kleclerc77

Contact some suppliers. Let them know you're interested in buying their corn and request the grain analysis info. Most suppliers will have this info readily available for you.

I would be wary of anyone that says the boiler water doesn't need treatment. Unless the boiler feed water is pre-boiled, which is a pretty old-school way to do it, boiler water is going to need treatment. We were sold partially on the same reasoning: you don't have to treat the feed water to this boiler! Well, two corroded tubes in a six week span (boiler is only a year old), it turns out we do have to treat the feed water. I would err on the side of caution and spend the $500 for a chemical feed tank, and save yourself the nightmare that is re-tubing a boiler.

Do you have the ability to do it on-grain? That would be my first instinct.

@prcdc nah yeah ours goes from ~6 to under 4 pretty quickly as well. Haven't had any problems in that department. It seems once the ferment starts rolling, the yeast isn't stressed by the fairly low pH. I'm sure there are people that will say otherwise, or that you may want to keep your pH higher for other reasons. We're getting great results start to finish with no pH adjustment, and reading up on other's issues, consider ourselves very lucky for that!

@prcdc if you're feeling experimental, you could go for a mash with a lower starting gravity, say somewhere in the 15-17 brix range. That's what we do with our rye ferment, similar grinding of grain, and it always zeroes out. I've heard some people talk about not zeroing out when creating a mash with a very high starting gravity. I've also found that with the forming of grain caps, our yeast definitely needs a little encouragement (hydrating, then mixing with a paddle) to get going and then breaks up that grain cap solely from the agitation caused by fermentation. Found that out the hard way with some monstrous grain caps and inadvertent sour mashes. I also agree with @MikeR on the gluco-amylase front. That stuff is incredible.

Thanks for the info @starcat. We just had a hole eaten in one of our tubes after only 9 months of use 😕 We're getting some sort of chemical feed pump installed, will pass this info along to our boiler guys.

@Southernhighlander To be honest I was as surprised as you are about it working this well 😂 We use a pretty coarse ground rye, I wonder if it could handle flour.

@Southernhighlander I'm definitely not saying that your style of mash tun doesn't work, or is inferior in any way. I'm just saying that ours works too. It came with our Kothe equipment package.

I have to say, our angled high rpm agitator with boat style props works incredibly well with our viscous grain in mashes. An easy mistake to make is having the props either mounted upside down, or have them rotating the wrong direction. Either way it will look like they're working when they're not running the right direction, therefor not achieving what they are really capable of.

Gotcha. When I hear/read "mash tun" with no mention of lautering I automatically figure it is a grain in situation. Thanks for the info 🤙

@JustAndy Definitely a shallow source here, I was just browsing around to try and understand the benefits (which apparently there aren't any) of on grain single malt production. Says in this article the first modern lauter tun in Scotland was in 1974. They could be talking about the modernization of the rake technology though. It isn't worded extremely well if that's the case. I was also unaware that blended scotches used distillate other than 100% malted barley. Shows what I know. https://www.diffordsguide.com/encyclopedia/1122/bws/single-malt-scotch-whisky-production-4-mashing

I think most scotches up until the 70s were produced "on grain", though from what I can figure, there are less than a handful of distilleries that haven't switched over to lautering. If lautering is an option, it seems clear that that is the way to go. I've always lautered, but with this new distillery, lautering is not an option, so will be laying down a handful of barrels using the on grain approach. I want to talk to breweries in the area to see if they could pump out some wash for us, but that may not be in the cards. I love the fact that the American Single Malt Whiskey Commission is pushing for producers to determine whether they want to use new and/or used barrels. I wish it was that way with other whiskeys. I hope they also push to ban additives of any kind.

The team at Ferm Solutions have been great to work with. Readily available, and helpful with any process questions. https://ferm-solutions.net/

Sometimes the probes get caked up and will therefore give you temps that are way off. Sometimes the seal isn't complete between the thermometer and the probe, leading to less egregious, yet still inaccurate readings. I've said fuck it and manually use a candy thermometer right into the mash that I know is very accurate. I'll be skeptical of any probe thermometer on a huge tank probably for the rest of my days.

Bringing this one back from the dead. I'm getting a sulphur smell towards the end of my stripping runs off of this rye/wheat ferment. I am not surprised, as this mash/ferment went less than ideally. We got good conversion, however. My question is this: in polishing these low wines, should I be concerned about this sulphur smell bleeding into my hearts cut, or will it just mean a bigger, smellier tails cut? Thanks in advance folks 🤙 Edit: Any idea about this @Silk City Distillers ? Update: No foul odors came over to the polishing run. We have ample copper contact in our still that must've taken care of it.

Gotta agree with @captnKB here, that seems way off. There's nothing to it but adding say, 50 gallons at a time, and checking it yourself. No need to take anyone else's word for it but your own. PS I've found it a lot easier to add molasses to water than the other way around. PPS You're not going to achieve 36.8% with fermentation alone. Aim for somewhere in the 8%-12% range.

Why the intense mixing? Use a paddle if you feel the need to agitate, otherwise proof slowly and allow it to rest.

Yep. Glycol chills the water reservoir and fermenters.

I would talk to whoever is going to be supplying your chiller. G&D was very helpful for us. I'm paranoid about running out of cooling water so went oversized. I've had a severely undersized chiller/reservoir setup in the past and it was awful. Off the top of my head for that size, depending on the size of your chiller, I'd say somewhere between a 750 to 1,250 gallon reservoir.

We use a closed loop system with an oversized water reservoir which is cooled by a glycol chiller. You can also use tap water and collect the hot water for cleaning.

Did you want it to be capable of lautering?

They suggested distilling collected tails through the system (after multiple spirits runs) as the solution, which sounds very odd. Attached is a screen grab of the suggestion. We've received some questionable advice from them that has left me scratching my head. My alternate plan was to flood the condenser and spirit path through the parrot with our cleaning solution. It just also seems odd that the manufacturer wouldn't think to include the condenser on the otherwise very thorough and effective CIP system, I am Jerry-rigging something up to do so. Sometimes it's reassuring to hear it from someone else, thanks for the input @Southernhighlander

I know this is a less than riveting topic, but I could really use some insight here. Tails run to clean your condenser? Sounds like the wrong answer to me. Thanks!

The biggest question I have about our new still is how to clean the condenser and lyne arms between the pot and columns. It is a 1000L vodka still with 20 plates. The plates and the pot are all on the CIP system. However, the condenser and spirit path between the pot and columns are not. We were told by the manufacturer to clean it by running tails through it. This seems like the wrong answer to me, considering the oils from the tails are mostly what we are trying to clean in the first place. I have a plan to rig up a line from the CIP pump right into the point where spirit leaves the condenser, but wasn't sure if I am missing something, or am mistaken about the cleaning powers of a tails run. As always, thanks for the help!

I'm not sure about the legal EU definition, but technique-wise you can use almost any type of still to create gin. My understanding of creating a dry gin is getting the spirit off of the still over 140 proof.