Silk City Distillers

134 grams of yeast in 1000 liters is a pretty light pitch, but if it’s worked for you before. I second Roger - would dose glucoamylase, heat to 130c, cool and repitch.

Probably one of the best recent PhD dissertations I've read recently on this exact topic: The microbial ecology of a rum production process Dr. Victoria Green - Working at Bundaberg Rum in Australia.

This

Oh damn, there is a Canada forum???

Federal is based on Proof Gallons, which is a measure that normalizes the volume into gallons at 100 proof.

This is the only piece of evidence I’ve ever found, and it’s not likely these producers were making heavy rums. Given the focus on production and capacity, this seems like more traditional production consulting. Arroyo looks to have run this ad in the Sugar trade mags a few times.

I'm in a particularly nihilistic mood this morning. Consider the fact that Arroyo may have been wrong. We hold one of his works as being incredibly influential, US Patent US2386924A - Production of heavy rums. However, I've never found any evidence that it was ever licensed and put into production commercially. @bostonapothecary - Perhaps you've come across some evidence that this was ever licensed by a commercial distillery, and actually had a bottle produced through his patented process? If so, please share, I've never seem anything that indicates it was ever even licensed (though that information is likely not in the public domain). Reading "between the lines" of some of Arroyo's later papers, he seems to be giving up on the heavy rum process, giving up on Pombe as being key, giving up on bacteria being key, and later focusing on hybridized yeast as being the key factor. Now, sure, It's possible that existing commercial producers simply didn't care about his patent. Why bother licensing his process if you were a commercial distillery that was already doing it. It could have been due to market trends, his timing may have been too late, with clean industrial rums becoming far more commonplace at the time. Or, he was wrong, and his process simply doesn't deliver what we hope it could deliver. Whatever the reason, it's arguable that his patent was a commercial failure. Keep in mind, this was not an academic paper, this was a patented industrial process. We're not drinking "Arroyo Process (TM)" heavy rums today, and it's questionable if one was even ever produced.

There is such a compelling desire to want to hone in on a a process, a technique, a molecule or class of molecules, and want to implicate that as being the most important factor in an outcome. To try to chase it all the way down to the source, define it, master it, optimize it, in hopes of achieving some super-optimal end goal. Believe me, I love this stuff, the hunt is almost as exciting as tasting the first drops of distillate. The fact is, it's never so simple, and it's far more likely that optimal goals are not traced back to single things. In fact, it's more likely that we are turning 2 or 3 dials, on a control panel with hundreds of dials. As much as we think a single dial is the dial of critical importance, it's not. Even with the most sophisticated analytical techniques we have today, it still remains impossible to replicate a spirit by looking at it's chemical fingerprint, because given all the variables we know, there are still more variables we don't. It doesn't even matter, because even if you could achieve some optimal goal, you still have the human side of the equation, individual preference and perception of flavor, which is so variable that defining "optimal" becomes futile. You can look at the history of rum, and the overwhelming trend towards clean rums as embracing this trend, realizing that emphasizing "character" means potentially alienating customers, because of individual preference. Just like the vodka trend through the 70s and 80s hit the dark spirits industry like a freight train, there's an overwhelming trends towards eliminating character, because character eliminates customers. There's a reason Smirnoff wins every single double blind vodka taste test, because it contains nearly zero objectionable character - and keep in mind, what you love, someone else might find objectionable. All these things we do start to run contrary to that, and there is nothing wrong with that. But always keep in mind that Bacardi is selling 200,000 bottles of white rum for every bottle of high hogo that you can make, let alone sell. We are talking niche, and we are talking about passion products, not profit products.

The inner pot refers to the area where the mash or wash sits in, the inside of the kettle. If your tanks have the ability to completely seal the inside pot (like your still can be completely sealed) they need vacuum breakers and pressure relief valves. The pressure relief valve is to prevent any pressure from building up inside of the vessel. Even though your steam jacket will only max out at 15psi, you can actually create significant pressure inside the tank if you bring the contents to a boil. The vacuum relief is to protect the tank from getting crushed like a beer can, if you accidentally seal it shut while hot, or attempt to pump out of the tank with it completely sealed (a good PD pump can pull some serious suction). In both of these cases, we hope we can operate the distillery for decades without ever, ever, ever, seeing those valves do their job. God willing, they never, ever do. But for the one time you needed them, you don't want to wish you had them after the fact. They are very, very cheap insurance. As to why those Chinese valves shouldn't be used, even if they work perfectly fine? Lawsuit liability should something go wrong. Hate to say it, but the reason that the right valves cost what they do, is because they realize that if they go wrong, they are going to be in court. Even if you don't take them to court, your insurance company will. It's a terrible thing, and we hope nobody is ever in this situation. But, as a responsible business owner, you need to consider the liability aspects. This goes both ways. Let's say someone gets injured, and that valve is part of the situation - it could be argued that you were negligent, and thus responsible, by not using the appropriate valves (yeah yeah, I know I have the wrong valve, pot calling the kettle black I guess - my inspector had absolutely no issue with it though, and it's something he specifically asked about).

Perhaps Lutein is the magic Xanthophyll? https://repositorio.ucp.pt/bitstream/10400.14/2762/3/Study of major aromatic compounds in port wines.pdf

Don't have access to this one, but also indicates β‐Damascenone formation from precursors during distillation, in a way that is aligned with the Shochu paper above. Influence of the Production Process on the Key Aroma Compounds of Rum: From Molasses to the Spirit https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acs.jafc.6b04046 Perhaps the specific pathway? Xanthophylls naturally occurring within sugar cane, as well as in corn. Thermal degradation of a neoxanthin-like xanthophyll to the potent aroma compound beta-damascenone https://www.researchgate.net/publication/295324888_Thermal_degradation_of_a_neoxanthin-like_xanthophyll_to_the_potent_aroma_compound_beta-damascenone

Potential microbiological basis for carotenoid precursors in cane and rum can potentially be due to Rhodotorula. This has been implicated in Cachaca and Tequila/Agave spirit as well. beta-Carotene production in sugarcane molasses by a Rhodotorula glutinis mutant. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11571614 EFFECT OF SOME SUGARS AND AGRO-INDUSTRIAL BY- PRODUCTS ON CAROTENOIDS PRODUCTION BY SOME YEAST STRAINS OF RHODOTORULA SPP. http://srv4.eulc.edu.eg/eulc_v5/Libraries/UploadFiles/DownLoadFile.aspx?RelatedBibID=ODQ2ZDQ0NDAtM2U0OC00ZjMzLTkyMTgtOGU5MWQ1MGI3NGZkX2l0ZW1zXzEyMTIwNzM3XzM1Mjg5MV9f&filename=1097.pdf Microbiology and physiology of Cachaça (Aguardente) fermentations https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1010225117654 Did Fahrasmane and Ganou-Parfait simply miss it in "Microbial flora of rum fermentation media"?

On the degradation of β‐Damascenone during fermentation: Investigation of the β-Damascenone Level in Fresh and Aged Commercial Beers https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/jf020085i

Just reviewing some of the literature on β‐Damascenone formation. Clearly not something unique to rum, it would be considered the most significant constituent of Bourbon as well (by FD/OAV), as well as in Shochu. However, it's OAV is so stratospheric, it merely has to exist at all for it to top the chart. So you have it existing across three very different fermentation feedstock: grain, cane, and potato. Not to mention three products produced in very different ways, especially the koji fermented sweet potato. Found in both wine and beer as well. The Shochu paper seems to be incredibly insightful, since β‐Damascenone exists as a component of sweet potato, but does not even remotely account for the total β‐Damascenone in the distillate. It appears that β‐Damascenone is not at all formed during fermentation, and is actually negatively impacted by fermentation. However, it's not the β‐Damascenone in the feedstock, or the production process, but the necessary (Carotenoid?) precursors to be available during distillation to form it by acid hydrolysis. The Formation of β‐Damascenone in Sweet Potato Shochu - Yoshizaki - 2011 - Journal of the Institute of Brewing - Wiley Online Library https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/j.2050-0416.2011.tb00464.x The researchers found that: "most of the β‐Damascenone in Shochu is formed by acid hydrolysis during distillation." "As the distillation period lengthened, β‐Damascenone levels increased moderately, suggesting that lengthening the distillation period is one method that may be used to increase B-damascenone" "Furthermore, whether the β‐Damascenone level in shochu was affected by the pH of the second mash during distillation was investigated. The β‐Damascenone level in second mash at pH 3.5 was greater than in the second mash at pH 4.0 and 7.0."

You don't charcoal filter gin. If you want to treat your neutral with carbon first, go right ahead, but you simply can not do it after you infuse the alcohol with botanicals.

This thread has gone way too long, so some random thoughts. 1. Try using the top jacket for heating, and the bottom for cooling. It's highly likely that the corn was sitting on the very bottom of the tank, despite the mixer running, insulating the tank contents from the undersized bottom jacket. The top jacket will not see the same kind of insulated blinding that the bottom would. Undersized jackets work fine, they just take longer. By reversing these, once you've gotten to the point of needing to cool, you'll have solids well into suspension with lower viscosity - so the tank should mix better. Honestly, at start up, I bet that mixer is just pushing the corn around on the bottom. 2. My comments about replacing the incorrect plumbing the top jacket port MUST BE DONE, whatever the approach. PRV, Vacuum Breaker, Air Vent, Gauge. No Chinese stuff, get the appropriate parts from a reputable steam trim manufacturer (Armstrong, Spirax Sarco, etc etc). Honestly, I'd replace the traps too, but that's just me. PRV - Vented to Safety, Air Vent - Vented to Safety, Vacuum Breaker, Gauge - on every jacket - this means 2x for the mash tun. 3. Do not plumb both jackets for dual duty heating and cooling. It's highly unlikely that this tank was built to handle the thermal stresses involved. While it would probably work for a while, the continual thermal shock would eventually tear welds and deform the tank. While you can reduce the risk by introducing tempering control to the jacket, we are talking about fairly complex systems here. 4. There is a possibility you can retrofit direct steam injection into the tun, and use the jackets for cooling. This is what I do. Keep in mind, this can be very stressful for your boiler, and it means no boiler additives - aka reduced boiler life. The drawing has what looks like a bottom port into the kettle directly, this might work, or you could retrofit a steam line through the top dome down into the mash for an injector. DSI is the most efficient and fastest form of heat transfer. 5. Throw those pretty poppet valves out. The picture posted shows that they are 1.5 bar, that's 22 psi - so they are both questionable in quality and reliability, as well as being entirely useless at 22psi.

Thanks Paul, I'll go ahead and make the change.

One side is the PRV and inlet, the other is the Vac breaker, air vent, gauge, and also my pressure sender for the controller.

Sits around 12 at the boiler. Looking to upgrade our boiler and our steam guy is recommending going to 50psi - high pressure territory. Says the eductor really needs pressure to shine.

We are using a single 3/4" Jacoby Tarbox TLA Eductor in a 600g mash tank. 16hp boiler, going through a 2" 5 micron Spirax Sarco CSF16 Clean Steam filter. The injector is slightly undersized, but we would likely top out the max flow rate of the filter going any larger.

Sure, as soon as I get in later today. This is the Bible of steam kettle plumbing. https://www.armstronginternational.com/files/common/technical/864-EN.pdf

Ask them to install proper air vents and vacuum breakers at the tops of both of those jackets. Installing vacuum breakers without corresponding air vents will cause significant inefficiency in heat transfer. Depending on the jacket geometry, air can get trapped in a way that's not easily pushed through the trap. I would not trust those jackets without vacuum breakers, and you will not maximize jacket efficiency without air vents. Looking at the bottom jacket, with the steam port and condensate drain at the bottom of the tank, it's highly likely that you are trapping air at the top.

Paul said something before that was interesting, about insulated tanks. I know other folks that have had issues with bad tanks from China where the welds between the steam jacket outer wall and the insulation were bad, and when they poured in the two part insulation mix, the insulation expanded into the steam jacket area. Likewise, steam was able to escape into the insulated area. Pressure test ain't going to catch it. That's why I asked about the insulation before. Hoping you don't have insulation, and this ain't the problem, because they ended up scrapping the tank. They were able to get a bore scope into the steam jacket, but based on those triclamp elbows, I'm not sure that's possible - maybe from the top.