"Jacking" vs "Distilling"

[xiphias]

It is illegal in the United States to operate a private still for the manufacture of distilled spirits. In order to operate a still, you need to have a permit, a bond, a separate building that is not a house in order to do it in, to pay excise tax (separate from any taxes on SELLING the stuff) and all sorts of other things.

The Department of the Treasury is responsible for the enforcement of this, which is why "revinooers" are the natural enemy of "moonshiners". The collection of taxes on the stuff is AMONG their duties. But the reasons it is illegal are not limited to simple taxation reasons. They also have to do with general safety.

See, when you are distilling, you produce ethyl alcohol, which is the stuff you drink. But you ALSO produce methyl alcohol, aka "wood alcohol," which is a poison which can cause eye damage. And you produce propanol, which can cause brain damage. It takes some know-how to know how to extract the ethyl alcohol without the other two.

(Actually, that's where the word "spirit" comes from. Methyl distills at a lower temperature. It's the "head" of the distillation, and comes off first. Propanol distills at a higher temperature, is the "tail" of the distillation, and comes off last. The "spirit," the ethyl, comes in the middle.)

So, given that improper manufacture of this stuff can cause health problems or even death, the government has a reason to want to restrict its manufacture to people who actually know how to do it.

And there's another reason, as well, a reason which police nowadays have to deal with in crystal meth manufacture, as well. The production of alcohol, like the production of crystal meth, involves the creation of large amounts of highly volatile gasses. By cracking down on the manufacture of these things, through things like tracking who buys Sudafed, the police have largely stopped the small-scale manufacture of crystal meth, in apartments in cities. The same amount of crystal meth is being made, but it's being made offshore, or, at least, in more deserted areas.

This is a good thing. The crystal meth can still kill people, but at least the meth lab exploding won't kill as many innocent bystanders, and won't leave as many people homeless.

The Treasury department does the same thing. If you're going to operate an illegal still, it's going to have to be somewhere farther away from people. And that means, if -- and when -- it blows up, it's not going to kill folks, or burn down houses.

Now, I do have a freedom-loving rebellious streak in me that wants to know why I CAN'T do these things if I want to. But, I have to admit, the answer, "Because you'll start fires that will harm not only you, but also other people," is a pretty good answer.

That's why distilling is illegal.

But there's another way to concentrate alcohol, one which ISN'T illegal, DOESN'T form compounds that cause brain damage and blindness, and WON'T blow up. It's called "jacking", and it almost certainly predates the invention of distilling.

Alcohol, of course, vaporizes at a lower temperature than water, which is the fact upon which distilling depends -- you can raise a mixture to a temperature that alcohol boils off, and collects somewhere else, but not so high that the water also boils.

But it also FREEZES at a lower temperature than water.

Which means that you can bring the temperature of a mixture containing water and alcohol to a LOWER temperature, such that the water freezes, but the alcohol doesn't. And then you can pull out chunks of water ice, concentrating the alcohol in the remaining mixture.

This is most likely how the earliest brandies were made -- wait for winter, and let the weather concentrate your booze for you. And this process is generally called "jacking".

"Applejack" was originally a cider which went through this process, but modern liquors which go by that name are distilled apple brandies.

I want to make some original-style applejack, and see how it differs.

Comments

Jacking has more impurities than distilling

[william-morbid.livejournal.com]

But there's another way to concentrate alcohol, one which ISN'T illegal, DOESN'T form compounds that cause brain damage and blindness, and WON'T blow up."

This is actually the opposite of what happens in distilling vs. Jacking. The Methanol and Fusel alcohols that cause problems are a result of the fermentation, not the distilling. In distilling you can discard the "heads" and "tails" that contain these compounds in higher quantities, keeping the middle section. In Jacking you only remove water, leaving behind pretty much all the ethanol, methanol, and fusel oils which you then drink. (this is what causes the really bad headaches one reader reports).

At any rate the risk from methanol is highly overstated. The legend of "going blind" came from illegal distillers ADDING methanol to the batch to increase their profit margin, or using lead-soldered car radiators as condensing coils, etc. As long as you're using non-toxic, clean equipment you really can't make anything more dangerous than the original substance per unit of alcohol.

That being said some people try to push the fermentation REALLY hard to get the most alcohol out of their mash, which supposedly increases the amount of methanol generated. But this is a problem with the fermentation, not distilling.

Re: Jacking has more impurities than distilling

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Yep; I've actually learned quite a bit about distillation and so forth in the . . what . . .month? since I posted this. At some point, I'm going to write a new post with what I've learned. It should be soon, since I've got notes from one of the panels at TALES OF THE COCKTAIL about distilling, and I really ougt to write them up, and correct all the inaccuracies in this post.