After fermenting for a week, Eli and I went back to the log cabin in the woods where his friend lives. Eli didn’t want to blow up his living space so he got a friend to let him store it at his place. I think the real reason was that if people where Eli lives saw him making moonshine, they would all want some. At his buddy’s place, we were very isolated.
A mash ready for distilling
I will let the pictures do the talking. We took a stainless steel pot, drilled some holes in it, put some copper tubing through it, a few c-clamps, some epoxy putty… and voila! Make shift still.
Eli and his makeshift still
Another shot of the contraption Eli concocted
So how did it go. It didn’t go well. It went badly enough that Eli decided to order a proper still still so that he never has to go through what we went through again. The makeshift still just didn’t work. Hot mash was sputtering out of the holes and out from underneath the lid. When ever you tried to tighten one c-clamp, it would deform the lid such that a new opening would appear. We tried covering it in duct tape which failed as well. We even went and got the makeshift equipment he had used a month ago when he made moon shine. That also proved unsuccessful.
Hopefully by the time I get back from my two week trip to Ecuador, Eli will have a proper still and we will be able to make some real moon shine.
On a side note, I was so excited about making the mash the previous weekend, I told a bunch of people about it and now Eli has a long list of people who are expecting jars of moonshine. He was a little annoyed, but when I told him it was because I couldn’t contain my excitement he forgave me.
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