What is a Distillation Unit, and Why Should You Buy One?
Utilizing Mother Natures different boiling points, you can separate pure alcohol from water. No, you are not God….You are a Home Moonshiner.
Distillation is a great hobby, and much like brewing beer, it's easy enough for anyone to use a distillation unit safely. Save yourself money by making your own consumables. Liquor, Distilled Water, Essential Oils are just some of great products you can make in the comfort of your own home by purchasing a distilling unit from the best in the business, American Copper Works.
A great survival tool that you can keep in the shed in case of an emergency. You should buy a distillation unit for the sake of protecting yourself and your family from a natural disaster. Yes buying a still could get you in trouble, so please do not make liquor and sell it or give it away. However, It is just as important to protect our right to bear a moonshine still in our own home, as it is to protect our right to bear arms. Now is the time to join the Distillers Renaissance and become a Home Moonshiner.
What Types Of Stills are Available, and Which Should You Buy?
At American Copper Works , we want to save the planet, one moonshine still at a time. Our specialized distilling equipment is sure to please even the experienced moonshiner. We offer a wide variety of types of copper moonshine stills. Alembic Style, Pot Style, Reflux Style are the units we excel at building. Any of these three units will make you shine that will knock you off your feet pushing out 170 proof plus with our pot and reflux style units.
You should buy a Pot Still based off of price and versatility. We simply can build the pot stills faster, therefore, you save a ton of money with a pot still. A pot still will have a thumper which will give you higher proof alcohol. American Copper Works has been building pot stills since 2013 in Manchester, New Hampshire. Alembic styled stills are all built overseas because they are very labor intensive. And the Reflux Style Stills are Imported from china as they have the best stainless prices as well as labor.
The fact remains, TDN excels at producing pot stills and can offer you an amazing deal on a fully warranted copper moonshine still, Made in the USA.
Is Using a Still Even Safe?
We would say no it is not safe to use a still. Is it safe to drive a car? Is it safe to drive a car blindfolded? Is it safe to run a moonshine still without watching it? Life is not a joke, you can get seriously hurt by not doing the proper research. American Copper Works is here to answer any and all questions and concerns about your still, before, during and after you use it.
You also need to be careful what you are putting inside of your body, rule of thumb is the first 1/3rd of the first jar gets disposed of and is not to be drank. Do your research or call us for help. If you are making essential oils and using moonshine to extract THC from Pot in our stills you need a solid bottom so please ask us for it. We have yet to have anyone seriously hurt themselves with our units, however, please remember that using a moonshine still is not safe and you should use your highest levels of caution.
Why Buy From American Copper Works ?
Since 2013, ACW has been putting all of their effort into improving the product while still keeping costs in mind. We make all of the correct folds and seams. We put an embossing line on the top and bottom of the pieces for structural support. Our Thumpers and Worms are oversized and good enough for up to a 30 gallon unit in case you ever want to upgrade.
You can stick your arm right down inside our stills with ease and our units have the temperature gage at the top of the pot where its supposed to be. Our Craftsmen are highly trained and we do not accept just anyone to work with us. Our copper is thicker than the other guys, 20 oz. 22 gage. Is standard in our shop. Lead free materials and domestically sourced parts is what we are all about. We are all about freedom. We want to help save the planet with our stills. We want to give the people the power to make their own gas.
Our customer service is far superior than the competitors. The owner of the business picks up the phone, every time. Customers don’t deal with inexperienced office help on the phone. Customers get direct support from the owner of the business. We offer a lifetime warranty on all of our copper products. If you break your unit, send it back to us, we will swap it out or repair it for free, you pay shipping. Shipping is free on all kits and all complete units up to 10 gallon sizes. Our Facebook is always jam packed with live views from the shop, we are not afraid to show you how we build our units.
Tune in, search for us online, check out our reviews, we are the best in the business and would be proud to have the opportunity to provide you with a copper moonshine still that will last generations. Our stills are easy to use. Instructions to help you along the way are always included in the box and are available online as well. The list goes on and on.
We have an app called “Moonshine Still Buddy”.
If I Bought One, How Do I Use It?
You need a burner, you can use any propane burner that emits a flame of at least 8,000 BTU’s. You need Mash. Mash is the stuff with alcohol in it. You can put beer or wine in it and distill it and get moonshine. You can learn about the ingredients to make Mash by visiting www.Mash.Recipes. You need a well-ventilated area. Set the unit up like you see in the picture over the flame. Make sure there’s always liquid in the pot while heating it. Make sure the cap is sealed, you can use old school wheat or flour paste.
Its easy to make and dries rock hard. Then you let the process work through. As soon as she starts to drip out of the part all the way to the right, write the temperature down on a piece of paper that the temp gage is showing. Then, add 20 degrees to it. That is your operating range.
Always keep your unit between those temperatures and you are distilling! You need a hydrometer to measure your finished product, and don’t forget to discard the first 1/3rd of the first run. These are all of the things you need to start distilling at home. There are many more accessories you could purchase to further your craft, but, start with this stuff and everything else is extra.
How Is The Product Made At American Copper Works?
Our Moonshine Stills are designed with customer satisfaction in mind. The Copper is the purest copper we can get our hands on. We buy it direct from Paul Revere. The Copper comes in 3ft x 10 ft sheets and the get placed on our cutting table at our shop in Manchester New Hampshire. Our highly skilled craftsman accurately measures and cuts each piece needed to build the correct sized moonshine still. Once the piece is cut, the piece is then moved over the bending station.
The piece is the bent and folded over 180 degrees. We do this for added structural integrity as well as to reduce the risk of the customer cutting themselves while maneuvering our product. All of our edges are folded over and none of the edges are sharp. Once the edges are folded over, the piece is ready to get put through the rolling machine. This machine rolls the sheet copper into a cylindrical shape. Once inspected, the piece is then moved over to the embossing station. The craftsman accurately embosses the piece which will leave the part ready to clamp and solder.
Before we clamp and solder we ensure we have all of the other pieces needed, like the circles for the bottoms, the cones, the tubing kits, the fittings, the coil, and the unit is placed on the table for the copper smith to build the product, by hand. The pot body gets installed to the cone, which gets installed to the cap. The hole is drilled on the right side of the cap for the lyne arm to get inserted. The lyne arm travels down at a 45 degree angle and connects to the thumper using a spin union. The tubing travels through the thumper on the left side almost all the way down to the bottom and is cut at a 45 degree angle for maximum efficiency while distilling. Coming out of the thumper, the tubing continues its way towards the worm which is the final piece to the moonshine still.
Before getting to the worm there is another spin union. This is placed there to make it easy to take the thumper out and run the pot directly to the worm. All of our units are interchangeable. Once we get to the worm we focus on installing the coil. The condensing coil is the final process for the steam which is traveling through the moonshine still. We install two hose hook ups on the right side of the worm so the customer can run water in and out to continuously be able to run fresh water through the worm for maximum cooling power. The pot size advertised is the capacity of the pot. The lyne arm is 1 inch diameter. The tubing for the rest of the unit is ½ inch. The coil for the condenser is 3/8 of an inch. All of our thumper and worms are 9x9 and 9x 11 inches respectively.
Our copper smiths can build two units per day. We do not rush our workers. We inspect every piece and grind down all rough edges and imperfections. Our units are then tested with a quick water test, as well as a quick fire test to ensure she has been primed. The customer will still need to clean the insides, but, at this point the unit is fully tested and ready to get boxed. The packaging process is rather easy with each sized unit utilizing a pre-manufactured insert which reduces the need for packing peanuts and decreased the risk for damage. Our boxes are thick. We do not skimp when it comes to shipping.
Our boxes are all double walled, unmarked and discreet USA boxes. As the unit gets flame tested and packaged, the process is recorded and sent to your email shortly after purchasing your unit. This means that when you buy a unit, you will receive a video of the exact unit being tested and boxed. The same exact unit that is sitting there waiting for Fed Ex to come pick up the unit to ship to your door, the very next day. It took us years to perfect not only our processes and procedures but our product and packaging. Everything down to the way we clean the copper after each time it gets hot to keep the copper as clean and as pure as possible. We take care of your investment here at American Copper Works and you should feel confident when making a large purchase online. Thank you for reading the process of how the moonshine still gets built.
Why Copper?
Copper has been being used for hundreds of years for a reason. Copper makes your liquor taste better. American Copper Works uses the highest quality copper available, from America. 20 Oz. 22 Gaga thickness is standard in our shop. We do not use the thin 16 oz. stuff like the other guys do. You get the highest quality shine when using our copper pots, thumpers worms and caps. Nothing makes a traditional Appalachian moonshine still shine brighter than a copper still the same style the old timers used back in the day.
Copper reacts with alcohol on a molecular level. Producing a chemical reaction, removing the sulfur compounds resulting naturally from fermenting yeast. Sulfur is not good for your liquor and if its in there, you will be able to taste it. Copper gets the sulfur out! Copper not only makes your shine taste better, it also helps heat up the still more consistently.
Copper is a great thermal conductor which makes it a great material to build a moonshine still out of. Perfect for fast heat up and also easily condensing the vapors.
Amazingly, copper has proven antimicrobial effects. Copper kills bacteria and viruses. Copper makes your liquor taste better. A steel still is easier to clean, but don’t you want cleaner liquor? Some people just drink to get drunk, others drink because of the overall experience. Don’t take our word for it, try both and see for yourself!
How Do I Heat The Moonshine Still?
Our units can get heat up via direct propane flame, or , it can get heated up with an electric heating element. Both work well, however, you need to make sure your heat is strong enough. Rule of thumb is for a 2 gallon still you can use any hot plate. For a 6 gallon you can use a 110v submerged heating element. For a 10 gallon or bigger you would want to use a 220v submerged electric heating element.