Scrounge

50 gal drum, 150 lbs of white sugar, over pitch with 2.5lbs of turbo yeast, hydrate yeast in a 6-7% abv for about an hour, so as to explode less of those little guys, stir it in. 75* room, 20%ish in 5 days every time. Temp is most important or yucky hot turbo flavors occur. Only situation where nutes are required that I've come across, as they are in the turbo. Whiskey- 11-12 % in 48 hrs to below 1.000 with lallemand GW No nutes. Only situation I've come across that requires nutes is with white sugar. Just what happens over here though. Over pitching works better at speeding things up than nutes, majority of fermentables (other than white sugar) have plenty of nutes in em. Again, over here, that's how it works. Also, definitely no advocating for turbo yeast, but that's only way I've seen those kind of #'s.

Don't use em

200-250k btus. You wanna over size a little to compensate for losses-inefficiency, and your boiler, or any appliance, will be more efficient running at about 75% of capacity. Or bigger if you expect to mash and distill at same time, of course.

There are manufacturers that put in separate jackets for heating and cooling. Check Corson Distilling. I have a 300g tun from them and I absolutely love it. Does exactly what they designed it to do. It's so simple I don't know why you would want to mess with coils or dsi. But I guess I only know a lot about a little.

I haven't read everything for a while but I thought it was 2 years in a barrel to call it whiskey in Ca. Or blending with 20% or more of 3 year or older if u want to use some younger stuff. That was my understanding.

Sitting here waitin for the still to heat up, and I think I feel u on your comment on using the relief valve for blow down, agporte. Ill tee in a ball valve for that purpose so I'm not wearing out that safety valve. Thanks

Anyone want to comment on what yeast they are using with the panela? I have noticed tequila like notes in my rum experiments that weren't with panela, and attributed it to the yeast I was using.

Yep agporte, I blow down with my 15 psi safety valve, per the manufacturers instruction. Drain on bottom half, relief valve on top half. I run a light commercial boiler from Crown Boiler. With a closed loop, running distilled water, there's no need to blow down everyday. Water is still very clean on the daily. That's how we roll over here anyhow. I'm sure everybodys set up is a bit different, especially if taking in fresh feed water, perhaps from a well, I would see daily blow down being needed.

I dough in cold. I get no clumps. Fill tank. Agitator on high. Turn on steam. Dough in by the time I'm at 80* no clumps to speak of. I would love a conveyor!!! Bucket/back method for now.

Yeah, closed loop full of distilled water. Working great here. I blow down out the pressure relief valve when I want to clean as some crap does get in the water, especially during first week of running.

225,000btu output boiler -100g still and 300g mash tun. Still heat up-40 min w/agitation Mash tun heat up 3hrs from 60*with 750 lbs of grain in to 190* only running one or the other, not both at same time Paid 4k$ for it. No pre-heat tank. No blow back tank. Closed loop system with condensate return pump, so feed water is preheated by process. Plumbing and installation- parts + my time. Maybe 3k$ tops with nice valves,insulation,nice stove pipe with stainless cap on the roof, and condensate pump Only about a 30' run of 2" black pipe, some 3" near the boiler, and condensate return all 1" copper Not exactly the scale of your project, but some info anyhow. I think when you get above 500k btu, or so, you kind of enter into another league. Installation is insane, the quotes I got were ridiculous.

That looks great!

Some people believe that just proofing down NGS is lame. There is no craft in that. Starting a "distillery " for under a 100k is what they are referring to. Which is really not hard to do. Just depends on what size distillery and if you are willing to work. Did I mention proofing down NGS is lame.

I have seen tails used as a sanitizer in swelling barrels that have sat for a long time. You probably have lots of tails already for free.

+1 for Barrel Mill

Damn. Any distilleries near you that will give you a sample, to have tested. Your own case study, if you will?

Just googled "brewery wastewater treatment" and a lot of good stuff came up. A PDF from the "brewers association" had a bunch of case studies full of good info. There are engineers out there that you could consult with I'm sure. I found many around me that had designed systems for wineries and had a great deal of understanding of my situation. Hope you find what you need!

There is a very in depth article about this in relation to breweries, that I found on the web somewhere when I was dealing with these issues. I know that's not much help, but ill see if I can find it again. I found it with some hours of googleness before.

Curious if you noticed the 10-15g barrels for sale that was posted just hours before your post?

The way you wrote your post it sounds as if you are doing some distilling already? Can you not take a sample and test it to get the numbers you need? If I misunderstand you, than perhaps you could approach another distiller for a sample.

CADG- thanks for the reply. I will take you up on that offer and visits soon. I promise. It's been crazy days and a scenery change is in order! Thanks

Hey CADG, didn't mean any disrespect there. I really ment that the new legislation is great news, and what I should have said is thank you for all you guys have done for us in CA. I was just making light of another evening with all my belongings still packed while everything around us seams to be on fire. I am on the edge of the Stanislaus river canyon and spent the last week praying they were gonna stop the Butte Fire from entering our drainage. My family is so gratefull to the fire fighters who are working so hard. I helped evacuate three friends who lost there homes on the other side of the river. The Oak fire was in our backyard the week before and thank god the DC-10 was available to lay it down on the ridge behind us and save us. After a 2 year build out of our distillery our well went dry and we had to get 3 easements and install a mile of pipe to connect to the county water supply. I have no less than 100 old growth Ponderosa and Sugar pines that are dead on our property that I will need to start removing when and if the rain comes, all from this drought. I and many i know around me don't know what to do. Is it time to leave the west coast? There is no water. Have you seen the resivoirs? We fear for losing our ag buisnesses and way of life. Breweries, wineries, distilleries, farms, ranches, an insane amount of the countries food supply, is all hanging by a thread and what are we gonna do? Pray for,rain I guess. This is big, I've never seen a more dire situation, myself. Sorry for the rant, and thanks again for the hard work you guys have done. When I recover from that water connection fee, I will happily join the CADG.

That's great news! Can you also make it rain, and stop all the trees dying, and perhaps keep everything from being on fire?

Mendo- do u have links to any articles?

West Gaines Seed Inc.