tenorbrew

Thanks for the suggestion, Richard1. Have you ever had anything go wrong with the automation? I feel uneasy about leaving the still unattended/sleeping through my alarm...

Hi Folks, I'm planning a small distillery (in Australia) where I live. I'm somewhat limited with power in my shed and don't want to go down the route of gas flame (kaboom!) or a steam boiler ($$$) I'd like to run an electric 500L copper alembic still off of potentially only 15kW, which will mean a heat up time of about 3hrs (not ideal!). To speed up heating and try to fit two stripping runs into my day I was thinking about building a hot liquor tank or two that I could let heat up over night (using off-peak power) and then in the morning use a heat exchanger to warm the wash on its way from the fermenter to the still. I could use the same setup to capture heat from pot ale/spent lees or condensers during the run. In my head it works, but I was wondering if anyone else is doing this. I haven't committed to any equipment yet, but was thinking about direct immersion elements. Would a bain marie with a little pressure be advantageous? Any tips would be most welcome. Tenorbrew