Jump to content

Mash Load/Thickness for Separation


Curtis

Recommended Posts

I am trying to find a supplier for a mash separator. After spending most of the weekend on the internet running in circles I have spoken to a few salesman at some of the manufacturers and the first question they asked was "what is the load?" - or thickness of the liquid (grain on whiskey mash) to be separated. Anybody have any figures for this? Anybody already using a separator that they could share info on? I'll be running 10-20k gallons a week through this thing so the spin cycle on a used washing machine is not an option.

Thank you,

Curtis

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No worries on questions, I apologize if I was not making my needs clear. I will be fermenting on grain, BUT I do not want to distill on grain. I will not be using a lauter tun. So I guess a centrifuge is what I am looking to size. I have seen other liquid solid separators being used, mainly a screw type, or a models like a Russell Finex LSS. The price range is wide for most of these models. Do you use a liquid solid separator?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Curtis,

Thanks for the clarifications. At the volumes you're talking about, 10-20K gallons a wash per week, you're not looking at boot strap pricing for separating....its all going to be relatively expensive.

Settling technologies will work, but will require still tanks and settling time larger than your largest fermenter and longer than is advised for fermentation.

Centrifugation will work - but that comes fraught with all of the difficulties that anyone who has run a centrifuge understand very well.

Filtering: There is a company that produces a self-cleaning filter, Fluid Engineering 723/723T/753/793 Series, that can filter solids continuously. You may want to check them out.

Cooling techniques will work - using a glycol system to crash cool will help some, but if the specific gravity of your suspended solids is close to that of the mash, you're not going to do much other than settle out yeast and heavier solids.

The Russel Finex was my suggested solution, prior to reading your last post. Pricing is less than $20K and they do a perfect job in situations like this.

If you're really going to successfully move 10-20K gallons of wash per week, then $20K for an LSS is pretty much nil in your overall CAPEX costs to build a distillery capable of the throughput you're suggesting. Shoot....a boiler to run this operation is going to cost 6-7X the cost of the LSS.

Good luck and let us know what you finally settle upon.

Cheers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Curtis. I currently lauter my mash before fermenting, but I have occasionally considered fermenting with the grain in then dumping that into my mash tun and then lautering before going into the still.

Do you have a lauter tun? If so, have you tried post-ferment lautering?

I currently lauter rye which is notoriously slow, not sure if the fermentation could speed it up or slow it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I do not have a lauter tun. Due to production levels and efficiency of production/labor/energy I will be separating before distilling and need to do this in a timely manner. I have reached out to an engineering firm that works with food production. I will post models and any other info when I receive it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...
  • 2 years later...

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...