Never done this before..

[still a noob]

Hi,
I'm doing chemical engineering and i think i have a good idea of the theory, but i have a few questions relating to the process of distilling spirits. If anyone could help with any of them that'd be great.

By the look of it, most "wash" is something that you have brewed yourself earlier. If i was to use storebought casket wine ("goon"), the most cost effective commercial alcohol available, would it be safer to use as wash, in terms of methanol content and other impurities, than something home brewed? In other words, while I'm sure there is some amount of methanol in storebought goon, would it be enough to be considered dangerous when concentrated about 4x to the strength of standard spirits?
In terms of design, would it be good enough to use an empty metal keg as the Pot? As to not waste (as much) water, would it be effective to place the copper coil in a bucket of ice to use as a condenser?
Lastly, when analysing the distillate, is it safe to assume that all (or thereabouts) of the alcohol from the goon is present in the product?
It probably sounds strange to buy alcohol just to concentrate it more, but as a uni student i'm poor and while the price of goon is attractive (~30c/standard drink), i cannot stand its taste, and was hoping that it could be transformed into a vodka of sorts via distillation.

Thanks.

[Thorn_veritas]

your first post should of been in the welcome centre so we can get to know you!

yes wash is "something" that you brewed yourself earlier anything from sugar ,turboyeast and water ( not recommended taste like shit ) to allbran cereal, sugar water yeast vitamins plus too many more to list! and is would not be "safer". yes methanol is your enemy among many other impurities in home brew if done incorectly. keg would be fine s/s only though. if you want to make vodka you will need a reflux still with the condenser in head but if your just want a pot still it carry over the taste of goon which you obviously dont want and ice for your condenser would work for a pot still but wouldnt last long it will cost to much to keep filling it your better of using a 44 gallon drum and a pond pump. 1 thing i have learnt about this hobby is dont assume ANYTHING you are better of buying a alcometer and measuring the alcohol content of your distilled spirit and doing the math. you are better of doin your own mash instead of buying goon . im in oz aswell ( your slang gave it away ) and i can make my own 35% alcohol for $5 litre and thats good in anyones book better than goon anyway ha ha ha

but im no expert in this field

p.s. do somemore reading of this site and the parent site no one wants to see you get hurt or hurt anyone else
in the words of a very smart man " this hobby is not tiddly finks "

im not trying to have a go at you either this is just my advice people told me the same thing im telling you when i started coming to this site we just dot want to see you get hurt

[LWTCS]

Goon?? U mean like generic vodka or the like? Or low budget wine?

12 bucks worth of ingredients gets me roughly 2.5 to 2.75 liters of pretty high quality liker.

Most of us still out the meth no matter what we are running. That's the benifit of running the still

Do some more reading.

[Thorn_veritas]

Goon?? U mean like generic vodka or the like? Or low budget wine?

goon is a veryyyyyyyyy low budget wine that comes in cardboard boxes and a plastic inner alot of bums when there finished drinking the goon blow air into the plastic plastic inner and use it as a pillow ie the term goon pillow

p.s. im not joking

[rad14701]

Thorn_veritas, what major geographic region are you from...??? Never heard of such a thing as vodka in a box/bag...

[Thorn_veritas]

that my freind is cask goon its wine and very cheap nasty stuff brings back memories of high school im in australia the land down under 10$ for something like that.

[rednose]

From the very beginning I had the idea to re-distill a local sugarcane likker which is very cheap.

They wanted to sell for any price in bigger ammounts (barril of 200 Ltr) but I stopped the deal, the only reason was that I didn't have a control of what is inside of it.

To protect me and my friends, customers etc. I prefere to make my own wash with proven receipts and later trying some different proven ingredients.

I think that is the way to start this hobby.

Once you are firm in how it works you can retify those cheap headache bombs but I would not do it in the beginning.

Just my 2C.

Joe

would it be safer to use as wash, in terms of methanol content and other impurities, than something home brewed?
Thanks.

[rubber duck]

Welcome to the forum, Make your own wash it's cheaper and it will be better.

Bandy has something like twice the methanol of a sugar or grain wash. Wine is basically undistilled brandy so your not going avoid the methanol by using wine.

One of the benefits of running a still is that you can pull the methanol off the top, ie methanol evaporates at a lower temp then alcohol. This is called the forshot. Lets say for the sake of discussion you make a sugar based wash, distill the wash and make no cuts, leaving all the methanol in your spirit. You would have to drink something like a gallon of 75% to even begin to risk going blind.

I've had plenty of hooch in eastern Europe that had no cuts, and the only thing it did was make my head hurt. Your more likely to get lead poisoning from a poorly constructed still then going blind from moonshine. So I guess what I'm saying is methanol is not a big issue with home brewed, home distilled booze.

[blanikdog]

Hi,
I'm doing chemical engineering and i think i have a good idea of the theory, but i have a few questions relating to the process of distilling spirits. If anyone could help with any of them that'd be great. ... As to not waste (as much) water, would it be effective to place the copper coil in a bucket of ice to use as a condenser? .. .

I run forty litres of wash through a coil in a bucket condenser and it uses about TEN litres of water maximum, which goes onto the garden. What waste???

As for the ice, IMHO that isn't a good idea. You need a gentle gradient to cool the vapour, but you'll find all this information , and more, when you do more reading of the theory of distillation in this forum.

blanik