Skaalvenn

1 hour ago, kelbor said:

Did you go forward and reverse?

It's rated for doing that, no? The owners manual states it is reversible

1 hour ago, kelbor said:

Did you lubricate it?

.The owners manual only mentions lubricating the shaft on re-assembly of the pump head.

1 hour ago, kelbor said:

Run full speed? 

The owners manual states it can run up to 1750RPM, so yes, but not typically that high as we wanted to avoid premature wear.

25 minutes ago, Sudzie said:

What were you pumping????  I might be interested.

Wheat mash and rum wash.

I just picked up a new jabsco from a distillery liquidation and I also have experienced the same problem. I just pulled the impeller and this is how it looks after 2-3 hours of use.

https://imgur.com/a/2NE7vCZ

If someone wants a deal on a 1.5" triclamp jabsco pump with VFD on a SS cart, please PM me. Otherwise it will be on eBay shortly.

8 hours ago, Black Creek said:

I pitch as close to 100 as I can get. I start yeast in a bucket until cake forms then pitch. Within a day it is rolling. Active all the way thru fermentation. It is about to be in the high 90's to 100's here on the daily in summer so if the next ferment shortens that should tell me what's up. Might have to coil some copper and make an immersion heater to see if it helps. Was planning on doing that this winter any way, lol. Perhaps another yeast? Slow ferment has been giving good results in spirit but I have distributors knocking on my door now so I need to increase my productivity in order for wholesale to make fiscal sense. Next step is adding a stripping still to match my fermenters. That should double my efficiency as far as time goes. Thanks.

Hmm.

Are you oxygenating the wash?  You don't need to pump in oxygen, but vigorous action to dissolve oxygen into the tank might help (yeast need oxygen at the beginning in order to make more yeast).  I've talked to some distillers that try to boil off chlorine, which also reduces dissolved oxygen and that can result in slow ferment.  I don't have the greatest understanding of yeast, but everything I've heard says they need oxygen to divide, and once oxygen is depleted then they start creating alcohol.

I would imagine panela has plenty of nutrients, but you could try adding some.  If you're already adding, you could try using less or none at all (I'd try either option in a much smaller batch first).

Also, what gravity readings are you seeing throughout the ferment?

5 hours ago, Black Creek said:

Starting gravity 1.07, 17 brix, 200 grams yeast into 130 gallons water which fills fermenter to 150 gallon mark after adding panella at just over 2lbs per gallon

That SG should be spot on. Your yeast is a bit light, but you shouldn't have as bad of a problem.  I haven't used RM in a couple years, but I think 84 might be a little too low? Try it in the low 90s and see what happens.  Do you add your yeast to warm or cold water?  We pitch our yeast at around 95.

Does it take off? You should have good action within a few hours of pitch.

2 hours ago, Black Creek said:

Excellent thread. I have not used fresh press but do intend to in the future. Right now I am using panella and no nutrient. I have used distillivite with distillimaxrm previously and between the two I do not see any difference in ferment times. I am in Florida so the warehouse is nice and warm. Ferment stays about 84 degrees give or take. Right now my ferment takes over two weeks after which I clean sediment from wash and run. I keep daily checks on brix, sg, temp, ph. ph stays over 4. How are the rest of you getting 5-6 day ferments?

What starting gravity are you at?  How much yeast into how much wash?

We go from 1.080 to dry (1.015 to 1.025 depending on molasses amount) in about 30 hours.  2 weeks is way too long.

Xpress fill is nice, but noisy. I don't believe there's any reason to have the gas option with spirits.

We now have 2 different 6 spout fillers but still use the 4 spout Xpress for small runs as cleaning is super simple. If I'm only doing a couple hundred bottles of a flavored spirit it's not worth the time to break down and clean the 6 spout.

If Xpress could make a 6 or 8 spout I'd be all over that.

That sounds insane to me. Does that include any consulting time for once the course is over?

Dehner is right that not everyone is going to have the same setup.  While it's nice to get a feel for what running a distillery is like, one of the biggest problems people encounter are the million simple questions along the way that can add up to serious money and time. Which hoses to buy? Which connectors? Which pumps? Which filler to start with? Which labeler? Are my suppliers giving me a fair price? Do I need to buy this thing? Can I get by without that thing? Should I lay out the facility like this?

I'm just a few hours north of Dehner. You can follow me around for a week at $3125 and then follow him around for the second week. I'm not kidding, you'll probably learn more and I'm sure both of us would happily include some phone time afterwards to answer some questions you have along the way.

We have a 250L. Makes good vodka, but at a ridiculously slow pace.

2 hours ago, Silk City Distillers said:

I'd replace it with something that looks like this.

Or maybe something like this if a display is necessary.

My Mash and Fermentation controllers are based on this one though, I'm partial to this brand, it's a great system.  You just connect the wires to where they need to go, and it goes.  It has a nice little web server HMI built in, so you can access it from anything with a browser.  Plenty of SCADA/Failsafe capabilities too, alerting/messaging, etc. 

 

Tried sending you a PM but I think your inbox is full.  Any suggestions for where to start on creating a remotely accessable monitoring system?  Not looking to automate anything at this time, just send the still's data to a couple different screens/devices.

Thanks!

I think our electric price is right around $0.14 to $0.15 per kilowatt hour.  With a 125 gallon capacity stripping still and a 65 gallon finishing still our electric bill was hitting $1,000 per month without running the air conditioner or a lot of other expensive machinery.

We are just upgrading to steam, and I'm expecting our electrical savings to be around $600 to $700 per month (not to mention labor!).  So, running gas lines and installing a boiler might be expensive, but how much of that would be offset by reducing your electric bill?

The added bonus of steam is that I had the system plumbed so that adding a second still or mash tun is going to be a ridiculously easy install compared to adding another electric still.

The brick and mortar business side is fairly easy. Assets, debts, and revenue can all be figured out by an accountant or business broker as others suggested.

The hard part is if the actual brand/trademarks/IP are worth anything. Most are not (despite what the owners believe), but some can valuable if you find the right buyer.

56 minutes ago, Silk City Distillers said:

Why?

I'm also curious. Seems odd.

I spoke to someone there who answered the phone as doctor so and so and asked them about their products. Said I was looking for the most amount of fermentable sugars, the least ash and other non-fermentables, and that's the product that doctor so and so recommended.

I took their advice, and regret it.  Thankfully it was only a single tote.

4 hours ago, bluestar said:

Which SS molasses did you use for that, #10, #100, or #150?

Their "distillers grade".

Those who have used multiple systems, what are a few things that you like/dislike about the systems you have used?

I've only used Hoochware, and I like it...but it's also all I know.  I will say that I've talked to the owner a dozen or so times, and met him at the ACSA, and he's a great guy.

8 hours ago, Aux Arc said:

I can put my head around using them for a stripping still but are people actually using them for a finishing still and if so, what or how do the cuts occur?

Exact same way a petroleum plant cracks crude into it's different grades of fuel. Google some YouTube videos, it's all about flow, temperature control and having a good design. If you have all of those you can know exactly which plates are pulling heads/hearts/tails.

Not all molasses is the same. I've had some 100% molasses runs end at around 1.015 and I've had some utterly garbage stuff (double s is the company) that wouldn't go below 1.040 (adding a few pounds of sugar restarted the ferment so I know it wasn't a nutrient or yeast issue).

Hoover food grade stainless IBCs. You can purchase or lease them. Leasing is a very economical way to start.

Some videos

This first one doesn't denonstrate correct shaft placement. They simply put it off center yet still vertical and say "see".

This second video actually shows the correct placement, and it's very easy to see that it works much better than the other placements.

12 hours ago, nabtastic said:

I don’t have a mash tun so pardon my ignorance- we make booze from fresh sugarcane juice. Somebody care to explain why the direction of force matters regarding the spin direction? 

Because a mixer in a cylindrical vessel shouldn't be straight down and in the middle. It should be offset and angled with the mixing blades pushing the liquid down, not up.

A vertical shaft in the middle of a cylinder will be prone to vortex, which can easily cause the shaft to wobble and potentially fail, and it will also not mix efficiently. Some manufacturers will put little blades on the sides of the tank to stop the vortex and to promote better mixing --but it's a solution to the problem of poor engineering.  A vertical system will also want to spin the liquid, and once it's spinning with the shaft the mixing blades won't cause as much turbulence since their speed relative to the liquid has gone down dramatically.

Mixing blades that are "pulling up" typically won't mix that well, and you'll probavly get a terrible amount of surface splashing (remember, there's a jet of fluid coming from the blades).

The direction the shaft spins isn't important as long as the entire system is made to spin that direction.

So, multiple reasons.

3 hours ago, Southernhighlander said:

If they did have any residual smell, a good cleaning with caustic soda will take care of it,  I have sold a huge number of used totes over the years.  I purchased a bunch from oil drillers after the drop in oil prices.  They had had soap, gasoline, diesel fuel, lubricants and other chemicals in them.  We washed them out with soapy water then cleaned with caustic, then diluted citric, more soapy water and then a good rinse and we through away the contaminated nylon ball valves and replaced them with sanitary valves.  Many of them had agitators added to them.  I sold 3 that had had  gasoline in them that I placed agitators on and sold to a distillery that uses them to blend cream liqueurs.  They worked great and as far as I know are still being used for that purpose.  There was not even the faintest hint of any smell when we were done with them and I drank water that came of one myself and could not detect anything.

I'd never feel comfortable re-purposing an item which previously held a toxic material, I also don't think it's legal to do.

https://www.fda.gov/downloads/Food/GuidanceRegulation/RetailFoodProtection/FoodCode/UCM374510.pdf

7-203.11 Poisonous or Toxic Material Containers
A container previously used to store POISONOUS OR TOXIC MATERIALS may not be used to store, transport or dispense FOOD.

Duratherm.

https://durathermfluids.com/

They have food safe high temperature transfer fluids as well (in case there's a leak).

I couldn't imagine starting that small and making it.

We started with a 150g electric, added a 60g electric finishing still, and are adding another 100g electric still as just a temporary patch for now until we do steam.

The problems with electric are that it's hard to just buy a bigger still without buying all new electric components from the breakers all the way to the still, that is all expensive.  Then there's the slow heat up times, I sometimes spend 6 hours of my longer days (3 runs) just waiting for the damn thing to heat up.  Then there's the cost of electricity where $1000 electric bills for a small distillery are completely normal.

Yes smaller electric stills got us started, yes it works, but it's a major hurdle to expand and buy ALL new equipment since we initially couldn't afford steam.

And for the record, we're a small, bootstrapped distillery located in a suburb of Minneapolis where rent is cheap, overhead is low, and we have great distribution. I could not fathom trying to pay all the bills, let alone profit enough to grow,  with a small still.

50 minutes ago, Southernhighlander said:

Have you ever thought of using the hot water from your stills condensers?  

 

We did this in the past on smaller runs, but we usually have about about 40-60gph of cool water circulating through the still so it would take 8 hours of running (not realistic) to fill a mash tun (and the water would cool substantially in that time).  Also, if I can mash 8 hours quicker, I can distill it 8 hours quicker.  Those hours add up over the months.