Large Scale Central

2021 Mik build Jim Rowson - Backwoods moonshine still

The MIK - Annual Build Challenge
#1

We’ll see if I actually have time to do this. Trying to keep it small and relatively simple. The goal is a backwoods moonshine still, something like this:

With the obligatory (and in this case really really awful) napkin drawing:

Thinking of using one of these (depending on the ruling for the tru-color container):

Cheers!

#2

Great idea, Jim. With your modeling skills, I hope we get to sample some of the resulting brew (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)

#3

Dan: I promise on the sole remaining tooth of my late Aunt Leona that you will get every drop of shine I can coax from my still.

#4

#5

Jim;

Probably not appropriate for your current project, but the plastic covers used for some sparkling wine bottles are also good for duplicating still vessels (or, possibly steam & sand domes!).

Best wishes, David Meashey

#6

Dammm… Dave… That little flat sure looks like something that was created for the 2015 Mik, 16’ flat on a whimsical theme…

Fits perfect… Even the date stamp on the pic…Ummmm

Dave T.

#7

Well Dave;

The truth is not as noble. I needed a new car to take to ECLSTS that year, so I cobbled that thing up on the quick. It was about two weeks or less in the building. The troll was supposed to be a locomotive fireman for a Brandywine & Gondor RR steamer, but after I fitted him with a shovel and slash bar, I discovered he was too big to fit inside any of the steamers’ cabs!

Oh well, David Meashey

#8

If your gonna be serious about making shine you need a can the size of Dave’s for your still.

#9

Doing a little (ahem) research on making moonshine and found this informative writeup: [link]

Here’s an image from that writeup:

… with delightful names like “thump keg” and “worm box” that make me smile.

Some nuggets from the writeup:

  • corn is ground into meal (or purchased as hog feed) and soaked in hot water with sugar and yeast (and some other stuff added sometimes, like malt) so it will ferment
  • the mash is then heated to 172 fahrenheit so that the alcohol is “boiled” off
  • this alcohol steam is then cooled to create fairly pure alcohol, the moonshine
  • the “thump keg” is an optional intermediate step that allows escaping bits of solid mash to be pulled out of the alcohol steam (evidently these things make a “thumping” noise)
  • the “worm” is a coiled copper pipe where the alcohol steam is gradually cooled (in air, or perhaps in constantly replenished cold water) to condense the alcohol into a liquid

There you have it!

So, go thump your worm and enjoy!

#10

Okay, this is getting pretty close to one-to-one…are we invited over after this year’s Challenge is finished?

#11

Well, sorry to disappoint, but I don’t plan for my still to actually work. But if we had some moonshine, I’m predicting that Covid wouldn’t stand a chance!

And: of course you are invited over!

#12

You heard it everybody … party at Jim’s, BYOS (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)

#13

I take my rowing boat and I arrive !!(https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-tongue-out.gif)

#14

I refuse to incriminate myself but looks pretty much exactly like my still. Including the thumper and worm keg.

And just in keeping with theoretical research we found that temp control is a serious matter. Alcohol boils off faster than water. Not enough heat and the process takes forever. To much heat and you boil off the water with the Alcohol and you end up with a tasty pear moonshine flavored wine at only 20 proof. The key is to get the right temp so the alcohol comes off and the water stays.

At least thats what a friend told me. I wouldn’t know from personal experience.

#15

And Dan,

To answer your question before you ask; no my anonymous friend has not made a bourbon yet nor a honey liquor. He has only experimented with pears.

#16

Well, Devon, on a more salacious website, Experimenting with Pears might be an entire sub forum, like Motive Power or Gardening is here:-)

#17

Well again I can’t say for certain but that anonymous friend said that the pear brew was excellent just weak. He ran it through the still again and controlled the temp better and the second batch left the still at 80 proof. Still not right. Needs to be atleast 120 proof. Then it gets mixed with stilled water to somewhere in the ballpark of 100 proof if you are barrel aging. Then you it gets cut again to 80 proof at bottling.

#18

Your anonymous friend sounds extremely experienced. Tell him to keep his head drained please…

#19

Devon Sinsley said:

And Dan,

To answer your question before you ask; no my anonymous friend has not made a bourbon yet nor a honey liquor. He has only experimented with pears.

Well, what’s the hold up on the bourbon (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-tongue-out.gif)

#20

Jim,

He isn’t experienced yet but he is researching. He is new to it.

Dan,

My friend finally found a grain supplier that will custom mill the required grain to his specific mash bill. So hopefully soon. He happens to also know a wood worker that is going to make him some 1 gallon chared oak aging barrels