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indyspirits

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Everything posted by indyspirits

  1. Our return line is internal below the liquid level. We never experience any backup into the bottom of our column due to slow flow.
  2. <soapbox> Now I may be speaking only for myself, but when I access this site I get a list of unread contents. I always go to: http://adiforums.com/discover/unread/ When I see the identical post in three different fora it does nothing but irritate me. We'll see your post, no need to spray it all over </soapbox>
  3. Who'd you buy through? That seems excessive. I know there are places online that buy enzymes and break them down into reasonable sizes (let's face it, you only need a few tenths of a ml / gram of starch) and ship USPS.
  4. After much experimentation, we've started using DAP, MgSO4, and Vitamin B complex. There are a number of commercial products out there that have effectively this -- take a look at their patent filings. You were told correctly! Certainly that's true. I've found 100% cane sugar to have something of a "twangy" flavor. Shrug. Maybe that's just me. Regardless, I don't think "Distilled from Potatoes and Cane Sugar" is the worst thing.
  5. Ahh common!! In all seriousness, it's a term coined (I believe) by the folks at homebrewdigest.com describing the smell from cider fermentation with less that optimum amounts of nutrients. It smells, uhhh, unpleasant.
  6. I don't believe that is accurate. Anyway, 8 - 10% is pretty good. It'll be a real slog waiting for 13% ABV to ferment dry. Where 7% may go dry in a week 13% might take two weeks. 1060 - 1070 is your friend for a sweet spot between yield and ferment time. Google "rhino farts". Are you adding any nutrients? Check the temp range of your yeast. Many distillers yeasts do fine at 90F but you're at or near the top end of the temp range. Do you have the ability to actively cool? Re: 25% -- again, that's in the normal range -- a bit low perhaps but we've had worse. At what ABV are you stopping collection? All in all, a reasonable effort. Well don't and congrats on having the cojones for making potato vodka!
  7. We have a 2M BTU Columbia and our bids were around $100k for steam and glycol.
  8. It certainly will. Generally speaking, if you do anything to a spirit after it comes off the still, other than barrel aging, you'll need a formula.
  9. Oh one other thing, Our charger is 208 three-phase which everyone may not have. It's fairly large -- think of a 30"-sided cube.
  10. Please stop, you're applying logic! Our local insurance carrier requested that we ground our fermenters. I tried to explain they contained less than 10% etoh. Fortunately we ran a grounding loop around the perimeter of our facility and it took only $20 in claps & copper to ground them. Thank goodness. Disaster averted. ?
  11. Hey, remember I said I was 86% certain! Maybe it had to do with the size of our original building ( much smaller than our current ). Or maybe it was that since propane is heavier than air it could settle with ethanol vapors. I simply don't recall. Our tires are hard, not air-filled. We have a 3,500 lb Hyster. Seems to do what we want. Get fork extensions so you can carry two barrels.
  12. Pretty certain (say... 86%) there are regs requiring electric forklift. The whole combustion engine thing and all that. We have battery. The charger sits where we park it nightly and has never been a big deal. We leased ours, FWIW.
  13. Just spit out my coffee laughing so hard! Clearly they haven't heard of or were too lazy to back purge.
  14. You only posted in five forums. There are a few you missed.
  15. @dhdunbar, can you provide the CFR, industry circular, or policy statement for this? I'm working with our internal counsel on a similar issue and she doesn't really care for it when I say, "Hey, I've read on the internet....". I've seen this: https://www.ttb.gov/ponl/ref-guide/03070.html But I can't quite tease out in 27 CFR. Maybe 19.54/55? Any pointers appreciated. Edit: I think I found it in 26 U.S. Code § 5178
  16. Relating to macerated gins: I have always stated my botanical (henceforth "bot" or "bots") load as total grams of bots / liter of spirit at which the bots are macerated. For example: 23g/L indicates a total of 23 grams of bots in a liter of neutral spirit at 63% ABV (the strength at which we macerate) I have read here and other places two versions of this. First, some state their botanical load as g/L of botanical at kettle dilution - that is the ratio of bots per liter of NS immediately prior to distillation (after water has been added to the mixture). What I find odd about this is that the mass of botanical seems quite low -- 23 g/L of 35% ABV (where we dilute ours to prior to distillation) is barely perfumed NS. 23 g/L at 35% corresponds to 41 g/L of bots at 63%. In my experience that would have serious louching problems. Others ( @Silk City Distillers -- correct me if I'm off base here) states their botanical load as g/L of finished product. Is this correct? We stop collecting product (I prefer not use the term "tails cut) after the distillate takes on a muted/dusty/dirty smell). Even then there is some flavor left in the "pot ale". This being the case, how can one determine the quantity of bots in the finished product? I ask this because of a challenge we've has scaling our recipe. I want to ensure we're in the realm of what's considered normal which I've always thought was between 20 and 35 total grams of botanicals per liter of macerate-strength neutral spirit.
  17. Anyone use Midwest Labs in Nebraska for their periodic abv audits? If not, who have you used and what's been your experience? Edit: Corrected spelling
  18. Agreed! We used to manually combine but not just file as loss.
  19. Just scored another, albeit smaller, Yamada AODD for high proof transfer. About to pull the trigger on the glidetech. A bit painful at $20 / foot but Ive only heard great things about it.
  20. You've got the best in Beacon Commodities : https://www.beaconcommodities.com/
  21. If you're doing a bourbon mash you're going to hold it at 190ish for an hour which will kill any bugs.
  22. I've seen that video -- looks nice. I'll get ahold of Michael and see if they can make one w/ camlock rather than TC fitting. So when exactly did you stop spending money on capital equipment???
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