Home still?

[the macdonald]

My nameless friend has been looking online and came across a couple home stills. The natural rebel in me my friend can't get this idea out of my head. I know it is illegal and would never do anything against the law, but the idea of being able to create my own gins, rums, and whiskeys is tantilizing to my friend. Anyone know anyone who does this?

 

[Rob_In_MO]

Nope, not me. irat:

Actually, it's pretty simple. Purchase and use the still for 'Ethanol' production. You can get a Federal Permit at a very low price and it allows you to make X amount of gallons per year. To denature the 'Ethanol', you add 1-gallon of Gasoline to 100-gallons of Ethanol - this makes it undrinkable. You can purchase the supplies locally and the Distiller's Yeast is commonly available online (eBay) - this special yeast can tolerate up to a 20% alcohol concentration before it dies off. Regular Wine Yeast dies at roughly 14% alcohol and common Baker's Yeast dies off at about 8% alcohol concentration. Obviously, the higher the initial percentage of alcohol, the less refinement it will need. This could be a couple of runs in a pot still or more complete distillation in a Reflux Column Still - your choice in stills, as both have their ups and downs. The pot still is much cheaper, but takes several runs to get the high concentration you're looking for. The reflux column still is much more expensive, but usually gets the desired output in one run.

Of course, if a little 'accidentally' got put into a different container (glass jars), I wouldn't tell if you wouldn't. :twisted:

Oh crap! I've said too much. Don't want you guys to get the wrong idea about me... :shock:

 

[mark]

Yeah, an aquaintance of mine built a stainless steel still at the nuke plant where he works as a millwright. It's a small unit, holds about 10-15 gallons of mash. He uses mostly local corn because it's cheap and abundant. His product is very rough around the edges and needs some aging in a barrel or filtering or something.

 

[GamleVking]

After watching this video, I want to make my own potatoe vodka.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CfAjzXlsmTY" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" frameborder="0" loading="lazy" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[Hermit]

Yeah, an aquaintance of mine built a stainless steel still at the nuke plant where he works as a millwright. It's a small unit, holds about 10-15 gallons of mash. He uses mostly local corn because it's cheap and abundant. His product is very rough around the edges and needs some aging in a barrel or filtering or something.

I would expect that. I'll leave the distilling to the experts.