JailBreak

50 minutes ago, Charles Brungardt said:

Thank you @JailBreak 

How come you need the 185-206 proof hydrometer? Is it because you have to gauge it before you dilute? Or If you receive it when you source it?

What thermometer do you use?

Sorry if the questions are obvious. I'm a newbie.

 

I appreciate your help!

Brungardt

No problem, that's what these forums are for. A good consultant is always nice to have in your back pocket and there's quite a few on here. You need the 185-206 hydrometer to gauge the spirit at distillation if you're making it or when you receive them in bond. 

We have a couple digital thermometers but my favorite is the Thermapen ONE. 

19 hours ago, Brungardt said:

Hello,

 

We are a new Vodka distillery. We only need one hydrometer that is in the range of 75-95 proof right? 

Also for the thermometer, It can be digital and does not have to be glass?

 

Thank you,

Brungardt

You will also need a hydrometer for the alcohol over 190 proof, whether you're making it or sourcing it. This is usually a 185-206 proof hydrometer. 

Other hydrometers are useful in case big mistakes happen.

As for the thermometer, you can use either digital or glass as long as it reads accurately to the 0.1 degree.

Creamy Creation, Galloway Company, and UltraPure are three that I can think off that provide a neutral cream base

17 hours ago, captnKB said:

Im curious to hear what ya think of onbatch once you have a few months of using it

I have a year of using it. Very frustrated and not impressed

JustAndy brought up a good point, it all depends on the needs of the distillery but here is a list EVERY distillery should have.

1. A set of TTB certified alcohol hydrometers that cover all your bases

2. Set of glass graduated cylinders (50ml, 100 ml, 250 ml, 500 ml, 1000 ml)

3. A handful of HDPE beakers

4. A TTB certified digital thermometer

5. A nice pH meter

6. A brewer's hydrometer for measuring OG/FG

7. A benchtop scale that measures to at least 0.1 grams

As you get bigger or have specific products you can add to this list. I'd start here:

1. Portable Density meter (this will save you so much time)

2. Lab distillation apparatus (this is for any products that may have proof obscuration such as liqueurs)

3. Water testing equipment 

4. Microbial testing equipment (media, plates, incubation chambers, microscope, etc)

On 6/3/2021 at 8:57 AM, AK2 said:

We also dropped Distill x5 due to the high price.  Currently I am using TTB Tamer.  No where near as sophisticated, but works for me.  I believe they charge us around $70 a month???

Adam, would you care to share your experience with TTB Tamer? We started with Distillx5 but the owners didn't see the justification for price so we switched to OnBatch. It was fine for a few months and if I encountered any bugs they were quick to respond and fix. Lately, though, I have been experiencing something wrong basically weekly. I haven't been able to do any real work for the last two weeks and their customer service is now leaving me on read. Extremely frustrating. Anyone thinking of OnBatch, be prepared to pay $200+/month to be a beta-tester until they work out all the bugs.

28 minutes ago, oboyatelny said:

Our product is used for beverage purposes  

You should probably update your website then to eliminate any confusion

On 9/30/2021 at 7:31 PM, Crusherfish said:

I went to your website. None of your products are what you say here. Is there a different page or post for consumable alcohol?

On 10/8/2021 at 3:03 PM, oboyatelny said:

What information are you seeking. We are neutral spirits manufacturing plant - it is exactly what described on our website. Thank you sir 

you can also drop me a text 3153148077 Eduard 

DISCLAIMER: THIS PRODUCT IS NOT INTENDED FOR BEVERAGE PURPOSES. PURCHASERS OF THIS PRODUCT ARE AGREEING TO USE ONLY FOR INDUSTRIAL OR LABORATORY PURPOSES. APPROPRIATE, LEGAL USE OF THIS PRODUCT IS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE USER.

I think this disclaimer on your ethanol is what he is talking about. 

I've learned through experience that the lab distillation for determining true proof requires a lot of attention to detail and one little mistake can ruin the whole thing and waste a few hours of work. I'd honestly follow the TTB's videos to the letter when it comes to this technique. 

Here's the video from the TTB. I don't have a water bath so I'll often use a fridge to get my sample close to the calibrated temperature on the volumetric flask both before and after distillation. The most important part is that the temperature before and after matches as well as the volume.

What was the estimated proof vs actual proof? Are you using volumetric flasks? Are the temperatures pre- and post-distillation measured as equal (or better yet match the volumetric flask calibration?)

7 hours ago, tgf said:

Major Questions:
1. Could anyone help draw some conclusions as to why the hearts clear up initially after a long time of vigorous stirring?
2. After the hearts cleared up, why did it louch temporarily after bottling, then cleared up by itself again?

Again, we appreciate any advice and thanks everyone for your input.

1. This question is a bit tricky. One of the main reasons I could think of is stratification due to inadequate mixing when you originally added the water.

2. Were the bottles cold? Was the bottling room cold? Temperature also affects solubility of oils in spirits and could account for a temporary louching if they got cold during bottling

On 4/5/2021 at 3:42 AM, tgf said:

3) Any techniques to clear up the currently "oily" distillate?

The best way I've been taught to clear up cloudy distillate is to blend more of your neutral spirit in at the same proof that you're hoping to bottle at. For example, it's currently at 100 proof, correct? Dilute down neutral spirit to 100 proof and slowly blend that into the cloudy gin. Depending on how bad the louch is, you may need to blend quite a bit of NGS in. After enough neutral is blended in, the oils that causes louching will remain dissolved and the spirit will clear up.

49 minutes ago, Dylan.Daigle said:

Hi there, we have been having issues with testing the ABV of our gin, we have a few gins that use flavourings, some of these flavourings do have sugar in them. We have 2 different testing machines and they are both coming up with different numbers, we need the percentage to be pretty exact. Does the sugar in the alcohol affect the ABV readings?

Sugar definitely will obscure the ABV readings of alcohol.

https://www.ttb.gov/foia/distilled-spirits-gauging-manual#27:1.0.1.1.25.4.504.1

Click this link then click the link under Subpart D titled 'Determination of proof obscuration' Most small distillers I know, including myself, use the distillation method described under 30.32c. A couple hundred dollars on Amazon will get you all the equiment you need to do the laboratory distillation.

Here's a video showing you how to do it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGrqCZ7ISac&feature=youtu.be

On 12/1/2020 at 6:30 AM, starcat said:

If you are an American, you should resist ALL of the Metric System with every Fiber of your being......

If you give me one good reason, I'll consider it

43 minutes ago, JonDistiller said:

Thanks for responding.   I mis-named an enzyme.   Rather than beta, it was bioglucanase.  

From the sounds of it you are creating a lot of unfermentables by only using alpha amylase and bioglucanase. This will leave you with some fermentables, but a lot of longer-chained carbohydrates that the yeast can't utilize. Adam mentioned it as well, but a glucoamylase added in the 140F range will chop up those longer chains and probably fix your problem.

Cheers!

On 10/26/2020 at 4:26 PM, Patio29Dadio said:

Here is where we are...

They want certificate of analysis for all ingredients or else for each batch.   We talked them out of needing one for the isopropyl alcohol we use for denaturing because the SDS includes a paragraph that is enough of an analysis (basically they are needing proof that there is not too much methanol in the final product).

You can only use the exact products in the recipe that the FDA allows.  For example, we wanted to use inhibited proplylene glycol instead of glycerin/glycerol as we have a good supply of the former... they said a resounding NO!  

Need to have the process well documented.

Need to demonstrate accurate proof measuring.

They want batch records.  The containers need the batch number on the label.

Have to be registered with the FDA for the product.  The registration number (LABELER CODE needs to be on the label.)   This takes a few weeks.

I am in California... the land of regulating everything.

Oh wow, yeah your FDA inspector was way more hardcore than ours. Ours basically only cared about our last batch (we haven't produced any sanitizer in weeks, if not months, what month is it again?). Our label had just the required info, nothing like batch numbers or FDA registration numbers. That would make operations nearly impossible. They did want a papertrail for every ingredient going into the sanitizer and took some for testing but mentioned nothing about lab testing every batch which has been mentioned here. Guess all government agencies are alike huh? Depends on the agent you get what kind of hurdles you have to jump.

8 minutes ago, bierling said:

Where are you located?

Utah

15 hours ago, Patio29Dadio said:

They are coming back for a re-inspection.  Which tells me that we have too many FDA employees with not enough to do.  There are no politicians in my neck of the woods that will fight this fight... they are all made from the same cloth of big oppressive nanny government that are always here to help... right. 

What exactly are they coming back to reinspect? We have an inspection today and luckily this agent and this thread have got us slightly prepared. Still worried about the nitpicking though

I know this is going to rub a lot of people the wrong way but I'm always surprised at how many people seem to either not read the OP's post or not read it close enough. There's like two responses on this entire thread that actually provide helpful information to the OP's question. That being said @adamOVD is right on the money with his post. At minimum you would want 1/2 the size in a combo tun. It honestly doesn't hurt to go bigger though, for higher gravity mashes. For a 1500L fermenter, ruling out the on-grain fermentation later, a mash/lauter tun of 1000L should be able to do everything you could possibly throw at it.

13 minutes ago, SteelB said:

can i go a bit further, i did try to submit for a flavored whisky, which was our aged whisky that we added a flavoring to.they kicked it back and referenced 27 cfr 5.22 nothing more specific. it was kicked back for having to high of synthetic vanillans? my question is can it have any artificial flavoring, or can it only be at a certain percentage say 2 1.2 5% total.it really isnt very specific in what they gave me to reference.

In order to be a 'flavored whiskey' it needs to be natural flavoring. Nothing artificial. Otherwise it falls under the category of imitation spirit. I've copied over the CFR wording below. Bold for relevance.

(i) Class 9; flavored brandy, flavored gin, flavored rum, flavored vodka, and flavored whisky. “Flavored brandy, “flavored gin,” “flavored rum,” “flavored vodka,” and “flavored whisky,” are brandy, gin, rum, vodka, and whisky, respectively, to which have been added natural flavoring materials, with or without the addition of sugar, and bottled at not less than 60° proof. The name of the predominant flavor shall appear as a part of the designation. If the finished product contains more than 2 1/2 percent by volume of wine, the kinds and precentages by volume of wine must be stated as a part of the designation, except that a flavored brandy may contain an additional 12 1/2 percent by volume of wine, without label disclosure, if the additional wine is derived from the particular fruit corresponding to the labeled flavor of the product.

(j) Class 10; imitations. Imitations shall bear, as a part of the designation thereof, the word “imitation” and shall include the following:

(2) Any class or type of distilled spirits (other than distilled spirits required under § 5.35 to bear a distinctive or fanciful name and a truthful and adequate statement of composition) to which has been added flavors considered to be artificial or imitation. In determining whether a flavor is artificial or imitation, recognition will be given to what is considered to be “good commercial practice” in the flavor manufacturing industry

3 hours ago, DrDistillation said:

Do these stills come with a time machine or something?  No such thing as fast aging.

I think that they are referring to accelerated maturation techniques. Semantics really

As far as I've been told, you receive GNS on the Storage Report, Line 2 'Deposited into Bulk Storage'. From there, whenever you use an amount of GNS for product, let's say 20 gallons,  those 20 gallons would be marked on Line 17 'Transferred to Processing Account'. On your processing report the 20 gallons will be recorded on Line 2 'Received (other than Line 3)'. Rinse and repeat. If you use the GNS to redistill, like producing gin for instance, then on your Storage Report it would be recorded on line 18 'Transferred to Production Account'. Then on your Production Report it would be reflected on Part 1 Line 15 'Received for Redistillation' AND Part 5 (Used in Redistillation) Line 1, with 'Kind of Spirits' being recorded as 'Alcohol and Spirits 190 and over'. 

18 hours ago, Hepburn Springs Distillery said:

We also plan on keeping distribution very local, but there's some debate about how successful that will be.

Do you want more info? or is that enough?

cheers,

Basil

I'm a huge proponent in lessening our environmental impact so that's awesome to hear about. I'd always love to know more but that's enough for curiosity sake. If you're in a more populated area, or tourist-y area, you could probably get away with local distribution! Welcome Basil! 

9 hours ago, cumbriandistiller said:

Thank you Silk Distillers, so I have a good idea now on how to work out my botanical ratios but I am still confused on how to work out how much NGS you use to blend with before adding water? Is there a general formula to use? I am thinking of doing a 1:5 ratio to start 

If you have a product already I heard a good way to dilute is to cut to proof then mix same proof NGS until desired flavor profile is matched.  For example, your single shot gin is 88 proof, distill the multi-shot, cut to proof then blend 88 proof NGS until it matches the flavor profile of your single shot. It's more trial and error but it would probably be the easiest.

1 hour ago, Hepburn Springs Distillery said:

carbon-neutral spud vodka

Are you talking about carbon filtering or carbon footprint? if the latter I'd love to learn more about your process!