lokibrew

The folks at Dalkita gave a great presentation at Downslope's Distilling Class.  They have a depth of knowledge and experience when it comes to planning and building distilleries.

Interesting thread.   I'd like to chime in on a couple of recent points I picked up.

Great article in Artisan Spirits this quarter on what Do Good did with their wastewater:  Artisan Spirit: Fall 2016:
https://issuu.com/artisanspiritmag/docs/artisanspirit_issue016_web/50

My Alumni magazine had an article about a program developing a microbe for micro digester.  I think this was the professor:  http://www.sonoma.edu/biology/faculty/michael_cohen.html

And lastly, there are steam boilers that can run on bagasse, wood chips or pellets to make use of the whole waster stream.

I'm in the same boat.  

I've been looking at this:  http://moonshinedistiller.com/index.php?route=mobile_store/product&fspath=59_65&product_id=268. For a small jacketed boiler with different heads/towers for recipe trials.

Planning out similar solutions to simplifying tuning for dephlegmator outputhe temperature and have been leaning towards a temp/mechanical solution with http://www.mmcontrol.com/Sterlco/temperature-control-valves.php

Anyone using these for dephlegmator control??

Where in California?

Check out Downslope Distilling in Colorado.  They make a rum, vodka and gin all from the same sugar cane base.  It's not a traditional gin, but it's tasty and sells.   

Mitch also does a great two day class that's a great starter and consults.   Not sure how often he'said on here though.

As a consumer, and still working on getting a dsp, I have done a fair amount of research on this.

Most re-packagers go out of their way to avoid the topic.  The label says as little as legally requires.  (High west, tincup, breckenridge).

 There is another set of distillers that are doing a secondary Barrelling or blending(mosswood, prohibition, St george )  that call it out specifically and successfully.  

The last type are those that are playing off the recent recognition of MGP to announce that as their source.

1 hour ago, Natrat said:

Hey guys, 

We have found average yields on 100% malted rye to be in the 3.8-4.2 PG/BSL range, 100% unmalted rye in the 1.8 PG/BSL range, malted red wheat about 4.5 PG/BSL, malted white wheat about 4.2 PG/BSL, unmalted wheat around 2.5 PG/BSL. Rye and wheat yields go up when combined, strangely. Might be a nutrient thing. All of this is just ballpark from scanning my spreadsheets. I actually keep my calculations as grams of alcohol per kilogram, which allows me to see the efficiency of the fermentation as well. But I'm bilingual in metric and 'merican, on account of being in Canadian schools when they went from archaic to metric. 

Mass and molarity are far more informative than cubits and ares. 

Malted rye yields can approach corn with a good enzyme regimen. Malted wheat is MORE diastatic than most malts, and doesn't benefit much from enzyme additions. I'll also add that grind screen size has a LOT to do with yields. There was an interesting presentation at ADI by a food scientist from Diageo about that..."upstream processing."

 

Hope some of those numbers are useful. I might add that all of those are on-grain ferments, and that your yields go up as your batch size goes up (better attenuation with more convection, generally) but that you can match most attenuation with a bit of spin-fermenting. 

Cheers :-)

Dan

Thanks Dan!! I've also found this thread to be very useful for calculating potential alcohol while I work out all the numbers as it explains the underlying carbohydrate calculations.

On 8/13/2016 at 7:25 AM, Wet said:

The 2015 "Distillers Resource Directory" from ADI had an article entitled "50 Essential Pieces of Equipment for a Startup Distillery." That might be what you're looking for.

http://distilling.uberflip.com/i/500499-adi-directory2015-digital-pdf/75?

If your 'barrel' has a sealed lid, you will need a way for the carbon dioxide to escape.  This is mostly an issue with beer brewing.  Large Brewers just run a tube from the top of their fermenter into a bucket of sanitized water.  This is to prevent oxygen, wild yeast, and bacteria from affecting the beer flavored.

However, that is beer that you are going to drink directly.  Many distilleries and most wineries have open top fermenters and take advantage of the local flora and fauna to add character to the ferment.  

Bottom line, it's a choice, but if you have a sealed fermenter, the carbon dioxide needs a way out.

http://www.winebusiness.com/classifieds/grapesbulkwine/

is a great resource/ marketplace