Southernhighlander

The 5 hp has a 200,000 BTU input and around 160 BTU output. You need 200,000 BTUs of low pressure steam boiler output for around a 1 hr heat up time, for my 100 gallon still and 100 gallon mash tun when they are started at the same time. However, if you think you might add more equipment later, you could go with up to a 9hp boiler.

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.

Windy City, your method would certainly work as described. We generally add a thermostatic valve to stills that have more than 2 columns. The thermostatic valve maintains the coolant temp for the dephlegs which is typically around 120 degrees F when it enters dephleg 3 in a 3 column still. When the coolant comes out of dephlegmator 3 and enters dephleg 2 it is over 120 F and it is even hotter still when it enters the dephlegmator on column 1. The coolant is plumbed in to the final condenser, out of the final condenser to dephleg 3 and from dephleg 3 to dephleg 2 and from dephleg 2 to dephleg 1. In this way the coolant increases in temp with every dephlgmator it passes through and this helps the system to self balance. No packing is needed to make azeo and vodka runs can be completed in as little as 7 hrs. The thermostatic valve is place at the coolant input of the final condenser and the probe for the valve is in a special thermowell at the output of the final condenser.

All of our BM units are capable of this conversion.

Yes the oil must be removed from the stills jacket. So far, none of our 20 or so customers, who converted their baine maire stills to steam, have reported any issues.

Yes, We have a conversion kit for our own baine marie stills. First you must have inner pot and jacket wall thicknesses of at least 3 mm for 6 psi steam and at least 4mm for up to 15 PSI steam. Our kits consist of high pressure clamps, Teflon gaskets and end caps for your heating element ports as well as an appropriately sized Apollo ASME rated section VIII pressure relief valve for your steam jacket and the appropriately sized Apollo vacuum relief valve for your steam jacket. paul@distillery-equipment.com

I call the device an Open System Pressurization Module (OSPM) Basically the OSPM uses water column to maintain pressure in an open system. Your still's current baine marie heating system heats water in the jacket. The OSPM is connected to the jacket. The water column in the OSPM holds pressure that is created by the immersion heaters creating steam in the jacket. If the rated pressure of the OSPM is exceeded, then a little water is pushed out of the OSPM into your drain, so the system is very safe. Since the only thing between atmosphere and the steam in the jacket is water, it is technically an open system and therefore, just like a baine marie still, it does not fall under the rules of a closed pressurized system. We have 2 OSPM designs. One operates at 6 PSI max and the other at 12 PSI max. The metal thicknesses of your inner pot and jacket dictate if your still can be utilized in this way and if so, which OSPM is best for your still. If your still pot is constructed of 304 stainless the jacket and pot walls must be at least 3mm thick for the 6psi model and at least 4mm thick for the 12 PSI model.

The device requires no power. To learn more email me paul@distillery-equipment.com

We suggest vegetable oil for our baine marie stills. We also have a device that allows you to convert your baine marie still to a self fired electric steam still. Basically the device allows you to create steam under pressure in your heating jacket while maintaining the jacket as an open system.

I'm sorry, I didn't realize that you were in the UK. In that situation I'm sure that Stilldragon Europe would be the best way to go because of the incredibly expensive shipping costs for us to ship to the UK. Also Silk's advice is very good and may be the best way for you to proceed considering that you have already purchased the still.

Before you make a final decision, you should check out our products and do some comparisons in price etc. https://shop.distillery-equipment.com/ If you want you could email me paul@distillery-equipment.com and I will put a package together for you. We have packed column sections in stock as well as everything else that you need + we actually have complete American made electric heating systems with controllers. We also have agitators, which unlike the ones on Chinese stills, have American made UL listed explosion proof agitator motors. We also have ASME rated American made safety valves. Typically the Chinese use non ASME rated safety devices that are not up to code in many situations. The Chinese typically use CE listed motors that say EX on them. CE is not up to code in the US, so many times the Chinese CE listed motors will not pass electrical and or safety inspections. Also if you will be running Vodka in an electric still, a jacketed pot for running 50% low wines is safer. We have 100 liter jacketed still pots that are inexpensive compared to our competitors and we sell American made heating systems with them.

needmorstuff, Below is a picture of one of the many stills that we have built for customers with height restrictions. This 300 gallon Ultra Pro Vodka Still with Gin Basket is less than 9 ft tall. The still is easy to operate and runs as smoothly as any 20 plate still. You can run any individual plate column and any number of individual plates in the system or bypass the bubble plate columns altogether with a turn of a handle. The dephlegmator and final condenser coolant flow is semi automated using a single thermostatic valve (not shown). The gin basket can be bypassed with the turn of a handle. Unlike certain continuous bubble plate columns, which must be torn down to remove plates to disengage them and then reassembled, no tearing down is necessary to reconfigure our Pro Series and Signature Series stills. Just the turn of the handle is all that's needed. Our fastest stills put out 75 gallons of white dog per hour and cost less than any new continuous column still that we have seen with the same output. This still can also be used as a mash tun if needed. If you would like a quote for a still that would be designed specifically to fit your needs email paul@distillery-equipment.com and we will set up a phone conference.

The pump setup, as silk describes it will work fine, However, I would lower the columns to the floor, add a 3rd pump and have 20 total plates. We have dealt with similar height restrictions in this way with great results.

Your retort should be at least 1/3 the size of your still pot for the best results.

Okay I gotcha. I didn't realize you were referencing backset. You said the stillage was screened. Generally stillage means spent mash but I've seen some that use it to mean mash in general. Not knowing your background I thought that you meant the latter. Now that I understand, you gave a nice explanation.

What big distillery was that? With corn based spirits it's best to ferment and distill with the solids left in, which is why Jim Beam, Jack Daniels and the other big distilleries do it that way. Our mash tuns, stills and fermenters, for grain bills that are mostly corn, are all set up for on the grain mashing, fermenting and distilling and that equipment is in around 300 distilleries. On the grain is best for Bourbon and other corn based distilled spirits because it is so much easier and less time consuming than trying to remove the solids. Also many of my customers sell the grain in, spent mash with the liquid left in to hog farmers. One of the main reasons that the vast majority of corn derived spirts are done on the grain is because the corn for corn spirits is not malted. You can put 500 gallons of cooked bourbon mash above a false bottom screen and you may drip out 10 gallons of wort. The only way to get penetration with a sparge on corn mash is to add 20% rice hulls which is a huge waste. It is so much easier to just do it on the grain. For spirits distilled from malted grains such as Barley and Wheat etc, fermenting and distilling off of the grain works great.

SlickFloss I'm glad to sell you a little still however I do not promote any illegal distilling activity. If you would like to order a small still by phone: call 417-778-6100 and ask for Kathy. If you would like to speak to me directly call 417-778-6908. The below is on all of our small still listings: "These products may not be legal to operate in some areas. Affordable Distillery Equipment, LLC strongly discourages any unlawful use of these products and is not responsible for any damage or injury caused by the misuse or unlawful use of these products. Any person or entity that uses information or equipment provided by Affordable Distillery Equipment, LLC does so entirely at their own risk and accepts all liability concerning the use of the aforementioned equipment and information."

We can add a 5 psi pressure relief valve for $55.00 We have German Helmets and Scotch Columns for the 26 gallon, but they are not listed on the web site.

Bigstickdistillery, Adam's right, those stills really are crap. They've been around for a few years now. Here is one of my basic starter stills https://moonshine-still.co/collections/moonshine-stills/products/5-cwc The still pot is 14 and 16 gauge 304 stainless and the column is 16 gauge copper. This still will last a lifetime or longer. You can hand it down to your grandson some day. Here is a better option made from 16 gauge copper https://moonshine-still.co/collections/moonshine-stills/products/8gckc We have sold around 10,000 small stills since 2012. If you want something that you can really do something with then I suggest this one: https://moonshine-still.co/collections/moonshine-stills/products/26-4b6pc Each of these stills comes with a book that tells you everything that you need to know to get started, including mashing, recipes, how to do cuts and how to operate a still and lots of distilling history including many humorous tales about moonshiners.

I grew up in the Great Smokey Mountains in Eastern Tennessee. There was a guy we all called Big Stick (because of what the girls had to say about him). He always wore a flop hat with a sharpened coondick poked through the felt. https://theevolutionstore.com/raccoon-penis-bone/ I remember seeing him stand in line at the bank using his coondick as a toothpick. The other use for a coondick is to place it in the output tube of your still with the curve pointed down so that the ethanol stream goes strait down into the collection jar, which is why many of the old moonshiners would have a coondick stuck in their hat.

The only reason to monitor the pot temp is so that you know when the operating temp is going to be reached so that you can back off the heat input so that you don't cause the still to puke. If your still had a head or column, the most important place to monitor temp, during operation, would be at the top of the column or head. Aside from the boiling point increase throughout the run that Silk mentioned, if you were to try set point temp control in the pot, your pot would reach the set point temp and then the heat would turn off and as soon as the heat turned off, you would have zero ethanol output . It would take minutes for the temp to drop to the point where your heat would come back on and then you would only have output for a few seconds until the set point temp is reached again and once the set point is reached, the heat would turn off and you would have zero output again for several minutes while the mash cools. In a direct fire still like yours, no heat input means no ethanol output.

Sounds like the baby boomers and Gen X except it was weed, LSD and Quaaludes back then.

Slickfoss, you make a very good point. I would never have my ethanol storage tanks indoors because outdoors all I need is a UL 142 listed tank with TTB approved padlocks. It's a huge savings compared to storing indoors. Some don't have the appropriate outdoor space for outdoor ethanol storage tanks but many do and for those that do, outdoor storage is the way to go. For barrels I would use a traditional rick house that is completely ventilated and on the side of a hill if possible. They can be built cheaply from rough, air dried, pallet grade, sawmill lumber and cants. Storing barrels inside a building with only a small amount of ventilation is a bad idea. Whiskey barrels should be exposed to all of the daily and seasonal changes in humidity, temperature, atmospheric pressures and wind. Everything except for the sun and rain.

I just want to say that the Louisville Kentucky ADI Distillers Conference was great and I want to thank ADI for a job well done. We look forward to the 2022 ADI conference, which will be in our home state of Missouri at St Louis.

The oldest millennial are now 40 years old while the oldest of the Gen. Z generation are 24. Are there any stats on what Gen Z thinks about alcohol?