Home Distiller

I started this post not only for entertainment, but to allow others to learn from our mistakes. We have all done some stupid things in the past and obviously are still around to talk about it. Safety is paramount when dealing with boiling, flammable liquids next to an ignition source. Now back to the entertainment.

It's the second day of spring and I'm snowed in. 8" expacted, so I thought I'd do some reading of old posts. Being a new guy, I am enlightened by these stories in this thread. So I will bump it up to the front in hopes of getting more tips from experience. These real life stories hit home and will hopefully prevent me from doing the same.

I'll just have to think of my own unique brand of careless thing to do when the time comes.

thanks for sharing.

Don't ever, ever, ever, drink while running a boiler. It might cause you to lean a $2500 guitar against it while you go to take a piss

Very light scar

Never ever ever EVER buy Anything from Stilldrinkin Crooks
My biggest mistake

Old_Blue wrote:Don't ever, ever, ever, drink while running a boiler. It might cause you to lean a $2500 guitar against it while you go to take a piss

Very light scar

On the guitar, or your wiener? lol

Old_Blue wrote:Don't ever, ever, ever, drink while running a boiler. It might cause you to lean a $2500 guitar against it while you go to take a piss

Very light scar

Hmmm, wish I could carry a tune besides the radio in the truck, but dang, it never sounded like $2500 either.

@ Husker! Now thats Funny....
Old Blue.. Just call it a battle scar
My dad had 72 Ford van when I was a kid named after you Old Blue.

I've stepped away for just a minute and caused the mason jars I collect in overflowing and running all over the table. I now collect in a mason jar, but set it down inside a stainless stockpot to catch any overflow and isolate the flammables.

On a side note, a buddy of mine just got a bunch of old wood that used to be a martin guitar. Well, he found someone to rebuild it and got an offered $18,000 for it when it was fixed. Take care of those guitars boys...

On the guitar, or your wiener? lol

Good one Husker

Let me clarify!!! It was on the guitar.
It is a Martin actually.
$2500 is one of their intermediate grades.

First class cost money

Old_Blue wrote:
First class cost money

That's what Elliot.......

Never mind.

Where's that rimshot emoticon when I need it!

Heres mine.It never goes in the brewery.

Nice avvy wineo.

I ain't never played a guitar in my life, so I can't say much here.

Back on topic, always set your distillin' stuff on something substantial. When I started, I set my cooling bucket on a wood-framed cardboard box (just around the edges, ya know). Turned my back on it and it collapsed.

Fortunately, my boiler was only heating up, it hadn't been boiling, and I designed the thing so that the coil could pull free of the boiler should pressure build up or something fall. Had three and a half gallons of water all over the floor. Now I have the thing set on a broken dehumidifier that's manly enough for me to stand on.

My first experience with making my own hooch. I was about eleven when one of my buddies told me that all I needed to do to make alcohol was mix sugar and yeast in water and let it ferment. I was home alone one afternoon after school and thought I'd give it a try. I mixed up a bunch of sugar and water and added some of my mom's bread yeast in an empty plastic milk jug. I screwed the lid on tight and hid it on the back of the top shelf of my bedroom closet to let it do its thing. I went on with the rest of my day and forgot about the concoction.

That evening Mom and Dad said prayers with me and tucked me in bed as usual. I was laying in bed relaxed and beginning to drift off to sleep when I began to hear a strange faint hissing sound. I lay there wondering what I was hearing. Gradually over about a half hour to an hour the noise got louder and louder. Eventually it occurred to me that my brewing experiment might be the culprit. I quietly turned on the light and checked on my milk jug. It was swollen up like a balloon and hissing madly. "Oh crap. I'm going to be so busted if this thing explodes and I get caught trying to make alcohol." As silently, carefully, and quickly as I could I grabbed the milk jug, shut off my light, opened my window and dropped it to the flower bed below where it exploded in a mess. Just as I had finished putting the screen back in place and closed my window, my mom opened the door of my room and found me still standing at the window. "What are you doing?" she asked. "Um, just looking out the window." If Mom had come in just a few seconds earlier I would have been completely caught. The next day after school I carefully cleaned up the mess in the flower bed before it got noticed. Now, twenty seven years later I've got boys about the same age and I still haven't told my mom exactly why I was looking out the window that night.

On my second distillation: Lighting some booze fresh off the still right beside it. I didnt think it was burning because it was still hot so I threw it in the main jug and some on my arm, which made my knock over 2 cups of 70% nearly burning down the shed.

Overheard while two friends were trying to burn some moonshine. "I quess your right, it isn't high enough proof to burn, but why is the hair on the back of your hand curling up"

All I have are beer stories. Filled a glass carboy with the hot wort and wanted to cool it quicker.(in a rush) set it in a snowbank out back and heard a "snap" then watched 25L of my beer wort gurgle into the bank!

Towed my mustang 6 hours to a big dollar dragrace. Got set up, started the campfire, was relaxing with friends when I heard a bang from the camper. Then all hell broke loose and rapid fire bang,bang,bang! Opened the door to see the 24 of homemade beer I left on the floor for the drive blowing up. (yup, she was pissed)

Run goinbroke2 Run!

Husker wrote:However, you will want to stay with your still 100% of the time. Remember, you are producing a very flammable substance. If there is a problem, you want to be right THERE to handle it, and not simply have to run out the back door, as your house burns down.

That is NOT a joke, accidents do happen (or can happen). This is not a hobby without risks.H.

So true, husker. I am still recovering from the most stupid thing I have EVER done as a distiller. I feel a bit ashamed to write this post but it may stop some body else from doing the same thing and not getting away with it as I just did.

I was about to run five gallons of rum low wines through the old pot still. I diluted it to 40abv and did all the right things and as water is a problem I usually turn the water on for the condenser about fifteen minutes later. I then wandered off to the house and got otherwise distracted and finally thought "I'd better go and check the still".

I walked out to the shed and it resembled a fucking Turkish Bath!!! Ethonal vapour was pissing out of the outlet, and I run with butane. The smell was positively scarey!! Come to think of it, the entire scenario was scarey.

I VERY quickly turned of the gas and turned on the water and the day was saved.

I can only guess that as I had never had any problems before I had become a little over confident or even - dare I say it - careless. This could have been a very nasty situation.

The moral is, NO MATTER HOW LONG YOU HAVE BEEN DISTILLING DO NOT BECOME CARELESS. IT COULD CAUSE A LOT OF DAMAGE AND MAYBE SERIOUS INJURY. This hobby is dealing with very flammable substances but none are more dangerous than stupid, careless 'accidents'.

justchangedmyundiesblanik

blanikdog, I'm glad you were able to react before calamity struck... A lesson well learned, I'm sure... For those reading, this type of scenario is a main reason why home distillation is illegal in most areas... Imagine if this had gone terribly wrong in an apartment building... This should serve as a good reminder for all of us to be extra careful... Although you may feel slightly embarrassed, blanikdog, thanks for sharing...

I moved blanikdog's post here, as this is the thread it really belongs in, and this thread needed a bump anyway.

H.

Taking "samples" from still in a shot glass set it on a shelf behind still vibrations knocked it off spilled on hot still and ignited went up like 5gals
of gasoline lucky I had hoes handy , never seen such a big fire with such a small amount

Husker wrote:I moved blanikdog's post here, as this is the thread it really belongs in, and this thread needed a bump anyway.

H.

If this thread needed a bump, why not sticky it? After all, this art is all about learning from your mistakes.

I was starting a run through my bokabob reflux a while ago. Everything was going well and had it on full reflux waiting for the column to settle. Comes time to start taking of the foreshots - Nothing. Opened the needle valve wide to see if that would clear a possible airlock in the 1/4 " take off - nothing. I then shut everything down and started investigating. Bloody mud wasp had built a nest in the end of the take off tube.

duds2u wrote:Bloody mud wasp had built a nest in the end of the take off tube.

That's pretty common for outdoor stills and it's a real hazard! Pressure can build up in a still and quickly show you the weakest point.

Blanik

Good to be reminded about these dangers. Thanks for that, and your honesty.

I heard a story of a clogged collection line a long time ago,and every since,I blow through mine before hooking it up.Every time.You cant be too careful.

wineo wrote:You cant be too careful.

No we can't. And if we are ever going to convince the lawmakers to let us go legal, we are going to have to prove that we can build safe stills, run them safely, and that the product out of them is at least as clean as the commercial stuff (which fortunately is not too hard to do ).

wineo wrote:I heard a story of a clogged collection line a long time ago,and every since,I blow through mine before hooking it up.Every time.You cant be too careful.

That's why I kept my lines large diameter, I figure I grind the corn but also when I eat corn, no matter how much I chew it seems some always gets through the mastication process whole. So I made my lines big enough to run a whole kernel of corn through in any position.

trthskr4 wrote:when I eat corn, no matter how much I chew it seems some always gets through the mastication process whole.