Blog about my distiller (so far)

[nickdutch]

I feel kinda lethargic. Its like the yeast in the air has made me feel warm and cosy. I come into my flat and it smells just like the first pub I ever felt at home in when I was in my early twenties. That's right. I am doing fermentation. Why do that when you don't drink any-more? Well, I am glad you asked.
I have had an interest in alternative energy for such a long time now that I can't remember the first time I thought that my own personal goal was to go self sufficient. It must have been when I was a kid, a little 4 year old watching the BBC's “The Good Life” with my parents, sitting on the floor or maybe towelling myself down after bath night.
In my school days I made a small solar charger for a motorcycle battery that I used to power a light that I used to read by at night during my teens, in my early career I even worked as a marketing manager in a solar energy company.
But now the game is different. I am nearly 38 and I want to do this for real.
It was made in the southern hemisphere and is the Turbo 500 distiller. It was sold by “Wine Works”. Looking like a rather large tea urn with extra plumbing on the top of it, it is probably going to be one of my most prized possessions for many a year.
If the fermentation process goes according to plan and the instructions, and I “clear” the “wash” properly, on the first run through alone, I should be getting more then three litres of spirit of anything up to 94% Alcohol by Volume purity. Considering that I only need to have a purity of 74% to burn, it will be more then pure enough for my needs.
I wanted to use alcohol to burn as my research into bioethanol fireplaces showed me that ethanol doesn't create carbon monoxide when burnt, and is therefore an ideal fuel for a vent-less fireplace. Vent-less meaning no chimney, no flue. However some ventilation is recommended (that's what the trickle vents in your double glazing can be used for) as some moisture and carbon dioxide can be produced.
Purchasing commercially available bioethanol gel or liquid is quite expensive, so making it at home becomes a real and viable alternative. Also you can use it in a standard methylated spirit stove for cooking and tea making at home too. Not to mention making heat for hot water. So it can be used for many purposes in the home. Very useful in case of power cuts (like the one two Decembers ago when it was dark and cold for what felt like forever!) or if you just want to have a nice ornamental fire.
Some people have an interest in ethanol for vehicle fuel, but not me. My concerns are far more domestic and practical, especially as I am a work from home man. Heating, water heating and cooking are my main goals for this wonder fuel. And thanks to the 2007 legislation, I can make 6 litres of it a day every day for a year if I wanted to and had the resources.
T is a type of still called a “reflux” still which means that the heavier products of boiling (water vapours) travel up the vertical column and then back down to the boiler and only the volatile alcohol vapours escape the reflux column and can be condensed.
But anyway, I am looking forward to giving the device its baptism. I was rather impatient so I bought a specialist 24 hour yeast to do the first fermentation and its initial reaction when it was added to the sugar water in the sterilised bucket was so intense that in the first hour it blew the lid right off the fermentation bucket giving me a small heart attack !
Its less vigorous now, just quietly hissing and bubbling away in the background which is good! But it has left my flat smelling like a pub. So I will probably be going to Church tomorrow stinking like I have been on a gawd awful bender. Not quite the done impression I was hoping to give off, especially as I am approaching my ninth anniversary of sobriety. Part of me thinks that they might do the immortal hymn “Ere We Go” and finish off with a rousing version of Molly Malone.....
Although the Turbo 500 does run on the mains, it should produce maybe three times or more the energy that is put in as it converts the sugars to fuel. The quantity of cooling water that it uses maybe the equivalent of half a bath night. But I do intent to create for it an off water mains system working on solar and reusing water thus making its use greener and more off grid like. Eventually I will find a way of using off grid heating for the boiler. But one step at a time. Let me get used to using it the normal way before I explore even more green ways of making it work.
Soon I will also be getting on the phone and contacting supermarkets and food factories and asking them if they have any sugars that are not fit for human consumption that they are thinking of getting rid of that I can then ferment using really powerful yeasts and then distil for my domestic bioethanol production.
Exciting times ahead.

[In the Dark]

Can you post up some pics of the setup?
Sounds interesting

[jansman]

So you have a Still in your flat. Distilling alcohol for whatever purpose. Surely that has to be a fire hazard? Also I imagine there are rules about the distilling of alcohol that HM Customs and Excise have.

[itsybitsy]

There are some good safety guidelines here for home distilling: http://homedistiller.org/intro/methanol

[jansman]

It is a foreign website. There IS a nod to uk law. Technically illegal though, and this site does remain within the law doesn't it ?

It worries me more that someone is dopey enough to distill alcohol INDOORS. Anyone remember the illegal vodka factory in Boston Lincs. last year? People died.

[maddriver]

It is a foreign website. There IS a nod to uk law. Technically illegal though, and this site does remain within the law doesn't it ?

It worries me more that someone is dopey enough to distill alcohol INDOORS. Anyone remember the illegal vodka factory in Boston Lincs. last year? People died.

In one of Nick's previous posts he reported he'd received a letter from HMRC confirming the legality. Apparently you can distil for fuel purposes without a licence as long as you stay below a certain limit and keep records to confirm how much you've produced. Afaik distilling for human consumption is still requires licensing (and taxing)

[jansman]

It ain't the tax aspect-coukdn't give a monkey's cuss frankly.
It is the safety aspect. If my neighbour was running an alcohol still indoors ,I would go apes@£t!

We have HETAS,CORGI(Gas safenow),New electrical and plumbing regulations-all to prevent amateurs from burning/blowing up your house or someone elses.

Then you have this...Bonkers.

[Justin Time]

This is an intriguing project you got going on there Nick, although I do share Jansman's concerns with regards to safety. I'd hope that your are savvy enough to be an expert on what can go wrong with this setup, at least you'd have done everything in your power to prevent any nasties.

Can you run through the process for us to give us a better understanding of whats actually going on?

[nickdutch]

1) i am VERY fire cautious. I am freaking terrified of fire getting out of control.
2) In accordance with the 2007 UK legislation, so long as I keep good records, i can distill 2500 liters of bio-ethanol a year without any registration and no money going to the tax man, so long as NONE of it goes towards drinking or goes into a vehicle engine and it is all used for domestic fuel.

[jansman]

Record keeping is good. So is a fire extinguisher.