/diy/ - Do It Yourself

>>1411543
Yes and no, in most states distilling in non-commercial (small) amounts is ok as long as you don't sell it or give it away in most states. Most laws are pretty ambiguous so it's really up to the authorities whether to charge you or not if they catch wind of it. Pretty much the same with weed, growing small amounts is ok but sell a single ounce and they'll throw the book at you. At least here

I used to do it. Never got arrested or anything, but the atf actually sent me a nasty letter saying they know what I'm doing and I need to stop.

Turns out one of the online places I bought some supplies from turned over all their records to the government, and ratted me out. I still get ad emails from those dicks.

I stopped after that, but honestly I kind of lost interest in it anyway. It's a painfully long, kind of expensive process.

>>1411543
It's probably okay if you don't sell it to people

>>1411543
Done extensive research.

Just pretend like it is back when weed was illegal. Same thing. You can have a closet with a few plants and while illegal nobody will fuck with you.

Keep it under like a 5 gallon mash and simple still and you should be fine.

If you break it out at parties just make up a fake relative. Then if word gets arou d you can be like lie detector test me faggots i aint got an uncle Toby

>>1411543
Oh. And state laws exist and might help or hurt you if busted

But shine is a federal law.

You could get an ethinal permit but then uncle sam knows exactly wtf u are doing

Good luck. If u descide to do it male a thread

>>1411543
I live in California. Bear, mead, wine, they don't give a shit unless you are selling. There are homebrew shops all over the place.

Liquor is a different story. While I have never heard of anyone getting screwed for doing small batches for personal use I know for a fact people have gotten their nuts put in a vice for selling the stuff. I local college frat house got hit some years back. They were selling homemade stuff at parties and the ringleader actually did time in county and got expelled.

>>1411543
don't ever sell it. give it away, but never sell it.

if anyone asks, you are making bio-fuel.

>>1411543
Don't mass produce it, shut up about it, don't buy a still because that'll really put you on the radar, and if possible store it in cheap vodka bottles so it at least looks legitimate at first glance.
Basically if you never tell a soul, do it on a hot plate in your kitchen, and your asshole neighbors aren't spying on you it should be fine. Look up a reverse pot still, uses a big ol' crock pot and a bowl full of ice to distill. Makes it very hard to do cuts but if you're shining you're really only worried about the foreshots.
Even then you can distill just a sugar wash, no pectin or other stuff so there's no methanol production.
Just remember, ain't nothing illegal until you get caught.

>>1411543
The ATF will bust you for not paying taxes on it. They do actually enforce alcohol laws sometimes, between burning children and shooting dogs.

>>1411543
While individuals of legal drinking age may produce wine or beer at home for personal or family use, Federal law strictly prohibits individuals from producing distilled spirits at home (see 26 United States Code (U.S.C.) 5042(a)(2) and 5053(e)). Producing distilled spirits at any place other than a TTB-qualified distilled spirits plant can expose you to Federal charges for serious offenses and lead to consequences including, but not necessarily limited to, the following:

Within title 26 of the United States Code, section 5601 sets out criminal penalties for activities including the following. Offenses under this section are felonies that are punishable by up to 5 years in prison, a fine of up to $10,000, or both, for each offense.
5601(a)(1) – Possession of an unregistered still.
5601(a)(2) – Engaging in business as a distiller without filing an application and receiving notice of registration.
5601(a)(6) – Distilling on a prohibited premises. (Under 26 U.S.C. 5178(a)(1)(B), a distilled spirits plant may not be located in a residence or in sheds, yards, or enclosures connected to a residence.)
5601(a)(7) – Unlawful production or use of material fit for production of distilled spirits.
5601(a)(8) – Unlawful production of distilled spirits.
5601(a)(11) – Purchase, receipt, and/or processing of distilled spirits when the person who does so knows or has reasonable grounds to believe that Federal excise tax has not been paid on the spirits.
5601(a)(12) – Removal or concealment of distilled spirits on which tax has not been paid.
>https://www.ttb.gov/spirits/home-distilling.shtml

I just bought most of the supplies but, >>1411623
kind of scares me. Though state laws say it's fine for personal consumption, so idk what local police would do even if my neighbors called the police or something.

>>1411616
>Even then you can distill just a sugar wash, no pectin or other stuff so there's no methanol production.
Yeah I read somewhere that this is totally a myth from people mixing with antifreeze and that only trace amounts of methanol will be present with any booze. But idk, better safe than sorry, should I worry about that if I use franzia?

I remember granpa making a still out of copper tubing and a huge pot with a lid that the tubing was attached to. It didn't use cold water just coiled a bunch of times. They used corn, yeast, sugar and water if I remember right let that shit get nasty af then boiled it

many years ago we did some ghetto rigs. My buddies have gone commercial now so that's fun. I know a lot of the local liquor producers and I think every single one started on their own in the garage at some point

>>1411543
A lot of solid advice already, but I'll add to it.
As long as you aren't selling it, you will probably be fine. Selling makes it more likely for you to be found out and also carries much more severe penalties. But distilling without a permit is illegal under federal law and almost all state laws except Missouri iirc. Additionally, it may be illegal in your state to even own an unregistered still.
It is very unlikely someone is going to bother arresting and prosecuting someone with a still less than 5 gallons in capacity. But they still could. So make sure you don't give them a reason for example not paying parking tickets etc. And be sure if you share with friends you trust them. I heard one story (online) of a man's ex-wife ratting him out to the cops.
>>1411658
There's tons of online resources out there, I would recommend the home distiller forum. If you are distilling a wine I would recommend searching their forums - wines can actually have quite a bit of methanol. The problem is when you distill this will concentrate all of the methanol in the first stuff to come out of the still - if you then drank that without mixing, that would be bad. Common practice is to throw out the first liquid that comes out of the still - I usually throw out the first 2% when distilling corn meal/sugar, but you may want to throw out more if you are distilling a wine.

>>1411561
what was the online seller? Was it clawhammer supply?

>>1411566
yeah if you get the fuel ethanol permit you're subject to random inspections on your property, don't do it pretty much signing away your 4th amendment

>>1411785
Biggest and most probable issue would be if any neighbor ever caught a whiff or a peak of the process and thought you were cooking up a batch of meth.

>>1411623
Whiskey Rebellion when?

>>1412269
That happened to me because I etch metals with muriatic acid and wear a Tyvex suit and respirator helmet and looked totally 'Breaking Bad' when the cops came to my garage.

We had a good laugh after I explained everything and showed them my shop, proving I wasn't cooking crystal.

>>1412278
Must be nice to have amiable police officers. I had a no-knock search warrant where 20 armed police busted down my door at 3am and held a rifle to both me and my husbands head for three hours for cucumber plants a sherif saw while driving by.

>>1412223
Nah, it was Brewhaus.

The legality of it all is pretty confusing anyway. I talked to a lawyer about it once, and he basically said that moonshining just for yourself seems to be both legal and illegal at the same time. there's laws that say you can do it, and there's laws that say you can't on the federal level, without getting into the whole mess of state and local laws too.

Basically, if the government wants to go after you for it, they will. I used to think i was just a small time guy, literally making a few liters a year or so for personal use, but they definitely went after me. Or...at least said they'd go after me if I didn't knock it off.

>>1412385
>there's laws that say you can do it, and there's laws that say you can't on the federal level, without getting into the whole mess of state and local laws too.
I thought it was only state laws that say you can? And tons of different federal laws prohibit it?
My initial plan was to just do this outside in my yard, but maybe I'll do it in my barn with a hot plate instead...

Anyway I did a half ass attempt at distilling water last night. It didn't work because I used hot glue to attach the pipe to the pot lid which melted (no shit huh). And steam also kept escaping from the lid, even though I had 15lbs of weights on it. I think it got slightly deformed from drilling it, I'll hopefully be able to seal it with flour paste otherwise I need to rig something up that sits on it better.

Tbh I'm just going to distill water and maybe some herb oils until I feel comfortable with the whole process start to finish until considering the real deal. (And because intent matters, no I would never produce ethanol with my equipment because I'm a good law abiding citizen. Waco was a hoax.)

>>1412391
>I thought it was only state laws that say you can? And tons of different federal laws prohibit it?

It's like the IRS tax code. It says both and neither and all and none at the same time. It's up to the government to interpret and determine when they'll use it.

It definitely is in your best interest to keep it as low key as you can, no matter what you think the law is.

Like weed is getting legal in most places, but the feds are still busting weed growers from time to time, so try not to be that guy....i guess. No real easy answers here.

Shit I don't know how I missed these
>>1411671
Nice I saw a reddit thread that said you could just have a pipe horizontally attached and no coil even. They speculated you'd be capped at 40% abv maximum this method.

>>1411673
Cool was the pressure cooker necessary for keeping the seal tight? And was that pressure sealed or just placed on? My problem first try was steam leaking out (this was distilling water and no ice/water in the condenser either) so I bought a few vice grips and I'll try again, but there isn't much lip for them to attach to, so idk how well it will work.

And that's cool you're friends have gone legit. Honestly seems like an untapped market for craft distillers, everyone owns a brewery, hardly any small scale gin or whisky places.

>>1411785
Thanks man, I was planning on distilling whine first go. But I might as well make my own mash since my dad used to make his own wine and still has most of the equipment.

>>1412480
They'll be making rum and another odd spirit, not sure how specific they'd want me to be.

pressure cooker was just more convenience, it was a huge hassle to get anything good out of that POS. eventually we made a better one out of a milk canister

>>1411551
>Yes and no, in most states distilling in non-commercial (small) amounts is ok as long as you don't sell it or give it away in most states

This is absolutely not true. That's only for beer, wine, mead and the like. Almost every state has laws against distilling alcohol for human consumption / non-feul alcohol.

This is a ridiculous common misconception. The laws ARE most definitely not easy to read but they are not ambiguous, unless you are in one of like 3 states it's absolutely illegal even for your own use if you consume it.

That being said, most states allow you to ferment alcohol, and most states allow you to posses a still. You're just not allowed to distill alcohol. If you keep it to yourself and don't start a big business noone will give a fuck. If you flaunt it, sell it, or blow yourself up then expect to be buttfucked by the long dick of the law.

>>1411653
The thing is don’t brag about it. As long as no one knows, the odds of getting busted are slim. (Everyone loves to play cop in America). I have been growing weed for ten years and no one knows, it’s legal here now, and still I keep my mouth shut.

DO NOT BUY A STILL EVER, IT WILL GET YOU ON A LIST. Shit's easy to build, just buy a few parts here and there and don't say a fucking word to anyone.

If you use a mash that can produce methanol, pour off the heads so you don't kill yourself. Also use a hotplate, and don't have an open flame around the still or you won't be making alcohol very long.

If you're a pussy or complete idiot go into beer or wine making, it's legal so you can ask all of your gay questions in public brew supply stores and they will be happy to sell you $20 plastic tubes and shit you don't need.

>>1412391
Dude, stop. You are Fucking retarded, and distillation isn't for retards. Start boiling off ethanol when your hot glue bullshit melts and see what happens when all those ethanol fumes hit your burner. I've never 'shined alone, but did it for years with my dad as a kid in a 40 gallon turnip top my family has had for a looong time. You're going to die of 3rd degree burns instead.

>>1411543
wow. i guess prohibition really did a number on you americans.
just shoot the government away if they try to get you for it.

>Land of the free
>Not even allowed to distill for personal use

kek

>>1411543
I make a couple of gallons a year with my pot still. No issues so far.

>>1412340
What state? I want to know so I never move there.

>>1413845

>DO NOT BUY A STILL EVER, IT WILL GET YOU ON A LIST. Shit's easy to build, just buy a few parts here and there and don't say a fucking word to anyone.

Keep in mind, I did this. I built my own still with shit I bought from hardware stores and plumbing supply places. Then after a few years I got a little tired of my piece of shit beer keg boiler, and bought a new stainless steel boiler from an online place, immediately got a fucking letter from the feds saying they know what I'm up to.

>If you use a mash that can produce methanol, pour off the heads so you don't kill yourself

Methanol is pretty blown out of proportion when it comes to distilling, it's really no big concern at all if you do anything even half right. In any case if you throw away your first 100 ml or so it'll reduce risk to 0 anyway.

Buford, Georgia?

>>1414047

Hey, I know you!

Can't you go to a muffler shop and have them weld you a still if you won't weld your own?

>buy denatured 96 alcohol containing only ethanol and benzalkonium chloride
>benzalkonium isn't volatile
>distill with shit still first run 96% vol
>mix 1:1 with tap water
>sell to teens as vodka

This greentext story is an absolute fabrication, only a fool would take it as a fact or as a real occurence, it's fictional.

>>1414384
You wouldn't weld a still. The still itself is usually made out of copper. It could be stainless steel if you're really fancy, but SS is significantly more expensive, and much harder to weld. You couldn't weld either without a tig welder, or at least a mig and a hell of a lot of experience welding both. Highly doubtful any muffler shop will have the equipment to do it.

Copper stills just have the joints soldered, like any normal plumber would.

>>1414394
big if true

>>1414407
Real copper stills are welded and yes the muffler shop wont be able to weld it. There are only a couple shops in the usa that have fabricators certified to weld copper and at those shops are only a handful of fabricators who do it well. That is for both main styles of stills column and pots. I have built and worked on a couple hundred stills all of which are welded and all couplings are welded on. no solder no brazing all gtaw welded that includes the silicon bronze to copper,stainless to copper and brass to copper(which sucks donkey balls). But Im in the louisville area so there was and is still plenty of work in the distillery industry. Even more so since the microdistillery movement has taken off.I worked on the first microdistillery still that started the movement(ole smokey). So yeah I would weld it together.

>>1412391
>hot glue
>Being this retarded
You are the fucking reason distilling alcohol is illegal. Stop before you seriously hurt yourself or others...

>>1411616
If bigger go under ground, alone, and become a fake or real prepper. Lined food grade industial tubs mart "potable water" and stash as much as u want.

In all honestly if i wasnt affraid of drinking myself to death i would start lining 100 gallon oil tanks and filling them with shine

>>1411623
This guy gets it.

Just like when Colorado made weed legal. The feds can BTFO you at any time but they probably wont.

Ffs a vietnam vet in oklahoma got like 45 years for 15 plants in his basement. Only 6 full grown and the rest were little testing experiments and male/female sorting. Bow the mutherfuckers are going to legalize medical.

>>1411653
Anon, i live in bumbfuck oklahoma.

Pay cash at multiple small town hardware stores an diy it. I have bought like 100 quart jars and fed some to the cops in a small "poker night" type party.

The problem as usual is retards. The first bit is equal to wasp venon and can blind you. And that green shit that grows in copper pipes can kill u.

Watch 100 hours of top viewed youtube, dump the first and last bit out, and run vinegar after every single cycle and good to go.

Automotive probe cameras ar under 100 bucks and you can snake the whole coil and look for that green shit

>>1411673
This makes me happy. My best friend and me were planing on building a rig in an old workshead at his grandpa's place.

...then he an hero.

Sad as it is i want to diy a few smaller scale and have our other best friend help.

>>1411785
Fucks sake i got an idea op. Just collect everclear bottles at parties. Tell everyone ubmake cups or some other gay shit. Just put shine in those

>>1412227
Or you could set up a dummy still and make a real one

>>1411653
>>1412278
KEK.

>be me
>small town all my life
>100% certainty can blindfold myself and guess normal tomatoes from gay ass nasy hydroponic shit.
>get a 1 acre lot
>tomatofarm.jpg
>descide to get a jump on it and start them in winter indoors
>over $1,000 in the setup for tomatoes and peppers
>toss a shower curtin over windows because free and idgaf about looks.
>cops knock on door
>anon we see the weed from our fucking office wtf are you doing.

Mfw the cop shop is on the 3rd story of a building one block away look8ng directly at my house.

Mfw electric bill triple

Mfw shower curtain blocked seemingly 0 light

Mfw the sun is shining all night every night at the cops for 6 months

Mfw 8 man raid and (thank fuck childhood bro knocked instead of kick door in.)

Mfw the cops busted me and my tomatoe farm

Mfw 6 months latter throw a potluck at the copshop and give everyone salsa.

>>1413838
Most common way to suicide yourself is pis ignorsnt retard faggots.

Get a rural bro and set up a dummy propane tank. Get it filled and only hook on and refill you tanks about what the average houshold uses.

USE REGULATORS.

These idiots back in the day wouldnt use regulators and shit eould freeze up and stop flowing in the middle of summer. Even stupider these faggots would light a fire under it to warm it up.

90% of us aren't going past 3 wead burner setups.

>>1413845
True story. Wife was into making wine. Super easy and if you mix half juice back into it then you can actually drink it

>>1414019
Land of the sheeple.

Took me almost 30 years to see the light. Redpill meme.

That baled faggot in the Matrix was right. Ignorance is bliss.

Now my anxiety is over 200 percent

>>1414407
LEAD FREE SOLDER ONLY OR

F

>>1412278
KEK.

>be me
>small town all my life
>100% certainty can blindfold myself and guess normal tomatoes from gay ass nasy hydroponic shit.
>get a 1 acre lot
>tomatofarm.jpg
>descide to get a jump on it and start them in winter indoors
>over $1,000 in the setup for tomatoes and peppers
>toss a shower curtin over windows because free and idgaf about looks.
>cops knock on door
>anon we see the weed from our fucking office wtf are you doing.

Mfw the cop shop is on the 3rd story of a building one block away look8ng directly at my house.

Mfw electric bill triple

Mfw shower curtain blocked seemingly 0 light

Mfw the sun is shining all night every night at the cops for 6 months

Mfw 8 man raid and (thank fuck childhood bro knocked instead of kick door in.)

Mfw the cops busted me and my tomatoe farm

Mfw 6 months latter throw a potluck at the copshop and give everyone salsa.

>>1414490
The average home copper still isn't going to be welded, nor is there any real reason to, unless you just happen to have easy access to a tig welder and plenty of experience at welding.

>>1414540
If you need to be told to use lead free solder in this situation you probably shouldn't be fucking around with it in the first place.

>>1411551
This.
You can drink it. Just don't think of using it as motor vehicle fuel. You'd be taking money out of the pockets of BP and Exxon shareholders.

Won't someone please think of the CEOs?

>>1414533
kek, now you can grow herbs and be ignored

>>1414713
The average home still is a modified pressure cooker. hell if you wanted to be safe your could use your water heater. So there is no need for a full copper still since you would be running a copper coil into the "cooling tower" or a thumper barrel( bucket). so why waste the time and money on a copper still that isnt welded when a pressure cooker will work just as well if not better and will be safer. They are cheap and readily available.

>>1415723
...because copper would be the easiest material to make a full sized still out of.

If you're talking about little faggy pot still to fit in your kitchen, you could slap whatever together, sure, but copper would be the safest, cheapest, and easiest material to work with for anything decently sized.

>>1411609
Best reply so far. And if anyone asks, you bought ever clear and are playing chemist.

>>1414525
>not setting up a dummy craft distillery to make that good ol' mountain dew.

>>1414533
Do you have a permit for those tomatoes?

>>1411543
>Will I get arrested distilling alcohol in freedom land?
Depends on how many communists are on the supreme court. Right now we have 3 of them, so you're probably safe.

>>1416343
Kill yourself, neoliberal.

>>1416387
anon, I don't think you understand. The leftists are the communists.

>>1416412
I understand perfectly. Capitalists are cucks and liberals are not leftists. Americans are ignorant fucking children who can't understand reality and you should kill yourself for sucking oligarch cock on your way back to the cancer ward >>>/pol/

>>1412391
You absolutely have to get your still properly soldered. Peoole have blown themselves to pieces using half assed shit

>>1412385
What would you need that can't be bought locally with cash that is exclusively for distilling that the ATF could know your intentions?

Not worth it outside of the diy fun factor.

>>1416417
Well, capitalism fuels society and anyone ce rer or left is an absolute piece of shit cumguzzler that should have been shot on the sheets

>>1414823
Keep your fucking corn juice away from my motors

>>1416327
Lol, been considering buying a bunch of fake pot plants and filling the room with 5 gallon buckets just to fuck with them

>>1414823
That's not the motivation. It's about commie niggers and control.
Look into the absolute kangaroo court decision in Wickard v. Filburn

>>1411543
Just don't put the still out in the front yard and youll be alright.

>>1416771
Nah, Wilford Brimley is your friend, anon.