if i make a yeast sugar solution, then let it ferment a few days, would freeze distillation work to extract ethanol? sure it may be contaminated with methanol, but that also evaporates

it evaporates only to an extent. methanol forms an azeotrope with ethanol, so does water, for that matter. you will probably have more water in the solution than anything, and would be left with mostly ice.

it's a better idea to do a proper distillation

What about the regular pharmacy 96º ethanol?

In my country benzalkonium chloride (0,1%) is used to keep people from drinking it (and to avoid taxing it like liquor) and all I know is it has roughly the same boiling point as ethanol.

Are these additives safe enough? I used 99,9% acetone so far, but I was wondering if pharmacy denaturalized alcohol is safe for changa infusions.

certainly, since you evap it off anyway.
for tinctures, you'd obviously want to use a high proof drinking alcohol, or glycerol

Thanks. I didn't know if such additives, even if present in small amounts, would be left behind with evapping.

hmmm, it turns out there wont be methanol, thats only produced when the yeast eat the pectin. and since i already have a solution of brewing yeast, sugar, and water, i might as well attempt freeze distillation, i dont have a still which is part of the reason i want to try it this way. and ethanol is very useful even if theres some water in it. so ill post again with the results in a few days

you know what, it just occurred to me.. benzalkonium chloride is a quaternary ammonium salt.
after you evap, you should rinse and filter the changa with a minimal volume of distilled water.

odd that they would put that in ethanol. it's a common surfactant/disinfectant, found in lysol spray.

I think the reason is simply its extreme bitterness. Otherwise folks would happily mix it with orange juice. And probably the fact it is OK for disinfecting topical use.

In any case, good to know.

And @remediosvaro, good luck with that.

a yeasty slushie is the preferred alcoholic beverage when slaving over a hot extraction, but seriously, is the goal here to obtain grain alcohol?

the goal is to obtain ethanol, just ethanol for extractions

then a freeze method isn't the most effective way, but try it out. you're obviously going to have to filter out the ice, which will melt rapidly at room temp, so you may have to do this a few times.

Then you will definitely want to visit your local pharmacy, or liquor store if you licenced, and pick up some denatured ethanol, or isopropanol for a few bucks.

If you really want to make your own ethanol for use as a solvent, You should invest in a proper distillation apparatus.

Freeze distillation of alcohol works, its difficult, messy and inefficient, but if continue the process pouring off the liquid from the ice, eventually you'll have a higher % concentration ethanol to water, but it will still smell yeasty.

The highest percent of alcohol from fermentation is about 18% ,after that the alcohol kills the yeast.
If you are using just sugar, you should get some yeast nutrient to help fermentation.
1 lb of sugar makes 1/2 lb etoh and 1/2 lb of co2.
I used to make verdicchio wine,put it into a 2 litre pop bottle in the freezerfor a day.
When I took it out,I inverted the bottle over the pitcher, I just slighty opened the cap so the liquid could slowly drip out. you will see when all of the liquid is out.
this is still not an efficient distillation by any means,as all the flavours and colour and sugars came through to make a tasty sort of ice wine.
oh yea,we nicknamed this wine verdrunkio

well on my first attempt, the glass bottle shattered due to expansion of ice, so now ive fermented a second batch, ill figure out the percentage later, and put it in plastic cups to freeze. i left 5 cups (half a liter) in the freezer until the inner layer of the cup was frozen. so i poked a hole in the ice saved the liquid, which should be higher concentration. then i put this back in the freezer, where it is now. after my third freeze, i am going to put dried epsom salts into the liquid which should be about 20% and try to bring the alcohol level up to 60 - 70% soon i will make a still for basic distillation which is much easier


update - from the beginning i noticed that this batch did not smell like the last batch, which exploded. since i didnt re-steralise the bottle, i think the other bacteria made a large amount of lactic acid instead of ethanol. so it ruined the batch. i will try again, but not for a while

The product I have always received from freeze distillations are high in fusel oils.
I'd look into buying a pressure cooker and reflux coil seperately and assembling a distiller yourself if you can't afford one.