Running Gin in continues still

[DMDistilling]

Hey everyone, someone here know how works the process of gin in continuous still, its neccesary it goes in dymethalizer or not ?  

[Silk City Distillers]

I would imagine the easiest way to produce gin in a continuous still would be to take your final alcohol as vapor, as close as possible to your intended final proof, and pass that through a carter-head style vapor extraction process before condensing..

That said, I don't know of many people doing this today, if at all.

I've experimented with this process myself, and have found that the ratio of water/ethanol in the vapor feed to the carter head is absolutely critical in getting the right flavor profile for extraction.  Passing azeotropic ethanol vapor through botanicals will not yield an ideal extraction - meaning one that is comparable to traditional batch distillation - water vapor is CRITICAL.  My approach was to vaporize a combination of two liquid streams - one of ethanol and one of ro/di water, and pass that through a reloadable basket.  I used metering pumps to control liquid flow rates to be able to dial in exactly the vapor abv concentration desired.

Spend enough time running gin on a batch rig and you'll start to get a good sense of flavor profile over time, which is partially *influenced* by the change in vapor abv through the run. 

It's also not necessarily a "continuous" process, as you will likely need to reload botanicals multiple times through the run, based on the volume of your carter head/basket.

All that said, the approach can create very small footprint gin machine capable of an astronomical production rate.

[SlickFloss]

If you’re quoting dm you have likely thought about getting or are talking about  or have used a HF. Drop me a line if this is the case I can help you 
 

continuous gin distillation is definitely possible but difficult for reasons listed above. Will take tremendous skill as an operator to match batch specs. Definitely possible though. If you’re talking about a HF your gin basket should bypass c4 for product out, if it doesn’t you have a shitty version and should replumb it. If that’s the case hit me up I can walk you through what we did to ours. 
 

cheers 

slick

[JustAndy]

I don't know anyone who has used one, but Detroit Stillworks (https://detroitstillworks.com/) had a continuous gin basket setup at the trade shows 5+ years ago. 

[DMDistilling]

On 7/12/2022 at 7:36 AM, SlickFloss said:

If you’re quoting dm you have likely thought about getting or are talking about  or have used a HF. Drop me a line if this is the case I can help you 
 

continuous gin distillation is definitely possible but difficult for reasons listed above. Will take tremendous skill as an operator to match batch specs. Definitely possible though. If you’re talking about a HF your gin basket should bypass c4 for product out, if it doesn’t you have a shitty version and should replumb it. If that’s the case hit me up I can walk you through what we did to ours. 
 

cheers 

slick

hey slickFloss, I haven't quote and I don't have that one I'm just designing mine but investigating HF, I understood, they just have one small pipe connected to c4 could you explain to me for what is that pipe of 1/2 inch I would say and why gin doesn't going through in the dymethalizer?, in which part of the process they get out the methanol, thanks mate have a good day

[SlickFloss]

20 hours ago, DMDistilling said:

hey slickFloss, I haven't quote and I don't have that one I'm just designing mine but investigating HF, I understood, they just have one small pipe connected to c4 could you explain to me for what is that pipe of 1/2 inch I would say and why gin doesn't going through in the dymethalizer?, in which part of the process they get out the methanol, thanks mate have a good day

Absolutely 100 buddy! disclaimer I can only speak to our machine which is heavily modified from others of the same version, so I’ll try to stick to basics and as delivered operation in order to accurately convey the premise.
 

So running an HF you would want to do two runs if you’re making your own GNS or one run if your redistilling sourced GNS.

Your first run would be mash through c1 with your solenoids set to enable functionality in c2 and c3, which at the end of the day are really just one large split column. Vapor would leave c3 and enter the demethylzer to be cleaned up. In the Hf dm set up you feed 3/4 of the way up the column as a hot liquid, you distill your heads out the top and reflux the booze and heads you want back down the column to the sump where there’s a heating coil. Anything down in the sump revolatilizes from the coil there and seeps out into the final product condenser from the port on the back of the unit about 1/8th of the way up the unit (very near the sump). A lot of tinkering with your heads condensor cooling flow rates and c3 controls will get you to azeotrope out of the product out. Untuned it will likely be right around 160-186.

Assuming you were able to tune and pull azeotrope (or you’re redistilling sourced GNS) it’s now time to make gin. Dilute your GNS down to 8/9/10 abv and re run into column 1. It’ll go through the same path but this time in gin mode your solenoids will be set to send it to the gin basket instead of the dm. There’s two gin baskets on the back you can switch back and forth on for multiple recipes or larger runs of same botanicals. Can tune the proof to hit desired flavor profile of extract all at one, don’t reccomend azeotrope though. 
 

There’s a very easy modification where you can swap some plumbing out to bypass the final product hx directly to gin basket and then through the final product condensor. It’s simple but it’s aftermarket, this allows for gin single pass. Given the extremely limited amount of copper in the original design of the one we purchased I’d recommend modifying to add additional copper or just doing the two runs for additional copper contact. 

So to answer your actual question gin isn’t going through the dm in my unit as delivered by them because it’s already been distilled once through the dm, and botanical extraction is in second pass. I do have a bypass that enables the functionality you mention though. 
 

just my .02! If you’re building a continuous still holler brother I love this shit and we can figure it out. If you’re just curious head to Montana John will let you run one of theirs he’s a great dude. 

[DMDistilling]

On 7/16/2022 at 8:10 AM, SlickFloss said:

Absolutely 100 buddy! disclaimer I can only speak to our machine which is heavily modified from others of the same version, so I’ll try to stick to basics and as delivered operation in order to accurately convey the premise.
 

So running an HF you would want to do two runs if you’re making your own GNS or one run if your redistilling sourced GNS.

Your first run would be mash through c1 with your solenoids set to enable functionality in c2 and c3, which at the end of the day are really just one large split column. Vapor would leave c3 and enter the demethylzer to be cleaned up. In the Hf dm set up you feed 3/4 of the way up the column as a hot liquid, you distill your heads out the top and reflux the booze and heads you want back down the column to the sump where there’s a heating coil. Anything down in the sump revolatilizes from the coil there and seeps out into the final product condenser from the port on the back of the unit about 1/8th of the way up the unit (very near the sump). A lot of tinkering with your heads condensor cooling flow rates and c3 controls will get you to azeotrope out of the product out. Untuned it will likely be right around 160-186.

Assuming you were able to tune and pull azeotrope (or you’re redistilling sourced GNS) it’s now time to make gin. Dilute your GNS down to 8/9/10 abv and re run into column 1. It’ll go through the same path but this time in gin mode your solenoids will be set to send it to the gin basket instead of the dm. There’s two gin baskets on the back you can switch back and forth on for multiple recipes or larger runs of same botanicals. Can tune the proof to hit desired flavor profile of extract all at one, don’t reccomend azeotrope though. 
 

There’s a very easy modification where you can swap some plumbing out to bypass the final product hx directly to gin basket and then through the final product condensor. It’s simple but it’s aftermarket, this allows for gin single pass. Given the extremely limited amount of copper in the original design of the one we purchased I’d recommend modifying to add additional copper or just doing the two runs for additional copper contact. 

So to answer your actual question gin isn’t going through the dm in my unit as delivered by them because it’s already been distilled once through the dm, and botanical extraction is in second pass. I do have a bypass that enables the functionality you mention though. 
 

just my .02! If you’re building a continuous still holler brother I love this shit and we can figure it out. If you’re just curious head to Montana John will let you run one of theirs he’s a great dude. 

hey mate thanks you so much for your information and help to me so much, so yes I'm trying to design my continuous still and I'm investigating and working in that, yes I have been reading about that still and it has a calandria inside of dymethalizer to do that process, I have one question more, do you recon his C1 its a big calandria and that its the secret of they got that product, are 14 sieve trays with a pipe in the middle which work as big calandra to pull down the condensate, pushing up the ethanol, or its just 14 sieve trays as normal stripping column. and the real work its just done by dymethalizer.

[DMDistilling]

On 7/16/2022 at 8:10 AM, SlickFloss said:

Absolutely 100 buddy! disclaimer I can only speak to our machine which is heavily modified from others of the same version, so I’ll try to stick to basics and as delivered operation in order to accurately convey the premise.
 

So running an HF you would want to do two runs if you’re making your own GNS or one run if your redistilling sourced GNS.

Your first run would be mash through c1 with your solenoids set to enable functionality in c2 and c3, which at the end of the day are really just one large split column. Vapor would leave c3 and enter the demethylzer to be cleaned up. In the Hf dm set up you feed 3/4 of the way up the column as a hot liquid, you distill your heads out the top and reflux the booze and heads you want back down the column to the sump where there’s a heating coil. Anything down in the sump revolatilizes from the coil there and seeps out into the final product condenser from the port on the back of the unit about 1/8th of the way up the unit (very near the sump). A lot of tinkering with your heads condensor cooling flow rates and c3 controls will get you to azeotrope out of the product out. Untuned it will likely be right around 160-186.

Assuming you were able to tune and pull azeotrope (or you’re redistilling sourced GNS) it’s now time to make gin. Dilute your GNS down to 8/9/10 abv and re run into column 1. It’ll go through the same path but this time in gin mode your solenoids will be set to send it to the gin basket instead of the dm. There’s two gin baskets on the back you can switch back and forth on for multiple recipes or larger runs of same botanicals. Can tune the proof to hit desired flavor profile of extract all at one, don’t reccomend azeotrope though. 
 

There’s a very easy modification where you can swap some plumbing out to bypass the final product hx directly to gin basket and then through the final product condensor. It’s simple but it’s aftermarket, this allows for gin single pass. Given the extremely limited amount of copper in the original design of the one we purchased I’d recommend modifying to add additional copper or just doing the two runs for additional copper contact. 

So to answer your actual question gin isn’t going through the dm in my unit as delivered by them because it’s already been distilled once through the dm, and botanical extraction is in second pass. I do have a bypass that enables the functionality you mention though. 
 

just my .02! If you’re building a continuous still holler brother I love this shit and we can figure it out. If you’re just curious head to Montana John will let you run one of theirs he’s a great dude. 

hey mate, which version is that one of you got, because I was checking in their page and last one of they have in Autocad in their page had a bypass of you told me.

[SlickFloss]

9 hours ago, DMDistilling said:

hey mate, which version is that one of you got, because I was checking in their page and last one of they have in Autocad in their page had a bypass of you told me.

as I mentioned I can only speak to my very early version and it sounds like they’re trying to design our some of their early flaws. Hope that extends deep into the column. 
 

I don’t really want to get too deep on the internals of Johns column on a site where a lot of people are scraping data to rip off still designs. If you’d like to Pm me privately on how to build a column feel free to PM me but again I’m not going to go into Johns IP, but I also think there are designs better suited for exactly what you want to make (whatever that is) than a HFs design and would love to discuss still customization and fabrication in depth   With you or anyone 

 

cheers

Slick

 

[Silk City Distillers]

I really wanna know what the hell y'all talking about.  Speaking in tongues.  I'd like to think I'm in the loop on things, and I'm just scrolling through here wondering what the heck.

 

[daveflintstone]

https://headframestills.com/