One of the benefits of living in Alaska is that distilling your own liquor is perfectly legal as long as you don’t have plans to sell it. Josh and I believe that it’s a silly double-standard of many states to allow home-brewers to make beer and wine but forbid them from making liquor. We had a grand time in Alaska with our homemade copper still. From welding the still with the help of metal fabrication and welding services using an automatic girth welding machine to making batches of sugar-shine and corn whiskey, home distilling is an absolute blast. We ordered our copper still kit from Clawhammer Supply after watching all of their videos and deciding that they had a truly beautiful product. I’m posting the first of their how-to videos but viewers should be warned that watching the video has been known to cause the overwhelming desire to order a copper still kit. Well, that’s how it happened in our house. The kit arrived with one of the precut copper sheets damaged. Josh called Clawhammer to order another sheet with every intention of paying for it and Kyle Brown (featured in the video above) sent us a replacement sheet free of charge. By the way, this is not a sponsored post. The kind folks at Clawhammer have no idea that I’m writing this post. Here’s Josh making his copper still start to finish:
Would you look at that lovely copper? Josh ordered the 10 gallon copper still because I insisted that he get the prettiest one. Of course, it really doesn’t matter if a still is pretty but I figured we would be passing it down to our son one day. Who wouldn’t want to inherit a huge hunk of multi-purpose copper?
I will be posting moonshine and liqueur recipes as well as tutorials on making your own essential oils. The utilization of essential oils dates back to ancient times and their culinary, medicinal, and therapeutic benefits are well-documented. With over 700 different plants containing useful essential oils, chances are pretty good that you can harvest from your very own garden in order to make the oils that you need. Home distillation of essential oils is a huge money-saver and it’s a lot of fun. Many people think that stills are only useful for making shine but that’s just the beginning. As always, if you have any questions, please ask in the comment section.
Ashley - Lacy, I am so excited to follow this. I’m reading it as I sit here surrounded by my huge aloe and lavender plants so the possibilities thrill me! The liquor would just be an added bonus! 😉
Simple Livin' gal - Hooray! I’m thrilled to see interest in this. We have loved every second of distilling. 🙂 So happy to share!
Henry Vara - Great stuff Greater Family
Thanks for this site and Info
Derek Cobb - Please be aware, although Alaska state law makes allowances for distilling, it’s against federal law to distill alcohol of any kind. You can get into hot water with the Feds even though you are only producing for yourself.
Discretion is important in these situations.
KathleenEngler - I’m all about home brewing and would love the bill to be past so I could learn to make my own try something new and put this law to rest you shouldn’t have to own a whole company just to see what kind of product you could make on your own. Then maybe start a company making it if you like what your making and have some perfected recipes.