chemical theory

Craigman · Post by **Craigman** » Mon May 02, 2005 8:13 am

hi,
i'm interested in the chemical theory of distilling alcohol. I've looked at most of the distilling websites eg: moonshine, homedistiller, blueflame and haven't found what i'm looking for.
can anyone please recommend a website where i could find this information.

thanks

LeftLaneCruiser · Post by **LeftLaneCruiser** » Mon May 02, 2005 8:46 am

I just tried a wild guess and typed "www.physics.org" in my browser. And surprise, surprise the site even did exist.
It's has got a search function in wich you can type your actual question. It came up with a link to http://www.howstuffworks.com onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Tip: if you are willing to search, instead of wanting to find, there is a LOT of info on the net.
[General advise, not just for you

]

KJH

The Chemist · Post by **The Chemist** » Mon May 02, 2005 8:57 am

Craigman wrote:hi,
i'm interested in the chemical theory of distilling alcohol. I've looked at most of the distilling websites eg: moonshine, homedistiller, blueflame and haven't found what i'm looking for.
can anyone please recommend a website where i could find this information.

thanks

Any first year organic chemistry lab textbook will probably have more than enough distillation theory to satisfy the curious moonshiner. The Alcohol Textbook by James Murtagh is a goldmine of information on all aspects of beverage alcohol production. It's expensive, but maybe found in a good univerity library.

I'll check my usual sites on the web for a good one.

The Chemist · Post by **The Chemist** » Mon May 02, 2005 9:07 am

This looks like a good primer: http://www.monashscientific.com.au/Alco ... Theory.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

If you already know some chemistry, here's a good slideshow:
http://ull.chemistry.uakron.edu/chemsep/distillation/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Post by **Grayson_Stewart** » Mon May 02, 2005 9:08 am

Organic Chemistry.....now that brings back bad memories. I'll have nightmares tonight.

Yttrium · Post by **Yttrium** » Mon May 02, 2005 1:46 pm

Whisky, technology and marketing is another good book for covering the theory of distillation. It has a great history section and theory section. I've been reading the 4th edition of The Alcohol Textbook, and it does have some good information in it, however, the editor did a poor job as the same information(heck even the same graphs) shows up over and over again.

http://homedistiller.org/wiki/index.php/Whisky_Te ... _Marketing

rectifier · Post by **rectifier** » Mon May 02, 2005 5:41 pm

You might actually want physical chemistry rather than organic, as that's the only course that covered distillation for me.

If you see the word "azeotrope" you're on the right track. Man, did I have trouble wrapping my head around that stuff at first. The graphs are kinda tricky to figure out!

You'll probably want to read something about column chromatography, too. It's different from distillation, but will give you a better view of what's going on in the column. "theoretical plates" and "HETP" are probably the key words here.

Just use those words and google, you should find what you're looking for in more than enough detail.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed May 04, 2005 6:08 am

thanks everyone

Home Distiller

chemical theory

chemical theory

Re: chemical theory