indyspirits

I do believe many of the stock photo places will in fact sell you photo IP.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=stock+photos+whisky

You dump those back into your next strip, right?

Well shit! That's not what I think of when I think of tails!! This clarifies things quite a bit.

Of course, as do we. But the OP wasn't talking about adding feints to the next strip. He's (or she's) talking about making single malt from tails -- two very different things.

What's the brix and acidity like?

Does anyone else this this is a suspect approach? I can't fathom the possibility of processing tails into something palatable let alone having any commercial benefit. Please correct my naiveté.

Do you have small kids? ;-)

In the FWIW category, I've tasted many a bulk spirit that's been stored in HDPE totes with who-knows-what type of plastic valve and never have I picked up any plastic notes. On the other hand (and to answer your question), we use three-piece stainless valves with PTFE seals on our fermentation side and single-part on our "moving around spirits" side. EBay is your friend.

Don't laugh (ok, you can laugh!) but Harbor Freight has a plastic welder that may do the trick. I've never used it but $70 isn't much to invest to see if it would. How do you intend to clean out the void where the legs attach?

Our plan is to make both single malt (lautered) and bourbon in the same cooker. Looks like it's mash paddles for us.

When I looked at the Auber site I didn't see any PID that had proportional output, only time based / PWM output. Can you explain?

Our new mash cooker is 2500 liters which splashing at the manway is about 675 gallons. At this point I don't believe either is in the budget.

After much internal debate / discussion / deliberation / arguing we've decided to go with the simplest solution -- two three way valves; the first will select the input coolant source -- glycol or municipal water and the second value will select the output flow -- either back to the cold water reservoir or to sewer. Although automated solutions were tempting, the thought of validation and periodic testing and the fact that the still will never run without staff in the building (obviously) led us to the manual solution.

Anyone do their own hardware / software for dephlegmator control? If so, care to share your secrets?

Double your budget. Don't anticipate drawing salary for two years. Know your market. Don't be fooled into thinking distributors are your friend. Realize you're a marketing company first, and distillery second.

You add them after (as the corn mash is cooling) so you don't denature the enzymes.

Generally your GNS will be pretty clean before making gin ( or any other ethanolic extract). Stainless is just fine. Not sure what you're asking. You'll want to take a heads cut. Ensure you have fixatives in your bot mix. We distill, bottle, and sell ASAP. If you're doing this for marketing purposes have at it. If you think it adds a distictive flavor conduct a well-controlled experiment. If there is a statistically significant impact, run your financials. If either makes no sense, don't do it. Batch. Run the number and don't let the romance of producing your own GNS trump the financial impact of doing so. Remember, GNS is an ingredient, not a product (although there are many ppl drinking this ingredient) Remember, unless you are independently wealthy, you need to see positive cash flow from whatever you do. Eschew all romantic notions. Run your business as a business.

Contents in barrel are exempt from MAQ calcs.

All very well thought out responses. More than anything I'm trying to mitigate to uses cases: The process loop pump craps out and the boiler is on We lose electricity at the facility Regarding 1 -- The temp sensor on the parrot that would open a mechanical relay (or relays) on the boiler is most straightforward and not too bad to implement. I had thought about adding a flow meter to the output side of the PC but that adds complexity unnecessarily. Number 2 is more difficult. If we lose power to the facility I can think of no other way to address the risk other than a purely mechanical temp controlled valve. After going a bit of Googling I came across this valve which may do the trick -- fully configurable and mechanical. I just spoke with a pre-sales engineer. I'll report back with pricing... Still need to deal with diluting the glycol water mixture. However, with a 2500 gallon reservoir and the fact that this would only be open long enough to condense the vapor created by residual heat is that an issue??

We're getting a closed loop glycol system for our distillery expansion. One feature I want to put in place is a secondary thermostatic mechanical valve that will sense the output water temp of the product condenser and if it exceeds a specific temp, open up municipal water flow the PC. Anyone doing something like this an want to share their experience?

I'm thinking Scalawag is a brother form another mother! Same thing here, temp probe is equidistant from the walls and the drop in heater (also stainless). The ferment is so active we don't see the need to agitate; just something else to worry about.

I single heater maintains ferm temps in all but the coldest days when we'll also use moving blankets for insulation.

Have you confirmed your muni supply contains chloramines? Here in Indianapolis, the normal treatment (IIRC) is chlorine with chloramines added semi-annually for a week or so.

I dont think there's anyone better than Martin Brungard. See section 4 of this: https://sites.google.com/site/brunwater/water-knowledge Does it make much of a difference?? I honestly don't know. I started this practice over a decade ago when brewing beer and have just kept it going. It's so inexpensive and it certainly can't hurt.