Home Distiller

Hi,

I’ve been distilling with my grandfather for around a year now, all of the knowledge has been passed to me from my granddad along with his still, but I’m worried... I’m starting to think my granddad doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing old age and all that ! And I’m worried the stuff I’m drinking isn’t accually suitable for drinking... so here’s the story, my granddad was distilling alcohol in the 80/90s in Saudi Arabia they called it sadiki ? Based on the “blue flame manual” which I currently own. His still is stainless steal, 25l , with around a meter long 3inch Column packed with glass marbles down to a condenser. It also has a reflux coil which he doesn’t use. Anyways. This is how he distills a standard sugar wash. Puts it to a boil, when it reaches the top of the column (there’s a temp gauge) it starts producing at around 55/60c he instantly collects tossing the first 100ml of product, he then keep its running all the while producing till around 74c and shuts it off... he will then After doing 2 or 3 “stripping runs” like this and add it all to one last run and run it exactly the same. Running it To 74c. And that’s it ? Now I’ve been drinking this stuff. I’ve read around that ethanol doesn’t even show pure till around 78c and everything before is just fore shots ? Then holy moly I’ve literally been drinking foreshots for the last year ??? no I’m not blind or anything haha and feel fine... but I’m just worried my grandad is getting on abit and has missed a load of shit out and got stuff tangled up in his head...for the sake of my internal organs any advice would be greatly appreciated!!
I’m interested in this hobby and I’m worried I’ve been misled.
Thankyou much
Josh,

It contains very little methanol, but you should be able to get it tasting nicer by reading the forum and getting a better idea of how and why to do cuts.

If it has any rubber gaskets, you should look at replacing them with something more resistant to alcohol and it's congeners.

Thankyou so do you think it’s drinkable in the current state ?

Check any soldering for lead.

Check the thermometer. 25l, tossing the first 100ml sounds about right to me. Sounds more like an old man who is used to reading his busted thermometer. Without seeing some pics of the still or getting an idea of what it's made of (any no-no materials?) Its hard to judge his process.

You been drinking it for over a year you say? How's the hangover the next day? Can you describe the taste? Foreshots and heads have a very distinctive taste.

On the other hand, there's a guy in town, owns a bar and sells his own products, all legal and commercial. His swill tastes like the stuff I wouldn't even add back into my feints run. Half the town drinks it and apart from having barely enough brain cells to remember to breathe they're all still doing just that...

highly recommend what @Chris is saying! that'd be my 1st concern & can't hurt to check, worth a few bucks for a test kit (10 pk):
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B099WD5RCB

\m/_(^^,)