Silk City Distillers

And just like that, you just saved him a couple thousand bucks.

We are also mashing and fermenting at double the distillation volume (530g mash, 530g ferment, 265g distill)  If you are mashing at twice the volume, it doesn't make sense to split the ferment into two tanks.  After all, one larger tank is going to be a more efficient use of space, and usually more cost effective.  Also provides a little bit of future-proofing as you can double your still volume in the future and still make use of the equipment.  If you are an on-grain shop, you probably want to have a mechanism to agitate before pulling off half the volume, or your first batch will be heavy on the grain.

Theoretical pot still distillation should be ~160 proof and drop from there.

Did you rack the rum beer off the yeast?

Ralph Erenzo used to be a fairly regular poster here.  When we were first starting up I went up to Tuthilltown to talk to him, he was very helpful.  In fact, we spent some time talking about the Basement Bitters project, he was pretty fond of his team who put it together.

Did you try giving him a call?

If you want to chat about control options, I can certainly share my thoughts.  We are running a PID-based dephlegmator control using a proportional valve actuator.  Tuning is always a chore, but we've got it dialed in to the point where we can hold dephlegmator temp to a couple tenths of a degree, with nearly 100% run-to-run repeatability.  Which is surprising because we have a recirculating setup and our recirc tank temp can vary from day to day, run to run.

Pete - Yep, typo.  I originally had "increase the temperature", but then flipped temp for flow, since I didn't know if DistillaMI had the ability to manage dephlegmator temperature directly.  I thought it would make more sense, but bungled it up.

If you are having trouble hitting 190 with the still loaded at 140, you absolutely won't hit it loading at 100.

Loading at 140, I find it a bit surprising that you can't consistently hit 190, even at a slower takeoff rate like Indyspirits mentions above.

How are you controlling your reflux, how are you controlling power input to the still?  You may find that you need to dial back your still power (or steam) considerably to be able to effectively raise the reflux rate to the point at which you have little vapor blowing by the dephlegmator.

You might want to try bringing up to temp, and dialing the power way back, keeping the still in 100% reflux, with absolutely no distillate being collected, and then ever so slightly decrease (fixed type) the dephlegmator flow rate (increase temperature) and/or increase power input to start collecting distillate.  Then, in a series of trial-and-error steps, keep increasing and measuring your take off proof ... until you find the maximum collection speed that can maintain your target proof.

Can you put the still into 100% reflux mode with absolutely no distillate coming out of the condenser - or darn close to it?  This is key.

I'm wondering if the power input is too high, and corresponding vapor speed is too high, which would make it appear as if there was a considerable amount of reflux, however there would also be a considerable amount of blow-by (trying to run it too fast).

That's called character.  Put in some hard work, you can get it looking great without resorting to coatings.  Me?  I'd be concerned the thermal stresses on the powder coat bond from the temperature cycling would cause it to prematurely crack and chip, which would have that still looking absolutely awful.

What kind of closure?

After spending an hour today on my knees scrubbing the floor drains so they were impeccably clean - how exactly do you clean a slot drain?  Looking at the site they talk about plumbing in CIP systems or flush lines?  Sounds pricey.

I'll second Lenny's comment about popping off a grate and dropping in a hose.

7 hours ago, indyspirits said:

I wasn't trying to attest to the veracity of any often-exaggerated home distiller claims (although I have gotten consistent 95% on a 72" column charged at 40% with my certified CP hydro at  takeoff rate of 1 LPH -- it was painful) just pointing out that packing might address the last few points they need.

Wasn't directed at anyone here, just a pet peeve.

I do think that really tight dephlegmator temperature control would go a long way to keeping the output abv maximized through the run.

May need to call up Specialty Enzymes, those prices look better than BSG.

A good portion of those home distillers making azeo claims with short packed columns also aren't correcting for temperature, or using precision hydrometers.  It's really easy to hit 195 when the distillate your measuring is 50c.  Just saying...

$500 in enzymes?  Phone up White Labs or BSG.  We buy in 1-2.5l quantities, very reasonable.

Also worth noting, it is nearly impossible to repair a dairy tank jacket.

MG - What is your recommended glycol system maximum jacket pressure?

Our tank has a 7/8" suction line and 2 1/2" liquid lines - one on each side.  The "jacket" consists of embedded copper tubing runs across the long dimension.  It's two parallel runs, one on each side.

Just a quick glance at a refrigerant tubing mawp table - thin wall 7/8ths is 600psi, and thin wall 1/2" is 750psi.  I've got to imagine that a refrigerant line braze would be good to a couple hundred pounds.  I'm no refrigerant guy, but aren't suction line pressures in these tanks up near 50psi anyway?  I would imagine these tanks could deal with 15psi damn near forever (thermal stresses are probably a bigger factor than pressure).  Would imagine Schedule 40 would go before the refrigerant lines would, but who knows?

Not that I would recommend anywhere near these pressures.  Also, "Dairy Tank" is a very very broad category, each tank would need to be assessed on it's own.  Your mileage may vary, I claim no expertise of this subject at all.

We have a 630 gallon Mueller that we converted into a mash tun, which uses direct steam injection, and water/glycol in the jacket.  We got the tank with the compressor disconnected, so it was evacuated.  Instead of bothering with the refrigerant, which would have cost a fortune, we took a gamble and tried straight municipal water - and it worked great.

We've fermented in the mash tun (doing double duty), and the jacket works just fine to hold fermentation temps.  Feed it from your chiller, and you'll have no problem keeping a fermentation cooler than you need to, or crash cooling if you need to do that.  Also remember, it's insulated, so if your ambient temps are higher than your fermentation set point, the insulation is going to work in your favor.

Surface area is tremendous, feeding this with 28f glycol, you'd probably need a minuscule flow rate.  If you ever open one up and look inside, you'll see the jacket area, it's relatively easy to measure and calculate - just assume the interior surface, and not the tubing.  There is no lack of surface area or cooling capability.  These things were designed to keep milk at 40f.

Charge $10 and factor in that 1 in 9 will walk away?

Discount the drink+mug combination?

Our locally available steam rolled oats are not completely gelatinized, they need to ride along with cracked corn for a full cereal cook.  If it's representative of other steam rolled products, I would do some testing to understand if it is fully gelatinized.   I would imagine steam rolling grains to improve digestibility in cattle might have a different set of goal posts than whiskey.

Exactly - unfermentable sugars, residual sugars and dextrins - these are incredibly important in beer - mouthfeel, body, flavor.

I would imagine adding glucoamylase to your favorite beer recipe, post boil, would make it drier, thinner, and increase the alcohol content - you might even think it ruined the beer.

Unless denatured during mashing, Alpha Amylase and Glucoamylase will continue to be active during fermentation.  The enzymes (primarily glucoamylase) are able to continue to convert dextrin as well as slowly hydrolyze any remaining ungelatinized (raw) starches throughout the fermentation process.  This means that while your SG measurement is correct at the time you took it, that the actual yield will be higher than your potential alcohol (starting gravity - final gravity) would lead you to believe.

Your SG is in the ballpark for the info you provided...  150 pounds of flaked corn in 100 gallons of water will give you:

~1.045 at about 75% efficiency - which is about average
~1.060 at about 100% efficiency - which is unlikely

Now, realize that your enzymes are active throughout fermentation, so your starting gravity is only partially indicative of your final alcohol yield.

What have your SG and yield been?  I think you really just need a couple of tweaks to optimize your process, it's not off.

Would recommend adding the corn and hitempase cooler, and agitate on the heatup.  Do not add Hitempase to boiling liquid, you'll denature it very quickly.  You'll have an overall faster process by letting the corn hydrate some during the heatup period.  It's not like cracked that doesn't do much before you hit gelatinization temps.

I would add a second dose of Hitempase after your temperature hold, but at a lower temperature, especially if you are holding above 180.  I would add the second dose no higher than about 170.

I would also lower the temp at which you add your glucoamylase, try 135.  You do not want any GA to denature as you want enough of it active throughout the fermentation.  Above 140 it will quickly denature.  At 152 you will probably only get 15-20 minutes out of it, and then it's just scrambled eggs.

Yep, the flaked stuff wants to be polenta, the flour is even worse.  You get to a point where you think you should just go out and buy some spoons, and invite the neighborhood in to help you clean up the mess.

You are adding HTAA twice?  On the way up, and on the way down?  Adding on the way up keeps it from turning to a solid mass, once you've achieved full gel, you'll need to add it again once you start cooling, as a good portion of the enzyme has probably been denatured at the high temp.   What is your malt to unmalted ratio, and what malt?  Or alternatively, are you using any additional enzyme in addition to the Hitempase?

Your flaked yield should be very high, nearly total - if you are using HTAA and Glucoamylase and fermenting on the grain.