indyspirits

Not sure I'd bother if you're running the same thing. Add a little Patcote 376 to you boiler charge to prevent puking and you should be OK. If you can remove the perhaps a blast with your washdown hose.

I assume you mean second hand? Where are you located?

Thanks @Rum! I've stopped worrying about making it perfect the first go around. We'll collect flow-rate info and our organoleptic evaluation and if it needs more filtering we'll swap tote positions and run it again. Thanks for your thoughts.

Slightly off topic but we found that single malt in a third fill barrel is over-oaked after 24 months. Edit: at 6 gallons

@Rum @Natrat This will be gravity fed one tote positioned directly above another. I do believe I can prep the carbon bed to eliminate most air pockets. Not sure how I'd calculate contact time with the bed. Perhaps derive from flow rate?

Are you referring to 1 liter bottles? Do you have marketing data showing your target consumers want 1 or 1.75 liter bottles? I don't recall ever seeing craft spirits in large(r) format bottles.

We've build a filter for our neutral spirits which we either make or buy (The Horror!!). Previously we've run it through our column and taken a wee heads & tails cut. We simply don't have that many hours in the day. We had our local metal fab shop make a tote platform; source tote on top, destination tote beneath. Filter setup like this: We have around $700 in stainless triclamp pieces and parts. I've read, researched, and gleaned all info both factual and anecdotal. What I can't exactly determine is: Is the filter bed of sufficient depth (it's 36")? What flow rate should we run at (? Is 12x40 coconut husk based carbon appropriate for this task? TIA!

Just pick one anywhere. Final landing point has nothing to do with, well, anything. I used a place out of NOLA and had my equipment delivered to the midwest.

We buy nearly all of our parts / components from StillDragon. Very pleased with their service / support.

@Southernhighlander -- help me understand this. Let's say you have a still charge of 2000 gallons @ 50% abv. And let's just say for shits & giggles the latent heat evaporation of this mixture is 600 BTU/lb. Let's further assume we're going to vaporize 1000 gallons and a gallon of the mixture weight 7 lbs. That means we're going to need (600 * 1000 * 7) 4.2M BTUs to vaporize it. And that doesnt even count the BTUs needed to get it from ambient to boiling. When that steam condenses, it's going to introduce (4.2M / 970 / 8.34) 520 gallons of water into the still. For the life of me I can't imagine how you're going make that tails cut let. Of course there's so much additional water maybe you simply dont. Or cant. P.S. Please fix any math errors.

I simply cant see that being a good idea. I've always found the tails cut to be fiddly; a process that I don't see being made more straight-forward by constantly diluting the still charge. Seems like a great idea for an inexpensive stripping still.

I assume you wouldn't use steam injection for a spirits run or you'd forever be chasing your tails. For every 8,000 BTUs you're adding a gallon of water to the mash.

Wow. That seems exactly what we need. How big is your boiler? tank? What are you doing for a condenser? I've seen folks who wrap 2" thin wall copper tubing around a utility cable spool and then lower it into a smaller tote and continuously run water. Might be less expensive to build (buy?) a shotgun condenser.

Pretend for a moment I have no experience with eductors or steam wands or anything else other than jacketed stills... :-)

RO water has about zero alkalinity and no hardenss to buffer pH. It's fairly aggressive in terms of corrosiveness. That being said, if I could found a second-hand 500k boiler and piped it for steam injection, with softened muni water, I could probably get a decade out of it. I'm being penny wise and pound foolish. How would you fabricate the "steam wand"? Would a 1" copper manifold do it? Hmm, thinking out loud here... is there any reason I couldnt pipe the feed water through the product condenser and reclaim a bit of that heat??

It's not. I am mistaken. Been reading too much. In the bad ole days when we had no money we were considering sending the condensate from our steam jacket to waste but needed a flash tank to cool it to 140F before sending to waste. 100% does not apply to steam injection. Sorry.

I don't believe you can use boiler treatment chemicals and since you're continuously introducing new, untreated water it would drastically reduce the lifespan of the boiler. Then there's also the need for condensate cooling tank and the fact that you're wasting a lot of energy having to heat water from ground-temp. That being said, the simplicity of it all is fairly compelling. If I could pick up a second-hand 500,000 BTU boiler that would be a good path forward.

Phil Collins fan??

We happened upon a 550 Custom Metalcraft tote and due to my impetuousness I bought it. Problem is we dont really need it. Is it even realistic / pragmatic to think we could install steam coils in it, insulate, add a condenser and turn it into a stripping still? Inquiring minds want to know.

Magic pixie dust. Just like all the others.

Only thing I can think is that 29 brix seems really high. It's always tough, as you know, with molasses due all of the unfermentables. What's the spec sheet list the TSAI as on the molasses? Product we use is listed at between 68 and 72% TSAI. Regadless, I would have expected to see some activity. You know your yeast... is 95F too high? As @stillwagon said, test pH and adjust up w/ CaOH (we've used NaOH in a pinch). We've been know to pull off a sample and ferment in a 2L erlenmeyer just to find out what works.

E150a & water is the answer. Cheap, effective (just ask the Scots) and food grade for the rookie trainees.

Other than blackstrap: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=molasses+new+jersey We've used International shipping out of Dayton. Good folks to work with. You pick the volume from bucket to tanker. The book "The Distiller's Guide to Rum" is a valuable resource. Lot's of choices on yeast strains. We've used everything from bakers to beer strains (currently user a fermentis product). I enjoy making rum as there are so many different approaches and treatments. Enjoy the journey!

That's total bullshit. Shop around for another bank. To a lender it doesn't matter if you're selling booze or bikinis, just need to show them a solid business plan and most likely some (read: a lot of) collateral.

https://kycapitalliving.com/2017/06/13/buffalo-trace-distillery-earns-patent-pending-for-its-old-fashioned-sour-mash-process/