"john robinson" > wrote in message
...
> Does anyone have any information about making a simple *distilling*
> apparatus that they can share? My friend is thinking of trying to distil
> some ginger beer.
>

A problem with distilling is that if 'successfully' done, one ends up with
alcohol and no flavour, so you would not get ginger spirit from your still.
The flavour in gin is added afterwards, and that in whisky comes from the
barrels it is aged in. That said, there was a Food Programme, on Aqua
Vitaes, which described the vast quantities of fruit required to get real
fruit flavoured spirits, and I don't quite see how that works.

On the other hand, if you ever make sloe gin - ie with gin that the tax has
already been paid on - you may want to recover some of the spirit that
remains in the fruit after you have decanted the bulk of the liquid. I was
surprised at how much I had been throwing out with the fruit. Got a fair
bit back by using 2 big 'champagne' bottles, a cork and a length of flexible
plastic tube. Tubed and sealed the first bottle with fruit in, and then
heated it in a saucepan of boiling water. The tube trails down into a
second bottle, on the floor, cooled with ice. You have to get a good seal,
and take care not to melt the tube if you are on gas.

S