Skaalvenn

5 hours ago, bluefish_dist said:

Sugar washes which include rum without a lot of molasses tend to crash on ph.  That can make them stop early.  You really need to watch ph and keep it above 4 ish.  Add calcium carbonate or other bases to increase ph.  

Rum should easily go from 1.10 to 1.02 ish in 10-14 days with proper nutrients and ph control and 85-90 deg temps. 

Bluefish is right. A pH meter is an essential tool if you want a distillery that makes money.

It could also be  done fermenting due to the unfermentable sugars in molasses. I have had molasses that wouldn't ferment below 1.035 from a 1.090 start. I thought it was stuck, added heat, added nutrients, added yeast and nothing happened. So as a final test I added raw sugar and it fired off again for an hour or two, so the answer was the molasses.

Thanks! This is exactly what we are looking for as well.

Is anyone here from the north where tap water is 45-50 degrees in winter? Wondering if one unit will be enough at decent flow rate, or if I'll have to run two in series.

That's why I said the grain I was transferring.

I am curious though, why would a centrifugal pump wear out with corn? 

We've been running 1.5" , centrifugal pumps, with grain in (wheat) for nearly 4 years without issue.  We always agitate before pumping to make sure the hose doesn't clog with grain bed.

Are the hoops not solid tight on the filled barrels? Were they not tight when fresh from the factory?  That would be a major, major, problem.

I don't understand why one would want or need a panel attached to, or immediately next to the still. I had mine mounted about 30' away and it's not a hassle to use.

On 11/25/2018 at 1:08 PM, Grant said:

Web sight for filter bag.

http://www.albaxinc.com/products/filtration-products/sludge-disposal-bags

Thanks.

I called and ordered up a couple bags ($30 each).  Unfortunately, they just don't work for our process.  We mill wheat to a very course flour with a lot of fines, and then ferment and distill on the grain.  We found that the pores in the bag instantly clogged and after 24 hours only a few gallons of liquid was collected (we had it suspended over an IBC with the top removed)

We tried poking holes in the bag and that helped, but the problem is that the grain clogs the holes very quickly.

What ultimately worked the best was waiting for the grain to fully settle and then poking holes above the grain bed and decanting the liquid off.  However, doing that means there's no point in using the filter bag at all.  We tried holes ranging in size from about 1mm to about 5mm and if there's any grain, they clog.

Back to the drawing board, at least for us...

We use malic acid

You want to hit the sweet spot for the specific enzyme you are using, both for temperature, pH, and efficiency without denaturing. As the chemical reactions and breakdowns/conversions take place you will have fluctuations in your pH. It's normal to add acid at multiple times throughout a mash.

Your other enzymes might also work well over long periods of time (throughout the fermentation) and the pH will probably get into their effective range.  Keep in mind that if you drop your pH too low, when the yeast kick off you'll need to raise it up to avoid stressing/killing the yeast.

132 pages...

Our old floor was sealed with just regular sealant, and any alcohol splashes softened and removed the sealant.  It was also a pain to squeegee clean as the surface wasn't completely smooth.

Our new floor we had professionally ground, cracks filled, reground, polished (to feeling smooth by hand, not gloss) and sealed.  I wouldn't have it any other way.  It was about $3 per square foot, but well worth it.

Hmm I'd like to try a bag.  We have trouble finding farmers who will take liquid spent grains.  Do you know where I could find them online?  Thanks!

4 hours ago, Patio29Dadio said:

Largest boiler vendor in the state. 

That's why, they probably do a lot of public jobs.

You're better off finding the old guy who's been doing boilers for 20+ years, who doesn't advertise (gets all his business off referrals), and who only has a couple employees.

Just call a different company and get another quote.

Businesses overbid projects all the time, and for a variety of reasons. Sometimes because they think the job is going to be a PITA, or just not worth their time. Sometimes because they are already busy and want jobs that really bring in the cash, sometimes because they just want to sub it out. The list goes on.

Does this business do boilers of this size/scope regularly, or are they putting boilers in +million square foot buildings?

I have a Genio 250.

Pro: Makes a great vodka. Inexpensive.

Con: doesn't seem like the company is interested in updating the firmware, there's a lot to be desired with it.  Run times are longer than they state on the website. In it's factory form it will use ridiculous amounts of water each day. Automated heads cut is basically garbage from my experience, I do it manually. 

Would I buy one again? If I was on the same budget as before, yes. Today? Probably not.

Other than initial price I can't think of a single advantage that baine Marie has.

I've been running electric baine marie for almost 4 years, initially with heating oil but now with propylene glycol, which seems to work better.

It got me started, it has made some fine spirits, but the slow startup time and high cost to run ($900 monthly electric bills) mean that it's time that I suck it up and upgrade to steam.

4 hours ago, Falling Rock said:

A pallet of glass bottles will be 700 to 1,000lbs. A pallet of bagged grain will be 1,000 - 1,200 lbs. A pallet of sugar or super sack of grain will be 2,000+.

We use a full size Kubota tractor, with forklift attachment and break it down going into the door.

We're a little higher than that.

Empty glass is about 1200 for our bottles, bagged grain is about 2,000, and a super sack can get up to 3,000.

I have used a 2,000lb rated Big Joe stacker for the last 2 years, but I was previously in a dock-height space and am now on ground level.  It's been a life saver, but it can also be a real headache outdoors while loading and unloading semis.

Pallet Stacker Pros:

• Much smaller size and turning radius than a sit down forklift
• Inexpensive
• Can be manually pushed around a little bit (great for when you need to nudge it an inch or two)

Pallet Stacker Cons:

• 2,000lb limit means it's really struggling at 1900lbs, and at 2,000lbs you are worried if it will even lift.  a 3500lb triple mast forklift is rated to lift 3500lbs all the way up.
• It is meant for indoor use on flat concrete, if you have a heavy pallet in the air it will stall or get hung up on any dips or rises in the surface. Gravel? not a chance.
• Nearly zero torque. You can not push heavy pallets that extra nudge into a truck, nor can you drag one out of a truck.
• No tilt or side shift. If you grab a pallet out of a truck it needs to be perfectly centered on the stacker or else the pallet will hit one of the forward legs on the way down.
• Much slower to load/unload semis than a sit down forklift.

Thankfully my next door neighbors have a big forklift, and I have a key to their space. My expense to use it is a couple cases of beer each month.

Glad to see you back, and I can't wait to have you be my insurance man again!

I've been with Aaron since the day I called him up saying "I'm thinking of starting a distillery but want to know how much insurance might be?". He's always been there for us when I had a question or issue.

19 minutes ago, Patio29Dadio said:

On the Novatech.com sight and finding certified hydrometers for around $70 but the certified thermometers are $250+.  Do I have that right?

Correct.  You'll get a slip of paper with the hydrometer that states what the correction you need to apply is.  I've had some come back saying they are as much as 1/10 of a proof off.

You need a permit. No question about it (my job in the Air Force involves responding to HAZMAT incidents, as well as identifying and entering confined spaces--so I'm fairly well versed).

A fermentation vessel indeed Has the potential to contain a hazardous atmosphere (CO2). There is really no arguing against that, and it's very unlikely you'll win that argument against an OSHA inspector.  These rules are carefully written and spelled out clearly as to avoid interpretation which could result in deaths.

http://halmapr.com/news/crowcon/2013/07/22/co2-gas-hazards-in-the-brewing-industry/

Quote

Just last year in Germany, which has a good safety record, two workers died in separate incidents at the same brewery.

In the first incident, the owner was found dead with his head and torso in a beer mixing tank. It is thought that, after bottling and subsequent cleaning, the owner had leaned in to check the container and was overcome by CO2. 10 months later in the same brewery a worker was found dead in a pressure tank used to recirculate wheat beer. He had probably forgotten to fit a yeast plug and had leaned into the tank – which was already pressurised with CO2 – to fit one. He was found up to his hips in the container and had been poisoned – probably in seconds – due to the high concentration of CO2.

https://www.osha.gov/Publications/osha3138.html
https://www.brewersassociation.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Confined-Space-Power-Hour.pdf

I think we can all agree that your grain costs and I'll go up, heh,  significantly,  if you don't use malt or enzymes.

Don't take it as an insult; but it's like asking if your still will be cheaper to run if you don't heat it.

We might be selling a 4 spout Xpressfill in a few weeks. It's not gravity, but figure I'd toss it out there.  PM me if interested.

I don't have one for sale, but I do have a Genio.  It's a nice unit for making vodka, but they don't seem to have much interest in firmware updates to allow greater functionality and/or user control--which is frustrating.

If you get one be advised that you will want water re-circulation or some other option other than tap water. Due to the (IMO poorly designed) head and condenser, the 250L unit requires around 80GPH of water during the run, and a run can take 10-11 hours. It runs really really slowly during the first few hours and there's no manual control to speed that portion up. If you were running it 5 days a week on tap water, you would easily use over 15,000 gallons of water in a month just for cooling a 65 gallon still.

We recently switched our aquavit from redistilling GNS, filtering and then flavoring/aging to just filtering then flavoring aging Why? I was never able to get a single drop of heads or tails out of it even when my still produces just under 192 @ 60 degrees on a calibrated and certified hydrometer. I don't have much experience with GNS but at least with the stuff I use there are no heads or tails.

It's 2018 and we are all well aware that we should be conserving energy--not wasting it.  I saw running GNS through the still as a waste of natural resources and think doing so to put  "distilled" on the label rather than "produced" is one of the most ridiculous and wasteful things one could ever do.

(note: I totally understand the requirement to redistill GNS for any type of vapor or pot infused product.)