The Best Moonshine Stills
With the burgeoning popularity of home-brewing, making your own hooch is easier than ever before. Having a good home kit is essential to making the best drink, but stills are seemingly complicated enough that they can be an intimidating buy. Thankfully, these great, fairly compact moonshine stills make your choice way easier. With a modern, updated design and a sleek look, any of the stills on our list are a great choice. We wanted to recommend only the best, so we chose stills that were fairly priced for their quality, straightforward to assemble, constructed out of quality materials, and complete. In other words, we picked options that could start brewing within an afternoon. Our favorite option was a comprehensive and easy-to-use still from Vevor. But if you want something a little simpler and more affordable, we recommend Seeutek's beginner-friendly distiller. For more of our in-depth reviews, read on.
Vevor Moonshine Still
Homegrown distilling
Regardless of your level of sophistication in the art of distilling, we cannot recommend this Vevor Moonshine Still enough. It includes a “thumper”, which means you’ll be getting a more highly purified product without having to run through the process twice. The manufacturing material is food-grade and includes stainless steel, silicone, and copper for durability. Better yet, Vevor’s still has an open-type cooling method that promotes a relatively low temperature of your product. Stills can be a complicated buy, so this straightforward and well-rounded option from Vevor is an absolute treasure.
Pros:
- We appreciate the precision and accuracy of the thermometer, which displays temperatures in both Celsius and Fahrenheit right on the lid.
- The containers boast double-base, thick, non-stick pans at their bottoms for easy cleanup and reliable brewing.
- The included thumper piece works excellently to ensure a purer final product.
Cons:
- The assembly can be a bit of a headscratcher for those that aren’t accustomed to this type of thing, but it’s easy to use once it’s all pieced together.
WMN Trulystep Home Distiller
The no-strings still
If the bottom line of your still search is “no-hassle,” WMN Trulystep has you covered. Their easy-to-use and affordable home distiller is an efficient tool for home-brewing that meets quality standards. Stainless steel and red copper are solid food-grade materials, and the built-in thermometer ensures that you’ll be able to watch your brew’s temperature. If you’re a beginner, you’ll be happy with this still. The low-maintenance setup and user experience allow you to get into your distilling faster and learn about the process.
Pros:
- We’re impressed by the sturdy build of this one. It has a specially-thickened fermenter for safety and reliable brewing.
- This option includes a steam plate and gauze bag to help prevent burnout.
- Considering the quality of its overall construction, this distiller is a bargain.
Cons:
- There’s no thumper piece included, so you’ll have to get your own if you want faster results.
Seeutek Moonshine Still
The starter still
Distilling can be intimidating from a distance. Most of us didn’t exactly pick it up in school. For a beginner, finding a still that’s straightforward in the process but still high-quality is essential. Thankfully, Seeutek narrows that search tremendously with their entry in the home stilling catalog. This still is sleek, compact, and made from those trusty food-grade materials. It has a thick fermenter base and handles temperature well. It also includes a built-in thermometer. If you want to take that first step into stilling, start here.
Pros:
- Not only is the design straightforward, but the price is also accessible to those just getting into the world of home-brewing.
- The simplicity of the design helps users complete the steps with confidence.
- If you’re into experimenting, you can even use the large chamber to practice fermenting different recipes.
Cons:
- It’s admittedly not as comprehensive as some stills on the market.
Bacoeng Moonshine Still
All the bells and whistles
Bacoeng has offered us the full package with this deluxe moonshine still. It comes complete not only with the obligatory boiler barrel and condenser but with the coveted thumper piece as well. The thumper is your key to efficient, high-purity brewing on your first pass. This still also boasts a tight seal courtesy of four quick clips for the boiler barrel and thumper keg. This and the silicone gasket will make sure that steam will not overflow. For a still that can do it all, Bacoeng brewed a pretty sweet batch with this one.
Pros:
- We love the look of the copper-coil design, which is great for heat and cooling performance.
- The silicone gaskets provide an excellent seal. It also comes with quick clips to ensure that there are no leaks.
- This premium pick is capable of high-purity brewing thanks to the included thumper piece.
Cons:
- The many pieces make it less than ideal for beginners.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the purpose of a thumper?
The thumper keg was originally used in hillbilly stills to increase the efficiency of the brew and get that alcohol content closer to one-hundred percent. The thumper collects the initial output of your brew, which is traditionally around 60 percent, and is filtered through with hot vapor into the final product to give you a brew that is higher potency. Without a thumper, traditional stills need to be run through multiple times to reach this level.
How does a moonshine still work?
Stills boil liquid and collect the gas vapor from the heating process. They then cool and condense these vapors back into a liquid with a higher potency than the original liquid. This mostly applies to increasing the alcoholic content of a drink.
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