Copper stills for making Rakija

[shadylane]

Here's one that uses water to seal the top

[shadylane]

I like this one because it's easy to empty

[shadylane]

I wonder how well it could handle a corn mash

[shadylane]

Portable moonshine still

[shadylane]

Check out the false bottom/percolator

[NZChris]

I'm impressed with the amount of effort they put into clearing the wash.

[jonnys_spirit]

Nice perspective! In one of the vids it looks like they were mixing low wines in with some grape pomace for the 1.5 spirit run.

Love this.

Cheers!
Jonny

[shadylane]

I'm impressed with the amount of effort they put into clearing the wash.

I think brandy fermented and distilled with the fruit pulp has more fruit flavor
Than brandy made with cleared wine
A friend of mine always adds some lowines to the next stripping run
He claims it extracts more of the flavors and decreases the odds of scorching

[shadylane]

This one uses a hand cranked rummager.

[Chauncey]

The water seal thing is weird and crazy but smart af in a way

[shadylane]

I used a water seal on the steamer still I made awhile back
It's real handy, the only down side is it can't hold back very much pressure.
If I try to use more than 1 plate the boiler pressure will start blowing bubbles in the water seal

[Kareltje]

Can you not just make a higher seal?

Nice movies, by the way!

[shadylane]

I could, but the steamer is mostly used for stripping

Have you noticed how shallow some of the boilers are.
They almost look like a skillet.

[Kareltje]

Have you noticed how shallow some of the boilers are.
They almost look like a skillet.

Now you mention it: indeed, strange.
Maybe to prevent scorching by providing for a large surface? For that they also have a double bottom, I suppose. Or to keep the working height nice? Or to keep the centre of the weight as low as possible?

[shadylane]

It looks like the fire box and the lower half of the boiler is kinda standardized
For burning wood from the orchard I figure they decided that's the best way to do it
For draining, some have a big valve, some just tip over to dump out.
For scotching control, Some put a layer of straw on the bottom of the boiler and poured the fermented fruit on top
Some used a hand cranked rummager, or a false bottom with or without a percolator
All the stills had a big cap, helmet or whatever Ya call it

Last but not least, and this is only my opinion, for homedistiller needs, this design is better than the classic moonshine still

[Kareltje]

And to move the helmet they made a lever, so they can lift it and put it aside with ease and without burning the hands.
Clearly developped for intense use on a movable chassis.
I understood that these carts move from farm to farm to legally distill the surplus fruit.
The moonshine stills are designed to sit in one place, and are only moved to avoid discovery.

I asked some member of a Dutch forum, who often stills in Rumania and has a Rumanian wife, if he could shed some light on this designs.

[Birder4life]

That shape of still would probably woek for on grain distilling to with a false bottomed like that. Wide and shallow like that might allow fast hest up times with low relatively low heat density on the bottom of the boiler. I also really like the tip-over clean out method.

Now I just need to get back out of this apartment so I have some were outdoors to use it. . .

[shadylane]

Clearly developped for intense use on a movable chassis.
I understood that these carts move from farm to farm to legally distill the surplus fruit.
The moonshine stills are designed to sit in one place, and are only moved to avoid discovery.

Once homedistilling is legit
There will be a need for a versatile still, one that can run anything
Not just the classic moonshine sugar wash
And there will be multiple versions of a turbo 500 for that

[Kareltje]

I got an answer of our colleague: in Romania he has not seen stills like the ones in the movies you linked.
Some other answers talked about traditions and local customs.
We all were nicely surprised by the social character of legal small scale distilling. Like harvest fests.

[shadylane]

This ones a little bit different

[shadylane]

The more I dig the more I find
Seems like the good video's have cooking and distilling

[shadylane]

[cayars]

Pretty cool set of video.

You guys notice what type of containers they all seem to collection into?
How about the way they make cuts?

[zach]

Here is a Serbian manufacturer for some of the stills in the videos.

https://www.des-kazani.rs/kazani-za-rakiju/hobi/

I'm impressed with the designs.

[shadylane]

I haven't a clue what is being said or where it was done
But I'm thinking it was legal

[shadylane]

Instead of saying "Copper stills for making Rakija"
I should have called it "Copper stills for making Brandy"
Here's another video I'd like to share with Ya'll

[shadylane]

Would someone Please translate what is being said
Looks like some kinda steam rig

[shadylane]

Two steam rigs with one boiler

[shadylane]

Google search is working tonight
I'm on a roll
Sorry my screw up This ain't about brandy
But It's still worth watching

[Corsaire]

Bookmarked for when I'm done working. I can have a go at the french ones. The others, not so much. Isn't home distilling legal in Hungary?