Brian

GW Kent

or xylanase...

http://www.grainger.com/images/govtlock.pdf

At 100 PSI you would most likely need a operators' permit or license and you might (would) be subjected to semi-annual boiler inspections and other parties might take an untoward interest. "hey bubba, lets get some x-rays of these welds and when was it again that you had your pipes tested?....can you please bring me that paper work??? Sure next week would be fine, but you can't operate until...hey, what's the ASME rating of this elbow?" Reading between the lines, it sounds like there might be some non-standard and NON-certified or certifiable bits in your system. Because you're boiler is rated at 100PSI doesn't mean you must operate at that pressure and it would truly scare me to run at 100PSI. REALLY SCARE ME!!!! If you take a look at the Hoffman Specialties site you can see the condensate return ratings for traps for a given operating pressure. If need be you can add another return if you think you are on the edge.....but please don't operate at 100....we need good absinthe in the world.

Yes...just like the old movie "The Blob"....I started out with 200 Gals of mash and ended up with like 600 Gals of foam...used up all the "antifoam" I had.... Nothing seemed to stop it...dig up a protease from your favorite enzyme supplier and don't forget to throw it in before you head out the door, make sure you are within the temperature range of the enzymatic activity....seems like rye from time to time may have a very slimy protein that holds the CO2 and/or some other gas released in the conversion process...inconsistent as well, your next batch or another batch from a different supplier might be fine...

I have three boilers and operate them so that they are all on only when I am condensing all the steam, like early morning start up or cooking and distilling. As things warm up they drop out one by one until the system reaches 15PSI. Recently changed out the standard Honeywell "Pressuretrol" with the wiz-bang L404F (15PSI type) which allows better control ranges for both main and differential. controls. These puppies will set you back about a hundred bucks. Since I now have a bigger still I need every BTU I can muster and these three controllers let me keep a max of ~15 PSI. They are set at very close pressure tiers like 15, 13, 12PSI. The other thing that happened was that the pressure relief valves overtime have sort of calcified and were releasing before 15 PSI was achieved which kind of scarred the poop out of my early guy....so new relief valves and the wonders of analog control. Those last couple PSI really make a BIG difference in the amount of heat you can throw at your mash....don't have the mass math handy but with about a 1,000,000 BTU's at hand every little bit helps. Insulation is a good thing to and I should probably practice what I preach. If you Google heat recovery you might find a system you could shove up your flue that would allow you to use some of that heat that couldn't possibly contribute to global warming or your gas bill....I assume you are using dirty steam and have a boiler recirculation system to replace used up steam with hot water condensate. Next time you are heading to the outhouse print yourself a copy of: http://www.bellgossett.com/literature/files/7250.pdf......or throw this pamphlet down on the bar the next time you want to impress the significant others...

http://www.discus.org/economics/ has published a decent Powerpoint on industry trends...look at the right side of the page for "2010 Industry Review" http://www.nabca.org/About/About.aspx

http://www.ttb.gov/spirits/forms.shtml TTB F 5100.16 If it can be "sold", there would need to be a "legal" entity to engage with for the transfer/sale. If you were to put it in glass, there would need to be a TTB approved label to "sell" or "transfer" the product to you. If it fell onto your truck, you would risk losing your license and may lose the ability to retain the reputation of "a good operator" with Federal and/or State bureaucracy. If you choose not to pay your excise tax, you risk confinement with some of the more questionable inhabitants of the planet. opinion of a tired old Boy Scout.....

I know you are looking for the more technical aspects of what make a good whiskey and in fact we are about to embark on running our own GC to track these aspects. The thing about small distillers is innovation. When you think about it the big guys can blend up a really wonderful product by steering a result to their hearts content. You can do that as well. I would ask what is the motivation of such efforts? Speaking for myself we really don't steer our products that much. There are some wonderful 12 year old Scotches....if you could choose from 400,000 barrels you could do just fine with the same exercise. You can never win at their technology game. The big guys have labs of folks trying to keep their products from varying from day to day.....for you this variability is not a problem, but a feature. I think you can get caught up in trying to be as good or better than the big guys. The big guys have a huge Achilles heel. They are so big that they cannot change direction on a dime. They drive container boats full of spirits and you are driving something more like a kayak or maybe a nice twin engine fishing boat. The best Coca-cola has already been made and there is no reason to make a better Coke. Small distillers can develop a wonderful product tuned to their own locales. Have customers that know them by name and adopt them into their families. You can change your yeasts on a batch by batch basis and lead or follow any emerging trend in months not decades. The big guys are desparately trying to have the same relationships with their customers that you have been born into! Your locale mixologist would love to tell his/her customer that he/she knows YOU. That you have made with product from Jimmy's maple sugar bush or Joe's corn field on the ridge. You have been dealt a wonderful set of cards and can easily create a better white dog or any other product you like by just paying attention. Your products are lovingly HAND MADE with THESE HANDS...play the Aces you have been dealt!! You have a local connection to your local environ that some 10,000GPD distiller is trying desperately and expensively to create in their brand. You are the AUTHENTIC deal!

I looked at a still that was hiding in Japan a while back. It was a new still and set up for grappa. I spoke with the manufacturer and determined that it could be retro-fitted to basically replace the hot water system with steam...assuming that this is similar, it may be possible to put a steam trap on the return line and run your baby on steam. Low pressure steam will probably get you spirit a lot more quickly than trying to run on hot water. Best, Brian

Open Pollinated Corn---- http://ecommons.cornell.edu/bitstream/1813/162/2/finalthesistext%20all.pdf Best, Brian

I think the valve you have seen is generally used to control the temperature feeding the top of the deflegmater (sic) which is sort of a half plate (if installed) on top of the plate column if you will and then on to the condenser. So in a practical sense this controls the rate of distillation and/or the proof. Between the amount of heat applied and the temperature of water entering the condenser to control reflux rate you can control the proof. Practically you can control the rate of distillate production and the proof of your distillate with this temperature valve. The cuts are another matter. Some stills have a valve triggered by the top of the hydrometer switching a valve as the hydrometer moves higher in the "parrot" at the distillate outflow of the condenser. So the aluminum foil stuck on the top of the floating hydrometer makes a mechanical connection to throw a valve and a certain physical height a.k.a. proof to send an alarm or switch a valve to begin to collect heart and/or tails depending on the operators requirements. I have found a FET based hydrometer that I plan to attach to an enlarged parrot. This electronic hydrometer will generate signals to control AIR accuated valves to perform "automatic"cuts at a pre-defined proof value.

Enolmaster 4-spout filler P/N 422-TE-P9920USA 480 bottles per hour With glass cylinders.

I use propane....three boilers each at a progressively higher cut out pressure. Could use oil....there are boilers out there that can modulate the amount of steam generated to correspond to your heating load....so lots of heat early in the day and dropping off as you come to the heart of a run. If you are going to use electric, you probably will need a 3 phase service in your building to be practical. Harvest Spirits is the only place I know that has electric fired stills. Wood seems to be an interesting possibility but you might not want to get the wife up early to start firing up in the AM...assuming you don't use pellets. These guys make a waste fuel fired boiler: http://www.hamech.pl/automated_wastewood_combustion_set_AZSD,e,26.html which is being imported into the USA.....considering using this boiler to burn WET spent grains. Direct firing implies a mash with few solids or good agitation to avoid burned on mash. Best, Brian

Probably the Eagle scout in me, but I would stop your activities until you can get licensed or can come to an agreement with someone who is licensed and operate under their license. If you develop a "record" your future attempts to demonstrate yourself to be a "good operator" could be severely imperiled. Except for rare cases, once you are pregnant it will be hard to make the case that you are a virgin. The difference in effort with holding a ticket for distilling or blending is really quite inconsequential just one more check in the box. Once you take the plunge, you should hold the widest possible license class you can....who knows where your interests can lead??? You should sign an NDA and non-compete with any potential "partner" you come across....blood in the water can attract interesting friends. I would be very heartened by the reaction in the market to your product and know that the lion's share of vodkas in the market come from modification of commodity produced GNS. Best, Brian

http://www.ttb.gov/industry_circulars/archives/2007/07-05.html Brian

http://www.mikeholt.com/ http://ecmweb.com/design_engineering/nec-guidelines-commercial-garages-20101201/ You can see from the "ecm" site that 18" relates at least to UNVENTILATED commercial garages per this particular aspect of the NEC code so if your process generates gasses heavier than air (read:propane) and you have spaces that do not "drain" you can generate interestingly explosive environments....Holt's site seems to have info for the non-regulatory amongst us. So there probably are valid methods to keep from launching yourself into an unintended orbit. Air diaphragm pumps (when grounded) should afford you some protection from errant electrical spark sources with the added benefit of being able to run dry when you find yourself changing diapers instead of making mash. http://www.ingersollrandproducts.com/IS/Category.aspx-am_en-24753 When specifying pumps and any other equipment that touches your solvent a.k.a. ethanol make sure that ALL wetted parts are neutral to the solvent aspects of your process. Found a very cute little ARO diaphragm pump to suck up the unbottled waste from our filler....was less than $200.00. Here is a source for easy to understand "code books" http://www.amazon.com/Code-Check-Complete-Illustrated-Mechanical/dp/156158911X?tag=dogpile-20 These books are for the "homeowner" and don't address aspects of handling chemicals that burn, but at least they should help keep you from making some potentially deadly decisions. Best, Brian

Waste is the largest issue to be faced by a distillery. In my experience, making, selling and marketing products are minor details when compared to waste. We have easily spent more money trying to equip a waste treatment system than we have on shiny Christian Carl distilleries. It may even be worse for city bound facilities than those located off the Public Waste Water Treatment system. Much of the effluent from whiskey production is not "waste" but fertilizer with very large BOD, COD, potential heavy metals, and relatively acidic pH. These non-waste components mean that some sort of extensive pre-treatment will need to be performed before placing this stream in a sewer. The solids may not be considered "sludge" in the traditional way and may be excluded from the sludge side of a Public system. A farmer who has land with an agronomic need may be able to surface apply these steams to fields after thay are pH neutralized with anhydrous lime. A swine producer may be able to take your waste and mix it with his feed. Interestingly, Distiller's Dried Grains are actually traded on the Chicago exchange. William Grant and Sons as well as other big producers, claim to be generating methane from biological digesters and generating electricity....but back to reality. We are using a SOMAT Archimedes screw press to separate the solids (whole mash distillation) from the liquid. These solids are being composted as we have not found a farmer who will consistantly take this stream off our hands. I have found a European boiler manufacturer that can provide a boiler that will take this waste stream directly without pelletization and burn it for hot water. I haven't yet bought this beast. The liquid side of this stream is being trucked off site to a Public System at $0.25 per gallon. We have a recessed filter press that "should" take the hot waste stream and post flocculation allow it to be pressed to dry cake. After a year of trials, we still are not using the press as we can't get a consistant flocculation and we are still experimenting with screen types for the press. In New York, there is a publically funded governmental group that has the directive to reduce energy costs. I have contacted an engineering firm to evaluate any co-generation technologies that I may be able to get grants to purchase, i.e. the CHP European boiler. Our non-contact cooling water is re-cycled as hot water for the next cook. We have set up vegetative sand beds (VSB) in hopes of being able to transpoevporate some of our waste water. I bought a small steam boiler where I hope to be able to burn "waste" alcohol for steam. In my test firing, I had steam in 15 minutes. As you attempt to solve this issue at your own facitiies, keep in mind that in the USA we still have relatively cheap fuel sources. The operators in Europe are MUCH more attuned to the costs of fuel than here in NA. I have looked for a partner that would use my waste stream to grow mushrooms or tomatoes off season to no avail. Best, Brian

http://public.leginfo.state.ny.us/LAWSSEAF.cgi?QUERYTYPE=LAWS+&QUERYDATA=$$ABC61$$@TXABC061+&LIST=LAW+&BROWSER=BROWSER+&TOKEN=10286700+&TARGET=VIEW Bill, Pasting the above into your browser should lead you to New york States liquor law verbiage. One overarching idea is that farming is a "right" in the state of New York. NYS has a distillery class that is a "farm" distillery required to use NYS based substrates. If Ga. allows breweries to sell that may be the camel's nose in the tent. I think the winery in Lakemont sells wine? At any rate the cards to play are the farming aspect and the tourism dollar multiplier effect from "outside" dollars being spent in your community. There are often inconsitencies in laws written over time to resolve the needs of constituents over time. For example, Minnesota has a "small" winery class that allows your to distill fruit from Minnesota but not grains...that bias might be easily resolved without going for an entirely "new" law that might raise the hackles of constituents opposed to larger alcohol availabilty, but in this case it could be argued that it is "unfair" to exclude grains when fruit is already permitted. Find a lever and use it if you can.... Brian

Suzy contact me off line at Brian@tuthilltown.com

http://cwmi.css.cornell.edu/ http://www.equipmentmanufacturing.com/Water_Eater_Home.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sewage_treatment http://www.pollutioncontrolsystem.com/Page.aspx/31/PackagePlants.html http://costingthefuture.org/?tag=vegetated-sand-beds

http://ebookee.org/The-Alcohol-Textbook_531747.html This is a decent text book which has MANY types of stills, mashes, molecular sieves, and many still layouts....download it and you will sleep soundly tonight..... Best, Brian

http://tridentwelding.com/ http://www.revenoor.com/OurProducts.html?cid=2&step=2 Ian Smiley has a good reference book too....his site: http://www.home-distilling.com/ Best, Brian

...if your heart is in making your own still....you really got kick around a bit at: http://homedistiller.org/ I think the TTB still has a fuel license application (http://www.ttb.gov/forms/f511074.pdf) that is not too onerous and may be a better solution than a visit from a member of law enforcement. Brian

There is a pretty decent book out there called "The Alcohol Textbook".....: http://www.ethanoltech.com/education/alcohol_textbook.html.....it is a little pricey but I would bet someone has scanned it on a home distillery site some where. Sieve plates, process flow and what not.....looks to me like you are considering a continuous system....another book from a fuel perspective is http://www.permaculture.com/book_menu/360/277 "Alcohol can be a Gas"....there is also the perennial favorite of mine, from ADI member Ian Smiley: Making Pure Corn Whiskey: A Professional Guide For Amateur And Micro Distillers [Paperback] Best, Brian