bluefish_dist

I used stanpack ink.  They don’t do glass, but do work with several glass suppliers making regular deliveries.  Excellent customer service.  

I will probably be around for a while. It’s been a fun ride.  Learned a lot and now I could really do a business plan for a new distillery.  

We are closing down and have a few Ace Rotomold Cone bottom fermenters for sale.  The 110 gallon and 300 gallon are complete with triclamp valves on the drains and racking arms from Glacier tanks.  They also have inkbird controllers running stainless steel heating elements. 

300 Gallon with stand $650

(4) 110 Gallon with stand $400 each

(3) 85 gallon without stand and fittings or heat $90 each

Slightly bent stand for 85 or 110 gallon tank $65

Located in Colorado Springs.  Would consider delivery in colorado.

I ran some hopped beer and it almost completely plugged my seive plates.  I think it was the hopps that made a algee looking slime that coated the bottom plate.  Never again.  

Try less sugar.  18%+ is quite high.  Try 12-14%.  Also map the sg vs time, when the sg stops going down, it’s done fermenting. 

I add citric and calcium carbonate at the beginning to get more buffer, then adjust mid run with cc.  I start about 5.2 and adjust if it drops below 4.0.  

I would guess, yes, but I never ran ec1118.   I did run some bread yeast and felt RM gave more rum notes.  

I have used RM a lot and it makes nice rum.  I have used it with almost 100% cane sugar and mixed with molasses, both work well.  Looks like a rolling boil when it is fermenting. 

Yes, you are close.  I would figure you yield 10% of the wash as finished product for sizing purposes.  Less for whiskey due to the lower starting abv.  

I will also share that we run about 70% gross margin.  Also about $100/gallon average sale price.   Between those numbers you should be able to calculate capacity required.  

Not to sound like as a$$, but you need to spend some time reading on home distiller.   I understand that English is not your native language, but these are some pretty basic questions.  A good start for how much you will make is compute how much alcohol you have in the wort, og vs fg.  Then say you have a 10% you would have .4 gallons of alcohol 4 gallons X 10%..  For ease of calculating we will assume your still will capture it all,  so take .4/10, thus .04 gallon jars or in metric terms 150ml.  

Personally I have never made anything I would want to drink after a single distillation on a pot still.  That would necessitate a 2nd run.  I really only run columns for spirit runs and there are way too many permutations to get into that here. 

4 hours ago, Nicola said:

Hi all,
I'm new to this forum and I'm new to distillation so, first of all I want to say thanks to every one for the help, and sorry for the (maybe) stupid questions.

Searching on internet I found a lot of information on how to make cuts, but the topic is still not very clear to me.
Someone base his cuts on distillate ABV, some others on the temperature, some others on both so my question is:
Can I base my cuts only on temperatures of the vapours?

No  not without running the exact same spirit several times to have a baseline of when which cuts come off   Even then it will depend on the still type and how you run it.   For the way I run a column still, temperatures and abv have no relation to cuts.

If yes, at which temperature should I make the cuts for foreshots, heads, heart and tails?

See above   Also air pressure effects the relationship between abv and proof.   So the weather changes your temperature slightly and elevation changes them a lot.  Cuts are best done by taste.  Collect your run in a minimum of 10 jars, take small samples and dilute to less than 80 proof.   Then taste them.   For heads start 30% from the front and taste to the first jar.  It should be obvious when you reach heads.   Tails depends more on your still.  On mine it's right at the end.  Ymmv .

 

My idea is:
- discard everything below 181°F (83°C) as foreshots
- collect everything between 181°F and 190°F (88°C) as heads in different jars and then decide if discard everything or if mix something with the heart
- collect everything between 190°F and 203°F (95°C) as heart in different jars and then decide if keep everything or discard something
- collect everything between 203°F and 212°F (100°C) as tails

Can it be correct?

Another question is:
Is it mandatory to make a double distillation, or can I run only one distillation making the cuts and put my moonshine in the jars as final product?

Thanks again for your help!

You can add a tiny amount of sugar and still proof as normal.  I think the cut off is 400ppm dissolved solids. 

I run a recirculated cooling system with 2 300 gal totes feeding a 125 gal still.  It works fine if you only want to run every 3rd day.  I have considered adding a radiator on the return line to help dump heat prior to going back into the totes.   So far that has not been needed to meet demand.  It does not keep a constant water temp, but I run a VM style still head so it's not all that critical.  If running a CM, I think a radiator and then probably a small chiller would work better.  Radiator to dump the majority of the heat and the chiller to keep a constant temp in the reservoir.  

FYI the fire department can come out and check with their meter.  I think hvac techs also have co meters.  Had to have it done at home when a co alarm was going off.  Turned out it was bad and was a false alarm.  

Did not have to ground out fermenters as they only hold "beer" which the fd essentially considers water.  All tanks/containers for spirits needed grounding and bonding.  

I have been told that to get the bold flavor you have to have pina in the wash.   The master distiller I talked to said you would not get good flavor from syrup alone.  

I was quicker than that.  Maybe a month.  But that was when the law first went into effect.  

Not sure who you are asking, but yes we did.  Sold it as whiskey as it was all malted barley, hence the no hopps.  We had the brewer make the wort and then we transferred it prior to fermentation.  Fermented in house, then distilled and barrel it. 

The finished product had notes from the Porter, but was definitely a whiskey.  It was fun to watch reactions as people tried it.  The different flavors hit at different times.  

We recently did an unhopped Porter.  Came out quite interesting.  Sold well.  Technically it was a malt whiskey.   

Using CB insurance in cos.  

Colorado allows self distribution as well.  

I don't think you can do it all in one batch as that would be changing types which would require a formula.  You could do it with one mash bill and different runs, i.e. This one is corn whiskey, this one is bourbon.  A local distiller does that.  Same mash bill for two different products.  If you define it up front as a type and don't change it, no formula is required.  

Corn whiskey is unique in that it is the only whiskey not required to be aged.  If it is aged it has to be in uncharred barrels, so if it's corn whiskey, toasted barrels, bourbon, new charred barrel.   Clear as mud?

I would  also try some Gibbs barrels if you want a little slower extraction.  

Do whatever you want, but be honest with the customer.  I can't stand "distillers" who do everything they can to obscure who or where the product is actually made.  If you redistill GNS and sell it as vodka, say that's what you do.  Say why it makes a better vodka than simply bottling GNS.  If you just bottle GNS, say that's what you do, don't call it hand crafted when you buy a tanker truck at a time.   Don't have a huge still that isn't hooked up and say you make awesome vodka.  You don't make anything, you are simply a bottling plant.  

One distiller who makes a good gin said this on using GNS, do you expect a painter to stretch his own canvas to paint on?   The GNS is simply the canvas to which I paint using botanicals.   I think he has a valid point, but if I make a gin it will be from my own base spirit because that what I want to do