Outside over wood fire?

[dance]

I never see the landlord Im renting my house from except today when I was pulling my coil from out of my trunk... "Whats that for a still?" I laughed and said no of course not and he replied he was worried I was building a still now in the house and thats dangerous. I assured him it was a condenser left over from a walk in cooler that we just built, which is the truth except thats not the coil from it.. Anyways now I'm just being paranoid and curious about trying it with a concrete block setup and i carry coals from my fireplace outside? Im sure temp regulation is the biggest bitch about it considering I'm running a 4 gallon tank thats mostly vertical space. I assumed this would be the right category for this, thanks in advance

[heartcut]

There's been a lot of good hootch made over a wood fire, but I'd advise propane for fast, simple, fast breakdown, no smoke heating outside.

[rad14701]

While distilling over a wood fire is a possibility, take it from someone who has done so using a larger than hobby scale rig in the past that controlling heat input can be a problematic at best... Banking coals and pushing them under or dragging them out to maintain a flow rate can be a pain... I NEVER ran a still over the flames of a wood fire... Sure, you could just let the still run as fast or as slow as it wants, if it's a pot still, but most folks want to regulate the output - especially on a hobby scale rig... Reflux columns are a whole different animal and I'd never attempt to run one over a fire...

Being a tenant that has to answer to a landlord is never fun, whether distilling or not... I endured that lifestyle for 30 years and hated every minute of it... One thing to keep in mind is that the landlord can't just barge in and snoop around on a whim, so you do have your privacy... Just remain discreet and you should be fine... I distilled in apartments and not even my live-in girlfriend knew about what I did when she wasn't home... I fermented washes in my office closet and did runs while she was at work... How's that for being discreet...

[Truckinbutch]

+1 , Rad . Building an indirect heat wood fired furnace and regulating a still for stable runs is best left to pot stillin and only as a last resort . Not an endeavor for hobby class stills except in perfect circumstances . Too damned much wok and too hard to hide .

[goose eye]

When ole boys was young they helped some that cooked that way.
they would put wood that burned quick - poplar an pine-
an a piece or three of oak stove wood. You don't no stove
wood it was cut an split to use in a cook stove. You had to have a skirt
once it burned down enough an you had to keep the
kettle stirred. You would have a cut in the skirt to add
a piece of wood when it said it needed it. Go gentle on stokein
the fire cause it'll jump quick if you ain't careful.
it is alot of work but them sounds an sights will
be with you forever.

So I'm tole

[Dan P.]

I fermented washes in my office closet

Damn... Where did you work? A bar?

[Dan P.]

If you are nifty you could make a skirt or shroud which was airtight with baffles/dampers to keep the fire very low. Some people modify an old steel barrel.
However, where I lve you can get itty bitty propane tanks for the BBQ, maybe 10kg or something, less maybe. could be humped into the bush no problem for many hobby sized runs. Personally I use "empty" propane tanks on my still burner, when they are spent for their intended purpose, and I can get a bunch of runs out of them. But then, one man's empty is another man's not empty.

[rad14701]

I fermented washes in my office closet

Damn... Where did you work? A bar?

I'm self-employed and my office is a spare bedroom... At that time it was not uncommon to have 8 - 10 gallons of wash fermenting in there... She never knew anything about my hobby until after we separated and I was here at the house... I guess I can keep a secret if she never knew for the better part of the 22 years we were together... I had taken some time off back when we first got together...

[Appalachia-Shiner]

22 yrs. DAMN.
All good things come to an end I guess.

Bout the fire. Use Mulberry if you can, it don't smoke...so I'm tole.
It's a big job but I'm thinking bout doing it. Everybody uses propane now, had a lot of burners from an old backerbarn but gave them away a few years ago. Found out later the man was makin shine....should have kept them.

[shadylane]

There's some good videos on YouTube distilling Rakia "plumb brandy" using wood heat, water sealed boilers and hand crank stirrers.
It appears they feed the furnace slowly, steadily and aren't afraid to rake out some coals if the fire gets too carried away.
The wood looks like it's from pruning the plumb tree's.

[jedneck]

The day our hobby becomes legal I will be building a wood fired steam stripper. My old man stripped in the butcher furnace in the summer kitchen, worked great but there was a good sized learning curve till he figured it out.

[Brutal]

The day our hobby becomes legal I will be building a wood fired steam stripper. My old man stripped in the butcher furnace in the summer kitchen, worked great but there was a good sized learning curve till he figured it out.

If'n I have some land (and privacy) by then by god I'll make one too. I have always wanted to heat with wood fire. It ain't gonna be efficient or petty but it's from the land. Maybe one day. You keep brutal in the loop please Jed.

[jedneck]

The day our hobby becomes legal I will be building a wood fired steam stripper. My old man stripped in the butcher furnace in the summer kitchen, worked great but there was a good sized learning curve till he figured it out.

If'n I have some land (and privacy) by then by god I'll make one too. I have always wanted to heat with wood fire. It ain't gonna be efficient or petty but it's from the land. Maybe one day. You keep brutal in the loop please Jed.

You are welcome here anytime.