Southernhighlander

We (ADE) are the manufacturer. paul@distillery-equipment.com, 417-778-6100

If you want a good neutral and to get the most 190 or above spirit out of the low wines, run 40% to 50% low wines through 20 plates.

Silk, I agree with all of your points concerning worm condensers. We do not offer them on any of our stills and when someone asks about a worm condenser, I try to talk them out of it and if I can't then I accept no liability and I have the purchaser sign an agreement releasing me of all liability, in case an accident occurs.

7' would give you an improvement. Both scenarios will give you a great Vodka.

Throughput is just the term that I use and it is the volume of steam that can pass through the valve in a given span of time. For pressure relief valves for steam, it is given in lbs of steam per hr and it is on the valve's tag. For a steam jacket, the valve must be a section VIII ASME rated valve of the proper PSI and lbs of steam per hr capacity. Most steam fired stills are fired with low pressure steam so the PRVs for the steam jacket pop at 15psi. The steam jackets on stills generally operate at around 14 PSI or less. To size, you calculate the lbs of steam per hr that the jacket is receiving and you size the PRV over that. Our safety manual states that the output for the jacket PRVs should be plumbed into a drain, For the inner pot of our stills we use a 5 psi PRV with the same lbs of steam per hour rating as the PRV on the jacket. The PRV for the inner pot will have a larger bore size (my term) than the steam jacket PRV because the lbs per hr rating on the inner pot PRV are for 5PSI not 15 psi. We put a 2nd 5psi PRV of the same lbs per hr rating as the one on top of the pot at the top of the distilling column on the pot. We put the 2nd PRV at the top of the column because the PRV that is on top of the pot may clog if there are solids in the mash. So if you have a pot still and you don't have a PRV at the top of the column and you run mashes with solids, you really need that 2nd PRV.

Hi Doc, It is 13'6" tall with the vodka column set up like the pic. If we offset the 6' vodka section and increase it's height to 7' add then add a dephlegmator, we can get the height down to 8'5" but we would need a column condensate pump kit to get the correct functionality, and that being the case we can could lower the Vodka column so that the height would be 7'6". The column condensate pup kit would cost an extra $2,500.00. The still would be 28" deep by 5'10" wide.

They may very well have a PRV on the top of the pot in the back but that would not be enough, in my opinion. Also I have seen hot water heater PRVs on most of the homemade stills that I have encountered. A pressure relief valve for a 50 gallon hot water heater does not have the throughput for a 100 gallon still's contents. There is more involved in PRV sizing than just psi but many people do not know that. I'm not saying this accident was caused by a lack of PRVs or VRVs. I have no idea what went wrong with their still. I will say however that the last 4 out of 5 distillery accidents that I have researched occurred around stills that were either homemade or that were modified by the owners. I'm not saying that home built stills are always unsafe. There are some people out there that have built some good, safe stills themselves, however there are some home built stills that are flat out dangerous.

Thanks Silk, I found the pics. It certainly looks home built and I don't see any safety devices on it, in the pics. It's really a sad situation that could have probably been avoided. I hope those guys are going to be okay. Prayers for them and their families.

whiskeytango, As far as there being no pics of the still I think that you are generally correct, but the other reason that there are no pics of the still could be that it is an ugly home or shop built still. Also since the issue seems to be the still and there was a fiery explosion, it could be that they were redistilling 190 proof GNS, but that is just speculation on my part. Here is the link concerning the fire marshal's findings however it does not give the report and it is very vague. I haven't had a chance to research and find the actual fire marshal's report as It is a Monday and I'm swamped with work. This morning was the first time that I heard about the explosion and fire. https://www.eptrail.com/2021/03/12/elkins-distillery-fire-deemed-accidental/

The fire marshal's findings were that a failure of the still caused the explosion. Does anyone know who built the still that they were running? I just scanned through over 100 pics that they have online but they all showed the tasting area and outside etc. There were no pics of the distilling area or still.

I just saw where someone was looking for a 600 gallon mash tun. We have them and we have sold several hundred of our mash tuns to distilleries. If you need a mash tun or any other distillery equipment send us an email paul@distillery-equipment.com We also have lauter tuns, if that's what you need.

Our equipment is engineered and designed in the US. Also all of our electrical systems and electric motors are made in the US. All of our safety devices and most of our pumps are made in the US. Around 80% of our structural components are made in China to our specs and standards and the other 20% are done in the US here at our shop. All of the assembly and quality control is done in the US. Our prices are some of the best in the industry and our stills are in over 460 distilleries in the US and many other distilleries around the world. With any purchase of over $10,000.00 you get a free hands on 3 day one on one distilling workshop at a distillery that has been running our equipment for 9 years 40 to 60 hours per week. You will be using that equipment at the workshop. If you want, we can build you a complete still here in the US however it will cost a lot more and the quality will be the same excellent quality, either way. email: paul@distillery-equipment.com

NotSure We do equipment consulting for free. If you would like to set up a phone appointment for an equipment consultation and quote just email paul@distillery-equipment.com Our stills are in over 460 US distilleries and the majority of those distilleries also purchased some if not all of their other distillery equipment from us such as mash tuns fermenters, mash pumps, receiving tanks, high proof ethanal pumps, blending tanks, UL listed ethanol storage tanks, steam boilers and chillers. Our largest stills are 2500 gallon pot stills that put out over 75 gallons of whiskey per hour. Our smallest stills for distilleries are 10 gallon R&D stills that have plated columns, agitators, steam or baine marie electric heat and they can be used to cook mash. We have a huge number of sizes in between the 10 and 2500 gallon stills. We also have a huge reference list and we give a free 3 day distilling workshop with purchases of over $10,000.00 at one of our showroom distilleries using our equipment.

I can build an all stainless still, by outward appearance, with my copper catalyzers inside that will result in spirits with no detectable sulfur taste. In fact my catalyzers in a stainless still, will have interaction with more vapor than an all copper pot still with no plates or copper packing, because my catalyzers insure that 100% of the ethanol vapor comes in contact with copper. In an all copper pot still with no copper plates, packing or catalyzers, you never get 100% copper vapor interaction. Years ago, I designed 2 types of copper catalyzers for my stills. I call the first type defuser plate assemblies. They actually serve 2 other purposes aside from catalyzing sulfur They are stacks of copper perf plates spaced 1/8" apart with the perforations offset one from the other so that the vapor has to wind its way through the plates insuring 100% interaction with copper. They are removable and easy to clean. The 2nd type are copper bowls that go upside down just underneath the column caps. There is around 1/2" of space between the outer edge of the bowls and the inside diameter of the columns. The vapor hits the inside of the bowl and must roll down and up and around the sides of the upside down bowls to get passed and into the line arm. Each of my stills have multiple catalyzers. If the customer wants an all copper still we still put in all of the catalyzers. Our stripping stills have the same copper catalyzers listed above and if the customer is distilling a high sulfer wash, we put chopped up rolled copper scrap as well as rashig rings made from our scrap copper tubing and pipe, above a copper perf plate in the stainless stripping column. We put a layer 8" or more in depth in the stainless stripping columns so the vapor must wind its way through that before going on to interact with the other catalyzers. These multiple catalyzers allow our customers to have stainless pots that are easily cleaned in stills that remove more sulfur than if the pot where all copper without catalyzers. If you want copper interaction in the liquid mash or wash, that's no problem as we have catalyzers for the pot as well if you want them. The proof of course is in the spirits produced by our stills. Our customers with stainless still pots have won many tastings against distillers using all copper stills and or stills with all copper pots. Us using stainless pots, stainless dephlegmators, stainless line arms and stainless final condensers with internal copper catalyzers verses all copper stills, saves the customer a huge amount of money at the time of purchase and it allows for much easier cleaning and the sulfur removal is as good or better. However if the customer wants an all copper still we are glad to build it.

Your system is very well thought out and it sounds very efficient. Also the way you have your condensers laid out is very unique. I don't think I've ever seen anyone do it that way before. Did you see a similar set up of multiple Liebig condensers ran in series somewhere, or was this an original idea of yours? They say original ideas are as rare as hens teeth https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/02/060223083601.htm Very Impressive.

Sorry, I thought you meant that you used something other than a liquid coolant. Yes we use feedstock for the pre condensers on our continuous column stripping stills (they also have small tube and shell final condensers that use water or a glycol/water mixture). Pre-condensers using feed stock in this way also preheat the mash. It's a great idea, very efficient and preheaters like this have been used on pot stills here in the USA for at least 180 years. My great uncle used a preheater on one of his stills. It was a simple stainless 150 gallon submarine tank with oak sides put together with nails just like a submarine still pot, with a worm coil in it that preheated the mash and which also acted as a pre-condenser. The set up was built into the side of a bank and the fermenter was higher than the preheater which was higher than the still so that everything would gravity feed. The vapor went through the worm in the preheater and then through an old 55 gallon barrel flake stand that had cold branch water passing through it. I have a customer back in the Great Smoky Mountains where I grew up that has a cooling coil in the branch behind his distillery. He is in Maggie Valley North Carolina and his distillery is called Elevated Mountain Distilling Company. Here is a link https://elevatedmountain.com/ The still in the background is one of my 800 gallon Ultra Pro Vodka Stills. The building was a theater for years. The still sits where the stage used to be. The still sits lower than the main floor because the still pot and column bases are down in what once was the area under the stage. The owner Dave Angel is a great guy. If you ever come to the states it's a great distillery to visit. The Smokies are prettiest in the fall which starts up here on top September 22. The fall colors are best between mid October and early November. https://www.google.com/search?q=fall+colors+in+the+Smokies&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS912US912&sxsrf=ALeKk00G_W2BNoVKipH24iksdDnGBN4W3g:1613692161791&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=-U4PY4Oah3PzxM%2Cr-_bOFC-lKGxyM%2C_&vet=1&usg=AI4_-kS9bA1CDMWwnL2i7cryERmd693OkQ&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjQ9NHgz_TuAhUKPK0KHYOwD4gQ_h16BAgVEAE#imgrc=-U4PY4Oah3PzxM

Pete B. I have built distilling columns for oil refining that did not have liquid cooled condensers but those columns operated at over 600 degrees F. I also have short path stills that separate CBD and THC and fraction out terpenes by boiling point. These stills operate under vacuum and they use liquid coolant in the condensers but the coolant is heated before in goes into the condenser so that the temp differential is not too great. The boiling points of THC CBD and Terpenes, from Marijuana, fall between 156 C and 250 C. I think that an air cooled condenser could be used in this process but I have never seen it done that way, I might give it a try though.

Pete B. I have never seen a continuous stripping still that did not need liquid condenser cooling, How does that work? I have seen a pot still condenser set up that had both an air cooled condenser and then a liquid cooled condenser. Maybe my friend Alexander has seen designs without liquid cooled condensers. Alexander, if you see this post, let us know if any of the old industrial Soviet continuous still designs worked without liquid cooled condensers and if so, were air cooled condensers used?

Pete B Said >Paul, I am not quite sure, I think you are describing what I know as shotgun condensers, many tubes inside one shell.< Pete, I'm not sure why I didn't catch the tube in tube thing. Yes, my condensers on all of our large stills are either shell side tube in shell or tube side tube in shell.

Our condensers are stainless tube in tube, counter flow. Some are shell side and some are tube side. On our Ultra Pro Vodka Stills, the coolant coming from the final condenser is around 120 F during a Vodka run. The water comes out of the final condenser at 120 F into the dephlegs where it comes out at around 140F. If there are no dephlegs being ran and it is a stripping run then the water generally comes out of the final condenser around 130 to 140F on the average throughout the run. If the water is cool enough then my 500 gallon stills will only use around 500 gallons of cooling water. Vodka runs will use more water than whisky runs as do runs for high proof. I have only seen water coming out of a final condenser near boiling when the coolant flow was too low. If your coolant goes through the shell side of your condenser, you should have a baffle, splitter or structured packing above the condensate intake tubes to spread out the vapor and slow down the vapor velocity. If your coolant goes through the tubes and your condensate through the shell and the condenser is baffled properly, this is the most efficient condenser but harder to build. Tall copper tube and shell condensers will build more heat in the top because copper has a better thermal transfer coefficient. Also, outgoing coolant temps may increase as the run progresses, especially during stripping runs. I was referencing average outgoing coolant temps coming into the hot water holding tanks in my posts.

Water being scarce does not matter when using my method for condenser water because the water and the heat put into it by the condensers is reclaimed. Since the hot condenser water is reclaimed for mashing and cleaning, there is zero to very little waste water created from the condensers. If the tap water is too warm for cooling the condensers, the best alternative is to have a single chilled water tank and small chiller. Use the chiller to chill your 70 F or so tap water in the chilled water tank down to 52 degrees F overnight then run the chilled water from the chilled water tank through the stills condenser and into 2 hot water holding tanks then use that water for cleaning and the next mashing in. This method saves a lot more energy because you are only chilling water from 65 F -75 F down 14 to 20 degrees and you are not having to use any energy to heat water. Also this method means that you do not need as large of a chiller because you are only chilling down 15 to 20 degrees and you have 14 or more hours for you chiller to do that. At the end of the day you refill the chilled water tank and turn on the chiller so that the chiller can chill down the water. over night. The chilled water tank must hold enough water to coolthe stills condensers for the day. The chilled water tank can be cheap HDPE. We have chilling coils for chilled water tanks and they are inexpensive. Also the water in the hot water holding tanks can be used to proof as well, once it cools down a little (if you have any left after mashing and cleaning). Of course if the distiller is redistilling GNS and not mashing then my method of reclamation will not work as well because no water is needed for mashing. My method works very well for condensers but not for crash cooling mash. For crash cooling mash the 2 tank system and chiller that Golden Beaver is using works very well.

Pour Decisions, You use your municipal water pressure or your well pump water pressure to pass the water through your final condenser then out of your final condenser through your dephlegmator and from your dephlegmator to 2 hot water holding tanks. One hot water holding tank is for your next mashing in and the other is for all of your cleaning needs. If you have a CIP pump connect it to the 2nd hot water holding tank and use that hot water for all of your CIP cleaning. The hot water holding tanks can be cheap HDPE and you can insulate them with some blanket insulation. The water from the condenser passed through the dephlegmator will be between 130 F and 140 F when it reaches the tanks. Lets look at a closed loop chiller as an alternative. The chiller is expensive to buy. The chiller has to cool the water/glycol from 140 F down to 52 F which takes a huge amount of energy which costs you a lot of money, meanwhile you are heating water up for cooking mash and cleaning which also takes a huge amount of energy which is also expensive. Also when you are cooking mash instead of starting with 130 to 140F hot water you are starting with cold water which means it takes twice as long for your mash cooker to reach operating temp and time is money. If you have more than one dephleg let me know and I will tell you how to plumb your coolant water in that situation. If you want to save huge amounts of money in energy costs and not having to buy a chiller, this is the way to go. If you care about the environment this is the way to go. It is a win win situation. One of my competitors quoted a customer $125,000.00 for a chiller and told the customer that they needed the chiller even though the customer told them that he had a well that put out 53 F water. This company has been around selling brewing equipment for many decades and started building and selling stills and other distilling equipment 5 or 6 years ago. Their equipment is very expensive. I sold the customer a full set of equipment for less than what this company quoted for just the still. Quoting the customer a chiller when the customer did not need one is inexcusable in my opinion. I'm here to help my customers become successful by helping them choose equipment that will fit their budget and their particular needs. I never upsell or try to sell the customers things that they don't need.

nogoodoutlaw1 If you are on a well or if your tap water temp is below 65 F then l can tell you how to do all of your cooling processes without a chiller and you can reclaim the hot water from your condenser for all of your hot water needs including mashing in and cleaning and you won't waste any water. If your tap water is over 65F, I can tell you how to set things up so that you can use a much smaller chiller than would normally be needed and you can still reclaim all of the free hot water that your condensers put out. We have the chillers if it turns out that you need one except we will help you set it up so that you can use a smaller less expensive chiller and you will get all of the free hot water that you need. 417-778-6908 paul@distillery-equipment.com

That's a good idea, which should work fine.

We usually have copper tri clamp ferrules in 2", 3" and 4". Our 2" size is currently out of stock and we don't carry the 1.5" copper tri clamp ferrules. We can weld a 1.5" piece of type L copper pipe to a 304 stainless ferrule but I can understand why you don't want to do that with your copper column. These guys have 2" ones https://www.hobbyhomebrew.com/product/2-inch-copper-flange-ferrule-for-beer-keg-still-triclover-triclamp-tri-clover-tri-clamp-compatible-one-of-the-hard-bits/ We have 2" tri clamp to 1/2" female NPT adapters on our web store: https://shop.distillery-equipment.com/products/1-2-female-npt-to-2-tri-clamp-stainless-steel-ss304?_pos=57&_sid=062c7d157&_ss=r Would that combination work for you?