Does anyone do any home distilling?

[turtlespeed 212]

I'm new to it . . . about 5 batches . .

I'm not usually into the whole 3-way thing, but you got me a little excited with that. - Skymama
BTR #1 / OTB^5 Official #2 / Hellfish #408 / VSCR #108/Tortuga/Orfun

[Krip 2]

Hi turtlespeed

Are you talking about beer, wine, moonshine, or all three.?

We knew a guy at work that liked his beer, a lot. He liked it so much he couldn't afford the store bought stuff. So he started making his own beer, collecting the bottles bottle capper etc.

By the time we met him he never had to buy beer to quench his taste. He had multiple X gals container in different stages of the process. I never tried his home brew, but he was happy with his results and that's really all that counted.

We finally tried to make our own. Everything appeared to be going fine. We got our first batch bottled and stored in the basement. One day we started to hear explosions from the basement.

Somehow We knew better than to rush down to see what was going on, and calmly waited until the explosions stoped , waited some more for a safety factor then went down to the basement to investigate what happen.

We must have sealed the bottle caps to tight, and the explosions we heard were the necks of the bottles separating from the bottles. We never tried that again. I'm guessing due to,the extreme temperatures in the basement, the process hit a critical mass, like a runaway nuclear reactor.

The good news is you all have u tube these days. If people can learn to jump by watching u tube. You should be a able find a video to learn how to distill your own.
To produce a quality product.

Think about having a friend come over, jumping into a barrel of grapes barefoot. To squeeze out the liquid. Then you could help them clean the juice off their feet.

You can't use that line with beer or moonshine.

I'm almost afraid to ask you 5 batches of what?

R.I.P.

One Jump Wonder

[cgriff 0]

You DO know that home brewing is generally ok (up to a limit) but home distilling is generally forbidden by our benevolent masters in DC, right?

[justme12001 0]

100 gallons of beer or wine is the legal limit. I'm not sure if it 100 of each or 100 combined. I don't usually get anywhere close, so I don't worry to much about it.

Home distilling isn't exactly forbidden :) you just have to have a license. Anybody can get one if you are willing to pay for it! The smallest license in SC is $5,200 for a micro distillery, this allows you to produce 125,000 cases. Assuming a case is 12 bottles and each bottle is 750 ML, that is 1,125,000 liters of alcohol.

I think if you are making ethanol for fuel, you can get a cheaper license.

[turtlespeed 212]

justme12001

100 gallons of beer or wine is the legal limit. I'm not sure if it 100 of each or 100 combined. I don't usually get anywhere close, so I don't worry to much about it.

Home distilling isn't exactly forbidden :) you just have to have a license. Anybody can get one if you are willing to pay for it! The smallest license in SC is $5,200 for a micro distillery, this allows you to produce 125,000 cases. Assuming a case is 12 bottles and each bottle is 750 ML, that is 1,125,000 liters of alcohol.

I think if you are making ethanol for fuel, you can get a cheaper license.

I'm just distilling water.
They even sell home distillers that do just that. They are just too expensive.

I'm not usually into the whole 3-way thing, but you got me a little excited with that. - Skymama
BTR #1 / OTB^5 Official #2 / Hellfish #408 / VSCR #108/Tortuga/Orfun

[quade 3]

turtlespeed

I'm new to it . . . about 5 batches . .

Isn't there some danger of of doing something horribly wrong and going blind or something from the distillates if you don't get the temperatures right. I seem to remember something like that. Or maybe it's just a myth or something that really is only sort of possible, but got expanded by mythology.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[Krip 2]

turtlespeed

***100 gallons of beer or wine is the legal limit. I'm not sure if it 100 of each or 100 combined. I don't usually get anywhere close, so I don't worry to much about it.

Home distilling isn't exactly forbidden :) you just have to have a license. Anybody can get one if you are willing to pay for it! The smallest license in SC is $5,200 for a micro distillery, this allows you to produce 125,000 cases. Assuming a case is 12 bottles and each bottle is 750 ML, that is 1,125,000 liters of alcohol.

I think if you are making ethanol for fuel, you can get a cheaper license.

I'm just distilling water.
They even sell home distillers that do just that. They are just too expensive.

Turtlespeed

First time shame on you.

Second time shame on me.

Third time

One Jump Wonder

[Andy9o8 0]

Oh, I'm like you - between contact lenses and ironing all those shirts, we must to thru 20 gals of distilled water per month.

[Rick 67]

Andy9o8

Oh, I'm like you - between contact lenses and ironing all those shirts, we must to thru 20 gals of distilled water per month.

oh yeah and that humidor uses gallons of the stuff

You can't be drunk all day if you don't start early!

[Arvoitus 1]

quade

***I'm new to it . . . about 5 batches . .

Isn't there some danger of of doing something horribly wrong and going blind or something from the distillates if you don't get the temperatures right. I seem to remember something like that. Or maybe it's just a myth or something that really is only sort of possible, but got expanded by mythology.

When you use yeast to ferment some plants into alcohol the process will yield some methanol. Using pure glucose should result in very little if any amounts of methanol. Obviously since methanol has lower boiling point then ethanol, distilling this kind of ferment will initially produce a liquid high in methanol.

Your rights end where my feelings begin.

[justme12001 0]

The methanol is one of the problems, but it is easy to avoid with proper temp control, or as you said if you just use sugar and skip the whole corn or grain process.

The other place the going blind myth comes from is that in the bootlegger hay-day the moonshiners would use just about any copper coil they could get their hands on. So radiators and such were common, which are soldered with lead. Another reason was that people would use all sorts of nasties to stretch a batch. Wasn't uncommon to have turpentine mixed in

[quade 3]

justme12001

Wasn't uncommon to have turpentine mixed in

I still believe Jack Daniels is at least 50% turpentine.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[FlyingRhenquest 1]

quade

***Wasn't uncommon to have turpentine mixed in

I still believe Jack Daniels is at least 50% turpentine.

I had a Croatian co-worker bring some Croatian moonshine into the office once. I'm pretty sure it was MOSTLY turpentine. But that's OK because the turpentine improved the flavor

I didn't actually swallow any of it. That would have required WAAAY too much faith on my part.

I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

[xeroFokus 0]

Picked up supplies tonight for making our own hard cider! Pic:

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o240/fokusco/cider_zps0ee45b6a.jpg

(tried to ul the pic but got a message saying it was too big... It was only 1.8mb.., *shrugs* oh well)

My website:
BOSSruckus.com
Instagram:
XeroFokus

[turtlespeed 212]

xeroFokus

Picked up supplies tonight for making our own hard cider! Pic:

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o240/fokusco/cider_zps0ee45b6a.jpg

(tried to ul the pic but got a message saying it was too big... It was only 1.8mb.., *shrugs* oh well)

That's not illegal.

If you distill it into spirits . . . maybe not so much legal.

I'm not usually into the whole 3-way thing, but you got me a little excited with that. - Skymama
BTR #1 / OTB^5 Official #2 / Hellfish #408 / VSCR #108/Tortuga/Orfun

[Shotgun 1]

I was remarkably good at distilling in my o-chem class. It really was all about temperature and the right boiling point to separate what you want.

Now if someone could just teach me to drink the shit without turning into a freaking lunatic . . .

[JohnMitchell 14]

Krip

We got our first batch bottled and stored in the basement. One day we started to hear explosions from the basement.

I've done my share and more of home brew. You have to let the primary fermentation completely run its course, then add the correct amount of sugar for the bottling and secondary fermentation. I've never had any explosions.

[JohnnyMarko 1]

When I was pre-21 (which wasn't too long ago ) and living in the dorms, I used to take a gallon jug and fill it with water, yeast, sugar, and frozen fruit juice concentrate, the let it sit for a few weeks...tasted as bad as it sounds, but a $3 gallon of booze that gets you drunk was worth it...

Is that illegal?

[JohnMitchell 14]

Not in my book. We used to do similar back in junior high.

[Arvoitus 1]

JohnnyMarko

When I was pre-21 (which wasn't too long ago ) and living in the dorms, I used to take a gallon jug and fill it with water, yeast, sugar, and frozen fruit juice concentrate, the let it sit for a few weeks...tasted as bad as it sounds, but a $3 gallon of booze that gets you drunk was worth it...

Is that illegal?

If you use real orange juice and freeze it completely you won't need yeast, it'll ferment without, it just takes a decent amount of time (something like two weeks).

Your rights end where my feelings begin.

[ryoder 1,384]

Krip

We finally tried to make our own. Everything appeared to be going fine. We got our first batch bottled and stored in the basement. One day we started to hear explosions from the basement.

Somehow We knew better than to rush down to see what was going on, and calmly waited until the explosions stoped , waited some more for a safety factor then went down to the basement to investigate what happen.

We must have sealed the bottle caps to tight, and the explosions we heard were the necks of the bottles separating from the bottles. We never tried that again. I'm guessing due to,the extreme temperatures in the basement, the process hit a critical mass, like a runaway nuclear reactor.

Did you have something to do with this?

http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2014/10/09/Marijuana-infused-soda-explodes-on-store-shelves/4811412853193/

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

[justme12001 0]

Speaking of freezing and legality. I've seen many discussions going both ways about freeze distillation. Personally, I think that it should be legal.

The most common drink for freeze distillation is "old school" apple jack. You do your fermentation, then put it in a bucket and and stick it in a deep freezer for a couple days (or in a barrel outside in areas with a cold enough climate). You then scoop out the ice, and repeat this two or three times.

I'm sure you all know that alcohol doesn't freeze, so each time you remove the ice, you are removing only the water. So what is left is a nice strong liquor. You usually won't get anything as strong as a real liquor, usually something around a 40-60 proof

[Anvilbrother 0]

Ive heard that the Mr Distiller makes some really good water.....

http://www.milehidistilling.com/mr-distiller/

Postes r made from an iPad or iPhone. Spelling and gramhair mistakes guaranteed move along,

[24fps 1]

Did that in Junior high as well. Had a little side business selling it to my buddies. Made some with Cool-Aid.

Was that illegal?

something funny and unique