indyspirits

Weren't these assholes still taking orders a month or so ago??

20 minutes ago, Thatch said:

If your guy is clueless, let me know and I'll provide a list of name

They're clueless, rather, they're solely a printshop with no equipment ties.

1 hour ago, Thatch said:

Sorry, I cannot come up with a way to keep the speed you need without doing two labelers.  This would also require you having your back and front labels on separate cores. 

ooooooh! Im interested. I only meant currently front & back are on the same core. It would be trivial to have them on separate rolls.  How do I learn more??

Maybe try these guys:  https://annegreycooperage.com/

I'd suggest an omega pid and belimo valve.  Use there search here. There's lots of info. Fairly certain the inkbird is not a PID. Regardless, you want try proportional output and a valve that reacts to that: omega & belimo.

9 hours ago, Thatch said:

 Again, just tell me what you want to do, there is likely an applicator that will do it. 

Let's say I have bottle with a square / rectangular cross section. I need to be able to apply a label to the front and the back in at the same rate as I can do with my bottlematic-ii labeler... about 12 / minute.  Our labels are printed on a roll with a 3" core where the front and back labels are printed on the same roll.  In short we want to do this with square bottles:

5 hours ago, Thatch said:

you simply turn the bottle over to apply the back label

The thought of doing that for 300 cases a day fill me with dread. 

2 minutes ago, Thatch said:

Describe what your work flow should look like.

Oh boy... I honestly don't know. Our marketing vp called me this morning saying that our contracted design firm "may be recommending square bottles".  My guess is that it will be a front/back - 2 sides label.  I just want to apply the label with bottlematic-2-esque labeling and go from there. 

23 minutes ago, Tom Lenerz said:

We went with the "don't do it" option.

Don't I wish I could.  I do so love the worlds where production and marketing collide. 

Our marketing company has recommended square bottles. Currently we use two Bottlematic II labelers which, for our slightly tapered and cylindrical bottles works amazingly well.  Looking for sage advice for handling / labeling / packaging square bottles.  Neither "hand label" nor "dont do it" are options.  😕

15 hours ago, Buckeye Hydro said:

Chloramine can be treated with carbon

My understanding is that chloramine treatment via AC is 100% dependent on contact time -- some combo of a big-ass AC bed and appropriate flow rate.  FWIW, we only soften before RO.  

9 hours ago, Mixo said:

Anybody using a wort grant to check for clarity during vorlauf and check SG?

What for? Remember we're distilling not making beer.  I do, however, understand clarity is important to you re: direct fire.  We us a home-rolled grant only to control the pump so we don't compact the grain bed to the point of a stuck sparge.

12 hours ago, Tom Lenerz said:

and don’t plan on harvesting and repitching yeast.

You don't make that mistake twice.  

Embrace the clouds. Embrace the flavor.

3 hours ago, Whiskey4Elephants said:

I cannot share the reason for the distillation as it is proprietary.

That might make a sale difficult.

1 hour ago, Silk City Distillers said:

however the issue is that a gap in product availability is a financial killer

We're having this exact problem now. 

Our last COLA was two days. Straight up simple rye whiskey.

How long have you been waiting? Did it require a sample?  Our formula approvals rarely extend past a week. Often much less.

7 hours ago, whiskeytango said:

Gravity.  

Agreed!

We have quite a few 53 and 30 gallons barrels. These all have been recently dumped having held bourbon.

• 53s are from either Kelvin, ISG or Speyside with #3 char
• 30s are from Barrel Mill with #4 char

$100 each. Minimum order 4 barrels. We'll palletize and arrange freight to your distillery or garden shop or wherever.

1 hour ago, Silk City Distillers said:

I always thought the holy grail would be to find a building on city steam - aka Con Ed steam in NYC

Our distillery was on a street with city steam... approx $125k to connect (it did require closing the street during connection along with all of the regulators & equipment to get it to LP steam) and then you had to contract with the city to purchase steam, the minimum amount  was WAY more than we needed. Even when used for heat in the facility the initial outlay simply wasn't economically logical.  It certainly sounded like a great approach initially. 

1 hour ago, Winnie the Pooh said:

loadable dock (nice to have)

If you don't have a doc you'll need a forktruck

1 hour ago, Winnie the Pooh said:

The main question of what should be a source to heat the still?

You can run the math for all of these. In the midwest NG is less than anything else.  

1 hour ago, Winnie the Pooh said:

Stills that are direct fired with gas are becoming a thing of the past.

I believe they mean literally directly fired -- as in an open flame beneath the pot.  Less efficient than any other method of heating, and yes, I think it would be difficult to gain approval from your local permitting folks.

If you can afford steam, go with steam. There are folks here that will sing the virtues of the water bath. Just pull our your high-school physics book and calculate how long it will take to heat up. Time is your enemy in the distilling world.

5 minutes ago, Aux Arc said:

Cooled down water would then be used in irrigation of crop field nearby

what water wuold you get that's cooled down?

My money is on "not true". 

Bought a gallon of this. Decided to go a different route.  Yours shipped for $75. About $125 shipped from sovereign.