Silk City Distillers

Ball, the ones I mention above use characterized ball valves, which use a shaped characterization disc to create a linear flow control over the full swing.

During steady state operation (collecting hearts for example) we maintain about 1 to 2 tenths of a degree variation, it holds pretty rock solid. We see a little bit more variation running in 100% reflux at startup, but it's usually less than plus or minus one degree. I chalk this up to the valve having a little bit less control when it's opened wider. It's typically in 3/4 open during this, versus 1/4 open during hearts collection (higher dephleg temp). Setpoint changes are a little bit slower, taking about 5 minutes before all oscillations are damped, but we never usually see more than 1 degree of overshoot. We can dial in faster responsiveness with the PID, but it's at the expense of larger overshoot. With the slower response, it's more of an "ease-in" to the new setting. I would look at your controller settings if your oscillation is high, it took us quite a bit of time to dial-in settings so that we weren't dealing with a system that went crazy with temp swings and oscillation on my input change (change of steam pressure, for example). We're really liking this, as it can respond to huge increases in our reservoir temp over the course of a run, at least +20-30F. You would never know it based on the setpoints/controls. In a manual valve situation, you would be constantly adjusting the valve to keep a steady setpoint.

Mechanical temperature control valves work very well for condenser temperature control, but they are not very useful in a dephlegmator control scenario, where you want to be making changes to the dephlegmator set point thus impacting the reflux ratio/output proof. We have great experience with both the Johnson and Belimo proportional ball valve actuators on our still. We are using them for both dephlegmator and product condenser temperature control. For the Johnson Controls, The 9104-GGA-2 is a nice actuator, proportional control for the smaller valves. It's a 60 second swing valve, which is fast enough for condenser control - during the run they barely move once they have a set position. The 9108-GGA-2 is nice for larger valves if you are running a recirc setup and need to swing a big 1-1.5" three way. For the Johnson valves, the GGA is critical as this represents the proportional control models. Nice thing about the 9108-GGA-2 is that it's faster, about 25 seconds full swing. Harder to find, and very expensive, are the Belimo high speed actuators. I have the LRQB24-MFT - this is 5 seconds full swing, with some incredible positioning capability. The slower LRB24-MFT are also very good, but very slow (good for PC, probably not so good for dephlegmator). All these actuators are paired with the appropriate ball valves, 2 or 3 way, in numerous sizes and different CV sizing. eBay is a great place to find these, you can get them for as low as $30-50, and sometimes you luck out finding the actuator already paired to the right size valve. Good electronic globe valve positioners are incredibly expensive. For example, the Siemens Landis MXG magnetic positioners. This is a Rolls-Royce positioner. Nearly instantaneous positioning (less than 2 seconds full swing) with something like 1000:1 rangeability. We're using all of these in a pumped/recirculating setup. I have played around with numerous types and sizes of proportional valves, so just ask, I've probably played around with it. Hardest part of this is valve sizing and then tuning your PID control, picking up an actuator and plumbing it in is very easy. Solenoid systems are much easier to dial in initially, but have some downsides, like hammer,noise, etc.

Hell, give it a try, especially if it's working well. Something like a Watts LF150A?

True proportional valves are going to be either ball or globe style, and are going to require a proportional output signal from your controller, like a 0-10v or 0-20ma (or 4-20ma) output. There are a few manufacturers, but we are using a few from Johnson Controls and Belimo. Sizing the proportional valve is going to be a little bit more complicated than with a solenoid. Are you using municipal water for cooling, or do you have a recirculating/chiller setup? Using city water, you'll likely be using a much smaller valve, with smaller Cv, than with recirculating, which would have a larger diameter and higher Cv. Likewise, a smaller still with lower flow requirements will get by with a smaller valve than something larger. One thing to watch out for with proportional valves (ball or globe) is their speed. There are proportional ball valves with full swing timings of 90-120 seconds, these are a little bit too slow. Ideally, the faster the actuation, the more responsive the system will be to change, however the faster the actuation, the more expensive the actuator. You want some example model numbers?

Anybody using something like the Crown Stacker/Walkie? Seems like it would be much easier for jockeying barrels/bottles around than trying to maneuver the forklift in tight spaces. Seems like some of the new ones are good to 2500-3000 and go over 12 feet. Our forklift is a little on the big side, because of posts and floor layout, not always the easiest. Pipe dream? Are they really more maneuverable? If you don't have a loading dock, and no forklift, drivers are going to hate you. I remember the days before lift, when a barrel shipment came in. No lift gate. We ended up breaking down the pallets in the truck and huffing it, barrel by barrel. I can't imagine a couple of skids of bottles. Pallet jack - also a necessity. Thing is always in use. You could probably bust your ass and maybe get by without a forklift, but you'll never get by without a pallet jack.

Forwarder handles all customs and associated paperwork. Think of the FF as being a shipping consultant. They just send you the bills and/or paperwork to sign, can take care of everything else. Usually they have good relationships with local freight carriers and usually it's cheaper to just go with a forwarder than getting a retail quote yourself.

Your manufacturer should be able to recommend a US based freight forwarder to work with. They make things easy for a small fee.

@MythBuster You are still talking about packing in the context of continuous operation, outputting final product, correct? Your device uses a fixed product take-off point?

So why not dixon ring?

Don't get me wrong, I love technology simply for technology's sake. I see Genio's machine as being a work of art, and not just a machine. I also fully understand the need for competitive differentiation in the marketplace. Just playing devil's advocate, because it's more fun to take that position.

So how does this translate into real world performance? A year back I immersed myself in the mathematics as well as spending a considerable amount of time reviewing literature, paying specific attention to commonly used industrial methodologies. I'm no mathematician by training, but I didn't think it was an insurmountable task if one was patient and inquisitive enough. My conclusion, after all of that work, was that minor improvements in system efficiency didn't necessary translate into major real-world benefits at all. In fact, what could be considered serious efficiency issues could be easily "corrected" through what were relatively minor changes to geometry, or specific operational parameters. For example, even minor changes in column height/theoretical trays would easily compensate for what would be poor Murphree efficiencies. You don't need to look much further than the hobby community to see this translated into real world performance. Even still designs that shouldn't at all work theoretically still see passable performance. Realistically, you could fill a column with any compatible material and get passable efficiencies. Anybody who has built a still themselves, or tinkered, would attest to this. And all of this is somewhat moot if we're talking about distillation of products other than neutral alcohol, as by their very definition, these are products who are created through inefficiency during distillation. The fact that many very good products can be created on a pot still, or through double distillation on a pot still, really is significant evidence that looking to maximize efficiency doesn't necessarily translate to specific benefits to beverage distillers. Probably the most striking realization I came to was that to achieve high levels of tray efficiency, you needed to design a system to operate in an incredibly narrow range of operating parameters. This was critical. However, these constraints on operating parameters would place significant limitations on the distiller to run various types of products, or to adjust the operation parameters to suit a specific product. So while they would give you ideal performance in an industrial arrangement, where nearly zero variability is expected, in the beverage world, this means a still that only does one thing well, when run in a very specific way. Just my two cents.

I believe what he was saying was, in Washington's day, they didn't char the barrels. Probably not the case today, because with "Straight Rye Whiskey" on the label, it's going to be aged in charred barrels.

Built a basic table of esters/bacteria a few months back:

Volatile Fatty Acids in Some Brands of Whisky, Cognac and Rum by Nykanen, Puputi, and Suomalainen (Journal of Food Science, 1968)

I always thought that High West was pretty open about it, hell their website product pages tell you (almost) exactly where their source whiskies come from. You can't even argue that "informed" consumers care, pretty sure they don't.

Regarding using surface waters for cooling, a good place to start are your local regulations (start with the EPA) regarding discharge of non-contact cooling water. Fortunately for fish and wildlife, heat is now considered pollution, unfortunately for us, it makes using stream water for condenser cooling difficult. Using surface water for mashing, I would imagine you would need to have some serious water purification equipment in place. You might want to have your local health authorities weigh in. If they are treating you like a food manufacturing plant, they might have some serious issues with using untreated (and untested) surface water in a food product (and arguing with them that it shouldn't matter pre-distillation is going to be interesting). Dilution - RO is a cost effective way to ensuring you don't have post-dilution issues with haze/particulate from high mineral levels, etc. We treat municipal water with UV and Carbon to eliminate Chlorine/Chloramine - as our water out here in the Northeast is generally pretty solid. For dilution we use RO plus Deionization, and for still condenser cooling we use a recirculation system with a large holding tank.

I'll raise you. Clostridium, Propionibacterium, and Lactobacillus. In ... or out? Yeast are soooo boring compared to bacteria.

What size Raschig rings are you using? What's the column diameter/height? Interested as I'm working on a 8"x20' column, and have been hunting for packing. The fact that you didn't see much difference between SPP and Raschig is actually positive, as it's much easier to source. On the hobby side, those guys tend not to be so concerned about fouling, but with a big column, the packing is never leaving the column, and needs to be effectively cleaned in place.

I would imagine you could probably line up your brewery customers before you dump. I'm sure they would likely appreciate receiving still-relatively-sterile fresh dump barrels. If your timing is good, they wouldn't need to treat the barrels, and they would be guaranteed maximum flavor contribution. If I were brewing, that's exactly what I would want, the fresher the barrel the better. If I was selling used barrels, that would be my pitch. In this case, local rules, no substitute for freshness/time. Ain't nothing like the aroma of a fresh dump bourbon barrel. Dump, re-bung, and deliver (or pickup). Personally, I would think that rinsing the barrels out is asking for a problem. Dilution of the spirit will turn a sanitizer into food, will introduce external bacteria, and may introduce chlorine/chloramine depending on your rinse water. The interior of a barrel is going to be relatively sterile, at least until the residual spirit gets diluted through evaporation, etc. When in doubt, sniff test. If there is a problem, I would imagine the first thing you are going to start to pickup is acetic acid.

Interesting point about the Keurig model - their new make-a-soft-drink-at-home machine was a colossal failure. https://www.zacks.com/stock/news/219798/the-one-simple-reason-that-keurig-kold-failed-no-one-makes-soda-at-home

From Volatile Components in Food and Beverages by Maarse. Ethyl laurate and ethyl dodecanoate are the same thing, just different naming conventions.

So for example, based on the Nykanen paper, which found a P<0.001 significance between Ethyl Laurate and distilling with yeast, here is a table from Nykanen's Aroma of Beer, Wine, and Distilled Alcoholic Beverages: You can start to make some assumptions on whether or not you would distill on lees for the style you are aiming for.

Attaching instead. Nyk-nen_et_al-1977-Journal_of_the_Institute_of_Brewing.pdf

If its truely innovative, don't share anything online - China will be selling it before you even get the first unit out. This is rampant, ask any manufacturer of small stills. Good ideas get stolen immediately. If you don't watermark your photos, they'll steal those too.