Because Nirav, Chris and I are all interested in anything DIY, we wanted to try out making our own homemade still. There are countless versions and variations scattered throughout the internet, and we tried to choose some of the best ideas and modify them to our own needs. There are a number of characteristics that we wanted it to have. First, we wanted it to be a pot still because we understood the mechanics and principles behind them. The downside of a pot still is the near complete lack of reflux – meaning that you will end up with less pure alcohol, which tends to be fine for rum where you want some extra flavors, but is not so good for vodka for example, where you want it to be as pure as possible. Second, it had to be small and adaptable enough to use indoors on a standard kitchen stove instead of a clunky propane stove that you have to use outside. Third, it had to be relatively cheap. And fourth, it had to be easy to make.

Distilling.

So, now that you have a wash and it has stopped bubbling, it is ready to distill.  First you need to rack it, which just involves siphoning most of it out to leaving behind the yeast sediment on the bottom.  Then take it and put it in your still.

A basic potstill is made up of a few parts.  The pot is what sits over the heat source and where you put the wash.  In the wash, ethanol (alcohol) is evaporated before water because ethanol boils at 173°F vs. 212°F for water.  The now gaseous alcohol travels through the lyne arm, which is a narrow metal tube that comes out of the top of the pot and goes to the condensor coil.  The condensor coil is coiled metal tubing that sits in ice or cold water, where the gas is re-condensed back into a liquid.  The liquid then comes out the end as distilled alcohol.

Fermenting.

The actual process of distilling takes some time to master, but thankfully allows or a fair amount of room to make mistakes.  Conceptually, distilling is the process of purifying or concentrating (due to different boiling points) a liquid by evaporation and condensation.  Making moonshine is really not too much more than that, you just ferment alcohol and then distill it through a still.  There are a million different ways to make moonshine, and the following method is just one way.  Part of the enjoyment of moonshining is that you can adapt the process to reflect the way you want to do it and the kind of alcohol you end up with, so I definitely recommend experimenting.

Jenga: good for any new years eve celebrations.

Moonshining.  An art that nears extinction, killed by its own obscurity, its inherent difficulty, and the US government.  These are the conclusions that a few friends and I came to a few summers ago when we took our first try at distilling some alcohol.  The first few tries, to put it mildly, were a total disaster.  But with some help and some discoveries in the back of my barn, we managed to make some progress.

It began with Foxfire.  In the first Foxfire book, there is a section on moonshining that is inspiring, but barely helpful for the aspiring moonshiner. But it provides photos and stories of small and large scale stills out in the back woods of the Appalachian that are hard to forget.

I went all out during my first attempt at making soap. I only used techniques that were used by homesteaders in the past.  I used potash to leech and collect the lye. I used natural leaf lard from one of my dad’s pigs for the fat. I even boiled down the lye to a solid to make for more accurate measurements. But, as you can see from the pictures from Part 1 and Part 2,  it did not end well.

Star Wars Uncut – Scene 437 from Nirav Patel on Vimeo.

A project done over the summer with Nirav Patel. Link.

I wanted to make soap from scratch for two reasons.   The first was already generally discussed – I knew about the ethical and health problems associated commercial soaps and I wanted to try to do something about it.  But the second reason had slightly fuzzier objectives.  I believe that true knowledge is gained from struggle.  And so going through the fundamental processes of soap making was my way of struggling with the problem in order to uncover the fundamental ideas it contained.  I always remind myself that “scientists can explain the world through science, mathematicians can explain the world through mathematics, and sheep-herders can explain the world through sheep-herding”.  Also, I think because I grew up on a farm, I tend to enjoy old-fashioned, do-it-yourself projects.

So, by making soap from scratch, I was attempting to do something that is not done anymore by most people (including myself).  I was attempting to do something the hard way.  While doing it, I spent an entire day just thinking about soap.  I think that is a pretty powerful idea in itself.  Technology gives us width and breadth in our knowledge, but it often has a way of discouraging us to go deep into one particular idea.  But if we never go deep, how will we ever continue to discover those fundamental essences that make up our individual foundations?  How will mathematicians explain the world through mathematics if they are sitting on a computer being bombarded by incalculable amounts of stimuli?  How will the scientists explain the world through science if they are out with their credit cards wading through an endless number of possible shoes to buy?  And how will the sheep-herder explain the world through sheep-herding if Monsanto just bought all of his sheep?

Soap began as a simple technology; combine lye leeched from wood ash with water, and then add pure animal fat at the correct temperature to make soap. But as most things in this world, advancements in technology have told us that we can do it better, faster, and cheaper. And soap became just that: better at cleaning, easily available at any local grocery store, and cheaper. But as this shift was taking place, names of unpronounceable chemicals began to be listed on the sides of soap packaging. “Triclosan” is an FDA approved pesticide. “Dioxin” is a chemical that was used in Agent Orange. “Sodium Lauryl Sulfate” is a chemical that has numerous health risks, including cancer and infertility. And stories of animal testing appeared on local and national news sites. And some began to question.

Soap is just one small battleground in the larger war faced today.  I decided to make soap because it is often forgotten amongst the “Global Warmings” and the “Stem Cell Researches” that control popular discussion. And it is a bit funny, “Who would ever bother to make soap?”

A true gingerbread house is not just a product of sweets, warmth, and friends, but also of talent, inventiveness, and raw courage.  Realizing that we had none of the latter, a few friends and I decided to embark on a journey that would attempt to prove our worth to gingerbread community.

Beginning with just a single idea and a glimmer of hope, Nirav Patel, Meg Blake, Peter Martin, and I set off to create a gingerbread house that we could be proud of; one that would solidify our place in the holiday season.  It all went downhill from there.