From Moonshine to Cheap Gas: Home Stills Used for Additives

Arizona Daily Star ^ | 05.16.2006 | Bill Poovey

[kellynla]

TULLAHOMA, Tenn. — The still — standard equipment of any moonshiner — has a shot at becoming the must-have accessory of penny-pinching motorists.

An upstart Tennessee business is marketing stills that can be set up as private distilleries making ethanol — 190 proof grain alcohol — out of fermented starchy crops such as corn, apples or sugar cane. The company claims the still's output can reduce fuel costs by nearly a third from the pump price of gasoline.

Buyers of stills need a federal permit to make ethanol on private property. In what amounts to an honor system, they are to add a poison to their homemade alcohol so it isn't "white lightning."

"We make it very clear that it is against the law to drink what comes out of it," said Shelley McClanahan, a spokeswoman for her family's business, Dogwood Energy. Phones are ringing with orders at the business that mostly sold pellets for wood stoves before pump prices bounced high by Hurricane Katrina focused new attention on a modified still designed by McClanahan's father, inventor-mechanic Bill Sasher.

[kellynla]

"Don't spill it on your clothes!" LOL

[agooga]

I'll just sasy this about DIY distilling-- it's HARD work. It's messy, labor intensive, a little dangerous and I honestly can't see how the average guy with access to the average ingredients is going to save any money at all-- until and unless the price of gasoline hits somewhere north of $8 a gallon.

Small time distilling is better suited for making one of a kind beverages.

Not that I'd actually know anything about the subject, mind you...

[2harddrive]

I would advise against the use of any such still - or the BATF will come to visit your house with Flame Throwers, like they did in Waco!

[prion]

I'll just sasy this about DIY distilling-- it's HARD work. It's messy, labor intensive, a little dangerous and I honestly can't see how the average guy with access to the average ingredients is going to save any money at all-- until and unless the price of gasoline hits somewhere north of $8 a gallon.

I dunno. Check out their blueprints. Theirs is a vacuum process, so it operates at lower temperature. It looks pretty clean and assembly-line-ish. Not that I'm painfully familiar with the homespun alternatives or anything.

[Al Gator]

Separating water from ethanol (distilling) is illegal. You need a special permit from the ATF to own a still.

If you do it without, well.....

If it were legal, you can buy some really safe, reliable stills from New Zealand. If you order them now, they will be confiscated by customs.

Don't do it.

[kellynla]

yea, well the last & only time I had "shine" was when I was in college and MAN that stuff would take the enamel off your teeth! LOL

[Billthedrill]

Heckuva waste of good 'shine.

I used to read about that stuff in books...

[prion]

Separating water from ethanol (distilling) is illegal. You need a special permit from the ATF to own a still.

Amazingly, that's in the third paragraph of the article.

[lonedawg]

At eight dollars a bushel you won't save anything using corn.

[Winston Smith]

Although a good idea this has no chance of lasting very long. As anyone in the petroleum industry will tell you the "Owner" of this still will be beset upon by EVERY federal and state agency on the books. From the EPA to the ATF expect regular visits to assure the proper operation of this device.
Of course I really don't want 500 gallons of methanol right next to my back yard fence. If I see Joe Sixpak with a lighted camel stick his head inside the tank to check the levels, I'm running away!! Some neighborhood kid might sneak into Joe's stash of Alcohol take a big 'ol knock of it and end up blind or dead. Then we get another retirement plan for your local attourneys.
This plan migh have worked if started in a country that had any common sense left in it. In the "right" part of town who would turn a guy in because he is selling his Shine out in front of his house like a leamonade stand.
If he cheats the safety system on that still and continues to operate it it could be a large problem very quickly. Pure alcohol doesn't have any color to it when it burns. You could walk right into it and fry.
Yes these stills would be GREAT if owned and operated by farm families with excess of off grade wheat,corn, apples..etc. They have the room to do it, the supplies to run it and might help out on the fuel bills. Dont expect Joe Sixpak to start loading it up in the suburbs any time soon.
If we could make a still run on Govt' BS we could all take a free ride.

[Al Gator]

It should be repeated. The still isn't illegal. Its the process that is controlled. Jacking is illgal too, even though its very inefficient.

The only ones that get permits of late are the universities and other labs that have a reason.

Stills for ethanol on private property are really hard to get, and the ATF wants you to know that they can show up, unannounced, and roust your house, whenever they feel like it.

Just like FFL holders, you become their butt puppet.

Not worth it.

[HipShot]

Corn is just north of $2.00 a bushel. It's still the cheapest way to heat a house.

[TKDietz]

"Corn is just north of $2.00 a bushel."

And on average will produce 2.5 gallons of ethanol, but new technologies are steadily increasing yields per bushel.

[TKDietz]

"Corn is just north of $2.00 a bushel."

Aside from the 2.5+ gallons of ethanol they get per bushel they also get about 18 pounds of animal feed per bushel that they can use or sell.

[TKDietz]

"Stills for ethanol on private property are really hard to get..."


Really? That's not what I hear. I don't know a lot about it though. Do you have any information on what percentage of these permits are refused or anything?

[William Terrell]

I helped an old guy that lived near me at one time run his still. Mostly time. Manual labor was setting up the still, decanting the mash, mixing the mash in the first place.

What strikes me is that out of a 55 gallon drum of mash, he got maybe three gallons of first run (probably 190 proof), maybe higher. That's 5% or 6% return from the mass you start with.

HOWEVER, if you needed 12 gallons a week, that would mean you would have to process 165 gallons of mash. For each 3 gallon increment necessary for your driving frequency, that's another 55 gallons.

As I remember it took about 4 hours to cook off (one 55 gallon batch), but that time would be reduced because you all you want is the first 5%(+/-) of your mash volume.

You're right, at least $8/gallon.

[therut]

What is Jacking?