/diy/ - Do It Yourself

[nig No.366906]

Anyone here have any experiece home distilling? I want to try and make a small batch but i dont know shit about shit

[Anonymous No.366909]

if you use only sugarwater as a base, you dont run a risk of giving yourself methanol poisoning.
might be a good idea for the first try.

[nig No.366919]

have you made it before? i thought you needed the strartches and yeast from the cornmeal or whatever grain you use in your mash

[Anonymous No.366943]

you just need glucose to make alcohol, where it comes from doesnt matter. you gotta add the yeast seperately anyway.
sugarwater is the most basic method, from there you can go to juice and whole fruit.
but with those you gotta watch out for methanol.

[Anonymous No.366960]

Or try....Potatoes, Rice, or something else.

http://gizmodo.com/5972735/

[Anonymous No.366980]

>>366909
Methanol poisoning comes from brewing conditions that are anything less than completely sterile.

[Anonymous No.366985]

>>366980
Re: Methanol, if you throw away 100ml of the foreshots (200-300ml if pot still) there is no problem.

Try here OP:
http://homedistiller.org/intro
And here:
http://www.blueridgeinstitute.org/moonshine/index.html

I'm in the process of building a reflux still at the moment, those two website amongst others have set me on the right track for near enough everything.

[Anonymous No.367047]

>>366980
no goddamnit
methanol is not created from sugar or starch, those are mostly metabolized into ethanol.
methanol is metabolized from pektine, which is only found in fruit, especially potatoes.

[Anonymous No.367060]

why are you faggots hating on methanol?
it can be used for fuel

[Popcorn's Ghost No.367107]

google sugar wash

also
your fuel alcohol will come out of your still in 3 sections
heads, hearts, tails

heads is methanol, and is toxic
hearts is ethanol
tails is water and biomass

collect fuel in mason jars and number them as you fill them
run your still til it makes a skunky bread smell.

throw away or label the heads as toxic
save the tails to put in your thump keg

Put a little lemon juice in the wash before you run it to keep the wash from destroying your copper and running blue

you also need some broken porcelain bits in the bottom of the boiler

make sure to just run water through your shit to clean it

use a dough paste as gasket and to seal leaks

dont use anything but porcelain, stainless, copper, and non toxic wood to construct your shit

DAP can be replaced with raisins

your thump keg doesn't need to have anything in it, but it can

[Anonymous No.367112]

>>367047
potatoes are not fruit.

[Anonymous No.367116]

>>367047

Potato fruits are toxic and will kill you if consumed in any form. Starch filled Potato "potatoes" are actually modified potato stems.

[Anonymous No.367120]

>>367116
>>367112
oh cmon you know what im talkin about, dunno what the english term is. vegetables?
point is plant matter. it gets worse when you cheap out and for example add stems and leaves to the grapes when making wine.

[Anonymous No.367204]

>>367112
you can make alcohol with potatoes, haven't you heard of potato vodka?

[Anonymous No.367213]

>>367204
you can, but theres alot of methanol created in the process. if you fail with the distillation you get poison
its not really hard to make good vodka, you just gotta know what youre doing

[Anonymous No.367228]

>>367060
It also fucks up your brain and makes the south look bad.

[Anonymous No.367258]

You can't make methanol from using any of the mentioned ingredients.

To make methanol you need to "dry-distill" wood.
Any other claims should come with references.
PS: Those "moonshiners" series on American TV is shit.


Sincerely, a chemist

[Anonymous No.367262]

>>367120
No friend, you must be precise with certain plants. Potatoes belong to the nightshade family, the entire plant is poisonous if handled incorrectly. Many people take it for granted that potato tubers are edible.

Potato plants do produce small fruits, they are poisonous. Potato leaves are poisonous. Potato stems, which swell and become tubers, are known as the potato vegetable but they too can become poisonous when exposed to prolonged periods of sunlight. Only the swollen tubers dug up from under ground and kept in a dark place are edible.

[Anonymous No.367276]

>>367258

Dear chemist,
as you most likely know, fermentation is a complex process and that fruits contain all kinds of chemicals. Some of those, particularly pectins, hydrolyze or ferment producing small amounts of methanol. For example, (unfermented) apple juice contains methanol because of the hydrolyzed pectins. You don't need to believe me, just google it.

I agree that people, particularly Americans, tend to greatly exaggerate the methanol problem.

[Nig No.367299]

>>366906
Im using cornmeal and champane yeast

[Anonymous No.367357]

>>367258
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF02605383?LI=true#page-1
sincerely, a biologist

[Anonymous No.367528]

As someone who has had the chance to try the results from a plain sugar wash, I have to say that seems like the way to go. I would recommend using turbo yeast or some kind of distillers yeast though. If you try to use just regular yeast on a sugar wash you're going to want to add a lot of yeast nutrient like fermaid-k and go-ferm.

[Anonymous No.367647]

don't know, sir.
in polish it's very popular as bimber or samogon.

http://static.polter.pl/sub/_bB3416.jpg

[Anonymous No.367671]

here ya go buddy, have some love.

[Anonymous No.368118]

sup dude, this is my still. it's designed for roughly pure ethanol runs, but I think in theory it could make such liquors as whiskey or tequila. I have never tried it. I just make straight "moonshine," which is to say I make around 180 proof or higher alcohol. It's easy to add essences if you want a particular flavor, thought I usually just add it to mixed drinks for a higher effect.
ask away. I will check back every so often.

[Anonymous No.368149]

>>368118
How did you learn how to make ethanol?

[Anonymous No.368665]

>>368149
I am a chemical engineer. I started distilling as a summer hobby to get hands on experience with distillation. The motivation was dirt cheap drinks.

[Anonymous No.368680]

Question: To make alcohol with no sugar or carbs would I have to distill my own whiskey or something? I have no idea how whiskey is made but I want to make my own alcohol at some point.

[Anonymous No.368691]

>>368680
>distill my own whiskey or something?

Yeah, that's a simple way to do it.
The question is, why the fuck would you do that?

[Anonymous No.368733]

>>368665
looks like rectification, not distillation. amirite bro?
sorry for my english

[Anonymous No.368749]

>>366909
Kilju produces methanol, but nice try.

[Anonymous No.369139]

Simple works fine for beginners: http://www.scribd.com/doc/50250604/The-World-s-Simplest-Still

[Anonymous No.369156]

Ok, so the questions to ask here is what you want to make and what you want to make it out of? There are two kinds of stills that the average home distillers uses to make his drink. The reflux/boka still which is used for vodka/fuel ethanol and the pot still used for whisky, schnapps, brandy and flavored alcohols in general.

[Anonymous No.369159]

>>368749
nope
l2biochemistry then try again
protip: start with >>367357

[Anonymous No.369168]

I want to share my knowledge as a home distiller but I just can't be fucked unless people seem genuinely curious about it.

[Anonymous No.369179]

>>369168
I've been semi-lurking this thread to see if anything productive comes of it, but if you shared your personal experience it would be upgrade to actually lurking. I've been looking to get into it, but everyone on here talks about it like everyone on /k/ talks about guns. That is to say that they read a book or some shit, but don't possess any actual hands on experience/knowledge. Your input would be welcomed by me, kind sir.

[Anonymous No.369258]

>>368118
Holy shit, fellow chemist here, and this is the first proper still I've seen posted on this board.

[Anonymous No.369292]

"chemist" here too. I made my still out of a pressure cooker and some copper tubing in a 5 gallon bucket. what would you like to know?

[Anonymous No.369293]

>>367228

no, the south makes the south look bad

[Anonymous No.369308]

>>369292
What've you made?
Was it hard to make the distillery?
Favourite thing youve distilled

Handy tips for wannabe distillers

[Anonymous No.369577]

>>368733
>rectification
No you are not correct. It is a true fractionating distillation column. That main pipe is stuffed with SS pot scrubbers, and there is a condenser coil nestled in the offset head.

The take-off line (right side in this picture) is closed until I decide the fractionation in the column is at steady state. From there, I can wean off little by little by opening the product valve (the return valve on the right is almost always open) so I know exactly what fluid I'm taking off (from the boiling/condensing temp)

>>369179
Ask away.

>>369258
Thanks, good to be appreciated!

>>369292
>pressure cooker
I hope not an aluminum one...

[Anonymous No.371105]

bamp

[Anonymous No.372104]

this is how people i know do shine just take it out when the water comes
http://www.ebay.com/itm/WATER-DISTILLER-Distillers-NEWST-MODEL-ON-MARKET-/150711800628?pt=Small_Kitchen_Appliances_US&hash=item23171f9334