[ale] linux / moonshine project query

[James P. Kinney III]

On Sun, 2006-12-31 at 08:41 -0500, Philip James Smith wrote:
> Hi Ale-ers
> 
> I am planning to make some moonshine. This is no joke. In the state of 
> Georgia, it is legal to make a small amount at home.

That will land you in jail. There is no provision for making _ANY_
distilled spirits in _ANY_ quantity. Even if you are investigating a
potential start-up commercial venture and just want to test a few recipe
ideas you are required to have a federal license from BATF and more from
Georgia. (I investigated doing just this about 6 months ago. The
application paperwork stack from BATF is about 1/2" thick. Once I read
through that, I decided against pursuing it further with Georgia.).

At the current time, it is also illegal to distill any quantity of
alcohol for making fuel with out a license and inspection that the
distillation process creates denatured spirits.

This is a line you do NOT want to cross.

BATF has a long history of violence against illegal distilleries.
> 
> In order to make moonshine, I need to distill a mash (a fermented 
> corn/water/yeast mix), and to raise it to certain temperatures and to 
> maintain the mash at those to separate the "unsafe" alcohols from the 
> "safe" alcohols.
> 
> It is pretty hard to maintain temp "by hand." How could I use linux to 
> monitor and maintain temperature?

The engineering of temperature control is well within the realm of a
Linux application. You will need a thorough understanding of
thermodynamics, specific heat capacities of all the proposed ingredients
and a sizable collection of temperature monitoring devices.

In my beer brewing (which _IS_ legal in small quantities - 200 gallons
per year per adult in the household) I have been investigating using
steam to maintain temperature. This will allow the transfer of heat to
the mash tun without burning the bottom or adding much water (direct
steam injection method). An alternate method I am also looking at in
indirect steam injection. This method uses steam as the heat source but
the steam  (and resulting condensate) are mechanically isolated from the
mash tun contents. This allows for a constant water volume but requires
either a pump to remove the condensate or a carefully crafted design to
collect the liquid for post-mash removal.

The calculations use only first order differential equations and a
simple first order Taylor series approximation is plenty sufficient
(HEY! I'm making beer here.  It's not rocket science :) for a looping
calculation.

But then, stirring a pot by hand and checking the temp every 2 minutes
with a hand-held thermometer is much easier than building the rig ...
> 
> All the best,
> Phil Smith
> Duluth, GA
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-- 
James P. Kinney III          
CEO & Director of Engineering 
Local Net Solutions,LLC        
770-493-8244                    
http://www.localnetsolutions.com

GPG ID: 829C6CA7 James P. Kinney III (M.S. Physics)
<jkinney at localnetsolutions.com>
Fingerprint = 3C9E 6366 54FC A3FE BA4D 0659 6190 ADC3 829C 6CA7
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