jewelia (jewelia@erols.com)
Sun, 21 Feb 1999 17:03:33 -0800
ethyl alcohol is a common chemical in alt-process and cost a friggin fortune
for something cheap to make if you have a corn patch--the high costs are due
to our 1) favorite haz mat charges and 2) if the stuff is still drinkable as
in chemical ethyl alcohol--( if it is not denatured--benzene and gasoline
are favorite ways to make it taste rather horrible and poisonous.) you have
to pay that ridiculous liquor excise tax as part of the cost--maybe 80
percent of product cost i would guess. even major man. have to do this but
if they use a certain amount and are willing to do a horrendous amount of
paper work they can get this rebated by the feds i recall. i often avoid
the hazmat charges by using grain alcohol or vodka (hard to find grain
around here at the local drive through) -- this goes over real well when i
teach how to size paper in a workshop --my recipe for starch sizing is two
shots --one for the starch and one for you--sort of breaks the ice you know
and loosens 'em up a bit! but its still way too much for alcohol --what
$20/litre v. 40 cents for a pint of isopropyl, which seems okay to sub for
somethings--i seem to get away with isopropyl from walmart in gravure and
paper sizing.
anyway, i don't know about the swallowing aspects but it would be nice to
make a batch of ethanol/year for photo. do you have building plans? and did
you have to get a DIY permit or notify the local sheriff (or do you just
provide them with samples of your work)? if you promise yourself not to
drink it -- i recall that a car radiator makes a good condenser and then you
need --what a cooker with a tight lid --would a pressure cooker work? and
then you'd need to figure out how to pipe the vapors over to the
condenser--i was thinking pressure cooker cause aren't the vents threaded?
what's your recipe?--i suppose you could make your mash with cornmeal? and i
suppose the sugar increases the alcohol yield?
BTW: 92% is superb for what i would presume is a single column still--double
column stills are expensive & require pressure differentials but are
required to make 200 proof. the why has to do with --good grief i am
stretching my few remaining neurons a long way back -- due to aziotrophic
(i'm sure i botched the spelling--) complexes=> at a certain point (i
thought ~85% achohol is the theoretical max for single stage) the water
starts evaporating with the alcohol --they generally mix in a chemical to
break this up--generally benzene--one of my favorite carcinogens--i sniff it
regularly everytime i gas up ((benzene is also high octane--that's why they
have those funny things on the nozzles of gas pumps now that don't work but
made the EPA happy and is one reason why you generally get to gas up
yourself these days--the magic of PELS you now--just spread it around to the
general population or the "solution to pollution is dilution"))
as far as the feds are concerned--i seem to recall home production for
personal consumption is legit to a certain amt with a permit--is this right?
and then i suppose the state and locals have to have their say? who do you
call to find out -- the local regulators who license the pubs or?
-- jewelia margueritta cameroon
a quasi-official superfun sight!
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