Expedition this morning. Got a 100l rubbish bin which I'm going to use to hold water that will recirculate through the condenser of my still. Bought some glass jars of sufficient size that I can divide the distillate into fractions as it comes out for later assessment. And a steak for dinner because I think this still business is going to take hours, if I start straight after lunch I'll be going until 7 I think.
So. Going to wash my new glassware and have lunch. Then:
- clear more space in the garage so I have decent elbow room
- set out the gas ring and still on the concrete floor
- put the jars, hydrometer etc on a worktable
- fill my "tank" with the garden hose
- attach the pump and hose fittings to the still
- dump my 20 odd litres of apple hooch into the still
...
- PROFIT
If my maths is correct, I should end up with enough drinkable result to make 4l of 45-50% spirit once diluted down again.
Open question whether to double distill. Apparently this is a matter of taste. I think I'll leave the hooch for a week to settle down, assess and maybe distill again if it is really rough.
My plan B if it is all extremely nasty is to distill it all down to pure ethanol and make some kind of gin, liqueur or cordial.
(Someone asked me about methanol. As far as I can tell, discarding the first 1-2% should get rid of the vast bulk of the methanol, and I'm not worried. And hey I can keep that 1-2% and save it for cleaning paint brushes... My understanding is that the big problems with home made spirits and methanol is people who are too greedy to throw away that first part of the run, and who also drink shit tonnes of their own product at a sitting, and I'm not that person.)
Stephen
npub1d5…lmh5j
2026-10-16 22:47:07 UTC
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2026-10-16 22:47:07 UTCEvent JSON
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"content": "Expedition this morning. Got a 100l rubbish bin which I'm going to use to hold water that will recirculate through the condenser of my still. Bought some glass jars of sufficient size that I can divide the distillate into fractions as it comes out for later assessment. And a steak for dinner because I think this still business is going to take hours, if I start straight after lunch I'll be going until 7 I think.\r\n\r\nSo. Going to wash my new glassware and have lunch. Then:\r\n\r\n- clear more space in the garage so I have decent elbow room\r\n- set out the gas ring and still on the concrete floor\r\n- put the jars, hydrometer etc on a worktable\r\n- fill my \"tank\" with the garden hose\r\n- attach the pump and hose fittings to the still\r\n- dump my 20 odd litres of apple hooch into the still\r\n...\r\n- PROFIT\r\n\r\nIf my maths is correct, I should end up with enough drinkable result to make 4l of 45-50% spirit once diluted down again.\r\n\r\nOpen question whether to double distill. Apparently this is a matter of taste. I think I'll leave the hooch for a week to settle down, assess and maybe distill again if it is really rough.\r\n\r\nMy plan B if it is all extremely nasty is to distill it all down to pure ethanol and make some kind of gin, liqueur or cordial.\r\n\r\n(Someone asked me about methanol. As far as I can tell, discarding the first 1-2% should get rid of the vast bulk of the methanol, and I'm not worried. And hey I can keep that 1-2% and save it for cleaning paint brushes... My understanding is that the big problems with home made spirits and methanol is people who are too greedy to throw away that first part of the run, and who also drink shit tonnes of their own product at a sitting, and I'm not that person.)",
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