Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community  

Go Back   Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community > The Academy > Tilted Knowledge and How-To


 
 
LinkBack Thread Tools
Old 08-28-2003, 10:43 AM   #1 (permalink)
Tilted
 
Location: Sunny California
distilling alcohol

anyone have any tips on this? I got a case of terrible wine from a friend that works at a winery and want to turn it into something more drinkable.
sambocom is offline  
Old 08-28-2003, 01:10 PM   #2 (permalink)
Tilted Cat Head
 
Cynthetiq's Avatar
 
Administrator
Location: Manhattan, NY
against the law in some states... have a fast car so that you can do moonshine runs
__________________
I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not.
Cynthetiq is offline  
Old 08-29-2003, 03:46 AM   #3 (permalink)
Crazy
 
I recommend http://www.thickos.co.uk
Very informative!
__________________
"Always do right - this will gratify some and astonish the rest."
Four Fingers is offline  
Old 08-30-2003, 02:41 AM   #4 (permalink)
Right Now
 
Location: Home
It's legal to make beer and wine for personal consumption in every state, but running a still is controlled as pointed out by cynthetiq. If distilling spirits is legal in your area, then your main issue is tempurature control. Alcohol boils at a very distinct temp. Some bad things boil at a slightly lower temp, which may not be present in your wine, so it might not be an issue. Typically, when distilling from mash, you need to heat the mash to about a half a degree below the boiling point of alcohol, collect and dispose of the evaporation, then heat to just over the boiling point of alcohol to go to production.

I can't be more specific about the boiling point of alcohol, since it greatly depends on your local elevation.
Peetster is offline  
Old 08-30-2003, 02:40 PM   #5 (permalink)
DILLIGAF
 
PayUp's Avatar
 
Location: AZ
wine is not distilled. it is fermented, then seperated, aged, bottled. you could however distill it and make brandy. you would need a pot still. a 10 hr distallation will get you approximately 60 proof, 12 hours to 140 proof. alcohol begins evaporating about 173 f. distallation occurs between 173-211f. you want to collect the evaporations, cool it and returns back to a liquid, alcohol. if it gets to hot the water begins to evaporate and thins out the alcohol. i dont have the website but you can make a cheap still for a few bucks and reuse it. pm me if you want to go into a little more detail.
__________________
Born to Lose.
PayUp is offline  
Old 08-31-2003, 03:30 AM   #6 (permalink)
Tilted
 
Location: Canada
You also have to control what time of alcohol gets into your drink of choice. If you get to much methanol in there it burns on the way down. The best way to get get as little methanol as possable is to distill as much as possable.
__________________
Have a day
Order_of_Monkey is offline  
Old 09-01-2003, 01:37 PM   #7 (permalink)
Tilted
 
Location: Sunny California
thanks for all the info, guys. I found a really informative website:
http://homedistiller.org/

I finished building a pot still out of a pressure pot, and am going to work on making the condensor out of a bucket and a length of coiled copper pipe.
sambocom is offline  
Old 09-01-2003, 07:09 PM   #8 (permalink)
Like John Goodman, but not.
 
Journeyman's Avatar
 
Location: SFBA, California
remember that your siphoning out needs to run through a good sized chamber with water being replenished through the bottom. I had a tank of static cold water that i boiled homebrew with and the water ended up heating up to the point that the alchy vapor wouldn't cool down to liquid by the time it reached the open valve at the bottom. and breathing in a room full of gaseous alcohol isn't fun *at all*.
Journeyman is offline  
Old 09-01-2003, 07:36 PM   #9 (permalink)
Psycho
 
Blistex's Avatar
 
Location: Tiger I Turret
Wearing a protective face mask is also reccomended when dealing with boiling liquids under pressure and than may be flamable.
Blistex is offline  
Old 09-02-2003, 02:18 AM   #10 (permalink)
Tilted
 
Location: Sunny California
Yea Journeymen--not to mention when your stove is on heating the liquid! Scary stuff, I think a bucket full of ice water will work ok, though, especially with a long enough length of copper pipe.
sambocom is offline  
Old 09-02-2003, 03:01 AM   #11 (permalink)
Like John Goodman, but not.
 
Journeyman's Avatar
 
Location: SFBA, California
I read over my post and it's ambiguous as to what's what. I had the bootleg booze in a pressure cooker sealed off save for a couple copper pipes connected to a hose that spiraled, which I ran through a... I dunno, 6-8 gallon tank of water with lots of ice in it. So no, ice water failed me in the end. Just pop a hose from the faucet to the bottom of the cooling tank with a hose from the top to the lawn or something.
Journeyman is offline  
Old 09-08-2003, 02:48 AM   #12 (permalink)
Once upon a time...
 
I recommend you use a good filter... and watch for lead or other bad things in your process.
__________________
--
Man Alone
=======
Abstainer: a weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure.
Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary.
manalone is offline  
Old 09-08-2003, 09:47 AM   #13 (permalink)
Crazy
 
Hey man, sounds like a good idea, but be sure you know what you are doing before you try this... There have been a lot of recent stories about people being poisoned by self distilled beverages, I believe it had something to with lead poisioning because of the construction of their still, but I don't really recall. Anyway, good luck, but be safe.
Lyaec123 is offline  
Old 09-09-2003, 10:23 AM   #14 (permalink)
Eccentric insomniac
 
Slims's Avatar
 
Location: North Carolina
If you are just interested in distilling small quantities, then a stovetop distiller might be your best bet. You can find them online for distilling 'water' and they will usually handle about a half gallon or so at a time.

Oh, the the poisioning of self-distilled beverages is a moonshiners problem related to wood-alcohols contaminating the stuff they are distilling. If you are just distilling wine, it should be perfectly safe, as long as you use good equipment. Although it is probably illegal.
__________________
"Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery." - Winston Churchill

"All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act out their dream with open eyes, to make it possible." Seven Pillars of Wisdom, T.E. Lawrence
Slims is offline  
 

Tags
alcohol, distilling


Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On



All times are GMT -8. The time now is 05:58 PM.

Tilted Forum Project

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Search Engine Optimization by vBSEO 3.6.0 PL2
© 2002-2012 Tilted Forum Project

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360