moonshiners...i wanna learn

GrowerGoneWild

GrowerGoneWild

Well-Known Member
wascaptain said:
I run a mile high reflux set up myself. go to a distilling site and read up. I get 185 proof out of mine. here's a pic of some mash that's close to run, just got to strain it off ...made from corn and sweet feed
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Nice!.

I'd like to get a smaller reflux still for indoor use.. Use the big one for stripping runs outside and use the smaller one on the stove for low and slow so I can get higher proof and work on quality I think the column is too short thats why I can only get around 140-150 proof.. But that just fine for me.

The mile high still I have is pretty good quality... The welds and fit are pretty nice, glad to hear other people are making shine with them.
 
whitebb2727

whitebb2727

Well-Known Member
anzohaze said:
Well i live in south east and i dont no any shiners. I wanna make my own and learn how to do it. Why do you suggest not try it by yourself. I was gonna make 1 in my back yard a small 5 or 10 gallon and learn
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Your boiling a flammable substance. If you mess up vapor hits fire and you have a bomb on your hands.

Read up and be careful. Don't get stoned and do it.
 
A

anzohaze

Well-Known Member
whitebb2727 said:
Your boiling a flammable substance. If you mess up vapor hits fire and you have a bomb on your hands.

Read up and be careful. Don't get stoned and do it.
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Yeah i no i would stay small and practice practice practice. I do have another question is there a way to tell if what comes out is shine or methanol
 
Singlemalt

Singlemalt

Well-Known Member
Flavored denotes soaking after. Example.....distilled grape wine becomes brandy, soak grapes in a distillate it is grape flavored.

I pretty much make singlemalt scotch now days. Picky and a bit of a pain (tedious) but I've fooled folks into thinking it was actually real scotch
whitebb2727 said:
What comes out is ethanol. Methanol is made from other ingredients.
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Not true, methanol is a normal product of fermentation, just in different amounts depending on the substrate being fermented. Less methanol produced with pure sugar, more when fruits (grapes, etc) are used. Methanol boils at a lower temperature than ethanol. If you have good control of the process (distillation) it will come out as a discreet "slug" prior to ethanol. From lower temp and proceeding to higher temps you get the following: Ketones, acetone ---->various esters---->methanol---->ethanol----->water.
 
budlover13

budlover13

King Tut
GrowerGoneWild said:
Sure..

Buy yourself a reflux condenser from Mile High Distilling. Buy the copper scrubber for packing inside the column.

Find a nice brew... I like Rad's All Bran Recipie. Neutral flavor, but if you let it sit for a long time fermenting the flavor can change to something like rum/tequlia kinda flavor. Just ferment for a short time. Dont buy turbo yeast. You can if you want to.. but its not needed. 5-6 days tops for ferment..

I bolted my reflux condenser on the top of a 13 gallon keg, and heated it with an old propane burner used for turkey frying, a 20LB LP tank will get me 2 distilation runs. BTW I only put 10 gallons in it. ya know it makes sense since most buckets are 5 gallons. So 2 buckets of brew.

Heat it up and watch the digital thermometer on top. dont turn on the water until you get a column temp of around 150+. Now slowly turn down the flame and get the temp to 190 (I gotta check my notes) and let it go from there. Take your time, to fast will mess with your proof. Just make sure you dont go over your temp.

Throw out the first 10% of your calculated yield. Roughly a mason jar.. I know its a little much.. but I dont like methanol.

Line up your jars. Fill them and then give them a number.. Number 1(heads) will be hottest, and the last one(tails) will be kinda weak. I usually stop cooking after I cant get 100 proof.. easiest way to check for 100 proof is just let a little brew drop on your fingers and light it. If it lights is 100 proof. if it dont its not..

Mix 1 with the last one.. to "balance" it. usually #1 will be around 140-150 proof. I have a SG glass to check proof. Anyways I blend it and then I water it back to around 90 proof.

Lastly you can polish the moonshine.. I like to quickly run it over some activated charcoal... sometimes..

Superquick overview.. ..
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Or just let it run until the product doesn't have that slippery quality to it but rather dries out your skin.
 
GrowerGoneWild

GrowerGoneWild

Well-Known Member
Single.. Nice Rig!.. I like the stainless steel milk can.

Good call on the copper worm at the end of the column.. I'm still getting some off flavors with only copper packing in the column. I think a little more copper should help.
 
Singlemalt

Singlemalt

Well-Known Member
GrowerGoneWild said:
Single.. Nice Rig!.. I like the stainless steel milk can.

Good call on the copper worm at the end of the column.. I'm still getting some off flavors with only copper packing in the column. I think a little more copper should help.
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Make sure you rinse off the copper packing after each run, took me a few runs to realize it was contributing to off flavors. Its doing its job, but like a kitchen sponge it absorbs crap and if not cleaned that crap flavors subsequent runs. Every 5 runs I clean the packing in a boiling citric acid bath. You could use vinegar but difficult to get that acetic acid smell gone. After the citric acid bath it looks like copper again, instead of the black nettting you'll fish outta the column

GGW its set up for reflux in that pic, the worm is 1/2in about 8ft. When I'm doing a pot distill for whisky I have a tighter coiled (12ft) 3/8in worm
 
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whitebb2727

whitebb2727

Well-Known Member
Singlemalt said:
Flavored denotes soaking after. Example.....distilled grape wine becomes brandy, soak grapes in a distillate it is grape flavored.

I pretty much make singlemalt scotch now days. Picky and a bit of a pain (tedious) but I've fooled folks into thinking it was actually real scotch

Not true, methanol is a normal product of fermentation, just in different amounts depending on the substrate being fermented. Less methanol produced with pure sugar, more when fruits (grapes, etc) are used. Methanol boils at a lower temperature than ethanol. If you have good control of the process (distillation) it will come out as a discreet "slug" prior to ethanol. From lower temp and proceeding to higher temps you get the following: Ketones, acetone ---->various esters---->methanol---->ethanol----->water.
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Right. I understand that.
Methanol is normally made with wood products for race fuel.

You want some bad shit you need Methyl Ethyl Keytone. That shit will cause you to fail a breathalyzer if you breath it to long with out a respirator.

Anohaze, singlemalt knows his shit and willing to provide a little more info.

Moonshine will get you more trouble than cannabis around here.

@ singlemalt i have heard many say that you can make so much for personal use. I can not verify this. I have all the paper work somewhere to register a still. You can register with ATF and they will send you a placard to put on it. It has to be for fuel and they can come test it and it has to be cut 3% with undrinkable product.
 
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Singlemalt

Singlemalt

Well-Known Member
whitebb2727 said:
Right. I understand that.
Methanol is normally made with wood products for race fuel.

You want some bad shit you need Methyl Ethyl Keytone. That shit will cause you to fail a breathalyzer if you breath it to long with out a respirator.

Anohaze, singlemalt knows his shit and willing to provide a little more info.

Moonshine will get you more trouble than cannabis around here.

@ singlemalt i have heard many say that you can make so much for personal use. I can not verify this. I have all the paper work somewhere to register a still. You can register with ATF and they will send you a placard to put on it. It has to be for fuel and they can come test it and it has to be cut 3% with undrinkable product.
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Nope it still illegal, you can only make beer and wine legally. Distilling for consumption is verboten. Yeah, for fuel its legal, but as you said, inspections and adulterating. Because of that stupid show Moonshiners and the interest it created; ATF last year seized all the sales records from outfits like milehigh, etc and sent out threatening letters to customers. That spawned a new group political action to lobby to make hobby distilling legal. All up in the air at the moment. At this point I'd advise new folks to make their own still, not buy one
 
whitebb2727

whitebb2727

Well-Known Member
Singlemalt said:
Nope it still illegal, you can only make beer and wine legally. Distilling for consumption is verboten. Yeah, for fuel its legal, but as you said, inspections and adulterating. Because of that stupid show Moonshiners and the interest it created; ATF last year seized all the sales records from outfits like milehigh, etc and sent out threatening letters to customers. That spawned a new group political action to lobby to make hobby distilling legal. All up in the air at the moment. At this point I'd advise new folks to make their own still, not buy one
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Moonshiners is the dumbest show ever. There is no way they could do that shit and not go to jail.
My wife's step dad is in his 60's. He was a moonshiner from back in the day. I remember before he gave his life to god he would make large runs. Cases upon cases that would leave Appalachia and end up in St Louis.

He was the real deal, a legend around here. I wish I could have learned from him before he quit.

He has old world recipes passed from generation to generation. I'm sure his stuff would make money.

He won't turn the recipe over. It is a damn shame.
 
Singlemalt

Singlemalt

Well-Known Member
whitebb2727 said:
Moonshiners is the dumbest show ever. There is no way they could do that shit and not go to jail.
My wife's step dad is in his 60's. He was a moonshiner from back in the day. I remember before he gave his life to god he would make large runs. Cases upon cases that would leave Appalachia and end up in St Louis.

He was the real deal, a legend around here. I wish I could have learned from him before he quit.

He has old world recipes passed from generation to generation. I'm sure his stuff would make money.

He won't turn the recipe over. It is a damn shame.
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Yep, and if you try to do it as they (the show) do, you'll get nothing except an empty wallet and likely a trip to the ER
 
whitebb2727

whitebb2727

Well-Known Member
Singlemalt said:
Yep, and if you try to do it as they (the show) do, you'll get nothing except an empty wallet and likely a trip to the ER
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They show just enough to make someone think they can do it. Just like that explosion the other night.
That was setup, but in real life is easily done. That's why I say be careful and probably shouldn't smoke and run a still.

People do not understand you are running a flammable liquid and vapor under pressure.

Oh and for the ones that don't know.

http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=i:aps,k:copper still
 
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