PanamaDave

Update on Panama OPs-  Passed our 1 year "Health Dept exam"  they only requested a larger fly screen for the door. we are good for the next 3-4 years!!!   Scary inspection they were very serious.

  We have had some great tips from people not in the Alcohol industry, MIT types that just want to help, we now  insulate the still and column....this reflects heat back into the apparatus and does a couple of beneficial points- it heats more uniformly and at a lower cost ( electricity here is frigging expensive!) we took a 50 ft  coil of 5/8 copper and made a coil that fits into a double walled plastic bucket and then we froze the bucket full of water in a deep freezer - we recirculate the condenser water ( with a good amount of tails mixed in to lower the freezing temp) thru the coil... the ultra low temp liquid ensures we have an effective/ and very thorough  condensation rate, the tip of the drip line the condenser is always slightly submerged in the receiving product jar to catch any whisper of vapor coming out and force it through liquid to further capture every micro milliliter of vapor and turn it into product. the "refreeze of the bucket and coil is about 48 hours so we rotate 2 other chest freezers with wheels and we can run or at least we are getting ready to run everyday ( we blow the condenser lines out with an air compressor into a holding tank after every run, recovering about 95% of the cooling liquid)    FYI ....not sure if i want to get "bigger" production wise ...lol...im kinda enjoying the "hobby speed" right now.

we are running our fermented product after clearing through a 1 micron filter bag (which is reusable) this ultra clear fermented / filtered mash (prior to cooking) is giving us product runs from 148 proof down to  as low 80 proof and lower  before any hint of tails...clean mash with a clean still and slow warmups is really working. we are getting some great flavor- we use stainless steel 15 gallon  beer kegs that have been steam cleaned several times and a balanced amount of wood chips from  cut up whiskey barrels that we have re heated over an oak fire to regenerate a mild char-  our product after ageing  is cut to 100 proof and filtered thru activated charcoal - then cut to 80 proof , filtered and bottled...... so far so good - ( no loss to angels share)  during this test period we have given approx 25 bottles out to different and discriminating bar owners and requested an honest review-  not one complaint yet....cross our fingers....

ideas to explore ?? ( remember we are in a third world country way out out of the city) 

a chiller maybe to eliminate the freezer setup one day, cost is a factor both the unit and electricity..your electric bill increases exponentially the more juice you use....scary increases from 60 bucks to as high as 500...

Maybe a 100 amp  diesel generator as both a backup to power company interuptions.....

warming up the mash in a stainless steel barrel by running the mash through an on demand propane hot water heater and pump then transferring the how mash to the still for finishup - this would be way faster not sure how it would affect taste ( multiple transfers and fast heat ups) ...Propane is cheap here.....

thanks for reading ill post some pics...ideas are welcome!