New Life for the Old Still: DIY Ethanol

TULLAHOMA, Tenn. (AP) – The still _ standard equipment of any moonshiner _ has a shot at becoming the must-have accessory of penny-pinching motorists.

An upstart Tennessee business is marketing stills that can be set up as private distilleries making ethanol _ 190 proof grain alcohol _ out of fermented starchy crops such as corn, apples or sugar cane. The company claims the still’s output can reduce fuel costs by nearly a third from the pump price of gasoline.

Buyers of stills need a federal permit to make ethanol on private property. In what amounts to an honor system, they are to add a poison to their homemade alcohol so it isn’t white lightning.

WTOP