adamOVD

You're going to form dough balls adding wheat to water above 140-150F, you should add the wheat and AA while heating. Enzymes other than a high temp alpha are going to be most effective resting around 130-140f. There is a whole post on which acids to use to adjust PH you should search for. I use lactic.

Any chance as RTDs become more popular that abv standards will become less strict, like beer and wine? Or is it a too tied up in taxes?

Nice work all around! Really like the no. 73 label.

By break down I just meant CIP and remove all the hoses Ts valves ect.

If you're doing everything with one pump, you're going to have to break everything down and clean it every time you move anything. You also will have to do one thing at a time. Ex. No filling barrels while you CIP a fermenter. It's worth having at least 2 pumps just for logistics.

Do you have a hot liquor tank you use for sparge water for the next batch? If so the last runnings could get blended into there, and the temp would kill any microbes. Pretty interesting idea, but I wonder how much sugar you would actually reclaim, and if it would be worth gumming up the hot liquor tank.

Yes. Wheat flour can gel at 140F, but the coarser you mill it, the hotter you will need to cook it, and then you will also need to do a conversion rest with your enzymes around 140F. I rest over an hour, but times will vary, depending on agitation, thickness, temp, ect. Rolled wheat is already cooked.

Does anyone know how much diastatic power extraneous enzymes lose in a year?

My wheat whiskey is also an on grain ferment, but I've lautered hefeweizens with 50% wheat and no hulls or enzymes time after time. Not the easiest run off but certainly not impossible. Have you thought of using 25% malt in addition to rice hulls and enzyme? I find all wheat mashes to be bit one dimensional anyways.

@Stumpy's that is indeed one hell of a deal. Unfortunately It's way overkill for me and I don't have the room. Im only milling 500# in a day, twice a week, tops. Plus every mash bill I have contains multiple grain types. I'm surprised no one has snatched it up yet, I remember seeing you post it here.

Thanks for the feedback! I Will get a price on the Meadows #5 as well. Unfortunately logistics won't let me auger or blow directly to the mash tun. I also can't get my forklift over it, so everything is manual. Simple gravity fed would probably be best.

That's a great deal, and a sweet set up. Way too big for me, but I'll contact them to see if they have anything small enough. I don't need to be completely dustless, as I mill in a separate area, but obviously less is better. Why didn't you auger directly to your mash tun?

@Windy City (or anyone else that has used one) Any feed back on the pelletmaster mill after using it. I'm considering buying one, but it looks pretty messy from the videos on their site. My current mill is crazy slow, but at least I can load the hopper and walk away, and I just pre mill my grains while brewing. Not sure how much life is left in it though. Thinking I may be better off spending more, and getting something like this. https://www.coloradomillequipment.com/new-cme-mill-hms-vb-3hp/ Anybody looking to sell a hammer or burr mill for that matter?

If they are just short on labor, which is obviously pretty common these days, you might be able to volunteer your own time to get a reduction for at least one last bottling run before figuring out another option. You could also fill 3,000 bottles with just a 500$ enolmatic in a long day If you have a space, or they can provide you a space, where you can do so legally. It seems very high, but like Joe says, it might just be too small an order to be worth their time. Have you tried to have more of a conversation with them?

ADI has been doing webinars, and there is one on branding this Wednesday. They are taking questions now. I tuned into one on using specialty malts a few weeks ago, and it was fantastic.

I always thought it was the ratio of height to diameter that determined the maximum separation possible in the column. I can't wrap my mind how a wider 8" column could have a lower HTD value than a 4" column run at 2kW, or whatever optimal level that won't overload and flood the column. Do you have an example of a wide, short column capable of producing 95%?

Call TCW equipment. They sell them in all varieties and are very knowledgeable and helpful. If using fiber you will want a dedicated gin cartridge.

What is the ph throughout the ferments? Since the ferments do finish out better sometimes, I'd guess your problem is more likely too much bacteria, than too much alcohol, or incomplete conversion. I've found bakers yeast to actually be pretty alcohol tolerant when doing high % hand sanitizer batches last year.

copper mesh.

@alex_sor So you're telling us you like vacuum stills? I have 80" of reflux with a 4" column, and staying above 190 is a balancing act. I have not tried SPP though. If it was me id try 3" first. At that size you could always sell it. If you build it yourself, even come out ahead.

If you're only running 100L and want to go really cheap you could just put a 2" or 3" packed column on top of the 100L boiler. It will be very slow, but you can just run it whenever you're running the big still. That's essentially what I do with 4" column and a bit more ceiling height.

You can turn up the heat to speed things up if your system can handle it, but the temp of the boiler won't go up until alcohol% of the boiler charge drops, and therefore the boiling point of that mixture rises. That boiling temp will stay the same regardless of how much heat you put into it, the speed of the output will just change.

I'm not familiar with those enzymes, but they look like an Alpha Amylase, and a Beta Glucanase, which just help with viscosity. Your second recipe lists only raw wheat. You will also need a conversion enzyme like glucoamylase if using only unmalted grains, and needs to rest at 130-140F. 160F is too hot for the enzymes other than the AA. It might not be hot enough to gelatinize the wheat if you are lautering and are just cracking the grain. You will also want to adjust the ph to the correct tolerance of the enzymes. That's also a lot of wheat to lauter through. You may want to start smaller and work up to that. I know first hand that 1200#s of stuck mash is not fun to deal with.

If it was me I would pay taxes on them when I put them into the cabinet and report them as "tax determined" on the second column of the Processing Report (line 33). I'm not sure if they would qualify as "withdrawn for research" (line 38), but I would imagine they would. If he didn't enter them on on the processing report in one of those ways, they should still "exist" in the processing account, and would need to be inventoried every quarter.

Pretty sure he's saying they separate the solids from backset before adding to the next batch, not that they ferment off the grain. Thinner mash is easier to pump around, and too many solids stress the yeast in your ferment.