Starting simple, now, how to make it safe?
Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2012 10:11 am
Yesterday, i used...common sence... to make a really tiny and simple distiller. Made by two soda cans, a candle and a tube.
I put some 15% mead in the first can, and heated it up. After about an hour (It takes its time when using a common candle
) some clear liquid started coming out of the end of the tube. I wasnt really optimistic, so i just guessed it was regular water vapor. Then i tried to ignite it, and it started to burn with a fine blue flame.
I can smell that its stronger than 15% now, it has this "bite" in the nose, and there is still the sweet honey smell from the mead left.
I guess i managed to make a spirit, but i really didn't want to risk drinking it. When you hear people that do home distilling talk about it, they say that its easy. Well, it seems easy, but I've heard that there are some serious risks. I'm looking for the basics here, how can i with my setup make a safe drinkable spirit?
First thing i heard, was the risk of the whole thing blowing up, but this, i can prevent with common sense. However, I've heard people talking about going blind when drinking moonshine, how?
Attached is a simple sketch of what i got. i will obviously improve it with better parts, but i don't want to make anything big. i just got some copper tubing that i will be using instead of the cheap plastic tube, and i will probably replace the cans tomorrow..
Now boys, you help me take it from here
I put some 15% mead in the first can, and heated it up. After about an hour (It takes its time when using a common candle
) some clear liquid started coming out of the end of the tube. I wasnt really optimistic, so i just guessed it was regular water vapor. Then i tried to ignite it, and it started to burn with a fine blue flame.I can smell that its stronger than 15% now, it has this "bite" in the nose, and there is still the sweet honey smell from the mead left.
I guess i managed to make a spirit, but i really didn't want to risk drinking it. When you hear people that do home distilling talk about it, they say that its easy. Well, it seems easy, but I've heard that there are some serious risks. I'm looking for the basics here, how can i with my setup make a safe drinkable spirit?
First thing i heard, was the risk of the whole thing blowing up, but this, i can prevent with common sense. However, I've heard people talking about going blind when drinking moonshine, how?
Attached is a simple sketch of what i got. i will obviously improve it with better parts, but i don't want to make anything big. i just got some copper tubing that i will be using instead of the cheap plastic tube, and i will probably replace the cans tomorrow..
Now boys, you help me take it from here