Any of you ever make your own MoonShine?

[Mark Ducati]

While the board was down, I bought a still off of Ebay, its got a stainless steel 2 1/2 gallon pot that had a custom copper top on it... the condensing tube is 1" copper pipe that has a smaller 1/2" pipe inside that you circulate ice water through with a small electrical pump.

My first batch was a simple 5 gallon sugar wash with some baby barley cereal mixed in... I'm using a 5 gallon glass carboy with a water vapor lock/bubbler on top. Also got an alcoholometer and some other kind of glass floater that measures specific gravity.

14 days later... from a 5 gallon wash, I got about 2 1/4 quarts of white liquor.

The most important thing I learned, was the definitions of "foreshot", "heads" and "tails".

The "Foreshot" is what comes off first and contains some methanol... for a 5 gallon wash, you discard the first 150ml's that comes off the still, I had to do mine in two still batches... so I discarded the first 75 ml's per batch... the heads are what you want (pure alcohol)... as you start leading into the tails, you get a lower concentration of alcohol, but this is where you get "flavor" from.

Anyway, it was a fun experiment, and I now feel confident that I can produce alcohol for safe consumption in time of need/want :)

For those interested, all that I learned... I acquired from http://www.homedistiller.org... this site has EVERYTHING you want to know about how to make ethanol. Seriously, READ EVERYTHING on the FAQ THREE TIMES!!!! IF you've never made your own hooch, you can seriously hurt yourself if you don't know what you're doing.

You can get a still set up for less than a couple hundred bucks.... my next project will be to convert an old beer keg into a still so that I can produce MUCHO at one time, boiling it over my turkey fryer :)

[El Jefe]

Um, Mark, isn't this illegal?

Are you going to start growing pot in back yard too? Lol.

[AKTexas]

Mark are you looking to get drilled in club fed?

[mriddick]

You can get the correct permits and pay the taxes to do it legally, but I'd still have to ask why. If primitives all over the world can do it I'm sure anyone who can read and follow a few directions can (if the world as we know it was to end tomorrow) I doubt it's really something that requires much practice...

[RIGHTWINGJOE]

I keep some ammo... If TEOTWAWKI happens, I know where to go for liquor if needed.
Seeing as I only drink light (extremely light) beer though, it's doubtful I would need any though.

[old Grump]

Father in law used to make beer, he could make 200 gallons of beer without a permit as long as he didn't trade or sell it. That went on for several years till a whole batch of bottles blew their top in the basement. Mother in law shut him down cold. Knew several people who did the same with wine but nobody messed with the whiskey because they didn't want to get the permits. A friend of mine married a Georgia girl and she would make corn likker on her kitchen stove in her apartment in tiny batches. A little bit of that stuff went a loooooong way. We used Old Grand dad as a chaser and it was like drinking water after a mouthful of the moonshine bit your mouth and fried your tongue.

Are you striving for a particular flavor or experimenting till you get something that tastes good?

[swampdragon]

Are you striving for a particular flavor or experimenting till you get something that tastes good?

I see this thread ending up in the Roadhouse soon....:bj2:

[Mark Ducati]

Perhaps I should have clarified... IF the SHTF, all rules/laws are out the window anyways, and I would drink home made hooch in that instance... but for now, I'm just making some extra fuel to put in my car, which is perfectly legal :)

[cciota]

Perhaps I should have clarified... IF the SHTF, all rules/laws are out the window anyways, and I would drink home made hooch in that instance... but for now, I'm just making some extra fuel to put in my car, which is perfectly legal :)

Yeah, jet fuel!

[mriddick]

Perhaps I should have clarified... IF the SHTF, all rules/laws are out the window anyways, and I would drink home made hooch in that instance... but for now, I'm just making some extra fuel to put in my car, which is perfectly legal :)

Any amount is illegal unless you go by BATF rules (you know those guys) on permit and taxes, even to make fuel you need to toxify your creation with kerosene or some other approved poison by their directions (and I think you must notify them). You simply can not distill anything alcoholic in nature at the moment by the way the BATF enforces things (I think we've all heard that before).

[AKTexas]

Homemade beer can be liquid nourishment if made right.Not a bad idea to have a way of distilling water to when things go south.

[rci2950]

ever use the home water distiller from sears? pretty simple all in one unit meant to make clean water but does the above very well.

[El Jefe]

ever use the home water distiller from sears? pretty simple all in one unit meant to make clean water but does the above very well.

Um, why did you drag up a 2+ year old thread?

[rci2950]

Um, why did you drag up a 2+ year old thread?

just for fun, seemed like the topic of the day.

[Diesel]

just for fun, seemed like the topic of the day.

In prisons they have a simple way of making white lightening: first make some home brew; then take a five gallon bucket and cut it in half; check out the clothes iron; and get a large garbage bag; put bucket bottom in bag and fill with home brew; take the heating element out of the iron and drop it into the mix with the cord coming out of the top:dizzy:; tie off the top of the garbage bag and make sure a corner of the bag is lower than the rest; cut a small hole in the corner hanging down and plug in the iron element; soon the bag will fill with vapor and condense on the sides running down to the corner where it can be retrieved in a bottle or other container.

Pure alcohol would be 200 proof...ain't no such thing...cut down to about 60 proof and you have throat burning vodka.

Old bootleggers would reuse whiskey barrels and just throw in chunks of charcoal, maple, etc. If they wanted 'good stuff' they would immerse the filled barrel in a tank of boiling water and when the inside of the barrel came up to the same temperature it would be pulled out, a bung put in and wrapped in old blankets, stacked in a corner and stored for six months...smooth as a coke without the carbonation.

The cheap stuff they would just throw in a shovel of horse shit and it would get the color and floating particles...not nearly as good.

I don't drink...but I do know how to make the nasty stuff.

Diesel 88888888

:coffee::dizzy:

[stevelyn]

I wouldn't talk about it too much. The waffen BATFEces thugs hate home distillers as much as they hate gun owners.

[Diesel]

I wouldn't talk about it too much. The waffen BATFEces thugs hate home distillers as much as they hate gun owners.

As they used to say back in the 20's: "They got their law, the wets got their liquor.

Diesel 88888888

:coffee:

[NAPOTS]

I have been interested in distilling for quite some time but as I understand it its totally illegal and the batf ain't going to give you a license to run a home still

Spirits
You cannot 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 make it impractical to produce spirits for personal or beverage use. Some of these requirements are paying special tax, 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.

Ray emailed the BATF for the reference statutes concerning home distillation. Here is their response:

Ray, you have not been able to locate anything on home production because there is no provision for it. Moonshining is still illegal!! Unlike wine or beer, the laws and regulations governing distilled spirits contain no provision that would allow someone to produce spirits in their home for personal use. Under 26 U.S.C. Section 5171 operations as a distiller, warehouseman or processor may be conducted only on the bonded premises of a qualified distilled spirits plant. To qualify such a plant, a registration, application for permit and bond must be filed in addition to other supporting organizational documents. 26 U.S.C. 5178 places restrictions on where a plant can be located. Hope this answers your question.

[Diesel]

The Irish used to make distilled spirits using a clay pot kettle with a specially made clay top that allowed the spirits to cool and drip out the dome's spout...sorry, I don't have a photograph. The top was sealed to the kettle with wet clay...slow but effective.

Diesel 88888888

:coffee:

[charger0122]

http://www.motherjones.com/files/images/popcorrrn.jpg

[mrkalashnikov]

http://www.motherjones.com/files/images/popcorrrn.jpg

I believe I've seen that gentleman on either the History Channel or Discovery. An oldtime real-life moonshiner nicknamed Popcorn-something. Interesting story. :boozer:

[charger0122]

popcorn sutton

[mrkalashnikov]

Looks like Mr Sutton was giving the revenooer boys the old "bird" there ;)

[Diesel]

I believe I've seen that gentleman on either the History Channel or Discovery. An oldtime real-life moonshiner nicknamed Popcorn-something. Interesting story. :boozer:

Yep, that's a shiner for shire, he's showing us how to measure out the right amount of sugar to mash with a suggestion for water content and barrel size...yep, he shore be a shiner!

Diesel 88888888

:coffee:

[charger0122]

heres his grave marker he had made up lolhttp://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS5Z-Xyhhu8VlXBbK1Qa29qeA_hAe8hprPFhXy6jnBmSaWwKdBqAKXv fuUnkQ