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Illicit Distillation

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    #32
    ohnonotgmail
    Registered Users Posts: 40,179 ✭✭✭✭ohnonotgmail


    GM228 wrote: »
    Yes, legit alcohol has ethanol, most non legit don't and substitute with the type you find in anti freeze, nail polish removers, car screen wash or perfume products for example, that's a big give away using chemical analysis.

    Also, a new hand held device using Ramen Spectrosocy technology (Spatially Offset Raman Spectroscopy or SORS) can detect counterfeit alcohol through a closed bottle using chemical analysis.

    just to clarify, by illicit i mean alcohol on which duty has not been paid. I know it is possible to tell alochol from not-alcohol. that is just basic chemistry. you mentioned chemical markers. Somebody else that not all manufacturers use them so how can you use them to determine if alcohol is illicit?


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    #33
    tayto lover
    Registered Users Posts: 51,570 ✭✭✭✭tayto lover


    Poitin is very scarce but I've a little still.


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    #34
    Carawaystick
    Registered Users Posts: 8,779 ✭✭✭Carawaystick


    Is there any legal issue with me distilling stuff in a country in the EU which allows home distillation, and bringing it here? ( for my own personal use)


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    #35
    exaisle
    Registered Users Posts: 2,673 ✭✭✭exaisle


    GM228 wrote: »
    Yes, legit alcohol has ethanol, most non legit don't and substitute with the type you find in anti freeze, nail polish removers, car screen wash or perfume products for example, that's a big give away using chemical analysis.

    Just to clarify, ethanol IS what most people know as "alcohol". Raw ethanol is the basis for gins and vodkas in that they are produced by adding botanicals to raw alcohol. Brandy and whiskey which are aged after production, would tend to have low percentages of other alcohols - mainly methanol which boils at about 65 degrees, about 15 degrees lower than ethanol. As is mentioned elsewhere, the practice of throwing away the first "glass" of distillate, ("giving it to the fairies") removed much of the methanol from the distillate. Indeed, in New Zealand, where distilling for home use is legal, much of the alcohol produced for home consumption has a lower percentage of methanol than many commercial products because of the use of good yeasts and sugars (not standard sugar for home use).

    With all due respect, what you've said about "non legit" may be inreference to the scandal in Austria back in the 1980's where "anti-freeze" was found in wine. It was, I believe a deliberate attempt to scam wine consumers by certain Austrian wine producers whereby they added diethanol glycol(an ingredient of anti-freeze) to wine to make it appear sweeter.

    While possession of a still is illegal, it is, of course, quite legitimate to produce wine and beer for home consumption. The possession of a still is a criminal offence also. So...I would ask the question...what is that status of alcohol distilled without the use of a still (ie. freeze-distilled)? Not that I am for one minute advocating the practice!


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    #36
    Victor
    Registered Users Posts: 78,278 ✭✭✭✭Victor


    exaisle wrote: »
    freeze-distilled
    Will this remove the methanol? Depending on precise method, it might not.

    Talking to a manufacturing pharmacist about this (in the context of ice-brewed beers and Tactical Nuclear Penguins), he emphasised that the testing for methanol would be essential, although he was unsure what laboratory would do the testing for such an arrangement. :D


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    #37
    drunkmonkey
    Registered Users Posts: 28,118 ✭✭✭✭drunkmonkey


    I made some bathtub gin a few years ago, served it out as gin to the girls. I presume that's legal your more infushing than distilling and the vodka was bought in a shop.


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    #38
    ohnonotgmail
    Registered Users Posts: 40,179 ✭✭✭✭ohnonotgmail


    drunkmonkey wrote: »
    I made some bathtub gin a few years ago, served it out as gin to the girls. I presume that's legal your more infushing than distilling and the vodka was bought in a shop.


    As it didnt involve a still and there was no distillation involved i cant how it could be illegal.


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    #39
    drunkmonkey
    Registered Users Posts: 28,118 ✭✭✭✭drunkmonkey


    ohnonotgmail wrote: »
    As it didnt involve a still and there was no distillation involved i cant how it could be illegal.

    Me neither but could be something there if your changing it from one spirit to another.


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    #40
    ohnonotgmail
    Registered Users Posts: 40,179 ✭✭✭✭ohnonotgmail


    drunkmonkey wrote: »
    Me neither but could be something there if your changing it from one spirit to another.


    the only thing you change is the taste. It is still the same ethanol. If bathtub gin was illegal then skittles vodka would also be illegal.


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    #41
    exaisle
    Registered Users Posts: 2,673 ✭✭✭exaisle


    Victor wrote: »
    Will this remove the methanol? Depending on precise method, it might not.

    No...it wouldnt remove the methanol as its freezing point is also below that of water. Thats why making "apple jack" from cider by this method is dangerous as the abv % of the methanol is also raised. You really dont want to be drinking methanol!


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    #42
    Carawaystick
    Registered Users Posts: 8,779 ✭✭✭Carawaystick


    exaisle wrote: »
    No...it wouldnt remove the methanol as its freezing point is also below that of water. Thats why making "apple jack" from cider by this method is dangerous as the abv % of the methanol is also raised. You really dont want to be drinking methanol!

    Wouldn't just drinking the cider be as dangerous if there was methanol


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    #43
    Victor
    Registered Users Posts: 78,278 ✭✭✭✭Victor


    Carawaystick wrote: »
    Wouldn't just drinking the cider be as dangerous if there was methanol

    It wouldn't be as concentrated.


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    #44
    exaisle
    Registered Users Posts: 2,673 ✭✭✭exaisle


    Might as well ask this here: Can you carbon filter Apple Jack (ie freeze distilled cider) to remove some of the fusel oils? I know it won't have any effect on the methanol but still...


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    #45
    beazee
    Registered Users Posts: 1,343 ✭✭✭beazee


    exaisle wrote: »
    Might as well ask this here: Can you carbon filter Apple Jack (ie freeze distilled cider) to remove some of the fusel oils? I know it won't have any effect on the methanol but still...

    There's only one way to find out.
    Try it and report back if and how it affected the taste.

    "Seemingly the yeasty flavor went away and it brought out much more flavor."
    https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/carbon-filtering.379903/


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    #46
    Lenar3556
    Registered Users Posts: 1,355 ✭✭✭Lenar3556


    coylemj wrote: »
    There have been many examples over the years. It's a revenue offence so a hefty fine and confiscation of the equipment and the destruction of the illicit liquor is the usual decision handed down. In the good ol' days, the normal practice was for the judge to call to the Garda station on his way home to pick up a bottle or two.

    It used to be (may still be) a hanging offence for a publican to be convicted of having moonshine on the premises. Immediate forfeiture of the licence.

    Comment from Nuac

    After many years practice in the West ( and in some major poitín areas ) I never heard of the District Judge calling to a Garda Barracks for such a purpose.

    Around Christmas a solicitor who defended poitín makers might find a bottle in his car after a court sitting in a particular area, but that was it

    Not all that many years ago, it wasn’t unheard of for a DJ to go to a public house with members of the Garda after the court concluded. In one particular case the judges car was regularly driven back to his home in the early hours of the morning by a Garda, with a patrol car following behind.

    Different times!


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    #47
    exaisle
    Registered Users Posts: 2,673 ✭✭✭exaisle


    Result.....it started off tasting like weak monkey p1ss.
    Now it just tastes like stronger monkey p1ss.
    The alcohol content must be negligible. I've filterest it down from around 2 litres (size of a big coke bottle) to about 400ml. It would take a lot of sugar to make it in any way palatable.


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