John McKee

Air Operated Diaphragm pump Centrifugal pump with TEFC or XP motor and starter Moyno Progressive cavity pump with TEFC or XP motor and starter Used them all. AOD is the safest, easiest (self priming), pump to use...I highly recommend going that route.

Mendo, We use phosphoric acid for the pH adjustments. Cheers, McKee

Hey all, To clarify, our Rye is a 100% rye whiskey, no corn....so some of this may not be as helpful if your recipe contains corn. Our enzymes and their optimal usage: Laminex C2K, 140F, 4.5 pH (during heat up) *Note, added to base water at 65F, prior to grain introduction. Amylex 4T, 178F, 5.8 pH (during heat up) Diazyme SSF2, 149F, 4.5 pH (during cool down) More on our choice of enzymes from the manufacturer website. http://www.danisco.com/product-range/food-enzymes/brewing-enzymes/laminexr/ Cheers, McKee

Good morning, We mash about 2000g of Rye per week and the summary of our recipe is below, batch sizes are 1000g. Ground Rye Flour, 2:1 flour to water. 2000lbs/1000g No malts, all conversion is handled via Enzymes. Top temp is about 187F We rest at various temps and pH as called out by the enzyme manufacturer for optimal yield. Enzymes:Cellulase (Beta-Glucan) Enzyme Amylase Enzmye Saccarification Enzyme Total mash time on our system is about 5-6 hours. Average ABV post fermentation 11-12%. No lautering, all grain-on distillation. When you're done, prior to pitching yeast, your mash should be the consistency a heavy wheat beer, very sugary and sweet. Cheers, McKee

This really depends on mixing. I can't offer a definitive time, but if you're able to mix, turn over the tank with a pump system, or otherwise encourage the blending of the two materials you can probably get this done pretty fast. We have various sized proofing tanks, from 250g to 2500g (with differing types of mixer systems in each size) we can get to a homogenized proof within less than an hour. If you just let it sit, I really can't say when you'd be at a uniformly proofed mixture.....but it could take a long time. Sorry I can't be more specific. Cheers, McKee

You might want to look at Rotary Evaporators.

One note of clarification, The TTB has been willing to license distilleries in buildings that are multi-use, such as a multi-story building with commercial interests on the ground floor and residences on the floors above. When this has been successful, the applicant had to prove that the points of egress to the distillery were 100% separate and distinct from the points of egress for the residential areas of the building. However, this logic has not been successful in someone trying to get a distillery licensed, attached to their home or house. It just isn't going to fly, even if you ensure separate points of egress. Cheers, McKee

Steam also works well. If you have a steam tap off of your boiler header, you can put a steam-rated hose inside the barrel, let it sweat for a few minutes, rinse with clean water, dump the barrel dry, and you're good to go. Cheers, McKee

Jedd, I don't yet. Cheers, McKee

Hey all, Ignoring Lost's technology and its future success or failure, this is the single biggest issue of arrogance that this industry has.....I.E. it can't be done, or if Brown and Foreman can't figure it out....no one can, the chemistry isn't well understood, etc, etc, etc. This is complete and utter bullshit. Any Chemical Engineer would tell you this is bullshit. Aging in a barrel is esterification and extraction chemistry....that is all. Nothing else. If Lost's hasn't figured it out, it will be figured out within the next decade by chemical engineers from other industries realizing that its only because of tradition, market economies, lack of professional knowledge, and extraordinary leg up's on product-in-barrels that has kept this type of technology from being developed from within the industry of beverage alcohol. Be forward thinking, fund projects to solve this, or get left behind when someone else figures it out and leaves you behind. Cheers, McKee

DSW, We have everything brought in via Super sacks, with bottom dumping sleeves (udder). No issues with Mold, the grain is double bagged inside the super sack in a plastic bag, so pretty airtight. No difference in flavor, just more booze per unit grain. Cheers, McKee

Good morning, We have a bottom dumping grain hopper for sale. Fork-lift pick points, 45x48x48....great for mashing in, conveying stillage (cooled), and other tasks in a distillery. We used it for mashing in separate grains as needed. We upgraded our grain handling a while back and just don't have a need for this any longer. If you're interested, photos and pricing - http://butte.craigslist.org/grd/4916940034.html. Best, John

My two cents, We have our grain milled into a flour offsite and delivered in 2000lb supersacks. Corn, Barley, Rye, Wheat.....doesn't matter. There are two primary reasons: Safety = Milling is the most dangerous thing that can be done in a distillery. More than handling high proof, distillation, anything. Having this performed offsite at milling operations that are properly trained and have the proper equipment is just a smart idea. Costs (CAPEX) = The electrical safety requirements for the mill room are high and as a result this means more expensive fixtures. An EXIT sign that is rated for the mill room will cost you $7000+. Balance that across the other electrical requirements and the CAPEX cost gets pretty high. Costs (OPEX) = Look around for milling services and you'll find at least a 2-3 year balance in ROI of having someone else mill the grain for you vs. spending the correct CAPEX to install the proper milling system. Costs (Insurance) = No milling onsite means that your insurance should be drastically lowered. Yield = This is pretty straightforward. If you mechanically crack the grain to a flour, you have more access to starches available for conversion and as a result the potential for higher yield. Grain on vs Grain off distillation = This is a unicorn pooping rainbows discussion. There is no difference in yield. Anyone suggesting otherwise has a poor understanding of distillation chemistry as it relates to beverage alcohol. However, there is a difference in system performance and uptime (which becomes greater) if you perform a grain-off distillation. Final caveat, we grain-on distill because with our system it just doesn't matter. Still types = There is no difference here either, with the notable exception that properly designed continuous systems will recover 90%+ of all available alcohol during a single pass. In other words, there is no alcohol remaining in the "tails", which are referred to as bottoms in continuous stills. Overall, the question of yield in milling types, flour vs cracked grain, was answered pretty soundly by Justin Aden at ADI 2012 (or maybe 2011). They did a lot of yield testing at MSU in the Artisan Spirits program and provided data that showed at 7-9% increase yield for flour milled washes vs cracked. Cheers, McKee

Full disclosure, I don't own one of these, but the US FIP Flexible impeller pump sort of blew me away at ADI. http://www.americanwinepump.com/ We're going to start using them soon. No tools required for pump maintenance, comes with integrated VFD, durable. I'm a big fan.

3d0g, Feel free to call me, we're still in town. 406.498.5045

Good afternoon, Please email me at stills@headframespirits.com and I'll send you a spec sheet and pricing. Thanks, John

Good evening, We're here at the ADI conference for the next few days and looking forward to seeing as many of you as we can. Our new website is online at http://www.headframestills.com with some great info about our Continuous Flow Distillation system . If you're interested in learning more, I'll be available at any time during the conference to discuss further. Best, John McKee

Badass! I'm President of the Montana Distiller's Guild. Please feel free to reach out to me anytime. Best, John McKee 406.498.5045

Easy rule of thumb.... If the flavor is on the outside of the botanical, then no need to crush. If the flavor is on the inside, if you don't crush, you won't get to the flavors. Cheers, McKee

http://www.paratherm.com/heat-transfer-fluids/high-temperature-heat-transfer-fluids/paratherm-nf/ I used to buy this stuff by the truckload. Great product. You buy enough once and you'll never need to buy more. Cheers, McKee

Hey all, One note on all of this; 5.36, Age Statements, etc. So many of these issues are not intentional or nefarious by brands or distilleries out there. We used an attorney (a good one) to process our labels and COLAs and the TTB approved them with errors in both years ago...both of which we have now resolved, recently. It should be noted that in label approval - due to changes in budget for TTB, turn over of staff, the vast increase in spirits labels in queue for approval, etc, etc, etc.......the number of experienced and knowledgable staff for approvals has plummeted. They even have wine approval agents working on the backlog of spirits labels...without the full knowledge of every last possible permutation of proper labeling for spirits. The inevitable result of which is the errors that TTB have been making and thereby allowing the approved businesses of labeled products to believe they are acting in the letter of the law. I guess my point here is to suggest that brands should reinvestigate each of their approved labels and resolve issues if there are any. I'll admit I was one of those that felt we had done everything correctly; used an experienced attorney, had faith that TTB agents were knowledgable of the statutes to catch and resolve errors before approval....and we still had errors. Sort of irks me, because I feel that even having done everything as best as I could, I was still let down by the process. All that being said, fix your problems...move on. But in this issue, be careful about throwing stones.... Cheers, McKee

Hey all, We're looking for a production manager here at Headframe Spirits in Butte, America. Please find the job description and company culture deck here http://www.headframespirits.com/opportunities/ If you're interested, we're interested. Cheers, McKee

Hey, Properly designed with pressure relief devices glass stills are fine. Fun to watch too. Cheers, McKee

Thank you MG. Not a standard, but a rule of thumb......any area with alcohol vapors inside should be turning over the entire volume of the room 5 times per hour. Cheers, McKee

Hey all, I appreciate the humor in some of the responses, but this is a damn serious post. Towerguy, can you be more specific in the vapor you are being exposed to? My first thought is incomplete condensing which is doing a lot more than giving you the potential for inhalation hazards and doing a lot more to drive the potential for fire and explosion up. We can help, but James did a good job of sharing some info there and you need to take a serious look at your condensing strategy. If you're getting loopy from ethanol vapor you're not too far away from a serious incident. You need to consider not producing until you build a system that isn't exposing you to ethanol vapor. Cheers, McKee