Scrounge

What is a Nuetral Barrel? Thanks

Check out apec.com or freedrinkingwater.com I've used ther systems in a few applications including iron removal and softening my well water for my house, and have one of there big carbon filters removing chlorine from municipal water for mash, and an RO for proofing in the distillery. Highly recommended

I'm right about at 3pg per 56lb of grain but I'm running on a column and bring in a couple plates when I start to taste tails coming. Can runn a little deeper that way.

Hey Joe C. Your right, it's never to soon to work out all the things other than permitting. I wasn't trying to bust your balls. You need to have a look at the TTB website and get up to date on the requirments for permitting at the federal level. Your state permitt won't do you any good without a federal one as well. Once you have jumped through the Feds hoops the state should be comparatively easier since you will have already compiled all the required info. Just trying to spell out to you that you need a fed permit to be an operating DSP, so pulling the trigger on that state permit would only spend that 2200$ sooner than needed. And if that's a yearly fee, then the clock would be ticking on when you have to pay it again. Get your fed permit, it's free, and the most time consuming. Then get your state. And when u have pending applications, keep that still nice and clean. That's all. Good luck to you!

Am I reading this right? You said in your first post that you held a state license, and then in your last post that you do not? I'm a bit confused, but that doesn't really matter. You would be advised to get your proper permits in place before you start distilling. Just some advice as your state(and perhaps the Feds) will probably come look at your setup when you do apply for a permit, and it shouldn't be looking like your using it yet! Usually you get your federal permit first. Do you hold a federal permit? I assume not since you dont know what your bond is. This is really none of my buisness, but I was confused by your posts. Someone had just posted a link to a story of a distillery that was operating without their state license in place, and the state came out and dumped ALL ther booze and I believe they were facing some criminal charges. You have some big hurdles ahead of you before you need to worry about your labels too much! If I haven't read this correctly then forgive me, I sometimes mix up real life with my dreams.

Double check with your pg$e rep. I have done 3 service upgrades at different locations and a new service when I built my distillery. They will have you list all your usage requirments during the engineering phase of the project. They will calculate a new price based on your planned usage. They then reasses you after 3 yrs to make sure you hit the target usage, if not, they bill you for more on the old install price. For example- a new 400amp service to a new glass blowing facility I built 5 yrs ago was bid at 14k from them(new transformer and service drop), then after they considered my planned usage the total I paid was right around 700$. My distillery was same thing. Brand new service(transformer and drop to my panel) once my anticipated usage was factored in 13k became 1600$. This has all been for electric, but done with pg$e. they also give you an option at pay time of a 50%reduction in fees and its said and done or you pay full price and receive 10% back as usage credit each year for 10yrs. Make sure your getting the whole story from whom ever your talking to. If you just inquired unofficially they may not have explained everything, and of course maybe they work differently on the gas projects?

I have a Crown BSI 227. Runs great. There is a function that shuts it down every 20 min for 90 sec. It's to assure there is no foaming which could give the low water cut off a false reading and dry fire. There is a work around for it. PM me if you want.

Wow that is a crazy yellow. Your low wines are very clear though. Usually low wines are a milky white off color coming through in the tail section. Don't know what the yellow is but are you cutting your strip short? Should be milky looking if going all the way through the tails. Atleast, that's how it works over here.

Those are all good points. If I pitch at 90* I'm ripping in 4-5 hrs and struggling to get it cooled down a bit. If I pitch at 80* it'll lag for 12 hrs or more and be cooled down in the low 70s before it does a much slower take off, and it'll add a day to the ferment. Lots of variables!

I start stripping at around 60ish hrs. My mash cooks are 3 strips so I get started when its almost done, and its totally done by the time I load the 3rd strip.

How do I not compliment you. Those are beautiful pieces of equipment!

Steam jacket+1

Try it?

Hey Roberto, can you post a pick of those?

Try it!

They don't get initial emails cause of some China Internet thing, add an international call plan to your cell(5$ a month if AT&T)and call them. They answer and are very helpfull and knowledgable. Then have them email you, and you can reply back and forth through that. Ask for Melissa. She's very nice and extremely helpfull. She gets you pics, drawings, can make changes and quotes same day as you ask for them. Their day is our night though. This has been my experience with them.

I haven't done it yet. My license is due in march so ill be figuring it out soon. I have been told (and I have not confirmed this) that you can't get the new license if you buy GNS or sourced whiskey.

Crazy!!!!!!! There is no way I would try and pump my grain in mash through a 3/4" tube! That's wild. Are you super fine flour? Or how do you do that? My mash tun has a separate cooling jacket. If I lauter I go into a fermenter with an agitator and use the cooling jacket on it to cool to pitching temp. I could see cooling water in the coil but pumping mash through a 3/4 " tube gives me anxiety!! Haha I keep rereading it and that's what you say

It's Kosher certified!!!

Seb-star is magic, I mean, alpha -amylase that rapidly reduces the viscosity of gelatinized starches and produces lower weight dextrin's. I buy it from Enzyme Innovation, but smallest order is little Jerry can. Pay attention to ph and temp for immediate high fives.

Rye IS typically a pretty gooey ordeal. I don't know how you could possibly separate or lauter rye very efficiently. Grain in and steam with a strong agitator is the way to go, in my opinion. One thing I would do to tweak your method is do your high heat first, to gelatinize (180 you said)(but rye gels a lot lower than that. Don't need to go quite that high if no corn). And then drop down to your barley temp. When you went up to 180 you denatured your enzymes from the barley. You may have gotten some additional conversion while you let it cool over night(had you not denatured them) and had you gelatinized first your enzymes would have had better access to more of your starches. Also. If your gonna pay for the Seb-flo. You should get some Seb-star too and watch your goo liquefy before your eyes. As well stated in some recent posts on enzymes, temp and ph are key to success with them, and don't exclude those thoughts from your malt use either. It's the enzymes in there you are paying for as well! Rye is gooey, but if its too gooey to work with then you still have a lot of long chain starch in there which is yield you are missing out on. Did you do an iodine test? Also-just my thoughts , not the gospel, my info comes from trial and ERROR.

Hey Nepa. I mash like that Corn, rye, wheat, all in cold with Seb-flo. Rip the steam and I am visually gelled by about 160-165 on my bourbon more like 170-175 on my rye. So gelled that my agitator isn't moving the whole mess any more so my heat transfer is pretty non existant. In goes the Seb-star and boom right before your eyes it liquifies, then I've got heat transfer and I finish going up to 180 and hold for an hour. Bring it down for malt and some Seb-amyl and I'm set. Consistent 20-21 brix. Mash tastes like the most delicious sweet breakfast porage I've ever had. I actually usually have a bowl!, haha. Dog fart low wines for sure, but delicious spirit!!! I've felt that the tails do come a little early too, so I bring in a little reflux to hold them off, get the proof back up around 150 and squeeze a few more (slightly more neutral) gallons out before going to tails. Works good over here anyway!!

Look at boiler manufacturer literature, and figure from there stated gas usage, and multiply times whatever the gas where you are costs. And then get ready for harder math than that if your going to run a distillery!!! How are you only going to run the still 16 hrs a week?

The seed uses the enzymes to convert the starches to its initial food source until its first roots start taking up nutes. At ambient temp. I had an equipment/operator error last week when doing a single malt, I only reached 120* f for a few hours and still got a 7% beer. Thank god to salvage that one. The purpose of the heat is to gelatinize the starch cells and then give the enzymes the optimum temp for the fastest and most complete conversion to simple sugars, which is what the yeast eat. With out heat, you will be terribly inefficient, give way for bacteria to take hold, have very inconsistent results, and loose batches to bad flavors as a result. No way to run even a hobby adventure. Without enzymes, you will just have starch and no fermentables = no booze at all.

Hey, just wanted to let other CA distillers, or west coast for that matter, know that Capitol Food, in southern CA, carries Montana Milling products. They will warehouse for you (sign a simple agreement) at no charge and are very easy to work with. They bring out many truckloads of Montana Milling products for the food industry, so prices are better than going direct, and then they hold it for you, you call them, boom, it's at your distillery in a couple days. They are currently handling my Rye needs, and it's going very well. They also carry a bazillion other products- molasses, sugars, etc. Anyhow, just thought I'd share a good source. Contact-Mike Savage. 562 404-4321. Capitol Foods