[TheForge] blacksmiths and beer

[Jeff Harding]

Big Snip, good info...

> like Mescal, and moonshine  have tasted the bitter fusols  that a
poor
> distillation process can add.  A careful fractional distillation
yields
> less, but a  purer product.
>
>
Dann;

   I have a complete "course" on building several stills and all the
apparatus necessary for making alcohol.  In the mid/late 70's you
could get a license to operate a still for making motor fuels, idea
being if you had all the raw materials you could make alcohol cheaper
than buying gas.  As part of the licensing requirements, you did have
to "denature" the alcohol with one gallon of gasoline and one gallon
of diesel fuel per 100 gallons of alcohol.
    One of these stills details a water coil at the top that you can
control the temperature on, to get what ever percentage of alcohol you
wanted.  Supposedly you could get a useable fuel in one run, If I
remember right they said 80% alcohol and up would fire in the 350
Chevy they were running on it.