captnKB

Hi @Darren Bobby welcome to the forums. Lots of good stuff to be learned here 

Can you post some pictures of the still?

the folks at Balcones are often selling barrels, not sure if they still do 5 gal barrels, but worth asking them

take the medal and put it to use. Talk it up. Very few consumers of buyers are aware of how a competition works and that medal regardless of color to most people is a sign that the spirits are good. 

You can reasonably expect 3 proof gallons per bushel from malted barley. This will be highly dependent on your cuts and quality of fermentation

any welds that are thinning out in your still are best repaired by either TIG welding or brazing. Silver solder will degrade very quickly.

@KEL Ive help and handled start up for quite a few distilleries and can help you with some of your business planning and forescasting.

Shoot me an email Distillerynow@gmail.com

 @molassesman can probably help you get what you need.

If you get a fedex license for shipping alcohol you should not have problems shipping spirits to any legit competition in the US

Hi Alan,

Welcome to the forum. Minneapolis is a great city to start up in. If you need any help with your venture I provide affordable distillery consulting that can help in all aspects of your distillery from recipes, equipment planning to reporting. Best of luck and if you need some help drop me a line.

Cheers,

---KB       Distillerynow@gmail.com

id agree with @adamOVD . a properly pitched ferment with a small aquarium heater should have no problem finshing the ferment at the desired temp

@bbegotka welcome to the forum, I do distillery planning and consulting, if you need any help in planning your distillery or want to do an affordable hands on distillery training shoot me an email. Cheers, --KB Distillerynow@gmail.com

@Silk City Distillers is right. Running a mash tun twice the size of your still is far more efficient than a tun sized to your still or smaller

@WayneT if you need some help in planning I do distillery consulting and would be happy to help you.  Drop me a line at Distillerynow@gmail.com

Cheers,  -KB

most but not all continuous column stills are designed for grain in distillation. This means a on the grain bourbon wash can be sent through a column grain and all.

One of the essential steps in running this type of wash through a continuous column is that it must be throughly mixed, as solid chunks of grain or yeast can easily clog up the system.

a properly built (sealed up) mill and auger system will generate very little dust. If you are building a big operation you will need dust collection but most smaller systems generate very little dust

Hi @Rookie the answer to all your questions are going vary widely depending on who you talk to and where they operate. 

Your first question, I could write you a long story to answer it, would be a much better phone discussion

For water treatment, this will depend on the input from your local water authorities. I have run distilleries where I had to carefully control our waste water and treat it. ive also run distilleries where we did not treat our waste water at all

Same the answer to the last question. Yes and No 

If you need some help getting a distillery going and need help clearing regulation hurdles, please email me Distillerynow@gmail.com and I can share my experiences with you and help you work through them.

Make sure they are the right species of Juniper. There are several kinds of juniper and most of them do not make good gin.

@Bakery87 im no longer in Texas. These days I operate in Arizona. Best of luck with the City of Austin. If you hit any tough hurdles, let me know and ill help you out.

@Bakery87 welcome to the forum. I know Austin well as I built Still Austin Whiskey Co. The city of Austin can be pretty difficult with regulations, If you need any help getting your distillery going drop me a line.

Distillerynow@gmail.com

can you post some pictures?

@SlickFloss are you asking about the continuous column systems built by carl or one of their batch systems?

I have not run a Carl column but I know continuous stills extremely well and can help you out.

Drop me a line Distillerynow@gmail.com and lets chat.

BSG

amoretti has several excellent options

any issues with the fermentors? leaks? or problems with them?

If you can completely seal up you mash tun so that it has zero vapor leak , then you should be to modify it to be able to use it as a still.

I have seen many pieces of dairy equipment converted into stills over the years that work well enough.

With that said I would encourage you to work with someone who has experience in fabrication and can recommend the right equipment and safety reliefs so that if you build your mash tun into a still it is safe to operate