Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Eating and Drinking => Homebrew => Topic started by: Jay Dubya on May 21, 2009, 19:54
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Hi, has anyone seen the amazing still ( just google amazing still ) it's brilliant all you need is two buckets and a fish tank heater, the whole thing is simplicity itself.
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Haven't looked but I assume this is someone' s idea of making a still. The problem isn't making a still, it is one of getting the ethenol off at a separate place up the distillation tower to the methanol, and the other alcohols that are present.
Lets me guess that this magestic piece of engineering doesn't have separate cooling and separation points for these 2 alcohols?
I will guess that there is just the one exit from the still and so this gets both methanol and ethanol. Unfortunately methanol is lighter so you will get more of that as it evaporates at a lower temperature then ethanol. And methanol has the unfortunate property of poisioning your organs, sending you blind, interfering with the brain and so maddness sets in and finally kills you.
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In addition to the risk of blindness caused by hoovering down the antifreeze output, there is also a modest risk of arrest if the woodentops of the constabulary become aware!
To obtain distillation-strength alcohol in a more safe manner, try freeze distillation - brew home made wine first, freeze it, crush the ice into a flour sifter over a jug and stir the crushed ice as it melts - the alcohol coming free first. The first glass is excellent, the second not bad, ditch the rest! A useful bit of fun to use home brewed wines that taste less good than wanted - and it is legal too!
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Contrary to popular belief, freeze-distillation in the UK is illegal. It is also harder to safely fractionate than normal heat-distillation, so you're at greater risk of methanol poisoning.
Legal aspects quite apart, it's a bad idea to mess around with a still unless you're a good enough organic chemist, and have suitable facilities, to do a quantative analysis. That rules out most of us!
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Has anyone tried the "spirit" kits?... You mix a special mix (of what I'm not sure) with 8kg sugar and a second mix of "tubo yeast". This apparently creates a wask of about 12% alchohol.
After clearing out the rubbish from the wash you then distill the wash using a water distiller. The claim is that from about 25ltrs of was you get about 6 ltrs of 55-60% spirit which can then be flavoured.
To avoid a call from the the plod you can licence it for home consumption.... Is it worth the effort?
cheers
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illegal, dangerous and a watse of time, especially when vodka is so cheap!
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Ouch, and i thought it was a good invention.
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If you distill spirit you need a locked compound area to which the keys are held by customs and revenue. You cannot "licence" yourself for home consumption. If you could then why are there no distillation kits at homebrew shops? Who puts these ideas out?
I would strongly suspect that if you make homemade wine and sell it at a fete you are liable to be locked up. Most will simply turn a blind eye most of the time to this.
If you look at the details you will also see that spirits are double, or triple, distilled. The reason is simple, a single distillation leaves too many poisions in the initial distillate.
By the way alcohol is an incorrect term. There are many alcohols methanol, ethanol, propanol, butanol, pentanol, hexanol and just keep going. Then there are the different variants iso-propyl alcohol - para-propyl alcohol. The ones above propyl alcohol get complex. The whole lot are termed alcohols.
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Hi, when you look at the site he states two things, one is that no harmful alchahol is produced and two, you pass the spirit through a filter tower with some sort of carbon in it to filter out the impurities. Check out the site at least then if what the guy is saying is rubish, then let us know as a warning.
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I've looked at the only site my search engine identified, and the first paragraph is (my emphasis):
"If you would like to distill your own ethanol you need a still into which your fermented brew is heated and the alcohol separated. In the UK it is legal to own a still, but it is illegal to use it to make alcohol."
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I never understand why they talk about the risks of "methanol poisoning". If you have say a litre of some pectin-rich wine it will contain more methanol than say beer with the same amount of alcohol. You could drink it all and one would give you a bad head while the other wouldn't, but nobody would get methanol poisoning from the former.
So how if you distill it can it be any different? Ideally you'd discard the feints or whatever that bring up all the methanol, but even if you didn't and you drank it it would still contain only what was in the original wine, methanol has not been 'created'.
Surely methanol poisoning only occurs when unscrupulous manufacturers add antifreeze or similar to boost their profits, as happened in Russia relatively recently and caused lots of wrecked livers and deaths? >:(
Edit - is this basically what you're saying, Jay?
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... why are there no distillation kits at homebrew shops?
You certainly can purchase stills, with dire warnings that it's illegal to actually use them.
If you look at the details you will also see that spirits are double, or triple, distilled. The reason is simple, a single distillation leaves too many poisions in the initial distillate.
Check out this site (http://homedistiller.org/static_menu.htm), ISTR it's pretty comprehensive. If you use a reflux still that will achieve the purity right from the start, whereas cruder pot stills as used for whisky require a much longer maturation period.
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Giving the illegality of using a still in the UK I have to ask if this thread is going anywhere.
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Hi, i agree with you Knobby, you can't produce what you havn't got in the first place, and as for reflux stills they are so complicated to make. Maybe it's up to the individual and we all know it's illegal but it's fun talking about it.
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I've decided to stand as an MP and claim all my alcohol on expenses.... surely that can 't be against the rules..? I mean it's not like I'm claiming for a duck house!
cheers all.... VOTE FOR ME!
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I've decided to stand as an MP and claim all my alcohol on expenses.... surely that can 't be against the rules..? I mean it's not like I'm claiming for a duck house!
cheers all.... VOTE FOR ME!
if your manifesto says free alcohol for all and anyone with an allotment gets a tax break for growing their own veg, then I'll vote for you ;)
'VOTE PENFOLD, VOTE PENFOLD' :D :D
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I've decided to stand as an MP and claim all my alcohol on expenses.... surely that can 't be against the rules..? I mean it's not like I'm claiming for a duck house!
cheers all.... VOTE FOR ME!
if your manifesto says free alcohol for all and anyone with an allotment gets a tax break for growing their own veg, then I'll vote for you ;)
'VOTE PENFOLD, VOTE PENFOLD' :D :D
First manifesto item.... based on loyalty cards.... We will campaign for the Customs & Excise to actually pay you to drink, not only that but the greater the level of consumption the greater the level of payment per unit consumed.
The reasoning is:
1. that this will keep numerous drinks producers producers and hostelries, taxi firms, keebab shops, police and ambulance staff in employment.... caring for those prepared to put in the effort to down that extra pint......
2. if the credit crunch and or, pig/bird flu, meteor impact does get us we really won't be too concerned, as long as we don't spill our drinks of course....
Cheers all
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With home made alcohol washes and sprays plus internal dosage the flu germs won`t stand a chance,
For the meteorite you would need to make a rocket powered by.......
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Hi, if you stand on a policy of cheaper beer you've got my vote!!
VOTE FOR PENFOLD and the HOMEBREW PARTY.
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Hi, if you stand on a policy of cheaper beer you've got my vote!!
VOTE FOR PENFOLD and the HOMEBREW PARTY.
To borrow the wheels off someone else's wagon... how about UKIP (United Kingdom Inebriation Party)?
:D
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Hi, if you stand on a policy of cheaper beer you've got my vote!!
VOTE FOR PENFOLD and the HOMEBREW PARTY.
To borrow the wheels off someone else's wagon... how about UKIP (United Kingdom Inebriation Party)?
:D
Too hard to say after a skinfull :blink: ???
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Hi, who said this thread isn't going anywhere, we've started a new political movement, vote homebrew party and Penfold for minister of socialising.
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Hi, who said this thread isn't going anywhere, .
It was me. :tongue2: You've got my vote. :lol:
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Just to clarify things on distilling. Methanol (bad stuff) is produced at a lower temperature than ethynol (good stuff). That is why you discard the first 100mls of spirit.
Double and triple distilling is to remove impurities and produce a smoother tasting spirit. It is used for top grade whiskies (Scotch and Irish)and has nothing to do with removing "poisons". I am sorry but we are allowed to own AND operate a still in New Zealand and I have taken advantage of this right for the last 5 years. It is a great hobby and only tonight have upgraded my still to a reflux tower type, (for my wifes gin).
It seems that the colonies are still freer than the 'mother country':tongue2:
Coatesi
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Hi, i'm jealous