Silk City Distillers

150psi no bueno, take out life insurance if you are going to attempt that. Hoga needs to let you know the PSI range, but it's likely going to be under 14.7psi. Not sure what the UK low pressure steam limits are.

I use a Hanna pHep 5 - it couldn't be any easier to take temperature adjusted pH readings, since it does it automatically. Just be sure to calibrate it every week or two (use 4.01 and 7.01, since that's the range we work in). Only takes a second, adjusting with lactic or citric only takes a few minutes. Add small amounts and test until you get a good feeling for exactly how much acid you need to add. Keep the agitator running, and wait a few minutes between additions and testing to be sure you don't overshoot. It honestly doesn't make any sense to try to manage complex calculations to find out exactly how many ml of what molar acid you need. Trial and error until you get a handle. I don't know your batch sizes, but I will stress, if using trial and error, a little goes a long way. It's relatively easy to adjust pH during the mashing process to hit the optimal enzyme pH with each step. Optimal temp and pH is different across Alpha Amylase, Beta Amylase, Glucoamylase, and Beta Glucanase - those might all be different from the pH you want at pitching time. Depending on what you are doing, you might find that multi-step acidification is useful. Print out the spec sheets for all the enzymes you are planning to use, study them. They'll all have the optimal pH and temp, as well as the active range and denature temp/pH. I'd say go with the HTAA, it's more versatile, skip the Beta, replace it with Glucoamylase, since conversion will be better. Unmalted wheat you might find you need to add Beta Glucanase to keep the mash viscosity manageable.

I've seen those units, always wondered if they would be suitable for steam injection mashing. However, couple downsides for still heating. Many of the sauna/steam room units are not intended to operate under pressure, which means that your steam temperature will be much lower than if you could run a few psi. Second, there is no option for condensate return, which means they will not only waste energy, but water as well. I suspect they may be talking about a different thing all together, which is a small electrically heated steam boiler, these are sometimes used in small commercial saunas, like you would find in a spa or health club. These units are honest boilers. There are a number of good electric steam boiler manufacturers, Sussman, Chromalox, etc. Fulton does electric as well. 12kw seems a bit on the small side for 300 liters volume, fine to run, but slow to heat.

Overkill but those things are downright cheap. Flex augers nice, but much more expensive. I-Beam Trolley, Hoist, and a Hopper? But, you'd need to be lucky enough to have placed your mash tun under an i-beam for that to work. Saw a hammer mill once that had a blower and hose to move grain. That seemed a bit dangerous and potentially messy. Would be hilarious if the output hose disconnected accidentally.

Lower of cost or market (replacement cost).

Purchased a 600 gallon Mueller from Mark last year, very happy with it.

If you need anything, give us a shout, we're only an hour or so north in Clifton.

Plenty of rules here in the states. I envy you guys running in jurisdictions where you can get away with "just about anything". This is not universal, and interpretation can differ widely. I'm not from the EU, but here is my 2 cents anyway. I suspect this difference in interpretation extends to Europe as well, so no better place to start than your local authorities, since in many situations it will be their interpretation of the rules, regulations, codes that you'll be expected to comply with. In some cases the interpretations can be argued, in some cases personalities involved make it difficult. Raise a glass to you and hope you are in a jurisdiction where the authority doesn't know, and can't be bothered to know. On the electric side - ATEX is a good place to start, we spent quite a bit of time brushing up on NEC Article 500 for the same reason. The difference between ATEX Zone 1 (Class 1 Division 1) and Zone 2 (Class 1 Division 2) is a big one, and can be a costly interpretation. We ran into this situation specifically, and it's not an easy debate, because the authority will lean to Zone 1, and the budget will lean to Zone 2. On the plumbing side, if you are steam all those regulations will apply to your still boiler. You may be required to fit and plumb pressure relief valves on your still boiler in addition to any jackets. Not sure what the equivalent of the ASME vessel rules are in Europe, but I'm sure there is a Directive that governs vessels that can potentially be under pressure.

Difficult to even throw out a wild-ass guess, as there are some major wildcards when it comes to the items you list. Your questions are the same we all have (or had), and until you can start working with contractors and getting quotes, you could be in for some sticker shock (or pleasant surprises). Dalkita has a PDF that they charge about $5 for that has a good property checklist. Certainly worth the 5 bucks, the ROI is pretty massive if you forget an item on the list. We are wiring most of the place for Class 1 Div 1, and the cost was less than we expected. HOWEVER - we're removing more circuits than we are adding, since it's cheaper to eliminate any nonessential electric than convert it to Class 1 Div 1. So pleasant surprise there. It seems most everyone gets sticker shock when it comes to the boiler and associated steam fitting. What makes this worse is that you will get quotes that represent massive price differences. Get a couple quotes then roll the dice. Be sure this includes the gas supply plumbing as well, since at 1.5-2 million btus or so, chances are the building is not setup for it. Also, massive differential in fire suppression costs based on what exists and what doesn't. If you have to run a main back to the street, it's plausible that you may be paying 3x more than someone who has a sprinkler main but no sprinklers connected. The way we approached this was to find a building that was as close to our parameters as possible, this would reduce the build-out costs significantly. For example, if you've already got sufficient sprinklers, take that to the bank. Sprinklers and sprinkler main sizing is typically a deal breaker for your facility choice. Plenty of horror stories about the AHJ drawing a hard line after buildout had already started. Because I'm a sucker for a wild ass guess, and since you seem to be focused on the still cost. I'd say your still cost will be approximately 5-10% of your buildout and associated equipment costs, very very roughly. Extrapolate from there, perhaps. Really though, get the checklist and start getting quotes, add at least 25% buffer to each to account for unexpected costs.

Keep an eye on the output and valve size, they tend to be on the small side. Used to work in a restaurant that had a big kettle, half the time we would end up ladling the sauce out with a stock pot because the output would plug up solid.

Why not change the color? If someone is so wedded to the color, they'll be wedded to a brand. Why not go off an a tangent and use something different? It even works to tie into your marketing, no bugs, no fake stuff. Are you drinking beetle juice? I followed the Starbucks backlash on carmine closely, there aren't many good alternatives. I think someone is trying to use some fancy genetic engineering to create an organism to create the carmine red in a tank. But who knows if it will be listed as natural, and is GMO any better for you? Approved colorings are limited.

Bet that came from the health department, file that one right alongside the requirement for a grease trap on a 3 basin sink.

I wish I had a picture of the still together, but the 12" Stilldragon glass column will remain in hiding up in the office until we finish the rest of the concrete work and construction. Should get final plumbing in the next week or so and can move gear into place. The weight and size of the larger equipment required heavier bolt flanges. While the glass sections are fragile, the rest of the column and still are so overbuilt it's silly. Once together the column will be relatively sturdy and stable.

In the big picture, aren't the ideal or minimal coolant flow rates and temperatures as important as the physical size and design? When everyone is talking sizing here, I understand it's easy to just describe things in terms of height and width, but what's the design coolant flow rate and temp and what's the minimal? Designing a heat exchanger for expensive 75f municipal water is going to be a very different exercise than designing a condenser for a 1500 gallon 50F chilled water reservoir.

We have experience dealing with Stilldragon. All-in-all it's been great and we would do it all over again. Their work is top notch. Larry and Lloyd are stand-up guys, and stand behind their product. We commissioned the SD team to build us a 12" diameter glass column, 4 plates (pro cap style), 1000 liter steam jacket boiler. End result was better than we'd expected. Yes, it's absolutely eye candy. But then again, so is the engine turning on a german still, I don't know why that would be a criticism. Stilldragon has a large and active user community, you might want to spend some time there. In addition, if you have some special requirements, just ask Larry, they can build you pretty much anything.

Here is a reference that says prolonged exposure to 5,000ppm is sufficient to create the symptoms associated with intoxication: https://books.google.com/books?id=e4_S46UcI2AC&pg=PT88&lpg=PT88&dq=ethanol+vapor+concentration+intoxication+ppm&source=bl&ots=owD-vGBc2G&sig=fimnaS0VCPbqF_vU7sQtiC6dYjs&hl=en&sa=X&ei=heqvVJOIKYeegwS77YPIBg&ved=0CFYQ6AEwCTgK#v=onepage&q=ethanol%20vapor%20concentration%20intoxication%20ppm&f=false Which I suspect means if you at all feel intoxicated by exposure to vapor, you are well over the legal limit per OSHA.

OSHA defines a permissible exposure limit for ethanol vapor, and you can easily find measuring equipment to let you know what it is. I believe the legal permissible limit is 1000ppm over an 8 hour shift. I think this corresponds to something like 3% of the LEL, but don't quote me. https://www.osha.gov/dts/chemicalsampling/data/CH_239700.html http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/idlh/64175.html

How do you deal with cleaning of the condenser if you run vapor through the shell? Do you have some sort of setup that allows for flooding of the exchanger? Maybe it's irrelevant for a stripping setup, but seems odd to do this in any other situation. I could imagine all sorts of potential negatives. If the shell is baffled, there would be numerous areas to catch distillate resulting in smearing of fractions. I've never seen a tube in shell with a shell side that was condusive to draining. There isn't any position that wouldn't result in some pooling. Running mixed products would be significantly more complex, especially if you are going deep into the tails or running a gin or other infused product. The shell is going to get fouled. What do you estimate the potential efficiency benefits are of running reverse? 5%? 10%? 50%? What size reduction does that translate to? There isn't any difference in heat exchange at the tube, since the distance between the coolant and the vapor is still the same in either case (the width of the tube wall). Yes you gain some benefits of the outer wall for exchange, but unforced room temperature air is generally a poor cooling medium. Heat exchanger is a heat exchanger is a heat exchanger.

Thanks for the feedback Joe, good to know.

Went eBay as well, we were able to get a two 2" sanitary positive displacement lobe pumps for a fantastic price. Most high quality sanitary pumps are primarily stainless and are designed to be cleaned, even aggressively so, so I wouldn't worry. In addition, these things are wildly expensive new, so more than likely, they were used in food or pharmaceutical production, as few other uses could justify the price tag new. One of pumps was used to make Aquafresh and Sensodyne toothpaste, the other one was an unused spare. We needed to fabricate a cart and wire up a VFD for speed control, but that's minor, overall we saved a small fortune. All in these two pumps would have probably cost us more than $15k new, I think we're in to them for about $1500.

ASD - I've got to assume that most are running that scale equipment are doing so in a quasi-batch manner, otherwise we're talking about production capacity in the hundreds of thousands of cases annually. Is it safe to assume that a typical user might not even run every day, let alone 8+ hours a day, every day? Or, perhaps, congratulations are in order. Given that every design must still obey the laws of physics, what's the benefit over large scale batch distillation with the same output? To accomplish a continuous run in the same timeframe as a batch run, the energy and cooling requirements are nearly identical (save for some benefits of using the beer feed for partial cooling). Using a continuous still to strip 500 gallons in an hour is going to require roughly the same energy input as a single 500 gallon strip distillation run in 1 hour. Likewise, it will take the same cooling capacity to condense the distillate output on both systems. I can understand if you are utilizing a continuous distillation approach to spread the distillation over a larger number of hours, perhaps if there were some restrictions on steam boiler sizing, electrical service, or even floor space. But to run a continuous still as a batch still? Seems like you are adding complexity with little overall benefit. What am I missing?

If you are brave, you can pick up a 600kbtu stainless steel pool heat exchanger for about $500 bucks on eBay, or the smaller 300kbtu for $300 or so (although the 300k looks pretty small). I would imagine it would be difficult to make it yourself for less money. No experience with how well they work, but I've always wondered. They are either a complete waste or money or they best bargain around. You can probably dig up the specs if you dig hard enough. Other nice thing about most of these is that the tube side runs straight through, so you don't need to push the vapor through the shell. Some of these even have the convoluted tubes.

Seems like a high price to pay for what is essentially a big unheated stainless pot, and only 193 gallons, 1.5" TC output Seems the potential negatives outweigh the potential positives (pretty stainless tooling). And to consider that you might need to modify the tank too? I would say the agitator might be OK for even stiffer mashes, you have a full horsepower geared down to under 100 rpm, and that shaft size looks sizable as well (hollow?). But there seem to be plenty of other options. I'd first start looking in the surplus market, process tanks from the food industry, under 200 gallons, are readily available and easy to ship. You might also find one with an larger sized agitator as well, and potentially even some other benefits like a steam or water jacket, or insulation. Open top dairy tanks are also easily modified, and many can be found insulated. If you don't think you'll ever install a steam boiler, and if you live anywhere near dairy country, it's the cheapest way to get a nice sanitary stainless insulated tank Another option would be a new Stainless IBC tote. While they aren't as pretty, they'll last forever, with a wall thickness of more than double that Letina tank (you can ding the Letina, you'd never ding a tote). A brand new Custom Metalcraft 350 gallon open top tote is only $2000, with jackets about $750 a side. Would require a little bit of fab, but adding a bridge and agitator shouldn't cost you more than $1500. I bet you custom metal craft would probably build the bridge for you too, heck they might be interested in talking, since they appear to be making significant inroads into distillery and brewery hardware. Adding the jacket now would give you a mechanism to cool down in the tank, and if you ever went steam later, you'd have the ability to run the jacket to heat. Don't get me wrong, the Letina tanks are nice, but you aren't getting a whole lot of bang for your buck.

Geez, a politician? C'mon. There isn't an easy answer to the question, and the minute somebody posts something that looks like one, two more people are going to jump in with why it's not the answer. The speed of your still is governed by 3 things, column diameter, reflux ratio, and input power. Think of the column diameter are your speed governor. You can't push faster than the governor without causing all sorts of problems, entrainment flooding, or 'smearing' like Dehner mentions. Input power should be obvious, the more heat input to the boiler, the more vapor you can generate. Reflux ratio, however, is the speed bump. When you don't have enough column height to hit your target ABV, you need to increase the reflux ratio to compensate, and the penalty for this is lower takeoff speed. In your example, you are getting hit by 2 issues, not enough column diameter, and needing to push a higher reflux ratio to hit your vodka. 28 hours is off the charts though. What you don't have a problem with is power, you have more than enough. On a packed column for a 60 gallon still, I'd go at least 4", for bubble cap trays I'd go either 6 or 8". 6" if I had 10+ trays for vodka/neutral, and 8" for a whiskey/rum column to be able to push for faster run times. That's just what I would do. Theoretically, given identical design parameters, if you were able to scale your trays from 4" to 8", you would be able to run 4 times faster. 8 trays for a neutral is a bit on the low side, so if you are able to either add additional trays, or potentially a packed section, you should be able to hit your target ABV with less reflux, and potentially drive that time down further. Adding a packed section to your vodka column will probably let you drive it a little faster, with a little less reflux, if adding additional trays isn't possible. On the stripping still timing, I've never yet seen a setup that the product condenser wasn't the limiting factor on a strip run.

The downside of a pit is that if you need more than a foot or so, you are probably going to be under your drain/waste plumbing, or without enough slope, so adding a drain to the bottom of the pit is probably going to be a challenge at 2 or 3 feet. Building code might also require a railing and or a step if it's considered part of a working area. This is hardly ideal, and is making the best of a bad situation. I wouldn't think anyone would want to go out of the way and put their still in a hole on purpose. Adding any kind of ejector pump to this setup is probably going to be a major hassle, since a sump under a still is for certain going to be classified as Group I Division 1 per NFPA 497 (see Roger's comment above). You might want to think twice about breaking out the shop vac to clean up a little spill in the sump. I mean, the shop vac will probably do a great job, but then you've got that whole 3rd degree burn and fire thing to worry about. My assumption was you would just sit the whole still in the sump, and not just the column, because pumping reflux is a whole 'nother issue, and doing it in a Group 1 Div 1 makes it even more complex.