Need to buy some Everclear

Anything over 190 proof is a waste of time. As soon as you expose pure ethanol (anything above 190) to moist air, it absorbs water until it is back to 190 proof. This happens extremely quickly.

Regulations can be very specific as far as not allowing denatured alcohol to be used. It is stupid in this case but regs are regs.

As such, I would just buy the cheapest 190 I could find in Virginia liquor stores. I'm guessing the stuff runs about $15/1L.

I'm pretty sure bringing more than a couple of bottles of booze across state lines is a rather serious crime.

Nixon said:

I'm pretty sure bringing more than a couple of bottles of booze across state lines is a rather serious crime.

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I was a bit bored today, so I spun up the Google machine and found this on a Maryland state website:

http://taxes.marylandtaxes.com/Busi...Consumer_FAQs_about_Alcoholic_Beverages.shtml

How much alcohol can I bring back with me when I return home from vacation?

Up to one gallon (4 quarts) per trip is legal. One quart per trip is tax exempt. The remaining three quarts is taxed in Maryland. Only two quarts are tax exempt per calendar month.

See Tax-General Article, Section 5-104 and Administrative Release AB-1.

CruncherBlock said:

Sidebar questions: How much safer is it to drink 94.5%? Is 95% Everclear the same as 'moonshine' and if not, what is the difference?

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Moonshine is all about legality. If it's illegal, it's moonshine regardless of the proof. If it's legal, it's not, regardless of what the label says. What's more, most backwoods shiners don't separate out the heads and tails which are full of things like keytones, aldehydes, and fusel oils. That's what gives the "authentic" stuff such an off-putting odor and taste. Traditional shiners also make straight runs using a thump-keg. This means there's no mixing of the distillate into one large batch and then re-distilling, blending, and portioning the refined, blended spirit out. They simply fill each jar/jug until it's full and put another one down under the condenser worm to fill until it stops having any detectable alcohol left. The first jar/jug coming off the still is rocket fuel with some of the same ingredients as paint thinner, the last jug is watered down vodka with lots of off-flavors from the fusel oils. You pay accordingly.

More respectable 'shiners that cherish the craft make multiple runs, avoid thump kegs, and make "cuts" to separate out the foreshots (pure poison) heads, and tails keeping the "hearts" for consumption (the pure alcohol distillate). They then combine the heads and tails until they get enough to run through the still and then will distill the trapped alcohol in that as well. The heads of that run are used for cleaning stuff around the still site, the tails are just thrown out. They then take the "hearts" and will blend them from either one run, or various runs, into one batch which they then cut accordingly (or not at all depending on the customer's needs) and bottle/jar that.

You're lucky to pull greater than 160 proof from a standard still btw. You have to use vacuum distillation (industrial equipment is required) to increase it from there.

Total Discount Liquors in Sykesville has 189 proof Everclear on the shelf.

tallen702 said:

More respectable 'shiners that cherish the craft make multiple runs, avoid thump kegs,.....

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I am not a distiller. I do not plan to become a distiller so long as the process is illegal under federal or state law. However, I have been interested in the process in a scholarly manner, and am curious.

Here's what I know:
The thump keg sits between the still and the worm. It collects steam off the still, and runs the vapor through a vessel containing (water? distillate from a previous run?) and then out to the "worm" or condenser, which is a copper coil immersed in a cold water source to condense the steam back into liquid.

I have always believed that the thump keg, or thumper, or doubler acts as a second distillation, effective doubling the (proof? output volume?).

This is the first time I have heard anybody state that the thumper is a bad thing. Care to provide additional detail?