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Windy City

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Posts posted by Windy City

    Pot vs column

    in Beginners

    Posted

    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.

    • Thumbs up 1

    Grain management

    in Beginners

    Posted

    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.

    • Thanks 1

    Recommended Heat Transfer oil

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    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

     

    Looking for a side column reflux pump

    in Equipment

    Posted

    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. 

    Glycol Burnout after 6 Months

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    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

    Mash cooling without jacketed tanks

    in Equipment

    Posted

    1 hour ago, MisguidedCanuck said:

    Am interested in tube-in-tube heat exchangers at a great price, hit me up Paul. I've got a 400-gallon (working capacity) mash tun and need a tube-in-shell for on-grain mashing. We've spoken before.

    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 

    Hammer Mill w/ Blower

    in Wanted To Buy

    Posted

    14 hours ago, adamOVD said:

    @Windy City (or anyone else that has used one) Any feed back on the pelletmaster mill after using it. I'm considering buying one, but it looks pretty messy from the videos on their site. My current mill is crazy slow, but at least I can load the hopper and walk away, and I just pre mill my grains while brewing. Not sure how much life is left in it though.

    Thinking I may be better off spending more, and getting something like this. https://www.coloradomillequipment.com/new-cme-mill-hms-vb-3hp/

    Anybody looking to sell a hammer or burr mill for that matter?

    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

     

    crazy? or possible.. 3 x bubble plates side by side

    in Equipment

    Posted

    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.

     

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    crazy? or possible.. 3 x bubble plates side by side

    in Equipment

    Posted

    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.

    crazy? or possible.. 3 x bubble plates side by side

    in Equipment

    Posted

    28 minutes ago, needmorstuff said:

    sorry, I wasnt suggesting i use all 6kw.. just that I had that available, plus SPP will have a better HTD (HETP) than rings, and I think I will have 1.5m

    What calculator are you using btw?

    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

    crazy? or possible.. 3 x bubble plates side by side

    in Equipment

    Posted

    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. 

    Heating Oil for a Jacketed still

    in Equipment

    Posted

    On 10/18/2021 at 12:31 PM, Southernhighlander said:

    We suggest vegetable oil for our baine marie stills.   We also have a device that allows you to convert your baine marie still to a self fired electric steam still.    Basically the device allows you to create steam under pressure in your heating jacket while maintaining the jacket as an open system.  

    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

     

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