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/diy/ - Do It Yourself

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579606 No.579606 [Reply] [Original]

Has anyone ever distilled their own liquor? if so can you explain your process/materials/etc?

>> No.579608

>>579606
Been making whiskey for over 5 years now.
I use a post still, similar to the on in your pic, OP.
Care to give more details on what you'd like to know? Process of what? Mash, fermenting, distillation? Same goes for materials.

>> No.579609

>>579608
Also, check out
http://homedistiller.org/forum/

>> No.579628

Once made some grappa with some buddies
process consisted of a kettle, some copper tubing inside a barrel and a propane burner
materials was a bunch of grape mash leftover from winemaking
ended up tasting like benzine

>> No.579636

Anyone ever use electricity to heat their mash?

>> No.579660

>>579636
I did it stove top before & I have an electric stove.

>> No.580593

sugar + turbo yeast = super cheap mash
put mash in pot, ferment, boil, distill.
make sure you catch the methanol separately.
catch ethanol, store in large container with activated charcoal for a month. filter through more charcoal slowly as you fill bottles with it.

>> No.580609

>>579606
If it doesn't burn blue, don't drink it.

>> No.580629

>>579636
yeah it's much safer. I do it in my kitchen. 20qt stainless steel pot. highest proof I've gotten is 130 out of a bad batch of wine.

>> No.580634

>>580629
>highest proof I've gotten is 130
is proof used my moonshiners as a stubborn tradition, or is it an american thing?

>> No.580637

>>580634
it's standard booze jargon. for some reason a half a percent is a unit. why not just use percent? I dont know.

>> No.580807

Hey, picking nits I know, but that thump keg in the OP pic is wrong.

The steam 'inlet' into the thump keg should be below the surface of the liquid.

Thump kegs are filled with either 'backins' (sweet water that comes off the still last) or some wash. The steam bubbling up through the liquid provides what is effectively a second distillation, raising the proof.

The pic shows what is known as a 'slobber box' , which only serves to catch solids or liquids forced through a still run shall we say 'indelicately', before they can get into the worm and create a stoppage (read: steam explosion in the making).

So I've been told.

>> No.580810

>>579606
Yes I have and your image there is good but the thumper is unnecessary

I made everything out of copper (expensive yes but you get what you pay for)

>> No.580811

>>580593
How can I tell when all of the methanol is cooked off? I know it will come out of the worm first but how can I tell when it's all gone

>> No.580813

>>580811
Discard the first one or two ounces (depending on the size of your still). Then just smell a few drops on a spoon, if it smells good, taste it, if it tastes good, start collecting into jars.

>> No.580817

>>580637
It comes from the days when instead of using a hygrometer to determine alcohol content, you would pour some of the alcohol onto gunpowder and if the gunpowder still ignited, the alcohol was "proofed" strong enough

>> No.580925

>>580634
Well if you plan on learning more about moonshining in articles or books, it's a good idea to learn the proper terminology and use it.

>> No.580928

>>579608
Whiskey seems like such an effort. Don't you have to age it for like 5 years?

>> No.580932

>>580928
not really. I normally make my whiskey off of bad batches of beer. A good ipa, and some oak wood chips and charcoal will taste great after 2 or 3 days. It will only get better with time. I'm sure it's different with crap materials.

>> No.580970

>>580811

When temperatures reach ethanols volatility? Methanol has a lower vaporization temperature and therefore should be the first shit that trickles out. You toss that and keep tossing it until it no longer smells like a solvent.

Generally, however, there isn't as much methanol in your mash as everyone thinks. The above process is enough to remove any dangerous amounts. The rest, if any, won't do anything.

If you're a pussy, filter with activated carbon.

>> No.580971

>>580928

Depends on what you're trying to accomplish. If you're trying to get drunk off of something you made on your own, then drink after cooling, really. If you're trying to refine it and make it into a serious hobby, think fine cooking, then you obviously take more time to make it right.

I've literally distilled, after the foreshots, right into a glass, added ice, and a bit of cranberry juice.

>> No.580995

I want to get into making my own mash and distilling. My housemate is pretty anti stuff like this. How hard is it to do with a hotplate in my room?

Also, how much liquor do you get from say 5 gallons of mash? I saw a video on youtube and it looked like the guy only got a mason jar from 5 gallons.

>> No.581000

>>580995
it all depends on alcohol content. turbo yeast and a lot of corn sugar for this helps. It would be pretty hard without a flow of water. I suggest using a shit ton of ice. I mean a lot of ice. When I first started and didn't use a flow setup I would use ice and would go through like five bags in one run. to answer your question out of 5 gallons and using whatever tails I have (usually 2qts) you can generate. 5 gallons of heart. And a quart of tails.

>> No.581003

>>581000
.5 gallons*

>> No.581004

>>581000
and trips

>> No.581078

http://m.instructables.com/id/Build-a-Lab-Quality-Distillation-Apparatus/
this design gets somewhat expensive with all the copper fittings, but it's compact and doesn't look like a meth lab when it's set up. Works pretty quickly too

>> No.581120

>>580817
>It comes from the days when instead of using a hygrometer to determine alcohol content, you would pour some of the alcohol onto gunpowder and if the gunpowder still ignited, the alcohol was "proofed" strong enough


By why by half-percents?

>> No.581134

>>581120
because this is 'merica. 12 inches in a foot, 16 cups in a gallon, and one proof Is a half percent

>> No.581154

>>579628
Making grappa is more likely to produce methanol and other nasties because of the woody pulp content of grape stems.

>> No.581175

>>580928
You can. Or stress age it.
It's still whiskey. They just age it for awhile to get the oak or whichever wood you choose it gives it a more mellow flavor.

>> No.581183

>>581120
Because 100 proof liquor would ignite the powder 100% of the time.

>> No.581946

>>580928
>years
Funny thing about it, to be economical commercial distilleries use large wooden barrels. Big barrels have comparatively less wood surface area to liquid, so their whiskey picks up oak flavors slower.

Somebody at home can stick a 7-8 inch piece of toasted or charred oak into a gallon and have a much higher oak:whiskey ratio, which will help the whiskey age faster (though this can easily be overdone).

The rest of aging is what we call 'the angel's share', and that's just evaporation, condensing flavors from the whiskey and what has been extracted from the wood. I reckon you could sit it out and let it evaporate a bit, but I don't know how that would work for you.

Somebody mentioned stress aging, and while it has received mixed reviews when done at home, it's well known that spirits produced in tropical climates (rum, etc) mature in the barrel faster than liquors stored in cooler climates.

>> No.581975

>>581946
yes but booze brewed more slowly tastes better. isnt rum what the teenagers drink with their coca leaf distilate pop drinks?

>> No.581985

>>581975
>bait.

'Better' is subjective. Rather, the more time the spirits are allowed to age the more complex they will be. We do have the ability to 'goose' the complexity of young whiskey a bit, however.

>While nothing will completely replace lengthy aging in full-size barrels, a few tricks can add depth quickly. One, borrowed from Scotch makers, is to “finish” a whiskey in used wine barrels for a few weeks, which allows some of the wine esters to seep into the liquid.

>Finger Lakes Distilling, in Burdett, N.Y., ages its delicious McKenzie Bourbon in 10-gallon barrels for 18 months, but then sets it aside for a few months more in used chardonnay barrels. As a result, the whiskey ages quickly, but also has some of the darker color and fruity, floral depth associated with older whiskeys.

Just sayin'

>> No.582049

>>581985
how do companies turn a profit storing whiskey for 20 years? that's a shitload of barrels they need to store somewhere. i've always had suspicions that the whiskey isnt actually aged that long.

>> No.582059

>>582049
By selling that stuff at high price. "Everyday" whisky isn't aged that long.

>> No.582060

>>582049
When they have a good run they pick a small amount to put into the long term stores. This will be aged for 10+ years. The bulk of the rest is quick aged to move it faster.
The longer aged stuff they sell for a premium.

For ex. I bought my father some Jack Daniels Rye whiskey. Non-aged. It was a special 1st run batch. They released some of it in the unaged form and they are putting the rest into storage. Some for 1yr, 5yr, 10yr, and a small batch for 20yrs. They then rotate out the stock as they make more of it.

>> No.582258

>>582049
When they price it they account for their cost and take into account supply and demand.

Note also that any reputable distillery would ruin their name by cheating on the barrel aging.

>> No.582264

>>582049
Also, when allowed by law (most spirits are defined by federal law in the US), distilleries trade and sell barreled spirits of different ages for blending or bottling under their own name. So while Distillery A may be putting bourbon up for 20 years, they can sell 4 year old bourbon to Distilleries B, C, and D to be bottled as their own brand of whiskey.

Weird stuff, eh?

>> No.583600
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583600

This looks like a good idea for the summer, think it's time to get the elbow grease out

Poitín is what we get locally:deliciouslY unreliable though

>> No.583603
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583603

>>580970
you dont need to waste good hooch. you can use a thermometer. methanol has a lower gas phase transition point that ethanol. methanol will evaporate at 64C and the temperature will not rise until all of the methanol has evaporated. you then have a few moments to switch to another container. when the temperature reaches about 78C ethanol will start to come out. phase change/latent heat.

>> No.583672

>>580593 you cant really seperate the methanol from the ethanol only bad aromas and water

>> No.583680

>>583603
This is a good approach if you like methanol.
If you on the other hand like to be sure you wont be killing anyone, i would suggest seeking out help from people that actually has some experience. (Not me, but i have at least some newbie tips)
For instance, you always throw away the first 50ml. Mostly because when your runs are 1l or more, you rather throw away too much then too little.

Distillation is not as simple as the pretty diagram shown above. The different fusels, water and alcohols makes bindings in the mash. This is why the temperature will never be that steady. This is also the reason you cant distill above 96%. (And the reason you will waste a lot of ethanol if you stop at 78C)

>>583672
This is an outright lie.

homedistiller org is a nice place to start gathering info.

Source: 5rd run rum newbie here.

>> No.583699

>>579606
isnt that both illegal, and highly dangerous?

>> No.583700

>>583699
>read as: fun

>> No.583783

>>583699
Only in some countries

>> No.583876

>>583699
Illegal only matters if you tell people or try to sell it. However, I advise you to obey the laws in your area.

Dangerous? Not really. Take common sense safety steps like check for and fix leaks, use safe materials, don't redistill without first diluting to 40% alc/vol or below, never leave a running still unattended, don't stick your finger in a light socket, etc.

If you're worried about methanol, blindness or whatever crazy shit people have been scaring the public with since prohibition, don't be.

Most of the methanol (and it shouldn't be more than a few dozen milliliters) comes out of the still first, along with most of the other unpleasant chemicals that have a low boiling point. Among those are acetone, methanol, esters, aldehydes and other volatiles. These are disposed of down the drain, or as charcoal lighter.

The good news is that foreshots are hard to miss, as their smell and flavor is so objectionable. Using your sense of smell you'll be able to determine when they're gone.

The rest of the run is just about deciding which flavor compounds you want to include in your spirit and in what proportion.

>> No.583880

>>583876
I forgot to mention the importance of a decent fire extinguisher, kept in good working order.