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On 11/10/2021 at 11:33 AM, Southernhighlander said:

Tom

Here is the rule of thumb that I use when sizing boilers for my customers and it has worked great for the over 100 customers that we have sold boilers to.  1,000 BTUs of steam boiler output per gallon of mash in the pot for a one hour heat up to operating temp time.  500 BTUs per hour for a 2 hr heat up time.  So if you have 1,200 gallon in  mash tuns and stills that you are going to start at the same time, you would need 1,200,000 BTUs of boiler output (1 hour heat up time) which is around a 35hp boiler.  For a 2 hr heat up time you will only need an 18 hp boiler. 

Except for fast stripping runs, your run time after operating temp is reached is about the same using both 500 BTUs per hour per gallon or 1,000 btus per gallon  scenarios, unless you are doing really fast whiskey spirit runs.  If you plan on expanding again later you can go with up to 1,500 BTUs per gallon of mash without much efficiency loss however you will have some efficiency loss once you back of the steam after operating temp is reached, especially if doing long Vodka runs.  Anyway the right answer, as far as boiler sizeing, depends on how much time you want the heat up to be.

  In the 1200 gallon scenario a 17 hp, 35 hp and 50 hp can all be right answers depending on the heat up time you want.  My opinion is, unless you want to expand in the future, Silk's recommendation for a 30hp boiler is best because that should give you a heat up time of around 1 hr, when all heated vessels are started at the same time, which is what most people who order from me want. 

Personally I like Rite boilers best which is why I'm a Rite distributer, however all of the boilers you named are good boilers.

 

Hey Paul, 

We are in the works of getting our 250 gal. still and are in the market for a boiler. What would the best way be to get a quote from you on a few different sized Rite boilers? 

Thanks!

Thank you guys! This was super helpful! I was looking right over the fact that most people add the main botanicals in the boiler. Duh. I should have realized that!

Fellas, 

We are new to the site and distilling. We are currently planning our distillery and have a 250 gallon pot still in the works. We want to add a gin basket just before the condenser and are struggling on how big it needs to be. After digging through the internet it appears most people are using 20-40 grams of botanicals per liter of neutral spirit. I have some juniper berries on hand and measured the volume 20 grams fills, then scaled this up to our 250 gallons. According to my math we would need an outrageous sized gin basket, something around 7,000 cubic inches. This would be close to a 5' tall 12" diameter gin basket. Is this outrageously large? We are not planning on running a deflag, so we will have to have the full charge of botanicals in the basket from start to finish of the run. Any help is appreciated!