iskiebaedistillery

300 gallons? 20 gallons of mash can take well over 24 hours to get down to pitching temp without a chiller. Unless you are saying the heat exchanger pictured is meant for systems more than 300 gallons?

Thank you glisade!

Before they did renovation on the Cathedral of Saint Paul, Minnesota, the copper was heavily oxidized, take a look at the pic http://en.hydrotechmembrane.ca/sites/default/files//styles/medium/public/projects/%2303.JPG?itok=IFsXePC9

glissade, do you have any more info on the pump you are using to circulate the wort through the chiller? Thanks!

Ok gotcha,that makes more sense. I plan to go the same route as glisade with the wort chillers. I have a 200 and 300 gallon fermentation tank. We are still in the process of the building renovation, so you are closer than me. Please keep me updated on how whatever you choose works. Cheers!

$2500 seems like an awful lot for a drop in wort chiller for a 100 gallon mash tun, unless I'm missing something. Do you have a glycol chiller that you use for other cooling purposes? If not, I would factor the actual chiller and glycol into the equation for the jacketed tank.

That is a nice little set up, love that condenser!

Like you said, there is no set rule of thumb, as each grain differs in starch levels. Here is something that might help you out! http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/calculator/

Ok, sounds good, thanks for the info bluestar!

He said the mash is "pungent" earthy but the spirit is richer with more aroma. In theory, yes tannins/phenolics may have a higher BP than ethanol, but so do many of the flavors and water that gets carried over into the final product. There is no reason to think that tannin leaching won't have any effect on your end product just because it has to follow a vapor pathway, in my opinion. If the grains are constant and the temp is the variable, that would be my guess.

The main reason it is not commonly done is tannins from the hulls will leach more with temp increases. Im guessing you can attribute the flavor difference to the hulls leaching.

Thanks for the info! It seems like the food-grade farmers tend to be smaller farms and harder to find, have you found this to be true?

Hello ebstauffer and Lenny, thanks for the replies. I have been brewing beer for awhile now, and have used my home brew equipment with "bourbon" mashes to attempt to test mashing efficiencies and possible filter set ups. I will be using direct immersion electrical elements in the still, so I it will not be possible to distill on the grain and is why I will be lautering. I have yet to have trouble lautering the bourbon grain profiles. Granted, this is a much smaller scale and this is not a 100% corn whiskey, so the hulls in the mash do provide some structure for a grain bed. I would like to somewhat have a game plan for my mash tuns, as I am using converted dairy equipment, hence why I asked this question on sourcing cracked corn. The corn I used in this video is just from a farm supply store. http://www.iskiebaedistillery.com/2015/12/28/iskie-bae-distillery-grain-filtersparge-arm-concept/ Thanks for the number Lenny, I will give him a call.

Thanks for the replies. James, I have called around a to some local farms, I will def be calling around more come time to buy. The small farm with the corn strain I was interested, said a distillery already purchased all of theirs. I guess im surprised that there is no "standard" as there is in barley because there are many varieties of corn which im guessing give off different flavors. Is using animal feed grade corn common? Are there varieties commonly used in whiskey grain profiles? There is a lot of corn being farmed in Minnesota, its seems many have contracts already sorted out with fuel producers or to sell as animal feed. Ebstauffer, im not sure what you mean? All I am looking for is corn in sacks available in the cracked "grind" for lautering purposes. What kind of farm to you buy from at 15 cents a pound? Is the corn intended for animal feed?

Hello all, most of the brewing supply sources sell corn meal or flaked corn along with a premium price tag. Does anyone have a good source for cracked corn or whole corn? Thanks!

Thanks for the info guys. I have been partial to PTFE because its rating with ethanol. Your opinions and facts are much appreciated!

Hi Southernhighlander, thanks for your response. Those PRV's look like what I am looking for if they come in stainless. Great prices as well. Ill shoot you an email.

Hi HedgeBird, I am looking to mount this at the top of the pot above the fill level so it will not be submerged. It will be exposed to ethanol vapor, and of course the fores/heads vapor as well. I really only trust PTFE for the most part in these conditions. Rubber compounds do not mix well with ethanol vapors and could result in them becoming brittle/cracking.

Is there a taste or color difference pre and post filtering on an aged product/whiskey?

Thanks for the link HedgeBird, I emailed them and they replied that the seats are EPDM.

Hello all, I thought I had found a stainless triclamp PRV rated 15 PSI or less with a PTFE seat. But now I cant find anything. Anyone know of any? Thanks!

I would just like to add the sanitization aspect of heat as well. Remember, you are dealing with grains that grew in the dirt, were exposed to the elements for many months, then processed. There are many useful natural bacteria and fungi present in and on the grains, but there are also ones that produce disease and toxins. If you have a strong conversion, and your pitch rate is good, most often competitive inhibition wins against these pathogens, but you are serving others, so always safety first.

I like this idea, has anyone run heads through one of these? Does the proof inconsistency effect its functionality at all, and down to what proof can you run in one?

I just cried . . . twice

Thank you very much for your response Huffy. I could definitely see the benefits of two level distillery and having gravity on your side. As for moving items, there is a double door on the street level as well as an elevator from the first to second level. You did get lucky in that it must have been built pretty heavy to lift those large stones. Have you passed inspection yet? Did the inspectors say anything about it being two floors? I will actually only be using the upper level, and the bottom level will have a different tenant. In general, from what I have read, there are distilleries in multi floor buildings as long as the building doesnt have residential?