Skaalvenn

2 condensers is your easiest and cheapest option. First one being glycol and 2nd one being water. Flow meter and temp sensor on the glycol/ distillate output. Flow drops to X or temp rises to X and it opens the water valve to the 2nd condenser. That way you eliminate contamination of either system.

I can vouch for that statement. Early on we had a small batch which got a slight infection and the end result was rum that had a gross plastic/band-aid odor. Now that all our vessels are stainless and have CIP it hasn't occured again *knocks on wood*.

You've got yourself a nice infection going there, maybe lacto? Probably something in your process was less than sanitary, your ferment was taking too long, pH too high, or all of the above? I'd run it and see how it turns out, but I'd be absolutely sure to give everything a proper clean/sanitize before starting the next batch.

Also using Hoochware and liking it. It's not perfect, and there's a few things that need improving so the user has less headaches, but for the price we are happy. There are some things Whiskey Systems does better, but not worth the price. There's some things Distillery Solutions/Stillhouse does better, but I could hire another employee to take care of it (and more!) for what DS charges.

They might be able to sell it as there's really only a couple parts to an agitator. A shaft, blade, gearbox, motor, and seal/bearing.

Call Brawn mixer. I'm very satisfied with my new agitator from them. My local Brawn rep was Bill at Winger Inc. http://www.wingerinc.com/ He's been doing mixers for over 30 years and really knows the mixing industry and even more important--distillery mixers. I would steer clear of MXD/Mixers Direct--they will gladly take your money and give you something which should never go on a still.

We are looking to upgrade our bottling line and are seeking out an automatic labeler for round bottles and single label application. Would consider a labeler capable of 2x labels per bottle. We're also looking to upgrade our 2 spout bottler to a 4-6 spout. Got a corker you're looking to upgrade? We'd be interested as well. Located in Minnesota. Skål

Hmm it appears I'm wrong, I could have sworn that it said treated with carbon was a requirement. Learn something new each day! http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?c=ecfr;sid=5ea7acdd54dff93dbce97e668013dfd8;rgn=div8;view=text;node=27%3A1.0.1.1.3.3.25.2;idno=27;cc=ecfr https://www.ttb.gov/spirits/bam/chapter4.pdf

I'm talking vodka, so yes the spirit was neutral coming off the still. (*edit* See recent post on 11/23/16 - It appears I was wrong and have thus deleted misinformation in this post.)

" We're able to filter about 6G of 100 proof using 5.5lb of carbon. Up until the 5th or 6th gallon, the product is tasting very neutral and towards the end, the flavor from our grain bill starts to pull thru." No offense, but if 5 pounds of carbon is only lasting you 5 gallons of vodka you probably need to look at your distilling operations. I run about 100 gallons through a few cups worth of carbon before I change it out. And I don't need to change it out, it's just that carbon is cheap enough that it's not worth the hassle of having to run it twice if the spirit output is not clean enough.

You need a clean sample of liquid, any solids (which I see there are quite a bit) will give a false negative. You'll need to let it sit for a few minutes and then just barely skim the surface to collect a couple drops of mash. I prefer to use an eyedropper to grab mash samples when I do a test (which is rare, I know my process and enzymes are working). Is your S/G or Brix where you expect it?

Hi Paulo, Do you know the temperature that SAN Extra L begins to denature? That's the one thing I've seen missing from the Novozymes data sheets, it says "high temperature" but that's all relative. The Termamyl has a great sheet which shows the efficiency curves along temperature and pH, which is very helpful--the SAN Extra sheet isn't quite as detailed. Thanks!

I've been trying to find a stacker/walkie that goes over 3000 without success. Our fermenters are stainless pallet tanks and I'd really love to transfer into the still by gravity so that I only have to wash 1 short hose instead of 2 hoses, a pump and all the fittings. Space is already becoming an issue where we're at so a forklift really isn't an option

Do you have bigger tanks on wheels? Looking for ~150-175 gallon stainless spirit tanks that are on wheels or pallet jackable.

Depends 100% the distributor the market and your marketing.

No worries. I'm no scientist or physicist or anything "ist" but I could see purified water SOMEHOW distilling better, but I doubt any of us have the equipment sophisticated enough to tell a difference? I can't see a reason for anyone distilling to actually use RO for anything but proofing.

Whoa there. Sorry, I must have hit a nerve and I apologize if I somehow upset you.

No offense, but if you start doing whiskey/mashing again I'd strongly suggest finding a different enzyme supplier. A good supplier should supply you with the graphs and efficiency charts so that you can see where they are most effective, and where they actually begin to denature. Most enzymes have a point where they temporaraly denature and permanantly denature. Meaning if they just start to denature at 180, but are 100% efficient (at the right pH) you'll likely be just fine mashing at 180. Also by the time the pH crashes, your alpha should be 100% done doing it's job and it's time for the slower gluc enzymes to start waking up. I think my second enzymes don't hit peak efficiency til around pH 4.2 which is perfect for once the fermentation is rolling along. If your enzyme supplier just states "150 degrees" I'd look elsewhere because enzymes may be (relatively) cheap, they are the backbone of your mashing operations.

We have batch numbers on the bottle. With that we can do a recall, but it's especially handy in working to improve product over time.

Is it just me, or are many of the big DSPs not numbering their cases? I've picked up a few cases from liquor stores and been unable to find a DSP# or case # on many of them.

I 100% agree with that on consultants, and completely forgot to mention that. In this industry there's an infinite amount of time and money that can be wasted on trial and error, trying to figure out what works and what doesn't work. There's an infinite amount of problems and setbacks that can arise during construction and especially during your first year being in production. What you thought/hoped was going to work, and it ends up creating even larger problems right when you're trying to keep the liquor stores and your distributor well stocked and happy. Enormous shout out to Matt Miller (mattABV on here) for his help over the last ~2 years. I had two major problems which stopped me dead in my tracks that were immediately resolved with a phone call and a quick visit from Matt. These problems would have probably cost a week or more in production delays and money spent in a panick just trying to find some form of a patch. Ever have your daily driver break down and you need to have it running and go to work so you buy new plugs/wires/cap/rotor/coil all at once just hoping one of those was the culprit? It gets expensive real quick (especially if you spent that money and your car/distillery still doesn't run). Matt listened to me, said "Here's exactly what your problem is, and here's the exact, most economical solution" and I was back making and SELLING booze. Consultants are like your business lawyer. You hate using them to form your business and you hate calling them because you think it costs a lot of money each time. However, the proper foundation during startup and the phone call when you desperately need that advice will save your ass and be the best investment you ever made.

I think it's a good idea to have a post regarding the market today, in 2016. It seems a few years ago if one started a distillery, made mediocre product, had mediocre branding/marketing, and a mediocre plan involving not a lot of startup money that they would be selling hundreds of cases per month. I am contacted about once a week by people interested in starting up, and most of them just see the success stories and are completely blind to the failures or the people hanging on by a thread. I've been on the shelves since June 2015. We're making a profit and seem that we're doing OK (ask us again next month LOL). I started with with a very frugal plan and very, very little debt, we've been lucky here and there but overall it's taken a lot of ridiculously hard work for zero pay--in fact there were plenty of months where I was writing a personal check to the company. Things are looking well for us and we're not out of the weeds yet. I've had to sacrifice a lot to get where we're at (I rarely see friends or family). I look at photos from just two years ago and say "Man I look young. So many less wrinkles and grey hair than I have now".

I'd have to check on my permit as it's been a long time since I've looked, but I think my inspecting agent strongly suggested a GP area (is there any other tax paid area definition?) right inside the loading dock. The thought was that if I ever had to receive tax paid spirits (recall) I'd need a place to put them while waiting for the paperwork to be approved to bring the spirits back into the bonded premise. I just tagged off a 10x6' area on the floor around the dock plate.

Give me a call sometime tomorrow. Since we have very similar equipment I can give you a couple pointers.

I'm pretty sure we looked at that same building a few months ago. It's a cool space, but it would cost a ridiculous fortune to get it usable and up to the Minnesota codes. For instance, Minnesota requires the walls and floors be sealed/washable in the production space. I don't know how on earth you could get that building to appease your inspectors for any reasonable amount of money. With the floors being ~100 years old and wooden, you'd need an engineer to do a very thorough (expensive) inspection and analysis because if there's a weak spot in the floor it could easily kill someone. The wood frame building might also cause issues with insurance as well, but I'm not certain. Just my $0.02