Home Distiller

I started reading on home distilling and found this site and am starting to build my first pot still. I found what I think is a large popcorn kettle which would probally hold about 3 gallons of water. However there is no lid to it that I can find. I was wondering if the boiler had to be perfectly air tight when you boil the mash. If not do you guys think it would be possible to craft some kind of lid for it? Also do you think this pot is to large for a first still? How much will something this size make?

Edit: Its also aluminum, not SS.

Would you personally be willing to boil gasoline in a vessel that leak vapors?

So building a lid is a no go, I guess I'll have to use a kitchen pot or something, but most of those seem small.

Keiser wrote:I started reading on home distilling.

Welcome, Keiser...But it seems you didn't read enough yet
Search here for all the messages about newbies...

Yes, a boiler has to be 100% tight and hermetic.

No, 3 gal isn't too small, but most recipes are 5 gal mash. So if you like this hobby, you'll soon want to build a bigger still...

The use of aluminium seems to be a bad idea. Read the topic "material to make a still" in "Research and theory"... You'll learn that experimented distillers use only copper, SS, and safe materials (no alu, no plastics...)

Most of us here, I think, use beer kegs, milk cans, ... as boilers. Read old topics to get info.

If you read and learn, if you enjoy the job, you'll find here many advises and some help. So welcome!

a beer keg seems like a good choice, but how would you open it up and clean it out, im trying to find a picture of one right now.

half of the members of this forums use a keg, I'm sure you can find pictures and information if you look for it.

an example of a very recent topic : http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 34&start=0
also: http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... g+cut+bowl
and: http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... c+bowl+keg

and if you want some more, use the search function

Keiser wrote:a beer keg seems like a good choice, but how would you open it up and clean it out, im trying to find a picture of one right now.

the best way to clean an un-modified keg is to build your own tools. to clean the bottom and lower walls, use a dowell or pipe of some kind, and somehow attach good semi-abrasive scrubbers to it. connect it to a drill. For the upper walls and top, make the sme kind of thing but make it kinda "L" shaped.

I opened my keg with a hacksaw, a good blade is necessary, and some cuttin' oil.
Pictures of my still (and keg) on my weblog (link below).

A heads-up on beer kegs. These kegs are often pressurized. Be very careful if you plan on removing the spigot receiver. If you remove the retaining ring without relieving the internal pressure, that receiver is going to shoot out of there like a cannon shot. That can be very dangerous.
The last keg I bought, at a scrap yard, had a lot of residual pressure left in it. I drilled a hole in the top to start cutting an access hole, and released a surprising amount of air. I am very thankful that I didn’t thoughtlessly remove the retaining ring first.

Just lay the keg on its side and put a rag over the valve, use a screw driver to push it in and release the pressure. Homebrewers convert kegs to kettles sometimes. They have posted lots of web pages on cutting, drilling, and welding kegs. Use a search engine for terms like "keggle", "keg conversion" adding "homebrew" as a search term might help.