Question:
I am interested in utilizing the left over crushed grape peels to make a little moonshine and since im not close friends with Bo, Luke, Uncle Jessie or even Boss Hog I need to know what is involved in making a home still. Any information would be helpful, thanks in advance. Happy brewing!!!!!!
Response:
+I am interested in utilizing the left over crushed grape peels to make a +little moonshine and since im not close friends with Bo, Luke, Uncle Jessie +or even Boss Hog I need to know what is involved in making a home still. Any +information would be helpful, thanks in advance. Happy brewing!!!!!! + Before attempting this, you should be aware that home distillation of beverages is quite thoroughly illegal everywhere in the United States, and the penalties can be severe. Search DejaNews for earlier postings in this ng on this subject. It’s been discussed quite a bit.
Response:
Distilling spirits for human consumption is quite illegal as was pointed out. However, distilling spirits for use as an alternate fuel for your car is legal, with a permit. You just have to make sure you don’t spill too much into you mouth on the way to the gas tank. See a book called "The Lore of STILL Building" by K. Howard and N. Gibat. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – +I am interested in utilizing the left over crushed grape peels to make a +little moonshine and since im not close friends with Bo, Luke, Uncle Jessie +or even Boss Hog I need to know what is involved in making a home still. Any +information would be helpful, thanks in advance. Happy brewing!!!!!! + Before attempting this, you should be aware that home distillation of beverages is quite thoroughly illegal everywhere in the United States, and the penalties can be severe. Search DejaNews for earlier postings in this ng on this subject. It’s been discussed quite a bit.
Response:
Don sells Stills for a living here in NZ from a shop called brew your own liquor. I have been dealing with them since they opened. They are honest, knowledgeable and friendly, and their prices are very competitive. They don’t run a web site yet, and I don’t know their policy on flogging off stuff to foreigners, but it’s worth a try. They also sell turbo yeasts, charcoal filters and other distilling and winemaking paraphernalia. Need I mention that in New Zealand the govt has declared home distilling perfectly safe and legal. The US govt is not quite so enlightened. Of course if you imported it as a "water distiller" then there is nothing illegal about that. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I am interested in utilizing the left over crushed grape peels to make a little moonshine and since im not close friends with Bo, Luke, Uncle Jessie or even Boss Hog I need to know what is involved in making a home still. Any information would be helpful, thanks in advance. Happy brewing!!!!!!
Response:
Sears in Canada sells a water filter which will do the job for you. The cost is about $CDN200 – about $US130. The scary part is separating the fact from fiction in the dangers of home distilled stuff – is the danger form the lead fittings in classical stills?- in that case this machine is cool. Is the danger from too much "bad" alcohol which in homemade wine is simply at too low a concentration to hurt you? Or is the Danger simply something the Revanooers made up so they could call it illegal?
Response:
But, since methanol distills first, if the first 5% distillate is kept separate from the rest, it should be discarded since it contains methanol in toxic concentration.
This sounds like good advice. I’d also add that coppe tubing should be avoided, since it can (at the right temperatures) catalyze the dehydrogenation of ethanol into acetaldehyde (= major hangover). Try to get some glass tubing. — The Mad Alchemist http://members.xoom.com/madalch Gravity does not know my name.
Response:
The scary part is separating the fact from fiction in the dangers of home distilled stuff – is the danger form the lead fittings in classical stills?- in that case this machine is cool. Is the danger from too much "bad" alcohol which in homemade wine is simply at too low a concentration to hurt you
Wine contains ethanol, as well as small amounts of methanol and higher alcohols. Distillation per se does not change the proportions of these alcohols, so should not produce a toxic fluid if drunk in "normal" quantity. But, since methanol distillates first, if the first 5% distillate is kept separately from the rest, it should be discarded since it contains methanol in toxic concentration. There is no danger if the distillate is kept as one unit before being bottled. But quality distillation should throw away the first 5% (methanol) and the last 5% (higher alcohols = hangover). In the past, people could be intoxicated by the lead fittings, today people are sometimes burned when bad stills explode. Gorak
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