MT Distillery

Conventional septic system (septic tank and drain field) has been approved for our 1st phase (sanitary waste from storage facility). Installation of the septic is on hold until we determine whether it will have a role in the phase 2 waste treatment. I will be hiring an engineer to work with county and state environmental agencies to develop and permit waste water treatment for phase 2, which is the ethanol production expansion. package waste treatment suppliers have said that they can treat the wash water load, however permitting, reliability, and/or $’s may make this approach infeasible.

Thank you for sharing your experience/recommendations. We are located in a rural farming/ranching community where there seems to be no shortage of folks looking for animal feed. So that is the plan for stillage. That leaves the wash water and wash down as waste water. I am in the process of sampling to confirm literature values of 2000 to 5000 bod. We are using 100% rye flour and even though it is an expansion, it is probably small compared with some of your facilities (adding 800 gallon mash tun, fermenters, and 800 gallon stripping still. So I’m not sure if grain separation is an option. Regardless of the animal feed and potential for treatment and disposal to the septic, there will need to be a truckable component for waste.

CIP is used for caustic wash (1-2% brewguard powdered brewery cleaner) and acid wash (1-2% food grade citric acid) of 800 gallon mash tun, 800 gallon fermenter, and 800 gallon stripping still. Our expansion still will be dedicated to mashing, fermenting, and stripping 100% rye flour. The product will be finished at our existing facility making vodka, gin, and whiskey.

We are expanding capacity to a site that will use a septic system for the waste streams. Waste water consists of sanitary waste and CIP/wash down water. Does anyone have characterization information for the CIP/wash down water to use as an initial basis for discussion with county and state. Our county is primarily interested in BOD.

My name is Bret and we are currently producing spirits in Montana and are in the process of expanding production. Looking forward to learning from your experience.