Thanks for comments guys. We do have the permits to make it just not sell it at this point(in Ohio that is). We can sell it through distributors but at this point we will let it sit and age. It has to sit in the northern white oak (from Minn) for about 4 years give or take to taste. We only make a little over a hundered gallons a year. This is are second year so we geared it up a bit by getting a larger still. We had to do a ton of paperwork and jump through red tape you wouldn't believe. It is also a pain getting bonded which you have to do. Oh, and yes once we start selling this fall I will be looking for a 32 Ford or something to deliver the goodies. We heat the stills with propane but looking at different options. I would love to find a huge hotplate or something that you could sit a thousand pounds or so on...Any suggestions?
When I was young, my dad and our neighbor made moonshine in our shed. To fuel the burner, my dad stole natural gas from the city. (probably the only illegal thing than man ever did)
The house we lived in was once a duplex. When it was converted to a single family, the second meter was taken off the tee and capped with a plug. He ran the gas line from the shed up to the meter, unscrewed the cap plug and attached his line and then buried it all back.
I was young but I remember the first pint of so would come out of the condenser at 185 proof. He had made a batch one time and filled up a five gallon charcoal wood barrel. It sat on a shelf in his shed for about 10 years until one day when he was cleaning out the shed, it rolled off the shelf and broke open on the concrete floor. The look on my dad's face was horrifying.
I really love the old school pulley rig to pull the top off. These were in my gramps barn
