Since i didn't quite get the response i was hoping for in oral indulgences i figured i would try my luck in bltc(It could go either way):

My original Post:
Let's say i had a small to medium amount of alcohol i wanted to distill.
The alcohol was created in quart jars so what i was thinking was get a large pot and fill it with water.

Put in a hole in a lid and fix a tube into the hole and seal around it.

Bring the water to 65°C with the jar suspended in the water and throw away any distillate that comes at this temp.(i've read this step is necessary to get rid methanol created in brewing, input on this would be great)

After the alcohol has been at 65°C i would then remove the jar and bring the water up to around 80°C and reinsert
the jar and allow to sit until the distilate tastes of mostly water.

The tubing will be run through a container filled with ice water and in to a smaller jar.

Then as each jar finished it would be a matter of doing the first few steps over(Minus the tube and lid as i could just transfer the lid.

So some one would hypothetically do it in the way mentioned do you think they would be able to pull off a semi pure alcohol?

Any advice or criticisms are gladly welcomed.

your probally better off in do it yourself actually...


the technical shit of alcohol tho typically belongs here, where as making drinks and consumption shit goes in OI...

I'm not a expert on the subject, but I have some basic knowledge from my semester of college as a ChE.

Looking at a ethanol-water Txy diagram, at 80 degrees celsius you can get 6 moles of ethanol vs 4 mole of water in the vapor condensate. I'm too lazy to figure out the alc %, but I'm sure you could figure it out if you want (convert moles to grams, then use densities).

Be aware that its theoretically impossible to get anything purer than 8 moles ethanol to 2 moles water using your distillation technique (and in reality much lower).

I can't help you with methanol unless you tell me what purity you want. However, at 65 celsius, you will surely remove methanol in the vapor condensate.

SO theoretically this works, as to how to actually go about the process, you should probably ask someone who has actual experience.

source: Txy diagrams

I built a reflux still in college, that thing was pretty sweet. I got it up to 90% volume of ethanol. The methanol is only a minor component, and not something you need to worry too much about. It's actually present in beer and orange juice in larger quantities than in the fermented wash. I still would toss the first quarter cup or so, which ostensibly had the highest methanol level, mostly because it gave me an excuse to light some of it on fire.

What you're describing is a pot still, which works, but it leaves a lot of water and nasty tasting stuff in the distillate. You'd get a similar alcohol content as vodka or rum. If you want to get purer alcohol, you need a reflux still, which consists of a copper tube packed with something with a lot of surface area, like stainless steel pot scrubbers (the reflux column). You then condense the vapors at the top and run them back into the reflux column. There they evaporate again and cool the vapors, which results in the alcohol vapors becoming more and more concentrated. The water vapors are forced to the bottom of the column, because they can't exist as a gas at as low of a temperature. You would have a thermometer at the top to measure the vapor temperature. If it's near 78C, you've got alcohol, and if it's higher, you've got water or something else. There is a bunch of nasty-tasting shit in your wash that boils between 78 and 100C, and ideally this should not get through.

If you're interested do a search for "reflux still plans" and see what comes up. It might be more than you're wanting to undertake, but just be warned that if you go the pot still route, you'll have 40% alcohol and it'll taste like shit. But it will get you wasted, I won't deny that. ;)

Pot stills are used to make liquors (flavored spirits) like rum or brandy. You usually do not get high ABV this way without multiple repetitions. Back when I was using mine I could only get about 25% ABV @ 100F/5 hours on the first pull. though some say if you run it low for longer duration it will collect in higher concentration.

i think your best bet is to make a real condenser still out of some SS jugs and copper tubing (for a straight liebig condenser, you don't need to coil it). refluxing would be the shit and all but it requires more skill to operate and you'd be hella pressed to design a good one without crunching shitloads of numbers

Refluxing isn't that bad. The only calculations I had to do were the ones to figure out how much heat I would be adding to my boiler based on the voltage applied to the heating element. Essentially, you just keep an eye on the thermometer and make sure it doesn't go too much above 78. It takes some practice, but eventually you learn how much alcohol you can expect out of a given volume of wash, and stop collecting when you get that amount. I paid about $150 in parts for my still, although most of that was copper pipe and the price of copper has come down since then.

If you drink a lot, 90% ethanol at $6 a gallon can save you an assload of money. I wonder why alcoholics aren't more industrious? ;)

Refluxing isn't that bad. The only calculations I had to do were the ones to figure out how much heat I would be adding to my boiler based on the voltage applied to the heating element. Essentially, you just keep an eye on the thermometer and make sure it doesn't go too much above 78. It takes some practice, but eventually you learn how much alcohol you can expect out of a given volume of wash, and stop collecting when you get that amount. I paid about $150 in parts for my still, although most of that was copper pipe and the price of copper has come down since then.


That isn't hard, but I'm just saying it's still more effort than to use other methods.

What plans did you use for your still?

That isn't hard, but I'm just saying it's still more effort than to use other methods.

What plans did you use for your still?
I looked at a bunch of plans on the internet then designed my own. Here's a picture of my roommate with my still.

http://psychodogstudios.com/pics/still.jpg

I used a stainless steel milker bucket for the boiler, and drilled a hole for a hot water tank heating element. That bad boy helped me lose my virginity. ;)

If you want the simplest, cheapest still I figured out a very easy one to make. It has an electric skillet I found in the alley as the heating element, an aluminum teapot I aquired for free also, and a tin foil condenser attached to the pouring spot. I used metal tape to make the tin foil water tight. The longer the tin foil condenser is the better you will be off. fuck buying expensive copper tubing. Currently I am trying out dollar store mouthwash distillation.

IIRC, that has a lot of menthol in it, which will carry over with the ethanol.

I looked at a bunch of plans on the internet then designed my own. Here's a picture of my roommate with my still.

http://psychodogstudios.com/pics/still.jpg

I used a stainless steel milker bucket for the boiler, and drilled a hole for a hot water tank heating element. That bad boy helped me lose my virginity. ;)

sweet rig

did you build the column too? i hear you need to know all kinds of shit to make it the right length and for what packing to use and things like volumes/diameters.

sweet rig

did you build the column too? i hear you need to know all kinds of shit to make it the right length and for what packing to use and things like volumes/diameters.
I built the column, yeah. It's just 1.5 inch copper pipe stuffed with stainless steel pot scrubbers. It's also wrapped with pipe insulation to keep the inside nice and hot. The column just needs to be stuffed with something corrosion-resistant with a large surface area. In industry they use ceramic rings, but pot scrubbers are actually better for small scale applications.

Here's another picture of the still:
http://www.psychodogstudios.com/pics/still1.jpg

Here's the drawing I did of the still head before I built it:
http://www.psychodogstudios.com/pics/stillhead1.jpg

I guess you could do a lot of calculations to figure out what size it needs to be, or you could just do what I did and overdesign everything. There's a valve on the collection spout that lets me control how fast I'm taking alcohol out of the column, and I can adjust this as needed. The only danger is collecting too fast and then accidentally collecting that layer of shit between the alcohol and water layers.