Beach Time

Distillate The spent yeast was loaded with diacetyl on those early fermentations and it carried over into the distillate. A lot has changed since then and I don't really get that much if any diacetyl in the current fermentations. I don't have as much volume of lees either once I stopped aerating the wash prior to pitching. Hot backset and a small qty of fermaid have really helped keep the yeast happy. I run less heat on the still which has improved quality. Also using a wild strain similar to FLA Cracker, it has increased ester production & yield by reducing the size of both the heads & the tails cuts. I have recently ran some batches with lees in the pot, I'll comment back after I compare results.

I don't add any sugar to my spiced rum. I don't see any flavor change but the improvement in appearance is dramatic when I get it filtered bright. I'm currently using a 0.2 micron absolute membrane cartridge, 0.47 doesn't get the job done.

Distillate

I quit bringing yeast into the pot when I got a lot of diacetyl in an early batch. My ferments are very consistent now, going to rethink and experiment...

We opened discussions with the local fire marshall's office early on. They were insistent on sprinklers but offered a compromise of separation (fire walls) plus sprinklering only the still area. We built cheap 1hour walls (2 sheets of 5/8" wall board) and sprinklered that smaller space with just a few heads off domestic service. Toss that back at your engineer... Like this Like this

My experience is you need to build it yourself.

I use spirit heads as a fly spray, makes a good window cleaner too.

Alex, Can you elaborate? what filtration types are best for haze removal? Pressure drop drives the flow in any system, so I don't see how positive or negative pressure relative to atmospheric makes any difference as far as the filter is concerned (of course assuming the filter is oriented in the correct direction). I have experienced much better results with this configuration as compared with conventional discharge side filtering and I believe it is due to the pulsation pressure spike is much less on the suction side. The context of this filtering challenge is batch sizes less than 100 liters, so plate & frame & DE are not viable alternatives and time sacrificed is really not as big an issue.

I have a similar issue with my spiced rum and beach-plum infused rum and have not yet perfected a filtering process. Your batch size would fit in one of those homebrew conical tanks which have decanting arms, that might be a way to maximize recovery using gravity. I've tired the capsule filters similar to the Millipore, they work but are expensive and can't handle the particle loading. Working now with 10" canister housings which look promising; if you use a diaphragm pump install the filters on the suction side because the pulsation pressure spike plugs any type filter quickly. Depending on how bright you want your product this might end up being a 3-4 stage process; decanting => filter/strain through 3-5 micron cartridge => proof to final (or near) gauge => Filter through tandem filters 1 micron & 0.47 micron. If you polish filter at abv well above final proof, you might get haze/clouds.

Brewder is spot-on. Another thing to consider is using 10-20% backset, it helps by providing nutrients and pH stability.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, the solids limit for using a hydrometer to proof is <400 mg per 100 ml which is 4000 mg per 1000 ml or 4 grams per liter.

Dehner is spot on, the local inspector will have final say. Note that they could require a higher or lower standard as compared to code. Also, there are a lot of variables such as air exchanges that will effect how an area is classified if you end up in a code case. Get cozy with your local code people; the more comfortable they are with you and your project the better for your wallet.

Have you tried pectinase enzymes to break down the pectins and possibly eliminate the clouding?

I'd look at the water supply, with the change in seasons, the treatment regimen at the water plant may have changed. The mineral profile can change and you could be calcium difficeint, they could have changed to a different disinfectant which is getting past your filtration and slowing your yeast. Etc...

The NPR article points out some chinks in the one big happy family story in craft brewing. Wilmer is a good example of the craft brewers changing their definition to exclude some who are arguably craft producers as compared to some, AB InBev owns a chunk of Widmer's parent company and are therefore excluded from the craft moniker. There are brewing giants such as Boston Brewing, who until recently was mostly produced under contract by Miller-Coors, for who the craft brewers changed their definition to keep Boston Beer from loosing their craft title and the subsequent big excise tax break. Maybe the wine folks got it right, judge my craft by the quality in the bottle. Once small distillers are numerous enough to be a political force we need to exert political pressure for a small producer excise tax relief just like what big brewers like Boston beer, Sierra Nevada and new Belgium get today.

Any steam jacket should be 316 grade stainless steel, 304 will stress crack in time, you might get enough service life that it is not a problem, but it will fail, not a question of if but when. I agree that thermal shocking is a big concern, you should de pressurize the steam jacket and allow time for the jacket to cool. Transitioning from warm to cool to cold water will reduce the strain. Not sure I understand the comment about repeated passivations, it typically takes a welded repair or other sanding / grinding to remove the passivation layer.

GE made a great small RO system called the Merlin, it has since been replaced by the Evolution model (I have not used an evolution) retail is US$ 800.00; it is supposed to do 700-1500 US gallons (3.785 liter = gallon) per day depending on your water conditions. They are tankless, on-demand and require no pump or external power other than water pressure. The new model needs 60 psi inlet pressure which I think is higher than the older Merlin version.

To size a plate and frame you will need to also provide the knockout time (or flow rate), cooing water temperature, cooling flow rate available. Alfa Laval and GEA are a couple other high end makers. Try AGC Heat Transfer for an economy/value supplier in the US; they have both east and west coast locations.

Does anyone have experience with automated stills made by iStill? (iStill.eu) Comments about reliability are particularly of interest. Thanks!

I would respond that fermentation is carbon neutral; the CO2 emitted during alcohol production is produced by the fermentation of sugars which were produced by plant photosynthesis. There is a lot of work being done to make CO2 recovery economical on a small scale. Those economics vary by local situations, but in general you would need to be well over 10,000 cases per year to even consider the expense which is on the order of US$200,000+ for a small system. Spent wash disposal via farm land application is viable in many regions. The main exposure with land application is surface rain water runoff carrying the applied organics into a body of water endangering fish, etc. Ground water contamination is less likely. There is probably a pumper service in your area that can take the wash. This material is 100% organic and can be digested into methane in a bioreactor, these systems are extremely expensive ($millions). There is a company called verde environmental that is making a small scale filtration system to reduce BOD/COD so you can send this type of material to your city sewer, maybe an alternative.

Hedgebird, If you supply the boiler operating pressure I can size the proper steam header diameter. Typically when there are low steam pressure at the point of use you would operate the boiler at say 30-45 psi 2-3 bar and use a pressure reducing valve to precisely trim the operating pressure to 3-5 psi .2 to .3 bar. Your HVAC guy might be on the current path with that recommendation. Good luck!

CCTs are designed specifically for beer production, the cone bottom facilitates harvesting yeast by allowing you to exclude the trub / cold break and harvest only the highest viability yeast. In brewing one key step in the process is crashing (quickly lowering beer temperature) prior to yeast harvest and the jacket is designed around this requirement (oversized as compared to only controlling fermentation temperature). The need for temperature control will be effected by the fermentor volume, geometry, type of fermentable, anticipated fermentation time and more. At $1000/barrel for small CCTs I'm guessing a lot of tubs and other vessels are a result more of budget limits. Cheers!

Thank you for the input, looks like the best argument is that a still is an open system and not a pressure vessel or boiler. I did find this link to the National Board or Pressure Vessel Inspectors in Columbus, OH which deciphers each State regulation in less legal wording... http://www.nationalboard.org/SiteDocuments/NB-370.pdf Those in the US this might be useful, especially in selecting steam boiler capacities in those States like Ohio that have stationary operator requirements. By the way meerkat, I saw a real sexy looking copper alambic brandy pot still made in South Africa, Leo Investments Trust... Have you seen their equipment? Cheers!

I have been surfing the forum about the issue of local (city/county/state) jurisdictions (many who may have never seen or approved a still previously) and how they approach the classification of a distillation vessel. I have found some limited discusion and was hoping we could get some more people to share their experiences. Sorry if this has been covered somewhere else, if so I just failed to find it. So here is my limited experience so far, I call the state boiler officer and ask what a still would be classified as (pressure vessel, etc) the response was he was unfamiliar with still specifically but thought that it would fall under the definition of a boiler which is... ("Boiler" shall mean a closed vessel in which water is heated, steam is generated, steam is superheated, or any combination thereof, under pressure or vacuum for use externally to itself by the direct application of heat from the combustion of fuels, or from electricity or nuclear energy. The term "boiler" shall include fired units for heating or vaporizing liquids other than water, where these units are separate from processing systems, and are complete within themselves). It goes on to state that all boilers must be ASME approved and stamped, except for a State special which requires a full set of plans approved and signed-off by a licesnsed PE. Obviously all the stills operating out there, especially those self-made and hand hammered copper stills are probably not ASME stamped or have had their design blue-printed and analyzed and approved by a PE. What are your experiences regarding how to manage this issue? Did your inspector treat it like a water heater? I realize there is a wide range of local regulations and probably even wider range of interpretation and enforcement of them. In the end all state and local pressure vessel & boiler regs in the US are a derevation of ASME standards so there is a lot of similarity from state to state. I have always thought the under 15 psi rule excluded a still, but the text above does state pressure or vacuum for a heated vessel. Any comments appriciated!