richard1

The picture above is a step in the right direction. There's a lot of info on other forum's where SPP was being used and would always collapse. None the less, the Helical coil that we manufacture is a lot tighter for the two sizes that we have manufactured.

Would not touch SPP as they are of flimsy construction and will flatten / collapse with weight / height of column packing. 0.3mm wire diameter.

Diameter of column ??

Both are vent filters. #1 is a higher quality vent filter with presumed sterile filter cartridge. #2 I am presuming has a spring loaded disc to keep the vent closed when not in action of either sucking or blowing. No picture from the top. Do yourself a favour with #1 and open those breathing holes. I am presuming a Chinese supply with bad design.

Nice post, also like your SOP

I also have and use an Edrometer. Provided it is correctly calibrated, it's quite accurate. Readings are quite similar in such case to an expensive Anton Paar.

Post bottling, you need to store for approx. 2 to 3 weeks for complete flavour marriage of your spirit and water. Above, you have not mentioned any agitation of your product for complete mixing. Something to consider.

I did an Excel spreadsheet for barley malt. Again planning for lots of what ifs based on quantities. I used your input value of 53.2 Kg.

@Alex_Sor, I have not yet encountered any problems especially considering my watt density of 3.4W/cm2. There are surely other construction of elements that can be used but all that I am saying is that so far, no problems encountered.

Hi Paul @Southernhighlander. Thanks and best wishes to all for the season. Nice thing about SA is the weather, 9 months summer. Each element assembly is 6KW, 230 / 400 VAC. I currently run one element assembly per phase. I designed the basic element requirements and had them manufactured by a local SA element manufacturer. The bosses I manufactured and free issued them. Don't know about their listed CE or UL status, but the company is ISO certified. It's not that pricey even though they do cost. Tried to contact the manufacturer today regarding temps, but they are still on Christmas shutdown. I do a mash (barley malt) at a ratio of 4L/Kg, grain in and charge the still with 150 Kg barley malt. Haven't yet done a corn mash. No, no smells nor off flavours. The important thing is to run an agitator whilst heating so you lift the malt off the elements. As my still is completely automated, I have programmed and run the agitator for a period before the elements come on. Further I also purposely don't run the elements beyond 80% power whilst mashing (recipe controlled).

As I am not selling anything I am not responding to Paul's hard sell other than to correct an inaccuracy regarding direct heating elements, well certainly mine. They work perfectly for grain in mashes with no scorching whatsoever. My 6KW stainless steel elements has a watt density of 3.4W/cm2. Added to this is that I am able to achieve the tasty Maillard reaction which you can't achieve with bainnmaries.

@GoldCreek For such size still and given your location, the only still that I would recommend is an IStill. For example, a 500L still, requires only 18KW. It's unbelievable efficient, you can pre-heat in early hours of the day and further is fully automated with numerous built in recipes so you are ready to go from day 1.

Personally, way too high. Try dropping down to around 30% ABV.

If for SA, We sell stainless Steel helical coil for column packing

Basically with a Worm condenser, you are building a potential bomb with pressure build up and in my view point has no place in modern distilling. That said, I further view the manufactured still for this distillery as irresponsible and those responsible need to be held to account. It is high time that once a sized level of commercialisation is reached, all safety aspects and proper process design be taken into account.

Price on these units

Just seen video of this Benchmax. Looks great and appears to tick all bottle labelling requirements.

So what about agitation during the blend.... Clever or not ???

There are numerous food grade hoses on the market. Semperit is one of them. Important is to ensure that they can withstand process steam as this often dtermines the heavy wall thickness and upper temperature limits. .

Odin, do you want to comment on why you are using two digital (bluetooth) thermometers in the center (intermediate) section and what function they serve. One I can get my teeth around, but two ???

Did not understand the above comment. Please expand on this if you are only using beer as the coolant. Please can you post post a process flow diagram of your smaller unit running at 1.5KW.

Hi Amy In this industry, they want esterification and secondly, they don't want carbonation.

Bump …….. still waiting for video # 2. Need to occupy oneself during this 21 day lockdown period on this side of the pond.

Have a look at this. Length made shorter by 5mm either side for welding within ferrule. I have presumed that the 4" ferrule has an ID of 97.6mm. I have presumed that the tube OD is 16mm exact. So the total face to face length of the 4" ferrule is 240mm as previously identified. You will not be able to use the larger 6" dephleg because it will require reducers to fit 6" to 4" and there are height constraints.

Do yourself a favour; 1 Increase outer tube ring qty from 6 to say 8. You have space for this. 2 Change the plate thickess from 0.8mm to say 1.5 or 2mm and also don't chamfer the tube prior to weld. Unless you have a good welder, you will easily burn through the tube and plate. 3 Change total length from 214.2 to at least 250 and better still 300mm