indyspirits

Anyone put an industrial water hammer arrestor on their diaphragm pump to smooth out the herky-jerkiness?  

What I would do to get very close is buy a copy of AlcoDens from @meerkat, find out how much sugar is in your AJ, and then just consider the AJ a simple dextrose solution and run the proofing calcs in AlcoDens. 

When compared to condensing vapor and cooling mash maintaining ferm temps is a metaphorical blip on the radar. For us, the most difficult calculation was the size of the  tube in tube mash cooler.  This article in BYO has all of the math needed to DIY one.  

33 minutes ago, twalshact said:

As I was told I don't think it will help you. You may need a larger or second compressor.

Well that certainly sucks.  When I ran it the first time this morning I did so using it as a CIP pump to clean it -- probably not how I will use in in real life. Why did they say a ART wont work?

It's a big f***er.  Bought on ebay for $900. Retails for $2700. Stainless body, aluminum air motor, teflon seals, valves, etc.  Max flowrate of 107 GPM. Paired it with this compressor.  Unfortunately when running balls to the wall the compressor can't keep up. Dang. Should have learned how to better read the performance curves. We're going to install an air receiver tank.   If you need one of these (you do!) I strongly recommend ebay or something on the secondary market. I spent about four hours tearing it down and cleaning. Apparently it was used to pump adhesives. The insides of the material chambers were a bit rusty. Cleaned up fine with phoshporic acid, a stainless brush and elbow grease (PPE is your friend).  We're building a cart for it out of strut. Here is it in action.

I cant imagine operating without a forklift. How do you get 120 cases onto a truck? 

3 hours ago, Silk City Distillers said:

A typical enzyme mash for us is to add grain around 120, adjust ph to 5.2-5.4, add Beta Glucanase and half of the high temp amylase.

Exactly what we do for rye

3 hours ago, Silk City Distillers said:

Raise to the upper end of the gelatinization temperate range from the grain, hold for 1.5-2 hours, start dropping temperature

144° - 146° F ?

4 hours ago, Silk City Distillers said:

hold for 1.5-2 hours, start dropping temperature.  Add the second half of the amylase.

Couldn't you simply add all of the HTA at the upper end of the gel range and start cooling upon negative starch test?  

4 hours ago, Silk City Distillers said:

Recheck pH and adjust to 5.2 if necessary, add glucoamylase at 140 - hold for 1.5 hours, cool, pitch.

This sounds reasonable. So I ask this..  suppose we're doing a gristbill of 80 corn / 20 barley.  Could we conduct a cereal mash all at the same time? Add all grain,  b-glucan at 125, raise to 190 add HTA, hold until negative starch, cool to 150 and add g-am?  

1 hour ago, Silk City Distillers said:

The big question I raised is can you really do a comparison unless you can source grain grown in a similar manner, this applies to the end distillate being better or worse.

That's exactly what we're doing.  The farmer from whom we get our corn plants both rye and barley as cover crops. We're getting samples of both this week.  Alternatively there is a local maltster we may work with. Exploring all options.   

That's the first I've heard about adding nutes to unmalted barley.  Similiar to a nutrient regimen we'd use for molasses?

So @Silk City Distillers got me wondering about taste differences between raw and malted barley.  So think, "self, just make ten gallons of beer from both malted & raw, run them through a simple pot and see if you can tell them apart".  Then I realized I have no idea how to mash raw barley. I guess I'd start like I do a cereal mash with corn except at 150 not 190.  Adjust pH, add alpha and gluco? I'm stumped on this. 

On 8/29/2018 at 2:13 PM, bluestar said:

Sorry, did not mean to imply we dilute with water, we dilute with spirit and feints.

I would have thought the addition of water would raise the BP enough to get at those oils. Am I wrong?  

We're getting pushback from our insurance carrier that our fermenters should be bonded to our facilitiy's ground loop. Has anyone else been asked to do that?   

12 hours ago, Patio29Dadio said:

nsulated poly tanks look like crap (IMHO), and again, if tall and narrow will require engineering (we have some earthquake shaking in my neck of the wood-less woods.)  And if fat and short they don't fit in my space.

By one online, add whatever bulkhead fittings you want, spray foam it yourself, and, if you feel you must, build an enclosure. On the grand scheme of things 500 is tiny. Our reservoir is 2500 gallons. It sits outside and looks like total crap. We call it the Mr. Marshmallow. 

On 9/7/2018 at 5:56 AM, Silk City Distillers said:

Problem is, we now realize that bottles are not even remotely close.

Other than aesthetics, why does that matter? 

On 9/1/2018 at 10:37 AM, dwhuff said:

I'm leaning towards the 4 spout expressfill volumetric filler and would be interested in hearing from anyone using this model.

We have this model (non gas sparge) as our second filler. I suppose I'm happy? We audit fills (by mass) four times during each run for each spout.  We easily hit our internal +/- 1% fill level target with ease. In our experience, the fills are not equal. Spouts #2 and #3 are consistently slightly overfilled.  I can query out those figures for you if you'd like.  Still well within our tolerance limits.  It would be nice to be able to use a polishing filter with it but since it pulls the spirt, rather than having the spirit pushed to it, we're unable to do this. On the whole, I'm pleased with it. 

What's so difficult about this? If your whiskey is under 4 years of age you need an age statement. 

On 6/23/2018 at 7:30 PM, jrfalcon said:

Looking for  a small wash chiller for taking 150 degrees to 60 degrees in 150 gallon batches 

Why 60 degrees? Most yeast pitching temps are at least 20 degrees higher. You can do much of this with water.

We use malted barley not because of diastatic power, but because it has a different flavor profile that raw.

And where in the world are you paying 50 cents/lb for corn?  Bourbon is expensive solely because the market supports the asking price.

22 hours ago, Hudson bay distillers said:

here is an  update , after getting some accurate information from the CFIA we learned that the information fed to us by the inspector was completely false . so im sorry for reporting fake news . 

Great news!

9 hours ago, dwhuff said:

. The Mori has never had consistent fill levels no matter how its set up and we have fought with it for over a year

Have you spoke with Michael at TCW? We have the four head and have never had an issue.  How far are the fills (by mass) out of spec?

Edit: Just say Michaels reply above. Mea culpa.

1 hour ago, Silk City Distillers said:

We did a brewery collaboration last year, sold 300+ bottles out of the tasting room in 4 days.

I assume the collab was whiskey? How long did you age it? New or  second-fill barrels? How large? We've been asked to do a number of collabs here locally and tend to decline because the want the product on the shelf in three months.

8 hours ago, CalwiseSpirits said:

RO water is 265 ppm

Eeek! That's not good. Our is about 360 coming in (softened) and 3 out. Is your feed water softened? First I'd verify your TDS pen is working with some distilled water.  If it is, looks like you need to replace your membrane.

38 minutes ago, jbdavenport1 said:

County says we can't dilute and send down drain.

I would ask to see the regulation.

Are you selling these as new make spirit??

14 hours ago, bluestar said:

On 8/22/2018 at 4:08 PM, geraldmarken said:

 

We do something like 25 lbs of solid in 10 gallons to macerate

Whenever I read about these MASSIVE botanical bills it makes me chuckle. Never in a million year did I think this would work, but it does!  Out total bill is 18 lbs / 10 gallons of neutral with the bulk of it in anise (green not star) to hedge our louching bets. I can't imagine stuffing in another 7 lbs of herbs.  Your bill gives me pause... we could accommodate another 8 lbs if we double the amout of water we add prior to distillation. Hmmm. More experimentation is in order.