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Another option for separating grain/wort?


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Since I'm going to be running an all electric still, I will need to separate the spent grain from the wort prior to either fermenting or distilling. I've looked at a lot of options, but none seem workable. The Russel-Finex units are prohibitively expensive (~$35k) and other options will not work for larger batches (250 gallon+), require lots of cleaning, or won't dewater the grain enough (powered sieve option from Russel Finex ~$12k).

I did find something that may work. Industrial juicing machines from China look like they may fit the bill. They have units which can juice up to 2.5 metric tons (~3300 lbs or 400 gallons) per hour for only $3-5k. I figure if a piece of equipment can juice a carrot, then it should OK separating grains and wort.

Just Google: industrial fresh fruit juicer alibaba

See attachment.

Thoughts?

Van

Bartletts Distillery, LLC

post-12572-0-90136700-1460909666_thumb.j

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I will be running direct immersion elements as well and have planned for the same problem. The solution I invented is a drop in grain filter of sorts. It allows you to vorlauf until the grain filter bed is set up. Not near as efficient, but it will work until I can upgrade.

http://www.iskiebaedistillery.com/2015/12/28/iskie-bae-distillery-grain-filtersparge-arm-concept/

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I've got 0 answer for your question as asked - and I'm super interested in seeing what that giant fruit juicer does), but... Kinda along the lines of what isiebae stated... have you considered entering into production with a mash that can be lautered in the same manner that a beer mash is typically handled? If you stick to a high percentage of malted barley and either implement a false bottom or some other method of straining out your liquid, you should be good to go without spending big bucks. Plus, this country needs more American malt whiskey!

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  • 4 weeks later...

Iskiebae, so to be clear (no pun intended) you are vorlaufing your liquid until a good bed is formed and then draining through the original drain in the fermenter? The purpose of your drop in grain filter is to make a good bed in the grain that is quick flowing and doesn't plug?

That's interesting too......

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Hi Tupper Lake, sorry for the late reply. Yes to the vorlaufing and no to the fermenter drain. As you can see around the 5:10 mark in the video, I'm removing the "sparge arm" and transferring it to a bucket. So after vorlaufing to set the grain bed, I am transferring the beer through the same apparatus to another vessel. So instead of the "sparge arm" recirculating the beer over the bed, it transfers the "clear beer/wash" into another container. The design I made is to prevent the difficult task of making a false bottom for oddly shaped dairy tanks that I am using for mash tuns and fermenters. Besides avoiding a lot of custom fabrication on each mash tun, the drop in design is removable for cleaning if you do get a stuck vorlauf which may be common on cheaper equipment, especially with corn, rye and wheat. Hope that makes sense!

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Hey Tupper,

No update yet.  I'm still in the planning phase and have not started purchasing equipment yet.  But, in the near future, I do plan on doing a test, of sorts.  We have a countertop macerating juicer which operates on the same principle as the piece of the equipment I intend to order from China.  We'll see how it works.

Stay tuned...

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On ‎5‎/‎21‎/‎2016 at 0:59 PM, iskiebaedistillery said:

Hi Tupper Lake, sorry for the late reply. Yes to the vorlaufing and no to the fermenter drain. As you can see around the 5:10 mark in the video, I'm removing the "sparge arm" and transferring it to a bucket. So after vorlaufing to set the grain bed, I am transferring the beer through the same apparatus to another vessel. So instead of the "sparge arm" recirculating the beer over the bed, it transfers the "clear beer/wash" into another container. The design I made is to prevent the difficult task of making a false bottom for oddly shaped dairy tanks that I am using for mash tuns and fermenters. Besides avoiding a lot of custom fabrication on each mash tun, the drop in design is removable for cleaning if you do get a stuck vorlauf which may be common on cheaper equipment, especially with corn, rye and wheat. Hope that makes sense!

Wow, that's embarrassing...how did I not see that the first time? I really like that idea, if your fermenter was 45 gal instead of a 20L pail, it would work exact same, and after draining the liquid just upend the drum (using a fixture) to dump the grain into a wheelbarrow....hmmm, the wheels are turning now.

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Haha no worries Tupper Lake, it's kind of a weird design but once you play with it, things make sense! Yup would work just fine in a 45 gallon, of course I would extend the bottom grain filter pipes to be sizable to the diameter/length of the mash tun/fermenter!

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  • 5 weeks later...

This may be a little Mickey-Mouse for a commercial distillery but, it works for us. I had a fabricator at one of our sister companies (The Cherokee Group) put this together for me. Slide it in after fermentation, drop your hose inside and pump to the still. This will leave you with having to climb in and manually bucket out the grain bed but, again, it works for us. I hope this helps.

Attachments_2016625.zip

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  • 4 weeks later...

I have tried a small commercial centrifugal juicer on a 100% rye mash.

The problem with it was the blades that shred the fruit also shredded the grain. It threw out some nice dry solids but a lot of the solids ended up finely chopped flour and went into the liquid.

I have just purchased a 3 foot diameter Vibroscreen. Not overly happy with the results, the solids are too wet.

I have a video on my phone but don't know how to load it here. Could someone PM me with help.

Pete

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