ViolentBlue

heard a lot of positive reviews on Sherman Owen's class at Limestone Branch, during the ADI conference.

was good meeting you too. would love to see some pictures once its up and running. Steve

yes, the people who put it together did a great job. met lots of interesting people.

a large reservoir is a good idea, it just needs to be big enough. adding some active cooling on your warm water out put, such as a radiator and fan, will help some if your reservoir isn't quite big enough, or to help how quick you can turn around and run again. Volume is good, but surface area helps too.

Best in class and gold metal on your first outing is pretty impressive. sounds like you guys are starting out right.

Was fantastic meeting you guys at the Show and hanging out afterwards. its been a good long time since I had that much fun.

this year will be my first time out at the conference so I had a question on dress code. anyone know what the suggested dress code for the Bourbon Tasting and Dinner is on Monday? semi formal or causal? (world assume black tie is not happening) for most other events I'd assume Jeans and company Shirts would be appropriate. I got to pack light, airlines have gotten killer with their extra charges for baggage. Steve

I've not done rye before, but I have had a corn and barley mashes go off on me, usually an infection from wild yeast or bacteria from the air. typically by pitching a strong yeast strain in large enough quantities it'll ferment out all right, and there have even been times where the "stink" made a positive contribution to the final spirit.

The prototype will be for sale once the conference is over. it will be on display at the trade show. Mash I dropped you an email. we'll chat further I'm sure.

Setting plans to build a showroom and furnish it with the new Modular 60 gallon design, that can be run as a potstill with gin basket , 4 plate copper column still or a 16 plate Vodka column. its basically a scaled down version of our 150 gallon Vodka system. We'll be breaking ground before summer hopefully and be able to take visitors by Fall. will be located just outside Mobile Alabama. We're licensed with a experimental still/fuel ethanol Licence, so you can get some hands on.

Beginning construction on a variation of this design changed out the riser for a traditional cap and lyne, added a thump keg, which is stainless with decorative copper bands. and a copper worm in a matching barrel. I did a quick render for the client, thought it looked good and I wanted to show it off.

we build stills and our prices are significantly less than the usual choices. just started construction on a 150 gallon unit with 4 plate column, agitator and all the bells and whistles for a client in South Carolina drop me an email steven@artisanstilldesign.com

to heat a similarly sized jacketed boiler you would need 15psi and 500lbs/hr steam the copper coils will no doubt transfer heat better than a stainless jacket, but there is much less surface area there. i almost thing you would be better off using a heat transfer medium like propylene glycol and a pump/reservoir system.

the graph below shows how many passes are required to reach Azeotrope. the purple line shows progression from initial alcohol content to distilled alcohol content. we can see that starting with a 10% wash will yeild a 53% distillate in single pass. 53% yeilds 80%. with each distillation you have diminishing returns, requiring over 10 distillations to reach azeotrope. a Column of course allows you do many distillations in a single pass, requiring much less energy than simple distillation 10X over. And yes Nick water and alcohol form an Azeotrope at both extremes, so you will always leave some ethanol in the boiler when you're done. column distillation reduces this to a one time loss.

a column still is really just a series of parasitic boilers stacked. the same effect can be had with a simple pot still distilling many times over. of course a column is much more efficient time and energy wise.

Glad you figured that one out. from the direct experience I've had, deeper into tails you went the more likely to louche.while making an "orange spirit" the orange oil comes on heavy and strong at the beginning, making a louche if mixed with the main body of the spirit. so your experience makes perfect sense. I had assumed the Juniper was the culprit since it comes in so late in the spirit, but could easily been the anise or one of the lighter oils that come early. its the precipitation of heavy oils when diluted with water. causes a cloudiness. its more commonly associated with absinthe.

spray balls on a 4" column would be overkill, its easy enough to clean the column by simply flooding with fresh water from above. one can do this by disconnecting the 180 at the top, or by having a bung permanently welded in in the 180. a little citric acid added to the boiler and a recirculation pump will clean just about anything. on a larger column, CIP is a must for sure. the external valving is of course to allow the plates to drain completely, this helps in the cleaning, but also for disabling all or individual plates while distilling. particularly handy for a pot stilled result. engage the plates and dephlegmator for heads removal, then disable for collecting hearts, you can have potstilled results with very clean heads removal.

Columns have arrived, we have 2 left that are not spoken for. price is $3800, for boiler, Column, Dephlegmator, and product condenser. Plate drain valves will be installed on all units as well. we offer control systems for these boilers, 9000w 2 element (40 amp, 220v service) or a 13500w 3 element (60 amp 220v, can be configured for 3 phase) prices for these are $550 and $650 respectively, built by our Control systems expert in Canada. we have some parrots that clamp in place on the output of the Condenser, they will be arriving before April.

preventing louche with a macerated gin is a balancing act. you need to have enough botanicals for the flavor, but not so much as to cause louche. it will take some experimentation. also the heavier oils come over in the last part of the run. if you cut that bit from your spirit and add it back to your next batch, you can reclaim the ethanol but eliminate the heavy oils that contribute to the louche. But be sure that these oils aren't integral to your flavor profile before you remove them. these heavier oils could be why you found the batch so delicious as there is deep juniper flavor in them. Many Gin producers use vapor infusion to make their Gin rather than direct maceration, Louche is one of the reasons for this. you can pull a very flavorful gin with much less likelihood of louche with the vapor infusion method.

good words. no one ever elevated themselves by bringing someone else down.

I seem to remember reading MM's founders wife copied the idea from European brandies. how can they trademark something they copied in the first place.

fantastic, I'm always glad when I see another Successful start up. looks like you folks have got a good start on things, and If I'm ever down your way I'll make it a point to stop in.

I would pull the copper packing out if you can, the oils from the botanicals will cover it and spread their flavor in your next whiskey run. stainless won't hold near as much flavor from the botanical, as there is much less surface area involved. a simple rinse out would solve the worst of the issue at that point.

we're building a 1250gallon potstill right now I have designs on the books for 60, 150, 250 300 and 600 gallon units as well, in various shapes and forms.

a nice 2" copper tube looped twice in your Preheat vat would transfer a lot of heat and would be easy enough to pump your spent mash through, just be sure there are no kinks or obstructions for the grain to gather.