Tony D Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 Subscriber, Mother Earth News Alternative Fuels Newsletter. Attendee Alcohol Fuels Seminar, 1979... I made and ran my VW on pure Alcohol for better part of a year in 1980. It is a lot like you mention Gollum---kind of like making batches of Biodiesel. Works great for around town, and when you can get Sugar Beets by the ton, cheaply! Wood Chipper..... Ahhh yes, memories. Record Keeping, somewhere I actually have my old Distiller's License from BATF... Thank you Jimmy Carter! At that time, your 'profit motive' was to take your home-brew and mix it at least 10% by volume to get back your Federal Tax Money for every gallon you turned into "Gasahol" --- I wonder if that is still in action? Hmmmmmmm... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZIPPY Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 My currant project is a nearly 14:1 compression E85 L28 with webers. Depending on how hard it is to get the engine started I was thinking of building an ether injection system as is used on some diesels. The diesel system consists of a pressurized ether canister and a push button operated solenoid, that delivers a small shot of ether to the manifold as a starting aid. I am deleting the enriching circuit on the webers and will be running a fairly large camshaft so I imagine I will have some difficulty getting the thing started in the morning. I cant say I've ever produced ethanol for motor fuel, but I will admit to being able to cook up a couple gallons of a much tastier variety. It is possible that there are two gallons of 160 proof brandy on my counter top waiting to get cut down and aged right now. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gollum Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 Subscriber, Mother Earth News Alternative Fuels Newsletter. Attendee Alcohol Fuels Seminar, 1979... I made and ran my VW on pure Alcohol for better part of a year in 1980. It is a lot like you mention Gollum---kind of like making batches of Biodiesel. Works great for around town, and when you can get Sugar Beets by the ton, cheaply! Wood Chipper..... Ahhh yes, memories. Record Keeping, somewhere I actually have my old Distiller's License from BATF... Thank you Jimmy Carter! At that time, your 'profit motive' was to take your home-brew and mix it at least 10% by volume to get back your Federal Tax Money for every gallon you turned into "Gasahol" --- I wonder if that is still in action? Hmmmmmmm... Not sure if those same tax benefits are still around, but there's still plenty of incentive for me, personally. And don't spread the word on this, I mean it. But my plan, if I go homebrew, would be to approach the bottom barrel grocers who buy the "late" fruit from the big stores and then sell them at a discount. You know who these people are, grocery outlet, dollar stores, etc. They normally just throw molding and/or rotten fruit out. Well, why not make nightly trips around town unloading their bad fruit FOR them? There's still plenty of sugar to be had in these "waste goods" and will otherwise just see a landfill. Sugar beets are cheap, but free and down the street is even better! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gollum Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 My currant project is a nearly 14:1 compression E85 L28 with webers. Depending on how hard it is to get the engine started I was thinking of building an ether injection system as is used on some diesels. The diesel system consists of a pressurized ether canister and a push button operated solenoid, that delivers a small shot of ether to the manifold as a starting aid. I am deleting the enriching circuit on the webers and will be running a fairly large camshaft so I imagine I will have some difficulty getting the thing started in the morning. I cant say I've ever produced ethanol for motor fuel, but I will admit to being able to cook up a couple gallons of a much tastier variety. It is possible that there are two gallons of 160 proof brandy on my counter top waiting to get cut down and aged right now. Please share details when you have it up and running! Sounds like a fun build. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony D Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 Gollum, make SURE you get your BATF(E) Permit before setting up that distillery. It's a paperwork nightmare for recordkeeping (gawd forbid you make DRINK what you produce and that means you owe TAXES on it...) but without it, you're simply another moonshiner and the revenuers will come to smash your still.... When I was doing it, many old-timers were happy to see someone in the family resume production...but were upset when all I did was feed my Bus with it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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