How to make MoonshineA guide to 192 proof or 96% v/v liquor

WARNING !!!This is for informational purposes only and should not be used for illegal activities. There are many legal things one can do with a still including fueling cars (must register with the government) as well as extracting essential oils from plants (not necessary to register). Also, implementing the following procedures could result in bodily harm from explosions, fires, burns, not to mention what could happen if you actually consume your final product. Use your head, be careful and be safe.

True Blue Guy7/26/2010

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INTRODUCTION

Anything alcoholic can be distilled, everything from homemade moonshine washes to jug wine purchased at the local liquor store. Distillation is actually quite simple. The hard part is making sure you are getting ethanol and not methanol (or the like). In this instructable I will show how to make a wash, fermented it and consequently--the most important part--how to distill it.

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FFERMENTATIONERMENTATION

We will be using a sugar water solution to create a wash which will then be distilled to a neutral spirit. Dissolve about 2~2.5 kg of sugar in 10~11 liters of water (not an exact formula, play around a bit) and then let it cool to room temperature. This is about as basic a wash as you can get. Many more options are available for different flavor characteristics.  For instance, if you ferment molasses you will end up with rum.  If you ferment blue agave you will end up with tequila. We are looking for simplicity for a beginner and must run with this. It is the easiest to procure and make. Unfortunately white sugar creates a decidedly cidery flavor to the spirit, but much of that can be distilled out or masked by flavoring or blending.

The wash (fermentable solution, a.k.a. sugar water) is then poured into a clean carboy (big glass bottle, see pic). After that 'pitch' the yeast (dump yeast into wash) and then cap the carboy with an airlock (see pic). Now we wait. Depending on yeast, temperature, amount of digestible materials, etc., a couple of weeks are usually good. At this point yeast is eating sugar and excreting carbon dioxide and alcohol. Give it some time. Let it work. When the bubbles stop (and look close) it's done.  If it is still bubbling, let it go.  The two week time is just a very rough estimate.  It will vary for everyone.

If the bubbles have slowed considerably, taste a bit. If it is sweet, let it go a bit longer.

The process of fermentation depends on the temperature at which the wash is kept the ideal temperature for fermentation, i.e. max production by yeast is 25-30°C. However, keep in mind, the biochemical process of fermentation itself creates a lot of residual heat which can take the wash out of the ideal temperature range. After 40°C the fermentation process declines rapidly.

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DDISTILLATIONISTILLATION

BBASICSASICS

At sea level, water boils at 100 °C (212 °F) but alcohol boils at 78 °C (172 °F). During distillation, the vapour is richer in alcohol than the liquid. When this vapour is condensed, the resulting liquid contains a higher concentration of alcohol.

Each type of alcohol (methanol, ethanol, etc.) boils off at a different temperature. This is the basis for distillation.  by using a little bit of scientific knowledge and a pen and paper, you can find out exactly what is coming out of your still.  this is very important and should not be overlooked.

As you run your solution through the still, every 30 seconds to 1 minute record the temperature of the solution in the pot. when the temperature remains the same for any length of time it will produce what is known as a 'plateau' on a time vs. temperature graph (if you were to actually graph it out). each temperature plateau will correspond to the boiling point of a specific liquid in your solution and can therefore be identified and either retained or discarded. 

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TTHEHE STILL STILL

A pot still is a type of still used in distilling spirits such as whisky or brandy. Heat is applied directly to the pot containing the wash (e.g. for whisky) or wine (for brandy). This is called a batch distillation (as opposed to a continuous distillation).

We will be making a pot still. It is a very basic design, but can be reasonably efficient. There are many variations on pot stills and many other types of stills. Some more advanced some less. This will be fine for our purposes, though.

You'll Need :-

A tea kettle A medium sized thermos A cork stopper that fits the kettle mouth(I used rubber, but cork is safer, use that.) Copper tubing A pipe cutter Tubing couplers A thermometer Various other tools and what not

Okay, let's get down to business

Drill two holes in the stopper, one to fit the copper tubing and one for the thermometer. We are using a digital cooking thermometer with a wire probe, but analog thermometers will work as well. Drill the holes just a bit smaller than the tube and thermometer probe to make sure you have a tight fit.  We don't want any leaks.

The stopper will fit in the spout of the kettle a la the photo. Your tube should be out of the liquid to capture the vapors and your thermometer probe should be immersed in the water, but NOT touching the bottom or sides of the kettle. The kettle will get hotter than the liquid and skew your results. You only want the temperature of the liquid.

The copper tube should be long enough to connect to the condenser (attach a coupler on the end).

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THE WHOLE SETUP OF THE HOMEMADE POT STILL WITH CONDENSER…..

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TTHEHE CONDENSERCONDENSER

The condenser takes a bit of finagling. Whatever the inside diameter of your thermos is, you want to find something like a 500ml soda bottle or some suitable tube-like thing that is a bit smaller and wrap your copper tubing around it to make a neat little spiral (careful, copper kinks easily). Tube benders are available. They are basically big springs that slide over the tube and allow you to bend without kinking. Filling the tube with salt, sugar, or even sand can work as well. Just be really careful and bend slowly and it works fine.

The bottom end of the spiral exits through a hole cut in the lower side of the thermos. The top will exit a hole cut in your thermos lid. Seal the area around the exiting tube at the bottom and seal it well and let it dry completely before you use it. Test it before you go full throttle, as well.

Thread the top of the copper through the hole in the center of the lid (if it is a screw type you want to be able to unscrew the lid to fill and empty) and attach an appropriate coupler that marries with the one coming from the pot. Spend a little time in the plumbing department of your local hardware store and I'm sure you'll find something that will work.

Just do not use anything that contains lead. Very important!

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IIMPLEMENTATIONMPLEMENTATION

Fill your condenser with ice and water (a little salt wouldn't hurt either, lowers temperature - think ice cream). Attach the copper tube coming from the pot to the tube from the condenser with the couplers. Place something under the spout to catch your shine and go to town. It may be good to have more than one receptacle.

Now we need some heat. Back in the day people would use wood fires, gas stoves, basically anything they could get their hands on. Dangerous! Play it safe, open flames are not good around a still, alcohol vapors are very flammable! Precise temperature control of your heat source is not necessary. The solution will take care of that. Electric heat is the best.

Check the previous big pic. We’re using an electric stove, works great. You can see how we have it set up and I hope it all makes sense now. You load your wash into the kettle/pot, apply some heat and condense the results. 

Pour your wash into the kettle. Place the stopper into the spout. turn on the heat. Watch the thermometer. alcohol boils at a temperature lower than water and that's what makes distillation work. Exact temperature will vary depending on elevation and barometric pressure, but water boils at around 212 °F or 100°C while ethanol boils at around 173 °F or 78.3°C.  Methanol, that can make you blind and is what you really want to avoid, boils around 148 °F or 64.5°C. While running your wash, watch for plateaus (when the temperature stays the same for a while -- forms a plateau if you graph it) on your thermometer and compare them to known boiling temperatures to ensure you get only what you want and leave the rest.

Basically if you begin to distill, the temperature reaches a certain point and remains there for any length of time you have reached the boiling temperature for a particular liquid component of your wash. Check the temperature against the boiling point data you have researched and you can tell what it is you are distilling at the time. Using this information you can discard anything other than ethanol. No matter what a solution contains, it will not boil at a temperature any higher than what the level of the component with the lowest boiling temperature is until that component is boiled away.

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An Example

If your solution contains methanol, ethanol and water it will happen like this: once the temperature of your solution reaches around 148 °F or 64.5°C methanol will begin to boil and come out through your tube as vapor into your condenser where it will convert back to liquid and exit into your receptacle.  The temperature of your solution will not vary much beyond 64.5°C until the methanol is gone and then will begin to climb again until it reaches 173 °F or 78.3°C, the boiling point of the ethanol. The same thing will happen here. The temperature will hover around the same until the ethanol is boiled off and then on to water. 

In order to get ethanol and exclude the rest you get rid of what are called the 'heads' and 'tails', basically dump anything that boils lower than around 173 °F or 78.3°C and everything after the temperature begins to climb again. This is why I mentioned having more than one receptacle. Use one for the heads, one for what you want and one for the tails.

So once you've boiled off and then condensed your wash, you should be left with a solution, containing a much higher alcohol content than what you started with.  You will still get a bit of water, but that's okay. Running the product through the still again will further extract ethanol and raise the proof number.

A bit of trivia: The “X” ‘s often seen on moonshine bottles in old cartoons, etc. represent the amount of runnings, or how many times it was distilled.

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You should've achieved a blue flame from the wash after a first run with this set up. You may or may not need to run the wash more than once. Anything over about 150 proof or 75% v/v will burn. That's a pretty good result from a single run. Running more will get you to the desired result of 190.