FijiSpirits

I believe that Lallemand rebranded a previous yeast to “LS”. I’m not entirely sure what it was but my research indicates that it WAS NOT ec1118. Supposedly this yeast is to produce a neutral flavored spirit and is used for tequila’s, fruit brandy and neutral grain spirits. Isolated from Champagne. Sacc cerv Baynaus. Likes temps 30-35C (86-95) so good for us tropical sorts. Can anyone provide insights on how this performs? I’m wanting a nice clean neutral producer like EC1118 but capable at higher temps. I’ve found that over about 29-30C sustained fermentation temps that EC1118 tends to start producing some distinct flavors I dont want. FYI, i’ve Messed with HT and SR as well, so I’m familiar with what they will do. I’m working primarily with Raw Sugar washes and some fruits an veggies.

I don’t understand the bit about returning column bottoms to the boiler. Why not pump them back to the top of column 1. That’s what plenty of big operator old school continuous rig have done for decades. Honestly maybe it better to just have a separate simple stripping column setup and a second. finishing setup. Hell I don’t know. I’m confused.

I’ve been looking for some solutions myself. I’ve got all the parts (except the water valve) to make an automatic valve control and element control but haven’t put it together yet. I decided to use PID controller and some relays. I had looked at a non electric temperature control valve like these below but thy are pricey and seemed kind of arbitrary in adjustment and not overly quantifiable. https://m.grainger.com/mobile/category/temperature-regulator-valves/pressure-and-temperature-control-valves/plumbing-valves/plumbing/ecatalog/N-rgv?searchFlag=Browse maybe Highlander will share more about his valves, I’m always looking for cool solutions.

Is there an ethanol safety resource I could find? I need to do up a fire and safety plan for the distillery.

How do we contact you, how much are you asking, why are you selling it, how old is it? How much use does it have? thanks Steve

What sort of pump would you recommend? I guess I always just got stuck on the “meterable and adjustable flow” features for the peristaltic as well as the natural antibackflow and self priming aspects of it that I never really considered another option. One of those little air diaphragm pumps everyone uses for moving high proof, used with a decent regulator might be just fine i guess.

The pricing on peristaltic pumps makes one want to do about anything else...

Maybe one could manage a “column bottom thumper” with a simple drain valve and a sight window. When it got to high just drain it and move on with life. this again begs the question (as I still dont get this) why even bother with the RC at top of second column? Would it just send too many liquids to the bottom of second? Is this where we start seeing the losses southernhighlander mentions? In my brain I’m insulating the crossover pipe really well, and REALLY sending good vibes to the column. @southernhighlander. Funny you mentioned the lower reflux setting on #1, I was thinking it would want to be set to ~180-190 ish just to push stuff thru the bottoms on #2. But then you lose a lot of rectification available from #1. Tough balancing act it seems. (BTW you have an impressive set of accomplishments you should be proud of and your passion for this stuff more than makes up for any imagined lack of “education” one might normally get in a university. Press on brother) Someone oughta invent a horizontal rectifier... Anyway, I hope Adam can make a few small changes and get more speed. He seems to have the equipment to do it, just needs some minor tweaking before spending a few grand.

I’d guess that you’d add a reflux condenser at the top of each. Product processes thru ten plates and passes a reflux. Vapor goes into second column purified thru ten plates then proceeds up ten more plates and a reflux condenser. Ideally the downcomings from the bottom plate second column would be pumped up to top plate first column. My question is... what happens if you let those second column bottoms accumulate like a thumper? Does it slow everything down, or does it make no real difference assuming it has enough room to be reheated by incoming vapor? I would think that if you had enough space for the bottoms to accumulate and have the vapor run thru them that they would eventually balance. That begs the question as to if you even need the first reflux condenser then? Does anyone have any actual daily production experience with this? I’m weak on fluid dynamics, my engineering degree is in construction engineering and from a country that no longer exists. I wish I had taken more chemistry!!

It’s be real easy to put those plates on the bottom and loosen up those scrubbies. Check out the packings I list above. I’m working on a continuous stripper just now and those seemed to float to the top as good candidates for speed. Particularly intalox ultra. Second choice would be the metal cascade mini rings which will be cheaper. On sizing my thoughts are to keep it around 1/2” but I’ve yet to talk with anyone knowledgeable about a 4” application.

Jeebers that thing is sexy. What’s the gallons per hour take off speed like?

Adamovd. When I say sequential I mean 2 separate columns plumbed together. First one feeds the bottom of the second. If you had 10 plates per column you’d have a 20 plate still. You need 2 reflux condensers tho. You can get at least 50% more flow out of that thing pretty easy. Just dick around with the packing and configuration a bit and see what works. Some perf plates have holes that are too small. Unfiltered wash can cause blockages, and Standard bubble caps are a dead end if you want more speed tho.

Yes to all except it’s a 37 gallon actual charge and my proof. As above, typically I average 91-93.5%abv. We normally don’t run full heat. Max seems to be around 14500w input. Proof on strip run is ~40%. If the run is too foamy speed slows but we are managing that pretty well these days. These are sugar wash. Note that we only use that much power during stripping in pot still mode for spirit runs we are at around 9000w max power is reserved for heat up cycle only Normally we try for for three strips a 8 hour shift. Usually about 2:40 per run from start to finish. Foaming will cut us to two strips.

Adamovd. I run a 4” myself but we are able to pull off 7.5 liters an hour average over a spirit run and 25l per hour on a stripping run. Actual take off varies between 9l and 5l per hour. The similarities between our setups are are as follows: - I have to do a stripping run then a second spirit run - 3 element input (16500w) - 140l boiler - 4” column around 6.5’ or 2m tall of rectification. - similar take off proof (93.5%) The operative differences that allow me to go faster than you are: - 12” reflux condenser - extra product precondenser - my boiler is wider so it provides more surface area to create vapor without cavitation causing foaming and flooding - I use 11 pro-cap plates which allow much faster vapor speeds and more efficient rectification per plate than perf or bubble cap plates. I found packed sections to be way too slow even if they gave more theoretical rectification. The gains in proof came thru massive loss of production. - Im able to run at 9000 watts input power consistently I’ve tried many different configurations to speed the system up and based on my experiments here’s what I think you could do to your cost effectively to increase production. - if you can’t move to procap plates then change up your column packing to some random column packing like metal cascade mini rings or Intalox ultra or maybe even a 12mm helipack. These will allow higher vapor flow rates and more efficient rectification per surface area than scrubbies or ceramic packing. Your HETP will increase but so will your speed. - mixing plates and packing in the same refluxed column is a speed killer. At the very least swap the plates to the bottom to see if that helps - if you need to do two columns then run a sequential two column design not a parallel two column you’ll be a bit more limited in overall flow POTENTIAL but you’ll gain it back in quality and real world speed once you get it dialed in - you MIGHT be able to do the “two sequential columns” thing where the first column was procaps with a big reflux condenser then the second was packing. Not sure how that would work but I think they need similar flows. - add 10-12” of empty open pipe at the bottom of your column or decrease boiler fill level. This gives expansion space for foam and bubbles to form and collapse when you push the power up. Honestly i get your thought process here. I do. I don’t think it’s the most cost effective solution. I think the columns would need to be evenly spaced from the boiler output at a minimum. If not it’ll get all wonky and will probably make shit worse I think the most cost effective and cheapest low risk option to increase production would be to change out your entire column to Intalox ultra random packing and give it a little head space in between the boiler and the bottom of the packing. Maybe just under fill the boiler by 8-10” SERIOUSLY THESE TWO THINGS SHOULD ALMOST DOUBLE YOUR FLOW RATE After that the real solution would be switching up to a 6” procap column and reflux condenser as your most simple and flexible option. That should get you to 10-12 liters an hour. I’m not kidding about procaps, they are legendary Give Larry at still dragon a call. He’s pretty switched on with these sorts of things. And he’ll even tell you what’s good if he can’t sell something to you.

I’m not molasses guy but aren’t there something like 20+% of the sugars unfermentable? seems to me like most guys are at around 1.090 start gravity and ferment down to 1.020.

I’ve stored in all sorts of buckets and hose containers for years. Not even all of them being food grade. I’ve don’t have problems if the container was clean. There have ave been some I had that contained soap and even after incessant and meticulous washing it would throw soap smell into a spirit. So hdpe can hold odors and even colors but if they were clean and new to begin with it shouldn’t be a problem. My rule is “if after I clean it and rinse it really well, I can detect any odors, keep cleaning and rinsing or use another”

I’ve always wondered if one could dig a well that produced enough cool water then drill a second bore hole away from it a bit. Then pump cold water out of the one and I used hot water into the other. That way you replenish the ground water and get cold water.

As an American living and doing business overseas I get a lot of hassle on the FLIPSIDE of these problems! Seems like I can’t pay half the vendors I want to buy from and the rest are super cautious. My primary method of transferring erring funds is wire transfer. Lots of businesses are unfamiliar with this and get kinda freaked out providing me with their account info (it’s 100% normal in the rest of the world BTW). This leaves credit cards. These are incredibly difficult to get a visa/mc based card in Fiji and actually requires owning real estate or providing a deposit equivalent to credit limit. Once you get one issued the headache really begins! Daily calls for authorization to spend etc. the worst is I can’t spend in most USA vendors unless they force it thru manually because we have no zip codes in Fiji. So from my end end it’s very difficult to do business with people who have little experience with overseas transactions. My advice? Don’t be afraid of a wire transfer and just wait for the funds to hit. That’s normal and very very low risk to you. The sender assumes all risk actually.

Pressure washer?

Illegal where? There is a whole planet worth of freedom outside the USA. Further, this is a third party’s video about their product. Try to relax a bit. Life will suck less.

I’m the same. Like the use of the term “patent still”. I actually had to look it up! He means a continuous still apparently. I beleive its it’s because he may have little hands on experience and is coming at his project from a “book knowledge “ perspective?

Appeals to tradition usually make me laugh. While I certainly enjoy studying traditional methods and means and even own a few great traditional tools across the various trades I’ve studied, they are almost always made better with application of new technology and knowledge. Sure, I might like a Brown Bess musket and respect her place in history and her capabilities but even in that same form factor I can now have better barrel steel, stronger lock and trigger, better more efficient projectiles, cleaner faster powders, better sighting systems, and stronger more durable stocks. In every way I can make that new rifle perform like an old one, if I wanted, but now it’s capable of so much more. Understand how and why it was done and what the effects were, but then apply that knowledge with better tools. That said, the emotional experience I get shooting a 200year old musket could never be replaced with an AR-15.

Wow! Basically this is observed as evaporation of the spirit? Or is this a hazard of ignition?

My admittedly simple understanding of this (partially from my days in construction) is that you need a 40f temp difference to get condensation. So the short and simple answer is: - the bigger the condenser the less flow you will need and will allow warmer water. - assuming 170f vapor temp and a giant condenser, absolute max theoretical cooling water temp would be ~130f we run 80f cooling water all day and flow maybe 3 gal/min to the RC AND PC combined. And I’m inputting 9000w and pulling off 80f product.

Brother, I tried calling you several times last week with no luck. Seems like when I’m workin you ain’t! Time differences are a thing when I’m working in Fiji. Lol hope to see you up and around soon. I’m keen to learn about your continuous systems, steam generators and maybe that vacuum system your talking about. Ill warn you that a strong USD and bank theft are real serious factors for us but nothing that can’t be overcome with some creative thinking. I’m a Montana transplant so I prefer to stick with ‘murrican sources when it’s doable. what's the best way to catch you these days?