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How to make a still

by lemonie on June 30, 2007

Table of Contents
How to make a still . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Intro: How to make a still . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Step 1: Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Step 2: Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Step 3: Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Related Instructables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-still/

Author:lemonie author's website

I'm an experimentalist, a scientist and I have a tendency to do things just for the sake of doing them, or to find out what they're like. ~~ ~~
I don't like stuff that sucks, please show me something that doesn't.
I've got an honors degree in chemistry, and I've got a doctorate.
These days I run a finance department...
Average is not the best you can do
Fact X importance = News
Never, ever, bloody-anything, ever.

Intro: How to make a still

This contribution tells you how to distill liquids in your own kitchen.
Maybe for illegal liquor, maybe for purifying water.
! Drinking distilled alcohol may be harmful / fatal.
! Distilling alcohol may be illegal
! Drinking distilled water may be harmful / fatal

Step 1: Materials
I used:
A pressure-cooker
8mm OD copper tubing
A plastic bucket.

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-still/

Step 2: Construction
Form a coil with the copper tube, leaving a long lead-in. I wrapped around a demi.
Drill a hole in the bucket, and poke the lower end of your coil through this.
The copper tube is connected to the pressure-cooker with a (brewing) cork
A bit of Blu-Tac seals the tube to the bucket
Fill the bucket with cold water, and maybe some ice.

Image Notes
1. Chilli-sauce
2. Outlet from still

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-still/

Image Notes
1. Blu-Tac seal

3. Bucket filled with cold water

4. Vapour moves from right to left
5. Liquid boils in pressure cooker.

Image Notes
1. Cork
2. Fork (don't ask)

Step 3: Use
A person might take two bottles of cheap wine. put them in the pressure-cooker an heat them to the boil. The distillate would be enriched in alcohol, collected from the
bottom of the still.
One might wish to add a bit of colour with homemade caramel, and have homemade brandy.
And then one might drink the output and try to post a coherent Instructable.

Image Notes
1. Distilling two bottles of wine to one quarter volume would give a strong alcoholic
spirit.

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-still/

Image Notes
1. Sugar, add a bit of water and cook until dark

Image Notes
1. Caramel. For adding colour to your spirits.
2. Chilli sauce - separate Instructable L

Image Notes
1. Artist's impression of what you might get out of an illegal-still L

Related Instructables

distilling basics
by pdub77

How to make
moonshine by
pdub77

Build a Whisky
Still by Kiteman

How to make
Hard Liqour,
Wine and
Biofuel (E85). by
sk187

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-still/

Building a
Whiskey still by
densad

Understanding:
Drinking
Alcohol by )(angman

Comments
50 comments Add Comment

view all 283 comments

Strycn1n3 says:

Mar 7, 2011. 6:16 PM REPLY

HOW is distilled water harmful/fatal -.- it should come out as pure HO

lemonie says:

Mar 8, 2011. 12:46 PM REPLY

If you drink too much it flushes Na+ and K+ out of your body, your systems have a bad-turn, then you die.
L

Strycn1n3 says:

Mar 9, 2011. 3:34 PM REPLY

I've heard that about distilled water, but with a proper diet its not a problem.

lemonie says:

Mar 10, 2011. 12:17 AM REPLY

I perhaps should have emphasised "too much".

L

guiwegian says:

Feb 10, 2011. 12:37 PM REPLY

Hi, Great instructables.
I have made alcohol with my dad since I can remember it(in France it is legal if you have a right from the sate or pay a tax).
what I can tell you is, you won't die from drinking the first drop, but you should surely distill it twice. My Dad own some fruits tree, and a vineyard, we always
2pass" it twice, because the first "pass" is always coming out at around 35/40% ABV maximum and full of impurity (like in vodka), the second pass will get rid
of most of the impurity but still keep the flavour of the fruit.If you triple distill it you ll get an alcohol close to 80/85% abv but tasteless.
So Distill it twice, the first drop will be at 75/78% ABV and stop when the alchol % decrease to around 15/20 (you ll and alcoholmeter, or whatever it is called)
if you want to make something proper.
And my last advice is:distill it slowly, most people distill too fast and it taste like Denatured alcohol.
Enjoy drinking responsibly :)

lemonie says:

Feb 11, 2011. 7:17 AM REPLY

I agree with you on those.

L

sttt says:

Jul 27, 2010. 9:25 AM

(removed by author or community request)

romandoc says:

Feb 10, 2011. 3:07 PM REPLY

nothing needs to be made out of copper. stainless steel works best

lemonie says:

Jul 27, 2010. 1:19 PM REPLY

Hello!
This Methanol-business is often repeated, but it makes no sense. If you drink a bottle of wine you drink any methanol in it. Also, you find it very hard to
separate meth/ethanol without a sophisticated fractional-still.
L

brimble1 says:

Dec 29, 2010. 9:12 AM REPLY

you can separate methanol from the ethanol using a pot still like the one you've kindly shown us how to use. methanol boils at a lower temperature
than ethanol, about 64 degrees C i think. so this will come out of the condenser as a steady stream before ethanol. i think this method is called
topping and tailing. i heard somewhere that the methanol is a bi-product of distilling so is created by cracking during the heating. if the methanol was
in the wine originally you'd be poisoned!

lemonie says:
Not that simple - look up azeotrope.
Methanol is not created by 'cracking' during the heating, that's something I've not heard before.
L

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-still/

Dec 31, 2010. 1:16 AM REPLY

WTT says:

Feb 9, 2011. 8:41 PM REPLY

Great instructable!! Very simple and easy design - I always thought the "throw out the first run" came from the "old days" when car radiators were reused as
the condenser and trace of anti-freeze was still present. Hence the "going blind" because of the ethylene glycol consumption not so much the "spirits" .

gaiatechnician says:

Jan 30, 2011. 10:44 PM REPLY

I have never done alcohol distilling (except one experiment in lab tech training) but I have tasted plum schnapps in Switzerland. It was made legally by an old
guy with a slow still in the mountains. (He distilled for most of the farmers in the area. They just put their windfall apples and pears in a big plastic drum,
sealed it and left it for a year. Then, brought it to him and he did his magic. We had 2 tablespoons each morning in our flask of coffee.
He did a slow distillation in the mountains so perhaps 2/3 atmosphere.
That coffee schnapps was the most beautiful alcoholic drink I ever tasted!
The farmer said that the slow distill brought over the aromatic flavours too.
He said it was better than any schnapps that you could buy in a restaurant. Commercial distilling is faster and destroys the esters,etc.
I have heard of throwing away the first glass that comes over too. I heard that it is a combo of the danger of copper poisoning (from the liquid that sits in the
pipe and corrodes it from the last time it was used) and methanol poisoning.
In Ireland poteen was made a lot in the past and potatoes were in the mix. I think there is a greater danger of methonol if you use potatoes as an ingredient.
But I do not know if that is true.

lemonie says:

Feb 1, 2011. 11:13 AM REPLY

Thanks for the details, I'm sort of interested in schnapps.

L

Jyssa says:

Jan 13, 2011. 3:20 PM REPLY

this is kinda confusing...!
I live in NZ (New Zealand) where anyone can brew their own alcohol at home - I'm trying to find an instructable telling me HOW to distill spirits (and can I use
the plums from my back yard for it somehow?)
But all the double-talk and nuances to avoid sounding illegal for allll the places where you CAN'T do this is difficult to read through!!
Any simpler advice, specifically re making a beautiful liquor out of my plums?

thanson says:

Feb 1, 2011. 6:21 AM REPLY

1) Extract the juice somehow.

2) Mix it with a yeast to make a plum wine
3) distill it

lemonie says:

Jan 13, 2011. 11:26 PM REPLY

You could distill plum wine with kit like this - just boil it gently and steadily.
L

ohyeahitsthechad says:

Nov 12, 2010. 8:28 PM REPLY

Im gonna try plastic fish tank or oxygen tubing, It is just as flexible but hopefully won't create the blue water issue.

lemonie says:

Nov 13, 2010. 1:13 AM REPLY

Hot alcohol will strip plasticisers from that tubing. You'll notice this when it's not as flexible as it was.
L

joshbierton says:

Jan 8, 2011. 6:41 AM REPLY

would food grade tubing work (most brewers use it for siphoning)?

lemonie says:

Jan 8, 2011. 7:35 AM REPLY

It's not good with hot-vapour, and apart from anything else the thermal conductivity is poor.
L

pyrosparker says:

Sep 21, 2010. 1:37 AM REPLY

whats that fork for?

lemonie says:
It holds the safety-valve shut (rubber had gone "manky").
L

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-still/

Sep 21, 2010. 1:10 PM REPLY

beehard44 says:

Dec 9, 2010. 8:14 AM REPLY

i knew someone would just ask about it

mattbomb says:

Nov 24, 2010. 4:11 PM REPLY

3 CHEERS FOR MOON SHINE, hip hip! HORAY, HIP hip hip, hoRAY, HIP HIP hoRAy!!!

lemonie says:

Nov 25, 2010. 11:45 AM REPLY

Cheers!

codyleephillips says:

Nov 23, 2010. 8:20 AM REPLY

What temperature did you rin the stove at? or do you know for sure?

lemonie says:

Nov 23, 2010. 12:31 PM REPLY

The stove ran as hot as was needed, temperature doesn't mean much, it's more like "how it's boiling" (not very hard/fast)
L

tomsheltonyahoo.com says:

Nov 11, 2010. 12:25 PM REPLY

use a copper pot with the lid welded on instead of an aluminium pressure cooker

lemonie says:

Nov 12, 2010. 3:28 PM REPLY

How would you fill it?

L

tomsheltonyahoo.com says:

Nov 16, 2010. 5:27 PM REPLY

i cut a small hole with a torch and put a copper cork made of pipe caps hammered down into a funnel shape

lemonie says:

Nov 17, 2010. 11:57 AM REPLY

Sounds like it would work.

L

Love88z says:

Oct 16, 2010. 3:14 PM REPLY

I have read several places that using aluminum can be very dangerous to distill in. What is the different between using aluminum pans to cook in, wouldnt
that also be toxic?

lemonie says:

Oct 17, 2010. 1:18 AM REPLY

I didn't have / don't know of a problem there. Cooking things in Al can be corrosive, high-acid fruit for example.
L

g199 says:

Sep 13, 2010. 3:21 PM REPLY

Distiled water shouldnt be harmful, it just has no dissolved ions in it. Just pure H2O
Unless it becomes contaminated by the copper tubing, which in any case would be no more harmful than drinking tap water from copper pipes

lemonie says:

Sep 14, 2010. 12:07 PM REPLY

Yes, has no dissolved ions in it - can lead to electrolyte depletion.

L

bertus52x11 says:

Feb 18, 2010. 12:07 AM REPLY

I have just posted an Instructable that could be helpful to yout cooling: look under "classic heat exchanger" (don't use Aluminium though).

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-still/

lemonie says:

Feb 18, 2010. 1:05 PM REPLY

Yea I saw that, classic Liebig design, with running water it's going to be good. Except that you have running water.
L

EliWatney says:

Sep 3, 2010. 10:02 AM REPLY

I found a pretty decent answer brewing beer. I made a wort chiller with a small pump and a 5 gallon bucket of water with a lot of crushed ice.....easily
adaptable for this project.

lemonie says:

Sep 4, 2010. 12:18 AM REPLY

Yes I guess so. But if I used a 5 gallon bucket & crushed-ice I guess the cooling capacity would be the same. Having the pump would take the
thing off the top conveniently though.
L

scrounger64 says:

Aug 31, 2010. 4:56 PM REPLY

Good looking setup, looks just like my first rig. I found that the aluminum pressure cooker worked just fine but the rubber seal started to deteriorate. I
switched to a large stainless steel canner pot and suddenly found i had a much nicer tasting product. From a gallon pot i usually tossed the first aprox. 8oz or
250mL of distillate into a jar of "Heads Only". The next time i started a pot, i would throw the heads in with the wash to be re-distilled. Wouldn't want to be
wasting any of the good stuff!

lemonie says:

Sep 1, 2010. 12:56 PM REPLY

Yea, the canner-pot does sound better (this was all I had)
L

manchild66 says:

Aug 20, 2010. 6:50 PM REPLY

specific chemical compounds will start boiling at different temperatures. Methyl alcohol is the first to evaporate at 148.5 degrees Fahrenheit. Ethyl alcohol
evaporates at 173 degrees Fahrenheit and water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit. The alcohol as it reaches its boiling point will turn into vapor a digital
themometer can be used sealed in a small hole through the vessel as for the aluminium it can be copper plated for a small cost you can buy ready made
stills over the net http://www.mikesbrew.com.au/stills.htm http://encode.com/exec/ndistilling.htm http://crittersalon.blogspot.com/2009/03/alcohol-still-101.html
http://homedistiller.org/photos-sold.htm or the safer open still http://www.matchrockets.com/water/still.html

lemonie says:

Aug 23, 2010. 1:48 PM REPLY

yes I know, I did distillations for years - ever heard of an azeotrope?

L

aseaheru says:

May 2, 2010. 7:45 PM REPLY

what about a big tea-kettle instead of a pressure cooker

lemonie says:

May 3, 2010. 1:22 AM REPLY

If the kettle is well sealed it should work. The advantage of the pressure-cooker is it's designed not to let vapours escape (until you want it to)
L

aseaheru says:

Aug 18, 2010. 9:11 PM REPLY

ok, ill keep that in mind THIS IS FOR WATER,NOT MAKING BEER/ALCHOL!

barefootbohemian says:

Aug 18, 2010. 9:08 AM REPLY

Hey great idea! I am so amazed I didn't think of it (ok maybe not that amazed since my mind is often one track lately). But I am definitely going to try this for
distilling some essential oils for my soap making. Thanks for sharing it!

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-still/

lemonie says:

Aug 18, 2010. 12:41 PM REPLY

you usually steam-distil them. it may take a few fills of water to hydro-distill.
L

PKTraceur says:
What are the advantages of having a ''copper'' coil, as opposed to, say, a ''stainless'' coil?
Good instructable, I think I might modify my mum's teapot for a project like this. (Temporary, of course!)

view all 283 comments

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-still/

Dec 7, 2009. 4:26 PM REPLY