Silk City Distillers

What’s your nutrient dosage?

Would be interesting to see if you could use vacuum to dry the hot moist grains coming out of the separator post distillation. Would be far safer than gas-fired drum dryers usually used, which are the single most dangerous pieces of equipment in large distilleries. Separation immediately post distillation will carry along enough residual heat that high vacuum likely wouldn’t be required. 10-15 inches vacuum would be more than sufficient.

We are very happy with our Kason. 1000l in 15-20 minutes. You will likely need a heat-source dryer if you want to store the stillage long term. You’ll need to dewater prior to dying. Kason can handle the heat of boiling stillage, so you’ll be able to conserve a lot of energy immediately going into a dryer.

You can’t. It’s not going to be possible to effectively hydrolyze esters in a reflux column. The minute you separate the acid, it’s going to be free to react in what is an ideal environment for forming esters (in this case, reforming). It’s possible that you change the ester composition of the final product though, whether that’s a positive or negative for flavor is anyones guess.

You might be surprised at what some of the big flavor houses charge for R&D and recipe development work, it's not cheap, especially if the end result is a ready-to-use packaged custom flavor. That also typically includes some fairly advanced analytical services (comparative analysis, batch consistency on the manufacture side, ttb compliance, etc), and likely some level of market research using consumer panel testing. Recommend you talk to a few flavor houses (include ttb in your google search to cut them down), get a sense for what they might be willing to offer. Some may offer samples, some may offer you some consultancy around blending their off-the-shelf flavors to get the right profile. Depending on what you are going for, you may need to test samples from numerous flavor houses to find one that works. You are basically pre-negotiating this relationship for your client.

Is the issue the motor or the gear drive/seal assembly? Replacing the motor is easy. Everything you need is on the nameplate. Look for "Frame Size" - this tells you exactly what kind of motor mount it has. Highly likely that you will see something like 56C, 143TC, etc etc. Next, get the horsepower or KW, this gets you your power, and then your voltages. You can likely find any motor on eBay in a matter of a few minutes. Otherwise, if you want to pay a premium. Snap a photo of the motor nameplate and go to Grainger or a local motor shop.

@MG Thermal Consulting is your guy. The positive about being in Vermont is you have year round cooler temperatures, meaning you have lots of interesting options that warmer locations can't use (dry coolers, etc). That said, being in a downtown can also create challenges, especially with the noise generated by external coolers and chillers.

If you are using PID with proportional valves, keep in mind that you can usually configure in an offset that doesn't allow the valve to go to 100% closed position, which will provide a controllable bypass. For example, if you are using 4-20mA proportional control output to the valve, you can set the active range to 5 or 6-20mA (or some low level of voltage on 0-10v), which will allow for some minor bleed when the PID calls for no cooling. This eliminates the need for any kind of physical bypass to be plumbed in and manually controlled.

Try filtering it into another tank, giving it time to separate, and then fill off the bottom of the tank paying close attention to the oil line. It's possible that the physical agitation during bottling is sufficient to cause your saturated oils to precipitate out of solution if you are on the bleeding edge. But that doesn't solve the issues, too much oil, too little solubility. Sometimes higher proof, like @foreshot is eluding to, can help keep oils dissolved. Or, reduce the overall amount of citrus peel relative to the liquid volume. You might have some luck switching to cellulose filter pads along with a plate and frame, with hopes that some of that oil stay absorbed in the filter media, but keep in mind most of what we call "citrus oil" is far too small to be physically captured in a filter cartridge.

They make some drop dead gorgeous barrels.

Second on those Apothek. They are cool enough to find a use for.

I'm not Paul (don't know his rigs), but I'd be glad to hop on a Facetime/Video call with you and walk through real time. Based on what I'm seeing, you should be able to get this to work. You should be starting with valves full open through Dephleg 1 and 2, and only enough flow through the PC Bypass to be able to just barely hit 100% reflux to load the plates, which will be a pretty small amount of overall flow. It's a ball valve, so tiny adjustments will make huge differences in flow rate. Input coolant at 55f is plenty cold enough to easily generate full reflux. Too high of a flow rate through the Dephlegmators will over cool the reflux, and result in top plate flooding that will be challenging to settle down without turning off heat to the kettle and allowing the pressure to reduce so the plates can drain down. Top plate flooding, or flooding on some seemingly random plate in the column, is almost **ALWAYS** due to subcooled reflux creating a kind of block in the column, as the liquid is cold enough to condense the vapor trying to pass through it. Where the flooding will sit in the column will tend to be based on the backpressure generated by the kettle vapor generation. Quickly turning off heat to the kettle will drop the vapor pressure and allow the reflux to drain down to subsequent plates. Usually a quick on and off is all it takes to force the column to restack. You said something about 75psi on the water feed, having the PC valve full open is going to be way too much flow.

Post a photo of the Danfoss valve label.

That's an interesting approach - you are basically controlling the input temperature to the dephlegmator, but not the flow rate.

Ok Direct Heat - you might consider racking the wash off the lees and sediment when you pump to the still (no yeast, no sediment), that will prevent any kind of scorch or burning.

Which Danfoss? The integral unit (FJVA) or the remote bulb (AVTA)? The integral unit has a small orifice bypass to keep water flowing to the internal temp sensor, the remote bulb has no bypass. That remote bulb becomes problematic if you try to install it in the dephleg output plumbing (especially without a bypass). The integral can be problematic when your dephleg is running cold water at high flow rates - the lag time will often cause cycling - wavering temps). Both can work well, assuming you take into account some of these factors. In both cases, tempering your input water through your PC to reduce the potential for cycling, can help smooth out temps - however this requires that your product condenser is not undersized, nor is your dephlegmator.

You know best how your still runs, listen to it. Will you be double distilling? I'm going to assume yes. I would say, be concerned about two things, any residual sugar (incomplete fermentation) and molasses sediment (depending on your quality of molasses), as both of these have the potential for scorching in the still. Depending on your heating, this could be more or less a factor. You mentioned cognac before - are you direct heat? Steam? For first run, at this large scale, you can't go wrong with slow and low. Your wash curves are probably fine, many keep a consistent power on rum stripping, though many will increase power towards the end as the distillation can sometimes slow due to passive reflux.

Glycerin in low concentrations is problematic, as you are basically adding sugar for bacteria to consume.

If you are using a refractometer to measure final gravity, you need to use a calculator to take into account the alcohol in the final, otherwise your measurement will be trash. Using a calculator to adjust for alcohol, I get 8.2% on the refractometer, vs 8.5% on the glass (1.065-1.000=8.5%) - that's ballpark enough. https://www.brewersfriend.com/refractometer-calculator/

Most induction hobs will create intense hotspots where the magnetic fields hit the base of the pot/kettle. It becomes really obvious when you add a little water to the bottom, and then turn the induction element on. You'll see that the boiling is generally constrained to one or two "circles". We use watts per square inch, and surface temperature, when we're talking about heating. If you were to calculate the surface area of those circles, and the wattage of the element, you might find that the watt/in^2 is plenty high enough to scorch. What I've seen people do to try to combat this, is to add another piece of ferrous metal between the two, in an attempt to distribute the heat more evenly across the entire bottom of the kettle, reducing the watt density, as well as the potential surface temperatures. This is why you aren't necessarily seeing huge induction elements being used on commercial electric rigs. Conceptually, it would make sense if you could get very even heat distribution. Practically, not so easy. Take a look at fancy/high end induction-compatible cookware. What you'll see is a ferrous bottom plate (which is inductive), next a sandwiched copper plate to quickly and evenly distribute the heat, and finally a pot that's NOT ferrous/induction compatible, meaning there will be NO heat/induced here. This fixes issue associated with the magnetic lines causing hotspots. And knowing is half the battle.

This is correct, GA will continue to gnaw on your starches throughout the fermentation process, not only dextrin, but this includes ungelatinized starches to some extent as well. There are some interesting old studies that show that glucoamylase can actually bore into starchy endosperm of grain. So consider it an insurance policy against an incomplete gelatinization/saccharification process.

75% of the grain is pretty high in beta glucan, as a result, the mash will be pretty thick and slimy, this is going to impact your gravity measurements, both starting and final, if you aren't doing something about those glucans (using beta-glucanase enzyme or a beta glucan rest as part of a step mash). Personally, I think the temp is too low, and that rest too short for raw rye. This makes me feel like you pulled out a lot of starch and glucan, and didn't necessarily convert it. What was your distillation yield like? If it was decent, that points to the glucan issue impacting your fine gravity read, and not necessarily the conversion issue, if it was poor, it was likely both. Welcome to rye! On the bright side, once you master rye, there isn't anything you can't do.

I'd like to think we're the most "disruptive" distiller based in this area (flex), but that's all really subjective, and everyone believes they are differentiated, otherwise they wouldn't be doing this. Gil at All Points West is doing some great things with malt/pot still whiskies. Alex and Max at 3BR are doing some really unique things with non-standard feedstocks (peas!). Milk Street is doing a rice-based vodka. John at Jersey Spirits loooooves flavor. Tons of gin variations around the state. Lots of the distillers have some pretty serious cocktail programs. The Jersey-based distillers are a pretty tight knit crew, we all know each other pretty well. If you haven't joined the guild yet, do so. We're currently dealing with some major legislative challenges that may redefine the future of craft distilling in NJ.

I'll share a trick I used to do this. Use Microsoft Powerpoint, but change the settings so that it's an 8.5 x 11 page. It becomes really easy to create your template, than use that template and build out sheets to your hearts content. If you ever need to tweak the template, change positioning, fonts, whatever - you can do that in the Slide Master, and all your sheets will reflect the change instantly. Save them off as PDFs to distribute or print out. Works so much better than trying to do it in Microsoft Word, Google Docs, or Pages, and far less expensive and complex to use than something like Adobe. There is no standard, but they all have similar information. I like using: High level brand bio, Product Info, including Description & Tasting Notes, Awards, Product Photo, Bottle sizing and case variations, UPC, ordering details or a space for a sales rep to staple a business card. Professional product photos really make all the difference here. One nice touch is adding a QR code to a product landing page on your website, where you can make additional assets available (web/print stock photos, etc).

What's your end goal - what are you making? What's your workflow for dunder additions? Are you sterilizing your wash prior to fermentation? What's your starting pH? Generally, starting a fermentation at a lower pH typically results in a fermentation that finishes at a higher pH, which might seem entirely counterintuitive, except it's not. Have you had your water tested, if so, post the numbers. Dosing anything to actively control the pH of your rum fermentations is going to have a impact on the flavor and aroma. Not saying it's going to be better or worse, but there is an impact. The more variability you see, and the variability in adjusting, is going to result in flavor inconsistency across batches. Tying up carboxylic acids as calcium salts and then just distilling straight could be entirely counterproductive if your goal is funky rum. Are you stalling? Or are you not stalling? A final pH of 3.2 with an acceptable final gravity is not in any way problematic. Yeast are very happy at this pH - look at all the sour beer on the market today with similar pH - using brewing yeasts - this is no different than a sour mash, or funky rum ferment with high acids (yes, titratable acidity and pH are different, but not getting into that here). You guys putting rocks and shells in your fermenter must not be using expensive pumps, that sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.