Hewnspirits

What's the vertical piece of copper pipe after the condenser before the parrot? Vent?

We're hoping to be up and running in Bucks Co. within the next 3-4 months. Working with the Pa LCB makes it less than speedy though....zzzzzz

Trying to figure out if there's been an ADI newsletter more recent than number 188??

We're working on this sort of set up here in Pa. I've spoken to some folks doing both a brewery and distillery in the same space and it seems like they all seem to operate under an alternating proprietorship arrangement where one entity is renting from the other entity. That 's on the TTB level....the Pa. Liquor Control Board is another gnarly can of worms all together. Crossing fingers we can pull it off. Stay tuned!

Hey VB...what's the price for a 60 gallon jacketed still with the whiskey ball and cone head? Shipping would be to Eastern Pa.....Philadelphia.

Wondering if there's a newsletter in the works. With the "Industry" growing as quickly as it is, I look forward to see/hearing from ADI about any goings on and grumblings.

I too ordered the hardcopy version from the Gubment for $35 and find it much more practical to flip through an actual book vs. running to the nearest computer or trying to read already microscopic print on a smart phone.

Congrats Bluestar!! Hope we're not too far behind ya!

Same hammer Moe. All said and done, our copper work was under $10k. We have an agreement with them to do the domes and body's with us for use in our turn key systems that we hope to have offered in the next few months. Next after our current 125 gallon still will be a 30 and then 60 gallon version as well as a column. Fun stuff for sure.

Awesome!! Crossing fingers that we're not too far behind ya Jedd!!

Hey VB.....what type of food grade oil are you using specifically? Curious what your finding for smoke point and boiling point on the oil you're using. The dedicated HeX fluids that we're looking at have really high smoke and boiling points....some as high as 700 F. Obviously we have no need to go that high but all the sales reps say that their in house tech people recommend an ideal operating temp at approx. half the products rated boiling point. Using the product at that approx. temp would give it the longest usable operating life. But damn those HeX fluids are pricey!!

Nick...great minds think alike. The plan is to add a 350 gallon stripper the minute I feel that our sales are moving in the slightest positive direction. At that point, the 125 gallon still we become the spirit still.

Bluestar....looking into the ratio of propylene glycol to water that would needed to raise the boiling point of water was quite surprising. Basically you would have a ratio of at least 50% propylene glycol to 50% water to significantly raise the boiling point of the mixture. At that point, you might as well just use a HeX fluid and not have to worry about the possibility of boiling off your H2O propylene glycol mix....at least that's my take on it.

Hi Nick

VB hit most of it on the nose. Not only is a steam set up more costly on a smaller unit like ours, we have zoning and code regs that make it not worth the hassle on the scale that were talking about. I'm fully aware of the efficiency of water and steam as heat transfer mediums but the math just doesn't add up for us on this scale. We had originally planned on going with either a direct immersion heating element in a non jacketed tank but ultimatly weren't real jazzed about the prospect of super huge electric bills as a result of two mongo elements sucking all those KW's for hours on end. Additionally, I wasn't fond of the idea of all the heat coming in direct contact with various washes. Sure you could rachet the KW's down but at the detriment of finishing a run in much much more time. All that being said, Once our spirits are flying off the shelves......pause for effect.....we'll most likely join in on the steam bandwagon and will look back with fond memories of the old timey days when we ran our little 125 gallon handmade pot still till the wheels came off.

Next we start working on the stainless jacket. Hope to get some parts back from the water jet man pronto!

Me thinks you won't be looking for a position for too long with a resume like that!!

Thanks Jedd. We've already received our local zoning approvals (I did that first) and are awaiting out State license. I agree, seems there there is some latitude in the level of completeness that they want. Just wanted to see what other folks might have experienced.

Trying to gauge how far along we need to be with our distillery fit out in order to satisfy

the TTB folks. Any insight would be mucho appreciated.

To Jedd... The top dome is made in two pieces. The first being the more radiused section and the second or lower portion of the dome is the less radiused portion that then attaches to the center cylinder. We annealed each dome 2-3 times during the process...mostly at the joint seams.

To Scott....Lets put it this way, my partner who did the hammering doesn't have much in the way of mid range hearing anymore but it's more from the constant det det det det det and not any real ringing. It's more like a sharp tapping....lots and lots of sharp tapping.

Seems the heat transfer fluids come in all sorts of specs...lower temp, higher temp, more viscous, less viscous, tasty, not so tasty. With all that variety obviously comes the myriad of associated useful operating lifespans. From what I can tell so far, the synthetics seems to last longer than natural oils and the big degredation in each type comes from oxidization and amount of applied heat and heating cycle. Huge difference in price betwen synthetic and natural. Some synthetics run close to $1500 per 55 gal drum that should last between 6 months and 5 years depending on the variables mentioned above. I hear ya though with the whole food grade notion concept. I certainly wouldn't offer up anything that I suspected had been contaminated with anything...including "food grade" heat transfer oils. Seems the real challenge would be knowing if and when you lost some from the jacket into the boil kettle. I guess the idea is that this stuff is so viscous, tiny trace amounts might get into your boil and you might not know it for a bit until your system detected a decrease in the HTF level??? That's the only thing that I can figure. Maybe someone else can offer some insight? I have another meeting with an expert in the field early next week and will report back.

Here ya be Jedd....Hammer time

No prob Jedd...I'll throw a pic of the hammer up tomorrow.

Hi VB...

Yeah we're still looking into our various options and should have that worked out in short order. I'll keep you posted for sure but in the meantime, here's a picture of our nearly completed ball and cone style head. Should have it wrapped up in another day or two.

Thanks Hedge...you know us Pa. guys have to try and set a good example!!

We went with 12 and 14 Gauge and used an old timey belt driven planishing hammer for the two domes....one on top and one at the bottom. The seams will be beefed up with additional copper banding as well as a water jet cut stainless ring overlay which will also serve as the top mounting flange for the stainless insulated jacket. Very similar to the picture of the ring I saw on your posting. The man-way is 10" and I have 2" and 1.5" triclamp ports on top of the dome for various attachments/uses. As far as heat....well, we're working through that right now. Not sure we want to go with steam and have been talking to lots of folks in the know about using a heat tranfer fluid in the insulated jacket and then heating using either immersed elements or direct fire under the base of the jacket. Hope to have that worked out this week. Here's the basic configuration with the Ball and Cone head for rum and whiskey. We're also planning on making a 6" column that we can swap out when we want do vodka.

Lets try this again....going to have to play with my image sizing me thinks!

Just thought I'd share a picture of our 125 gallon (100 gallon charge) copper pot still to date. We'll keep updating the pictures as we get further along in the build.

We should have our ball and cone style head/neck wrapped up within the next week.

Cheers,

Sean

Hewn Spirits LLC.

Just thought I'd share a picture of our 125 gallon (100 gallon charge) copper pot still to date. We'll keep updating the pictures as we get further along in the build.

We should have our ball and cone style head/neck wrapped up within the next week.

Cheers,

Sean

Hewn Spirits LLC.