kleclerc77

Would it make sense if they were shooting for a lower starting gravity back then? I've heard that was the case back in the day. I've thought about how I'd achieve full conversion without enzymes, and a significantly lower starting gravity - so less grain for the same volume of mash would definitely be my starting point. More for viscosity reasons than anything. I'd still shoot for ~15% mb in this hypothetical scenario though. Just a thought!

Were the 350 and 550 used for anything other than spirits storage? Thank you!

The title says it all! We are looking to buy a pallet or so (500-1500 bottles total) of colored glass. Ideally cork closures as opposed to screw top. Ideally they would be 750ml, but are willing to consider really anything 375ml+. Any color, or frosted/opaque would also do. The only stuff I can find is wine/champagne bottles, and they are too clunky. If anyone has extra glass fitting this description they are willing to let go of, please let me know! Send me a PM here, I've noticed my email gets sniped by spammers when I posted it on here in the past. Thank you! PS have fun in Vegas for me!

What sticks out to me right away is your pitch temp. Even though 35C is within the HT's temp range, you want to start way lower. Think more in the 26C range. You didn't note the ferment's temperature as time went on, which without active cooling I'm sure exceeds the HT's temperature range. Reaching 35C towards the end of the ferment may not be the worst, but starting there is what strikes me as the problem here.

You don't need to cook wheat to 75C. 65C-70C is closer to the gel temp for wheat. You also need to actively cool it to yeast pitch temp as quickly as possible. I would personally shoot for ~27C. Leaving it overnight to cool before pitching yeast is a recipe for an infection that the yeast will have no chance of competing against.

We do not.

It doesn't need to be neutral. We make our gin base out of our rye mashes that we distill a bit differently than the stuff we put into barrels. We take the proof up to the light whiskey range, but not all the way up to neutral. We love what the rye base offers to our gin. That being said, it is definitely not a "dry" gin. I would start with a neutral base if you were aiming for a London / dry gin.

While it's always cool to source local ingredients, juniper in the states can be questionable. There tends to be the a lot of the unmistakably ammonia (think cat pee) forward berries around, and needless to say, they create an offensive gin. I've seen it a few times with distilleries that only meant the best by harvesting their botanicals locally. That scared me straight into sourcing juniper berries from places who know what they're doing. You'd have to be super confident in your juniper ID to pick them yourself in the states. They'll hybridize like crazy too, so half the time I have no idea what I'm looking at. We use an herb supplier we trust, and they tend to come from Italy/Macedonia. The regional differences @Cosmic.Distiller mentioned are very interesting, I'd like to dig more into that one of these days. I only get to make gin once a year though, so who knows when that will be!

Good choice! Their enzymes are workhorses, and we're happy with the yeast as well. Not to mention, they (Dr Pat Heist) are continually helpful in helping with your process and any flaws you may have in it. That being said, they haven't had a whole lot to say in the differences between their yeasts that are suggested for grain fermentations. We've only been laying stuff down for three years, and my palate isn't as fine tuned as it needs to be to determine those differences on my own, so I haven't done much experimenting at all really. We use the 927 for both our rye and bourbon ferments and are happy with the results. We pitch and keep the ferments at 80F +/- 5 degrees for primary fermentation, then double pot distill. Batch distillation vs. continuous distillation will most likely be the biggest difference between us little guys and them, pre barrel anyway. I bet Slick will have some great info on this subject, he knows his shit. I feel like this thread is gonna be a good one.

They sell camlock -> NPT adapters like this https://www.globalindustrial.com/p/2-female-part-b-camlock-x-2-male-npt-pipe-thread?infoParam.campaignId=T9F&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI7O-Z2OaK-wIV4PbjBx1MSgXbEAQYAiABEgJZzPD_BwE . Then you can get NPT -> TC adapters from somewhere like Glacier Tanks. You may need to get 2" NPT -> 2" TC https://www.glaciertanks.com/tri-clamp-nps-and-npt-adapters-22mp-g200-200.html then a 2"TC -> 1.5" TC reducer https://www.glaciertanks.com/tri-clamp-fittings-concentric-reducers-b3114mp-g200-150.html.

Is that too big for Jesse to make for you?

Is there anything wrong with the unit? Who is the manufacturer? We're very interested in buying a system like this for post distillation dewatering. Thank you!

We reduce the proof slowly over 4-8 weeks as well. We make larger proof reductions initially, while slowing down the proof reduction once nearing the 100 proof mark. ~One proof degree per reduction from then on. Some suggest doing small reductions all the way, which probably wouldn't hurt. An important aspect of water additions is good agitation. We mix with a paddle while water is being added, and multiple times per day for the following week or so to encourage proper incorporation. It may be hard to get proper agitation/mixing if you are proofing in the barrel.

We found replacement hoses for ours on one of these sites, I forget which. We were in the same boat looking for a longer length, and we went with whichever one gave us the best price on that length. https://www.homebrewit.com/products/enolmaster-pharmapress-hose-replacement-set?variant=17541712052314&currency=USD&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI1-r-1rqR-AIVg5SGCh21MgZKEAQYASABEgJC-_D_BwE https://www.winemakersdepot.com/Spirits-Oil-Suction-Hose-Set-for-Enolmaster-and-Enolmatic-P1463.aspx

A picture of of this phenomenon would go a long way as well.

You may have more luck getting a local/semi local shop to rebuild/replace the motor for you vs. sourcing a new one.

The ferment could definitely finish drier, though I don't think that's the issue. Sometimes the culprit, if it's your first time running the equipment, may be that the prop for your agitator is upside down and therefore not accomplishing good agitation. I've seen that more than once. Just to add to this - the prop spinning the wrong direction can also create the same problem. Regardless, you want to be sure it is pushing down vs. pulling up. There's an old thread on here somewhere where this was the issue - though I can't find it at the moment.

Don't apologize to me, apologize to your yeast! 🤣

Is there any agitation?

Also - I know some people ferment hot, which you can pull off with specialized whiskey yeasts. Your starting temperature is way hotter than recommended for the yeast you are using at the moment too. It recommendeds the range of 18C-28C. So not only is it cooking itself up way too hot, it's way too hot to begin with. We ferment cooler even with whiskey yeast, but to make this yeast perform optimally you wouldn't want it to get much hotter than 28C. It seems you're conversion isn't the issue if it's sweet and reading ~17brix. If the viscosity is really unworkable, aim for closer to 15 brix or lower, or consider using some exogenous alpha and/or gluco amylase. Our rye mash is definitely more of an oatmeal consistency than our bourbon mashes, it's just the nature of the unmalted rye grain. I think ultimately you are frying your yeast, but otherwise are doing a good job mashing. Edit: in your initial post you mention pitching yeast at 37C, but in a response mention it's more like 20C so I may be off. My take above was based on your pitching when your mash is at 37C.

Do you check the temperature throughout the fermentation? Our rye/wheat ferments cook themselves up much faster and hotter than our bourbon ferments. It's to the point where we prefer to make bourbon in the summer and rye in the winter to help take that edge off. If your wort is nice and sweet then maybe the incomplete fermentation is because the ferment is cooking itself up too high, too fast.

Our supplier reached out and told us to put an order if we want one in 18 months. And that wasn't for an explosion proof one. Having an explosion proof lift isn't necessary for distilleries, although it's definitely not a bad thing because it shows you are being very safety forward. Our electric forklift was sparking like crazy when I'd go to pick up certain totes, very unsafe. big huge arc from the forks to the tote and a snap you could hear from across the facility. I asked why it was happening and they said they would need to come and ground it. It is a surprisingly easy thing to do, it is simply a strap they put on to a designated spot under the fork lift. No such issues since for a $10 piece.

I was taught to do so when I first started. We were making a lautered single malt and it worked just fine. I also pulled it off with rum. When it came time years later to make grain in mashes like rye and bourbon, it didn't work. I think the yeast would get stranded high and dry on the slight grain cap and didn't get going. Now making a starter (hydrating, feeding) is my favorite part of mashing, so I don't see ever going back to dry pitching even with clear worts. It gives the yeast a nice head start.

We've found that the only thing farmers around here want is the last of our bourbon mashes, lots of grain and not much water because of the way the grain settles in the fermenter. The rye and wheat mashes are way too wet, and we can't remove any liquid from them because of their oatmeal like consistency. You can buy grain dewatering systems that will do the trick, but they are a bit pricy and add another step to the process.

Even with our coarser grind we don't get really any dewatering done with wheat or rye. We get some great separation with corn though. The corn seems to make more of a tea where there's very clear solids separation. The rye and wheat end up like more of an oat meal consistency, and doesn't create a ton of separation even after letting it settle for a while. We gravity empty our spent stillage into totes outside off the loading dock, let it settle for a day or so, then use a cheapo sump pump to remove what liquid we can off the top. Not super effective but it saves us a bit in disposal costs.