Josh

Hi all, Our absinthe is building a small amount of protein solids after sitting in the bottle for a few weeks. The solids dissolve back into solution with a little agitation, but was curious if anyone else has had issues along these lines and what they did to remedy the issue. Our basic process is distill, botanical soak, course filter, rest in stainless, and then 1um filter in pre bottling. I thought the 1um PP filter would pull out these prior to bottling, but I was clearly mistaken. We tested chilling the absinthe down in the lab to see if chill filtering would work, but it did not seem to cause proteins to fall out, at least in our bench trial. If anyone would be willing to share their secrets on the matter, I would much appreciate it. Thanks, Josh

Hi Nabtastic, For what it's worth, we recently moved locations (new fire and building approvals), and we had to modify 13 stainless steel single wall tanks with pressure release vents and sealed lid gaskets and lever rings, even while stored in our H3 (fire rated room), to comply with the spirit of NFPA. Plastic IBC totes are not usable for us at all upon landing at our facility, and we have full automatic fire suppression throughout the building. The 240 MAQ is in force for us anywhere outside the H3 storage room, which means 240 gallons of alcohol on the floor for us at any time, and its assumed that all tanks and distilling equipment are UL rated. Tank sizes did not matter in our situation. We had a issue with open vs. closed system in terms of distillation, but were able to keep the 240 MAQ with the open system, but they did initially want us to install a closed system (distillation directly to tank) vs. the open parrot into tank with open alcohol in the building, and threatened to drop our MAQ to 120 during that negotiation. Oh, and we had to install an explosion proof fan in the H3 storage room with a direct vent to outside of the building (through the roof), and had to install and use near ceiling exhaust fans in the building when distilling/pumping/bottling, etc. And the ethanol detection system... Good luck with the upgrades, sounds exciting!

Hi all, I have 33 500gram unopened vac sealed packs of Distillamax SR yeast for sale. The expiration date is 11/19 and they have been stored in their original box in my distillery warehouse. I paid $28 per 500g. Would like to sell them as we are not pursuing a rum program at this time. $15 per pack or best offer. I would like to sell in bulk, so ideally somebody out there with a rum program buys the lot. Please let me know if you're interested! Thanks, Josh

Thanks Paul, the system works just fine, no complaints about the equipment.

Thank you Paul and Stumpy's for the responses. I like the idea of adding heads to the loop, makes sense for our existing design. We have a little PEX and some canoflex lines throughout the system, but I think that low proof alcoholic solution would work, and PEX is cheap if we need to replace it because of deterioration. We never know what to do with the heads away, so this gives them purpose and a home! Paul, we do crash mash temps in one of your 150 gallon mash tuns, with cooling fluid in the jacket and the inner coil (twice a day on mash days) and when we run the 150 gallon on stripping runs, we need a lot of volume to keep the condenser water temperature ~60 degrees. Thank you both again for your responses! Cheers!

Hi all, I am using a closed loop water chiller system for my distillery and wanted to see what other folks are doing to treat the water in their closed loop system. Can anyone share what they do to keep the system from becoming a biological science experiment? I was thinking about chlorine, but not sure about the long term effects of chlorine going through copper and stainless equipment. Any advice would be appreciated! Cheers, Josh

where are you located/where's the muscat from?

We use a flexible impeller pump and haven't had any issues with moving thick, highly viscous mashes. We don't agitate our fermenters and get a similar grain buildup on the bottom as well. US-FIP is the manufacturer we bought from - they make a pump for this specific application.

Hi Paul, Do you have a list of everything that's on sale? I'd love to take a look at it. Josh@youngandyonder.com - thanks!

I have one for sale - PM sent.

Hi all, I would like to build a basic dephlemator control system, and am wondering if a simple temp controller + solenoid combo could work, or if any of you have experience with this approach? I'm thinking: https://www.freshwatersystems.com/p-1991-2-way-solenoid-valve-normally-closed-34-fpt-120v.aspx + https://www.morebeer.com/products/ranco-digital-temperature-controller-wired.html?gclid=Cj0KEQjwqtjGBRD8yfi9h42H9YUBEiQAmki5Op_YDKsr_vB0BeIwB0GQnaMpm7u0vzRfWbON5h4PqEMaAmSJ8P8HAQ I use the Ranco to control mash temps and it seems that it'd be the same principle concept. Alternatively, do you know of any complete over-the-counter packages that solve the dephlemator control problem? Thanks, Josh

Although it was more than I originally planned to spend, I went with the US-FIP 20035LV. I've read great stuff about the pump here on ADI forums, and they seem like good folks who stand behind their products over there at US-FIP. We'll see how it turns out, but I'm fairly confident that it will serve our various mash/product pumping needs. Time will tell - cheers!

Bought new - thanks anyway!

Width as well please!

Hi all, Looking for a used mash pump that can be used to handle the transferring of thick bourbon mashes between my tun, cooling vessel, and fermenter. Please let me know if you're looking to part with one, or have a good lead on where I can buy a used one. Thanks, Josh

Hi James, I also have four of these 55g tanks, use them daily, and agree that having a larger size (100-150g) offering would be beneficial. Gradiations would be awesome, but more importantly, the ability to fit on a standard floor scale (like the 55g size), since we weigh everything for volume anyway. Both would be ideal though. Cheers, Josh

Great video Devin - where can I learn more about options/availability?

Hi Paul, Could you provide a link to your 10 gallon baine marie style R&D still? Couldn't find it on your website. Thanks, Josh

Bought a chiller from Mike - no longer in the market for one. Thanks all.

Hi, Just installed a new still and found that my current chiller cannot handle the heat load. Looking for a larger replacement. If you have a chiller that you're looking to part with, please reach out and let me know what you have. Thanks, Josh

Sold

Thanks Dave, really appreciate the feedback!

Hello all, Hopefully an easy couple of questions that I would appreciate your feedback on: When creating a caustic or acid cleaning solution for still cleaning, I've read 5% as being an appropriate potency for a cleaning solution. Is that agree with your experience to neutralize odors and/or build-up? Is there risk with too potent of a caustic or acid solution on copper or stainless? Also, when creating the respective solutions, is the percentage basis measured by volume or by weight? Thank you in advance for your help! Josh

Having just finished the book "Water" by John Palmer, chapter 8 discusses different equipment for treating water to for brewing operations. I deducted from this chapter that a full blown water treatment process utilizes the following steps: 1. Sediment filter 2. UV Degradation 3. Granular Activated Carbon (GAC) 4. Mixed bed Ion Exchange (Deionizer) 5. Reverse Osmosis 6. Deaeration It seems to me like this might be a bit overkill, but I was interested in this forum's thoughts as to which of these (or which combinations) are used for your distilleries. For myself, I think that UV degradation + GAC + RO is probably sufficient, but go back and forth on the idea of adding a deionizer to that process. In reading about RO+DI water, it seems that it's generally not healthy for the human body (called "hungry water") because it absorbs nutrients and minerals from whatever it touches, but then thinking about this further, in flavored spirits (gin for example), I wonder if it would allow for higher suspension of more flavor compounds without as much louching or potential cloudiness. I'd be interested if anyone has any general thoughts on this theory as well. Lastly, does anyone use deaeration to remove dissolved gasses prior to bottling to reduce any potential oxygenation in the bottle? Thank you in advance for any thoughts you'd be willing to share on this matter.

I've been trying to wrap my head around this as well as we get started. BAM is clear that sugar added cannot exceed more than 0.2% of final product by volume, but CFR 5.23© states in clearer terms that sugar addition should not exceed 2g per liter. I would therefore assume that this would limit your possible citric acid adjustment to 1g per liter, marrying up these two sources of info. More of a confirmation of your resolve, and for my own confirmation of understanding.