Thread: How to make ethanol

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Originally Posted by viking

The basic ingredients:

corn meal
sugar
water
yeast
malt

The basic process:

Mix all ingredients together in a large container. After mixing, move the mixture, called "mash," into a still and leave it to ferment. How quickly this process occurs depends on the warmth of the mash.


Heat the mash to the point of vaporization at 173 degrees. The mash will produce a clear liquid, often the color of dark beer. You must watch this process with careful attention.

Trap vapor using a tube or coil. The vapor will be transferred into a second, empty container. The resulting condensation is the moonshine. It is then ready to drink or sell.

Keep mash in container. It is now called "slop." Add more sugar, water, malt, and corn meal and repeat the process.

Repeat the process up to eight times before replacing the mash.


Uh, you did ask how to make shine did'nt ya

now,we know what you do out there on that boat 30 days at a time!!!!

Originally Posted by lt1s10

now,we know what you do out there on that boat 30 days at a time!!!!

Shhhhhhh, keep it down

Several points of interest here. First I just read about ten days ago that there is some new law that allows you to distill "spirits" if you grow the grain on your own land. There was just an article in the Richmond Times Dispatch about a farm in northern Virginia where the owner bottles and sells his own moonshine with ATF approval by using corn grown on his land. I cannot give you the actual law but maybe you can search the archives of the RTD news and find that article. Second, the ATF is mainly interested in the tax dodge of private moonshine but the main problem for the consumer is that private stills often use old auto radiators for condensers and the lead solder in the radiators solwly dissolves in the alcohol and the lead carries over into the liquid and then accumulates in the spinal cord and brain stem of the consumer, ie lead poisoning. One sympton of lead poisoning is the production of dark black feces in which the body tries to eliminate the lead. I know this having worked for National Lead Dutch Boy Paints for only six months and just being around lead fumes without drinking lead containing liquids. The third factoid is that this technology is ancient and worldwide as I found out from a student from Ethiopia in my summer class. I was warning the students about lead in moonshine when he described a native still made out of a ceramic bowl or pot with a narrow neck holding about 5 gallons of any local fermentable grain. then he described a pipe made from hollowed out wood or bamboo for the condenser which doesn't burn because it is wrapped with cloth and the distiller continues to soak the cloth around the wooden pipe with water while stoking firewood under the pot to bring the mash up to a boil. Apparently there is no ATF in Ethiopia!

A note added in edit mode might be to remind folks about the cultural tie between moonshiners and souped up "delivery vehicles", reputed to be the basis for NASCAR talent in the rural South Eastern U.S. I am not endorsing development of illegal activities but apparenty there has been a loosening of the Federal law regarding making "spirits" from grain grown on the owner's land.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder