Windy City

What pressure is the gas line ie: low, medium or high? If it is medium or high pressure you have plenty. If it is low pressure, how far are you from the meter and could you upsize the piping from the meter into your space. I don't know where you are located, but here in Illinois gas is way cheaper.

I have the 5.3 HP 198 and it works great and is very affordable http://www.pelletmasters.com/products/index.html#hammermill

I purchased my hammer mill through Pellet Masters http://www.pelletmasters.com/products/#hammermill I have the #198 5.3 Hp single phase. it has a fan built in and the unit has worked great for me. I ferment and distill on the grain. I mill all my grains: corn, wheat, rye, barley, oats, millet. etc down to the consistency of flour as I have no need to lauter and my equipment is not set up to lauter.

I picked up a factory refurbished Pimera labeler for flat bottles. Unfortunately I have not used it yet to give you feedback but it seems well made. https://www.primera.com/ap550-flat-surface-label-applicator-886.html

Updating this. There are only two left.

I have 4- new 10 gallon Gibbs barrels for sale. Barrels have medium toast and #3 char. I am asking $190.00 per plus shipping.

I see that you said steam is not an option but what about self contained steam? I really like it much more than the oil option. It is clean, very responsive and low maintenance. Check out this thread about converting a direct fired (electric) bain marie to self contained steam

Gypsum actually lowers the PH http://howtobrew.com/book/section-3/understanding-the-mash-ph/using-salts-for-brewing-water-adjustment

Giving this a bump to see if anyone has any suggestions

I am interested in building a side column for my structured packing reflux (CM) still. I don't have the height to go taller so that is why I am looking to add the side column. I would collect the reflux condensate at the base of column #2 and pump it up to the top of column #1. I have been looking at pumps that would work for both high abv and temperature. I would also like it to be variable speed so it could be adjusted according to quantity of reflux. I have been looking at gear pumps but wanted to know what others have done and recommend.

I had purchased a used 110 gal Baine Marie that the previous owner had burnt the oil in. Due to this thick sludge build up caked on the inner jacket it had terrible heat transfer. I brought it back and power flushed it for a week alternating with Dawn dish soap, PBW and citric acid. After about 1 week it looked brand new on the inside. I then converted it from a oil Baine Marie to a stand alone steam boiler. The steam is much more responsive, cleaner and cheaper. I modified the sight glass so I could read all the way to the bottom of the jacket. I fill my water to just 1 inch above the 4- 6000 watt elements. I have also added a auto-vent, low water cutoff, auto-feed, low pressure relief valves, vacuum relief valves and a high pressure cut-off switch. Been running it for a couple of years and it runs like a champ

Hey Top I see you have listed in your chart for a 4" column. That SPP seems a little small for a 4". What would the output be in liters per hour I am using 10mm Siporax in a 4" x 60" CM (cooling management) column and getting 7 liters at 95.4 % abv per hour

Give me a pm on your needs and specs and I will price up a copper tube in tube heat exchanger to match up with what you want

Do you still have these??

You could convert your baine marie to low pressure steam without the separate steam boiler. It will heat faster and be much faster in response.

It’s 3/4” inner with a 1 1/4” jacket

I built a 105' tube in tube heat exchanger. I pump my mash through this with a March nano brewery pump but I do mill all my grain to flour. It works great and washes out easy.

Has anyone found a good cyclone? I am looking to get a larger cyclone than the one it came with.

The mill works great and brings all my grains down to flour. As far as being messy, it is. My winter project will be getting a bigger cyclone and a better way to attach the 50 pound bags I collect the flour in. I really don't think you can beat it for the price. I am probably looking at an additional 750 / 1000$ for tighter sheet metal and a bigger cyclone. In my opinion well worth it. YMMV

A little searching and I found this. It is very similar to what Odin had. I was talking to Odin last year and he was saying with the oversized SPP from a 4" still he was getting 3.5 gallons of azeo a hour from 40% low wines. https://stillforyou.com/produkt/group-product/

The SPP you have shown is for small hobby stills. For stills 4" and over you need large format "oversized" SPP (10mm x 15mm) This is a picture of the product Odin makes for his stills. There is no way that you get the same purity/speed from mesh but you go ahead and just keep reading your books (THEORY) and telling us all how smart you are I will just keep making alcohol (PRACTICE) and will just agree to disagree with you.

Hey Alex Where do you come up with this "theory" that scrubbers are best. You are reading very old information during your research. Have you personally ever tried comparing any of these packings? SPP has been pretty much regarded in recent time as the best packing for high purity and speed but is very expensive. Siporax 15mm is right under SPP and is about half the price. Lava rock is about equal or a hair below the Siporax it is very cheap but very labor intensive to uniformly shape and properly size for column diameter. Below that you have glass marbles, stainless or copper scrubbers, raching rings etc, etc. I have tried all of these packings listed at one point or another with the exception of SPP but have friends who are very happy with their SPP packed stills. Just remember in theory there's no difference between theory and practice. But in practice there is.

I don't think 6 Kw will be enough. For a 4" column you need to use large format SPP ie; 10mm x 15mm and it requires a lot of power to run it properly. I am using 15mm Siporax (not the same as rashing rings) and am using 34 amps (34amps x 240 volts = 8160 Kw. This is giving me 2 gallons per hour of 95.4 % abv from 40 % low wines Hope this helps

Can you remove the plates or the bubble caps? I had a 4" with 3 side columns before. It unfortunatly had a common drain and as in your pic it had three dephlegs, (it was a pain to dial in) If you could take out the plates or at least all the bubble caps and then have pumps on column 2 and 3 just use the dephleg on column 3. Fill all 3 columns with 15 mm Siporax (these are not rashing rings) or large format SPP (Odin sells this) and you will not have a problem making azeo at speed.

Here is a link to a good thread on switching your bane marie to steam. I truly recommend it, it is clean and quick to react to power input changes