Freeze distilling. Good idea or bad idea?

there's some interesting info on this site just about distilling in general and there's mention of the legality of it all. I'm not sure if it's referring to wine and beer, but it was interesting all the same.

rec.crafts.distilling

Don't know about the legality in the UK...although i think I read once that it was illegal....I could be wrong though.

And yes, all the methanol and fuseul alcohols will be left in there...but you are not going to get a really high proof "applejacking" your wine.

Right. So although all the methanol and fusels will be in there, they wont be enough to injure me. Certainly reassuring *g* Besides, I'd only be planning to freeze 4 litres of it, I'd be lucky if I got a shot glass of the stuff *l*

Thanks for your help, peoples :)

Nash, you will get 1/3 to 1/2 your original volume back.

I don't know that I would say the concentrations of fusel oils and other alcohols are not enough to hurt you in freeze distilling. In heat distilling these are called the heads and tails and both are not used.

I just don't know but would advise caution. It is illegal in the US to distill for consumption without a license (often several), not sure about the UK either.

A couple of years ago I read that the only place in the world it's legal to do home distilling is New Zealand. In researching it I noticed that New Zealand was the only source for home distilling supplies, so it's a fair assumption that it was accurate (at that time).

In the USA the penalties can include confiscation of real estate, e.g. the BATF can take your home. I think it has something to do with taxes -- governments get really testy if they fail to collect taxes! :-)

OTOH, freeze distilling takes no special equipment and as long as you're not selling it or transporting large quantities the chances of getting caught are fairly slim.

I'd be more concerned that the resulting product might be dangerous. Try checking your local library for information regarding the dangers of freeze distillation and the penalties for it.

iv heard that the fusels will float on top of the distillate although difficult to see it and so what u want is to take away the liquid below this, leaving some with the fusels so as to take as little of the fusels as possible. having never distilled by any method i cannot comment asto whether fusels really will appear as this thin oil layer

I would doubt it. Maybe in a pure alcohol environment with different alcohols in it, but since the majority of the liquid is water, my guess is it would be pretty homogenous.

Andy