THE Alcohol (drinkable) Thread (merged)

[Cloud9]

ATF will be very conscerned about your still. My family made a bit of whiskey during the 1930's. Lead in solder is a real concern if you intend to drink your production. The history channel has a series on moon shine that would be very informative. The Fox Fire series covers the process in detail.

[vision-master]

It's a bad idea. Never distill your own alcohol. It's dangerous and illegal!

It is only illegal if you do not have a permit and why would anyone raid your home unless you're selling the stuff or maybe bragging to all of your friends and giving them a tote.

It is only dangerous if you use something like an old car radiator or the like to make it... or, I suppose, if you do not treat combustable materials with the appropriate respect.

It is a great idea if you convert your chainsaw or some other engine to run on the stuff. You can make your own fuel and retain some of the benefits of modern living for a few more years into the decline.

Sounds like a neat project.

[burtonridr]

The dangerous aspect is methanol. A proportion of methanol is made during fermentation. When you distill it it becomes more concentrated and if you drink too much it can kill you. You'll go blind first as a warning when your liver is almost ready to kark it. I've read that when distilling, if you discard the first 10 seconds or so of distillate you will have removed most of the methanol as it has a much lower vapour pressure, ie. it will evaporate before the ethanol. I suppose if you are distilling using a much slower method than boiling you may have to discard a little more than 10 seconds worth.

You dont need to bring the substance to a boil. When you distill it you are trying to separate the water from the mixture. The way it works it the alcohol has a lower temperature required to make it evaporate. Methanol is has the lowest temperature required. So the first thing to come out of the distiller is methanol. Then as the temp rises it starts to evaporate the other alcohol chemicals.

Because it is illegal, I wont be pursuing this any further Still it is an interesting process.

[argyle]

The dangerous aspect is methanol. A proportion of methanol is made during fermentation. When you distill it it becomes more concentrated and if you drink too much it can kill you. You'll go blind first as a warning when your liver is almost ready to kark it. I've read that when distilling, if you discard the first 10 seconds or so of distillate you will have removed most of the methanol as it has a much lower vapour pressure, ie. it will evaporate before the ethanol. I suppose if you are distilling using a much slower method than boiling you may have to discard a little more than 10 seconds worth.

You dont need to bring the substance to a boil. When you distill it you are trying to separate the water from the mixture. The way it works it the alcohol has a lower temperature required to make it evaporate. Methanol is has the lowest temperature required. So the first thing to come out of the distiller is methanol. Then as the temp rises it starts to evaporate the other alcohol chemicals.

Because it is illegal, I wont be pursuing this any further Still it is an interesting process.

Under european law it's no longer illegal to do this, as long as it's for your own consumption. I believe this is a "by-product" to allow ppl to make their own wine, cheese, etc

[alokin]

I would brew my own beer or wine but not distill. Besides being illegal it is as well dangerous having high % alcohol at home. If it is tasty (like a good grappa) you might get used drinking too much. The advantage of brewing your own beer and wine is that you can make something with less alcohol.

[mattduke]

Frustrated that people continued to consume so much alcohol even after it was banned, federal officials had decided to try a different kind of enforcement. They ordered the poisoning of industrial alcohols manufactured in the United States, products regularly stolen by bootleggers and resold as drinkable spirits. The idea was to scare people into giving up illicit drinking. Instead, by the time Prohibition ended in 1933, the federal poisoning program, by some estimates, had killed at least 10,000 people.

During Prohibition, however, an official sense of higher purpose kept the poisoning program in place. As the Chicago Tribune editorialized in 1927: "Normally, no American government would engage in such business. … It is only in the curious fanaticism of Prohibition that any means, however barbarous, are considered justified." Others, however, accused lawmakers opposed to the poisoning plan of being in cahoots with criminals and argued that bootleggers and their law-breaking alcoholic customers deserved no sympathy. "Must Uncle Sam guarantee safety first for souses?" asked Nebraska's Omaha Bee.

By mid-1927, the new denaturing formulas included some notable poisons—kerosene and brucine (a plant alkaloid closely related to strychnine), gasoline, benzene, cadmium, iodine, zinc, mercury salts, nicotine, ether, formaldehyde, chloroform, camphor, carbolic acid, quinine, and acetone. The Treasury Department also demanded more methyl alcohol be added—up to 10 percent of total product. It was the last that proved most deadly.

The results were immediate, starting with that horrific holiday body count in the closing days of 1926. Public health officials responded with shock. "The government knows it is not stopping drinking by putting poison in alcohol," New York City medical examiner Charles Norris said at a hastily organized press conference. "[Y]et it continues its poisoning processes, heedless of the fact that people determined to drink are daily absorbing that poison. Knowing this to be true, the United States government must be charged with the moral responsibility for the deaths that poisoned liquor causes, although it cannot be held legally responsible."

http://www.slate.com/id/2245188/?GT1=38001

[Cloud9]

Ah the things that can be done when one has the moral high ground.

[PeakOiler]

Edit: Deleted--double post...

[PeakOiler]

I mentioned in the Citrus and Peach Trees thread that I would try to make some peach wine from this year's bumper harvest, but since that was getting a little off-topic in that thread, I decided to bump this thread.

Shown below is the peach slurry (on Saturday) in the primary fermenter:



The processed (sliced, pitted, mostly skinned) peaches were crushed in a nylon filter bag which made it much easier to squeeze out the peach juice. I left the nylon bag in the primary fermenter partially floating as seen in the image above.

I added the yeast yesterday and today the bubbler (air-lock) was steadily burping.

[PeakOiler]

I have a question for any more-experienced homegrown wine/beer makers (WisJim, Pops, pstarr, et al). Is it OK to add more fresh water to the primary fermenter while the air-lock is still bubbling? Seems to me that not only is CO2 released during the fermentation process, but water vapor as well. Doesn't one need to make up for that lost volume?

[PeakOiler]

This place had 4 grape vines of unknown variety, which I took cuttings from early this year, and I now have about 30 new plants. They old vines seem to be doing well without any chemicals and are putting on a good amount of fruit – if they turn out to be tasty I’ll probably take some more cuttings next spring. <snip>

Care to show us an update and pics of the cuttings you started?

[PeakOiler]

Today (or tomorrow) I plan on racking the peach wine slurry in the primary fermenter to the glass carboy. The air-lock on the primary fermenter is still bubbling, six days after adding the yeast. Should I wait until the bubbler stops burping? This experiment is a great learning experience.

[PeakOiler]

Today I racked the peach wine from the primary fermenter to the 23-liter glass carboy:



Here is a link to a YouTube video on racking wine:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zvxxEaN0OI

Now I wish I had made a quadruple batch. I had enough peaches, that's for sure...

[PeakOiler]

Five days later from the previous post, the air-lock bubbler on top of the carboy has really slowed down and the mixture is getting clearer. The color looks peachy.

After talking to my coworker who's done this before, he does recommend that I get a second glass carboy for the next racking in a few more weeks. They are more airtight than the primary fermenters, plus one can see exactly how deep the siphon tube should be to minimize transferring the lees (sediment) into the next container.

[americandream]

No reason why you cannot but you'ld have to be scrupulous about cleanliness whilst prising the bung off or risk losing your batch (less of a problem with beer I found which I brewed in a large bin and was less fastidious about. Used to even drink the stuff before bottling when I had a few thirsty mates over. The flatulence was fun. )

I have a question for any more-experienced homegrown wine/beer makers (WisJim, Pops, pstarr, et al). Is it OK to add more fresh water to the primary fermenter while the air-lock is still bubbling? Seems to me that not only is CO2 released during the fermentation process, but water vapor as well. Doesn't one need to make up for that lost volume?

[PeakOiler]

Thanks for your reminder on equipment cleanliness, americandream. It is a critical point in wine and beer making.

Yes, always wash the hands before (and during) working with the equipment. Recently, the hot (collected) rainwater coming out of my solar water heater has been near the boiling point for rinsing the tubing and containers, etc.

[GASMON]

A guy I worked with a few years ago, a Scot from Glasgow made delicious "moonshine", blew your bloody head off, too strong for me though. "Home brew" apparently a big thing up there in Glasgow.

I tried home brew wine / beer a while ago. Poor results.

I rarely touch spirits, though an odd Jack Daniels or Southern Comfort (both with ice) is nice. Guinness or good old English Bitter is my drink. Some good beer in USA, San Francisco steam beer and a few other local brews I tried in California & Vermont. Yank lager though (big names) is mostly lousy (as is most lager). Currently drinking a nice lager though, Cusquena, brewed in Machu Picchu Peru. 8 bottles for £6 at Sainsburys (uk). (Beer from Peru in Lancashire - No wonder the planet is farked).

Gasmon.

[PeakOiler]

Peach wine update: The wine is getting clearer and tomorrow I'm going to buy another 23 L glass carboy and look into some filters as well.

I plan to rack the wine a second time this weekend. I need the practice.

[PeakOiler]

Today I bought (finally) a second 23 L glass carboy (made in Italy) for racking the peach wine for the second time this weekend. The air lock has quit bubbling. The wine is very clear down to the lees and the color looks golden peachy. I also bought a wine filter housing assembly and filters at Austin Homebrew which were made in the UK.

http://www.homewinemaking.co.uk/

Why don't American companies make this stuff?

In about another two months I will bottle the wine. I may have to try a small sample during that procedure.

According to the recipe, it's best to wait an entire year before drinking the wine.

I really wish I had made a quadruple batch.

[PeakOiler]

Today I racked the peach wine a second time:



I set the carboy on the chair to enhance the gravity flow through the filter and placed coasters under the chair legs to tilt the carboy over so the siphon tube would stay immersed longer.



In another couple of months, I'll bottle the wine:



I sampled about six fl. oz. today. OMG! Awesome!