Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Hello there

Like many people I am in the process of acquiring licencing to produce hand santizer. I am looking at purchasing a still and taste doesn't matter. In my younger days I used a custom made still. It was quite large (100L boiler). I didn't know much about it, a friend made the still and I would use it occasionally.

While I am confident in using a still and producing the wash... I actually don't know much about the technical side of things.

My question:

What changes capacity (Litre output per hour) of a still is it the column size. Currently looking at purchasing this bad boy::: https://www.5stardistilling.com.au/peakst ... -still-set
But honestly not sure what I'm doing. Just working it out as I go.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Column diameter
https://www.5stardistilling.com/product/mac-4-ssg/

If you think you can make alcohol for hand sanitiser would suggest look at what the real price is for industrial alcohol as the shortage will be over before you start.

I don't want to discourage you, but there's a lot more to making a hand sanitiser than just running a still. I'd suggest that unless you're already equipped to make it properly, meaning that a) you make a quality commercial product and b) you don't get sued in case someone reacts badly to it.

I found the following article very helpful - https://www.cnet.com/how-to/why-you-sho ... sanitizer/

Also, as wynnum eluded to - just the time it will take to get set up AND licensed may be a detractor also.

If you do decide to go ahead, then yeah - bigger is faster. Maybe something like this: https://www.5stardistilling.com.au/prod ... 0l-boiler/

We have a lawyer confident we will have all appropriate licencing in 48 hours and all the other ingredients aren't a problem. Commercial denatured ethanol and propanol is currently in shortage in Australia and according to the several companies we have discussed this with, it isn't likely to change. We looked at importing but it's difficult/near impossible to do currently. I am happy to be wrong about any of this of course, so if you know of a company selling cheap ethanol or propanol - get in contact.

The information I really need to look at is how big of a still do I need. How much of a difference does the diameter of 4" still vs 8". How much alcohol does a 4" diameter still produce per hour or run... Is the size of the boiler going to affect how quickly we produce or is it solely on the size of the condenser?

Do you guys know of a website with concise information on this or is going to be just a keep reading through forums sorta thing?

I really appreciate any information you are happy to give.

Cheers.

Piratizer wrote: 4" diameter still produce per hour

About 2 - 2.5L per hour.
Good luck finding an 8" still off the shelf
Boiler size will dictate how long your run will be and how much per run you will collect
Another thing to consider is cooling water

Hand sanitiser :clap:

Brazilian ethanol prices sink on the back of OPEC dispute over production cuts