colonel2jays

4 hours ago, Old Glory Distilling Co. said:

We were having similar issues - also with the milled grain collecting around the inlet/slide gate with all the moisture. We finally settled on moving the outlet location on our milled grain conveyor so that we could simply use a section of flexible 4" hose that drops in the manway for grain additions. The grain no longer piles up on the cooling coils, we no longer forget to open the slide gate (because we removed it!), and probably most importantly - we're able to easily keep our grain augers/inlet tubes clean and near moisture free. 

Thanks for the reply, that's really helpful.

Can I ask what size cooker you're using? What is your target grain throughput per hour?

Hi all,

I've installed an 8500 gallon Vendome mash cooker at my distillery in Tasmania, Australia and we began commissioning it in December 2023. The main challenge during that process was that the grain meal tended to pile up on the cooling coils, which are directly underneath the grain inlet nozzle.

I reached out to Rabbit Hole in Louisville and they mentioned they had a similar problem, so relocated their grain inlet closer to the middle of the cooker to direct the meal closer to the vortices created by the agitator.

Vendome confirmed that most of the cookers of this size they supply have the grain inlet nozzle in the same place. Has anyone out there with this cooker configuration found a process to prevent the grain from piling up on the coils and creating dough balls?

Cheers, John

8 hours ago, JustAndy said:

Do you have already have centrifuge that is capable of this? It seems like it would be cheaper, easier, and more effective to get a lauter tun 

We've initially invested in a Vendome continuous system, with the plan being to install a dedicated lauter tun and pot stills around two years later. The Vendome kit is not due to arrive until later this year so we haven't begun R&D just yet.

Finding farmers prepared to take whole stillage in the volumes we'll be producing is proving to be a challenge, so I'm planning to install a centrifuge to separate the wet spent grain solids - which local farmers are more used to receiving as cattle feed - from thin stillage. The idea being that I could also use the centrifuge to separate solids prior to distillation if necessary.

Your comment regarding yeast is the bit I'm interested in: "The inclusion of yeast or not might be some part of the difference in flavor I get between grain-in and off-grain but I don't feel it's the main difference." I guess I'll just have to run a few batches during commissioning: 1. Fully on grain, 2. Separate grain solids prior to distillation and, 3. Separate grain solids prior to fermentation. Flavour trumps yield in the end.

12 hours ago, JustAndy said:

My .02$ : I've made malt whiskey both ways, and I much prefer malt whiskey made off the grain. The whiskey ends up with clearer, brighter flavor with more fruity and floral notes. The malt whiskey distilled on the grain is muddier and funkier by comparison. If your equipment requires you to make it on the grain then so be it, but if you have a choice I think it makes a better product from clear wash.   

As a backup plan I've thought about centrifuging off the grain solids between the fermenters and beer well. Do you think this might clean it up?

12 hours ago, Penrock Distillery said:

Its going to be a while before I can look at doing a single malt as I have a fair bit of "bourbon" to make once I have my rum ran for some cash flow. I'm thinking ahead with this post.
I will report back once I start the R&D. Perhaps you can do the same ?

Regards Sim

Will do!

On 12/11/2021 at 5:54 AM, Penrock Distillery said:

Thanks for the reply !!
I cut my teeth in a craft TN whiskey distillery in Nashville before moving back home to England so I'm aware that the US distilleries can do things a bit differently as not bound by tradition like the Scottish guys, which is why I asked the question here 🙂
I'm looking for as much flavour as I can get in my spirits and was leaning in that direction, perhaps going "grain in" is the way I should go since being in England, I'm also not bound by Scotch tradition either. I was just concerned there could be a negative affect.

Cheers Sim

Following this thread with interest. Like yours in England, Australia's legal definitions around whisky leave plenty of scope for innovation. 

Would be great if you come back and update this thread with your R&D results!

Thanks guys. Now to take steps to improving my fermentation performance...

On 6/14/2019 at 12:08 AM, bluefish_dist said:

I have had stratification, ie it’s not fully mixed and if you check by pulling off the top you get a false reading.  The yeast mixes it up better and the reading goes up since the wort is now mixed and the denser wort is now evenly distributed. 

Bluefish, thanks for your reply.

I certainly can't rule out stratification, but after 5 days in the tank I'd have thought all of the distribution of wort that was going to happen would have happened already!

It's also important to note the gravity didn't change from 1.011 in the days after, so it's safe to assume the batch was no longer actively fermenting on day 6.

Does anyone have any thoughts on my 'secondary conversion' hypothesis?

On 6/13/2019 at 10:17 PM, Tom Lenerz said:

Did you temperature correct your sample? Earlier in the fermentation it will be hotter, and therefore read lower then if the same sample is cooled to closer to the calibration temperature on your hydrometer.

Also a potential cause, were your first or second samples actually a representative sample?

Tom, thanks for your reply.

The temperature difference between the two readings was only 0.9C so that's not it. 

The samples were taken from a sample port about 18" from the base of the tank. I'd like to think that can be called a 'representative' sample. I even took a second sample of the 1.011 product as a sanity check.

Hey all, has anyone ever experienced an increase in SG on their ferments?

Yesterday (day 5) I had 1.009 and today I have 1.011! I've never seen this before. The product is a wheated bourbon-style mash with the grains separated from the wort prior to fermentation. The total volume in the tank is ~6000 litres, with 1480L of that having begun wild yeast fermentation two days before 4.5kg dry yeast was pitched.

Is it possible that fermentation has stopped and somehow we're still getting secondary starch conversion?

Thanks in advance!