Southernhighlander

Th Those are good prices for vendor booths

If there was a much less expensive floor only pass I would attend as a vendor.

I can put you into a great jacketed system at a really great price, so give me a holler when you are ready. paul@distillery-equipment.com 417-778-6100 We have electric jacketed combination Mash Tun Stills that start at less than $5,000.00 We also have financing.

Yes cracked corn can be lautered, after you soak it for several hours, 2 or 3 times and then add 20% rice hulls but that is even more inefficient than straining or pressing. It is not a viable solution in my opinion when compared to distilling corn on the grain, which is why pretty much no one does it when they have other options. Flaked corn can be lautered but flaked corn is expensive. But of course sometimes a person must do what they have to do with the limited equipment that they have. Having started several successful businesses on a shoe string I understand that all to well. My grandfather malted all of his corn and it could be sparged, but the way that he did it would not be allowed today.

Luater tuns do not work for corn. You cannot sparge corn mashes because you cannot get any penetration due to the consistency. I suggest one of my combination mash tun stripping stills. You can cook the mash grain in. Then pump out into a fermenter grain in. Then pump the grain in mash back into the mash tun still and do a fast stripping run. Then run the 25% to 35% low wines in the spirit still. If the solids are separated from the liquid after fermentation you are loosing 15% to 20% of the alcohol with the grain. If you are separating after cooking and before fermentation you are loosing some of the sugars with the grain. If you have a mash tun for corn, i can sell you a kit to add a stripping still feature to that tun. The best way to do barley based mashes is off the grain, but the absolute best way to do corn mashes is on the grain. Which is why 99% or more of bourbon is distilled on the grain. 417-778-6100 paul@distillery-equipment.com

Indyspirits, If you are liquefying your mash properly and you are using a flexible impeller pump you should not be having any issues pumping out even the most viscus mash, because the grain flour will stay in suspension. A couple of our customers were having trouble with grain settling very thickly at the bottom of their fermenters and sticking to the side walls of their mash tun but once they started liquefying their mash properly there was no build up and no sticking. Also if you want oxygenation during fermentation, then a aquarium aerator will usually do the trick.

Flexible impeller pumps are not the best option for CIP. Our CIP pumps are centrifugal pumps and we do not have any trouble with them in that capacity.

Berglund, We have the best quality and price in the industry in my opinion. Our customers think so too (click on the link below to see what our customers have to say about our equipment ). We have Standard series 150 gallon stills starting at $5,783.00 , $10,052.00 complete with the heating system. We also have 200 and even 300 gallon single wall and Baine Marie Stills. We have steam stills as large as 2,500 gallon. Our stills are in over 240 distilleries nation wide and in many other distilleries around the world Give us a call 417-778-6100 and or email us Paul@distillery-equipment.com for a qoute and a copy of our huge reference list. Please see the pic of our single walled 150 gallon below. We also have them in Baine Marie.

We have Jabsco Flexible impeller pumps with carts at a better price than all of our competitors. Jabsco invented the flexible impeller pump technology. These pumps are self priming, variable speed and have reversing capabilities. Also we can supply you with impellers that are good for over 200° F. We also have the best priced explosion proof ethanol pump in the industry. 417-778-6100 paul@distillery-equipment.com https://shop.distillery-equipment.com/collections/brewing-distilling-equipment-accessories/products/20-gpm-jabsco-flexible-impeller-pump https://shop.distillery-equipment.com/collections/brewing-distilling-equipment-accessories/products/jabsco-veraflex-flexible-impeller-mash-pump-with-cart This one comes with a remote control. Explosion proof ethanol pump. https://shop.distillery-equipment.com/collections/brewing-distilling-equipment-accessories/products/5-gpm-explosion-proof-beverage-alcohol-pump-for-high-proof-spirits-flojet-g70c If you need a larger ethanol pump we have them with ground up to over 100 gallon per minute.

I was going to attend the show as a vendor until I saw that there was a $600.00 charge for attendees. That is way to much. I don't figure that there will be many attendees at that price, so I wont be attending as a vendor. If they get the attendee price down, I might reconsider for next year.

Hi Eddie, if you need some equipment give me a holler. 417-778-6100 paul@distillery-equipment.com http://distillery-equipment.com http://moonshine-still.co http://triclamp.com

What does Kothe say about it?

Rusty is a great guy and very trustworthy and honest. Custom distilling is what he mainly does. I sold him a full set of 300 gallon equipment 7 years ago then around 4 years ago I sold him a full set of 800 gallon equipment. Rusty has distilled for some of the reality TV shows and he would never give out or steal a recipe. I stake my reputation on the fact that Rusty will treat you right and honor any agreement that you make with him. Give him a call and go down and visit his distillery. He and I also offer a 1 on 1 distillery workshop for $300.00 per day. If you take the work shop and then buy at least $10,000.00 of equipment from me then I will reimburse you for the workshop. Also I offer a 1 on 1 workshop at a distillery in NJ which is much closer to you. This distiller runs one of my 100 gallon pro series stills and his spirits have won a lot of awards, however I'm not sure if he would be interested in Custom distilling. Chris's contact info is below. EMAIL lastshotdistillery@gmail.com PHONE (315) 554-8241

I agree with MG Thermal for crash cooling mash, a chiller is almost always the best way to go, and if you need a chiller Mike at MG Thermal is the best out there, in my opinion.

No, that's definitely not one of mine.

tzimis, A lot of my customers started out small and have done really well, but they either kept their day job or had other sources of income. 1 distillery purchased a 50 gallon still then 2 years later purchased a 150 and then last your they purchased a 500 gallon Pro Series and a low pressure steam boiler. I have had several other customers do basically the same thing. Most of them started out with 45 or 50 gallon stills. Some of my customers who did this own winery's or breweries. If you need someone to custom distill for you call Rusty at Davis Valley Winery and Distillery. His info is below. He mainly does custom distilling for other distilleries and he does really well at that. Also keep in mind that if you are not going to keep your day job or if you don't have another source of income, you should start with at least a 300 gallon still. If you have another source of income and want to grow into the business, you can start with whatever size you like. With the changes in the TTB rules, we are going to see a lot more nano distilleries starting out with 20 gallon 45 gallon 100 gallon and 150 gallon stills and I think that is a good thing. We have jacketed stills from 6 gallon to 2500 gallon and we are glad to help you get started. paul@distillery-equipment.com 417-778-6100 http://distillery-equipment.com Rusty Cox 1167 Davis Valley Road Rural Retreat VA 24368 Cell: 757-593-1055 Email: davisvalleywinery@hotmail.com

HSD, What is the temp of your tap water? If the temp is 60F or less just run it through your condensers and then run the free hot water from your condensers into 2 hot water holding tanks. Use one tank of free hot water for your next mashing in and the other for cleaning. Problem solved and you save a huge amount of money on energy costs since you won't be heating water up for your mash and cooling it down for your condensers.

No drink, but if I ever get out his way, maybe I'll drop in and try a taste

Smart

mjduheme, That can happen when you order directly from a Chinese company. There are lots of reason's not to do that. Which Chinese company did you buy it from?

Keith (Grazin Spirits) Thank you for the great review. Also, thank you for the steaks. They were really tasty

Keith, I'm going to have Susan send you some bubble plate column operating instructions tomorrow. The instructions should really help you.

Keith, To run 2 plates on your still, you simply open the drain valves on the plates that you are not running. It is much easier than columns that must have plates removed. However, if you strip at 50 to 60 proof you will probably not need any plates during the spirit run to get to 120 to 130 proof for the barrel. Whiskeys that are sold unaged are typically ran at higher proofs, 140s to 150s and you will need to run some plates for that. Run the upper most plates.

Bluefish, From what I can see Keith does not have a bypass. He has plate drain valves with 1" plumbing. When he opens the drain valves and turns off the dephlegmator it makes it so that the plates cannot build a fluid level so the vapor just comes up through the risers from plate to plate with very little re condensing at the plates. Since the column is 10" in diameter the risers in the plates should have plenty of throughput and a low vapor velocity which will allow him to do a fast stripping run and then a slower spirit run with all plate drain valves open and the dephlegmator off he should be able to get 120 to 130 proof as an average for the spirit run. The spirit run should be stretched out to 4 hrs or more so that the cuts do not get smeared in with each other. Keith, I think that you should put a bypass in your cooling plumbing so that you can bypass the dephlegmator when you need to. If you need a design for that, let me know and I will email you one. Bluefish is correct, this still will not produce Vodka from scratch. You can produce Vodka with 15 plates, however it is best to have 20 plates for vodka. I may incur some wrath here from some people on the forum but I will tell you that you can produce Vodka from GNS with your still, no problem. You can buy the GNS for around $3.00 per proof gallon. If you dilute it to 35% then your still will produce like a 350 gallon still. When it comes into your distillery the GNS meets the identity of Vodka so you do not have to redistill it at 190 proof. Since the GNS comes off of continues column stills, you do need to redistill it to remove the heads. It does not matter that the gns was originally distilled by someone else. If you redistill it you can put that it was distilled by your distillery on the bottle. Some distillers really look down on people who make Vodka this way. I am neutral when it comes to this. I am neither for it or against it, however I do believe that if Vodka is made this way it should not be labeled as craft. Tito sold over $90,000,000 in Vodka last year and he made Vodka from GNS for many years, however I recently had someone tell me that Tito's has grown so much that now it is more cost effective to make his Vodka from scratch and that he is doing that now, but I don't know for sure if that is true. Also that column size is fine for your still, you will need to run it a little different than a 6" column but it will work.

Still_Holler, Is your exhaust fan explosion proof?