ginger beer to spirit

[john robinson]

Does anyone have any information about making a simple *distilling* apparatus that they can share? My friend is thinking of trying to distil some ginger beer.

[Andrew Mawson]

HM Revene and Customs would be very interested to hear were your friend to be doing this. Illegal without a licence and duty to pay were a licence to be granted, (which is very unlikely).

AWEM

[Chemo the Clown]

Fer christ's sake...go tell the net cops. Let's put this guy behind bars for life!

[Tim Watts]

I believe that freeze-distillation is OK - but needs checking.

It is also reckoned to be safer - regular distillation done wrong can produce a bottle with high concentrations of less desireable alcohols - these can occur naturally as part of the fermentation and are OK if spread around 8 bottles of wine, but less good if concentrated into the first small bottle of distilled output.

But I'm sure google will turn up lots of info on making a simple still. Boiling pot, lots of soft copper tube and a cooling bath.

[newshound]

Not so long ago you could buy small stills in France in places like Gamme Verte (Countrywide)

[Jethro]

try these guys :

- look for a local distributor to you. Most UK home brew shops sell these.

HMRC have let these pass (they were good enough to admit they were caught on the hop). So you can distill in peace - just don't sell it.

Not sure how you'd go about distilling ginger beer ... the potential for off flavourings and yukky heads/tails would be enormous.

[John Rumm]

To be fair, they would be particularly interested if you were selling the stuff, but in all liklihood far less so if just doing it for personal consumption.

[Andrew Mawson]

*distilling*

alcohols -

The first distillates to come over in a still are ketones iirc at arround 79deg C, and it is these that are the nasties and to be avoided. If the first few drops are rejected it's probably safest.

I think it is producing spirit that attracts taxation, and HMR&C don't mind whether it's done by distillation or freeze separation.

AWEM

[The Medway Handyman]

Cue Dennis....

[Bob Eager]

And no doubt dennis would report you...it's what he does.

[Harry Bloomfield]

john robinson expressed precisely :

Isn't doing that slightly illegal?

[Chemo the Clown]

[Spamlet]

A problem with distilling is that if 'successfully' done, one ends up with alcohol and no flavour, so you would not get ginger spirit from your still. The flavour in gin is added afterwards, and that in whisky comes from the barrels it is aged in. That said, there was a Food Programme, on Aqua Vitaes, which described the vast quantities of fruit required to get real fruit flavoured spirits, and I don't quite see how that works.

On the other hand, if you ever make sloe gin - ie with gin that the tax has already been paid on - you may want to recover some of the spirit that remains in the fruit after you have decanted the bulk of the liquid. I was surprised at how much I had been throwing out with the fruit. Got a fair bit back by using 2 big 'champagne' bottles, a cork and a length of flexible plastic tube. Tubed and sealed the first bottle with fruit in, and then heated it in a saucepan of boiling water. The tube trails down into a second bottle, on the floor, cooled with ice. You have to get a good seal, and take care not to melt the tube if you are on gas.

S

[dennis]

Is he intimidating someone else by doing it? Is it actually illegal? I don't think it is. It depends on what he does with it.

Would I report someone for ignoring part P, no. would I report someone charging for a job that needs part P, probably.

It depends on how it affects others and who the victim is.

[Bart Goddard]

Harry Bloomfield wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Not everywhere. In the US it's illegal to concentrate alcohol by any means (including freezing) without a license. Part of getting a license to run a still in the US is having a separate building, which must pass inspection as adequate for operatoin of a distillery. Setting up a personal distillery has been compared to starting your own restaurant, in terms of paper work, inspections, taxes, etc.

This PDF is a collection of articles that might be useful.

[spamtrap1888]

Considering ginger beer consists of ginger, sugar, and water, distiling ginger beer would at best produce some ginger-flavored rum. Why not just macerate some ginger in rum, and call it a day?

[Paul Arthur]

Sorry, that's just wrong. Raw whisky has plenty of flavour; some of the flavours come from the barrel, but others (like the peatiness in some Scotch) is there from the get-go. You only get no flavour if you distill it several times (a column still does this internally, while with a pot still you would have to do multiple runs).

As for gin...gin is made in several ways. "The flavour is added afterwards" is a good description of compounding, which is the least popular. London gin is the most popular type of gin and is required by law to be produced in a more traditional manner, where the flavour is added before the final distillation.

[Phil L]

Go to your local home brewing store - I went past mine today and had a look in, they had a sign in the window which read 'distill your own spirits' and underneath this sign was a stainless steel contraption, but I was in the car and didn't really have time to investigate further, but i doubt it is illegal as they had lots of these things in boxes in the window, and part of the name was 'still' - it's obviously intended for distilling and must be legal - this shop's on the main road through the town centre.

[Bob Eager]

How gracious of you to make any distinction.

Now you're trying to tell us you're capable of judgement.

[rgb]

I believe it's illegal to distill in Canada and the US (without a license) , but I do remember a shop in Canada selling a small still as an "essential oil extractor"

I know it's legal in New Zealand to distill your own spirits for non- commercial purposes, and frankly it *should* be legal anywhere in the civilized world. I can understand state control over the sale of alcohol, but the production of it for personal use should be fair game.