Home Distillation of Alcohol (Homemade Alcohol to Drink)

Stills that Aren't Stills


Stills that Arent Stills

It is possible to collect alcohol from a wash, without using a full-blown still. They use common kitchen items, and takes seconds to construct / dismantle (hmmm... say the Yanks). My only concern is that there is no way to remove & discard the methanol/fusels etc - so you're in for one hell of a hangover if starting with fruits high in pectin. These methods don't produce a great product, and not very strong in alcohol, but they are an alternative technique, and are better than nothing.

Bucket Still

The Bucket Still is the simplest. Float a bowl in the wash, cover the lot with a layer of plastic or clingwrap. Sit something heavy on the clingwrap so that any condensate that forms on the wrap will run down to the middle, and drip into the bowl. Leave the bucket etc somewhere warm. This process will take a long time to collect very much at all, and will be of quite low strength, but is probably better than nothing. Easily adapted for use in your cell.

Ice-Water Still

This concept can be beefed up a little, by heating the wash and cooling the vapour more efficiently (the Ice-Water Still). In Brewing Real Schnaps Without a Still Vik describes a simple method using just a bowl & a saucepan, to make schnapps. To prevent the collected alcohol from re-evaporating, it would be wise to support (ie on a tripod ?) the collection dish above the wash, so that it remains cool(er)... Vik tells me that the bowl floating in the mash doesn't get as hot as I'd thought because both the alcohol evaporating from it, and the cool liquid dripping into it keep it at a temperature lower than the mash, and that the continuous circulation of alcohol might even improve the flavour. He can get results >50% alcohol by volume with a single pass, though this does need a stiff brew to start with. Just remember that your final product is highly flamable, so take care when making it on the stove-top.

Jack describes how to use it for whisky or schnapps ..

Freezing

Another technique is to freeze the wash, and separate the ice (water) from the alcohol. Freezing appears to fall somewhere in-between the legal issues for many areas (eg can you really stop your Applejack from freezing if its left outside ?). Sort it out with your own authorities (or just keep your freezer contents personal).

There is an excellent account of the history of using freezing at Whisky on the Edge by Alex Kraaijeveld.
I've just tried making some myself, with no success. Poured 1.5L of beer into a plastic container, and put it in the freezer. When frozen, I broke it open. The trouble was though that it appears that it all froze too fast - any alcohol there is trapped within the ice matrix - there was no clean "core" of alcohol. I think that if this is to work, you will have to freeze it VERY slowly, so that the alcohol has time to diffuse its way ahead of the freezing ice front.

Jack tells me though ..
There's an excellent book by James Hay called "Homespun Spirits", explaining how to "spin" the alcohol out. Basically what is done is ...

Standard wash is prepared as for distillation - resulting in a liquor of 12-20% alcohol. This is then poured into 1.25 - 2L PET soft-drink bottles. Fill the bottles with little headspace. Shake the bottle to aerate them, so that plenty of air bubbles will form during freezing. Freeze solid (may take several days). Cut V shaped slits into the side of the bottles. so that the points face away from direction of rotation. Approx five rows of four slits, each with sides & base approx 10mm long. Make a couple of air holes above the solid surface. Modify a bottle cap so that it fits into a power-drill - eg thread a long bolt through it, with a couple of washers, and a nut to hold it all in place. Tighten the drill chuck around the length of bolt that extends. With the bottle attached to the drill, spin the bottle inside a tall container (rubbish bin). Use a variable speed drill, so that you can control the speed. The slits create an aerodynamic drag, forming a vacuum. This causes the air bubbles to expand, breaking up the ice, and releasing the non-frozen alcohol. Keep at full revs until no more alcohol is seen running down the side of the bucket, or ice starts coming out the slits. Slow the speed down slowly. Store the spirit for a couple of weeks to let it clear, then polish as for distilled spirit.

However, Ups474 writes :
AppleJack

Here's what I've found on making Applejack. Its from a 1957 book "Home-made wines" by Mary Aylett, you may find similar in other wine-making books at your local library.

Air Stripping

Yet another technique is to strip the alcohol from the wash using air bubbles. Johan writes :
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