Moonshine

Here is a counter top distiller.
Make Ethanol Fuel for Your Vehicles at Home

Yes the site is geared towards making ethenal for gas, but distilling is distilling.

 

Im not going to be drawn into a dispute about gov this or gov that. Its just not relevant to this discussion

I will attempt to answer as many questions as I can in this post

First is if you are using the pot still you have something that works, but only in comparison to nothing at all. They are very dependant on the size of the boiler, the length of the condenser and the availability of cold water to force condensation in a small area.

It is MUCH easier to build a high efficiency still and modify it for inefficiency than it is to build a simple still then try to make it more efficient. The big issue I see so far is the difference between fuel ethanol and and whisky which really isn't a huge jump

Most triple column stills have a high surface area water stripper built in, which in simple terms is a pipe full of marbles the vapor from the boiler passes through before getting to the first stage condenser. This strips off a large quantity of water vapor and a small amount of alcohol vapor as well. This condenses and runs to the collector in whatever form its designed in the particular column. To make what most consider to be a spirit you bypass the first stage water stripper so what goes into the condenser is a much higher content of water vapor and dissolved solids. That where the flavor comes in to some extent as well as the mineral content and base sugars. i.e. potatoes make very recognizable vodka and in short order. And yes you can tell by the smell alone what its made from, Potatoes, corn , raw sugar cane etc.

 

Separation of alcohol with freezing- this argument is based entirely on the climate you live in. The process is called Jacking and its very popular in places like Alaska and Vermont where I am originally from. It is NOT and argument about refrigeration . Will it work in az? I seriously doubt it where I live. But its an option, a tool in the box if your climate allows it. Advantages? Its quiet, doesn't stink, burn fuel or cause a loss of resources to produce. Its a high return to effort endeavor. Its like saying after the end I want maple syrup from a cactus. Doesn't matter what I want, it matters on the climate IM in and what nature provides certain times of the year I can use.

 

Now lets talk a bit on Yeasts

Natural yeasts are fickle, unreliable and good for making vinegar as anyone who has attempted wine making using traditional methods will attest.

Again this is 2014 not 1714 and accepting the 7% average yield on a good day with your voodoo just right to me is not an option at all. Especially with the newer strains of Champagne type yeasts which will survive in alcohol contents ranging close to 25% by volume. These are easily acquired and stored and are the most efficient conversion of sugars to alcohol available now before you get into destructive distillation which produces methanol, which is a decent fuel in itself but will kill you deader than fried chicken if u have an oops and try a sip.

Yeasts are easy to store, require damned near not a thing to stay dormant and are generally a very simple thing to ignore until you need them in their vacuum sealed packaging. This subject alone requires a huge amount of research but suffice the simple is better. Buy a yeast suitable for your altitude and climate, and desired yield.

 

Most don't grasp the concept of the necessary volume of starter product to finished product

As a point of argument you need 50 gallons of a sugar based product to produce 5 gallons of raw alcohol at a 10% yield which is possible, barely with a pot still. What comes out of a pot still heating the mash to 200F without singing the mash or blowing up the boiler ( very easy to do when too much heat is applied to fast and the condenser clogs) is roughly 30% by volume of alcohol. So you will get a larger amount of what could be considered consumables . Then you have the problem of disposing of the evidence in your boiler, losses of boiler dumps as there will always be some alcohol left in the mash regardless unless you have a high pressure extraction system built in. Having a hog pen handy for the leftovers is never a bad thing here.

Potatoes or grain vodka should be strained through clean charcoal, untreated. Best to make this yourself, buying it will almost always yield some chemical compounds you don't want to drink, EVER.

To make corn by products look and taste like real whiskey, you get some untreated oak rough sawn boards, cut them into 1x1 pieces. Place them on an iron griddle, and cook them until they are just shy of black, then drop 2-3 of these sticks into each container of product and let sit for 2-3 weeks and you will get that good old barrel aged flavor and color ready to go

 

Temperature- alcohol boils at 174f at sea level, at a 100% concentration just like water does at 212f at sea level

Altitude effects boiling temp at an average of 1•f for every thousand feet of altitude above sea level. Yes nit pickers I know it's slightly more than that so get over it.

There are 2 schools of thought for heating the bulk productand where temperature is most important.

 

The first school measures temperature at the condenser with a control valve run by thermostat to circulate water or high pressure refrigerant around the condenser coil, and yes if you want to put a still literally anywhere and not get caught high pressure refrigerant is the way to go as there is zero need for a source of cold water

Remember I promised to kill some sacred cows- there's one to make the sutton fans scream and pull their hair. 2014, not 1714

 

I wonder if its legal in my state?

Oh wait, We don't care!

lol...

 

The second and most common is to apply heat to the boiler, run the condenser cooling system open wide and regulate the boiler by controlling the heat applied. In pot stills, users will add or remove fuel as the product exits the condenser, using the presence of steam exiting the condenser as a decent gauge of temp in the boiler. In pot stills this is where the accidental burned alive occur as you are heating a thick semi solid mass unevenly which will be cooler the larger the pot and distance from the heat. This causes the mash to bubble and spit. I can guarantee, you are headed for a clogged condenser if you heat the mash too quickly and too hot. A clogged condenser creates a flammable steam explosion very quickly. I will observe from a safe distance, like perhaps CNN on tv.

Steam explosions are BAD, flammable steam explosions are seen on satellite photography. Remember the open flame under the boiler here......

Downsides are pretty obvious, steam exiting the condenser will be mostly alcohol, thereby loss rates go way up
Second is scorching the mash, which seriously effects the flavor, imagine burned coffee and multiply by 10x.
Then the inefficiency of an open condenser cooled by water. This amounts to a coil of tube in a tank of water, hence the need for a cold water source close by and the obvious place to search if you have limited water sources in an area. Also, the heat from the condenser must have some where to go, so it heats the water around the condenser very quickly, this precludes a single closed system, a constant flow of cold water is not an option.
Third is the delay between the removal of fuel and cooling the boiler as steam exits. You will loose a considerable amount of vapor, DO NOT attempt to cap the condenser. Or, cap it for scientific curiosity. Ill watch on Google Earth

For those paying attention here, the purpose of a secondary condenser is become obvious I hope. Loss rates are bad, and a secondary air cooled condenser is cheap insurance and works because the steam is cooler on exit from the primary so a second cooling system is most of the time unnecessary.

I have experimented with a closed water system, where the condenser coils were run inside a larger diameter pipe, and ice water piped around the coils. Worked great, but very labor intensive construction, it works with gravity feed through the coils and a 12V pump to the reservoir above to feed the coil. This is a very difficult system to keep water tight. My advice is don't bother and accept where the 2 pipes join the boiler you will get water leaks, which is far better than a steam leak.

There is however a serious negative learning curve here if you have the leak positioned over the boiler. Some alloys react badly to water dripping on them when hot, stainless steel comes to the forefront of my mind.......

 

I think I covered a decent overview of the process if you have questions ask

 

There is a ton more

The idea is not to think there is some special secret involved and asking me will get more direct answers than me posting randomly about the general process.

So, fire away with specific questions if you have them. There is an encyclopedia in my head about yeasts alone and if its not compatible with your needs its kind of dumb for me to post about them, etc..

 

Any site selling stills may not be the best source for information on distilling spirits. Just for the record... I have an FFL and during my last inspection, I asked my BATFE officer about distilling for "personal use". I was told there is NO Federal law that allows personal distilling without a license and it was suggested I check out the BATFE statute and here is their FAQ to address this issue;

"Spirits

You may not produce spirits for beverage purposes without paying taxes and without prior approval of paperwork to operate a distilled spirits plant. [See 26 U.S.C. 5601 & 5602 for some of the criminal penalties.] There are numerous requirements that must be met that also make it impractical to produce spirits for personal or beverage use. Some of these requirements are filing an extensive application, filing a bond, providing adequate equipment to measure spirits, providing suitable tanks and pipelines, providing a separate building (other than a dwelling) and maintaining detailed records, and filing reports. All of these requirements are listed in 27 CFR Part 19.

Spirits may be produced for non-beverage purposes for fuel use only without payment of tax, but you also must file an application, receive TTB's approval, and follow requirements, such as construction, use, records and reports.

Last reviewed/updated 06/19/2012"

 

I was wondering when someone would post that up

Its exactly why I built a fuel still ...remember my comments about high to low efficiency construction

just saying

 

So this is an old thread because I was looking up comments by PLA....

What about E85... is there anyway to get the Octane out of it? Just for Lab purposes of course.

I only went thru 2 years of Chemical Engineering before I realized the Gas Chronometer didn't like me and I switched to Electrical.

Rancher

 

This may be a stupid question but, why not an aluminum pressure cooker ??

 

aluminum = brain damage and crappy taste, just ask @Dunerunner

I did think you could distill for fuel alcohol... I cant remember

 

Lead is not the only option for soldering copper pipe. Silver solder comes to mind, but it won't be cheap, though I'm not knowledgeable enough to know if the zinc and possibly cadmium contained in some of it would leach out.

 

Making moonshine is illegal; making your own wine and beer is legal. We make our own wines and they are easy to make and quite good. It is legal to make 100 gallons per adult in the house.

The internet has a lot of how-to sites.