Comments on: How to make Homemade Rum

By: Stan

Stan — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:47:46 +0000

I have been doing a small amount of distilling and will try your recipe for rum. One observation. I looked into ‘doing it yourself’ stills and, to be honest, its too much work for me and too time consuming and possible error prone (for me). So I ended up buying a pot still on ebay. Not the fancy ones but the basic pot still around 100$ depending on size. Just buying a new pressure cooker and copper fittings etc., gas to stores to but parts, and time and study effort to do it right, ends up not saving too much, if any. So I let the “professional” who i bought the still from, do the homework and the ‘construction’ work. So far this has worked out fine for me.

Just my two cents.

By: vonjagerson

vonjagerson — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:11:10 +0000

what diameter should the tubing be?

By: BrewerDrew

BrewerDrew — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 00:47:56 +0000

One thing worth mentioning is that many copper and brass compression couplings contain lead. Please be sure you are using fittings rated for potable water systems as these are certified to not contain lead. No need to add any additional toxins…

By: scott

scott — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:45:19 +0000

so how do you determin when to start discarding the tails of the process

By: John

John — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 14:22:30 +0000

darebear – chuck that old batch. It will have gone off. Hooch is cheap to make. Dont try and save a buck by sacrificing quality for quantity. Discard the heads and tails.

By: John

John — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 14:16:09 +0000

A cork will work fine for a coupling. Just drill it out. Tubing will slide right in. Drill out the nipple on top of the pressure cooker also to allow better steam flow.

By: mikeh

mikeh — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 23:43:02 +0000

just a fun fact, if you plan on using the still more then once or twice, you need to make sure you use a stainless steel one, the alcohol vapors eventually break the aluminum and it will carry over into the distillate, its not deadly but it will grossly effect the flavor and can make you sick. plus the actual pot will start to corrode. good basic write up

By: Shonari

Shonari — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 11:58:21 +0000

@Darebear: Carry the pressure cooker with you to home depot and get the couplings fitted. and yes you connect the regulator to the copper tubing. There are many different ways to make the distiller, just google alcohol distiller and you can either buy one or use one of the many guides available online to make one.

Cheers

By: Darebear

Darebear — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 04:58:22 +0000

With the pressure cooker, are most models the same? Is the regulator/chimney valve that you connect the copper tubing to suppose to be small? How should I know what size to get the couplings?

Also, my batch finished fermenting several weeks ago and because I havent been able to locate a pressure cooker until recently, do you think it will still be alright to distill?

By: Shonari

Shonari — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 12:33:39 +0000

@Dr. Shweaty You need something airtight, preferable metal (high temperatures) and has a controlled way of letting the alcohol vapor out such as a spout, tube, pipe etc.