Home Distiller

I have been here for a small time and have learned a lot. Ran some runs. I finally got to the point to where I know I can drink what I made but I still do not feel comfortable knowing that I could go blind or die. If I would not serve myself I damn sure ain’t going to serve a family member or a friend. I tripled the amount of fores and heads you are supposed to throw out just to be completely safe, did my cuts and blending. I just still can’t get myself to drink any of it. It smells wonderful and I was not greedy during my blending. I’m sure I didn’t keep nearly as much as I should of. I just wanted to be safe. Out of a 5 gallon run I only kept 300ml. That is after it aired out and lost some due to the bad stuff evaporating. How did you get over the fear of drinking your own stuff?

I think you might be being over cautious, i would say the worst thing you will do to yourself is end up with a good hangover if you have too much heads in your cuts.

Yup, you are over thinking the danger. This is not something I would expect from someone that is correctly informed.

To answer your question, I find it comforting to know that orange juice has more methanol than anything I make with grain or sugar.

I would say this ain't the hobby for you. If you can't get past it a drink it.

Pretty simple.

Drink it and be happy.

Or don't drink it and find another hobby.

How did you get over the fear of drinking your own stuff??

Held my nose.

tp

The fear was easy to dismiss for me.

I simply learned a lot from this site, was not greedy with my collection of keepable likker, followed the directions, and simply tried it. Most of what you have heard out there about blindness is people doing awful things like selling unconsumable products as likker, using radiators with lead solder as cheap condensers.

Suggested read?: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonshine#Safety" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

I've consumed many things that I have raised, caught, made, or grew. It never crossed my mind to be afraid to drink my own booze.

You guys ain't much help at all. I got ya covered distillrook84. Send it to me and I will try it out for ya.

Sir Drinks-a-lot
1 too many Drunkard Lane,
Boozeville, USA

bearriver wrote:I've consumed many things that I have raised, caught, made, or grew. It never crossed my mind to be afraid to drink my own booze.

+1
I just joined a little over a week ago and been doing a LOT of reading and learning before I begin with just the knowledge I have gained from just that ........... well when I do get the rest of what I need to started all I can say is AIN'T SKEEEERRRRD !

Well, it is good to see the OP being concerned on safety - heck it is very important in this hobby. Not only his/her safety, but of the health of those he/she shares it with

As long as you are getting rid of an appropriate amount of foreshots, you will be fine. As mentioned above, if you include a lot of heads in your collection, you might end up w/ a hangover in the morning. Probably nothing worse than store bought spirits...

Was easy for me to overcome.

After tons of reading,,,,it seemed like every thing that I observed during my process was true and familiar. From the fermentation on down the line everything felt familiar.....Everything went just like "they" said it would....

yeah, all of you are right. I spent 4 months learning so far, testing out stuff, spending thousands of dollars on equipment and sugar, corn, yeast, water, electricity, time. I am going to just suck it up and have a drink to you guys/girls. I know my methods are right, (I have learned from the best here) I'm tossing out the correct amounts, and more. I spent way too much time and money to not even enjoy the fruits of my labor.

distillrook84 wrote:...... Ran some runs. I finally got to the point to where I know I can drink what I made but I still do not feel comfortable knowing that I could go blind or die.
...... I just still can’t get myself to drink any of it. It smells wonderful and I was not greedy during my blending. I’m sure I didn’t keep nearly as much as I should of. I just wanted to be safe. Out of a 5 gallon run I only kept 300ml. That is after it aired out and lost some due to the bad stuff evaporating. How did you get over the fear of drinking your own stuff?

I see that the prohibition era propaganda is still alive and well!

All that going blind & dying crap is due to unscrupulous purveyors of illicit alcohol(including the U.S. Government during prohibition), ones that add poisonous things to their product, to either increase the volume, or make it taste & appear more potent. Crap that is cheaper to get than just making ethanol. Stuff like methanol, denatured ethanol or solvents, ethylene-glycol, etc. Also, lead poisoning is a factor, from idiots that are stupid enough to make distilling equipment from old car radiators or antique copper components that were put together with lead based solder.

Think about it, ....when beer is made and then consumed, it has everything in it that was produced during fermentation, ...including all of the fores, heads, hearts, and tails. Will drinking 12 beers kill you or make you go blind? ....the answer is NO! Will you feel like crap in the morning, and maybe wish you were dead while the little lady is bitching loudly at you for getting drunk while you are still hung over? ....probably.

When you distill that same beer which was made, if you are making proper cuts, you are removing the worst parts of the fermenting process and keeping the best parts. Unless you are saving up just the foreshots of all your runs and drinking those in one go, you have nothing to worry about.

You may ask, in the case of methanol poisoning, how does a Doctor treat the victims???
.....administering ethanol is the prescribed cure, although treatment soon after ingestion is key, and positive results depend on many factors (such as how much was ingested, and the individual's metabolism rate).

You should be proud of the product you make. I've only been doing this for 6 months, but I put a lot of time into this website and John Stone's publication "Making Gin & Vodka - A Professional Guide for Amateur Distillers". I haven't liked everything I've produced but my goal is to get good enough at it that me and my friends can really enjoy some good vodka and whiskey.

Your fear of going blind or poisoning your friends seems overemotional.

Please do not forget the dilution part of the process. Stronger does not necessarily mean better!

This sentiment is surprising given how much crap we put into our bodies based on faith alone. Unlike every time you open a coke, or a tub of salsa, or a pack of chicken - you know EXACTLY what went into your liquor, and how it was handled.

I'm the complete opposite. If I catch it, kill it, pick it or distill it, I'm much happier than with it coming out of a package.

You're gonna die...!!!


Someday...!!! And not from drinking your home distilled spirits...

I think you need a little Omar Khayyam.

I think it boils down to - did you do the reading and did you do the cuts correctly?

So, depending on your setup, reflux - cut 50-100ml per 25L of wash, potstill, 150-200ml per 25L - I think that is what the parent site says.

Now, we all know that the stuff that comes right after that is firewater unholy crappy "heads" - so we dont keep that. If you didn't get greedy and keep any of the start to mid heads - then congrats - you just eliminated the methanol from a fruit wash ... but wait - are you doing a fruit wash? No - grain? then you are even "safer" as there is even less. Doing sugar? Well, you probably had such a small amount of methanol to start with (if any) that you are even safer still ...

Not trying to sound like an ass - just trying to show you what you already know - you are OK ... follow the methods here, don't be greedy, and you should be fine. Worst case, shoot a bunch of commercial likker if you feel better ... oh, wait ... there is probably more methanol in cheap commercial likker than in your product - even done while pushing the limits on cuts.

Grab a glass, try a bit, get comfortable with it ... we are confident you will love it

I guess I am just making it out to be more than it is. by the way I am sticking to the ujssm until I know it backwards, forwards, up and down. Thanks again guys I really love this hobby. Hell what else is there to do on a Saturday or Sunday? Fish and hunt I suppose. You don't know how much the above really means to me. This is truly a good place. Wealth of knowledge and good folks!

Distilrook84...do you drink commercial booze?

Do you know it has far more nasties in it than what we make at home? If you do it right you have removed a higher percentage of the acetone and other higher alcohols that the commercial makers leave in.

If you can't drink yours, stop drinking commercial NOW!

DAD300 wrote:Distilrook84...do you drink commercial booze?

Do you know it has far more nasties in it than what we make at home? If you do it right you have removed a higher percentage of the acetone and other higher alcohols that the commercial makers leave in.

If you can't drink yours, stop drinking commercial NOW!

+1

+2 on the quality of our drink .

Man temper it to 80-90p mix it with juice or pop and enjoy, it's a way cooler buzz yeah I said it its good stuff you made to enjoy. I drank stuff in the beginning I pitch now and still no hangover, no harm done. Sit back and revelle in the splendor of what you've done start to finish.

You ever drink wine or beer that aint distilled at all think about it.If your taking out all the fores and a quarter of the heads you still have a finer product than either of them drink up and have fun!!

Beers and wines are brewed super slow at low temp to minimise the heads an tails.

Stillers brew fast an dirty at high temp, because they make the cuts during/after the stilling. Stills concentrate the alc, and separate the alcs if the stillin is done right. Still so you can find the cuts because it's too easy to still with no chance of finding the cuts. Stilling is all about the cuts no matter how it's stilled.

Ayay wrote:Beers and wines are brewed super slow at low temp to minimise the heads an tails.

Stillers brew fast an dirty at high temp, because they make the cuts during/after the stilling. Stills concentrate the alc, and separate the alcs if the stillin is done right. Still so you can find the cuts because it's too easy to still with no chance of finding the cuts. Stilling is all about the cuts no matter how it's stilled.

My point is that you still drink all that crap when you drink beer or wine.I make wine too and know that there is the worst hangover there is.

I guess I now know why the nastiest beer in existence, Keystone Light, is triple filtered

How else could Ole' Billy Bob drink an eighteener everyday?

I wish I had more friends like you, I'd be more than happy to come over and test it out for you. Of course, I'd have to drink a lot of it, you know. Just to make sure it was ok.

300mL... you may not have a whole lot left when I'm done though.



Really though, throw out the recommended amount of fores, then you're going to want to stay away from the heads anyway, by the time you're down to the good hearts, you're pretty damn safe.