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PeteB

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Everything posted by PeteB

  1. In my opinion a turbity meter is unnecessary for checking the finished product. I shine my phone's flashlight through the bottom of the bottle, if I can't see any turbidity then neither can the customer.
  2. For my information, what do you use a turbidity meter for?
  3. The reason these burn slowly is because the liquid ethanol is below a layer of pebbles. This layer does 2 things, it keeps the flame heat away from the liquid so keeping it cooler, and oxygen can't get down through the small gaps in the pebbles to accelerate the fire.
  4. From what I have found, ethanol is not classified as an environmental hazard in Australia, but in reality that would depend on the size and location of the spill. A flat concrete slab with coving(raised edges) that contains a spill would be a very dangerous situation. Have you ever seen a gas / petrol station area around the pumps like that? Imagine a fuel spill and your car is sitting in a pool of very flammable liquid. They all slope to the perimeter into a drain that goes to an explosion proof containment. Concreted barrel stores should be the same. 60% ABV ethanol that is soaking into gravel floor will, in most situations, be too cold to produce vapors any where near LEL (Lower Explosive Limit) whereas pooling on a concrete floor is more likely to produce LEL. If ethanol spills onto a gravel floor and catches fire it will burn very slowly. Ethanol fireplaces and fire pits in homes are examples of safely burning ethanol.
  5. No replies yet. A simpler question to answer, what type of flooring you have seen in barrel stores?
  6. I am having issues with local authorities requiring me to have a concrete floor in my new, smallish, 60,000 litre barrel store. I am in a rural location in Tasmania, Australia, and there are no buildings within 50 metres, and they are up a slope. They are requiring the floor to be flat with coving around the perimeter to contain any spill. That is creating a very dangerous situation. I wish to have a gravel floor so any spill will soak away, which I think is reasonably common in other parts of the world. I would appreciate it if any of you have information that I can present to prove my case for gravel. Cheers, Pete
  7. Soap is made by my neighbor from olive oil and lye (caustic soda) no perfumes. Until a couple of weeks ago it was a stripper only. I am now adding a second column with plates so it should continuously do the cuts. I am altering the heat recovery system so most of the pre-heat is from bottoms.
  8. There is a potential foam issue that I have solved very simply. I constructed an automatic dosing system, sounds complicated but it is very simple. Pure soap is a good antifoam agent, I suspend a block of soap in a wire basket at the highest point the foam is allowed, if the foam touches the soap it dissolves a small amount then the foam bubbled break and it drops away immediately. If no foam then only a very small amount of soap dissolves by steam contact
  9. On a smaller version of the continuous I found the extra heat from the bottoms didn't contribute much to efficiency, and caused quite a delay in stabilising the system. I have a series of large hot water cylinders that the hot water feeds through, the final one is a heat pump type (for efficiency) There is a thermostat and pump on the bottoms heat exchanger. When the water gets to 80 deg C the water is pumped into the top of the final cylinder which means the heat pump rarely needs to work. Colder water, but still quite hot, is pushed out the bottom of this cylinder into the top of the next one etc. The hot water circulates through the cylinders heating them all. When still is running there is no need for the heat pump to boost the temperature. Plenty of almost free hot water for cleaning, mashing etc.
  10. Can you see my hand drawn sketch of my continuous or you referring to another photo? It shows in my post but I will probably need to re-format it for others
  11. SlickFloss couldn't download my photo, did it download for others?
  12. Apologies to those who have been waiting for this image that I said I would upload over a year ago. Attached diagram of my continuous stripper. Not easy to understand from photos. The boiler is heated with a waste fryer oil burner, once it is running the heat is turned way down because of heat recovered from condenser. No cooling water required. This column now dismantled and will feed a 6 plate bubble cap, 6 inch rectifier. Preheating of the wash for the 2 column setup will be mostly from the boiler outflow. EDIT for clarity, boiler outflow is "bottoms"
  13. I am following this with interest. Several years ago I built a continuous stripping still that is very energy efficient and doesn't require any cooling water. The output from this is then pot distilled to do the cuts. I am this week installing a 6 plate bubble cap column that should do the cuts continuously. The column is slightly modified "hot rodded" so I can draw off selected plates. There is a big energy saving because the vapour from the stripping column is not condensed and re-boiled. A regular pot with column that is run as a fill then empty batch production won't give consistent products off each plate.
  14. Mine has a 4 inch bore and a 3 phase motor, it might be a bit slow for that much. I would think there are bigger mincers out there.
  15. I use a butchers meat grinder (mincer) for wet milling. I malt some of my rye and while it is still wet it runs through the mincer really well. I have soaked un-malted barley in water for a short time and that also works. I haven't tried corn. The plate on the front of the mincer needs to have the correct size holes, too small and it blocls, too large and some whole grains get through.
  16. I use pure soap that a neighbor makes from olive oil and sodium hydroxide (lye) only. Some supermarket soap labelled as "pure" contains additives including perfume.
  17. " try caustic and citric recirculated through a spray ball." That reminds me that a new employee a few years ago thought it would probably be more efficient if he mixed the 2 together, should only take half the time. He told me he was going to study medicine. I am pleased that he changed his mind.
  18. I love seeing this type of creativity, if any of the forum visit my distillery in Tasmania you will see my place full of this. I will be interested to see how it works with corn that I assume you will cook. Malted and un-malted barley drain really well, malted rye is OK but much slower. Rye doesn't have much husk to form an open filter bed. Un-malted rye is almost impossible to separate with decent efficiency on a simple screen. I haven't used corn but I suspect it won't drain nearly as efficiently as your malted wheat. One small technicality, you wrote "single malt of Red Wheat". The word Single as in Single Malt is legislated in many countries as meaning a single distillery produced the malt spirit, not just a mash of a single type of malted grain.
  19. The Scottish definition of whisky says "cereals" not simply "grains" Pseudo cereals would not be allowed, same with the Australian definition. There is a discrepancy because you have added the wrong heading to your cut and paste of the Scottish definition. Single Malt Scotch Whisky is a sub category of Scotch Whisky Definition of “Scotch Whisky” and categories of Scotch Whisky 3.—(1) In these Regulations “Scotch Whisky” means a whisky produced in Scotland— (a)that has been distilled at a distillery in Scotland from water and malted barley (to which only whole grains of other cereals may be added) all of which have been— (i)processed at that distillery into a mash; ............................................. (2) In these Regulations— “Single Malt Scotch Whisky” means a Scotch Whisky that has been distilled in one or more batches— (a)at a single distillery; (b)from water and malted barley without the addition of any other cereals; and (c)in pot stills;
  20. As a ballpark estimate I suggest a 1" hose because of your 3/4" pump connections. Correct sizing depends a lot on the length of hose you need, the type of pump (positive displacement or centrifugal) and also how quickly you need to transfer the liquid. 3/4" hose would be OK if the hose is short and you are not in a hurry. Gravity fill hoses are definitely better with larger diameter because of less pressure difference between the vessels. I assume you will lift one tank on a forklift. Same applies as above, if you are not in a hurry a small diameter is OK.
  21. The electric elements I have had experience with cannot be bent without damaging them. The electrical heating wire inside is surrounded with a solid substance that looks like plaster, and that will fragment and possibly break the wire, or change the heat dissipating properties, most likely leading to premature failure. I suggest you get a flange welded to the tank at the correct angle for your straight element.
  22. Very interesting that pseudocereals are allowed. I must re-read the Scottish definition, I am almost certain that they are not allowed.
  23. On re-reading I see there is a suggestion that purchased wash/beer should be allowed. Also, I did notice in that link a) The class whisky. “Whisky” or “whiskey” is distilled spirits that is an alcoholic distillate from a fermented mash of any grain "any grain" is a very loose term. Scottish regs say cereal grain = family Poaceae. Legumes, pulses and definitely sand can be described as grains.
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