Natrat

I just named my new proofing tanks Luke and Leia. The milk can receivers are collectively "the droids." I was going to name the still the death star, but I think I'll save that one. Pallet jack is my Land Speeder. Looking for ideas for the forklift...my low wines receiver already has Jabba, so that's taken.

Heating up the molasses, as everyone else suggests, is very helpful. I found that a $12 drum pump from McMaster worked pretty well after that. Usually I use totes, but when I did use the drum, I just upended it into my mixing vessel, and then rinsed it out with hot water.

Weird. Only other thing I can think of might be moisture content. But if they're germinating, one would think you're well in the ballpark. Did you drop the hydrometer?

Interesting. I'm glad they are thinking about this stuff.

Hey Pete, are you using malted rye? The nominal silo life of malted rye is about 18 months. Un malted maybe 2 years. The grain gets friable, and when the hull collapses, the grain dust tends to either fall down the cone or stick to the sides of the silo (static) Perhaps you were getting great yields from all the grain dust in the first batches? And now that you've used that, you're into the chaff...just an idea. Do you taste your grain before you mill it? I find that a quick crunch on the grain can tell me a lot about its condition...and sometimes I adjust my grain bill on the fly when I get into a new crop batch...just on the flavor/texture.

Yup, plenty of nutrient. One of them is going pretty good now, but it took a lot of babying. Lag time was crazy...and the ferment is really slow. I'm dropping about 7 points a day, which is going to be a 2 week ferment. However, this agave syrup is enriched with calcium, so I don't really trust my dissolved solids reading. I'm very curious to see where it goes to. I'm a virgin with agave...

I won't push :-) I'm actually enjoying the math figuring right now...using this computer math stuff sure is easier than the poopy Reverse Polish I learned in college! Once I've got my own model hammered out, we can sit down over some hard-won self-made whisky and commiserate :-) Meanwhile, I am having some fun with this still you designed...and sorry to Trinacria for hijacking your thread...!

Steven, I think we need to sit down at some point and talk, but one more question for now... The volume of vapor between plates interests me...I assumed that the height of plates was due to the need to possibly get your hands in there...for assembly as well as service and cleaning, but as I run through my calculations, I am seeing that there seems to be a minimum volume of vapor between plates to make it work efficiently. Is there any benefit to using a compacted plate setup near the base of the column, and then increasing volume as you go up? I can see already where there is an optimal ratio range between column diameter and distance between plates...and how that translates to number of plates, etc...but I haven't taken the time to plot the plate to plate vapor/condensate curve at operating temperatures. I think I've got a handle on pot/vapor production sizing to column diameter (and volume) as well as condenser sizing...but I just think that there is a happy place somewhere between bubble plates and labyrinth packing. Has anyone seen any unusual columns? I'd be very interested in seeing them...

Bluestar, I just bought some totes, and one had about 8 gal of agave left in it. Mine are also stalling out. Any thoughts? The tote label says enriched with calcium...I was wondering if maybe there is a metabisulfite or sorbate in it as preservative? I'm going to try boiling some before fermenting and see if that helps.

I don't think you can call it "tequila" unless it is made in Jalisco, Guanajuato, Michoacan, Nayarit, orTamaulipas. Baha is not near enough to the town of Tequila. That is Mexican law, not TTB. I suppose you could make an agave spirit in Baha, and only sell it in the USA as "tequila."

Does that use the Coffey process?

+1! Whether or not you crush or grind when you macerate (funny...I consider that word to be "when you put the botanical in the base," but it really means "crush," doesn't it?) depends on what you are using. For instance, I got very little flavor out of lemongrass until I hit it with a mortar and pestle first. Coriander seed makes WAY more flavor when run through a blender first, but it's a DIFFERENT flavor. I had better extraction with slicing Orris root than buying dried slices. And lime leaf is overpowering if you shred it first. Also makes way too much oil. When I ran my tests on each botanical, I ran 5 on each...macerate at 60 proof, 80 proof, 80 proof crushed or ground or sliced, 186 proof (it's what I had), and one in low Ph at 80 proof. I had some very interesting effects that were well worth the effort. I agree that with many botanicals hitting them with high proof destroys a lot of the flavor, and that distilling your experiments changes their character in unpredictable ways (chicory was delicious macerated, but the distilled version was horrific!) There are some that you will encounter that actually benefit from high proof, but these are mostly dried spices rather than fresh herbs. Mint is an exception. Rosemary, too. And some things like spruce tips get a different taste (but also welcome!) when macerated at high proof. Bench still. Experiment. No replacement for direct experience! Hey, aren't you located in a place that loves Spruce Beer? Huh....gears turning...

Jimmi, have you ever done any hydroforming? When I saw the pix of the flat plate for the arm, that's what it reminded me of. I'm impressed at your skills! I'm sure you just beat it by hand, but does copper do well on an English wheel? That's the way I always did my fenders...looking forward to seeing the copper tank on your sportie!

Will there be a slobber box between the arm and the condensor? I ask because that arm is steep...!

Lenny, what's your OG yield like? I'd expect to see something like 1.077 on that, maybe as high as 1.090 if using aggressive enzymes...like convertase. Typically, I like to use smaller mash bills and lower gravs so that my wash ferments overnight. With a 1.075 or a 1.080 I'd be happy to see it finish in 3 days, but I'd expect 4. And where do you finish? The yeast I used would take a low grav wash down to .997, but high gravs would finish 1.007 or 1.010. Typically I'd use about 420 lbs of grain to get 240 gallons of wash...I lautered and used an extended sparge to hit that liquid number.

Sam, IBC's should be easy to source in your area. Go ask at a medium sized winery or beverage company...I can think of a couple not too far from Oly. Typically they take their deliveries of agave syrup, invert, vitamins, whatever in those. I'd send you some, but shipping would be ridiculous. There's a company in Tacoma that refurbishes them, and those go for about $200. For barrels, I'd poke my head down to the Columbia River...lots of good whites are grown there, and a WA side winery might want to get a little publicity from you. And you from them. I fervently hope you are going to do something with salal berries. I have always wanted to do a salal liqueur...I've done salal sorbet that was amazing.

How about a pectic enzyme introduced at some point? After that, you may be able to pass the product through a relatively coarse paper filter to remove the gel-causing pectins. It will at least compact your "sludge" bed.

I saw another interesting solution to this in a home-made still. The dude stuck a tube full of oil around his element that went right across his pot, and used the oil to transfer the heat. He said it reduced the burning. His was just welded copper tube, but I imagine you could do it with triclamps....I might add that he later made a plate-shaped copper oil reservoir that sat in the bottom of his beer-keg still. The element went in the side and the whole bottom of the keg radiated the heat. I never saw that one, but he described it to me. Pretty neat solution. I think he used food-grade mineral oil.

The main concern of iron is the way that it affects the taste of beer. I'm not sure if it would carry over in a distillate. Typically, for beer anything over 0.3 ppm would raise red flags on a water assay. However, the iron shouldn't affect a fermentation in an adverse way unless you're way up into the 4-5 ppm range. Of more concern would be your zinc level (often in high iron waters)...it's all good, and metabolized by yeast up to 1 ppm, but excessive zinc can have a toxic effect on your viability. Very hard water with large amounts of calcium ions can help with your mash efficiencies, especially when running pre-cooked mashes like corn or rye. It's because calcium can heat-stabilize the alpha amylase enzyme to work in a wider temperature range, sometimes up to and over 73C. There is a lot of evidence that it helps beta amylase, glucanase, and protease activity as well. Magnesium is undesirable because it replaces calcium in many metabolic and chemical pathways (more reactive) and prevents benefits from calcium. Sort of like the way carbon monoxide works in humans. All the rest shouldn't affect your mash too much, and may help to give a grain spirit a distinctive flavor. I'd love to have well water available for distilling...

First one that comes to mind is Specialty Enzymes and Biotech. Also Affymatrix can tailor specific 'zymes in a lot of cases, but that can be pricey. Also I think I got my SEBAmyl GL from MDI, and I think they carry Cellus and other SEB products. I've used SEBAmyl L and GL in beers that had USDA Organic certification and Oregon Tilth as well. The vendor should be able to help you out with documentation. The enzyme is made from Aspergillus oryzae, which is a natural bacteria used to make sake koji, among other things. Good luck!

Most enzymes are sourced from fungal cultures. Talk to the enzyme reps. They may be able to help you with a certified product.

I have a hard time moving the valve with my nose. Hurts too much.

The unit was refurbished and calibrated by Anton-Paar, and there are certifications with it. Reputable scientific instrument company. I've got a friend scouring his industry for these units. Most of them were taken out of service about 10 years ago. I've no idea what it costs to refurbish or recertify these...I think I've seen the Anton-Paar rep around this forum...can he or she chime in?

I don't recommend using RO water for your mash. As a matter of fact, I'd treat it as little as possible, other than making sure it hits a killing temp before I use it...usually 185 (which is a good temp for strike in) for a little while is great. Hard water has it's own advantages, too...

I totally agree that there is no substitute for experience. But experience isn't always a substitute for advanced education, either. I grew up with a real disdain for academia, but now I know the value of it. Take a homebrewer and drop him into a decent professional brewery, and he might be able to keep up with the cell counts, glycogen levels, spin fermentation, D-rests, and viability. Take even a seasoned professional brewer, and drop him into a high volume environment like Asahi or Heineken and HE will be bewildered with gradient fermentations, cryogenic libraries, and continuous fermentation. The point is...it's easy to ferment something...but someone else ALWAYS knows more than you about it. Everytime I think I know what the hell is going on, I get punched off my high horse pretty quick. Usually by some punk kid that remembers what he reads. The comment about homebrewers is well-founded. 20 years of making weekly brews is 400 distinct fermentations...and a fresh-minted Siebel pro might only have 3 or 4 fermentations under their belt. The guys I have respect for are the BOP brewers. They do upwards of 1800 distinct fermentations each year. Some pros won't see that in their entire career. I don't think there is anything bad in asking for help...as long as the hand holding ends once the help is done. And I might also comment that I have seen more disastrous fermentation debacles in distilleries than in any other industry. Although wineries are a close second.