Distilled Water

I don't know how much faith I'd put in distilled water unless it also went through carbon filtering.

When my brother "friends" make moonshine it starts with a mash that ferments and creates the alcohol from the sugars. Then the alcohol is distilled from the water. The boiling point of the alcohol is 65 C (149 F.) The temperature is carefully controlled at about 155 - 160 F to avoid getting water into the alcohol. (Water boils at 212 F.) This is a separation process.

If the still was run at the boiling point of water to distill the water, the alcohol would be in it. This is true of a lot of chemicals which can't be removed without filtering.

With no further knowledge which I admit I don't have, I'd feel more comfortable with water that was boiled and then put through an activated charcoal filter. Boiling should boil off anything with a boiling point lower than water and kill germs, and the filter should remove most other nasties.

Think you might need a little help with your chemistry knowledge. Water/alcohol is an azeotrope, or constant boiling mixture and their proportions can't be changed by simple distillation.

Carbon filtering does not remove all of the mineral salts from water, unlike distillation, hence the need for distilled water in some equpment.

Are you sure about that roamer?

See the distillation graph here showing how the boiling point of a water/alcohol mixture varies with its % alcohol. It also shows the % alcohol of the condensed vapour.

You can get up to 96% pure alcohol by distillation, although you may need to distil it a few times to do that.

For example: A water/alcohol mix containing 10% alcohol will boil at 93 degrees (ie the point on the blue line directly above 10 on the Alc by Vol axis). If you head horizontally from the 93 degree point until you hit the red line, then drop down to the alcohol axis, it strikes 55%.

So, for a simple still, a 10% alcohol wash will boil at (initially) 93 degrees and the vapour, once condensed, will contain 55% alcohol by volume. Likewise, redistilling a 40% spirit should result in a brew around 80%.

http://homedistiller.org/theory/theory/strong

Edited April 21, 201511 yr by katana