Glass Still For Making Moonshine...can it be done?

[Guest]

Hi...I came across a very interesting package deal on ebay involving lab glassware....I always thought about making a moonshine still out of glass(just for the novelty of it).....I was wondering if anyone knew whether it could be used safely?....my main concern is filtering the toxins out ....do you think a glass condenser of the sorts would be adequate enough to accomplish this?.....Thank You

[Pieterpost]

offcource it can be done, how do you suppose distilling is done in the lab. It can be done quite well actually and the nice thing is that you can watch the whole process

I don't know what you're trying to make (potstill of reflux) but also try to get a vigreaux column. I also have one of these and it's great for cleaning the alcohol when trying to get neutral spirits. (see below for picture)

The drawback I experienced is the small volume you can distill at a time. I had a 2 liter roundbottom flask and it drove me mad tring to distill a 25 liter wash ......

good luck!

[Jaxom]

Glad to see this mentioned, I was going to ask about lab glass anyways. I happened upon this website looking for 750ml beakers for my spirits.

Oh, I'd just love to build an all glass still. If nothing else, just to be different. It might be expensive, to say the least, but hey I could spend the money on worse things, eh?

Yeah, I can see doing that much wash using small glass. This company carries bottles up to 22L!!! I can just imagine heating that on a hotplate! Think I'd build a natural gas burner out of parts from a hotwater tank?

http://www.qglass.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

How long was your column? How can we use those calculators on the home page for calculating how tall they really need to be? This same place carries Snyder columns which look to be even more efficient, how can we compare these to the Vigreaux columns?

Jaxx

[Guest]

Thats good news!!.....with that.....I plan on making one!!...remember the lab glass still that Hawkeye and BJ used to use on M.A.S.H ?.....wouldn't it be cool to have one of those?.....thats what I'm shooting for!!!.....I guess it's just a matter of getting a whole bunch of glass tubes and creating some sort of maze for the condeser..I don't think there is any particular ryme or reason to it ...just snake it so the steam starts out in the cooker and ends up liquid at the very end .......what do think?

[Pieterpost]

Jaxom, indeed you have to spend your money on something although this will cost you a bunch especially for the bigger (most interesting) stuff!!

Unfortunately I started this hobby the other way round than you did. I started with glassware and just went ahead with it all. I didn't worry about theoretical plates, ect. After a couple of time I had enough with fiddeling around with my 2 liter roundbottom flask and decided to built myself a bigger still. I must admit I got a little enthusiastic and got myself an 80 liter copper boiler ........ am looking for something smaller now

I had a 80 cm long vigreaux column (got that one for free ) and got to a strength of 80%. Also there ware a lot of nasties compared to what I get now from my sugar wash but I didn't let the yeast settle like I do now. I don't know how efficient the snyder columns are but I do think you will need some additional column packing to get to a nice neutral spirit of 95%. Let say somethin like a clear tube stuffed with copper mesh and on top of that the vigreaux/snyder column (or other way round).

Also it should be fine to heat the glass by gas, much cheaper then electicity and easier to control the heatinput.

Btw, don't forget to grease the joints with a silicon lubricant because they can get stuck if you don't. Believe me, trying to get the parts unstuck can break the glass and it's too expensive for that.

When you get the stuff can you post some pictures? I would love to see them

good luck!

PP

[Wade]

Funny, I just saw my friends friend use one yesterday it it is very cool!!!!! Took 45 minutes to make a shot but damn it is cool. Would love to grab one to test small batches instead of using the big one and running more then I want.

[acoop101]

I know there is a commercial distillery in Hawaii that makes a pineapple vodka that uses jumbo glass pot stills. A few years ago I had the chance to talk with the owner and he said the largest boiling flask they could source was something like 20 liters and they ran 5 of them two shifts a day. So I guess it can be done but looking at glass ware it would cost an arm and a leg. But it would be awsom!

[epplimp]

after much deliberation and what seems to be endless reading ive placed an order for a lab style distillation kit. it works out to be about $150 more than if i were to build my own out of stainless and copper.
heres a list of what the kit includes.
- 1 x 5000ml Flat bottom Flask
- 1 x 3000ml Flat bottom Flask
- 1 x Vacuum (Bent, 105 degree) Adapter
- 1 x 500mm Liebig Condenser (distilling column)
- 1 x Threaded Thermometer Adapter (w/Nylon bushing top)
- 1 x 500mm Vigreux 3-Way Assembly, 24/40
- 1 1 x Full length 0C to +260C Thermometer
- 2 x Medium Size Kit Stand (5" x 8" Stand, Rod 20" high)
- 6 x 24/40 Plastic Keck Clamps (to hold together the different units)
- 2 x Metal Utility Clamp (to hold the entire kit onto the stand/rod)

the capacity is less than if i had gone with a keg but i can purchase larger boiling flask later on once i get the hang of the process. im still a newb

heres a drawing of the setup



i was thinking of adding some copper "stuff it" which is similar to scrubbers in the top of the column. any thoughts?

for those of you who are interested stay tuned for pictures once it arrives

[epplimp]

As promised, if anyone cares here are the pics of my glass still. so far ive done birdwatchers sugar wash recipe. which turned out great! thanks Birdwatcher. i also did 2 batches of apple brandy also very tastey. making cuts were quite simple with the other lab glasswear i have for measuring volume and such. im using 3gal stock pot filled with sand (not the one in the picture) so it wraps the bottom half way up the glass boiler. i got this idea from a chemistry forum. i also learned that boiling flask are not always placed directly on a hotplate, rather on a screen that sits between the two. thanks to all the forum poasters for making this a safe and fun endeavor.

[epplimp]

[epplimp]

[epplimp]

[epplimp]

[rad14701]

Just because it can be done doesn't mean it should... Not many members here are going to share the warm and fuzzy feeling you have... Glass breaks easily and releases high proof volatile alcohol liquid and vapor into the stilling area... There's a reason it's called labware... It's intended to be used in a safe, controlled, lab environment by lab technicians for small scale experiments only...

You can, and should, do better... Hope I didn't burst a warm and fuzzy bubble...

[epplimp]

not sure why you would think that glass would leak anywhere. the joints are tight and the glass is of good quality. im also not a commercial distillery so i dont need tens gallons of product. the smaller volume would have far less explosive power than say keg or barrel full. granted im no master distiller, i do feel that operation of a lab style still is safe, though fragile yes. ive also found, exchange a few pieces. like maccano. it can be used as a pot, reflux, vacuum, gin or continuos still. amongst others. making it the most versitile still ive ever heard of.

thanks for the opion, no bubbles burst here buddy

[rad14701]

Are you using glass to glass connections, or synthetics...???

[epplimp]

the connections are glass. no synthetics. the kecks connectors are plastic but are external so they do not come in contact with any vapor.

[Prairiepiss]

You will get a whole 400ml of drink from a run. After cuts and diluting. That is if you can even make cuts on something so small. sounds like a wonderful idea to me.

[epplimp]

When running birdwatcher sugar wash. 2 runs is giving me 1L of 90% double distilled neutral alcohol. its taking an average of 2hrs per run. Giving me a total of 8hrs run time to produce 1L of 90%. I'm not a huge drinker nor am I selling it so its fine with me. There are larger boiling flaks available up to 22L. If I wanted to go bigger I could. I understand if you guys don't like glass. That's fine. For me it works well. I diistill on sunday during football and I get a litre of booze for the next weekend. That's more than enough for me. It sits on my stove, and I can watch it while I watch my lions on sunday. It may not work for you but it works great for me. Its also very handy for small batches of experimental recipes.

Thanks for the opinion

[Prairiepiss]

You are getting a lt out of 8 lt of wash? After making cuts?

[epplimp]

A little less than 10L wash after cuts is producing approx 950ml of 90% distillate.

[Prairiepiss]

So you are filling the boiler all the way up?

[epplimp]

these are acccurate numbers as i am home now and can look at my log book

after my 2 stripping runs of approx. 9.55L total. i ended up with 1.75L of 55% alcohol after my distillate run i ended up with 850-900ml of 90% acohol. my cuts from both runs combined to give me approx 250ml of nasties. and some water left over in the still.

i should note that my brix readings were inaccurate to begin with and my caculated abv. was 21% so i figured it was too high and sluffed it off as learning experience then went ahead. i too was surprised with the volume at the end of the batch. perhaps my abv caculation was correct? im not really sure. i had estimeted around 1L for the entire 20L batch(thats 4 instead of 2 stripping runs and a distillate run, thus making your 400ml estimate pretty close to mine)

the alcohol is a pretty good drink it even impressed the old european guys at the wedding we were at this weekend.

[epplimp]

the boiler is quite full not filled

[Prairiepiss]

You should only fill the boiler 3/4 of the way. Less for some washes.

Did I read it right. Your wash had a potential of 21%?

If it was 9.55 lt of 21%. There would have been 1.98lt of 100% alcohol. Or 3.6 lt of 55% ABV. You only collected approx half of what you should have. In your stripping runs.

Now Birdwatchers isn't set up to handle 21% potential. Not really sure if it would ferment that dry. More then likely it did not. Would have stalled or stopped when the yeast got drunk and killed themselves.

So by calculations. If you collected the correct amount. Your wash was only 10% ish. That's a lot of wasted sugar. Enough for another batch.

Or your seals on your still aren't working as good as you thought.

[epplimp]

like i said the original brix measurement got lost so i was going by memory not too accurate. i did modify the recipe due to what i happened to have. i used champagne yeast instead of bakers. i do know that i it was a successful endeavor and no one went blind or died. im quite pleased with my first run. lots left to learn though

[Alchemist75]

I've run a good deal of hooch on straight glass rigs, more than many here have. One thing that's different about my circumstances is that I already had a laboratory put together and so making the transition to producing booze was just a matter of buying rather larger boiling flasks. I began with a 5 liter and then dished out close to $400 for a 10 liter. I understand you can get a 20 liter boiling flask for a rather steep price, in fact I think there is a distillery in Hawaii that uses that size to produce a pineapple vodka. The start up cost of glass is higher than other materials not including cost of tools needed to build ss/copper rigs but most of that cost is in the boiling flasks actually. Other components can be had cheap on Amazon actually. Getting copper in the path can require some creativity but otherwise glass is quite workable. You're always required to use water or sand baths especially when doing alcoholic distillation so that part is a headache. I wouldn't advise that any newbie start off using glass, just learn to build you're own out of tougher and cheaper materials.
If it's any testament to how long glass can last with proper handling I have a boiling flask that's about 15 years old that has seen use a 1000 times or more. Good old flask.
My 10 liter isn't big by moonshine rig standards but as boiling flasks go it's huge. I don't think I could manage a bigger one. "Big Behemoth" lives in a galvanized steel tub which serves as it's bath. It's a 3 necked, ground glass affair that currently employs a 1 liter "biomass extractor" bulb as a chamber for copper scrubbies cut up small. It's quite the bitch to heat up especially if I'm employing a sand bath. I've recently picked up a miniature liebig condenser that's about 5" long which I'm going to try using as a dephlegmator over a vigreaux column. We'll see what that does on a spirit run. One things for sure, there is zero possibility for copper contamination using my current configuration and it does make some good hooch. Nevertheless, I'm currently building a little stock pot rig for my best friend which I'm finding to be quite the project but first attempts at a new craft are always clumsy so I'll not be discouraged. It'll lead me into building all metal rigs and eventually there will be an ss/copper set up that will supplant behemoth. The materials are just tougher and I like that idea considering how often I run. Replacing behemoth, should it break, won't be cheap, it would serve me better for doing things that metals are not suitable for

[Alchemist75]

Excuse me, pau Maui distillery uses 100 liter glass boiling flasks, not 20. Now THAT'S a big flask.

[jon1163]

how about some photos of your glass? sounds sexy

[Kareltje]

I support that!
Especially your glass thumper.

When treated with care a glass still is no problem. And it is transparent, giving much information!