Silk City Distillers

It's very difficult to identify the specific bacterial strain from a pellicle photo, it could be a half dozen different bacteria. Can you describe the smell? Is it more acetic than usual? Do you smell any rancid, butter, body odor, or vomit? Any slime or ropiness if you stir closely below the surface? Just keep an eye on it and see if it begins to appear to be a mold, in which case remove it. I intentionally pitch specific strains of non-yeast bacteria in my rum fermentations to encourage specific ester formation, and I'm starting to work on mixed culture whiskey fermentations, with very good results. There are a handful of lactobacillus strains that I absolutely adore in whiskey and rum. Yes, I said that, and yes I intentionally "infect" fermentations. Every whiskey fermentation that doesn't boil after mashing is "infected" with numerous strains of bacteria. Grain is incredibly filthy from a microbiological perspective. Even some strains of Streptococcus can survive lower-temperature cereal mashes. Same for the rum distilleries, just a different set of bugs. In addition, you'll develop your own mix of strains that define your house/colonial bacteria profile. What I do is force a specific profile to match the outcome I am looking for. Let it ferment out, run it, it may be the most interesting rum you've made. Here are two of my favorite papers on the prevalence of specific bacterial strains in whiskey distilleries: http://www.microbiologyresearch.org/docserver/fulltext/micro/147/4/1471007a.pdf?expires=1483011394&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=3F2159A77F8BCEB870E570C224754586 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC126549/ And Rum: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/store/10.1046/j.1365-2672.1998.00380.x/asset/j.1365-2672.1998.00380.x.pdf?v=1&t=ixabpopp&s=5841ec634998983c0b050add5b2dbeba52bd555c

On a 2000 liter batch - 18-20 Brix, 5% backset, 1000g yeast - rehydrated with Go-Ferm(1250gr), 1lb Fermaid-K, 1lb DAP, 2oz Distilavite VM. I stagger nutrient additions, 0hr, 24hr, 48hr. Usually 82-84f on the temp. I also agitate once a day, maybe 5-10 minutes, just to keep the yeast in suspension and mix in nutrient additions. This is on high test molasses.

Just for the sake of discussion. Distilamax LS - EC-1118 Distilamax RM - EDV 493 Distilamax SR - 46 EDV

My EC-1118 rum ferments on molasses are 5 days max, I feel it's a pretty fast fermenter. No different from RM in timing really. What's your nutrient protocol and pitch rate? It's getting cold up here too - what are your ferment temps looking like?

Ping me details on the alternative product.

You still distributing the betatec products?

You are Jersey correct? Why not just do all that yourself?

The journal literature says there may be some benefit in increased fermentatibility utilizing glucoamylase, dextrinases, cellulases, etc etc. Your mileage will probably vary. Whether or not there is a realistic ROI needs to be looked at, as the benefits are not astronomical. https://www.worldwidejournals.com/indian-journal-of-applied-research-(IJAR)/file.php?val=August_2016_1470034210__86.pdf https://www.researchgate.net/publication/253643971_Enzymatic_hydrolysis_of_sugarcane_molasses_as_pre-treatment_for_bioethanol_production Enymatic_Hydrolysis_Molasses.pdf

Traditional balsamic vinegars are usually aged in a progressive series of barrels including Acacia, Mulberry, Oak, Juniper, Chestnut, and Cherry. In some other cases I've seen alternative fruitwoods.

What size pump? What kind of mash volume you dealing with? Do you have air/compressor, or electric only? Single or 3 phase? I've got a few pumps laying around.

Doubtful that it is accurate enough to be approved. The much more expensive SNAP 40/50 and DMA 35 are not approved, I don't see how the $500 unit would be acceptable. They state it is not recognized as being able to calibrate as well.

I bought the parts to put together a fold back style tube in tube cooler but haven't had the time to put it together. Stilldragon sells the copper to triclamp sweat on fittings for pretty cheap - was planning to fold back a few 6 or 8 foot pipe sections joined with stainless triclamp 180s. You can use pipe reducers and tees on a larger 3" copper tube for the outer jacket. Nice thing is you can easily use thinner DWV on the outer jacket. Only real downside is the price of copper. That $3800 quote seems very reasonable if it's good quality sanitary welding.

Does the mash cooker have separate jackets? Or are you trying to do double duty with a single?

While corn and an electrical mash/distillation setup is not entirely non-compatible, but it's difficult enough that its going to be very labor intensive, messy, and inefficient compared to dealing with steam and jackets. The solids can not be carried through to distillation, and separation of a corn-based mash is not non-trivial. Any solids in contact with elements is going to scorch, and it's going to result in a lost batch (as you'll never get the burned flavor out). To make things worse for you, corn out here in the Northeast (I'm in NJ) is higher protein and lower starch, as farmers here run astronomical amounts of fertilizer per acre to force high crop yield. Good for them, but bad for you as the corn will be far from textbook yield. In addition, because you are running electric, you can't mill fine, as it would never separate and you'll scorch every batch - so you get hit twice, even less yield per bushel. I don't see the logic in running 4 small stills, especially 30 gallons (a single 120g will be less expensive). While that would be a nice size for your finished gin rig, multiple runs stripping and finishing a corn mash on 30 gallons seems pretty painful. In addition, you'll need north of a dozen plates to be making a passable vodka off low wines. If you are considering 30 gallon stills with 4 plates, you are going to be passing those spirits through multiple times. Having this many small columns is going to be very expensive compared to a single 6" or 8" column. Also, electrical inspectors out here are sticklers. That's a bunch of wiring - and if you need to be explosion proof (classified) - it's going to be even more costly - we were required to be explosion proof. If you'd like to see a corn-based operation in process, drop me a line and stop by when we are mashing/distilling.

What do you want to make?

Thanks for sharing that OSHA citation - it actually contains some good information. I wasn't aware of UL ES (electrical sealed) rated electrical lifts, and just doing some digging around, while they aren't exactly common, there does appear to be a good selection of them on the used market for what are really reasonable prices. Same goes for LPS and the other variations.

We are running a 15.6hp output boiler - 522k btu for 2000l mash and 1000l distill. This is in line with Hedgebird's numbers. I would also agree that I wouldn't go any smaller, in fact, 20hp would be nice.

The difference between a 200k btu and a 400k btu boiler is probably 2 or 3 thousand on a 5 digit total installed cost. Heck, the condensate gear (tanks, traps, pumps, and plumbing) will be as expensive as the boiler, likely the labor and steam trim material on the boiler will be as expensive as the boiler, if not more. You are looking at varying to cost of a small part of the steam system to save some money. Look elsewhere. Undersizing a steam system is a travesty, it's like burning a pile of money to heat your tanks. I think 350-400k is a more realistic sizing - especially given your mash tun is 2x the still capacity. If you are doing cereal mashes from a cold startup, you don't want to be waiting 3 hours to get to temp.

Once you factor in plumbing and labor, total installed cost, there is minimal price difference between these size steam boilers. I think installing a 150k boiler is throwing money away. All equipment is different, but I think it's undersized for your mash tun. You have no option for upgrading equipment sizes.

SKF.COM Look at something like a bevel lip fluid seal. If you are trying to retrofit something, you may need access to a machinist to be able to make a suitable seal/bearing combo for the seal. Most of these seals don't necessarily provide any stabilization of the shaft - without it the seal would be destroyed relatively quickly.

That's what we do.

Probably the best you would be able to do is mount a block to the ceiling and setup a kind of staging area under the block. Manually tip the barrels up, and pick them up using the block to get them on a pallet. Fit 4 on a pallet, and band the set together. Use the pallet jack to move the palletized barrels around. Like I said above, you can use a standard jack to move around a full 53 pretty easily, a set of 4 will be tough, but doable. Obviously, stacking is an impossibility. It's pretty crude, but if I had to try to deal with a 53 without a forklift, this is what I'd try. Maybe Western Square has a pallet-jackable 53g rack? That might be an option too. Awful use of space, but if you have no other options.

I've had my eye on a smaller lift for tight spaces, like one of the smaller stand-behind Crown stackers. Seems perfect for jockeying barrels in tight spaces. Those little guys can easily do 2500lbs and 15-16 feet, pallets of grain, totes of liquid, double barrel racks all doable. We could fit racking much closer together and get a better space utilization compared to the big forklift, which wastes a ton of space just to be able to maneuver. We use the pallet jack to move around full 30s and 53s (they fit perfectly between the forks), but they are not really possible to stack by hand, for that we use the forklift. 15s are probably the upper limit of manageability by hand, even that is tough for 2 people.

GRAS?

Technically, the "or" has a conditional "if": Which would be interpreted to mean, if the distillate collected at above 190 proof does have a distinctive character or aroma, it would need to be treated such that the final product to be labeled as vodka be "without distinctive character..." Now, all that depends on the incredible subjectivity of the word "distinctive" which I don't believe has been herewith defined. Which is interesting, because even the TTB appears to acknowledge this, looking back to an older ruling: https://www.ttb.gov/rulings/97-1.htm Specifically in the background section: We all know that you can distill at 190 proof and still be chock full of distinctive flavor. Which would mean it could not be labeled as such, without subsequent treatment to remove the "distinctiveness". But then, really, what the hell is the point of vodka? I think we all agree though, that going from Bourbon to Vodka with only carbon treatment is not possible within the regulation, as they are directly contradictory. Where is Dunbar when you need him?