Southernhighlander

prcdc, Yes, please send me a pic and drawing if you have one. We also have the thermowells for the temp probes if you need one. We can do those in any length as well. paul@distillery-equipment.com Thanks.

Below is some equipment from an order that one of our 3 teams is completing this week. The first pic has a Vodka still and the next 2 pictures show a combination luater tun stripping still. We are still putting out 2 to 3 orders for distilleries per week.

I have them as long as you want, if anyone needs one.

The thermometer probes were to short in some of our mash tuns to get good readings. We have thermometers with longer probes now that solve that issue. I am glad to sell you guys the thermometers. If you are running my mash tuns I will send them out at no charge for the thermometers or shipping. paul@distillery-equipment.com 417-778-6100

If you are putting around 500,000 BTUs of low pressure steam boiler output into the jacket. I can supply you with what you need to do a stripping run in 3 hrs. My contact info is above. I am glad to give you a quote and the contact info for over 100 references some of which are in Canada.

Thank you. if you need anything at all just let us know.

Adam, You can increase your proof and decrease your run times by adding a couple of lbs of salt to your mash. The salt will help to break the azeotrope. Put it in your mash after fermentation, once the mash is in the pot. The salt has absolutely no effect on the flavor of the distillate. Use sodium without iodine.

You don't need a column just a line arm and condenser. We've built over 100 combination mash tun stills. There is no need for an 8" or 10" spool. We can just run a 4" line arm strait up 24" and then 90 over to a condenser. I have all of the parts and componants that you need including the condenser parrot and all of the safety valves. We can use a 4" butterfly valve to isolate the pot for when you are making mash. If you want a column that is no problem, because we can do that as well. If we do a 10" or 12" column there is no reason to have a 10" or 12" butterfly valves to isolate it. We can supply those valves but we have a less expensive way. Our tig welding and fabrication rate is $65.00 per hr and our parts are priced better than our competitors. The quality of our tig welding and parts are exceptional. We also have great customer service. Because of these reasons we have stills in more than 20% of the distilleries in the US and most of those distilleries have full sets of our equipment. Give me a call or email and we will get you some pricing and a reference list. 417-778-6100 ask for paul or email Paul@distillery-equipment.com

Our thermostatic valves go at the input of the final condenser so the valves are down low.

It's no challenge at all for our customers. We have lots of them out there with multiple columns, running our pump systems with no issues.

It's best to do a stripping run, then the spirit run in a 20 plate for vodka. I would run 25% to 35% low wines for vodka. The stripping still should be sized to 3 times the capacity of the spirit still, if 25% low wines are to be produced. Our pro series stripping pot stills will do a stripping run in as little as 2 hrs after the operating temp is reached. Our new continuous column stills will be the best option for stripping. We will have them available in sizes from 2" to 36" in diameter soon.

With these valves you do not need a PID or relays. Also on off valves can extend run times because the stills output is sort of like an old guy with a prostate problem. The best option is a valve that operates in a proportional manner. Here is a link to the data sheet of one of the thermostatic valves that we sell: http://na.heating.danfoss.com/PCMPDF/AVTB-RA_DS_VDBJD222.pdf They aren't that pricey when you consider how long they last and that you do not need a controller and they use zero power and they are completely explosion proof. You can use one of them to control your final condenser and as many as 4 dephlegmators.

I recommend one of our thermostatic valves. They need no power of any kind, pneumatic or otherwise so they are inherently explosion proof. Please email me paul@distillery-equipment.com and we will give you a quote.

bcoutts, I can sell you a simple pump kit that will allow you to pump the condensate from the bottom of column 2 to the top of column 1 (the 4plate). As the columns are currently set up the addition of the pump will give you the equivalent functionality/efficiency of 2 more plates because with the pump the 2 columns combined are functioning just like a single vertical column. Currently you are running with the equivalent functionality of 14 plates. If you add the pump and no plates then you have the full functionality of all 16 plates. If you add 2 to 4 plates to the 4 plate column along with the pump your still will be no taller than it is now but you would have the full functionality of all 18 to 20 plates. 20 Plates will give you the highest proof in the shortest amount of time. We can fit our vodka stills in spaces with vertical height limitations of as little as 10'. Very few others can offer that. Give me a call at 417-778-6100 or email paul@distillery-equipment.com

If it were me I would start filling the cool water tank 5 hrs before the run. I would also insulate the tank and if the humidity is low in the building I would run a fan to pass air over the top of the water in the tank if the tank is open top. If it is cold outside then you can set ip a fan and heat exchanger and pump coolant through the heat exchanger with the fan on and create your own chiller that works off ambient air temp that will work very well in the winter. If you don't want to deal with any of this and you don't mind the costs of a chiller then by all means get yourself a chiller. If you get a chiller make sure that you get one with the outdoor set up that passes cold air through a heat exchanger and that way in the winter the chiller will use very little energy. I can't remember what this chiller accessory is called.

Birster, Since you are not crash cooling I would go with the 800 gallon tank and no chiller. I don't think you need the chiller and it would use a lot of energy.

Will you be crash cooling mash?

We use an air pump with regulator and they work great for pumping column condensate. We use peristaltic pumps for our continuous column stills for pumping mash.

Hi abe, I have an ex pump for less than $400.00 that runs off of compressed air. It pumps 5 gallons per minute and only uses 2.2cfm. If you are interested email me paul@distillery-equipment.com I know that its not what you are asking about but it is an inexpensive option. Below are some reveiws of the pump. E 03/14/2019 Eric M. Great little pump. Thanks! A 05/30/2018 Adam H. Great little pump Needed something to pull our whiskey out of our barrels for mixing before out larger spirits pump arrived with our upgraded 300 gallon still. This little pump does the job flawlessly. Not the fastest, but worked great. D 05/15/2018 David P. Very Nice The customer service was great and the pump looks great!! Haven't tried it yet, getting all my trinkets to start my distillery

Also, what part of the country are you in?

Hi Birster, Generally you do not need a chiller if you have a well that puts out water at 60F or colder. In a 4 hr run you would use 2.5 gpm max in one of my stills of that size so your well should have enough output for your still's condenser. You will need water for mashing in and cleaning. Your stills condenser is a hot water heater that puts out free hot water. Run 1/2 of it into a plastic storage tank for your next mashing in and run the other 1/2 into another plastic storage tank for cleaning and other hot water needs. wrap the storage tanks with blanket insulation and they will keep that water hot for a couple of days or more. Since your well has such a low output you should use the 800 gallon water tank. If water in the tank will stay below 60F then you do not need the chiller unless you will be crash cooling mash. If you will be crash cooling 300 gallons of corn mash then you will certainly need a chiller but only because of your wells low output. I had a customer not to long ago who had some environmental engineers help design his distillery. What a bunch of idiots. This guy had a great well with 54F water and lots of it and these people had him put in a huge chiller. If he had went without the chiller and just used his well water, a great deal less energy would be used and the distillery would have been a great deal more environmental, however I'm sure the engineering firm and their suppliers would have made less money. How deep is your well? Do you have a creek on your property close to the distillery? One of my customers uses a heat exchanger in a creek to cool his condenser water before it loops back into hise chilled water tank. He has one of my 800 gallon Ultra Pro Vodka stills. I have another customer in Kentucky who uses a pond in the same way. Good old Hillbilly ingenuity can really make a difference, however most people do not have ponds or creeks that they can do this with.

Why would I use a peristaltic pump? When you pencil out the alternatives, my option makes far more monetary business sense than any other option currently available. As long as people want to put 1,000 gallon vodka stills in 14' spaces, my stills will keep on selling. Pump kits are a very small percentage of the cost for our Pro Series and Signature Series stills.

Concerning speed. I have a little 2" column still in my test lab that processes 30 liters of corn mash per hr. Our bigger column still designs are some of the most efficient and fastest in the industry.

It's easy to balance 3 columns with 1 thermostatic valve and 2 pumps. Your thumpers would be a huge hassle. Pumping the column condensate works much better.

I dropped out of school in the 9th grade. I collected my data at my equipment testing lab years ago. Once I saw the data, I figure out the reason why the column functionality decreased. Once I figured that out, it was easy to give multiple columns the same functionality as one vertical column. Since I figured that out, I have sold dozens of vodka stills with multiple columns similar to the one below. You are a smart guy. You are correct about the pumps. When running 3 columns the first column in lines dephleg has very little to no flow. I've tried lots of different things including designing the bases of bubble plate columns to where the incoming vapor had to go through 6" of column condensate. It did increase proof but there were draw backs. A country that no long exists? Most likely Rhodesia since your written English is so good, but maybe Yugoslavia, the Soviet Union (East Germany) or possibly Czechoslovakia, but what you said is something that a Czech or Slovak would never say.