Sudzie

James, did you ever get around to shooting a video? Our boiler s just about done and believe it or not I'm getting antsy to se how they work...... Happy New Year! -Dave

James, thanks for the reply. Looks like they will work super. 200 gals, 1 hour heat up is what the rep quoted to us. Can't wait to see a video. Thanks again -Dave

James, the single 3/4" was installed in the 600 gal mash tank referenced above? Installed bottom of tank, pointed up? Did you track the heat up time? Was the nozzle noisy? Any chance you took a video? Sorry for all the questions, we are a week out finishing up the boiler and getting antsy to see how they performed. -Dave

Mike, ours doesn't have the small whole above the outlet hole as shown on your diagram? Is this an upgrade, does this work better than the style we currently have? The small whole makes sence and probably work better and make it much less finicky? -Dave

Would that be 20% gross increase not including removed spirits or 20% net increase after reduction of striped spirits? I'm not a math major but my figures came out no increase in final volume in the still at the end of the strip. I could have calculated incorrectly?

This is for our 250 gal striping still. The rep suggested that we use one 3/4" eductor nozzle installed in the center / bottom pointed up. This still is 36" in diameter. He said that the mash would be drawn in from the bottom and be injected at a 4x flow rate up and cause a rolling in the still to the sides and then to the top again. Based on calculations at 12 psi steam the eductor should heat up in 1 hour.

After several months going back and forth we ordered this http://www.jrgjt.com/eductor_tla_heater.html to see how they work. The rep said he has several ethanol plants using them. I'll report back when we do our testing.

They are not spot on for sure (ours is -7 degrees) but we use it now and then just to see the differential between several areas of the still. Helped a lot in the beginning to get a feel for how to drive the still. And now it's second nature.

We used canola oil. And it is correct that if you don't fill your jacket all the way the upper part of the jacket will be steam. We run our jacket at 3.5 psi. I've used a Lazer point thermometer and there was a temp difference of around 25 degrees if I remember right.

We just use tap water. Our water is super. 27 ppm tds 1/8 grain hardness. We shut off at 99*c. I want to leave the junk in the thumper.

We used oil for a couple of weeks. Ran too hot, created a bit of scorching (lack of surface area) on the inner jacket and we smelt like French Frys. We could run 300 mlpm faster, but not always a good thing (slow is smooth) and went back to good old water and love it. Kind of a pita cleaning out the oil prior to converting back to water but defently worth it imho.

We have a 90 gallon jacketed (Bain Marie) with a thumper and coil, powered by 3 x 5500 watt immersed elements, no vacuum required. 1:45 to 2 hour heat up and 3:30 to 4 hour runs on 55 gallon mashes for strips and 1:30 heat up and 8:30 runs for 70 gallon spirit runs. Has worked great for over 2 years and keeps going strong. We go through a couple of elements a year and change out our water in the jacket every 4 or so months. Great way to start off if your frugal like us. I'd rather spend the money on an Anton Parr 4500 to make proofing and gauging easy. Sleep is a good thing. Ran our first 60 gallon still with emeirsed elements for about 10 runs and were so pissed off with the scorching (we strip on grain) we quickly built an outer jacket for that still and ran that way for almost a year until we built our current 90 gallon still. We're almost done with our new 250 gallon striping still (steam injected) that will feed a new 90 gallon spirit still (steam coil) at a second location (non-contagious) that we are building out currently. We will be able to increase our production by a factor of six and that should help keep us from running out of product that happens all too frequently now. Good problem, but it's still a problem. Advise: electric elements in water work great, not so great in mash or spirits. You will learn volumes if your willing to do the work. Plan the vision, execute the plan and be nimble. Running a distillery is a really big onion!!! Mistakes made are not a bad thing as long as you learn from them. Starting off small is good only if at the same time your planning your expansion when it makes sense. Good luck in your journey and enjoy!

Grain in fermentation & strip. Sit back and enjoy.....

Really???? You might want to check out that theory......

Too expensive, NOPE! If the fee puts you over the edge, get a rope, your going to be needing it. Or better said, be better capitalized and get out selling you products. We all need to be real with the expectations we have of our business. This software frees up soooo much time it's a no brainier.

Joe, you'll be driving right through York on your way north. We have the privilege of being the first and most expensive toll on interstate 95 in Maine. We are about 4 miles from the spur road. Swing by if your schedule allows. It would be great to meet you. -Dave

Same here. New content vanished Friday???

We do 50 gallon mashes. 50# corn 33# rye 5# distillers malt. We get consistently 7.8 to 8.4 pg per stripping run no cuts.

Exactly when are you adding your enzymes and at what temp?

We use Jake and he does a very good job. His service is tops too.

We received a non-contiguous location addition on our current DSP this past fall. It is within 10 miles and in the same town. It's more of a amendment to our DSP, and we needed to increase our bond to handle our expanded production and storage at the additional location. Approval took about 3 months or so.

Kristian- we're you using a coil or steam injection in your Hoga? And you operated it at 150 psi?

You just need it to get the water up to a boil turn off and not cool off too fast. We do a (60min 196*f corn) (30min 177*f rye) (60 min 152*f malt) mash and get 7-8 PG yield from 85 lbs. of grain.

We use a 40 Gal. Goren Electric Kettle and are now on mash #596. We bring our water to a boil and do our mashing process, holds the heat great. We mix with a drill mixer. Pump out to our crash cooler, cool, pump to our fermenter and let it do its thing. Best $2500 I've ever spent. It's been a great way to start out. Just bought a 275 Gal steam injected kettle with built in CIP & mixer for our expansion. Going to keep the 40 gal kettle going for recipe development.

We do 4 strips and then a spirit run in our pot with a thumper. We take the heads and tails (feints) from our spirit run, combine together and divide this volume by 4 and put each fourth in the pot with our finished mash for that days strip. Every fifth spirit run we dump all of the heads to avoid a build up. Any tails buildup seems to take care of themselves when we dump the pot. Part science, part gut.