PeteB

In my opinion, if the mixer in the still works well at 100% speed (60 Hz USA) then you don't need it. A centrifugal pump flow rate can be reduced to almost zero with an inline valve on the discharge side, assuming there aren't particles to clog the valve if it is almost closed. EDIT: I said above "almost zero" It is very important to keep some liquid moving through the pump otherwise the liquid will heat up and can boil. A friend of mine left a pump motor running for an hour or so with the outlet shut off. He opened the priming port and it shot boiling water in his face. Since you already have them installed it is probably not worth removing them, as said above they give added protection.

20 minutes sounds as if it should have easily done the job. I assume a tote is about 1,000 litres, maybe didn't get the agitation to the bottom, get a longer paddle. Maybe stratification is not the problem. Being new to this industry are you sure you are measuring your ABV correctly? How are you measuring?

Agree, most likely wasn't stirred well enough after adding water. Denser water goes straight to the bottom of your blending tank. I rent out my distillery occasionally and a couple of years ago I calculated the volume of water to add to their gin but they measured several times and it kept coming back low. They got upset with me because I ruined their batch ABV. The sample was taken with a syphon hose towards the bottom of the tank. They stirred again and ABV spot on.

"Cool post from the past" it is, 9 years ago. I am still lautering the rye, 10 years now, but not in the traditional way, I am using a belt press. I think I posted a video of it working on this forum a couple of years ago but can't find it with a quick search. I am using enzymes. When I went to larger mashes they were so viscous that it would stall the stirrer motor. We now add a high temperature enzyme to the hot water before adding grain. Completely eliminates balling problems and greatly assists with speeding up cooling before malt addition. But we think this enzyme is causing a much higher viscosity at the end of fermentation. Whatever that viscosity is, it has been causing charring on the base of the direct fired still. I quite like a small amount of charr note but it is sometimes way too much and we get a burnt note. That burnt note tends to dissipate with time in the barrel but we haven't released any yet. There may be some on this forum who know a lot about starch breakdown and may be able to help. I think the high temperature enzyme might be shortening the starch chains which reduces the viscosity beautifully, but those shorter chains are not being completely broken down by the next stage enzymes. We have done just one trial with another enzyme that appears to have fixed the problem and we had no scorch. I have ordered more of the enzyme so lets hope that is what fixed the issue. I will keep you posted.

Mark Gillespie just published an interview with me on Whiskycast episode 837 https://whiskycast.com/tag/belgrove/ This follows one back in 2014. Thank you US citizens for showing such interest, especially Bill Owens who was such a help to me back in 2010 when I was starting out.

Hopefully my whiskies will be into US soon. Have a COLA waiver to send samples this week to a keen importer.

Thanks Adam, I finally got to look at the whole episode on D+ last night. I had only seen shortened versions on YouTube. No scene with the still unfortunately.

Depends quite a bit on how long you are going to age it. If you want a quick turnaround I suggest taking a big fores cut, if your conditions allow and you can age for say 10 years then you can get away with a much smaller cut, the angels will assist with removing some of the fores. As long as you re-cycle the fores and don't throw out every time, a big cut is not a waste of your hard won spirit.

NOBODY!!! The huge Scottish Malt Whisky industry filters out the grain

Eliminate one section of the vacuum path at a time. Pull one of the hoses off the overflow chamber and hold your finger over the nipple, remove the other chamber hose from the filler head and suck on it then put your tongue on the end of the hose and see if the vacuum is held in the chamber. If it is OK then try putting a bottle on the filler head and do a similar process. If your filler has had quite a bit of work it is quite likely that the seal inside the rubber filler cone has worn out and needs replacing. One of my fillers wasn't working and I discovered the single bottle we were trying to fill had a small lump of class in the neck that stopped the rubber cone from sealing.

From what I could see from the outside of the pump I very much doubt it has an oil bath

I have a couple of Enolmatics, I am not sure if the vacuum pumps are the same but if they are I recently worked out a very easy fix for mine that failed. The pump appears to have a diaphragm and 2 valves. I often use mine for bottling liqueurs containing sugar. I suspect that over the years small sugary droplets got deposited on the valve surfaces and the vacuum gradually reduced. I allowed a small amount of water to be drawn through the pump and all of a sudden it was working like a brand new vacuum pump again. I did not dismantle the pump but assume the water washed the sugar off the valve surfaces.

Is there any legal way to ship spirits from Australia to individuals in Canada via mailorder? I am reasonably sure the answer is NO but wanted to ask the brains trust before I respond to a request. Cheers, Pete

@Violent Blue, They did film the distillation but didn't show it which was disappointing. I think you are Steve, we met briefly on a bus tour to Wild Turkey during an ADI conference in Louisville and again at a trade show at San Diego ADI. We discussed continuous distillation, I got mine built and had promised to show the setup on this forum but haven't yet. Have to do some drawings but have been too busy

I am lucky because I am in a rural area and trying to fly under the radar with inspectors. I am very grateful that I didn't have all the hoops to go through that most of you in the USA have to, and some of the more recent entrants in urban Australia. I did meet a US rural distiller when I was on a panel at an ADI conference. The session was about distilling in rural areas. His experience was similar to mine, convince them that you know what you are doing and they will leave you alone. My argument is, as I said on the show "we are making sterilizer" (also like many of you we were making hand sanitizer until the big boys caught up) I also rely on wild fermentation for the first 12 hours of fermentation before I pitch commercial yeast. If my process was sterile I would miss out on the fruity complexity. The show is still creating a lot of interest from USA potential customers. Some refuse to read the warning on my store page that USA law wont allow me to ship directly to consumers. I have deleted USA from the address list but some try to get through by putting a different country such as Ubekistan. WTF!!

There is no video in the spoiler link. I don't know much about streaming shows but I think you should be able to get back issues on Disney + but don't know if it is there yet. Once you watch the show you will be able to see my process. Spent grain is fed to my sheep. When they are in the shearing shed their shit falls through slots in floor and eventually dries out. That is where Gordon the shit shoveler was put to work. Rye grain is sprouted (malted) in an industrial clothes dryer. A timer turns on several times a day and waters the grain and turns the drum for a few seconds for a few days. I load peat or "rapidly aged peat" into an old propane cylinder, once it is smoldering I introduce a small controlled amount of air into the bottom so it makes smoke only and doesn't start burning with a flame. The wet green malted grain in the clothes dryer now turns at regular clothes dryer speed and the smoke is piped into the middle. The wet grain tumbles through the smoke.

Hi Eric, I have previously investigated US importation and thought it just too complex, other countries so much easier. I have now decided to make another attempt and have been in contact with an importer who I met at a distilling conference. I also have just started an independent bottling company for Tasmanian Malt Whisky which will give me more volume to ship. Cheers

Thanks for posting the above. I was thinking too fancy, trying to imagine that you turned a handle and the labels pulled through and applied themselves. Have seen other wooden holders but for only one bottle at a time, yours should be much quicker.

There was so much interest after the show that it crashed my website. Lots of emails enquiring about me shipping to USA but as most of you know your laws do not allow it. My online store automatically locks out USA addresses. Peat and sheep dung are similar products, they both form when vegetation is in wet, low oxygen, acidic environment. The sheep's stomach only takes a couple of days to turn the plant material into a burnable fuel (once it is dried) The sheep smoke is not much different from peat smoke.

I have been on this forum for about 10 years. If any of you would like to see one of my distilling projects that is a bit out there you can see it on Gordon Ramsay's Uncharted season 2 that aired in USA and Canada on Sunday 7th June. Here is a link to a "spoiler" for the show. https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2715946521842804&id=351647368272743&sfnsn=mo

When I saw distilleries here in Australia using their regular spirit bottles for sanitiser I thought there would eventually be a mix up. There were no other containers available and I guess if you use your regular bottles it is a bit of self promotion but just not worth it when it goes wrong. Just a heads up to anyone making sanitiser be aware that the shortage won't last long. Here in Tasmania there is now a glut of it now the big boys have caught up and there is also cheap imported product as well. (Today is the first day without any new Covid infections transmitted in Australia and the 27th day on our island of Tasmania)

If you have an effective agitator it shouldn't make much difference where the probe is. I bought an infrared temperature gun. It is useless if there is steam or the surface is shiny so that rules out the mash or the still. There may be guns that with work through steam and shiny surfaces.

I have heard of stills being run slowly while doing cuts then run faster the rest of the time. Basic science tells me that shouldn't cause much smearing of compounds.

How about a photo or better still a short video of a label being applied? Please. edit, I mean the one you made.