jenschmunk@gmail.com

On 12/18/2018 at 7:12 PM, Jpaul said:

starting gravity was 1.092 I didn't do PH. fermentation temp was 31 C when the yeast went in and has been approximately 18 C throughout fermentation.  
ok it's only at 1.048 gravity rn so it has a ways to go.

Did you managed to figure out what went wrong in your procedure? I have an identical situation and have repitched YN, heated up with aquarium heaters AND repitched yeast and have moved from 1.034 to 1.030 in a few days. Tips?

On 12/3/2018 at 9:14 PM, StonesRyan said:

Turns out my issue was a known issue at Vendome and required me sending the inner basket back to them for modification. The basket was originally made almost entirely from perforated stainless and it was modified so that the bottom of the basket is the only part with perforations and the walls are now solid stainless. This forces the vapor into the botanicals from the bottom of the basket only and doesn't allow the vapor to bypass the bulk of the botanicals and enter higher up through the basket walls. Hopefully that makes sense. Best of luck to you!

Hmm...my basket is entirely made of perforated copper.  I'm assuming I have the same issue then? 

On 11/9/2015 at 8:15 PM, SpiritedConsultant said:

I would need more information about your kit, process and ingredients, as well as the condition of your botanicals and spirit at the end of the run. Feel free to shoot me an email at spinozzi9@gmail.com

I know this is a REALLY old post, but I have a similar problem. My gins aren't turning out too light, just lighter. I checked the botanicals immediately afterward and they are very warm, some damp, but most very dry-like dusty dry! Am I putting too much in the basket? I ran approx 300L of 80proof. It turned out okay, but I'm concerned I'm losing flavor from the basket. 

On 11/13/2018 at 2:47 PM, Southernhighlander said:

Jen,

Mike said that he helped you to get your still functioning correctly.  Is everything still working okay?   If you need anymore help just let us know.

Hi Paul, 

Sorry I missed this message! Yes he did. He was such a great help and yes, we got it going! It still floods badly into the second bubble plate on the second column, BUT we are running! Thank you again!! 

Well said Paul! Thank you very much for helping me through this disaster. It is so very much appreciated! 

Jen 

7 hours ago, Thatch said:

I've been following this thread.  If Paul, Mike and Meerkat actually solve the problem for Jen they get my championship trophy.  GREAT effort guys!

Hi Thatch! Paul, Mike and Meerkat have been absolutely incredible help! I have to say, I ran my still for the 1st time successfully using both columns today with their help! I owe them the world! They 1000% deserve the Championship trophy! Thank you SO SO much guys!!

1 hour ago, meerkat said:

The valves in the vapor line certainly look like they are correctly set, so that just adds to the mystery.  You did not say whether the trays in the 2nd column were behaving correctly.  Their behavior will be a good indicator of whether the vapors are following the correct path.

Hi! The trays appear quite dry as far as I can see. I can see the odd drip in a couple of them, but the base of each tray is quite dry. How do I fix this? 

8 minutes ago, Southernhighlander said:

It would have been better in this situation if it were plumbed the other way that I described, however we can make it work this way.  When you are running the coolant flow to the dephlegmator on column one, it should be turned down very very low and the dephlegmator on column 2 should have a higher coolant flow and a lower head temp than column 1.    As far as loading the plates and everything it is best if my head distillery walks you through it on the phone.  His name is Mike.  If you calll my number during business hours I will put you on the phone with him and he will walk you through everything and get you lined out.  I won't charge you anything for that.  If you want to increase the plate functionality from 3 plates to 6 plates on column 1 I can help you with that.  The only thing that I ask is that you sign a non disclosure agreement.  I certainly don't want Hawke to learn my secrets.  Please email me for a copy of the non disclosure agreement.  paul@distillery-equipment.com

Hi Paul, 

Yes absolutely I would sign that disclosure agreement. We wont be speaking to Hawke again anyhow. I will be calling. Thank you very much 

15 minutes ago, HedgeBird said:

Just curious, what type of material is the blue/green piping you are using for your cooling water?  I cant tell if its painted cast iron pipe, or some type of plastic.

Those are aquatherm pipes for the glycol cooling system. They aren't insulated yet so for now they are exposed. 

4 minutes ago, Tom Lenerz said:

Could be way off base, but did you check the flow of your 3 way valves and make sure they are set right? It is tough to see but it looks like it could be possible to have the first 3 way valve bypassing the column, but the top of the column open, forcing hot vapor into the top of the column, instead of the bottom.

Hi Tom, 

I have pulled all the valves out and they are properly pointed. Where the handle is pointing on the 3 way is where it is closed off. 

5 minutes ago, Southernhighlander said:

I have designed and built over 30 systems with multiple columns with some having as many as 4 bubble plate columns.  They all work great. If you give me a call at 417-778-6100 when you are getting ready to do a run we can walk you through what you need to do to get your still to function properly.  I can help you some here.  First of all when you have 2 bubble plate columns split like that you are only getting 50% plate functionality on column one.  I can help you get full functionality of column one.   There are several distillery equipment venders selling stills with split columns that don't seem to have a clue concerning how to get full functionality of all plates

 

As far as getting things up to where you can at least do a run.   First I need to know how you have your final condenser and dephlegmators plumbed. 

Did you plumb your coolant into the final condenser then out of the final condenser and into the dephlegmator of column 2 and then out of the dephlegmator of column 2 into column 1?   and if so,  do you have a thermostatic valve to control your coolant.  Or did you plumb each dephlegmator and the final condenser independently in the bottom out the top?  

 

Hi! Thank you so much for your reply. It appears the coolant is piped individually.  Here is a pic

8 minutes ago, meerkat said:

When the dephleg is so hot and the 2nd column so cold are the trays in the second column bubbling normally?  The only way I can see that you could get the dephleg so hot is if the vapor valve that is intended to isolate the 2nd dephleg (and main condenser) from the pot is passing hot vapor that should be going via all the trays and this vapor is going directly to the 2nd dephleg.  If this valve is passing then the trays will not bubble properly.  What is the temperature of the 1st dephleg when the second is at 90?

The temperature of the first dephlag was around 50 deg celcius. Here are images of the ways my calves were opened.  

The first image is the 1st column. The 3 way valve is closed to the right, forcing the steam downward to the base of the first column. The valve that opens/closed at the top of the dephleg to the main steam pipe is open. 

The second image is of the second column. I have the valve closed to the right, thus pushing the steam returned from the 1st column, downward toward the base of the second column. The valve at the top of the second dephleg is open as well direction steam back to the main steam pipe. I have the valve to the gin basket closed off and the exit valve is open so the steam that has built up inside the basket from the backflow can exit. There are no shut off valves on the back of the backflow to prevent this. 

I have a backflow pipe that is attached at the base of each column and the gun basket that is open as well. 

Does anything look off? 

I have turned off the cooling to the dephleg because it seems to be the only way to get the second column to heat up. The water coming out is hot, yes. 

7 hours ago, PeteB said:

Do you have antifoam in your pot?

Are they digital thermometers? Is column reading deg C and the dephleg F?

Does the water exiting the dephleg feel VERY hot? 

Post photos of your setup

 

Hi! Thanks for the reply. I do not have antifoam in the pot and haven't seen any foam build up at all. The thermometers are both standard(not digital) and in degree celcius. 

Hi everyone! I'm in desperate need of some advice. I bought an electric 600L pot still with a whiskey helmet and 2 side by side 7 plate columns from Hawke Probate Distillation services. I am having an extremely hard time getting my system to function properly. The second column won't get up to temp unless I overheat the still and then it pukes. Tonight, after my millionth attempt, suddenly I noticed the dephleg on the second column was at 90celcius and the column was only at 40celcius. What is happening?! Can anyone give me suggestions as to what to try next? If someone has a similar 2 column system, perhaps you could walk me through your process and maybe I'll catch something that I'm missing. I'm absolutely desperate as my supplier has decided to neglect his duty in supporting his client and backing up his product. 

Please help! Much much appreciated ! 

Jen

1 hour ago, paulNL said:

71.3g per liter of boiler content is a lot! 20-35g/l seems to be what most people use. Example: 35g x 600 L = 21kg of botanicals. That would be $273 at your prices, maybe slightly over a dollar a bottle (at .7L). If you buy some botanicals in bulk volumes the price might go down significantly. I know I spend a bit less.

Oh boy...does that mean I've been wasting botanicals during each run? I took a gin course a few months a ago and that was the quantity we had used. Yeesh. 

So now, if I adjust my quantity (71.3g/L) to about half of what it was, will I still get the same result flavor wise? 

On 3/8/2017 at 4:19 PM, indyspirits said:

For us, the two biggest challenges have been:

• Scaling up recipes
• Botanical consistency

We started our recipe development on a small 2L glass lab still which was just too small. Even weighing botanicals to the picogram (OK not really) by the time we scaled up (100 liters) the organoleptic properties bore only a passing resemblance to that which we started.  We found vapor infused to be infinitely more difficult to scale up that macerated.

I don't know what to do about the consistency issues.  Resellers don't know or at least won't tell which producers provided their bots.  At one point we started buying in larger quantities but then the bontanicals (most noticeable in the juniper) started to dry out before we used them all.  

Hi Indy, 

I'm interested to know how you managed to scale up your recipe? We are using a 20L alembic still, but only running 1.5L trials each time.  I've mastered the botanicals in my last trial run, but now how do I scale up to a 600L(150ish gallon) still? Am I crazy to think that multiplying my 1.5L by 400 is a place to start? That sounds ridiculously insane to me as calculating botanical costs for a 600L seems to add up to $556/run in botanicals. This seems nuts, no? I used 107g of botanicals in my 1.5L batch.  

On 8/13/2018 at 7:58 AM, Southernhighlander said:

Some of those painted steel food grade drums have sprayed in LDPE lings which is great for food but it will leach in hi proof ethanol.  Stainless is best for what you want to do and HDPE is 2nd best in my opinion.

Ok thank you. That's what I figured. I will just used them to store excess grains. 

Thanks 

5 hours ago, Southernhighlander said:

Tim, is giving good advice.  HDPE works great for ethanol receiving tanks. I have done business with Uline for over 20 years and they are fine folks. 

 

Are the drums with the sprayed in linings, painted steel drums?

 

 

 

Yes, they are painted on the exterior. 

Anyone else have any suggestions on what to do with the heads? I've heard of selling them to a marijuana plant to create hash oil...what other options do we have? 

4 hours ago, Hudson bay distillers said:

just a heads up on buying food grade barrels off of kijji . first thing is make sure there HDPE plastic , and make sure that you know exactly what was in it . dont believe what the guy thats selling them is telling you he probably doesnt know or is just a straight up liar . if you are buying barrels from the edmonton area beware some of them are crap , we bought oak barrels from edmonton and when they got here they had no corks and were full of dead mice and mice shit . 

best source of new HDPE barrels is U line in edmonton ....used barrels are best bought from the guy that dumped them . not from some one that is peddling them on kijji, 

tim  

Haha! Ya no kidding! Yuck.  I can't even imagine. Good advice. I'll keep looking. 

11 hours ago, Hudson bay distillers said:

my suggestion is ss beer kegs there cheep easy to sanitise , easy to lift and handle , easy to seal with 2 inch triclamp cap and clamp . win win 

tim 

 

That sounds like a good option as well. I was hoping to collect all in one tank,  but that might just work. I would then have to dump into a proofing tank of sorts, which then I still have to find. Does anyone know where money trees grow? I could use one right about now. Haha! 

Thoughts on these food grade plastic barrels for collection? I'm searching for 500L plastic storage tanks for proofing. Am I heading in the right direction? 

Hi! Thank you for your reply. We managed to find these barrels for $25 each. They are in fantastic condition. Do you think it's safe to collect distillate in them? How do I know? I haven't cleaned them out yet. There's still some palm oil chunks left in them, but very clean otherwise.  Would TSP be a good cleaner for them? 

What do you collect in now? I'm on a tight budget and you're right, SS drums are impossible to find cheap. Suggestions?

Yes you are correct, I meant drums

thank you for the links. I'm hoping to keep the drum cost under $100/drum.  I think in the meantime, I might use them for grain storage, but would be disappointed if they could have been used for temporary spirit storage. 

Hi! I'm looking for some advice.  I just purchased 4 -45gal food grade barrels that we previously used for palm and coconut oil. They are rated food grade as they have what appears to be a sprayed lining in them. I need something to collect my distillate off the still and for proofing down. Would this be sufficient? I can't find any info on the coating of the barrels and am worried that I jumped the gun and bought something that I can't use for this purpose. What do you all use ? I need something that is affordable as we are a small-ish distillery(150gallon still). Thanks!