iskiebaedistillery

Anyone know any regulations in regards to wood floors? I was looking at a potential site that had wood floors, it is an old industrial building.

How much water are you adding? What are your starting and final specific gravities? If you are getting 7% then what you are doing is extremely efficient or your ABV calculation is off.

Look into grist hydrators.

Jeff Green on here sells hoses with clamps, at very competitive pricing.

PeteB, I have set up nice grain filter beds post fermentation. I have not done this on commercial size equipment yet, but it works on my home brew set up. I did, however, design the equipment with the intentions of scaling up for my micro distillery. Of course if you are doing mash bills of high wheat, rye or corn then this can get difficult without adding rice hulls. http://www.iskiebaedistillery.com/2015/12/28/iskie-bae-distillery-grain-filtersparge-arm-concept/

Haha no worries Tupper Lake, it's kind of a weird design but once you play with it, things make sense! Yup would work just fine in a 45 gallon, of course I would extend the bottom grain filter pipes to be sizable to the diameter/length of the mash tun/fermenter!

Hi Tupper Lake, sorry for the late reply. Yes to the vorlaufing and no to the fermenter drain. As you can see around the 5:10 mark in the video, I'm removing the "sparge arm" and transferring it to a bucket. So after vorlaufing to set the grain bed, I am transferring the beer through the same apparatus to another vessel. So instead of the "sparge arm" recirculating the beer over the bed, it transfers the "clear beer/wash" into another container. The design I made is to prevent the difficult task of making a false bottom for oddly shaped dairy tanks that I am using for mash tuns and fermenters. Besides avoiding a lot of custom fabrication on each mash tun, the drop in design is removable for cleaning if you do get a stuck vorlauf which may be common on cheaper equipment, especially with corn, rye and wheat. Hope that makes sense!

Yes, completely agree 3dog.

3dog, I'm not suggesting the use of sulfur hexafluoride in anyway and I'm not suggesting a "boat" will float in ETOH vapors. Some people just need help visualizing things and many believe if something is "heavier than air" your still "wouldn't work". In a perfect scenario with no air or surface movement, which is impossible, if ethanol vapors were being pumped in the bottom of the pot they would push the oxygen out just as water would if you were filling it through the bottom of the pot.

Nice stills!

Very good post meerkat! You did a good job describing the situation. There is a misconception out there, that is, if ethanol were heavier than air, your still wouldn't work. However, as ethanol goes from liquid to vapor form, it displaces the air pushing the air out. Imagine these vapors being produced at the surface of your wash inside the still, and building up slowly eventually making their way through the system. In an open air environment, however, it mixes very easily as you stated. The heavy gas in the tank in this video shows it clearly:

I was looking at the Apollo units as well but no one answered my question as to the material of the body. If it is lead free or not since most of the bodies they sell are brass. The Generant ones come with stainless bodies, which is nice, but the seal seems to be the issue.

Hi Smoky Quartz, I am talking about the actual internal seal of the PRV not the threaded portion where it meets the still. EP is a rubbery compound so I worry about fast degradation under ethanol vapor. PTFE seals are known to require more pressure than softer compounds like EP or Silicone, hence the internal PTFE seal can only be used on springs with ratings above 20 PSI on the generant units. I don't want a PRV above 15 PSI because according to the ASME anything above 15 PSI is considered a pressure vessel and should be inspected accordingly.

What is everyone using for the sealing material in these PRVs. They can't use PTFE under 20 PSI on these valves. They suggested EP, but I am not too comfortable with it.

Very nice, how are you cooling it before recirculating it through the condenser?

Thank you for this, I have been searching for something like this!

I believe this is the one: http://www.qcsupply.com/modine-hot-dawg-heater-model-hds.html

Hi everyone, this is an older subject but a new space I am looking at has an natural gas heater attached to the ceiling. Is there any problems with this as a heat source?

I think recycling cooling water is a great one.

Just realized you said rum, not whiskey. If it doesn't smell/taste off I would just repitch the yeast with a strong starter or increased volume.

Did the mash go through a boil or do you just hold it at the saccharification rest?

I have been searching for a suitable property for over a year and a half. The biggest hurdle in finding a property is the finances, by far. I am a low budget start up, so I have been trying to find a suitable location with some of the work already done. The first building I was leasing had very little done, and after adding the numbers, talking to architects and the city, it would have been a $50-100k renovation cost for a 1300sf production space. Of course, I terminated the lease on that location. Now I wised up and lowered my standards on a few things, per say. The big things I am looking for is zoning, location, price and sprinklers. I would think less about floor drains, plumbing, electrical service, HVAC, etc. Finally, I think I found the perfect location, but will have to bring in an angel investor who wants a share of the ownership. I was not planning on the latter, but sometimes your ideas and skills do not bring to the table the financing needed for a start up in this industry. If I wasn't passionate about the actual brewing and distilling processes, I would have quite a long time ago and started a pub.

I agree Tom! Are things as simple as these acceptable: http://www.globalindustrial.com/p/hvac/exhaust-fans/exhaust-and-supply/jd-es-shutter-fan-20-inch-115v-1-3hp-1ph-variable-speed-aluminum-shutters-10ft-cord?infoParam.campaignId=T9F&gclid=CKf0vP2jm8wCFQmSaQod4X8Dlw http://www.globalindustrial.com/p/hvac/fans/blower/portable-ventilation-fan-12-inch-with-16-feet-flexible-ducting

Thank you for your response 3dog! Is there a certain height that the ventilation has to exit at?

Is there a minimum ventilation standard? The space is a 1200sf in a multi tenant building. The architect said that fire dampers in the current HVAC system would likely have to be installed and adding a stand alone ventilation system. Would an ambient air ventilation system out through the window suffice? The windows exit at street level. Thanks!