Any home brewers?

[Bill Poster]

Looking at various websites, they get carried away a little bit with explaining even the basics with making a simple still. I'm based in London and want to make a spiced rum.

Anyone with experience?

[Mayhaw Man]

I might have a friend.

What you should do is go to your local library and get a copy of the first Foxfire book. The best description of simple, pot type, distillation that you will ever see is there. My friend built his first still completely from those diagrams and had huge success with those designs. This was long before the internet began to be a resource, so it was all he could find at the time. After you read that, and get all excited, you will find that there are a number of online resources that can help expand your knowledge.

You also might want to look online for a copy of "The Blue Flame". This is the book that someone at ARAMCO put out in the Fifties to tell it's employees how to make simple distilled beverages. It's a pretty fascinating thing, considering that they were telling their employees how to do something that at best would have gotten them deported and at worst could have gotten them jailtime or worse.

It's a fun hobby, but not one you can exactly advertise to your friends. There is nothing legal about it in the US. It is NOT homebrewing.

[AzianBrewer]

Looking at various websites, they get carried away a little bit with explaining even the basics with making a simple still. I'm based in London and want to make a spiced rum.

Anyone with experience?

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Is it legal to home distill in the UK?

[Bill Poster]

probably not

[Joe Blowe]

Is it legal to home distill in the UK?

From some guy's website:

Legalilty

Summary: It is only legal in New Zealand. Some European countries turn a blind eye to it, but elsewhere it is illegal, with punishment ranging from fines to imprisonment or floggings. So if you are going to distil, just be aware of the potential legal ramifications.

[...] United Kingdom (UK): If you do and are caught you will be liable to pay the duty on the alcohol in the spirits you make (currently £19.56 per litre) and to pay a fine of whichever is the greater of £250 and 5% of the duty payable. (Finance Act 1994 s9(2)). Forget getting a license. There are rules about how large (or rather how small) the still can be which would render any home device unlawful and in any case you'd have to pay the duty which sort of defeats the object. As far as I can ascertain, you are not committing a criminal offence by distilling alcohol. All the above are civil matters. I assume that Customs and Excise would seize all your product and your equipment too.

In short, you might say that the consequences of a raid on a genuine hobby distiller making liquor for him or herself would be embarrassing but not necessarily disastrous. As for the likelihood of getting caught; well I have never heard of a case in my lifetime (I'm 47). My own guess is that the Customs an Excise are far too busy chasing drugs and liquor smugglers and dealing with VAT fraud to bother with a small time....... Hang on, there's someone at the door.

[PassionateChefsDie]

I never wrote this! But I've seen it done with a pressure cooker not sure how we didn't poison our selves, but started with a naff bottle of sherry, it definetly gained alchol content!

[KOK]

Looking at various websites, they get carried away a little bit with explaining even the basics with making a simple still. I'm based in London and want to make a spiced rum.

Anyone with experience?

←

Get a glass water cooler bottle and that makes a great still pot. Stop it with a rubber stopper with holes for the tubing and simply run the condenser tubing through an ice bath to turn the vapor into liquid.

In college, this worked very well by knocking the bunghole out of a 1/2 full flat keg and pouring the dead beer into the glass vessel and distilling the contents into high alcohol content liquid.

Thanks,

Kevin

[mbrowley]

I might have a friend. 

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You might indeed. The home distillation book I've been working on for the better part of the last two years goes to press in January. Depending on who you talk to it's either "Wet Goods: A Moonshining Primer" (me) or "The Complete Book of Moonshine" (the publisher's marketing dept). Title's in the air, but the content isn't: a comprehensive beginners' book on small-batch distillation including detailed plans for a copper pot still and 30-40 recipes for corn whiskey, rums, modern thin mash/sugar whiskeys, sorghum skimmin's, cherry bounce, rye, peach brandies, applejacks, etc.

A note on legality in the US: Distilling is not like beer brewing or wine making -- without permits, you cannot distill one drop of ethanol, not even for personal use. You may, however, apply for permits from federal and state authorities. This generally requires a separate building, keeping strict records and the expectation to be audited at any time. And, of course, paying taxes on the spirits produced...

Smaller legal distilleries are cropping up, but permits aren't granted lightly or quickly.

Matt

Matthew B. Rowley

[Mallet]

While it may be illegal to distill alcohol in the US and Canada, it is perfectly legal to buy a good quality still. Sears sells a line of "water distillers" which (I believe) are actually NZ-made alcohol distillers:

Still Spirits

Everyone in Cape Breton has one...

edit: link added

Edited September 29, 2005 by Mallet (log)

[WHT]

Most older chemistry books show how to do it. I had seen it done with a large glass jug, a rubber stopper and some aquarium hose. yeild was about 325ML per run.

[Dan Ryan]

Perfectly legal in Slovenia to distill your own. The trick is not poisoning yourself with fusel oils, methanol and other nasties in the early and late distillations (heads, tails, whatever you like to refer to them as). As I'm sure you'll read. Good luck. What's your base, anyway?