Distilling

[Demosthenes]

Illegal in my country, oh well. Come find me CSIS (Canadian FBI). I figure as long as you aren't selling it they don't care that much.
I was incredibly inspired by Possum Living by Dolly Freed. She mentioned that she grew up with a still bubbling away on the counter and it stuck with me.


I built my still shortly after reading her book out of a stove-top pressure cooker, high temperature silicon tube, a 5gal bucket, and a copper coil. It cost about $40 (the pressure cooker was a gift) and I have made ~$500 worth of booze out of it. Like home brewing, there is a massive learning curve. Most of my early stuff was difficult to choke down, but it's getting better. I have made gin, rum (just finished distilling a batch of both), whiskey (rye if you are being pedantic), and countless fruit experiments. My setup is incredibly ghetto compared to most forums I read though.

I'm surprised I haven't heard of more people doing this, so I figure I could poll you guys to see if anyone has any experience in this area.

Yes this is dangerous (I can hear your concern already). If you don't know what you are doing you can get methanol poisoning. A carefully measured disposal during part of the process eliminates most of the risk.

[Riggerjack]

There are some forums dedicated to this. I haven't built a still. I have thought of it. I need ethanol for antifreeze for my geothermal heat pump. In the end, I just spent too much money and hassle, and got it online.
In the states, it is legal to have a still. It is not legal to distill ethenol, unless you get a fuel permit, $50/year, or go through the enormous headache if registering as a distillery. We can homebrew beer and wine, but we can't distill, legally.

Google bokakabob for sites with technical information.

Consider adding copper to your setup, it has other advantages besides conductivity for distilling. Copper scrubbing pads are recommended for high surface area.

As to methanol, the risk is very minor, unless you are fermenting really odd stuff, cellulose, for instance. I saw an episode of dirty jobs years ago. The host was at a distillery, and their methanol test was to catch heads and tails in a shot glass, then hold the glass up to their eye. The theory being that warm methanol will put out enough fumes to irritate the eye.

I have no practical experience, but that's what I found digging around on my own.

[thrifty++]

I would probably do it except that I dont like spirits. Dont buy them so wouldnt make them. Am happy with wine and beer.

[Sclass]

This is so cool. I used to dream about doing something like this just for the technical challenge. My SO has barred me from doing it. Her dad is alcoholic. I enjoy whiskey and having lots of free stuff around probably ain't for me.

I got interested when I was doing biodiesel. The transesterfication can be done with methanol or ethanol. It is the most costly feedstock if you happen to use free waste oil. Some people were collecting waste fruit slop from orchards and farmers markets to make E85 or feedstock for biodiesel. Very interesting...maybe not terribly economical but fun to do.

I worked on some oil rigs when I was a young engineer. There would always be a crusty old Chem E who would know all the ins and outs of still building...a necessary skill if you work in the Middle East. There was a basic kit of copper, fittings and process controllers that were always brought in with the other equipment to build the still. Fascinating but I never took the plunge.

[Riggerjack]

Here in WA state, we recently approved craft distilleries, and they are popping up all over. Most are open for tours, at one point or another, should you be interested in the really technical details.

Here on whidbey island, we have a guy who distills excess wine from the local wineries. Makes things like raspberry liquor from it.

I was impressed by his energy savings techniques. Solar preheating and heat recovery, to minimize fuel use.

[Did]

I would never do it as I make mistakes all the time....

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/quee ... 50e513a0c4

http://www.news.com.au/national/breakin ... b8a4d1094c

[Riggerjack]

Yeah, I won't say it's not possible to scew up and uh, "forget" to remove heads and tails. And methanol is really toxic.

What I am saying is that just following a recipe is enough to resolve the issue, just as it does with castor beans.

The scary methanol poisoning stories get alot of play, considering how rarely it comes up.

Prepackaged detergents kill 1000 people a year. Methanol is way more toxic, but kills far fewer.

Choose your bogey men carefully.

[Sclass]

Wow. I've now learned what heads hearts and tails are.

This is a problem that is screaming for an automated control system. I can see how falling asleep at the still, getting drunk at the still or just getting greedy at the still can have disastrous results. I think a few solenoid valves coupled with a digital scale and controller can solve this issue. Roll it all into one controller that does the cuts and temperature control. Small batches will make it even more robust.

The gears are turning in my head. This looks like fun. I've already surfed a design using Home Depot copper pipe to build a reflux tower.

While working in Trondheim I used to wonder why my petroleum industry colleagues didn't do this stuff. The locals loved to drink but alcohol was really expensive. Some of the guys were great chemical engineers too. I even pitched some of the guys about importing in some microbrew equipment for resale. No takers.

Are the penalties for home distilling severe in Norway? wait a minute. Maybe they were doing it and they weren't telling.

Yesterday I downloaded a distilling history channel video on YouTube. It looked like making good scotch, vodka or schnapps is hard. It looked to my naive self that the distilling is only part of an long process.

Just getting drunk on pure ethanol isn't exactly my thing. I'm somewhat attracted to the craft part of it. I don't think I have the patience for the aging process.

Reminds me of a buddy in grad school who used pure ethanol in an optical setup on his thesis project. He offered me a shot one night but I refused on those grounds. I'm not in it to just get intoxicated alone.

Hmmm...there's still the lure of making e85 for the car.

Fun stuff here. I've learned something new.

[Demosthenes]

You can make a fairly good gin or vodka with about a months turn around. You just need good equipment or to know your way around chemicals.

I'm glad I've inspired you sclass! Seems like nobody here has too much experience with it. It's funny cause the ROI is quite high. Not drinking at all has the highest ROI but I'm not sure I want to go that route.

[Riggerjack]

Sclass, spend a bit of time at some of the home distilling forums. At its most basic, making whiskey is making beer, and distilling it. Add slight variations in recipe, distilling, aging processes, and time.

A good vodka is about eliminating flavors and impurities (and is best made from potato). Add herbs of choice, and vodka becomes gin. Molasses or sugar makes rum. Grape wine makes brandies, or grappa. Play with just about anything to make liquors.

And if your really just want to start fire, Grappa or really anything distilled cleanly enough. While it demonstrates a certain technical skill, it's not a great drink.

[Sclass]

Fun to read about it but I'm pretty much barred from doing this by my partner.

For another life.

[Did]

@sclass Do you brew beer. It's safe and fun. Social too.

[Sclass]

@sclass Do you brew beer. It's safe and fun. Social too.

No. Just dreaming here. I beat some addiction issues a few decades back. I kind of know what I need to avoid. Not judging, just saying that I get totally owned by chemicals when there is an unlimited supply.

It sure looks interesting tho. I proposed it for making E85 years ago but my SO beat it down. She has enough problems. So I did biodiesel instead.

[Did]

@sclass Fair enough! Defo give the distillation a miss then !