Building an Alcohol Still

Like many hobbyists, you're interested in building your own alcohol still to distill spirits for your own personal use. In a few words, you'd like to make your own whiskey. Many find this activity to be an interesting and enjoyable activity, and that's before drinking the output. The very first thing you should do before starting to build an alcohol still, is check with your local and state law enforcement agencies.

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Before you begin designing and building an alcohol still, you should be sure that you understand how the distillation process works. The concept is quite simple.

Many people who are now into distilling alcohol started off by brewing their own beer. Making beer at home is a lot cheaper and easier than distilling alcohol so if you are a beginner, you might want to consider beer brewing  the first step in your brewing career.

The Ins and Outs of Distillation
Most liquids are not pure. They are solutions; a mixture of several different liquids, or they are impure liquids with particles in suspension. Distillation is simply the process isolating one of the liquid components and extracting it for use in a pure or purer state.

Distilled water is an excellent example. The water is boiled. The escaping steam is pure water, minus any suspended particles. This steam is captured and cooled to return to its liquid state which will then be particle-free pure distilled water. Distilling alcohol is a similar for extracting the alcohol from fermented vegetable materials. Similar, but a bit more complicated.

If you want alcohol, the product being distilled is the fermented mash. This contains a mixture of liquids that, when separated, have different boiling temperatures. An alcohol still processes these liquid components in stages such that the most volatile components are extracted first.

The secret is knowing how and when to extract and re-condense the volatile that finally liquefies as alcohol. This is not the appropriate place to break down the science of the distillation of alcohol, except to say that specific equipment, assembled into a specific configuration is required to successfully complete this process. This equipment is described below.

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Getting to Know the Types of Stills
You should know that there are three general types of alcohol stills in common use: the pot still, the reflux still, and the fractionating column still. All three are briefly described below.

The Pot Still: This is the least complicated of the three types of stills. It simply collects and condenses the alcohol vapors that are emitted from the boiling mash. Alcohol derived using this process is about fifty to sixty percent pure, which is fine for a flavorful alcohol product.
The Reflux Still: This type of still is designed to effect multiple distillations during the process by letting some of the vapors to re-condense and return to the boiling mash to be re-vaporized. This, in effect, further purifies the alcohol output with, according to some, a reduction in flavor.
The Fractionating Column Still: This is more sophisticated adaptation of the reflux still. It recycles and re-condenses more of the vapors to provide a purer alcohol. Actually, this type of still is used to produce alcohol in its purest form, rendering it almost free of impurities, and virtually flavorless.

Building Your Own Still
Of the three types of still discussed above, the most popular one chosen by homeowners to build their own still is the pot still, and for good reason. It is simple to build, simple in operation, and the distilled product is fine for most homemade whiskies.

Despite the fact that the pot still is the easiest to build, you will still need a plan. The Internet is replete with plans for pot stills. The hardware that is used, however, varies among plans. This variation occurs because the major pot still components can be constructed from almost anything that is available and adaptable to the process.

When your pot still is completed it will be comprised of the following components. It's not possible to predict exactly how it will look, but functionally it will be as described below:

The three major components that will first catch the eye are the boiler (sometimes referred to as the vat), the cooler (sometimes called the condenser), and the connecting lyne arm (also known as the column). The boiler will have an electrical or wood burning heat source to boil the mash, the cooler will most probably be cooled by running water, and the lyne arm, which is simply a pipe connecting the boiler and the cooler, will be tipped upward toward the cooler to let some of the liquefied vapors, especially water, run back into the boiler. Other, less noticeable components will also be evident upon closer inspection including thermometers and a cooler drain hose for removing the finished product.

The selection of materials is important considering that the alcohol is intended to be consumed. Aluminum, brass, copper, nickel-copper alloys, platinum, silver, stainless steel, and most plastics are suitable materials to use. Plastics are suitable for drain hoses and other similar accessories, but are not recommended for the cooler due to durability concerns. Copper tubing for drains and glass for the cooler are preferred, however. Some inventive types have adapted standard utensils to use in pot stills, such as using a large home pressure cooker for the boiler.
Permanently assembling components by welding, soldering, or brazing are perfectly acceptable, although standard silver solder may have some cadmium content which should be avoided.

Using Your Home Made Still
We won't go into the details of how to operate your new pot still, but suffice to say you will require some reading and some experimentation. Basically, you'll heat the mash, cool the liquid to liquid, and drain out the finished product. Don't be disappointed at the output. You'll be putting in a lot of mash and removing a small amount of alcohol. The ratio is approximately sixteen ounces of mash to one ounce of alcohol.