Silk City Distillers

A little beeswax melted in a pot, gently poured into the head/croze before you fill.  Every once in a while we have a full barrel start to leak from the head.  Flip it up on it's side to dry for a day or two, touch of wax, good to go.

Fingers crossed we get a white Christmas here in the northeast.

Other major changes to chat about...

We can deduct expenses for production at the time of manufacture, huge for those of us laying down spirits for aging.  Not only that, but massively simplifies reporting/recording for tax purposes.

One year expensing for capital investments, some big incentive to invest and upgrade ASAP.

For those of us structured as pass-thru entities, big tax reduction.

I only briefly read the language in the bill, but I believe there are provisions covering ownership structure that addresses the loophole.

I've never looked at pre-paying excise taxes, but isn't it plausible that at the end of 2019, we all plan to pay excise tax on all spirits in inventory?  This would be a Dunbar question, but if you would have the capacity to pay excise for 100,000pg before it expires, you do it.

Diacetyl has a very obvious/unmistakeable aroma and flavor, and the thresholds are very low.  If there was enough diacetyl to impact the color, I would imagine you'd be swimming in cheap buttered popcorn.

We've had really good luck with Blue Label Digital for short-run labels.  We've done runs as low as 200 and the quality and price is outstanding, not to mention less than a week to get them.  For someone not yet willing to commit to big $$ die and setup charges, or looking to do a small run of product, they are a great option.  

Yeah I'm not talking tote, we sawed a cylindrical tank in half.  The poly thickness looks about 3/8", it's pretty beefy.  The tank material isn't relevant, painted mild steel would work just fine too.

Doubler not the same as thumper.

Just google the images of the Vendome/Michters doubler, you'll see that it's fed liquid, not vapor, from the beer stripper product condenser and has active steam heating (traps and steam lines clearly visible).

I seem to have no problem at about 5% alcohol to fuel oil.  It sounds compelling, but in reality the percentage is too small to be material.  Any more requires additional additives and the ability to blend.

Always wondered if you could use heads as part of biodiesel manufacturing, or if methanol was the only compatible alcohol.  Would be sweet to make waste vegetable oil biodiesel and burn that directly.

You aren’t by chance looking at the pricing from cooperages that focus on wine barrels are you?  Asking because you asked about toast and not char.  The whiskey cooperages were pretty close the last time I looked.

Mixed with heating oil and burned in the boiler.

A poly tank cut in half, a stainless mesh screen over a steel subframe, a pump, a squeegee, and a scoop.

It's hot, steamy, and you stink like backset when you are done, but it works pretty well.

For those thinking about using a screening approach.

The squeegee is key, you need one with replaceable wipers.  Breaking the squeegee is punishable by beatings.

The hotter the better, screening near boiling is significantly more effective than screening at even 100f.  The difference is striking, I would say screening at 100f vs 195f, takes 2x the time, and screening at room temperature, probably takes 8x the time.  You need to have proper processes in place here, dealing with scalding liquid.

Using beta-glucanase during mashing makes post-distillation screening significantly easier.

The trick is to use a screen with a mesh size larger than you think could be effective.  You will lose some fines, but it's not significant.  Generally though, you need to go to a holding tank anyway, because it's simply too hot to discharge, in the tank, your fines will floc and you can decant off effectively.  Keep in mind, MESH, not perforated plate.

We've done hundreds of thousands of pounds through our simple screener, this includes hard to screen grains like milled millet.  I can't imagine having to send full totes to our farmer.

Regarding barley, it does make screening easier, oat husk though, is beautiful to screen.  There is nothing easier than dewatering stillage with oat husk.

Speaking of poly reservoirs.  Clear or light permeable is bad if you want to control algae growth.

You can UV until the cows come home, not going to stop algae from growing on the walls.

Those little green buggers don’t need much in the way of nutrient to grow.  But they do need light.

I've seen others making reference to this "stick" for measuring volume.  Don't forget about TTB table 27.  Expansion coefficient by temperature and liquid absorption for each wood species.  You need to adjust for growth and shrinkage of the stick based on the temp and how much liquid it's absorbed in the process.

Never a day so freeing as the day you stop thinking in volumetric measurement.  I've had lots of commercial bakers tell me this as well.  It's hard to give it up, but once you do, woooo wee you don't look back.

If you call up any carbon manufacturer and talk to their techs, they will all tell you that you need to do a pilot column study.  

Here is a really nice overview from Cabot/Norit.  There is a ton of helpful information.  Ironically, you might find that your pilot column is more than capable of handling your production volume (if you build to their recommended spec of 4", 4 columns, 24" bed depth).  Keep in mind, a high quality carbon changed frequently will outperform high-end carbon that you attempt to squeeze to the bitter end.

Cabot_Pilot_Column.pdf

49 minutes ago, Still_Holler said:

Do you need to adjust for temperature when weighing?

The weight stays the same regardless of the temperature.  Just to be very clear, when gauging with a hydrometer, you always need to adjust for temperature.  But the weight of the distillate being gauged, that's static.

So what if a barrel requires two distillations, and two fills, before it's bunged?

So if I have a new char 53, put 25 gallons in one day, and then 25 gallons in the next.  Is it no longer bourbon because the second fill a day later was into a used barrel?

6 hours ago, Hammer Spring said:

These filters can go from a few hundred dollars to tens of thousands of dollars... I'd really like to avoid over or under purchasing a system much as possible.

A carbon filtration system is just about the most basic filter style possible.  You can put together your own with a few pieces of pipe.  There is absolutely no magic involved in this process.  Going too big means you can run more volume before changing or regenerating carbon (and slightly more loss).

Have you read the Gert Strand Carbon PDF?  If not, start there.  It's a home distiller book, but it's better than anything else I've seen.

11 hours ago, Dehner Distillery said:

Welding stainless to copper is easy if you know what your doing, but the stainless will melt before the copper because the coper sucks up so much heat.

Yeah, that's the funny thing with copper.  You can throw amps and amps and amps at it, and it seems you've never got enough power.  Meanwhile, 3 feet away, your glove is starting to smoke.

Does AC work better?  Pulsed?  Or is my 150 amp DC box just a kids toy.

I  understand the desire for slow proofing, but what are we talking about in terms of water additions at one time?

To make slow proofing easier for us, I've been looking into small metering pumps, which would let me add water to holding tanks very slowly, on the order of a few ml per hour, or even less.  I could theoretically add a few gallons to a holding tank over the course of weeks if I wanted to, and I could do it in a way that allowed me to add a minimal amount of water at any given time.  Drop, by drop, by drop, by infernal drop.

In the context of a barrel, what are we talking about in terms of additions?  A few mL from a 5ml syringe, every day, or other day, for a month?  Adding a gallon of water directly to the barrel seems awfully abrupt, if we're looking at this in terms of proofing very slowly.

Using only one valve to control both?

Here is a good primer for the AVTA on the product condenser - Cotherman has done a lot of work here.  Very old thread, but the approach for external mounting would be roughly the same.

https://www.stilldragon.org/discussion/213/thermostatic-valve-installation-on-product-condenser

Danfoss FJVA would be a good alternative on the PC, forgot about that one.

On 12/6/2017 at 12:30 PM, Odin said:

Here's a link to The Finance of Whiskey: costs, investments, losses, energy input, costs per bottle, revenue, total costs and profit projections if you want to start making whiskey:

 

Interesting, but you assume 96% product yield in your screenshots?

It's not a fair fight if you are comparing it to a RTD/PID/Proportional Valve.  Dialed in, you can easily hold a tenth of a degree.  Danfoss is probably +-2 to 3c.