needmorstuff

both are options, i think the latest thought on my side is to leave the 300l alone.. it's built and paid for an adding more columns not cost effective. we are a small gin producer, I do have a 100l and vodka is a new line for me so initial demand will be low. I plan to use the 100l for vodka and rum with 2 different columns. the 300l will be for gin. rum will have 4 bubble plates vodka will have 1 bubble plate and a packed section, probably 4" diameter 1.5m tall with SPP, i should have 2m above the boiler so enough space.. not sure yet if i'll run CM or VM, probably CM using a danfoss valve to control the PC and Dephleg.

Hi All, I recently read the distillers guide to rum and have been researching for quite sometime.. I have fermented and distilled molasses before, few years back mind you. I want to enter the category next year from a commercial, albeit modest perspective. If possible (and my trials will dictate this) I wish to minimise time in the barrel, and hopefully eliminate any barrel time for my white rum. I want a light flavour profile RUM that is easy drinking, suitable for new rum drinkers and those that would lean toward a flavoured rum, be that spiced or flavoured such as banana or mango etc. Equally, for what I would consider the "rum drinkers rum" I want the amber coloured (none flavoured) rum to stand on it's own right as a sipping rum or as a base for a cocktail. I anticipate using 2 regimes, 1 for the white rum, and 1 for everything else - with the second having a stronger flavour profile (how I get there is under investigation) I will use a 4 plated still No dunder will be used The addition of wash to low wines seems a suitable starting place, at what ratio is dependent on the final goal. I plan on releasing the following products: Parent Regime 1 a white rum straight off the still with no barrel contact Parent Regime 2 (product differences dictated by barrel time, wash to low wine ratio, fermentation regime, caramel addition, flavour addition, distilling regime) an amber coloured rum that will be aged, barrel time 6 months to whenever.. an amber coloured spiced rum with some barrel contact, hopefully 2 to 4 months, colour and taste adjust with cane caramel (home made seems easy enough) a dark spiced rum with some barrel contact, hopefully 2 to 4 months, taste adjusted with and darkened with cane caramel (home made seems easy enough) (of course this will be a darker caramel than used for the amber) an amber coloured rum with some barrel contact, hopefully 2 to 4 months - of some other flavour - be that banana, mango - whatever.. To achieve this I anticipate using a food grade molasses (spec sheet attached) with DistilaMax SR and DistilaVite GN, as suggested by Lallemand themselves. Am I crazy? Can white rum come straight off the still and be enjoyable without spending time on oak? Is 2 to 4 months enough in a barrel for a light flavour profile rum? - depends I know but in theory is it possible? I don't mind applying some science such as (but not limited to) - heat and humidity control and/or ultrasonic protocols. Is the addition of cane caramel widespread and not frowned upon by consumers? Is the molasses in the spec sheet attached of a good enough quality? TM03 v16 - Cane Molasses.pdf

Question 1. Besides using scales/measuring by weight, what other ways are there to measure both the amount of ethanol pumped from Tank A to Tank B and also the amount of water pumped into the blending tank for dilution? Any advice on investing in a batch controller/flowmeter system or will that be impractical due to costs? - pay for a tank calibration service. Question 2. Any recommendations or things to look out for in blending/spirit holding tanks in the 200L range? adequate (or forced) ventilation. Question 3. Is it wise to invest in a large agitator to ensure the distillate and water are properly blended together during dilution? recirculate with the pump you already own instead Question 4. Are IBC containers good enough for storing RO water? why wouldn't they be? but consider they dont block light so how long would you store, how would you ensure cleanliness. Question 5. Any recommendations on a setup to strain (hot) spent botanicals/mash safely? put them in a bag in the still to allow easy removal afterwards and negate this task.

copper mesh is still decent.

the magic is in the SPP. what you using?

so, what I actually have is a 4 plate bubble column, i was debating the idea of trying to get dye to retrofit it out to 12 plates across 3 columns, that will be 14,000 USD and likely not even ideal. I am thinking the way to go is just leave that still alone, use it for stripping runs, either pot still mode or with the 4 plates. (and of course to make my other spirits gin/rum) Then take the output of that to the 100l still and run it through a column full of SPP, maybe with a bubble plate or a torpedo at the bottom of the column. This sounds to me the easiest, least expensive option with a good chance of a success. (maybe 5k usd) My question is - 4" or 3" column for a 100l still and roughly 2m of room about the boiler, and with that choice how much power. I am leaning toward the 4" and 5kw.. but as always there are smarter people than myself in the room so would love feedback. lol I know right 😉

Hey @Silk City Distillers do you think this bill of materials is optimal? column diameter, height, power? I can reduce column to 3" and have more or less power.. in fact having just 1 x 5kw (rather than 2 x 3kw) element will actually save me a bunch of ££ a) 3kW 230v 1ph ATEX heater - £1710.00 each + VAT b) 4kW 230v 1ph ATEX heater - £1790.00 each + VAT c) 5kW 230v 1ph ATEX heater - £1900.00 each + VAT use my 100l kettle (900mm) (already have this) 4" Bubble section with thermowell (156mm) https://www.stilldragon.eu/en/dash-columns/287-bubble-section-with-thermowell-for-4-inch-dash-sgk.html 4" column filled with SPP (1500mm - could maybe stretch to 1700mm but wouldn't know until I am in situ) 4" Super Dephleg (300m) https://www.stilldragon.eu/en/condensers/30-4-inch-super-dephlegmator.html 4" to 3" reducer - into a 180 bend (adds 250mm) then into a 3" PC (already have this)

i've a 300l with 4 plates, could strip through that then onto the 100l column

I'm in the UK To be clear my dye still is bought and paid for. My kettle does have a European PRV. I would be creating low wines on my 300l jacketed still. Paul - I'll shoot you on a mail.

So I'm kinda thinking use my 100l kettle (900mm) (already have this) 4" Bubble section with thermowell (156mm) https://www.stilldragon.eu/en/dash-columns/287-bubble-section-with-thermowell-for-4-inch-dash-sgk.html 4" column filled with SPP (1500mm - could maybe stretch to 1700mm but wouldn't know until I am in situ) 4" |Super Dephleg (300m) https://www.stilldragon.eu/en/condensers/30-4-inch-super-dephlegmator.html 4" to 3" reducer - into a 180 bend (adds 250mm) then into a 3" PC (already have this) Power, 2 x 3kw elements (one under control) - I can increase power as I will be buying new elements.

looks amazing, I already bought a still though - so looking for somethin to retro fit to that (which is sounding very silly now) or something to mount atop my 100l kettle. my problem was i had to buy the still before I knew the location and only recently decided to add vodka to my product portfolio.

I love this forum! floor standing plates - genius. totally agree with the tear down etc.. will checkout the continuous column as I won't be making a ton of product. cheers everyone

yes drawing is sloppy, that's what I had guessed though. and noted on the pumping direction. I doubt dye will have the knowledge to build this tbh.. seems very turnkey. I wonder who is using one of these who I might reach out to for advice. Failing that, or some other design - I could strip the sugar wash in pot still mode on my 100l kettle. Then for the spirit run put a 1.5m 4" SPP packed coulmn on my 100l. It has 6kw, but i could swap out the elements for higher capacity ones if required.

my head's spinning now.. not sure where thge pumps going or pumping what to where! seems complicated, and I'm not usually one to recommend complication in any apsect of life. Is this what you had in mind?

I want to make vodka, I only have 3.2m of ceiling height I have already bought and paid for a 4 x bubble plate 300l still from dye with 22kw. Now I know 12 plates isn't ideal from a throughput point but I am thinking 12 can make vodka. With that in mind what are the thoughts on this? or indeed thoughts anyone has on other options. all considered at this stage, I'd prefer to not buy another full still though as my space is limited. I also have a 100l still dragon kettle at my disposal. Volume wouldn't be huge for the vodka, and the 100l could work for capacity.

thanks for the bump... update. so i did tank to tank 10 micron > 1 micron in series, had to clean the filters twice during the process. This still left a haze. After a few days I did another tank to tank filtration through a 1 micron filter and that seems to have done the trick. Next time.. I will let it settle for a week. then filter from the top of the tank through a 10 micron filter tank to tank. I will take what is left at the bottom and add to next run... or leave in a smaller vessel to settle completely and siphon off the top of the sediment and add to next batch of 10 micron filtered. Then tank to tank 1 micron, or 0.5 micron. Performing series filtration through 10 micron to 1 micron is a bad idea... Final step is pre bottle filter at 1 or 0.5 micron. I have had advice from a liqueur chap that 0.5 works for them, but i seem ok with 1 micron for now.. but I'm not making liqueur so don't have the sugar to deal with. Take home is there are a limited amount of shortcuts (procedure optimization) you can take.

Hi, Looking for advice from people who macerate fruit in spirit. is a 1 micron absolute rated filter sufficient? i've done 10 and 1 micron in series and have a haze in my raspberry spirit. Just after what protocol people find works best. The filters i have are 10" long pleated. The volume is around 60 litres. They clog after 1 litres or so. I clean them and run again. When i'm done there is still a haze. Does it need to be 0.5? or some other craziness like chill filtering (please god no)

sadly no,, synthetic.

Hi - I had a bottle of gin that is maybe 18 months old. Never opened, when i opened it there was a musty moldy smell and taste. It had been stored away from direct sunlight in relatively cool conditions. Any ideas as to why this might have happened?

Plain potstill worked best, quiet bitter though. Suite a liqueur

update. What i failed to mention is i had my other gin botanicals in the boiler. Normally i run nice n slow, about 9" per second vapour speed, even then when I usually have to rest it for a period after proofing, to allow some of the earthier notes to dissipate, all fairly standard practice. I think what I did with this run is use too much power, trying to get the grapefruit bouquet that was so prevalent on my bench still - this amplified those earthy notes that are so pungent and this masked the grapefruit almost completely. I discovered this as I placed the distillate back into the boiler after the cleanup, proofed back to 30% (60 proof) - it immediately clouded up like milk showing the high concentration of citrus oil. I ran it again, nice n slow like normal... BAM - grapefruit straight off the bat. Did the full run with a cut at the start and turned off boiler at my normal switch off and it's got the grapefruit all right. Strange how the other botanical oils masked the grapefruit so effectively.. you live n learn.

Bench still is copper, production still was ran with just SS, no copper

I have a 5l bench still, I used 1.5kg of grapefruit per 1l of NGS. Just the zest and the flesh of the fruit. I got a very good extract and the grapefruit oils came over immediately and for the entire run. It's a pot with a 2" riser heated on a heat plate. I scaled that up and used 57kg of grapefruit for 35l of NGS, again the zest and the flesh. The still is a 100l kettle with internal elements. I am getting hardly any oils coming over. I have tried increasing power, reducing column diameter from 4" to 3", then reducing column height all with varying levels of power and still hardly anything. It is currently running in pure pot still mode, no column to speak of, 2" take off, 3kw power, 100l kettle type still. I am hopeful that during the 6 hour run that the citrus will come through but it's a bit worrying considering how it came through on my bench still from the start to the end. Also concerning as i thought the citrus came of mostly at the start of a long run as the oils are lighter. thoughts?

I have looked at dried zest, but as of yet not found any that has just the zest and not the pith. I am using a LOT of zest, this is a "flavoured gn" that is popular in the UK. I have come to the conclusion that washing in soapy water will be the best option. thanks for replying.

I am planning on putting a lot of zest into my potstill with my normal gin botanicals, trouble is i cant find fruit without wax. I could attempt to remove the wax but it is unlikely i will remove 100% of it. Will 100% of the wax remain in the boiler?