Vendome mash cooker

[colonel2jays]

Hi all,

I've installed an 8500 gallon Vendome mash cooker at my distillery in Tasmania, Australia and we began commissioning it in December 2023. The main challenge during that process was that the grain meal tended to pile up on the cooling coils, which are directly underneath the grain inlet nozzle.

I reached out to Rabbit Hole in Louisville and they mentioned they had a similar problem, so relocated their grain inlet closer to the middle of the cooker to direct the meal closer to the vortices created by the agitator.

Vendome confirmed that most of the cookers of this size they supply have the grain inlet nozzle in the same place. Has anyone out there with this cooker configuration found a process to prevent the grain from piling up on the coils and creating dough balls?

Cheers, John

 

 

[Old Glory Distilling Co.]

We were having similar issues - also with the milled grain collecting around the inlet/slide gate with all the moisture. We finally settled on moving the outlet location on our milled grain conveyor so that we could simply use a section of flexible 4" hose that drops in the manway for grain additions. The grain no longer piles up on the cooling coils, we no longer forget to open the slide gate (because we removed it!), and probably most importantly - we're able to easily keep our grain augers/inlet tubes clean and near moisture free. 

[colonel2jays]

4 hours ago, Old Glory Distilling Co. said:

We were having similar issues - also with the milled grain collecting around the inlet/slide gate with all the moisture. We finally settled on moving the outlet location on our milled grain conveyor so that we could simply use a section of flexible 4" hose that drops in the manway for grain additions. The grain no longer piles up on the cooling coils, we no longer forget to open the slide gate (because we removed it!), and probably most importantly - we're able to easily keep our grain augers/inlet tubes clean and near moisture free. 

Thanks for the reply, that's really helpful.

Can I ask what size cooker you're using? What is your target grain throughput per hour?

[Old Glory Distilling Co.]

We use a 2500 gallon cooler, and we run about 3500 lbs/hr of corn through our hammer mill and auger it directly into the cooker. Wheat, rye, and malted barley obviously run much faster.