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You want to distill, right? Two basic types:
1) Reflux still. Used for making clean ethanol (vodka). Can be set less efficient to create whiskey or can have a gin head of sorts for gin and schnapps.
2) Pot still. The classic, with a kettle and a wound copper collector. Used to make whiskey type liquors. Not as efficient but a good deal cheaper and simpler than a reflux setup.
I don't have any links for you but if you search for "Reflux still" you should find plenty of commercial ones (Illegal to import into the US) and from there should be able to find plans all over the place. I used to run a pot still for my own education and consumption and it's pretty fun. It's a great way to get rid of nasty (mistakes) home brewed beer.
The biggest safety rules:
Distillate and alcohol steam are flammable (duh). You must provide enough distance between the fire and the product/steam. If you run too hard (fast) you will create a dangerous flash fire situation because you'll overload your condenser, causing a flammable vapor do build up in the air. This is as dangerous as your condenser plugging causing a pressure rise in the kettle leading to an actual explosion. You must plan for both situations when you design your still. ANY steam coming from the condenser is cause for alarm, turn the damn thing DOWN, NOW! kinda alarm.
Fire extinguisher in between you and the still at all times, NOT behind you.
No drinking while running. Period!
The methanol is contained in the heads of the distillate. Methanol is what makes you go blind. It's cumulative. You throw away the first 150ml or so "for the fairies" in a 5 gallon run. That's wasting about 100ml of good ethanol but better safe than sorry. There is trace methanol in all drinking ethanol, BTW. Tails are what give you hangovers and make the liquor taste bad. These come at the end of the run and you can test for them by pulling off samples and lighting them. With experience you can see the difference in the flame coloration.
That's about it for the big safety rules besides common sense and a good pair of safety glasses.
A good thermometer in the steam path will let you know what your still is doing. DON'T scrimp on the thermometer.
A screw neck keg (now pretty obsolete and cheap) makes a GREAT 10 gallon pot but that's a little bigger than you want. It was my favorite I ever made, I silver soldered a copper arm to the machined and inverted stem. My thermometer/pressure relief (really just a rubber stopper) were in the copper arm. A little hard to clean but I was working in a brewery and had all sorts of really caustic cleaning chemicals at my disposal. I had old copper fittings I'd throw down in with the mash to emulate a copper kettle taste. No clue how effective it was.
Champagne yeast is good for making your mash, it can support 25% alcohol or so. Nothing quite like the first time you get a full gallon of 'shine from your 5 gallon mash. It's quite a feeling of accomplishment.
GL and be safe.
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smoore
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