.

The first thing to know about alcoholic beverages is the distinction between fermented and distilled spirits. Since fermented spirits (beer, wine, etc.) are generally obtained as a result of fermentation at low temperatures, they do not pose as great risks as distilled spirits. Since distilled spirits undergo a distillation process at high temperatures, ignorance and carelessness can ultimately lead to fatal consequences. I will try to explain these in the future.

Here we will discuss Turkish Raki, which is a distilled spirit. Under normal production processes, no alcoholic drink is made by adding alcohol. In the production of raki, grapes must first be fermented to create alcohol, then this alcohol must be separated by distillation, and the alcohol obtained must be re-distilled with aniseed seeds. But as you can appreciate, doing all this at home is a very laborious and lengthy process. For this reason, I will explain how to make raki at home from ready-made alcohol and the tricks to be considered in this process.

The first and most important detail is to make sure that the alcohol is ethyl alcohol. Because even trace amounts of methyl alcohol used in industry can cause permanent disabilities and even death. For this purpose, I strongly recommend that you obtain an "Ethyl Alcohol Test Kit", which is sold over the internet. These kits are inexpensive but their work is vital. Another important point is how and from whom the alcohol is obtained, and it is useful to be cautious in this regard. The wrong alcohol can get you into trouble.

Distillation Device

Generally, those who make raki from ready-made ethyl alcohol use the distillation-free mixing technique. However, I have not come across an example that I can call perfect in terms of taste. For this reason, I will talk about my own method. The first thing you need to provide for this is a distillation device. Since we will produce from ready-made ethyl alcohol, a simple device will do the job rather than very expensive devices. Generally, the devices sold over the internet are quite expensive. The logic of the distillation process is to evaporate the alcohol from the liquid at hand and then condense it to obtain a new liquid.

We can start by unscrewing the two safety valves on the lid of a pressure cooker for such a device. A suitable short copper pipe (preferably 20/30 mm and 20 cm) is installed in one of the resulting holes. To this copper tube, a pole is added with copper welding and a 10 mm copper tube of 15 cm at the end. In the other hole, a mechanical thermometer is mounted. The pressure cooker is the boiling pot of the distillation process. After the assembly process I mentioned, it is tested whether there is any leakage from the connections. If there is no leakage, our boiling boiler is complete. Finally, squeezing some dishwashing wire into the thin tube on the inside of the lid is a suitable solution to reduce the vapour pressure.

For the condensation of the liquid evaporated from the boiler, a cooling system is made from a thin copper pipe with a diameter of 9 mm and a length of 2-3 metres, spirally twisted. Two choices can be made in cooling. Either this spirally twisted copper pipe is mounted in a hard plastic bucket and a water-cooled condensation system is obtained, or the helix is cooled with the help of a fan. Both are possible. For an air-cooled system, however, the length of the copper pipe should be about one metre longer than the other. 

You can ensure a flexible connection by clamping the end of the pipe coming out of the boiler and the end of the cooling system with silicone hoses and clamps. For a 10 mm. copper pipe, a 12 mm. diameter silicone hose is preferable. However, it is useful to weld a 5 cm 10 mm copper pipe to the end of the cooling system and increase the diameter from 9 mm to 10 mm for the hose inlet with the expansion provided. In other words, it is important that both ends of the hose are the same diameter in terms of sealing the hose. Silicone hoses will not be damaged as they can withstand 260 degrees. 

Preparation of the Liquid

Test 5 litres of 96-degree purity ethyl alcohol with a test kit. After it is found out that it is ethyl, 1 kg. aniseed seeds are added to a jar of 8-10 lt. volume with this alcohol by passing it through a blender. At this stage, 10-15 large raisins are cut in half and added. In addition, two dried figs are cut into small pieces with a knife and thrown into the mixture, which improves the flavour of the product. This mixture is kept in a corner for about 10 days. 

At the end of ten days, a green coloured liquid with a precipitate at the bottom is formed. At this point, in order not to take any risk, I take the liquid except the precipitate into another jar by siphoning. I pour 1-1.5 litres of water over the precipitate and put the precipitate into distillation first. Here, we try to remove the ethyl alcohol and aniseed from the precipitate by being careful not to increase the temperature too much. Why do I do this? Distillation of the precipitate poses a risk if it burns. We both keep this risk away from the clear liquid we obtained before and ensure a more controlled distillation of the aniseed. When the temperature on the thermometer starts to rise, the distillation must be finished. In this case, if there is still water at the bottom of the sediment in the pot, we can say that we have completed the process without any problems. There is no problem to add the resulting liquid to the green coloured liquid we separated earlier. It is even useful to add another litre of water to this liquid. Thus, we have about 5-6 litres of liquid without sediment and ready for distillation.

Final Distillation

Normally, it is recommended to pour the first half cup of product to eliminate the risk of methyl alcohol. However, since we produce directly from ethyl alcohol, there is no need to pour the first part after the distillation starts. It is possible to prepare a simple carbon filter at the end of the condensation system after the assembly is prepared for distillation. This filter filters the bad odours that occur/exist despite distillation. 

At the beginning of the distillation, there is no problem in using open fire to heat the system. However, after the thermometer shows that the temperature starts to increase, the fire should be gradually reduced. The boiling temperature of ethyl alcohol is 78 degrees. Even if the fire is low, evaporation starts from the boiling point and the system works. The first liquid may take about 1 hour. After that, distillation continues at low heat. For me, this takes a total of 6-7 hours. When you see that the temperature on the thermometer starts to rise from the point where it has remained constant for several hours, you should be careful. In this case, you should switch off the system after about 10-15 minutes. From this moment on, the system should never be touched. After the system has cooled down, the boiling and condensing device is separated from each other by clamps. Then the pot is opened and checked inside. If there is no sign of burning, there is no problem. 

Completing the Raki

The amount of liquid obtained is measured using a tape measure. Again, the alcohol degree of this liquid is measured with an alcohol densimeter. For example, in my last raki I had 5 litres and 85 degrees of liquid. Here the alcohol content is calculated by multiplying 5 by 0.85. In a proper distillation, this figure is around 4.2-4.3 litres. Divide this figure by 0.45 (i.e. raki with 45 degrees of alcohol) and you will find out how much raki you will have in total. When you subtract the amount of liquid you have from this figure, the amount of water you will add will appear. However, I strongly recommend that you use very high quality water here. In addition, you can also add 0.2 litres of pure grape juice to this water. 

After completing the raki in this way, check the whitening. If the whitening is not sufficient, you can add crystallised aniseed in 1 cc increments. I also add about 1 cc of oak oil. The result is an extremely smooth drinking raki that costs about 800 TL for 8-9 litres (excluding fixed costs). But above all, I do this as a hobby and I wouldn't trade the pleasure of my own raki for anything. 

I think it is also useful to let the raki rest for about 10 days before bottling. The flavour settles. If you are going to drink the raki you produce every day because it is cheap anyway, I suggest you never start this business. After all, there is also the possibility that the thing that adds colour to your life may ruin your life. Every drink has a drinking culture and etiquette. Drinking without knowing that culture does not add meaning to life and has the potential to eliminate the existing meaning. For example, if you drink a 12-year-old whisky by mixing it with easy liquor, do not torment either the whisky or yourself. If you drink raki without knowing the etiquette, be sure that after a while you will have to drink alone!

With love...