Illicit hooch distilling in Britain.

[Canrider]

Hooch is nott only a brand name for a children's alcoholic lemonade drink, Bonj. It's slang for any illicitly distilled spirit intended for drinking.

..from the Hutsnuwu (xucu:wu) Tlingit of Alaska, who apparently got their hands on a big quantity of molasses back in the late C19 and set up a distillery.. /trivia geek

Apparently the first law passed by the Ukrainian government post-independence legalised home distilling. The maker of our 'batch' decided to try to simulate whiskey by adding some singed oak chips.

For 3-day old Scotch, it wasn't bad..

 

[Twenty Inch]

My dad used to distill his failed home-brew batches in a home-made still on top of the stove. Until the day I cadged a lift home from the local police sergeant....

If anyone is tempted, the critical skill is saving the good stuff. The first portion of distillate is largely poisonous, the second portion drinkable, the third water. You can tell the difference by the way the light reflects off the liquid.

 

[Maz]

It kind of begs the question... WHY?

It's like when my wife went through a phase of making her own bread, ostensibly to save money. It would take her all day to make it, require the oven being left on all day, thousands of bags of flour and yeast everywhere you looked in the kitchen and the end result was often of questionable quality, although just as often it was delicious it is only right to add. Then we had to buy a bread machine so that we could wake up to fresh bread, more flour, more yeast. All this time and effort, all the gas/electricity it required, all the ingredients, all the machinery, to save the price of a loaf of bread at a quid for a large loaf? Sheer lunacy, that bread must have cost us about five quid a loaf all in all.

Try the bags of bread mix - you just add water. So simple even I can make half decent bread.

 

[Twenty Inch]

Try the bags of bread mix - you just add water. So simple even I can make half decent bread.

Yeah, but what does your home-brew taste like?

I remember making some sourdough bread and being struck by the thought that at one stage, the addition of a little more water and sugar would turn it from bread into beer.

 

[bonj2]

Hooch is nott only a brand name for a children's alcoholic lemonade drink, Bonj. It's slang for any illicitly distilled spirit intended for drinking.
Regarding its continued production, I hope it is being made and the best of luck to those who make it. I'd set up a still myself if I thought I had the faintest chance of making anything half as good as the Laphroaig I'm drinking as I type.

well it isn't illegal to distill your own spirits if you're not trying to flog it as somebody else's brand name and thus infringe copyright! If I want to distill some spirits, I will, ta - and there's not much Gord can do about it. AS it happens, I (a) don't want to, and ( don't have the faintest idea how, but I would if I wanted to.

 

[User169]

well it isn't illegal to distill your own spirits if you're not trying to flog it as somebody else's brand name and thus infringe copyright! If I want to distill some spirits, I will, ta - and there's not much Gord can do about it. AS it happens, I (a) don't want to, and ( don't have the faintest idea how, but I would if I wanted to.

It is illegal to home-distill you own spirits in the UK, irrespective of whether or not it's for private consumption. Distilling for private use is, however, legal in New Zealand if that helps.

(By the way, your comments in relation to copyright infringement are also nonsense)

 

[Rhythm Thief]

It is illegal (in this country) to distill anything. Even sticking a bottle of wine in the freezer is illegal.
I don't like it either, but there it is. At least home brewing is legal nowadays, which it wasn't until 1963.

 

[bonj2]

It is illegal to home-distill you own spirits in the UK, irrespective of whether or not it's for private consumption. Distilling for private use is, however, legal in New Zealand if that helps.

(By the way, your comments in relation to copyright infringement are also nonsense)

It is illegal in this country, to distill anything. Even sticking a bottle of wine in the freezer is illegal.
I don't like it either, but there it is. At least home brewing is legal nowadays, which it wasn't until 1963.

naah, I've never heard o' that.
What about distillation experiments in chemistry at school?
What if you 'slightly heat' some vodka, does that count as distillation?

 

[gambatte]

I remember making some sourdough bread and being struck by the thought that at one stage, the addition of a little more water and sugar would turn it from bread into beer.

Heard more than one Bavarian say "Beer is liquid bread"

 

[Rhythm Thief]

naah, I've never heard o' that.

That doesn't mean it's not true. Just for a change, why not believe something that someone who knows more than you about it tells you?

What about distillation experiments in chemistry at school?

No idea. I never did any, as far as I remember. And there could easily be exceptions to laws for educational purposes.

What if you 'slightly heat' some vodka, does that count as distillation?

No, of course not. a) Vodka is already distilled, and you don't distill stuff by simply warming it up a little bit.

 

[bonj2]

That doesn't mean it's not true. Just for a change, why not believe something that someone who knows more than you about it tells you?

Because I'm not sure you do.

No idea. I never did any, as far as I remember. And there could easily be exceptions to laws for educational purposes.

No, of course not. a) Vodka is already distilled, and you don't distill stuff by simply warming it up a little bit.

So what's the definition of distillation, then? You should know that going down this road isn't likely to lead to you winning the argument.