Silk City Distillers

The battery problem they cite has to do with old mobile phones, which had user replaceable batteries (think old Nokia), where if you dropped one, the back cover and battery would pop off.  Given that most modern phones are entirely sealed, no batteries, it would seem that even their negligible risk is no longer a problem.

That said, they still go out of their way to CYA (Cover Your Ass) saying that the rules are the rules.

https://www.engworks.ca/uploads/1/0/0/4/100477408/cellphoneshazardouslocations.pdf

This is covered by ATEX and IEC/UL/FM - Mobile Phones are not considered intrinsically safe by default, and are not permitted in classified environments without specifically being certified for it.  If they are holding you to the letter of the law, this is the case, as silly as it sounds.  Realize that this applies to desk calculators, electric thermometers, computers, laptops, flashlights, electrical tools, etc etc etc.  Hell, even Anton Paar makes an intrinsically safe approved version of the DMA35.  Hearing aid?  Yep, that's included too - and yes, Siemens makes an intrinsically safe hearing aid with ATEX approvals.

Realistically - the risk of accident due to operator distraction is probably 1000x higher than the risk of ignition by a mobile phone.

There are manufacturers of explosion proof and intrinsically safe mobile phones - these are primarily targeted at the oil and gas industry - think oil rigs where safety is of absolutely paramount importance, or refineries where a fire or explosion would be absolutely catastrophic.  Or probably most realistic, where the risk of lawsuit liability is highest.

There are even manufacturers of mobile phone CASES that carry the intrinsically safe approvals necessary.  They cost big $$$ ($500-1000).  The case itself if probably worth $10, it's the approvals and paperwork that cost the rest.

Frankly, there should be zero tolerance here for unattended distillation, including unattended still pre-heating.

Sorry, but accidents impact all of us with additional regulatory burden, scrutiny, and avoidable overhead.

I'm all for automation that helps an operator focus on the more important tasks, but I feel I must speak out on the topic.

It's a bad idea, someone will get hurt, someone will die, and it will hurt all of us.  Anyone condoning this is being reckless.

2 hours ago, Sudzie said:

Will have a Mori 6 head available in September '18  

Interested, ping me when it comes up.

I have a man crush on you I think.

If you ever want to come down to NJ to distill let me know.

I have Pombe, and a double retort is in the works.

Freight is really the killer when it comes to blackstrap especially.

Wondered if there were enough of us in close proximity in the Northeast to roll a 9000 gallon tanker from Lu-west and split the costs.

International Molasses isn't distributing out of NJ anymore, meaning it's all coming out of Ohio now.  We were picking up in Garfield, NJ - but that's no longer an option as they've closed that location.  Golden Barrel is the next closest.  Depending on where you are, they do deliver on their own trucks so the freight charges are much lower than LTL.

Also in NJ and went down this road.  Coming from a Polish background I thought, why not?

Except something like 95% of the plums in this country are grown on the west coast, and nearly all of it are Asian varietals.

Anyone growing around here demands fairly high prices - they are selling at a premium at farmers markets.  I never found a way to get the numbers to work, would need to get $75-100 a bottle at retail for it to even begin to make sense.

Might be easier to find someone willing to plant an acre for you, especially if you are looking for European varietals common in distilling.

I’d love to do grappa as well, but also the wrong coast.

It’s likely not an absolute filter so you are passing particulate larger than 3um.

To really get sparking clear you need to get sub-micron, 0.22um is pretty common.

Arguable that this is not necessary in a brown spirit, but it does make a difference visually.

What micron cartridge?

I typically run RO through my spirit filters and lines first.  Then drain any water and filter the spirit to the final (bottling) tank.  I will then purge with RO to remove any remaining spirit in the lines and filter housings to the tank.  In the final tank, I'll take a gauge,  proof to bottle strength, and then do the final gauge.  The bottling process itself only has a small filter cartridge to catch any stray dust or particulate that may have been in the bottling tank (rare), I don't consider it final filtration.

I hate product losses, especially since I bottle smaller batches.  Leaving a proof gallon in the cartridges, filters, and lines seems silly to me, that's real money.

Sure, it's a couple of extra steps to reduce those losses, but the payback is significant.

On the still, we run the Omega CNi16s with fancy ethernet connection for data logging, I have Watlow's elsewhere.  Can't go wrong with either of those brands.

Dead time makes PID tuning infinitely more painful.

We struggled with dephlegmator temperature control with valves and thermometers located far away from the condenser.  It was not possible to compensate for the dead time, and we fought against cycling temperatures.  Ultimately, we needed to detune the loop significantly to stop the waver, but it was at the expense of tight temperature control.

Now, the temperature probe is in the dephlegmator, and the valve is located less than a foot away, and we can hold in a range measured in tenths of a degree.

If you are hunting on eBay - search for Pyromation RTD or CIP Temperature.

You will need to decode the product numbers, but a quick search on google will get you the PDFs necessary to decide if it's right for you.  Most importantly is whether or not you can use something like a high-precision 4-wire RTD, or looking for something simple like a 2/3 wire (or even thermocouple).

If you don't necessarily need a 3A Sanitary fitting, but want triclamp, it's fairly easy to find a threaded RTD that you can screw into a threaded Triclamp adapter.

Have been looking as well, given freight from the west coast, it is damn close to buying new from someone like Keystone in PA.

We use Triclamp RTD sensors for everything.  No thermowells as they just add lag time and inaccuracy.

Isn't 60f a bit cool for typical sugar fermentations?  Is it that you don't have temperature control on your fermenters and you need to start that cool to prevent over-temperature?

Anecdotally, pure sugar fermentations tend to drag out or even stall, pitching into 60f would surely drag this out even longer.

It would be the most boring festival ever.

Distilling is not a spectator sport...

Careful comparing to Starka, especially good ones.  They are not distilled clean, and sometimes casked with fruit and other flavoring ingredients.

There is a polish one aged on apple, pear, and a few kinds of leaves.  I forget the name.

Agree with @bluestar many of these are probably more accurately called light whiskey or flavored light whiskey.

Having tried this, and tried commercial products made like this.  I feel that it makes an insipidly thin “whiskey” that lacks any interest straight or mixed.  A $12 bottle of Canadian Whiskey tastes wonderful in comparison.  It’s oak flavored vodka...

I haven’t seen any of the commercial products that do this gain any market share over what pure novelty would command.

I suspect that if you took your time and really optimized a wood and aging protocol, maybe one using ex-wine casks instead of new oak, (think staves in stainless, not barrels) you might be able to come up with something really special.  Even more so if you used a fruit base distillate with some character.

I had a bunch of old growth white oak that I threw under my deck, it was there 4 or 5 years, completely forgot about it.  Cut it down, toasted it, charred it, damn it was so much better than fresh kiln dried wood from the good lumber yard.

The seasoning process for the wood/stave, it really is a very important step.

Get a nice piece of good quality wood, leave it outside for at least a year, a place where it will be subjected to sun, rain, weather, etc.  Even longer is better.  It's going to look like garbage, warped, etc.  Put it through a planer to shave off just a touch of the gray ugly outside bits, revealing what looks like new wood again.  THEN do whatever you want to do with it, toasting, charring, etc.

I'm telling you, it's like night and day.  Absolutely none of that puckering dry oaky tannin.

I'd love to find some old white oak barn wood siding that was never painted, 50 years old, and make a whiskey out of an old barn.

What happened to the new topics list on the mobile view?  Now I get a bunch of ads and old articles in a graphical list that are totally irrelevant.

I'm interested, sending PM.

I ran 4 weeks at 55-60f, using a yeast that can comfortably ferment that cold.

Incredible aroma preservation.