Check that its legal to distil in your country (it probably ain't).
Make sure you clearly understand what you're doing.
Make or buy a decent still. Only use a
POT still if you intend on making whiskey/schnapps etc (ie flavoured by the mash). Use a REFLUX or
FRACTIONATING still to make neutral (tasteless) alcohol to flavour up later.
To prepare 18-20 L of wash for use ....
Whiskey : Heat 4 kg cracked or crushed malt with 18 L of water to 63-65oC, and hold there for 1-1.5 hours. Heat to 73-75oC, then strain off and keep liquid, using 250 mL of hot water to rinse the grains (should have an initial specific gravity of 1.050).
Vodka : dissolve 5 kg of sugar & 60 g of nutrients in 20 L of water
Rum : as per vodka, but use some brown sugar or mollasses, to give an initial specific gravity (SG) of around 1.06 - 1.07.
Cool the wash to below 30oC, then add hydrated yeast.
Ferment the wash at a constant 25oC until airlock stops bubbling.
Let settle for a day, then syphon carefully into the still.
Bring up to boiling temperature (start the cooling water through the condensors once you
get to about 50-60oC), then once it has started distilling;
Discard the first 50 mL's (this may contain some methanol),
Collect the next 2-3L of distillate.
Segregate the distillate into 500 mL containers as you collect it.
Stop distilling once the temperature gets to 96oC (else the flavours get nasty).
Set aside any distillate which smells of tails/fusels. This can be added to the wash
of the next run, and cleaned up then.
Turn off the power, then the cooling water. Open the lid, so that it doesn't create a
vacuum inside the still & crush it. Wash up the still, dry it well, and then store/hide the pieces.
If you've made a neutral spirit, dilute it down to 30-50 % purity,
then soak it with carbon for a week or two to help clean up
any flavours still present.
Dilute it down to drinking strength (20-40%), then age and
flavour the spirit, using either commercial essences, oak chips, fruits.
Find a comfortable spot to sit, put on your music of choice, then sip & enjoy with the ones you love.
An interesting topic on the newsgroup was one of "if there were just three bits of advice
to pass onto someone starting distilling, what would they be ?" The replies are listed below.
Patience + Persistence = Results
1. read every word of "homedistiller.org" at least three times.
2. wait till the enthusiasm wears off a little prior to getting confused/asking questions.
3. ease into it slow & take notes (just like your building your first customized harley)
1. READ, READ, READ! There is so much good information available that there is no excuse for getting a bad start. You are NOT alone!
2. Fermentation. Sanatize everything involved in the fermentation process.
Boil all of the water used to make a mash. Perform aeration (aquarium
pump & stone) prior to adding yeast. Use enough yeast. Keep fermenting
wash below 30 C, 20 to 25 is better yet.
3. Use a PROVEN still design (experiment later, when you have a quantity of your own hootch to help sort out ideas).
4. RELAX! ENJOY! SHARE WITH FRIENDS! Keep records. Start a 3 ring binder, and stuff it with notes and recipes. Keep it next to the throne and read it often.
5. Avoid "my still is bigger than your still" discussions.
If you live in New Zealand as I do then it is totally legal to own and operate a still of any size for private use and in most towns there is a brew shop with all the latest gear and advice. I would suggest that you check out the sites I have attached as these are of great use to me and if you look on the still spirits site there is a step by step set of instructions on operating a reflux still in PDF format
http://www.moonshine-still.com/
http://homedistiller.org/
http://www.moonshine.co.nz/
http://www.stillspirits.com/indexnz.htm
1. Read everything you can find about what distilling and fermentation and the products that you intend to make. A good web search engine is a life saver here. Using the search feature on the yahoo group works well too. http://archive.nnytech.net/index.php?list=distillers this webpage has all of the messages from the distillers, new distillers, and also 2 or 3 biofuels yahoo groups. Lots of information available with a better search function than yahoo provides
2. Decide what kind of product that you want to make. If you want to make schnapps, brandies or grain whisky's a pot still is better suited for your goals. If you want to make vodkas and gins then a packed column will suit your goals better.
3. Develop a plan to accomplish your goals.
4. Ask questions from people who have done it before. Then ask some more questions. 3 people can read a question written by somebody else and see three whole different ways to answer it.
5. Avoid buying a whole bunch of expensive fancy equipment until you know that this hobby is what you expected it to be. Lots of equipment can be substituted with less expensive (or free) items. Ask what equipment is absolutely necessary.
6. Keep notes about what did and did not work. Sometimes even when everything seems to have gone wrong, something will have gone right and you might want to duplicate the effort.
7. Recycle all projects that did not meet your expectations. Ethanol is ethanol is ethanol and it is never wasted until you dump it down the drain. I made my best batch of whisky/rum hybrid mixture one time from recycling stock of batches that did not work out. I wish I knew what all was in those jugs because the finished product was sure tasty. There was corn whisky, sorghum molasses rum, fermented mellon, fermented watermellon, ect ect, and that is just what I remember.
8. Use a proven design. The time for new designs if for after you gain some experience actually accomplishing your goals.
1. Learn how to ferment something drinkable BEFORE you even think about building a still.
2. Learn from every mistake ever made---yours and others.
3. Figure out why it is that you want to distill, and see if distilling is really for you---or if it would be better to just buy a few bottles of Vodka and learn to make drinks that way.
4. Tell no one about your hobby (if you live in a place that it is illegal)
5. Remember that this is a fun hobby and not an excuse to become more of an alcoholic.
Mine would be:
1. Keep trying.
2. Do not be put off by failures.
3. Your product will improve.
4. Take it slow and do not rush.
5. Use all 5 senses. Smell, taste, hear, see and feel it.
#1....read
#2....read
#3....read
#4....ask questions about what you cant comprehend from reading
#5....distill your wash,utilizing your most valuable asset,common sense....:>)
1. Get a basic understanding how distillation works.
2. Check your needs, what kind of liquor would you like to do?
3. Don't build a monster machine if you don't need huge amounts of liquor, see it from a practical view.
4. Relax, if it didn't turn out the way you wanted to, try again, you'll get it right in time. Learning is the fun process.
5. Don't be afraid to ask, no one knows it all, not even the ones who claims to.
pick someone's else success and repeat it
1: Read and re read homedistillation.org.
2: Ask questions here (Distillers newsgroup at www.yahoogroups.com).
3: Don't build a still without advice from the group.
4: Do quite a few sugar washes before attempting grain/mollasses type washes.
5: Listen to the group even if you don't like the answers.
Read as much as you can from a wide variety of sources. Get a good book or two with illustrations of how to build and operate a still. Build a small one first, not too large. You can practice your workshop skills. Join a club or news group and LISTEN to all opinions, ask questions, and after awhile, filter out the stuff that you don't believe fits in with the your accumulated experience. Believe in your own abilities, and get on and do it.
1) Research and then do it again.....
2) Read - Read - Read - etc... - You get the idea..
3) Decide - On what you Want to achieve...
4) READ - read - Read - etc....
5) Build the vechicle that will achive your goals ----
6) Savour, taste and evaluate -
7) Research and Read - Read - etc..
8) Figure it all out.. IF you can...
9) Ask Tony, Alex, Mike & Mike where and why you screwed up...
10) lol....!!!