A Practical Handbook on the Distillation of Alcohol from Farm ProductsWright, F. B. (Frederic B.)
Science
A Practical Handbook on the Distillation of Alcohol from Farm Products
Wright, F. B. (Frederic B.)
Alcohol; Alcohol, Denatured
The simplest regular plants, those of the South for instance, comprise a
building of rough lumber some thirty feet by twelve wide, with a wooden
floor on which the fermenting vats rest and an earthern floor immediately
in front of the still and furnace. This is to permit the fires being
drawn when the charge has been exhausted in the boiler. The still is of
the fire-heated, intermittent variety, such as described on page 35. It
consists of a brick furnace or oven, large enough to burn ordinary cord
wood and supporting a copper boiler of fifteen or twenty gallons
capacity. On top of this is a copper "head" with the usual goose neck,
from which a copper pipe leads to a closed and locked barrel containing
raw spirits, this barrel acting on the principle of the condensing
chamber shown in the still in Fig. 8. From the upper part of this barrel,
which acts as a concentrator, the vapors pass to a copper worm immersed
in a tub of cold water. Here the vapors are condensed and pass by a pipe
to a small room, containing a locked receiving tank. This room is kept
locked and is under the immediate charge of the Government officer in
charge of the still, or, in the case of alcohol intended for de-naturing,
the alcohol would pass to a locked tank from whence it would be taken and
de-natured under the charge of the proper Government officer.
The fermenting vats may be six or more in number so as to allow the mash
in each tank to be at a different stage of fermentation. A hand pump is
used for pumping the contents of any of the tanks into the boiler or the
still. A hand pump is also provided for supplying water to the vats and
condensers.
In connection with the distilling and fermenting building there are small
buildings for storing the grain, malt, etc., for the storage of the
alcohol and for the keeping of the various books, records, and stamps
required by law. Such plants as these are located adjacent to a good
clear spring or even a small brook, and preferably in a position
convenient to the carriage of materials and the transportation of the
whiskey or other liquor produced.
The buildings are of the cheapest construction and arranged in the
manner which compels the least labor in filling the mash vats and turning
the contents into spirits. There are no special mash coolers, no
complicated stirrers. The "beer" as the fermented mash is called is
stirred by a paddle in the hands of a strong negro and the mash is mixed
and fermented by rule of thumb, without the use of any scientific
appliances. Primitive, as it is, however, those small plants in certain
sections of the country make money for their proprietors and serve a
large number of customers. The spirits so produced are low grade, fiery
and rough in taste, but the point is that alcohol may be and is so
produced.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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