Grandpa built a distillery in the basement of his farmhouse during the first energy crises in the 1970s. After more than five years of tinkering he entered his design into the 1980 Calif. Dept of Agriculture‘s Alcohol Fuel Plant Design Competition. He didn’t win, but his work was mentioned in all the publications of the day.

Even though it was illegal in Canada, Grandpa kept his still in good working order for twenty years. That’s how he powered his car all through the nineteen eighties and nineties. After adjusting the carburetor to allow more oxygen into its V8 engine and swapping out the rubber hoses, Grandpa burned a clean fuel that gave almost no emissions. And his basement distillery reduced his fuel bill to little more than time and labour.

Once a month the old man would 'borrow' a pail full of dried corn from his neighbor’s feed barn. There were no rollers or mashers in Grandpa’s ethanol plant, he did the smashing hims... Read more