What's it take to "still" yur own grain alcohol??

[Royal Dragon]

I wonder if it's cheaper than buying it? If so, it might be a fun thing to do, especially if I can end up with 10 gallons to make Jow with.:D

[Merryprankster]

It takes:

Fermenting sugarwater in a SEALED pot.

Non-reactive tubing sticking out of the top, sealed around the edges of the tubing and the sealed pot.

That tubing sticking into the top of closed (but NOT sealed) pot.

A loosely set check valve, or better yet, a light pressure valve in between the two pots, is an improvement, but not, strictly speaking, necessary.

Once the alcohol content is high enough, you simply boil the liquid. Alcohol boils at a lower temperature than water, so the alcohol will boil OUT of the water/alcohol mixture. The pressure on the high side of the still, created by boiling, will drive the alcohol through the tubing in vapor form, and it will condense on the other side as it cools to the condensation point. I would personally advise a condenser at some small distance from the valve, as it will be much easier to collect the resulting alcohol in a liquid form, rather than vapor.

Water boils at 100 C. As the temperature necessary to keep the solution approaches 100 C, you should stop the process or you'll get an assload of water in your alcohol. As you aren't making liquor, that's not such a hot idea.

Note--you're better off using sugar to the create the alcohol than a mash. The mash will have all sorts of other aromatics in it you may not want in a "pure alcohol." Pure is loosely used because, unless run through a scrubber that pulls the water out of the solution, and then sent to an enclosed, sealed flask with NO contact to the atmoshpere, you can't get better than 95% pure alcohol. Alcohol pulls water out of the environs until 95% strength.

That's hard to do without a vacuum pump in real life, anyway....

Stills are notoriously finicky and have a tendency to blow up if heated to boiling too quickly--that's a NARROW opening at the top for the pressure to escape.

It'd be faster and less dangerous to use a vacuum pump. I suppose a jet pump of some kind might be used.... I'd have to figure out the set up though, so you don't contaminate your product....

[Royal Dragon]

Can I load a 50 gallon drum half with rice and water and just coil a coper tube as a condeser into another 50 gallon drum?? When ready heat with Charcoal like a backyard grill??

Or will I blow up my corner of the neighbor hood??

Any online plans for this stuff?
I would like to home produce a good 10 gallons for Jow making, that and just to see if I can do it.

Of course, I will probually donate the extra to the next big Black Sash party!! :D

[anton]

you could probably buy a nice glass condenser, with an outer tube which you can connect to running cold water, at your local "science-supplies" type place.

[Royal Dragon]

I want 10 gallons of pure alcohol, not a few pints.

[anton]

hmmm... not sure, but if not, it cant e too hard to make something similar out of a coiled copper tube, and maybe use a thicker PVC pipe for the outer bit, hooking a garden hose to a hole in the top.

[Royal Dragon]

I wonder if a hot lamp would safetly heat the alcohol up enough to transfer it to the holding container?

I also have a bunch of empty one gallon pickle jars (Don't ask). If I filled each one up halfway with rice water, and later heated it with a heat strip like the ones we warm our Snakes with, I bet THAT would be safe and easy!! Assuming I could get enough heat out of them of course.

How hot do I have to heat the Alcohol to get it to evaporate in farenheight?

[anton]

The boiling point of alcohol is 78.5° C.

From memory (although I'm not too sure):
F = 9C/5 +32

So that would give 173.3° F

[guohuen]

You'll need steel or copper. It'll smell like the wrath of God. Oh yeah, it's quite illegal.

[Okami]

Operating an unregistered still is illeagal.

All distilling equipment (excepting research facilities) have to be registered with the federal goverment. If you live outside the U.S. I have no clue.

You can make your own beer or wine or cider if you want.
I make my own beer, and honestly it is easier to buy it.

I have been around some distilling. After all I am from Kentucky. And I have seen it to be a complicated process and involves a lot of time and work. You are better off to buy grain alcohol.

[anton]

It isn't that complicated. Impoverished Russians have been distilling home-made vodka ("samogonka") since the time of the tzars - a tradition that Russia shares with several Eastern European countries.