Sears steam stills --- can be used for alcohol?

I saw an advertisement for "Easystill" at www.easystill.com, and they are priced at around two or three hundred dollars, but then I noticed that Sears has steam distillers that look absolutely identical for less than half of that price. Are they really the same thing? Could you use one as an alcohol still?

I am pretty sure distilling alcohol is still illegal in America.

Why would Sears be selling distillation equipment?

Since this isn't a distilling forum ...

Yeah. Nuff said. <I think my phone is tapped.>/ Acts like nothing is wrong and steps slowly away from the computer...

I was looking at these about a year ago. That is how I stumbled across home brewing. I don't drink much liquor anyway, and it is illegal.

Yes, you can use those for that purpose, and it's only illegal if you don't have a permit. Reasonable results. Since this is a beer/wine forum, a better place to go is here for distilling info:

http://homedistiller.org/

OK, thanks guys --- sorry if I'm off-topic. Perhaps I was mislead by the title of the folder, "Wine, Mead, Cider & Distilling" --- my mistake. I will look into the homedistilling site.
By the way, the practical reality here in Canada is that as long as you're not selling it, as long as it's simply for personal consumption, you're not going to attract the attention of the enforcement department. As soon as you start marketing your 'product', yes, then you better have a license.
Thanks for the responses.
Tom

Yeah, I never noticed before but the forum does say distilling.

During lunchtime once, I stopped off at a bookstore and they had a book on distilling, with recipes, plans for stills and everything. Just about everything you'd need for it you already got for homebrewing 'cept for the still. I was interested until I read the process.... apparently you have first running, second runnings and third runnings, depending on the temp of the mash..... the book said the first runnings will make you blind. I'm not interested in gambling my eyesite on a miscalibrated thermometer, so I put the book down and stuck to beer.

Allan

You would know the nasty stuff by smell and taste regardless of anything else. Undrinkable and a wicked smell. It's pretty hard to screw up.

howlinowl said:

During lunchtime once, I stopped off at a bookstore and they had a book on distilling, with recipes, plans for stills and everything. Just about everything you'd need for it you already got for homebrewing 'cept for the still. I was interested until I read the process.... apparently you have first running, second runnings and third runnings, depending on the temp of the mash..... the book said the first runnings will make you blind. I'm not interested in gambling my eyesite on a miscalibrated thermometer, so I put the book down and stuck to beer.

Allan

Click to expand...

I thought it wqs really complicated, too --- then I looked into it. As long as you don't have sawdust in the mash, or use lead-based solder to connect the copper parts in the still, you're pretty much ok.

You could buy the Sears water -distiller (all-stainless, $270) and go that route. It's seriously not-complicated.

In any case, since this forum is mainly not about distillation, I'll up 'n relocate elsewhere --- my regards to you folks.

I hope you guys make great wine --- I've got 15 liters of BC grapes, 1 can frozen concntrate, and enough sugar to bring SG to 1.08 --- wish me luck!

Firstly, it is illegal to distill anything in America without a $1000/year license fom the ATF (TTB to be exact)...

Secondly, a water distiller will not work... alcohol evaperates at a much lower temp compared to water... if you put wine/cider/hooch through a water distiller, you won't get anything near what you're expecting out the other the end. That said, if you want to take your chance with the law, Homebrew Heaven has a modified water distiller that operates at a lower temperature specifically for alcohol... check this out...

mr x said:

Yeah, I never noticed before but the forum does say distilling.

Click to expand...

There used to be a section for distilling here. Most of us agreed that since it's illegal for most of the forum's members, we'd avoid the subject. It comes up from time to time, and the consensus is always that distilling is best discussed elsewhere. I think Tx is going to remove the word, "distilling," from that section to avoid confusion.

Even though distilling is illegal here where I am, I wouldn't take offense if the information was here. This forum is an international forum, you have folks posting and reading from all over the world. Just like the book at the bookstore I mentioned a few posts ago, the information isn't illegal to sell or post, and it'd be interesting to see what folks in other countries where it isn't illegal are doing. And....if they ever the govt. ever decides that they want to make home distilling for your own use legal, and anyone here is interested in trying it, we'd have a bit of a leg up on processes.

Just my opinion.
Allan

Adolphus79 said:

Firstly, it is illegal to distill anything in America without a $1000/year license fom the ATF (TTB to be exact)...

Secondly, a water distiller will not work... alcohol evaperates at a much lower temp compared to water... if you put wine/cider/hooch through a water distiller, you won't get anything near what you're expecting out the other the end. That said, if you want to take your chance with the law, Homebrew Heaven has a modified water distiller that operates at a lower temperature specifically for alcohol... check this out...

Click to expand...

Oh it will work. Neighbor does it all the time. It's not near fractionation tower quality or strength, and it's nicer still cleaned up with some activated charcoal, but it does work.

Adolphus79 said:

Firstly, it is illegal to distill anything in America without a $1000/year license from the ATF (TTB to be exact)...

Secondly, a water distiller will not work... alcohol evaporates at a much lower temp compared to water... if you put wine/cider/hooch through a water distiller, you won't get anything near what you're expecting out the other the end. That said, if you want to take your chance with the law, Homebrew Heaven has a modified water distiller that operates at a lower temperature specifically for alcohol... check this out...

Click to expand...

That must be a by state law then. I am pretty sure that distilling liquor is illegal in most of the south (Georgia?) It is not illegal to own or sell a still in America. However you give up some rights if you attain one legally. (I just learned this today).

Here are the federal laws.
http://www.atf.gov/alcohol/info/faq/genalcohol.htm.

I found a list of Ga. laws pertaining to this... Way more than I wanted to get into... Here is the link.
http://rules.sos.state.ga.us/cgi-bin/page.cgi?g=DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE%2FALCOHOL AND TOBACCO TAX DIVISION%2FDISTILLED SPIRITS%2Findex.html&d=1