When I helped rebuild the distillery at E & J Gallo winery in 1979 they had us using lead/tin solder to install the copper evaporator cups. Every backwoods moonshiner knows better than to do that! That still was steam powered, 6 feet across, five stories tall, and capable of producing 2K gallons per hour of 99.5% pure alcohol (190 proof) from the dregs and leftovers of the winemaking process that still contained some alcohol. It was used to fortify the apple and pear juice based generic white wine used in products like Boone's Farm wine, and Bartles and James wine coolers. That stuff would only ferment to around 8% alcohol content due to a low sugar concentration. The raw alcohol brought it up to 12%, then it was colored and flavored artificially. At least it was marginally better than Mad Dog 20/20!
Jerry
