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bardo

home made alchol

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Hey y'all just wondering if anyone into home brew and distillery is keen on sharing some experiences and tips with someone wanting to get into it. 

I am thinking about getting a basic beer brewing kit and a small still like this https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/5GAL-18L-Stainless-Alcohol-Essential-Oil-Water-Distiller-Moonshine-Still-Set/301934028679?_trkparms=aid%3D555018%26algo%3DPL.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D52547%26meid%3D266afd7f91344ecbb2233e7b85d3c312%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D4%26rkt%3D12%26mehot%3Dag%26sd%3D292829002489%26itm%3D301934028679&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851 

 

Any feedback on this setup pros and cons and such ?

 

I haven't really done much research but if I made a mash or brew of about 20L consisting of 10% alcohol would my yield after distilling be 2L or is this optimistic and reality is far less rewarding ? 

 

I will research further soon but thought ill ask here first from someone who may have experience, i have heard the first x amount of distilled alcohol should be thrown away ? any further details on this or other advice for safety or harm reduction will be greatly appreciated. 

 

Any recipes and tips for mash or spirits and beer brewing etc very welcome and again appreciated, I have made some meads in the past and came out quite good but I have quite a liking for the spirits and am keen to save some dollars producing my own, Thanks in advance for any and all advice or help in the process : )

Cheers  

 

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I read that the first bit of alcohol that boils off is methanol which is the alcohol that will make you literally go blind which is where the term blind drunk comes from.  It has it's uses for cleaning, fueling some remote control vehicles, extracting drugs, etc.  which I only know because I fucked up a while back drunkingly purchasing it instead of ethanol.  So yeah I wouldn't throw it away but I'd definitely make sure to err on the side of caution and lose a bit of the good alcohol instead of risking having it contaminate the stuff I intended on drinking as well as wearing safety gear while handling it.  If memory serves only 10mL is enough to cause permanent health issues so if the recipe said the first 10% is methanol I'd go 15% just to be sure.  You really can't be too careful with something so toxic.

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yes I thought of bigred from when he did a rum giveaway, never was fortunate enough to receive any but would be cool to hear from him in regards to the topic. 

Thanks Glaukus ya beautiful man : ) 

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nice thread bardo, i was thinking of getting a still just this afternoon. I have no idea about using it, but i'm keen to make essential oils and high % alcohol... I'll be watching this thread unfold...

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Red's probbaly sailing the high seas with a hold full o rum and a jolly Roger up top...

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if nothing in this is soldered, i say go for it... if they have used solder, make sure its not lead.

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7 hours ago, bardo said:

I have made some meads in the past and came out quite good

 

Mate distilling is very easy, much easier than making a descent mead. I'm doing a ferment now, I'll run it through on the weekend, to make Trich tincture. At the moment I am using an old Still Spirits reflux. There alright, if all you want is tasteless, fairly high strength, ethanol. On a single run of sugar water fermented with a 20% turbo yeast, you can get about 80's to low 90% range(I recommend you water it down for drinking). I don't think much of that Chinese ebay thing, it doesn't have a dome or column (usually you want at least one or the other). The best stills I've used, where ones made by mates. I'm looking at getting a new one my self and I'm not good enough with an oxy, so I am looking at these. https://www.copper-alembic.com/en/split-top-rotating-column-copper-alembic-stills/20-l-split-top-rotating-column-alembic-still Or maybe if I can really sweet talk the missus https://www.stilldragon.com.au/4-crystal-dragon-glass-column-4-plate/

You do put aside the first 200-300ml or so. A good method involves running it all in to small jars. The quality varies through out the run. You can smell the difference. Generally the beginning and the end (heads and tails) can be thrown in with your next run. 

You don;t really need the beer kit (unless you want to make beer), any cheap food grade container will do, You will need an airlock, their cheep, or can be made with a bit of hose going into a bottle of water.

Carbon filtering makes a big difference, but can strip subtle flavor. For very clean ethanol or vodka, I use activated carbon paste mixed through the spirit, then filter through an irrigation filter.

If you like gin you can get creative with your aromatic and medicinal herbs put them in strong ethanol for a couple of days strain through a coffee filter, then water down.

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5 hours ago, MountainGoat said:

Could you pull essential oils through those also @Crop

Mate, I've never made essential oil. The missus has recently been talking about having a go. I am lead to believe steam distalation is used (depends what you are extracting) You could use the ebay job, bardo mentions, if you can find a basket that fits in the boiler to keep the goodies up in the vapor. The rotating column alembic is made for both simple and steam. You put the googies in the column, you can even rotate the colunm to put in fresh goodies with out stopping the still. You probanly don't need the added expense of copper for essential oils. Copper in a still (you only really need a little in the colunm) absorbs sulfur, making higher quality alcohol.

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Thanks crop that's some good info, That copper alembic still looks like a beauty.

I am gonna have a look on youtube a bit later to see if there is any vids of people using them and the results there getting, I do like the fact of knowing its made from safe quality materials. 

 

Edited by bardo

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Oh and with the sugar water mix, what ratios do you use ? how long approx. does it take to ferment before stilling and roughly what volumes of ethanol do you get from say 20ltr mix ? I know there is some variables like temp of fermenting etc but curious of a rough time scale and results of your experiments. 

Cheers crop : )

 

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@MountainGoat you could use a much cheaper setup for extracting essential oils, no need for anything fancy. Something like this should do for small amounts: https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Glass-Soxhlet-Extractor-Body-Condenser-24-29-250ml-Flat-Bottom-Flask/272974149887?_trksid=p2485497.m4902.l9144

 

Good thread btw. I used to homebrew beer, would like to try out doing some spirits. Beer is easy and the equipment is simple and cheap. A lot of room for experimenting too!

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I have done a bit of reading and youtubing and pretty excited to get into it, I have purchased this https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/10L-30L-Alcohol-Moonshine-Water-Copper-Home-Stainless-Distiller-DIY-Brewing-Kit/292121254848?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&var=591078724495&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649 

 

watched some vids on it and looks to work well and thought screw ill give it a go, this guy has a few vids about it 

 

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awesome mate, well done. it really is a fun hobby. dont be worried about tipping a few runs back in if you miss the heads and tails. you cant really go wrong if your willing to tip it back in and do it again if you need too. Any still really will do the job as long as it dont leak or have steam coming out the condensor end. but if that thermometer isnt that good, maybe replacing that with a good one will help you a lot. After a few runs youll learn to see heads and tails by temperature changes. 

 

Let us know how you go

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