Posted on 01/27/2014 2:03:55 PM PST by Theoria
Within days after each season premiere and season finale of the Discovery Channel's reality show "Moonshiners," they come — a small but perceptible wave of people — to purchase suspiciously large amounts of corn, sugar and hardy strains of fermenting yeast at Austin Homebrew Supply.
"We know what they're up to," says Chris Ellison, the manager of the Texas store.
That is, it's obvious they're planning to ferment the sugars from grain or fruit juice into alcohol, then distill the resulting mid-strength beverage into high-alcohol hooch.
Making spirits at home with plans to drink it is against federal law. Only with the right permits may a person make ethanol, either for use strictly as fuel, or as part of a commercial endeavor — like launching a craft spirits company, of which hundreds have opened nationwide in recent years.
Yet more and more people seem to be making home moonshine, according to sources.
"The interest level is growing rapidly," says Gary Robinson, owner of Moonshine Still Pro, a supplier in Missouri. Robinson sells stills — which are perfectly legal to own — from roughly three gallons in capacity to about 13. He ships to all states, but the core regions of his business are the traditional southeastern moonshine districts and the West Coast.
Mike Haney, owner of Hillbilly Stills in Barlow, Ky., says his sales of ethanol stills have doubled every year for three years since he opened. "Just that someone buys a still doesn't mean they're out to break the law," Haney points out. "A lot of people are making fuel."
Haney also sells miniature oak barrels — the sort used for aging bourbon and brandy.
"But they might be aging wine in them, or just buying everclear from a supermarket and putting that in the barrel," he says.
(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...
Unless the a-holes changed the law, it’s legal to make 200 gallons of whiskey per year for personal use. Also 200 gallons of beer. That’s a LOT of booze for a person to consume.
I believe that it goes way back to just after the Revolutionary War. The Colonies had morphed into States and populations were on the rise. Ambitious farmers could move westward and open up a prosperous life on the "frontier". They soon learned that logistics were entirely different from what had been their normal way of conduction business. The vast expanses of the newly opened lands caused their expenses for transporting their grain crops to market to skyrocket until someone (probably Scotch) built a still and the rest was history.
Transporting wagon loads of grain was replaced by kegs and barrels which were much easier to ship. There was money to be made and it wasn't long before the Federal Government instituted a tariff on distilled spirits. The farmers, having recently booted King George's tax collectors back to England were in no mood to split their profits with a fresh batch of parasites.
George Washington, not in a mood to allow open rebellion, sent in the army to quash the "Whisky Rebellion"1. Said quashing was accomplished in short order and we are still faced with paying "Excise" taxes to this day!
Regards,
GtG
1 Google "Whisky Rebellion" for more background.
Ping me...
No, 200 gallons of wine or beer for personal use (not for resale) is allowed. Distilled alcohol (as a fuel or consumption) has to have permits, records and pay taxes on each gallon by proof. Unless you have a lot of money to put into this, it’s a p.i.t.a. to go legal. Which is the way they want it.
You don’t hear because you ain’t listening.
I’m in Texas.
A still can be used for many purposes. You can distill creek water into potable in larger quantities quicker with a still.If a person is into survivalism, that is.
I’m in Arkansas.
I believe one can make ethanol for fuel. It only becomes illegal if you drink it.
Easiest way to make a still is to use a pressure canner. Remove the pressure gauge and attach a piece of copper tubing. You can use a cork as a connector. A thermometer plumbed into the canner lid is nice to have. Run your collector tube into a copper cool in a bucket with a spigot coming out the edge at the bottom of the bucket. Fill the bucket with ice and water. Fill the pressure cooker 3/4 full with some kind of wine or mash. Heat to 180 degrees (no higher) and wait for the shine to come out the spigot. Always want to discard the first five shots (fore shots) because any methanol and impurities will come off first. You should yield 1 part shine for 10 parts wine as most wine is around 10% ABV. If you are just starting, is is easiest to distill wine. Cooking and fermenting mash takes some wisdom. Your wisdom will come mostly from bad experience.
This will make really good fuel for your mower..
You have to have permits for either one. And you can expect unannounced visits to your premises if you somehow do get said permit.
Exactly so. I looked into filtration systems for potable water - should the need arise - and found them lacking. I’m looking at stainless for its durability and several different manufacturers for one that is the most flexible in purpose.
Korn is a singing group!
Flawed right there.
People don't make ethanol.
Ethanol is a byproduct of the yeast consuming the sugar.
Distillation only concentrates the ethanol produced by the yeast.
If I drink three 12-oz. beers, or have three 5-oz. glasses of wine or three 1-1/2-oz. shots of whiskey, in each case, I have consumed the exact same amount of alcohol.
The only difference is how much water is in each.
Why should SHE get all the fun?
It is easier to “un denature” some readily available versions of denatured alcohol than it is to ferment and distill it.
It still (no, not a pun) needs to be distilled, but you avoid the messy and expensive fermentation process, and the distillation goes much more quickly and cheaply because there is no water in the mixture.
A five gallon can of denatured alcohol can produce ten gallons of good vodka.
But man is it ever illegal......
I figured someone would catch that opening! :)
Only if you get caught.
Explain that sentence please. I'm not following you.
“Explain that sentence please. I’m not following you.”
Vodka is about half alcohol, half water...
100 proof is half alcohol. Your statement is about five gallons of denatured alcohol will make ten gallons of good vodka. First where does one get 5 gallons of denatured grain alcohol? Wood alcohol is poison. Then explain your process so I can understand it.
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