StillSmart

So my wife purchased me a airstill I follow directions with sugar,water and turbo yeast + nutrients. I have 11 8oz jars from several runs I discarded 150 ml almost 200ml from each run. So I have all this liquor sitting here OK and haven't taken one sip other forums have me Freaked out about methanol poisoning I don't wanna hurt my self or anyone elese so question is is it safe to finally take a sip? Also since then my wife turned it all into apple pie so looks and smells tempting just a new distiller here trying not to harm myself just looking for a helping hand

Hi and welcome.
If the instructions that you followed came with the still,and you only single distilled,but threw away the first portion of each run;
The product is perfectly safe to drink,no Methanol.
However do not expect it to taste very good.
A double distilled product from an air still is far superior.
Read this,http://www.stillsmart.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=765 and this,http://www.stillsmart.co.uk/forum/download/file.php?id=60
These articles will help you produce something worth the effort.However I am unsure why they are not showing as clickable links,Maybe I need more coffee.
Cut and paste to the address bar,or highlight and right click and select open link
ATB

Robert.

Easydrinker wrote:Hi and welcome.
If the instructions that you followed came with the still,and you only single distilled,but threw away the first portion of each run..
Robert.

Bang on. And then throw away the instructions.

yep huntersdaddy0203 listen to these guys as they really know there stuff, I did 50 litres following the still sprits instructions but turned it into slo gin and raspberry vodka and it was rough stuff, now its double distill and filter in my new essencia and wow the difference is amazing.

ginger

here you go, cos easydrinker requested it and his links not clickable

viewtopic.php?f=13&t=1216

So is it safe to drink what I've made I'm just afraid of the word methanol being in my batches

If you've put it through the Airstill once it is not fit for drinking, yet. You can drink it but I wouldn't recommend it. The second distillation is the ticket followed by carbon filtering but not with the gizmo that came with the Airstill. There are many cost effective alternatives.

The link posted by Magnu 420 is to a little booklet that gives you everything you need to make decent spirits even with zero experience.

Don't worry about Methanol there's none in your sugar wash and distillation does not make any either.

welcome and good luck with your journey.

AM

Why isn't okay to drink if distilled once already diluted it. with apple juice can't redistill

I take it you haven't read the little book Magnu420 gave you the link to. You really should read that before you do anything else.

You can drink the product from a single run in the Airstill but you may not like what it does to your head and your internal plumbing.

I always think of it being like eating chicken that's not properly cooked, you may get away with it or you may not.

Either way the advice you'll get on this forum is from the long experience by many members here of what works and what should be avoided in order to produce safe spirits you can enjoy. Nobody is going to try to force their opinions on you. You make your own decisions and we're just here to help if you want it

BTW you can re-distill the entire batch even though you've added the apple juice. Just make sure you add some Distiller's Conditioner to each 4lt batch before switching on.

Best of luck

AM

it IS safe to drink if distilled once all everyone is saying that it would taste better if you distilled it again.

That depends on your definition of safe. It won't kill you or make you go blind. But if you have several drinks you are likely to wake up with a splitting headache as it still contains the elements (heads and tails) most responsible for a hangover headache.

Chuck

2nd that Chuck.

Safe to taste - not to drink many of.

Jaggie wrote:it IS safe to drink if distilled once all everyone is saying that it would taste better if you distilled it again.

As Chill said it won't kill you or make you go blind but I wouldn't use it for cleaning my windows because of the unpleasant things that are still in the distillate from the first run. If you consider that safe that is your choice and nobody here is going to say you can't. It's your decision.

We promote Best Practice with the Airstill because of it's oddities. It is a great starter still to begin learning on due to it's size. Plus you can produce very drinkable spirits while you're learning by following the tried and trusted practice.

However, not everyone is interested in pursuing this craft to the same extent others are so everyone to their own.

AM

So if I throw everything back in still that's diluted with apolejuice which is 11 8 oz jars. How much do I collect and then would it be safe to drink and sip on its just wife and I have friends wanting to try some but like I've mentioned before not try in to kill anyone including myself or make anyone blind and how much heads fore shot do I discard when its begins?

The most important thing for you to realize is that the still does not create anything, it just concentrates it. There is very little methanol created in a sugar fermentation whether that is from white sugar, molasses, fruit, or malted and mashed grain. The stories you hear of people being poisoned from distilled drink is NOT the result of a bad wash or improper distilling. It is the result of someone purposely adding cheaper / available methanol to make a fast profit (or in some unfortunate cases by someone not realizing they had bio-fuel not ethanol). The worst you will do is give some over enthusiastic friend a cracking headache.

As for how much to collect, the apple juice should not affect that. The best (and really only accurate way) is to collect small jars at the start and end use your sense of taste and judgement. Do. Not. Be. Greedy. If you are not sure about a jar, keep it to run with a later wash. I have ruined many, many batches by including a jar that was questionable only to find the taste of heads or tails when I went to drink it later. This can be redistilled, but in the case of fruit or grain wash, you lose the fine taste that you paid for.

Chuck