A moonshine still is one of the most popular devices today, allowing you to obtain pure moonshine, or more precisely, an alcohol-containing product. The basis for production is mash, poured into a distillation cube and heated until it begins to boil. At a temperature of 90-95 0 C, the mash breaks down into 3 main fragmentations - alcohol, water and fusel oils. The main element of such a device is the coil. It is designed to condense alcohol vapor and obtain a pure product.
It is not difficult to make such a unit, even considering its spiral shape. In this article we will tell you how to make a coil for a moonshine still with your own hands and what you will need for this.
The main task of the moonshine still is to separate low-boiling components (alcohol boils at a temperature of 78 0 C) from heavy boiling ones - water (100 0 C) and fusel oils (from 120 0 C). The mash is boiled in a distillation cube, from where the fragments flow through a tube into a coil immersed in cold water (refrigerator). Here, due to a sharp temperature difference, the steam, moving in a spiral, condenses and flows in the form of ethyl alcohol into the container.
In order to completely remove fusel oils from moonshine, it is recommended to pass it through the apparatus twice.
Despite such a complex description and specific shape, the coil can be made with your own hands, and it will work as efficiently as its professional counterpart.
What should the coil be like?
There are several parameters that a truly working coil must meet, and the main one is the material.
- Material of manufacture
The further taste of the drink, prepared according to all the rules, will depend on this. The most important thing is that the material from which the pipe will be made should not enter into a chemical reaction with alcohol and release any harmful substances. The main types are aluminum, copper or stainless steel. Specialists use glass tubes, which allows them to personally control the process. But you definitely can’t make such a tube with your own hands; it’s easier to buy it at a chemical store.
The thermal conductivity factor is also important, which determines the rate of condensation. The most thermally conductive material is copper, followed by aluminum and only after stainless steel.
Interestingly, some moonshiners speak out against copper pipes, considering them toxic. We would like to remind you that in France, for example, all strong alcohol, including world-famous cognacs, is distilled in a copper still, and the taste only benefits from this.
The photo below shows a coil for a home moonshine still:
- Coil size
The distillation speed and the amount of product obtained depend on this parameter. An immutable rule applies here - the more points of contact with cold water, the faster the steam cools and condenses. However, due to the hydraulic connection increasing from turn to turn, the distillation speed is sharply reduced. The optimal length of the coil is 1.5 meters with a tube diameter of 10-12 mm.
- Location
To ensure that condensate drains by gravity and does not stagnate anywhere, it is recommended to use a vertical installation system. Horizontal or inclined, although not prohibited, reduce the amount of moonshine produced with an equal amount of mash.
- Cooling system
The simplest and most effective method of cooling is water poured into a container where the coil is immersed. Ice and cold air are also used as a cooling element, but their installation is quite difficult.
In addition, the container, if possible, should be open so that warm water can be exchanged for cold. In a closed container, the condensation process is much worse and very often the moonshine at the outlet is already quite warm.
There is also a flow-through refrigerator where water circulates constantly. In addition to the fact that it cools the coil better, accordingly, moonshine is processed faster, it is also smaller in size. Thanks to this, the entire moonshine still turns out to be much more compact.
It is necessary to create a counterflow in the refrigerator, for which warm water is discharged from above, and cold water enters from below. In this case, the water tends to meet the moonshine and cools evenly throughout the entire coil.
The process of making a coil for a moonshine still
The coil will be made from a copper tube. Let us remind you that you can also use aluminum, brass and even stainless steel tube. The length of such a tube is 1500-2000 mm, diameter 10-12 mm, wall thickness 1-1.1 mm.
Next, find the tank where the coil will be installed - a metal or glass container, the size of which determines the size of the coil. In general, once installed, it should occupy at least a quarter of the volume. If you don’t have any suitable container at hand, you can even use a piece of plastic pipe sealed at one end. The diameter of such a pipe must be at least 80 mm.
Drawing of a coil and housing for self-production
How to collect correctly
- Fill the tube very tightly with sand, salt or soda to prevent even the slightest deformation when bending. You should not freeze the water and try to curl the pipe, because when bending, the knee will heat up and melt the ice, which will cause deformation of the pipe.
- Close both ends of the tube with wooden or plastic plugs to prevent sand from spilling out.
- Find a round object with an equal cross-section over the entire height, 30-35 mm in diameter, and carefully wind the tube around it. You can bend it with pliers, but try not to deform the outer material. The pitch between turns should be 12-15 mm.
- Open both ends, pour out sand or salt and rinse thoroughly under running water.
- On the outside of the housing, insert pipes for water inlet/outlet.
- Place the coil vertically inside the container, secure the outlet channel to the outside, from where it will come out, fix it with sealant or cold welding, and make plugs on both sides.
This is what a fully assembled metal refrigerator looks like
The average heating power of the distillation cube is 3 kilowatts. With such indicators, the efficiency of the coil will be 4 liters of moonshine per hour. This volume is obtained from 30 liters of mash.
The video will tell you how to make a coil for a moonshine still with your own hands.
Modern moonshine stills have a practical design, which includes all the necessary elements to make the process of preparing moonshine efficient and of high quality. At the very last stage of moonshine brewing, the participation of such an accessory as a coil is required, which allows you to accumulate alcohol vapors and condense them in the form of a ready-made strong drink into a container.
If the home moonshiner has a device that he assembled himself or the purchased unit is not equipped with a coil, then he will have to make this element himself, and for this he will need not only to choose the right material, but also to follow the technology for manufacturing the accessory.
The operation of a coil for a moonshine still involves the achievement of several tasks and goals that affect the manufacturing process. If the material for the serpentine tube and the body of the product is chosen correctly, this will positively affect the transparency of the moonshine, as well as its aroma, taste and purity.
Coil for a moonshine still – choosing material for the tube
In order to make an effective coil with your own hands in a home workshop, it is important to choose the right material for the coil tube. The distinctive features of such a material should be high thermal conductivity and strength, which will play a key role in the assembly/disassembly of the unit. Another important factor influencing the effectiveness of the accessory is the lack of toxicity and repeated use of the element.
Taking these important aspects into account, the serpentine tube is ideally made from a material that does not react with fusel oils and alcohols, because in this case, there is a high probability of not only losing the accessory, but also being poisoned by the moonshine prepared in the apparatus. Distinctive features of the material from which the coil tube is made should be practicality, durability, thermal conductivity and lack of toxicity when interacting with alcohol. Focusing on such properties and characteristics, users give preference to such materials as:
- Aluminum. It is characterized by rapid and strong oxidation, which contributes to the accumulation of harmful and dangerous substances in our body. Periodically needs replacement.
- Copper. It stands out from other materials due to its high thermal conductivity, therefore it is effective in cooling alcohol. Copper tubes must be regularly soaked in a solution of soda or citric acid to remove plaque that appears over time.
- Stainless steel. For the coil, only the food-grade version of the metal is suitable, and its significant disadvantages are too much weight and rigidity. The stainless steel coil will require additional support, and additional tools will be needed to shape the tube.
- Metal-plastic. This is another option for the material for the coil tube, which is easy to bend and give it the desired shape. On the other hand, due to its elasticity, the coil will easily and quickly lose its shape and fail.
- Glass. A glass spiral makes it possible to observe the process of preparing moonshine and keep it under control. But it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to make a glass coil yourself at home.
Regardless of what material was chosen for the coil, when manufacturing it it is important to follow the technology and observe the dimensions and parameters of the accessory. The longer the coil tube, the more points of contact the alcohol will have with the coolant during the process. But a long coil can reduce the productivity and quality of the finished drink.
The optimal length of the coil tube varies between 1.5-2 m, and its diameter is 8-12 mm, with a wall thickness of 0.9 to 1.1 mm. Such parameters ensure effective cooling, and the coil can serve efficiently and for a long time.
If a non-flowing design is chosen as a refrigerator option for a moonshine still, then it will be impossible to focus on the exact parameters and dimensions, because craftsmen use the container that is available, at hand. The length of the coil tube is adjusted depending on the parameters of the dishes for the refrigerator.
The coil itself in the design of a refrigerator for a moonshine still should occupy from 15 to 20% of the total volume of the container used. For a static coil, a longer tube is used than for the other design.
Manufacturing technology of a coil for a moonshine still
The design of the refrigerator for the moonshine still should be selected depending on the access to water and the possibility of connecting it. In cases where it is not possible to connect running water, the size of the refrigerator will need to be increased so that steam condensation and cooling are of high quality. If there is no running water, then the refrigerator for the moonshine still is made of a metal tank with a volume of 25-30 liters and a copper tube, which is wound in a spiral smaller in size than the inner diameter of the container. The coil tube is brought out through the bottom wall of the tank, and the hole at the place where it comes out is carefully sealed. During operation, the tank is filled with cold water, and when the temperature rises, the heated water is removed and its volume is replaced with cold water.
If it is possible to connect running water, then it is best to make the refrigerator more compact in size, and the spiral from a copper or steel tube will need to be wound in smaller diameter turns, with greater density to each other. A small piece of polypropylene pipe is quite suitable for a water jacket. The process of manufacturing a coil for a flow-through refrigerator consists of the following steps:
- A copper tube with a diameter of 10-12 mm and a thickness of 1 mm is wound on a mandrel with a diameter of 20 mm, with a gap between the turns of 3 to 5 mm;
- Straight pieces of tube, 60-80 mm long, are left at both ends of the spiral;
- A coil body is made from a standard plumbing pipe with a diameter of 110 mm, selecting the length of the product so that the coil itself fits into it, and the straight ends of the spiral come out;
- Each end of the plumbing pipe is closed with plugs, in which holes are made according to the diameter of the coil tube;
- To supply running water, fittings are inserted from both ends of the cooling jacket;
- Instead of a copper coil tube, some users use stainless steel, but winding it in a spiral is much more difficult.
Among home craftsmen, opinions always differ as to which design is better - a coil or a direct-flow one. In a direct-flow design, the steam resistance is much less than that of a spiral. In spiral refrigerators, due to resistance, high pressure is created inside the distillation cube, which leads to increased evaporation of water and heavy substances, which negatively affects the quality of moonshine.
In a once-through refrigerator, the pressure does not reach its highest point, which avoids sudden foaming of the mash. But this design has a significant drawback, in the form of the large size of the unit.
A classic coil is a spiral made of a material with high thermal conductivity. Such devices have a large cooling area and are easy to manufacture.
Best materials
What to make a coil for a home moonshine still from? The material must be easy to process, not form harmful compounds during distillation, and be strong enough. The most popular materials among moonshiners: copper, stainless steel, aluminum, glass. Much less often, coils are made of silver, brass and metal-plastic.
Copper
Copper coils are the most common in moonshine stills. Copper lends itself well to processing, and the high thermal conductivity of copper allows for faster distillation. Copper is not completely chemically inert, meaning it can form new compounds when interacting with heated vapors.
Theoretically, they can turn into ready-made moonshine and then have a negative effect on the body, but the experience of French winemakers does not confirm these assumptions. They traditionally use copper stills to produce whiskey and cognac, recognized throughout the world for their high quality.
Stainless steel
Stainless steel has good thermal conductivity and does not interact with most active chemical compounds. A coil for a home moonshine still made of food-grade stainless steel will allow you to obtain a high-quality alcohol product.
Aluminum
When making an aluminum refrigerator, it is necessary to take into account that with age, such a device ages and becomes hazardous to health. During distillation, aluminum oxides interact with alcohol compounds, and the resulting complex substances accumulate in the body. The alcohol obtained using an aluminum apparatus has a slight specific taste.
Glass
Glass devices have excellent thermal conductivity and allow you to regulate the distillation process. The disadvantage of such a device is the difficulty of making it at home and its high fragility. If you decide to go with this option, then in most cases it is better to buy a sufficient number of ready-made glass refrigerators on the Internet.
Distillation without coil
If you are a novice moonshiner, you don’t always have to set up the perfect winemaking area right away. To get started, you can use available materials. An old saucepan or can with a sealed lid is perfect as a distillation cube. You can use available materials as a coil. Moonshine after distillation will not be of the highest quality, but the first exciting experience of moonshine brewing will be obtained at almost no cost.
Grandma's design
This is the simplest model of a moonshine still that can be made. The role of the refrigerator in the design is played by a large bowl of cold water, into which you can put snow in winter. Alcohol vapor condenses on the walls of the “refrigerator” and falls into a funnel, and then flows down a groove into the alcohol receiver.
Lazy coil
If your soul yearns for a homemade drink, but there is no time, then your imagination will help out. In the presented model, the role of a coil is played by a silicone tube of small diameter attached to the distillation cube. The free turns of the capacitor are immersed in a container, which is placed in the sink and cooled with water. Silicone tubes of different lengths are sold at the pharmacy. When purchasing, it is important to pay attention to the material - rubber products are not suitable.
Metal tube refrigerator
A do-it-yourself coil for a moonshine still will compete with store-bought counterparts. Before you start assembling the moonshine structure, you need to decide on its parameters:
- Dimensions. To make the moonshine flow faster and taste better, you should find a longer copper or aluminum tube. Its length before twisting should be about 2 meters, and its cross-sectional diameter should be 8-12 mm. Such dimensions will provide a sufficiently large contact area with the cooling medium. The thickness of the tube wall should not be very thin, about 1 mm, so as not to complicate processing.
- Spatial arrangement. The orientation of the refrigerator can be any, but it is better to prefer vertical, and supply steam from above. In this case, the condensed moonshine flows down under the influence of gravity, without creating barriers to the steam.
- Cooling can be produced by air, snow or water. Water cooling systems are more efficient. The choice between a capacitive and flow-through (open) refrigerator depends on the availability of water supply and sewerage.
How to bend a tube?
You can get a beautifully curled coil spiral in different ways. The air conditioning store sells copper tubes of the required length, and there you can also find “pipe benders” that create smooth bends without creases. If you can’t find a special device, then the old-fashioned way of making neat turns with your own hands will help:
- one end of the tube is closed;
- the cavity is tightly packed with sand (salt, soda);
- the second end closes;
- the structure is wound onto a pipe of suitable diameter;
- the spiral is removed, its ends are opened, the filler is carefully poured out.
Take a look, which is easy to make and produces a quality product. Also, the article discusses in detail the process of manufacturing a coil from a copper tube.
The coil, as the main element of the refrigerator, is responsible for the condensation of vapors from the distillation cube. In self-made moonshine stills, pipes made of stainless steel, copper, metal-plastic or aluminum are used to make coils, and the power of the distillation cube must be taken into account.
Thanks to its simple form, making this part at home will not be difficult, but to do this you need to familiarize yourself with the features of its functioning in all details.
The coil is an essential part of a moonshine still; it is part of the refrigerator, which is one of the three required components along with the still and hoses, and is necessary for the final stage of distillation. After the liquid in the distillation cube evaporates, the steam passes through the system and, regardless of additional influencing processes, such as rectification, which requires a distillation column, enters the refrigerator.
Here the spiral acts as the main functional element - condensation of alcohol, water and some fusel oils and impurities occurs on its surface, after which the distillate flows directly into the container for collecting moonshine.
Design and principles of operation
Structurally, the coil is a hollow tube twisted into a spiral. Steam from the distillation cube passes inside it, and on the outside there can be either air or water - a cooling medium. It is necessary to lower the temperature of the steam due to heat transfer from it through the metal to it, as a result of which the evaporated substances - alcohol, water and fusel oils - cannot maintain a gaseous state and condense.
Despite the very simple structure and principle of operation, each parameter of the spiral - the material of manufacture, its geometric features and placement option - significantly affects the process.
Material
It affects both the functional part of the refrigerator and its service life. The main materials for manufacturing are copper, stainless steel, metal-plastic, glass, silver and aluminum. To understand what is best to make a coil for a moonshine still with your own hands, it’s worth going through each option in detail:
- Silver. It has excellent performance indicators: high thermal conductivity, non-toxic, good shock-absorbing life, but the metal itself is very expensive in comparison with other analogues, which is why it is used extremely rarely.
- Copper. A coil for a moonshine still made of a copper tube is one of the most common solutions, this is due to both the good thermal conductivity of the material and its reasonable price, and the fact that the metal is easy to process and such a part is not difficult to make with your own hands. Of course, a purchased option is also possible, which also has an affordable price.
- Aluminum. It has good thermal conductivity, is quite easy to process and is inexpensive. But there is a problem with its high oxidability; as a result, aluminum oxides, which are harmful to health, will enter the distillate, and it is impossible to apply a protective coating, as on food utensils, at home.
- Metal-plastic. A coil for a moonshine still made of a metal-plastic pipe is becoming increasingly popular, and there are a number of reasons for this: it is cheaper than other materials, even if you use very high-quality pipes, it is very easy to process and at the same time fulfills all the assigned tasks. A prerequisite for the original pipe is that it is made from a non-toxic polymer and can withstand high temperatures.
- Food grade stainless steel. The material is highly durable and does not interact with alcohol vapor, which affects the quality of the distillate; it has good, but not as high as copper, aluminum or silver, thermal conductivity; it is quite difficult to process due to its high strength. The cost is cheaper than copper and silver.
- Glass. The material has absolute chemical inertness, as a result of which distillation occurs under ideal conditions, but it is impossible to make a glass coil for a moonshine still; you can only buy it. An additional advantage is the transparency of the material, which, when using a refrigerator casing made of transparent polymer, will allow you to monitor the condensation process with laboratory precision. The downside is that it is quite fragile and needs to be used carefully. Price is one of the advantages of glass.
Geometric features
It is necessary to select or manufacture a coil for a moonshine still, taking into account the correct dimensional parameters of this part, which determine the course of the condensation process. The following significant points can be highlighted:
- Tube wall thickness. Determines thermal conductivity and, therefore, heat transfer between steam and the cooling medium. The thinner the wall, the higher the thermal conductivity. But since the thermal conductivity of each material is different, the wall thickness is selected individually each time, and it should not be very thin, otherwise it will lead to rapid wear of the part. Tubes with a thickness of 0.9-1.1 mm are used as standard.
- Tube length. The longer it is, the larger the area involved during condensation and the higher the performance of the refrigerator as a whole, so the length of the spiral should be calculated based on the power of the moonshine still. You also need to take into account the hydraulic resistance, which increases with the length of the tube. For stainless steel and copper, the optimal length is 1.5-2 meters in an untwisted form.
- Tube inner diameter. Together with the length, it determines the area of the condensing surface; in addition, an increase in diameter reduces the hydraulic resistance. Typically, when making a coil for a moonshine still, a tube with an internal diameter of 8-12 mm is used.
Accommodation options
There are three positions in which the spiral can be installed:
- vertical;
- horizontal;
- diagonal.
The standard option is vertical arrangement. In this case, the substances, condensing, do not encounter resistance during further downward movement, which affects the distillation rate.
Important! With a vertical coil arrangement, not only a downward, but also an upward connection is possible - the pairs will flow from top to bottom. In this case, the operating speed of the refrigerator will decrease significantly.
How to make a coil for a moonshine still with your own hands
For manufacturing, a tube made of copper, food grade stainless steel, aluminum or even brass, similar in properties to copper, can be used. The length of the segment should be from 1.5 to 2 meters, have an internal diameter from 8 to 12 mm and a wall thickness from 0.9 to 1.1 mm. When twisting the tube into a spiral, the size of the refrigerator case in which it will be installed must be taken into account, as well as the fact that the volume occupied by the spiral should not exceed 1/5-1/6 of the volume of the case.
Work plan:
- The tube must be filled with loose filler, for example soda or sand, this will protect it from flattening when curling. The alternative of freezing the tube filled with water will make the process a little more difficult due to the increased hardness of the metal and the ice itself.
- The outlet openings are sealed using wooden caps, or soldered, or clamped, or in another convenient way. To facilitate the process, a nut is welded on one side or placed on glue/sealant.
- To wind the tube, you need a round object with a specified diameter for the spiral, for example a block turned on a lathe. The figure shows the normalized aspect ratio and can be used even if a coil with a different diameter is required.
- After curling, the spring is removed from the shaft and the filler is poured out, after which the spiral must be washed and it is ready for installation in the refrigerator.
From a technical point of view, making a coil for a moonshine still is one of the simplest tasks in comparison with its other parts.