HedgeBird

This may mean he wont be able to heat up both still and mash tun at the same time, and will have a longer heat up time, but if the jacket is holding 13.5psi and not getting hotter. than thats not the specific problem here. Def sounds like a problem with the trap or return piping..

So your boiler is low enough that condensate can gravity flow back to the boiler? If your just heating up now, perhaps try switching the condensate trap on the still with the one on the mash tun. That would be a good test to figure out if the trap is your problem. (assumes they are the same size trap and can be changed out without changing piping, and that you have unions where you need them to change them out, and that you have a pair of pipe wrenches, and pipe dope )

15hp boiler is about 500,000 btu right? That does seem small for a pair of 600 gallon tanks..

Do you have pressure gauges installed on your still and mash-tun jackets? What PSI is the mash tun jacket holding while you are trying to heat? Knowing this would help narrow down the problem. (presumably you have a pressure relief valve, vacuum relief valve, and pressure gauge on the jacket after the steam input valve.) Is steam trap installed in the correct direction/flow? (They typically have an arrow on the cast iron housing.) Do you have a condensate return pump? (can you hear is cycling on/off) Whats the pressure on the boiler itself once you top out at 126F?

Let me fix that for you... https://www.facebook.com/RhsDistillery/

https://providence.craigslist.org/for/d/barrels-drums-ibc-tanks-food-grade-safe/6779003248.html

Doing the water thing makes a lot of sense!

https://www.amazon.com/Bucket-Eight-White-Gallon-Buckets/dp/B01MT5S6V9/ref=pd_sim_b2b_6?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B01MT5S6V9&pd_rd_r=3744263f-ecec-11e8-8e2e-49ff07944d9e&pd_rd_w=OhzfK&pd_rd_wg=oCrK6&pf_rd_i=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=0b6f8745-66e2-4766-8b44-154b13ee4892&pf_rd_r=8ZYPX80XKYPGYC3DJB3C&pf_rd_s=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_t=40701&psc=1&refRID=8ZYPX80XKYPGYC3DJB3C For a budget option on collection off the still these 5 gallons buckets with the "Gamma Seal Lids" are pretty nice. Lots of color options you can use to differentiate between heads/hearts/tails, etc. bubbasbarrels.com also has some 50/100 gallon stainless drums with fittings.

https://www.amazon.com/Quick-Disconnect-Clamp-Industrial-Stainless/dp/B075RS5GB6/ref=sr_1_4?s=industrial&ie=UTF8&qid=1542735354&sr=1-4&keywords=tri+clamp+to+air+fitting Assuming you have a 1.5" tri-clamp fitting on the end of your condenser you can use the above fitting. Just remove the parrot, replace with the tri-clamp to air adapter fitting and pressurize the still with compressed air. Make sure your still has a pressure gauge you can view, and slowly fill her up until your relief valve pops. Then just let the still sit under pressure for an hour (or overnight) and check that you dont have any noticeable drop in pressure.

Just curious, what type of material is the blue/green piping you are using for your cooling water? I cant tell if its painted cast iron pipe, or some type of plastic.

Along with what other have said this also means you have to wait longer to add your yeast. Our fermenters have very small jacketed areas so it would not be practical to use ours for the initial crash cooling.

Thats good to hear as I purchased this tank from you! I have been thinking over the plumbing and it seems like the big downside is that the cooling water in the jacket when you are finished cooling will need to be drained and wasted (or pumped back to cold water tank). FYI - For some reason I am unable to get your phone number to ring. When I call it just gives me static. I have tried from two separate cell phones with the same result. Give me a call if you get a chance! andrew @ Thistle Finch Distilling!

We are in the process of upgrading our mash tun from one with a separate steam plate and cooling jacket to a new larger mash-tun that has only a single steam jacket. I am wondering what folks who have single jacket mash tun, and who do grain is mashes are doing for cooling the mash? Are most of you running both steam and cooling (water or glycol) through the same jacket, or are you using a separate heat exchanger? I am basically trying to figure out if I should plumb the steam jacket to do both heating and cooling, or get a separate tube in shell exchanger. Suggestions and input appreciated! Out details: Old mash tun is 150 gallon (has separate steam and cooling jackets) New mash tun is 300 gallon (has just a steam jacket) Mash is about 2lb of fine flour per gallon of water. We have a 300 gallon cold water tank/reservoir that we cool down over night with a chiller then use that water to crash cool the mash.

We are in the process of upgrading our mash tun from one with a separate steam plate and cooling jacket to a new larger mash-tun that has only a single steam jacket. I am wondering what folks who have single jacket mash tun, and who do grain is mashes are doing for cooling the mash? Are most of you running both steam and cooling (water or glycol) through the same jacket, or are you using a separate heat exchanger? Out details: Old mash tun is 150 gallon (has separate steam and cooling jackets)

This is also my experience with our four spout expressfill volumetric filler. We even replaced the laser cut rubies that are intended to control the fill speed by being exactly the same diameter and its always still a bit off between spouts. I will say that I do not think that having to do all four bottles at the same time is a disadvantage over being able to do four individually. Our routine is: pull four full bottles and set them to your left; place four empty bottles on filler; hit the start button to begin filling; as the four bottles are filling you cork the four you just pulled; by the time you have corked those four you wait about four seconds for the next batch to finish. Also when your doing over a thousand bottles in a run I dont really care that we end up with four half filled bottles over just one half filled bottle.

I live in a state that has limited options for shipping product out of state direct to consumers. Previously we worked with an online operation based in D.C. that retailed our product, but they seem to be closing down. I am wondering if anyone has any recommendations for online distribution? Not really looking for anything that needs to move thousands of bottles but it would be nice to have an option for the occasional person that wants to buy our stuff from out of state. East coast preferable but would love to hear about any organization and your experience with them. Thanks in advance!

The trap is still doing its job of preventing sewer gasses from passing up and out the air gap. Same as if it was a floor drain or floor sink, etc.

An air gap (Indirect Drain) is required in most all commercial kitchen environments, so thats almost certainly by design. That particular setup would fail inspection from a picky inspector as technically there needs to be space between the top of the waste/drain pipe and the bottom of the pipe coming from the sink/dishwasher, ice bin, etc. Best would be to replace with a 3" x 3" x 2" (or whatever size pipes they are) PVC T fitting and put a clean out plug on the top end of the T. Spray foaming it would be pretty lazy work but would certainly get the job done faster! https://www.homedepot.com/p/3-in-x-3-in-x-2-in-PVC-DWV-All-Hub-Sanitary-Tee-C4811HD332/100342376 https://www.homedepot.com/p/NIBCO-3-in-PVC-DWV-Spigot-x-Cleanout-Adaptor-with-Plug-C4816HD3/205808372

Get yourself a hoop-driver if you dont have one! https://www.gwkent.com/hoop-driver-for-oak-barrel.html?gclid=Cj0KCQjwiJncBRC1ARIsAOvG-a5gAXIReaN_pTr0GQ-qJbpAQQOXj3K9ArLfT6vWQFSstdo_8bsk4JQaAgUrEALw_wcB http://www.thevintnervault.com/index.php?p=view_product&product_id=992 https://barrelbuilders.com/store/?model_number=CSHD09

I dont know what type of jurisdiction your distillery lives in, but is there no noise ordinance?

This is also what we typically do as well prior to filling/soaking. We get barrels from two suppliers and one supplier has staples in their hops that prevent them from being driver down.. kinda annoying. Anyone know the benefit to adding these staples?

This link (with the "#!" in the URL) does not even load the page for me.. https://www.facebook.com/harvestspirits works.. Same thing for http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Breuckelen-Gin/192837856324 loads nothing.. but https://www.facebook.com/brkdistilling works.. Are folks just posting the wrong link?

https://countryconnection.biz/

Its not just a state by state issue. To actually distill you would need a federal permit in addition to whatever the state would require. Shot answer is no, its not possible to do such a thing legally speaking.

Using Hoochware and QuickBooks online. I dont have them integrated, but just use Hoochware for production and TTB reporting and QuickBooks for accounting. Works okay for us. Getting a distillery specific product with enough accounting functionality to replace QuickBooks seems optimistic.