How To Make A Cheap Moonshine Still?

What can I use to make a still?

Six Rules to Buy or to Construct an Alcohol Still by Yourself –

An alcohol still should be equipped with a steam thermometer, otherwise the still cannot be used appropriately to distill alcohol. Without a thermometer the heads and tails cannot be separated accurately with ease. Position of the steam thermometer: The alcohol content of the steam and thereby the temperature of the steam depends on the difference in height to the surface of the boiling mash. Thus only the temperature of the steam at the highest point of the still correlates to the alcohol content of the distillate. So the thermometer has to be mounted at the highest point of the alcohol still. The steam must flow around the measuring point of the thermometer, this is the case just below the turnoff to the condenser. After the temperature measurement the steam pipe shouldn’t rise further. If you mount the thermometer far below the highest point of the vapor, you will measure wrong temperatures, the discrepancy can be 10 °C or even more. The steam pipe’s diameter of the moonshine still shouldn’t be too small in relation to the volume of the still. The thinner and longer the pipe, the higher the pressure in the kettle while distilling. Even a small interior excess pressure results in a considerable change of the steam temperature and a wrong temperature measurement. Furthermore, an interior excess pressure results in losses of flavor. All materials of the still should not interact with the vapor or distillate. For example, don’t use rubber seals or a rubber hose, because rubber is not resistant against chemical solvents like alcohol. The distillate would strongly taste like rubber. Heat resistant glass, stainless steel or copper are optimal materials, all three materials don’t influence the result of the distillation. If you fill your alcohol still with pulpy mash, not only pure liquid, the solid parts will scorch at the bottom of the kettle. This is not an issue with a jacketed kettle, i.e., the kettle for the mash is surrounded by a second one, which is filled with water or oil. But such alcohol stills are very expensive and have a great disadvantage: the system is very sluggish. Changes in the heat output only take effect after a considerable delay, like with an electric stove but to a much more extreme degree. Therefore it’s almost impossible to work with a jacketed kettle in a small scale, especially if you want to separate heads and tails. If the jacket is filled with water, the outer kettle has to be operated under pressure otherwise it’s not possible to reach the necessary temperature to separate the tails. Therefore a burn protector made of stainless steel is much more effective and cheaper, additionally you can use it to produce spirits, like using a steamer basket. The following applies especially for beginners: Ensure you get professional advise about moonshine alcohol, because at the beginning of your artisan distilling hobby a lot of questions will arise: How to build a moonshine still? How to distill perfect spirits at home? What equipment is necessary for a homedistiller? etc. Current news you can find in our free Newsletter,

Basic equipment for the distillation and dilution of spirits. Basic equipment for mashing and distilling schnapps.

How do you distill without a still?

Freeze Distillation – Freeze distillation originally came about when early adopters discovered that leaving their cider out overnight in the winter would result in a stronger drink. This is because the water content in their cider would freeze and therefore create a more concentrated spirit.

Running a moonshine still uses heat to remove water from your moonshine mash. This is possible because water and alcohol have different boiling points. The boiling point of alcohol is lower so it is removed from the mash as a vapor and then chilled back into a liquid. The same principle is used in freeze distillation, except it is the freezing point rather than the boiling point.

Water has a lower freezing point and so it will freeze into chunks that can be removed from your mash. This is certainly an easier process in terms of removing the water from your mash. However, there are downsides to this method.

How much do you throw away when distilling?

How to Remove Methanol from Moonshine – One way a commercial distiller would determine the presence of methanol is to monitor still temperature, If anything is produced by the still before wash temperature reaches 174 degrees, it’s methanol. A commercial distiller will discard it.

Again, methanol boils at a lower temperature than ethanol and will concentrate at the beginning of distillation runs. Additionally, commercial distillers have determined that simply discarding a standard amount per batch, based on batch size, is enough to keep things safe. The rule of thumb is to discard 1/3 of a pint jar for every 5 gallons of wash being distilled.

How much initial product to discard:

1 gallon batch – discard the first 2/3 of a shot glass 5 gallon batch – discard the first 1/3 of a pint jar 10 gallon batch – discard the first 3/4 of a pint jar

Regardless of still temp, it’s a good idea to always follow this rule of thumb. Methanol or not, the first stuff to come off the still tastes and smells like rubbing alcohol. It’s by far the worst stuff in the entire production run and it isn’t going to impress anyone. Kyle Brown is the owner of Clawhammer Supply, a small scale distillation and brewing equipment company which he founded in 2009. His passion is teaching people about the many uses of distillation equipment as well as how to make beer at home. When he isn’t brewing beer or writing about it, you can find him at his local gym or on the running trail.

Can you use steel for a still?

Video Transcription – Howdy folks, I’m Jeff from Moonshine Distiller. As you’re looking around for a new still you might see two main types of stills; copper and stainless steel. Traditionally, stills were made out of copper. This is because it’s a very soft metal used to work with, and you also can solder it rather than welding it.This makes it very easy to assemble in the backwoods.

However, more modern stills are made from stainless steel, a much more durable material and easier to keep clean. The main functional difference between stainless steel and copper stills is that the copper actually reacts with sulfides that are in the vapors from your wash. Those sulfides, if they end up in your final distillate, can actually cause bad hangovers and bad tastes.

You can get the same sulfide removing effect in a stainless steel still by packing your column with a little bit a copper mesh, Typically, on a five or ten gallon batch, just one pound of copper mesh inside your still column should be more than enough to remove the sulfides.

Is it OK to drink distill?

You’ve probably faced this choice while dining out: Tap, bottled, or sparkling water ? But what about distilled water? It’s not that different from what flows out of your kitchen faucet. But distilled water goes through a process that sets it apart from other types of H2O.

1. Distilled water is steam from boiling water that’s been cooled and returned to its liquid state.
2. Some people claim distilled water is the purest water you can drink.
3. All water – no matter if it comes from a natural spring, artesian well, or regular tap – may have trace but safe amounts of minerals, bacteria, pesticides, and other contaminants.

Distilling rids water of all those impurities. It also removes more than 99.9% of the minerals dissolved in water. As the name says, tap water is the one that comes out a faucet. It has likely been disinfected with chlorine, plus filtered to remove sediments and treated with chemicals to neutralize dirt.

• Fluoride has also been added to prevent tooth decay.
• Filtered water is tap water that has been run through filters to remove chlorine (this improves the taste) and other things such as bacteria and some chemicals.
• Different types of filters remove different things.
• Most bottled water is filtered in some way.

Purified water is water that is essentially free of microbes and chemicals. This is achieved by reverse osmosis (forcing the water through a membrane to get rid of chemicals, minerals and microbes), ozonization (disinfecting water using ozone rather than a chemical), or distillation.

• The EPA requires purified water to not contain more than 10 parts per million of total dissolved solids in order to be labeled purified water.
• Distilled water is a type of purified water.
• Salts, minerals, and other organic materials are removed by collecting the steam from boiling water.
• Distilled water is safe to drink.

But you’ll probably find it flat or bland. That’s because it’s stripped of important minerals like calcium, sodium, and magnesium that give tap water its familiar flavor. What’s left is just hydrogen and oxygen and nothing else. Distilled water is ideal for when purity is important.

Medical tools and procedures. Hospitals clean equipment with it to help avoid contamination and infections. Kidney dialysis machines use ultra-pure water to filter waste from blood, Lab tests, Nothing in distilled water reacts with or affects the accuracy of lab experiments. Cosmetics, If water is an ingredient in your moisturizer, deodorant, or shampoo, it’s almost always distilled. Automobiles, Since it lacks minerals, distilled water won’t corrode metal engine parts or interfere with batteries.

At home, you may want to reach for distilled water for cooking and several other reasons, including:

Infant formula, Mix it with infant formula if your baby has weak immunity, Otherwise, tap water is fine. CPAP machine. Fill the water chamber for a CPAP humidifier if you use it for sleep apnea, Many manufacturers recommend distilled water to make the humidifier last longer. Neti pot, Use it with a neti pot to clear your sinuses, Iron, Use it in your clothes iron to prevent scale buildup. Shampoo your hair, Fluoride, chlorine, and other additives in the water from your shower may dull your hair.

Distilled water lacks even electrolytes like potassium and other minerals your body needs. So you may miss out on a bit of these micronutrients if you drink only the distilled stuff. Some studies have found a link between drinking water low in calcium and magnesium and tiredness, muscle cramps, weakness, and heart disease,

Also, distilled water may not help you stay hydrated as well as other kinds of water. If you use distilled water for your fish tank, be sure to add a sea minerals supplement to the aquarium. Some coffee fans think that distilled water makes for a purer-tasting cup. But the Specialty Coffee Association of America says that a certain level of minerals is ideal in order to extract the best brew.

Unopened bottled distilled water from a store lasts basically forever. But stash it away from direct sunlight. And once it’s opened, be sure to close it up well after use. Certain germs can grow even in nutrient-poor distilled water.

Fill a large pot of water halfway.Tie a cup to the pot’s lid so the cup will hang rightside up inside the pot when the lid is shut. The cup should be high enough inside the pot that it does not touch the water. Boil the water for 20 minutes. Boiling creates vapor that rises and then condenses back into water. The water that drops from the lid into the cup is distilled.

Can I boil water to distill it?

How to make distilled water – You can buy distilled water at grocery stores and other places, but you can also make it at home. To make distilled water at home, you need:

A large pot and its lidA bowl that is smaller than the potIceWater

Fill your pot halfway with water. Place an empty bowl inside of your pot. The bowl should be smaller than the pot and should float in the water (not touch or sink to the bottom of the pot). Turn on your stove’s burner to medium heat and let the water boil.

Then place the lid upside-down over the pot and fill the top with ice. This will create condensation as the steam from the boiling water hits the ice-cold lid. The condensation will begin to drip into the bowl, leaving you with distilled water. Continue the distillation process until you get your desired amount of water.

Allow for the bowl to cool before removing it and pour the distilled water into a container for storage. Want to know more? Here’s how distilled water is different from boiled or filtered water