How does it work and how to make a distillation cube for a moonshine still? How to make a distillation cube with your own hands Weld a stainless steel cube

The distillation cube is the basis of the moonshine still. It has a simple design and operating principle, and is easy to make with your own hands at home, although you can buy a finished product. A factory distillation cube is most often made of either stainless steel or copper, and homemade options also come in aluminum and enameled steel.

More details about the purpose, design, principle of operation and step by step production such equipment at home further.

The distillation cube is one of the three required elements in the construction of a moonshine still, along with the refrigerator and hoses. The container serves as a container for the mash, in which the raw materials will be heated to the evaporation temperature. This process can be carried out by placing the distillation cube on a heat source, for example gas, electric, or by means of steam coming from a hose or by installing heating elements inside the container.

Design and principles of operation

The design of the distillation cube is extremely simple - it is a cylindrical or rectangular container, equipped with the necessary pipes, and can have a removable top. Also, the structure of the unit can be supplemented by heating elements and a thermometer installed inside the container for more precise regulation of the process. Homemade specimens can be made of aluminum, for example, when a food flask is used as a basis, from enameled steel, most often this is associated with the use of an ordinary saucepan or pressure cooker as a workpiece, or from stainless steel, if a keg is used as a basis.

A factory still is most often either copper, which is preferable for grain and fruit mashes, or again made of food-grade stainless steel.

The operating principle of the distillation cube is as simple as its structure. The mash inside the container boils and turns into steam. After this, the evaporated substances enter, depending on the structure of the moonshine still, either directly into the refrigerator, if this is the simplest design, or undergoing additional purification in and / or, if the design is simple, but with some additions, or through or, if moonshine The device is a serious installation for rectification of alcohol.

How and from what to make a distillation cube with your own hands

At home, containers are most often made either very simple, for example from an enamel pan, or when a product with precise parameters is needed, then the main material is sheets of food-grade stainless steel.

DIY stainless steel still

For such a product you will need the following materials and tools:

stainless steel sheet 0.5 mm thick;
pipe with a diameter of 50 mm;
fittings;
fitting;
electric arc welding machine;
“grinder” or metal scissors;
brush.

The manufacture of a distillation cube proceeds according to the following plan:

4 rectangular blanks measuring 300 x 500 mm and 2 squares 300 x 300 mm are cut out. The container will be a rectangular parallelepiped lying on the long side. Dimensions are approximate and are selected individually for each system based on its power.
The parts are welded into a single structure, in the upper part of which a hole is made and a piece of pipe is welded - a pipe. First, mash will be poured through it, and then a lid with a fitting built into it will be put on it, onto which a silicone hose will be installed, supplying steam further through the system. Before welding, future seam areas can be treated with phosphoric acid.
At the bottom of the container you can install a pipe with a tap or lid to drain the remaining mash after distillation.
You can also arrange a place for a thermometer in the case. To do this, you need to drill a hole for the sleeve into which the measuring device is installed.

The process of making a stainless steel still is quite complex. The purchased finished product will be made of higher quality. The incentive to create a man-made container is either the desire of beginners to make a moonshine still entirely with their own hands to familiarize themselves in detail with the technology, or the desire of professional distillers to create a unit with ideal proportions for a specific system, where it is quite difficult to select a finished product with the necessary parameters.

Another alternative is to buy a ready-made stainless steel container and arrange pipes and a thermometer in it according to your preferences.

DIY alembic from a saucepan

First, if it is not available, a saucepan with a suitable volume is purchased, but it must be taken into account that the mash should not take up all the free space, part of the volume is used as a chamber for steam. Further work proceeds as follows:

A locking mechanism is installed in the neck area above the lid to hold the lid in place. This can be a pair of welded U-shaped parts between which a locking beam or a similar mechanism is inserted or screwed.
In the lid there is one hole with a fitting for escaping steam, a second with a sleeve for a thermometer, and, if desired, a third for a pressure gauge.
A hole is drilled in the lower part of the pan and a pipe with a lid or tap is installed to drain the remaining mash.

In this design, the main issue is high-quality sealing of the gap between the container and the lid. If the lid does not fit tightly enough, you can use dough or silicone gaskets cut to size.

Distillation cube with heating element and regulator

Any suitable container can be used as a base, but most often heating elements are installed in stainless steel distillation cubes. To do this you need to do the following:

It should be taken into account that for very thick mash, a heating element, which is superior in the delicacy of the effect of heat on raw materials from external sources, will still not be the optimal solution. In this case, to prevent burning, you will need a steam generator. If you plan to distill only liquid mash, for example, sugar-based, then heating elements in combination with a thermostat fully comply with all the requirements for the technical process and delicate effect on raw materials. The thermostat will allow you to smoothly lower and raise the temperature when “taking heads” and “cutting off tails,” which is much more difficult to do on a gas or electric stove. When working with such sensitive equipment as a distillation column, you can only use heating elements or a steam generator.

How and with what to insulate a distillation cube

In this matter, everything depends on the heat source that will heat the mash. If heating elements or induction hobs are used, polypropylene foam is an excellent choice; you can find material such as penofol on sale. This is polypropylene foam with a foil lining that enhances thermal insulation. It has minimal heat loss, close to 0, but cannot withstand temperatures exceeding 100 C°. It is very easy to insulate a container with such material. The sheet is cut to the size of the product, wrapped in it, and secured on top using any mounting tape or Velcro awning. The main thing is not to forget to cut a hole for the pipes and at the exit point of the heating element. One layer for a sheet thickness of 5 mm or more will be sufficient. In terms of money, it will cost about 120 rubles for insulation and 30-40 rubles for tape. In addition, such thermal insulation can be very easily dismantled if necessary.

When it is necessary to insulate a distillation tank operated on gas, a combination of felt, which has excellent thermal insulation, but also cannot withstand high temperatures, and its outer winding made of a material containing asbestos or a similar fire-resistant component is suitable. You should look for products of this kind in stores or trading platforms associated with fireplaces where fire resistant seals are used.

When choosing a distillation cube for a moonshine still, it is important to decide on two main points. The volume that will cover the capacity of the system, and the material on which both the interaction with the aggressive brew environment, and, accordingly, the taste of the final product, and the depreciation life of the equipment depend. In this regard, stainless steel and copper are optimal, and an enamel pan can be a “temporary” solution. Therefore, choose, think over, and also share your own experience on this topic!

A distillation cube is a container in which the mash is heated. It is the basis for any moonshine still and is extremely important for the entire distillation process. You can easily buy it from almost any manufacturer, and you can do it yourself, saving from 5 to 20 thousand rubles.

We will share the most popular and interesting ideas that you can implement at home. Alcohol mashine does not necessarily have to cost 10–15 thousand rubles when hands grow out of right place And have some free time to work.

Before choosing a container, you need to know a number of requirements and wishes that will simplify your moonshine brewing process in the future.

Depending on the base you choose (we'll talk about this a little later), you will need to rework it and make it as comfortable as possible. Things to consider:

Only stainless steel or copper. Food grade aluminum and enameled steel as a last resort. The metal should not oxidize or produce foreign odors during distillation. This is why 99% of moonshine stills are made of stainless steel and copper.
Optimal volume from 12 to 30 liters. The more mash you put in and the more often you distill it, the more volume you need. It is more efficient to work with large volumes, but for this you need and the raw materials themselves would also be useful. 🙂
Availability of heating element. Many moonshiners equip their tanks with a tubular electric heater, as a result of which they can distill the mash in any conditions where there is a 220 V outlet. If you are interested in this, then you need to take wide containers into which the heater will fit as a basis.
No ferromagnetic bottom. It is very difficult to find a stainless steel container with a flat bottom that is suitable for working on an induction hob. Therefore, immediately count on gas, electricity or wood.
Take into account the height along with the steam line, steamer and refrigerator. You cannot place a tall cube on a kitchen burner, so look for another container or another “kitchen” (a place for distillation with a heat source).

A wide rectangular container is best suited for the stove., resembling a box. It can be placed on several burners at once and it will be the lowest in height.

What can you use to make a distillation cube for a moonshine still?

Milk can

The most popular container in villages and villages. Old models are made of food-grade aluminum, and new ones are made of stainless steel.

A possible option for implementing a moonshine still from a flask with a steamer.

Can has excellent tightness, so it’s very easy to convert it into a cube. It is enough to make a hole in the cover for the steam hose and screw the adapter into it. For convenience, you can add a thermometer, which is inserted according to a similar principle.

The disadvantages are related to the metal, which is no different good quality. They seem to be designed for milk, but even stainless steel sometimes fails, not to mention old Soviet aluminum (in most cases good moonshine you will not get the output).

Before distillation, pay attention to neck gasket. After prolonged use, it begins to smell bad, so it is better to replace it immediately.

You can read more about modifying the milk flask at this link -.

From a beer keg

It is considered almost the coolest still on the market, although it requires serious modernization. Popular volumes are 20 and 30 liters.

Beer keg converted into a moonshine still. In analysis.

Manufacturers love beer more than milk, since they make such high-quality containers for storing it. The beer keg is made of excellent stainless steel, which will serve you faithfully for decades, so it’s perfect for you as a distillation container.

It will be necessary to make a neck for your distiller (grinder and welding to help), a tap for draining the stillage and a hole for the heating element (optional). For convenience, the keg is equipped with legs if you do not plan to heat this keg with gas or wood.

Details about modifying a stainless steel beer keg for a distillation cube -.

From the pan

The simplest option, for the implementation of which you do not need to look for anything. Almost everyone already has everything they need in their kitchen.

Ready-made apparatus from a saucepan

A stainless steel pan works best, but enameled steel will work too. The lid must be made of metal, otherwise it will not be possible to make a hole in the glass, and securing it will also be problematic.

To seal the container we will use ordinary paper clips, as well as a gasket under the cover. This whole system has been tried and tested for a long time, so it definitely works and is capable of producing moonshine.

From the bucket

An idea for seasoned moonshiners who love experiments and “everything that is cheaper.”

Distilling mash in a bucket.

The upgrade involves somehow inserting the hose into the bucket and making an adequate seal.

Drilled into an enamel bucket a hole for a silicone hose that connects to the bucket through a fitting. Then you can send the product directly to the refrigerator or add a steamer to clean the moonshine from harmful impurities. Alternatively, you can make one or more.

Helps you press the lid securely wooden stops or any other things that can push against the lid and handle (as shown in the picture above).

After this, you need not to overdo it with the heating power, otherwise it will happen. or a bucket explosion. Both the first and second options can be resolved by simply reducing the heat to minimum strength.

From a pressure cooker

An idea from Soviet times, when people used a pressure cooker to cook food. Now it can be used as a cube.

External view of the finished distiller from a pressure cooker.

This saucepan has perfect tightness, so you can safely not be afraid that the mash will run away or something will explode. The worst thing is splashback, which can completely ruin the entire product (you will have to distill everything again).

It is enough to make a hole in the lid for the hose, after which you can start distilling. The obvious disadvantage is the small volume: you are unlikely to get more than 2 liters of moonshine at the exit even with a very large amount of mash.

From a slow cooker

If your multicooker has not been used for a long time, this can be corrected by distilling any alcohol-containing liquid (mash, sour beer or wine).

A working moonshine still from a multicooker with 4 bubblers.

The whole idea is that the multicooker releases steam through a special valve. This is where we need to install a silicone pipe or stainless steel hose, after which we simply pour the mash and set the maximum temperature for heating.

The equipment is made of excellent material, the temperature can be adjusted itself in case of any problems and the tightness is very worthy for carrying out the distillation. The problem is small volume, because you can’t pour more than a few liters into a container.

Where to start making a distillation cube

The cube is part of a moonshine still, which requires serious work. To do something normal, it is important to understand the structure of the moonshine still and know those.

All this information can be studied in the publication about. There we examined in detail all the issues related to the size of the holes, the tools used and the nuts. It will probably be useful for you to study this publication after choosing a container for distillation so that you know how to proceed further.

In any alcoholic or rectifier for home distillation, the main component is the moonshine cube, the quality of which determines what kind of alcohol we get in the final result.

Both purchased and homemade containers for heating mash come in several types:

square or rectangular. More often - large capacity;
cylindrical with a dome-shaped (onion-like) lid. This shape is typical of copper alembriks, but is also found in stainless steel cubes;
in the form of a round cylinder with a flat lid, on which both a drawer and a conventional steam outlet or distillation column can be attached;
made or , .

How to choose the right material for a distillation cube?

The quality of the alcoholic distillate largely depends on what the still is made of.

Thus, aluminum milk flasks, so popular in Soviet and perestroika times, are not in great demand today.

Just like beer kegs from Soviet times (then they were made of aluminum, today they are made of stainless steel).

Such containers are used either by beginners or those who ignore the quality of alcohol. There is also a layer of moonshiners in the production of homemade alcohol.

Reference. Aluminum reacts with the aggressive environment of the mash.

One can argue for a long time whether the resulting compounds are harmful or harmless to health. But it is an indisputable fact that changes in taste for the worse, imperceptible at the beginning of using an aluminum tank, become more and more obvious over time.

Therefore, those for whom quality is above all, and who want to produce not primitive fusel-rich moonshine, but homemade elite drinks - grain whiskey or bourbon, Calvados, chacha, cognac from wine material, etc., will not choose aluminum.

So, the best for a still:

Food grade stainless steel– a leader among materials used today. This metal does not react with components, is hygienic and durable. To make your own distillation cube, you can take stainless steel sheets with a thickness of 1.5 mm, or even better - 2 mm. The fact is that a thin bottom (up to 1 mm) can be the culprit for burning thick mash. The thickness of the bottom can only be irrelevant if a steam generator is used for distillation.
Copper- also an interesting metal for making. It is on copper alambriks that whiskey and cognac are distilled today industrial scale. They say that it is copper that preserves and enhances the aroma of the raw materials from which the mash is made. In addition, copper adsorbs sulfur, which is often present in the mash and can spoil the taste of the final product. The only problem - it costs expensive, especially in the finished product. But if you are a jack of all trades, then a self-made cube will cost less than its industrial counterpart. Moreover, the choice of copper sheets today is wide.
Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc(sometimes also tin) is also used in. Even GOST 15727-70 allows some brands of brass to be used in aggressive environments, at temperatures up to 300°C, for the manufacture of shut-off equipment for alcohol tanks, etc. If you have sheet brass of the brands LK80-3L, LO70-1, L62-1, and others intended for heat exchange equipment, you can try to make a cube out of them.

Reference. Most so-called copper jam bowls are actually brass. Only the old ones are made of pure copper, in which our grandmothers’ great-grandmothers made jam.

Glass. The material is absolutely inert and does not enter into any reactions with the components of the mash. There are also industrial glass distillers. But they are not suitable for home use due to their fragility.

DIY making

Naturally, the cube can be welded from food grade stainless steel sheet, giving it a cubic shape. For this:

Make a drawing, preferably even from paper (cardboard) in full size.
Cut out the material.
Weld all the parts. If you do not have enough experience or a low-quality welding machine, it is better to entrust this task to a specialist.
Check the tightness so that not a drop of water appears anywhere. Only after this can the cube be tested.

Do the same with sheet copper, with one exception. In industrial conditions, copper and its alloys (brass) are welded using argon or automatic submerged arc welding. Gas welding, much less manual welding, is used less often. But when making a cube, it is still better to trust a specialist who has experience in welding non-ferrous metals.

Or use soldering machine. It is important to solder the workpieces well. Copper, like brass, is tinned with pure tin, without using solder, which contains lead.

But to simplify the process and minimize effort You can use ready-made containers:

. Today there are stainless steel products on sale with a capacity of up to 12 liters. But if you already have a 7-liter one, it will also work, especially if you don’t need a large amount of moonshine. They require minimal modification, after which they can be used for their intended purpose (cooking);

Important. Never remove safety valves, leave at least one. It will not affect the quality of the distillation, but will protect the cube from an emergency situation.

stainless steel beer keg. Capacity up to 40 liters and tight closure will also require minimal effort to convert it into a cube;
The pan can also be used as a cube. It is better to take enameled or stainless steel. The main thing is to correctly and reliably seal the connection between the lid and the pan.

Important. Do not forget: all welds (soldering) must be reliable, like the material itself, and provide the tightness necessary for distillation.

How to insulate?

Some craftsmen manage to insulate the distillation cube even with the help of an old cotton blanket or sweatshirt. But this is only permissible for cubes equipped with, and only in such a way that the surface of the “insulation” does not come into contact with the connection point of the heating element.

But today's building materials market offers us excellent heat-resistant foil insulation, moreover, at an affordable price. Why not take advantage of them. Visit any construction or plumbing store and choose for yourself roll insulation, on one side covered with a ball of foil.

Be sure to check that the base material is fire resistant (this requirement is met basalt or mineral wool, fiberglass). Your cube will not only be insulated, but will also look aesthetically pleasing.

In the previous film column, I mentioned that the distillation cube was made from a 12-liter enamel pan that was then available on the farm. On the whole, I was happy with this cube, but there were some inconveniences, the main one being the small usable cubic volume. You can pour the mash into the cube no more than ¾, or better yet 2/3, of the total volume in order to avoid splashes being carried into the column and further into the distillation product. Since my fermentation tank is 30 liters, I have to carry out distillation in 3-4 stages, and this takes a lot of time and effort.
Another drawback of the old pan is the enamel surface, which is very difficult to wash off burnt grain or fruit mash and is very easy to damage, which I soon did, wiping off the burnt pulp with a steel wool after distilling the chacha.
Accordingly, knowing these disadvantages, you should choose a new cube without them. The ideal option would be to buy a ready-made distillation cube, but from the more or less budget segment I found only Dobrovar products, which I would not have to finish finishing later; other manufacturers did not have the required diameter of the flange on the lid in their assortment. However, I didn’t really like the Dobrovarovsky cube due to its dimensions - it is narrow and high, if the option arises to upgrade the distiller with some kind of cap column, then the remaining height to the ceiling may not be enough for modernization.

Well, if you take some other cube, then you will still have to modify it to suit yourself, and then you ask: what’s the point of overpaying? Moreover, I already had experience converting a saucepan into a distillation cube. So we will buy a saucepan or, in other words, a food cauldron.
There were practically no problems with choosing a pan; moonshine forums unanimously stated that Luxstahl pans are the most best option. All that remained was to decide on the volume of the pan and the magazine. Brothers who were moonshiners helped me with the volume and gave me their 25-liter pan to try. For a 30-liter fermentation container, this saucepan turned out to be frankly small. It was necessary to make either a more rigid hydraulic module, or use less raw materials than the container allows, in order to distill the mash in one step, and this is not entirely convenient. The next step in the manufacturer's size range was a 30-liter saucepan, but it will fit right next to my container and the risk of splashing in this case is quite high. But the next 37-liter saucepan turned out to be just in time, especially since the price tag differs quite a bit from thirty.
The cheapest offer for this product was the Barneomarket store. Delivery can be chosen from a number of transport companies; the option I chose was priced at 415 rubles. Delivery to the TK warehouse in my city was carried out within a week after payment for the order.
A very impressive sized box was waiting for me there.

The product is not fragile, so the packaging is not so important, although it is quite good for this category of goods, but I will still put it under the spoiler

Package

The inside is first lined with polystyrene foam.

underneath is a lid wrapped in plastic

there's cardboard underneath

and the pan itself is in polyethylene on the outside and with cardboard inside

This is what the hero of the review looks like straight out of the box, it took up almost the entire kitchen table

View on the stove, for comparison next to a 2-liter package of juice - a saucepan, bless you

The pan is made of AISI 304 stainless steel
Wall thickness according to the seller is 0.8 mm, in fact more than 1 mm

The thickness of the bottom agrees with the declared one - 4 mm

The bottom is a three-layer pancake made of AISI 430 magnetic steel, excellent for induction cookers

The weight of the pan without lid is about 5 kg

The lid weighs about one and a half kilograms

The lid, as I understand it, is chiseled, two marks are traces of welding of the handle

On the side there is a stamping with the brand logo and the dimensions of the pan

The side handles are riveted to perfection, the inside view is flawless

There are some minor flaws on the outside, but they don't affect anything.

Let's start remodeling.
The first step is to get rid of the handle on the lid. Fellow moonshiners could not remove it from a 25 liter pan without a tool, but from my pan it came off very easily, after just a few rocking with force, leaving behind a barely noticeable mark

The handle must be removed, since the profile of the lid is conical and if the column is not placed in the center, then it will not stand vertically, and this will entail a violation of the distillation technology

The next step is to drill holes in the lid, a large one in the center of 32 mm for the adapter to the film column and a small one of 6 mm for the thermometer probe. For a large hole, from the same hobby colleagues, I took a bit with accessories for a drill, but only the equipment was useful, the bit from their pan became dull and only creaked pitifully under the drill.

I bought a new 32 mm bimetallic crown at a construction store for 170 rubles

This is what it looked like after use, either my crown is better, or the 25 liter pan still has a thicker lid

It turned out to be a fairly smooth hole.

Using a metal drill, the hole for the thermometer came out even less neatly, but it doesn’t matter, we can fix it with a file later

We insert under the HD/4 and a silicone casing under the thermometer, of course a stainless steel sleeve would be preferable, but I don’t understand spending the money it costs in moonshine stores, if anyone knows a cheaper option, write in the comments.

I ordered on Ali in advance (for a 37 liter pan with a diameter of 36 cm you need to take a 32 cm gasket!), I even paid for delivery with a track number, but our valiant post office still doesn’t care, they don’t give away parcels without notification and don’t look for them, and I received the notification only two weeks after the parcel arrived at the department. Therefore, for the first distillation, I had to again make a homemade gasket from a silicone hose; for this pan, I bought 1.5 meters of 8 mm tube at a pharmacy store.

We cut it lengthwise and try it on the side of the pan

We cut the butt at an angle so that there is no through gap and for further ease of manufacture we straighten the workpiece with office clips

Then we sew it in two rows with ordinary cotton threads, it turned out not very aesthetically pleasing, but cheap, reliable and practical ©

This is what it looks like on the pan

The gasket that came later from Ali has a U-shaped profile, it can be put on the same way as a homemade one on the side of the pan, or it can be pulled from the inside onto the stamping of the lid, the second option seemed to me more practical, the clamps in this case do not touch the gasket and there is a risk of its mechanical damage absent.

Before first use, the pan must be thoroughly washed to remove technological residues from its production, which can irreparably spoil the taste of the distilled product.

With the distiller installed, the cube looks like this

When I was distilling on an old saucepan, the temperature at the top of the column was very unstable and it was extremely difficult to set up the correct selection of heads - the distillate either came in a regular drop or ran in a trickle, which adversely affected the quality of the separation of fractions. There may be several reasons for this, one of them is uneven water pressure in the house, which leads to unstable cooling in the rising column. I checked the impact of this factor with help - the result was the same.
The second reason for this behavior of the column may be the influence of external factors: draft, exhaust hood, even opening the door. Insulating the cube will help get rid of this problem. This will also speed up the process of heating the mash and reduce electricity costs.
In a hardware store I bought foil insulation for baths and saunas 1200 mm wide and 5 mm thick.

They only cut it in meters, two were plenty for me, but one was not enough, so I took a meter for testing.

In fact, it turned out that they cut me 5 cm more and this excess was just enough for 3 equal parts of 35 cm.

Two parts will be used to insulate the cube itself, and the third will be used to insulate the lid; here we will need a round cardboard spacer from the packaging kit; we will use it to cut out the outline of the insulation for the lid.

We try on the insulation on a cube, there’s only so much to spare

Marking the slots for the handles

We cover the first part with foil to the cube and glue the joint with aluminum tape from Fixprice

We perform the same operation with the second part of the insulation, only now with the foil facing out, this will allow us to easily wash the cube if the contents spill out.

We also tape the joint

We will also seal the slots from the handles

We do a similar procedure with the lid, the first layer with foil down.

Second up

For reliability, we secure the insulation jacket with two automotive cargo ties from Auchan

It turned out like this

Well, the finished product is on the stove

It would be possible to embed a tap at the bottom of the cube to drain the stillage, but I didn’t find stainless steel taps in local stores, and they are available in online moonshine stores

Due to the expensive and not always good alcohol on store shelves, many are starting to think about moonshine. And for good reason, because high-quality homemade alcohol will be cheaper, and often much cheaper better product manufactured in factories. In addition, an undoubted advantage is that a drink made at home may have a taste and aroma that cannot be found on store shelves, or its quality will be very controversial.

Due to the increasing popularity of home brewing, there are many stores with a large assortment of devices necessary for home use that will satisfy the needs of any buyer. But, as a rule, the assortment provided may have a very high price, which makes you think about self-assembly moonshine still. The main objective of this article is to help with the manufacture of a container for a moonshine still - a distillation cube.

What is an evaporation cube

Before we begin making the container, let’s take a closer look at its purpose and principle of operation. . A moonshine cube is a container in which:

The finished mash is heated, as a result of which various fractions begin to evaporate, among which is the ethyl alcohol needed by the moonshiner.
Evaporating, the vapors enter the refrigerator through hoses, where the distillation process takes place and the ethyl alcohol fraction is selected.

Basic design requirements

In order for the process of preparing moonshine to proceed without problems, and the quality of the finished product to be impeccable, the evaporation cube must meet the following requirements:

Fulfilling all the above requirements is not as difficult as it might seem. There will be no problems with the material either; the most popular is food-grade stainless steel. It is resistant to high temperatures, relatively inert, cheap and available. Stainless steel stills for moonshine stills make up the majority of the goods sold in stores on this topic.

There are many ready-made examples homemade containers, so you don’t have to come up with the design yourself. But often it is necessary to use some tools, which include a drill, and you may have to use welding or soldering. Therefore, you need both the tools themselves and experience when working with them.

Some craftsmen can assemble a distillation tank from scratch, creating individual drawings of the workpiece, cutting metal parts from solid sheets of metal and then assembling them. But this case rather an exception, since it requires, at a minimum, good handling skills welding machine and an angle grinder, and is more suitable for people who want to create something unique. For the average person who just wants to save money on buying a moonshine still, the most common running options will be listed manufacturing containers with minimal upgrades and costs.

Using a pressure cooker as a container

A pressure cooker is an almost ready-made distillation container that requires minimal modernization. It is completely sealed, the lid is well fixed. Also in stock safety valve pressure, which negates the risk of explosion during the distillation process. The presence of a non-stick coating prevents the mash from burning on the walls of the cube.

The capacity of this container does not allow for large volumes of moonshine to be distilled, which affects overall performance, but this may be an ideal option for people who do not have the desire or ability to create a separate distillation cube.

To transform a pressure cooker the moonshine still only requires drilling a hole and inserting a nipple and fitting into it, onto which the hose connecting the distillation cube to the refrigerator will be attached.

Cube from a flask

Milk flasks are popular in self-production cubes due to their availability and minimal amount of rework. Flask stills are ideal for distilling large volumes of mash, because the total capacity of such a flask can be up to 100 liters. The flask also has gaskets that will ensure a tight seal and can withstand the temperature during the distillation process.

According to the materials, flasks are made of aluminum and stainless steel. It is advisable to use stainless steel for the distillation cube. Although the effect of aluminum on the body has been little studied this moment, it’s better not to risk your health. To turn a milk flask into a distillation container, simply drill a hole for the fitting in the center of the lid, similar to a pressure cooker . To protect yourself from the explosion of such a cube, it is advisable to drill an additional hole for the pressure cooker safety valve, which can be bought in a store or ordered online.

If the flask is large, it is difficult to remove it from the stove, so you can also install a drain tap into the container, which will allow you to remove the mash after distillation without the need to carry a heavy container. You can convert the flask for electric heating; to do this, holes for heating elements are cut into the container. The number of holes depends on the power of the heating element and its shape, for example, one spiral-shaped one is enough, or two or more U-shaped ones. The holes are sealed using fum tape or special heat-resistant sealants and secured with nuts.

The presence of two heating elements in the flask will allow the mash to quickly reach the desired temperature, after which one heating element can be turned off. This is very convenient for large volumes. Also, the use of heating elements instead of standard heating on the stove makes it possible to reduce the burning of the mash to the walls, which has a positive effect on the taste of the finished product.

Making a cube from a pan

If you don’t have a pressure cooker and you can’t get a milk flask, you can try making a distillation cube from a saucepan with your own hands.

To do this, you first need to remove the handle from the lid of the pan. The lid of poor quality products can be torn off even with your hands. If it doesn't work out, then it can be cut using a hacksaw. Then a hole for the fitting is drilled in the center of the lid, and, if desired, also a hole for the safety valve. Next, you need to come up with a seal for the lid itself, and a way to fix it. You can make a sealed gasket from a regular one by choosing the size you need and sewing the edges together with regular thread. Paper clips may be suitable for securing the lid.

Distillation container made from kegs

You can also make a cube from a beer keg. It is relatively large in volume, sealed, has convenient handles for carrying, and the neck is convenient for pouring mash. The advantage is that a tube is welded to the keg cap, and to upgrade the keg into a moonshine brewing apparatus, it is enough to install the fitting with the tube facing outward. A silicone hose is attached to the tube using a crimp clamp, which will be combined with the distiller, and at this point the DIY beer keg still is ready for use.

Very often there are difficulties with removing the factory fittings, so it is advisable to purchase a keg with them already removed. If you have a closed beer keg, you should remove the fittings very carefully, as there may be pressure from residual beer and gases.