apple cider isn't distilled, though; it's fermented
use yeast to convert sugars from apples into alcohol: fermentation
boil that until it becomes a concentrated liquor: distillation
distillation is significantly more dangerous than fermenting
use yeast to convert sugars from apples into alcohol: fermentation
boil that until it becomes a concentrated liquor: distillation
distillation is significantly more dangerous than fermenting
TIL: Apparently the nickname for distilled apple cider is applejack. Never realized the origin of the cereal's name.
i really don't want to die because the downstairs neighbor wants to make his own craft vodka
But also I do appreciate how many numbskulls there are out there.
Do you perhaps mean fermentation? Distillation is exceptionally easy and not particularly difficult to clean up after. It remains perfectly safe provided you have a cheap digital thermometer, understand the importance of good ventilation, and use off the shelf parts. (The latter only because a custom setup built by a particularly incompetent individual could inadvertently result in the creation of a dangerous pressure vessel.)
They’d occasionally go blind from methanol in the shine or slowly give themselves lead poisoning from the solder in the still, but no fires. So, they were at least safety-aware enough not to want to lose all their product and get the authorities on their case by burning down the area around their still.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/5178
Considering the danger of distilling and most people do not have that much land; you likely would need to get approval from govt agencies anyway to be legal.
Without any snark or rudeness, your comment betrays how little you know about distilling.
I've been distilling liquor for probably 5+ years, and it's quite safe if you have any common sense. And the same comment could apply to brewing, canning, cooking, vehicle repair, skateboarding, etc.
it is not significantly more dangerous, and has been done for ages
The way this is solved in our country is that you can legally make your own alcohol, but only at a state-approved distillery, where the personnel knows how to handle this.
you don't need "to know how to get rid of it" -- there are no skills needed: just pour it out.
you literally just pour out the first 0.5% of whatever comes out of the still. water it down heavily and flush it down the toilet or burn it or whatever. I literally just take the first ~25-50ml of liquid and ditch it -- problem solved.
all other nasty compounds have a very noticeable smell and are fairly easy to detect coming out of the still.
the "public health threat" is literally a prohibition scare-the-rubes meme.
So you have to 1) remember that and 2) calculate how much will come out. You will be surprised to hear not everybody does.
> the "public health threat" is literally a prohibition scare-the-rubes meme.
I'm not from the US, we never had prohibition. We however had people poisoned (blind or dead) by methanol - I'm originally from the countryside and making and drinking fruit spirits is very common here.
Also more people dead from methanol sold as alcohol on industrial scale - like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Czech_Republic_methanol_p... - of course this happened because the alcohol taxes are high, but OTOH if they weren't high, people would drink even more, and that reverberates through the health system and society as a whole.
So they are concerned about unlicensed explosions?