cabbagehead
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MAKING MOONSHINE IS ILLEGAL. Everything you see here is for entertainment purposes, and should not be acted upon to make your own high proof alcohol and/or poison.
A pot still is easy, but a copper still works better.
What makes moonshine moonshine is distillation. This process takes an alcoholic liquid, boils off the ethyl alcohol, and condenses it, creating a high-proof liquid. It doesn't really matter what the base liquid is, as long as it is free of methanol. I recommend starting out with some cheap store-bought wine, which will guarantee anything coming through your still is somewhat safe.
Now you need to make a distiller. A kettle works well for this, as you can probably find a plug that will fit the opening. This plug should be fitted with a probe thermometer and a length of lead-free copper pipe. The pipes go straight up above the kettle and then should coil up in the container filled with ice. A hole should be drilled at the bottom of the bucket wall for the opening of the copper pipe.
The key to distilling is to only get the ethanol, leaving the other impurities behind. Ethanol boils at 173 degrees Fahrenheit, so it can be boiled off before the water. Methanol boils at 149 degrees, so the first liquid to come out of your rig will be poison; distillers call this the "foreshot." If you slowly heat your mix and watch the temperature, you can draw off this layer without it mixing with the ethanol.
 Posted 5386 day ago
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