- Wow. Small world. I just net a married couple at the wine bar who knew my dating history, who my friends are and what i do for a living. #
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While I was waiting for the embassy to open, I visited the botanical gardens of Quito. They were nice, except for the orchid house which was amazing!
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I got dressed to go to a party and I looked at myself in the mirror and I thought to myself: “this outfit would go really well with a cowboy hat.” Well here is the picture of just that (trust me this was the best picture of the three we got before my camera died):

After fermenting for a week, Eli and I went back to the log cabin in the woods where his friend lives. Eli didn’t want to blow up his living space so he got a friend to let him store it at his place. I think the real reason was that if people where Eli lives saw him making moonshine, they would all want some. At his buddy’s place, we were very isolated.

A mash ready for distilling
I will let the pictures do the talking. We took a stainless steel pot, drilled some holes in it, put some copper tubing through it, a few c-clamps, some epoxy putty… and voila! Make shift still.

Eli and his makeshift still

Another shot of the contraption Eli concocted
So how did it go. Let’s just say Eli got frustrated enough that he is buying a big fancy expensive still so that he never has to go through what we went through again. His idea for a makeshift still failed miserably. Hot mash was sputtering out of the holes and out from underneath the lid. When ever you tried to tighten one c-clamp, it would deform the lid such that a new opening would appear. He tried covering it in duct tape which failed as well. It was a complete disaster. We even went and got the makeshift equipment he had used a month ago when he made moon shine. That failed to do anything as well.
Hopefully by the time I get back from my two week trip to Ecuador, Eli will have a proper still and we will be able to make some real moon shine.
On a side note, I was so excited about making the mash the previous weekend, I told a bunch of people about it and now Eli has a long list of people who are expecting jars of moonshine. He was a little annoyed, but when I told him it was because I couldn’t contain my excitement he forgave me.