A “still” distills ethanol out of alcohol-containing liquids (like wine). In our case we’re using it to make hand sanitizer and for bio-fuel, specifically to run a weed-eater.

There are 2 steps in this ethanol-distillation process:

1. You need alcohol-containing liquid, which can be homemade from table sugar, fruit, honey (anything containing glucose), or can be from a local breweries “rejected” batches, or can be cheap alcohol purchased from the store.

We’ve been lucky enough in the past to be friends with the owner of a meadery that gave us their off-batches of mead to distill into alcohol.

** We’ll teach how to brew mead and fruit wines in future articles! **

2. You’ll use the still to evaporate the ethanol from the solution. Since alcohol evaporates at a lower temperature than water, you’ll be able to capture the concentrated alcohol using the still.

Materials List for Making a Still

1. 7 feet 1/4-inch copper tubing
2. 5 feet 3/4-inch copper tubing
3. (2) 3/4-inch copper T’s
4. Epoxy
5. Hose connector
6. 5 feet of hose
7. Small waterfall pump
8. Water-tight bin
9. Large pressure cooker
10. Propane single-burner camp stove
11. 1-5 gallons of alcohol (could be mead, alcohol brewed from sugar + water, fermented fruit juice, “bad” batches of beer from local brewery…)