Vevor SS brewing keg

[Tubetec]

So it turns out our Chinese friends who make the knockoff Webasto diesel heater also make this ,
Looks like the right job ,
Theres too much good whiskey in this country to bother trying to make your own , but maybe ethanol as a fuel source .
An IC engine needs ethanol of around 95 proof to run right , but it is possible ,

 

[Walrus]

“Mental thermometer”, I love it!

 

[AnalogPackrat]

I want one. For producing my own distilled water, of course.

 

[Tubetec]

Isopropyl for cleaning isnt cheap nowadays ,
I believe back in the old days the local vet had a special dispensation from the laws that applied to everyone else , he was allowed stil off small quantities of alcohol for use on the job .
The laws here are pretty strict , its mainly for peoples own safety .

Im wondering if theres a case to be made for small scale bio ethanol production as fuel ,
I wonder what the costs would work out like ,

The petrochemical industry has just announced were moving to E10 ethanol mix with happy happy add campaign expounding the greeness of it all ,BS Ive heard the chemicals they use to emulsify the liquids are themselves very toxic , it probably also has an effect on food prices as stuff that would otherwise be destined for food production get used up .

Petrol is around 1.55 euros per liter here , even if it cost that to produce your own ethanol youd be onto a winner , you'd have a very clean renewable fuel source and you wouldnt be putting a penny in the pockets of the mean ungreen energy giants .

I think there is a system in the UK now that allows people produce and use bio fuels on a smaller scale , theres some form of licence required which costs 3 grand , that effectively prevents DIY'ers . Its the government and oil companies protecting their own interests , same old story everywhere .

The Webasto is also available in a model that burns petrol , Id imagine it could be made burn ethanol easily .

Theres a scientist up at the university here , hes made a simple digester which takes all food waste from the kitchen ,he cooks it up and extracts the gas which is stored at low pressure in a mylar balloon , he makes enough gas from the process to run a cooker so saves on his utility bills .

The EU has recently set a deadline for the end of petrol/diesel powered vehicles on our roads .
Theres one thing for sure though , diesel will be around a while yet , if you want to pull a plough through the earth all day long your not going to be doing it on batteries .


heres a guy who makes a shower from a Webasto ,

Looks like Walmart have the Vevor on the shelf , 69.99 ,

Link breaks for some reason , it seemed to interfere with the browser and trigger a firewall alert , so I removed it

 

[Tubetec]

This guy gives a good overview of using this to make drinking spirit ,
Its a very involved process as you can see , with a decent bottle of Irish whiskey costing just over 20 euros here ,it doesnt make any sense to be bothering with all the extra effort and end up half poisoned .
If the distillate is only ever to be used as fuel or for cleaning it simplifies everything ,

The model looks a lot nicer , a little more expencive
https://eur.vevor.com/alcohol-disti...-still-6-6gal-home-brewing-kit-p_010584488833

 

[JohnRoberts]

Finally brewing in the brewery...

JR

PS; Back in the 60s I had a co-op job working for a still manufacturer.

 

[AnalogPackrat]

This guy gives a good overview of using this to make drinking spirit ,
Its a very involved process as you can see , with a decent bottle of Irish whiskey costing just over 20 euros here ,it doesnt make any sense to be bothering with all the extra effort and end up half poisoned If the distillate is only ever to be used as fuel or for cleaning it simplifies everything ,

My hillbilly ancestors who came from Scotland and Ireland have been (and still are) doing "private" distilling on much more primitive equipment for many generations. It only takes a little knowledge and care to avoid methanol poisoning.

 

[JohnRoberts]

My hillbilly ancestors who came from Scotland and Ireland have been (and still are) doing "private" distilling on much more primitive equipment for many generations. It only takes a little knowledge and care to avoid methanol poisoning.

there was also a risk of lead poisoning from using car radiators to condense the distillate.

I had an uncle now RIP who lived in the smoky mountains of NC. He tried to get the state to approve novelty sales of local moonshine to tourists. I don't think he was successful.

Back in the 60s when I worked at Barnstead still and sterilizer company, one of our customers was Old Mr Boston a popular brand of cheap booze.

JR

 

[AnalogPackrat]

there was also a risk of lead poisoning from using car radiators to condense the distillate.

No reputable moonshiner would use such a thing.

I had an uncle now RIP who lived in the smoky mountains of NC. He tried to get the state to approve novelty sales of local moonshine to tourists. I don't think he was successful.

My ancestors never bothered to ask permission.

Back in the 60s when I worked at Barnstead still and sterilizer company, one of our customers was Old Mr Boston a popular brand of cheap booze.

Never heard of it. Maybe it was a regional delight. Or now out of business.

JR

 

[JohnRoberts]

No reputable moonshiner would use such a thing.

of course, copper coils only

My ancestors never bothered to ask permission.

I suspect my uncle drank some shine but don't think he made it. He raised chickens and had an apple orchard... I read that in the old days apple farmers with too many apples would crush and ferment the product for storage and to retain value.

Never heard of it. Maybe it was a regional delight. Or now out of business.

or both... The still company job was in a suburb of Boston... Old mr boston, changed their name to mr boston before going out of business in '86

JR

 

[AnalogPackrat]

of course, copper coils only

Thumper for the seasoned shiner.

I suspect my uncle drank some shine but don't think he made it. He raised chickens and had an apple orchard... I read that in the old days apple farmers with too many apples would crush and ferment the product for storage and to retain value.

Cider, yes. Apple jack is still a thing, too. Or peaches, strawberries...if it has sugar it can substitute for store bought cane sugar in the mash.

or both... The still company job was in a suburb of Boston... Old mr boston, changed their name to mr boston before going out of business in '86

Hope they didn't take the "New Coke" route to failure.

JR

 

[Tubetec]

Our Scottish pal ,David McLuckie has another video where he runs the Webasto on ethanol successfully although at somewhat reduced power output ,

As he says it works out expensive in the UK at around 9 stg pounds per liter , in Brazil they have 95% pure ethanol available at the pumps for around 60 cent a liter ,
The cleaness of the burn is evident from the demonstration with the stove glass , the machine also has no trouble starting up on the Bioethanol ,

The stainless main vessel of the Vevor stil looks like a good place to brew some beer for starters , it comes perfectly equiped with a vapour lock , the connection to the fractionalisation tower can be capped off for the fermentation section of the process .
That particular model has an improved bell shaped lid , its very reminiscent of the old style pot stil,
I might have to grab the 30L size to get the ball rolling ,

Quality whiskey is a few steps up the ladder from what this produces ,
Irish whiskey has to be distilled three times before its proofed and casked or its fake ,
As I said a bottle of quality whiskey here costs 22 euros or there about , a bottle of rubbing alcohol is around half that ,700ml of Diesel is one tenth that price and packs almost twice the punch , its no contest against Big Oil because the price of alcohol is kept artificially high , and theres strict controls in place over its usage , meanwhile what price is the petrochem industry paying per liter for the excess production from the whiskey and beverage industry in Ireland ?

The Vevor,
they'd have you driven to the drink ,
Its a handsome beast though ,

 

[JohnRoberts]

I still have some hard apple cider in my fridge. I used to make it every winter when the fresh apple cider would show up in the store (without preservatives that would kill my yeast). I still have a few bottles left from 2 years ago, so I didn't make a batch last year.

JR

 

[Tubetec]

A buddy of mine used do cider a few years back ,
it made most of the mainstream brands taste like they were just a bunch of synthetic flavours added to fizzy water ,
Many here like their cider very very sweet , Bulmers also known as Magniers is the popular one ,

Theres a great recipe here for bacon/ham cooked in cider ,
usually the meat is steeped over night in water to reduce the salt content ,
next day its boiled up in a couple of liters of cider , thats allowed to reduce with the lid off.
Later a mix of honey and brown sugar is added to the cooking liquid , the meat is then transferred to the oven for the final stage of the cooking where the sauce reduces into a sticky dark glaze ,
Typically here the joint is studded with cloves for a bit of spice ,
Pineapple can add another dimension , if desired ,
you can even show it fire at the end in just the same was a christmas pudding is done with a shot of whiskey set alight and poured over the top ,flamed sticky sweet/sour pig .
Served with hot mustard and washed down with a pint of cider ,hard to beat .

Theres an old saying here that relates to cider fermented in a used whiskey barrel , this was common during the great wars due to shortages ,
"The Johnny Jump up'' they called it ,
After the whiskey cask was emptied ,over the course of the next week or two a substantial amount of spirit drains down out of the timber , its sometimes known as the devils cut ,
This alcohol mixed with the cider , turned it into rocket fuel , hence the name ,
Theres a couple of local folk songs that relate to it , I'll try and dig one up if I can .



Jimmy Crowley live from the Lobby bar ,
and the crowd hold the tune too ,
Magic nights indeed ,

 

[JohnRoberts]

and the angel's share are the spirits that evaporated away... I used to pitch my batches of hard apple cider into the dregs (yeast sediment) of a 6 gallon batch of beer. With that much yeast it would ferment quickly.

JR

PS; Not sweet because all the sugars get converted to ethyl alcohol.

[edit- in the spirit of this thread I just poured one of my well aged hard apple ciders from my fridge. Definitely dry, not sweet, but quite good. There are still three bottles left. /edit]

 

[Ó Draighnáin]

I did a number of feasibility studies into cellulosic ethanol, which uses leftovers from cropping (e.g. corn stover) or could use a dedicated crop (e.g. miscanthus). This use of biomass was going to change the world (it was about 10 or so years ago). I looked into using sorghum stalks, sugar cane bagasse and whatever else was available in sufficient quantities for a small industrial plant (none of these plants ever get that big).

You have to chemically separate (e.g. Kraft process) the lignin from the cellulose (plants are lignocellulosic) and then digest (chemically or enzymatically) the long chain stable glucose polymer (cellulose) into glucose. This glucose can then be converted to ethanol and carbon dioxide (C6H12O6 = 2C2H5OH + 2CO2). The leftover lignin (black liquor), which is full of water, is often burnt inefficiently to provide process heat. There are processes out there that can gasify black liquor but I won't go there.

The ethanol has to be separated from the water (requires process heat). With the energy used in production (diesel and fertiliser used in farming), comminution (feedstock preparation), and other parasitic energy loading over the process, the processes were mostly energy negative. That is, more energy was required in the production of the ethanol than what is contained in ethanol. Don't forget that the energy density of ethanol is significantly lower that gasoline. Methanol is probably a better gasoline fuel substitute and is also a hydrogen carrier molecule with only one carbon atom (far less chance of any soot being generated). Dimethyl ether is a potential diesel substitute. All suffer from energy density problems. Methanol and dimethyl ether can at least be produced energy positively. There are plenty of issues of course (lubricity and energy density to name a couple).

Biodigesters have been used for ever and a day. This is a different thing altogether and uses what is known as an anaerobic consortium of microbes to generate CO2 and CH4 (biogas). Methane (CH4) is not produced in aerobic digestion processes. An anaerobic consortium contains prokaryotes, eukaryotes and archaea. The study of extremophiles is fascinating. You have groups of psychrophiles, mesophiles and thermophiles. Thermophiles are of interest because they work faster (they are comfortable in higher temperature regimes).

I did some work in this area as well (built a lab, some pilot plants, extracted microbes from termite's guts, that sort of thing). The process of anaerobic digestion is very slow. The hydraulic retention time can be very long (see upflow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor (UASB)). This is the sort of reactor you might find at the back end of a brewery. Application also in dairy (whey) as much for ecologically sound management of waste than anything else.

Anaerobic consortia may be trained for a specific biodigestion process but are sensitive to being tripped if feedstock parameters change too much (e.g. they end up producing too much propionic acid and butyric acid instead of the acetic acid preferred by the methanogens and acetogens).

I was involved in researching microbes to digest recalcitrant feedstocks (e.g. lignin). These are feedstocks that the microbes struggle to break down. I was also interested in tri-reforming of the biogas.

There is this whole debate around large centralised processing (claiming higher efficiency) versus smaller distributed plants (even to the household level).

 

[Tubetec]

Excellent contribution O'Draighnain ,

Just goes to show theres energy all around us being transformed by nature into usable substances , but we waste the oppertunity to harness it in favour of the barrel of oil .

I was going to have chat GPT cook me up a cartoon meme ,
'The Irish shoving a lighted stick of dynamite up the Jolly Green Giants ass '
'this will be the last drop of moonshine you steal off us,F-off ya bollocks'

How much is it costing the Irish taxpayer to go along with this E10 fuel mix idea ?
Why are our government allowing the JGG f*%k us up the ass repeatedly ?

 

[Tubetec]

Deep AI turned up this result from the above input ,
The system detected potentially unsafe content. Please try again or adjust the prompt. For paid accounts, you can enable "Allow unfiltered content" in your profile settings.

 

[JohnRoberts]

OPEC+ just announced production cuts in time for the summer driving season.

Enjoy higher gas prices.

JR