My roommate and I did when I was 17, just moved out of my folks house. Was incredibly fun and ridiculous. We built two actually, the first one leaked real bad, and we learned from it. We stopped the distilling process almost immediately, went back to sears and built a second one... worked like a charm. We had moonshine for about 6 months straight. We did a 3 brownsugar batches. Is probably around 150% alcohol, and got us HAMMERED drunk. Mad excellent gifts as well. We were pretty big potheads back in the day and we put 7 ounces of some Blueberry Skunk in a mason jars worth and let it sit for 2 months... that stuff was unbelievable.
Hmm when I was at the lhbs a few weeks ago it was mentioned how illegal stills are. If you are found in possesion of a still the feds can take EVERYTHING in your home. That was the warning we recieved.
Well, was 6 years ago for me, don't have one now. I've heard a rumor that several states allow a still that can hold up to 5 gallons of liquid in your home.
Not to mention, we got the idea from a book we bought at our lhbs, it had complete directions for beer, wine and ... building a still from copper tubing and a 5 gallon stainless steel pot.
Erm no......... It's illegal to distill alcohol.
Not a good thing to discuss on a public forum.
But if you want to distill water or essential oils then that's a different thing.
I'm 99% sure that distilling is illegal in all 50 states (without proper license). It is legal in a handful of foreign countries (New Zealand?).
In any case, I know that some people here have stills, I personally don't mind - but this probably isn't the best forum for that conversation. There are a few more-specialized websites that you might want to look into (COUGH! COUGH! http://homedistiller.org/ COUGH!)
I would highly recommed that this discussion take place outside this site altogether. This site is for people who love and enjoy the legal privilege of homebrewing beer and wine. Distilling is absolutely illegal and even if you find some obscure place where it is, please discuss it elsewhere. I speak for myself when I say that I do not condone discussion of something illegal on this forum especially when those in the discussion make clear their immaturity in declaring their pursuits got them "HAMMERED drunk".
Don't take it the wrong way. I was your age once and there may have even been times where I though getting hammered was a cool thing; but take it from me, it greatly increases your chances of doing something you could regret.
Last edited by Erbium:YAG; 01-30-2007 at 10:36 PM.
Wow, ok, sorry, thought the drunken ramblings forum would be for, well, drunken ramblings. Including being hammered drunk, and teenage idiocy. Sorry to have offended anyone in an anonymous alcohol forum... truly unexpected response, if I could delete the post I would.
Wow, ok, sorry, thought the drunken ramblings forum would be for, well, drunken ramblings. Including being hammered drunk, and teenage idiocy. Sorry to have offended anyone in an anonymous alcohol forum... truly unexpected response, if I could delete the post I would.
No one here wants to make you feel unwelcome. Just don't discuss anything illegal. While you might maintain anonymity, the forum itself is public. You'll find that there are alot of great people here who really love the hobby and are glad to help. Discussion about idiocy is certainly welcome. We all like to laugh too and we've all done our share of stupid things.
I'm sorry about the intensity of my reply. I tend to be protective (maybe overly so) about the priviledge to be able to brew my own beer. You can imagine what it would be like if someone or some group decided to go on a crusade because they thought homebrewing was the latest evil, and they started snooping around HBT. A thread titled "Ever built a still?" would be ammunition in their hands.
Like I said before, "Don't take it the wrong way."
Ever built a still?
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