Birster

On 10/16/2021 at 11:23 AM, Silk City Distillers said:

Using backset will help reduce external nutrient requirements, but also keep in mind that you can cook your old yeast and use it as a nutrient - which should have no problems for certification.

Not only will it save you a tremendous amount of money, realize you are recycling your nutrient in a way that's far "greener".

The very popular Servomyces is dead yeast.

One last question. When feeding cooked yeast, it there a specific rate we should look for?

Thanks,

3 hours ago, Silk City Distillers said:

Using backset will help reduce external nutrient requirements, but also keep in mind that you can cook your old yeast and use it as a nutrient - which should have no problems for certification.

Not only will it save you a tremendous amount of money, realize you are recycling your nutrient in a way that's far "greener".

The very popular Servomyces is dead yeast.

Thanks Silk, we were also planning on using bakset and experimenting with dunders too. So we should be good to go without DAP.

Cheers!

Hi,

We are looking for DAP alternative since we cannot use this when producing a molasse based organic certified rum. So far we have found this: Fermcontrol BIO (1 Kg) | Scott Labs (scottlabsltd.com) and are giving it a try. Though, we wanted to know if any of you had experience, cues or alternatives in fermenting molasse without DAP.

Thank you,

18 hours ago, Dehner Distillery said:

You don't need any of the stuff. If it is brand new 

1. Spray it with warm water 3-4 min all over

2. spray it down with star san

3. wait 20 min 

4. wash out with hot water 3-4 min

5. use it

6. you could ozone it, or use a UV light. A UV light is a good way to keep you tank from going bad if you have water sitting in there for a long time.

Another piece of info is to keep it out of the sun light. Or use a Black tank. It will last forever.

 

 

Thanks Dehner,

It was a tote that contained GNS 95%, so we can call it brand new I guess. I will follow you advice and keep it simple.

Thanks!

Thanks for your input starcat. We use the 600v because that's what was available on-site. After tweaking everything, I can confirm that everything works as it should. Pumps, mixing motors, heating elements. All is good in the end. Obviously, we take your advice and we are very careful while operating any electrical components in our distillery. 

Thanks

Hi,

I am using an IBC tote to store my reverse osmosis water. I am looking in a way to attach a CIP spray ball on the lid to ease the cleaning process of the tote. My idea was to drill a 3 inch hole into the lid and attach a 3 inch TC to 3 inch male NPT and use one of my spare CIP ball. I can find the 3 inch TC to NPT 3 inch, but I can't find any 3 inch hex nut to lock the 3 inch NPT into place. Maybe I'm thinking it all wrong, so if anyone has a better idea or has a working solution, I'm all ears.

Cheers! 

You are right, in the USA, 600v is not common at all. Though, We are located in Quebec Canada, where 600v is commonly available. All of our elements, pumps and agitator motors are currently wired in star except no neutral, only 3 wires. I obviously don't really understand all of it, but hey, you learn everyday.

here is the motor from our rotary pump for example:

Hi

At our distillery, we are running on line-to-line 600v. All of our pumps, agitator motors and elements have been wired in star. Elements are 10KW and pumps and agitators are between 1hp to 2hp depending on the vessel. Would it have been better to wire them in delta or not? Our electrician didn't seem to know. Everything works fine as it is, but if anyone can give the pros and cons, that'd be appreciated.

Thank you in advance,

Thank you for your inputs guys. For peace of mind we went ahead and purchased our 3 missing VFDs, we will try to cut expense on something else. Which is not an easy thing to find 😉

Hi, 

We have a VFD for our centrifugal pump and another one for the mixer in the still. Do we absolutely need VFD for the mixers on our fermenter and mashtun too? Is it only a crazy thought? 

Thanks, 

On 9/30/2020 at 12:33 PM, captnKB said:

Hi @Birster Id reccomend a more mild chemical for passivation of new equipment. I like to use PBR followed by a hot rinse the followed with a mild acid wash, then rinse. This should remove all oil, grease, dirt and contaminents.

Does you new still have a CIP system?

Thanks for the answer Captain,

Yes it does have a CIP. Pot, gin basket and 4 plates column. It is a still manufactured by Dye. Can you enlighten me on what PBR stands for? I know PBW (from brewing) but PBR is new to me.

Cheers.

Hi, 

Is it OK to use TSP to clean a newly purchased still to remove oil and grease buildup from manufacturing? I know it is OK on stainless, but I wanted to know if it had any adverse effect on copper. I was planning running a full CIP with TSP.  If it is not OK what could I use to clean it? 

Thanks. In advance

6 hours ago, Southernhighlander said:

Birster,

 

That is one of my stills.  It has 3 pumps to pump the column condensate (not shown in the pic).  Without the pumps you would never reach 190 proof.   I build these stills for customers who have lower height restrictions.  Also we use thermostatic valves on these stills to control the coolant flow to the final condenser and dephlegmators. 

 

Yes I took the screenshot from your website. Thank you for clarifying how the system actually work. That is interesting, we might want to go with only a 16 plates column instead. We will see in the future anyway. As for now we ordered only a 4 plates. It was for future expension I was asking. Thank you too @meerkat for the added infos. 

OK perfect, thank you guys for your replies. It comfort our initial thoughts. We will ask our manufacturer to proceed with three distinct lines return to the pot. Each line will have a dip low enough inside the pot to make sure they are always submerged. Our still is only 500L and will have 1 dephlegmator on each of the 3 column. I think it would be overkill with the pump setup on each column, this is good to know though.

edit: re-reading your comment Meerkat, should I make sur they drill a hole of 3mm on each of the return line inside the pot as you suggested in your first reply? Or it is not necessary when you have 3 distinct lines?

Thank you!

Hi,

In a setup similar to this one, where you have 3 columns side by side, should each column has a it's own dedicated return line to the pot? Or they can all share the same return line?

Thanks,

Thank you Silk, much appreciated!

Hi,

I was wondering if it is imperative to filter Gin or this only depends on the type of receipe. To sum it up, can we get away from buying a cartdrige filter system? We're planning on doing vapour infusion only, no maceration.

Thanks,

Hi there,

We are eyeing a place that has water well as source water. We've had the water analysed by a lab and it is turned out to be really good purity. Yesterday we've had the well throughput tested. results were a little disappointing, 180 gallon per hour. 

Not set in stone, but our setup would consist of a 340 Gallons still and 2 equally sized fermenters. We would also have a 800 Gallons water tank chilled by a 10HP chiller in closed loop to chill the still and the fermenters. We won't be mashing at first. Mainly we'll do gin with GNS and rum to start. Is 180GPH is enough considering we will have a closed loop for our cooling need? Is there a way to calculate all the water needed in distillery operation?

Thank you in advance,

Ahhhh, now I see. It makes total sense

So if we were to do gin with only a gin basket in the vapor path, we would be able to fill it the way we want if we don't use the agitator and it is only clean 30-40% GNS in the still. Is my understanding correct?

Thanks again.

Thanks Black Creek. That one I already had it figured out, as you said it makes total sense. I'm asking this question more preciscely to steam jacketed still, if it can help narrowing down my question.

Thank you in advance to shed the light on this

Hi,

I was wondering what is the reasoning/science behind the sayin that you must run still  with at least 50% of volume or more. What would happen if you run a 300 gallons capacity still with only 75 or 100 gallons of liquid in it?

Thank you in advance.

Thanks Blustar,

It confuses me even more as to why 6 and 8 plates still designs exist to start with. What type of alchool would bnefit a still with 6 or 8 plates? If producing whiskey is maxed out at 4 plates like you described.

Sorry if it seems like a dumb question...

Hi,

Can you please let me know what are the crieterias involved when determining the number of plates to have in a column still? I know that if you want to do vodka or neutral you need 20+ plates, but this is not our case. So, let's say between 4, 6 or 8 plates, why would we choose one over the other? What are the pros and cons of the 3 configurations? This would be mainly for whiskey from mixed grain bill (corn, wheat, rye, barley, etc..)

Thank you in advance,

I thought you had more fine tuning control with water than you have with oil. Why did you choose to use oil instead of water? what are the pros?

Thanks,

Hi,

How often should you change the water in the jacket of a bain-marie still? Also, is it best using distilled water or any water would do? The jacket is in stainless if it matters.

Thanks in advance.