Silk City Distillers

Seems to be some interest in glass column stills lately, so I thought I'd share a project with the wider group here. We've been working with the StillDragon crew to have them design and build what we think is the largest modular glass still ever constructed, a full 12" plated glass column atop a 300 gallon steam jacket boiler. This is a bit more than an evolution of the 8" design that some of you may have seen, mostly because the scale here is significantly larger. Of course, we will only be the first until the next one is ordered! The entire StillDragon crew has been a pleasure to work with, Lloyd, Dan, Larry, and Gary. Lots of input, lots of creative late night design sessions. Some very impressive engineering work to come up with a design that can still be flexible and modular at this scale. Hats off to Dan and Lloyd especially. This is an incredibly ambitious project, everything was designed from the ground up. We wanted to push the limits, and that we did. Attached is one of the design session renderings in a 4 plate configuration that also includes an additional catalyst chamber above the dephlegmator. CIP components are not illustrated here. While you wouldn't necessarily be adding or removing plates on a daily basis, adding or removing a few additional plated sections is a trivial amount of effort. The rendering doesn't quite illustrate the scale well, I believe in this configuration the flange to piping top is just about 6 feet tall, which puts the full height just a tad under 12 feet. Also for scale, the bottom flanges are about 16" OD. The parrot assembly was designed to carry the weight of the full product condenser on an accessory table (not shown). Post column piping follows the StillDragon modular approach using triclamp fittings, shown here plumbed with 4", and with a single 1 meter shotgun condenser, but again, trivial to add another half meter or full meter condenser for additional capacity if necessary. Our own engineers are working to finalize the control system, but the still itself is designed to use standard triclamp RTD probes for the boiler, dephlegmator coolant temp, post-dephleg vapor temp, and product condenser coolant temp. Smaller temp probe fitting will be used for the product take-off temp alarm. So fitting your own or a third party control system should be easy enough. It does not get any more flexible than this. Currently in manufacturing and should be in our possession in about 2 months or so. Will share some additional photos once the components are out of manufacturing.

1500 liters is well past what's realistic for electric. You'd need somewhere north of 100kw, and that would necessitate heavy power, likely 480v 3 phase. Dropping 480v 3 phase into a building that doesn't have it, and wiring something of this scale up, is going to cost as much as a steam boiler. In most places it will also cost significantly more to run. Edwin - are the larger units provisioned with steam jackets and proportional control valves?

Not to make public what shouldn't be public, but on my radar are the following: Jersey Artisan - Operating Cooper River - Operating Cape May - Soon to be Operating (Operating already?) Silk City - Soon to be Operating Olde Spye - Soon to be Operating Teton/Rockaway - TBD Nick/Philipsburg - TBD Red Bank Area - TBD Asbury Park Area - TBD (not sure if you are still around dude, ping me) Mid-shore Area - TBD 2 Micro Brewery Expansions into Distilling - TBD and I know of 3 other guys looking to set up very micro operations. Not including the micro guys, we're talking about 11 that I know of, 6 months into the new law. And you've got the new slew of distillers opening in the Hudson Valley and Brooklyn.

I haven't spent a whole lot of time reviewing the PA laws, but I suspect it would be easier for us to have setup just north of the border in NY state than in NJ. Most of NJ municipalities have been known to be sticklers when it comes to building, construction, commercial codes. I've toured many distilleries across the US, and based on what I've experienced here, and known from other ventures, they would have never been approved in that manner here. NJ is made up of 565 municipalities, each one run like it's own little political kingdom, with it's own officials and inspectors looking to protect their turf. If you do set up on this side of the river, I suggest you spend time groveling before these kings until you find one sympathetic to your cause, because fighting them afterwards will be costly and time consuming. Sounds a bit harsh, but NJ is just not welcoming to small business, these guys would fall all over themselves to help a billion dollar company set up shop, because it means advancing their careers. Little guy? You are a bother. I've lived in NJ nearly 40 years. Other issue on this side of the river are property taxes, which are going to impact you whether you buy or lease, this is especially the case if you are looking at a triple net lease here in Jersey, be sure to fully burden that rate when comparing to PA. Comparing gross to gross, it's going to be more expensive out here. PA is a control state, NJ is not, understand what it means to do business in both. Not sure if you are planning on being around the 78 or 80 corridors, but I believe there is someone setting up shop in Philipsburg (Nick Piperata). Also, Teton Vodka posted some news about another new startup in the Rockaway area (80 corridor). There are a number of new startups coming to the table. At this pace, NJ is going to lead the country in distilleries per capita in the next 3 years, no foolin. I've also been trying to organize those who I know of into a NJ distillers guild of sorts, but everyone is too busy trying to build a business to do anything about that. Shoot me a message, seems you are close enough to meet up for a beer or two.

If you have a compressor on site something like a Yamada High Purity DP-5F would probably fit the bill, it's got both a teflon body and seals. A bit less flow than your desired 4gpm, but moving up to the larger DP-10F is a big price jump. You can occasionally find a nice one on eBay for a big discount. You'll need to mount it to some kind of pump cart if you plan to pull hoses around, as it's relatively lightweight. Would advise to control for static, but at least it doesn't have any electrics to worry about.

Suspect it might be easier and less costly to go with reservoirs and a chiller as opposed to even initiating a discussion about discharging non-contact cooling water or other process water back into the local ecosystem. Regulations and requirements are going to differ everywhere, but in many places the discharge of hot water would be considered pollution. A few used IBC totes and a chiller will probably cost less than the environmental impact study you'll need to submit with your permit app...

Seems that everyone is looking at leveraging accelerated maturation techniques as part of their differentiation strategy, especially using agitation. We too will do this, our plan it to load barrels on an 18 wheeler and drive them around the pot-hole ridden streets of the NY metro area. Initial trials are proving highly successful, really enjoying the subtle notes of Jersey wildflowers … and diesel. We may even paint a picture of a pirate ship on the side, for good measure. All kidding aside, looks awesome, well done! Especially like the wireless technology. Not sure where you are located but perhaps a partnership with a local distillery for larger scale trials might be a way to build some additional credibility?

Suspect that the fabrication of a stainless jacket, associated flanging and modification of the still, supporting legs, plumbing, heating elements, and so on will cost at least as much as the still did, potentially more. Consider the risk that something goes horribly wrong. Nobody is going to be happy when the welder blows a big hole right through that still when trying to attach the flange. Not only do you need someone skilled in stainless fabrication, but copper fabrication as well. And let's face it, it would be a shame to see an alembic turned into some kind of frankenstein by a shade tree welder. Don't forget about the freight costs associated with shipping the still to and from the fabricator, this work will need to be done in a machine shop (this still is not precision, nor is it perfectly round). Not trying to rain on your parade, but I suspect from a TCO perspective, ordering the still with steam coils installed and finding a good used boiler will probably save you money and sleepless nights. At least ask the manufacturer if they can build what you are looking for, if anyone can do it, they probably can. At least if they screw up, it's on their dime, not yours. What size still are you talking about here?

Never hurts to write up a notes sheet prior to an interview and hand it over to the interviewer/writer. Don't be modest, you can even include quotes. You can even follow the style of a press release if that helps. Your business is a foreign world to most. You might think this is a little artificial, but I guarantee you that the writer will appreciate it. More often than not, you'll see that it positively influences the piece. Outsider's perspective? That piece is great. The inaccuracy is slight and makes your product seem even more exclusive. I'd make plans to visit if I read that article in my local paper. Or maybe I just want to head back to Waikiki. Love your bottle and label design by the way, very sharp. By the way, your brand name pronounced literally means "my love" in Polish.

Every time you go round, your chances of success rise. It's not wasted time, it's invested time. There is no longer first mover advantage in Craft Distilling, there is no rush to market. If your only differentiator is first mover, you don't have a business (unless you are tech or in a space where you can protect your IP). The only time you should rush is when there are clear benefits to market share or revenue, and those benefits will outweigh the additional cost of associated risks and mistakes. Every time you make a mistake, it costs real money. Spoke to a start up distiller who said a similar thing, every mistake costs $5,000. I've worked with many startups whose only differentiator was that they were first to a market, failure rate was high. Not the same business, but competitors will have an easy time following once you've paved the way. I'm sure equipment and supply manufacturers are being inundated by would-be distillers calling for price lists and quotes. They've got to run their businesses too, which means they need to weed out the chaff. Just spoke to the zoning official in my home town who told me there is someone looking for a conditional use variance to put a distillery in a 900 square foot basement of a commercial building in a residential zone (which is crazy talk). If this is any indication of how crowded the market may become, I suspect it will only get to be more difficult for startups (no payment terms, prepaid orders only, larger order minimums, etc).

The second still is Vendome.

First, the photo of the vapor erupting from the small boiler with the guy standing next to it is amazing, I'm guessing they got that from surveillance or other video, because it appears to have captured the moment immediately prior to explosion (Photo 1 of 9) Looking at the other photos, it appears that the copper condensing coil separated from the fitting at the top of the boiler. Looking at the photos, the before shows the condenser coil attached, leading to a flake stand or a thumper of sorts. Look at the background of photos 2/9 and 3/9. There are more shots of the apparatus in the video, which doesn't appear to show a triclamp clamp attached to the top ferrule, not sure if this was intentional or not. Lighting in the immediate vicinity of the still does not appear to be explosion proof, but standard FL fixtures.

But to your original question, some very rough napkin math - assuming 10kw boiler power, 225 liters volume, no efficiency losses, and a boiler content of nothing but pure water, you can expect to vaporize approximately 15.86 liters of water per hour. Again, I have no idea the contents of your boiler, so this is based on water alone. (36,000kJ/hr / 2,270kJ/kg = 15.86kg/hr) Assuming starting temp is 15c and 100c is the ending temp, 225 liters, the same 10kw boiler power, you can expect approximately 2.25 hours for heat up. Putting it together, you'll need to reduce 225 to 75 liters for the liquid in the boiler to increase from 3 to 9 brix. This means you need to boil off 150 liters, which will take 9.5 hours (again with the 10kw power, no losses). So a total of 11.75 hours, but more realistically with losses probably nearer to 13 or 14. This also assumes that your condenser can handle 100% of the input power and you don't need to reduce the input heat. Some more rough napkin math puts the condenser sizing somewhere around .5 meter of 10 sections of .5 inch pipe in shell (this will largely depend on your input water temps and potential flow rates.

The liquid you are distilling contains no alcohol? You seem to mention evaporation, and are focused on the geometry of the distillation vessel, however useful vaporization will be as a result of boiling and not evaporation. So, geometry is of less importance, and the critical factor with regards to timing will be how much power you have available for your heating element (which you do not mention). You may run into issues with the final sugar content of your wash, with internal elements I suspect you may caramelize and burn on the elements. Are trying to reduce the content of your liquid to 1/3rd of the original volume through the process, using only evaporation? I suspect this process would take significant time as the vapor would likely condense on the vessel walls above the liquid, because you'll have a difficult time generating sufficient vapor volume to push through to the condenser. The other interesting scenario is that your volatile flavor components might find their way distilled out in the very early stages of the process, probably within the first gallon or two processed, if I were to wager a guess. Sounds interesting, do you need to be vague to protect your commercial process or can you share more details?

Problem with the smaller diaphragm pumps is their ability to pass solids shrinks to almost nothing, and the flow rates leave a bit to be desired. My 1/2" ARO can handle about 1/16th OK. I've tried pumping a fermented grain-in mash, just for kicks, and it worked, but it's abysmally slow with my smaller compressor, and the hoses were convulsing with every pulse. Honestly, it would have been faster with buckets. Concur with Natrat, something closer to 1.5", with the ability to pass at least 1/4", would be better suited and provide much more flexibility.

2 pounds per gallon based on flour-ground solids would be relatively easy for an air-powered diaphragm pump.

If you've got the room, probably cheaper to buy a fork lift.

Go old school, 5 gallon bucket, timer, and a thermometer. Take a reading mid-run, probably another towards your end. You should be able to get a good handle on your input temps (measure the temp at the faucet after a few minutes of running, the delta t and a flow rate during the run. You'll probably get a more accurate reading this way than using an inexpensive flowmeter, anything accurate costs a small fortune.

For me, controlling the temperature in the fermentation room is enough - minute variation in the temperature of the wash as the yeast propagates yields taste profile differences that please me. Controlling room temperatures requires a room, which may not be available, or cooling the entire production floor, which might not be a realistic option. From an energy efficiency perspective, it's going to require less energy to control the fermentation temp than it is going to be to control the room temp to indirectly control the fermentation temp. Also, depending on the fermentation volume and geometry, it might require an air temp lower than you expect. I've had ferment temps get into the 80s with an ambient temp in the 60s, so I can't imagine trying to cool a building down to the 60s when the outdoor temperature was in the high 90s. I don't have walls, and I sure as heck won't be paying to add air conditioning (jacketed fermenters look cheap in comparison).

Coconut carbon tends to have less dust than dinosaur carbon and rinsing either type is absolutely necessary to remove fines. If you are flowing upwards, flow rates should be slow enough that you are not bringing media into suspension where it might be agitated and break apart. However, coconut based carbons are less aggressive than their T-Rex counterparts, especially with some organics. They also tend to remove less color. These traits may be desirable for you, they may not be, but it's an option.

I wonder - was Vendome going for the Steampunk R2 D2 look?

Brewers beer is much too dear to be put inside a still Especially when most of it will just end up as swill A nice price You best be chargin' 'Cuz sure as hell It won't come back as margin

310g for $1000 = $3.23 a gallon 500g for $2000 = $4 a gallon How do you make the economics of this work? Is this tasting room retail only?

Yes, but I'm not sure it's a matter of good or bad, it's a matter of different (well, except if you burn, than it's just plain bad). I've tasted plenty of very good products made with direct immersion elements, so it's absolutely possible. But - it will depend on your product, direct contact elements will have a higher proportion of localized maillard reaction products (some volatile, some good, some bad) as well as some amount of burning. Surface temperature of elements will be significantly higher than the inside jacket temperature of steam or bain marie - this is going to make a difference. So, operational differences are a big factor, bourbon wash distilled on grain vs off grain will be different (you can do both with steam, but only one with elements). With elements, any included solids (grain, botanicals, skins) will likely burn. Also depending on your mash bill, you might find that grains high in glucans tend to burn much more easily with elements. Also, a little bit of meatiness is typically associated with distilling un-racked wash, complexity at low levels, a major flaw at high levels. This is one area where the hobby forums would have had much more experience, since this is approach that most graduate to after direct firing. Cheap and easy with 15 gallons, much more difficult with 250 gallons.

Competition? There is no competition among craft distillers. The competition is mainstream perception, and the biggest threat to us all is poor quality 'craft' product (well, and bad legislation).