Jesse Alexander

So it seems to me that brandy and rum stillage is not of much value for animal feed. Fertilizer is possibly the better option. Does anyone know the amount of N, P, or K that might be present?

The nutritional value of brandy and/or rum stillage as livestock feed or fertilizer is what I need to determine. Unlike grain based stillage, it may not be worth trying to recycle.

I have poured rum stillage that we aren't using as backset on round bales set on their end before feeding them. However, a lot of the stillage is not absorbed and runs right through the bale onto the ground. I don't know if I am gaining enough nutrients to make it worth the effort. I am currently dumping stillage onto our composting manure pile which will be spread on the pasture later. I have considered spreading it directly on pastures using a tank with a pipe boom with holes drilled in it every few inches to distribute the stillage evenly on the ground. I am not finding any information about the analysis of brandy stillage. There would have to be enough useful nutrients in the stillage to off set the need to apply lime to balance the PH.

I have a small farm craft distillery on our family sheep operation. I am distilling wine into brandy and also distilling rum. I am interested in using the stillage as fertilizer for pasture or as animal feed. Does anyone have experience doing this? The only information I can find is for feeding spent grains from whisky production.

I have spent rum stillage and a few hundred sheep. I am investigating feeding it and wonder if anyone here has had any experience doing that. I seem to remember an innovative contributor here named Pete from Australia or New Zealand that has fed stillage to sheep. I would either let them drink it or else saturate round hay bales prior to feeding them. Any thoughts?

Dhdunbar thank you for the information. Makes me feel better knowing that! Thanks for your help! Jesse Alexander

When applying for DSP how do I let the TTB know that I do not need a bond? Is there a Bond Exemption form that can be submitted instead of the DSP Bond F 5110.56? Thanks for the input Jesse Alexander

Paul Southernhighlander, What kind and how many plates are you using in your 4" continuous still? How many gal per min could it run? Was it a 20gal beer or thicker that you were having clogging issues with? Old Glory Distillery was telling me they were having trouble losing alcohol out the bottom of their continuous column. I believe they also couldn't get a reasonable proof with that still either. Have you seen those issues with your continuous still?

Does anyone have any experience using an air compressor to stir mash?

" Harder question is, how long will it take for the tank to return to ambient? " That's why I was wondering if a geothermal ground loop or a chiller might be necessary.

Trying to figure out the cost / benefit analysis to quicker aging in a heated facility vs. less expensive storage in an unheated rick house.

Thanks for all the good ideas. I'm starting to get my head wrapped around all of this. Is it reasonable to assume that a 1000 gallons of water from a poly reservoir at an ambient temperature of 65F would be adequate to cool 200 gallons of mash? I figure that the first 200-300 gallons of cooling water coming from the cooker would be the hottest and could be captured in a separate smaller insulated reservoir to be used for the next batch of mash and cleaning. The remainder of the cooling water could go through a heat exchanger and be returned to the 1000 gallon reservoir. That 200-300 gallons from the 1000 gallon reservoir would be replaced from the well using a float valve as a shutoff and cracking the intake valve just enough so as not to put too much demand on the well at one time. I figure on using the same concept with hot water out of the condenser although there may not be enough volume to mess with it. Am I on the right track for an efficient system without a large initial investment? Should I consider running water from the 1000 gallon tank through a geothermal cooling system before going to cool the mash to reduce the temp from ambient air temp to ground temperature?

Does anyone have experience aging whiskey in an unheated facility in the north. I am in the very early planning stages of a small operation. I understand that temperature swing is a good thing but temperatures below 50 are not. What are thoughts comparing possibly slower aging in an unheated pole building versus the expense of a heated aging facility in the north?

Yeah, I worry about lacto bacillus or other bacteria taking over in the mash. I guess getting some kind of serious cooling system is necessary.

Thanks for the help. Sounds like the heat exchanger in a loop going back to the reservoir would be a good way to go for cooling the condenser. I could add a good fan and duct work to exhaust the heated air into the building in the winter or divert it outside in the summer. I would also try to run hot water from the condenser to the cooker and an insulated tank for washing before needing to start cooling it. Cooling the mash seems more difficult. I could also recover the hot water from cooling the mash and put it into the insulated tank to use for my next batch in the cooker and washing. Not throwing away heat is a good idea. I wonder what kind of temperatures a pump can tolerate moving hot mash to a fermenter where it could cool on its own over a longer period of time? I'm thinking about a 200 gallon cookers here so it's not that big. Maybe the hot mash would need to be put into smaller tanks to allow it to cool better and then move it to a fermenter tank.

I appreciate every ones input. It has me thinking more about how to use the heat from the condenser and mash cooling in other phases of the operation rather than losing it into the ground. Keep the good ideas coming!

Thanks for all the knowledgeable advice. I also envision a 1000 gallon poly water tank with a float valve to even out demand on our well. If the water in the cooling loop gets too hot, I could put some of that room temperature water from the reservoir tank into the condenser and replace it with water circulating through the cooling loop to get me through the run. Like you mentioned, I could lose some hot water into the cooker. Just got to figure out how to plumb it. I'm thinking about maybe 600 ft of slinky pipe in the ground. In 3' slinky loops, that should fit into a 100' trench. I could always add more if I had to. Doesn't seem like the condenser on a 2-300 gallon still would require all that much cold water. Anybody have any more thoughts?

I was thinking of digging a 3' wide trench below the frost line and installing a "slinky" closed loop of 3/4" plastic pipe. I have seen this on the internet for geothermal heating and cooling used in conjunction with a heat pump. I wondered how many feet of pipe I need in the ground. I am concerned about the ground possibly heating up. I am located in northern NY State. I would be running a 200-300 gallon hybrid pot with a side mounted column. I would like to avoid the initial expense and daily cost of a chiller if possible. I also am thinking about using the hot water from the condenser on the next batch of mash. It would be great if I could also use this system to cool my mash in the cooker. The distillery, still in the very early planning stages, would be located on our farm so we do have a lot of space for the cooling loop. I also thought about running the hot water from the condenser through a baseboard radiator the length of the building before entering the underground loop to help with heating the building in the winter. Any thoughts?

Does anyone have any experience with using geothermal cooling to cool a still condenser? Space in not an issue for me because I am located on a farm. Thanks for your input.