Agitator

[whiskeytango]

A bit of a hypothetical question here.

Say you have a 100 gallon still and without an agitator it takes 2 hours to bring the mash up to temp. What kind of speed increase would you expect with an agitator?

[Natrat]

We have a 100 gallon still that takes about 2 hours up to temp with agitator on. With it off, it takes about 15 to 30 minutes longer. But I only use it on mashes, not on low wines.

[John D]

I can save an hour with mine. But I had to upgrade the heat supply to get the increase in heating. It will not help much if you can't push the heat.

[whiskeytango]

John, what percentage is 1 hour? Or from what hours to what hours with it?

[schnit]

Just curious, do those of you running an agitator see a noticeable decrease in production times on your runs?

Thanks.

[John D]

I push the heat as hard as I can without most of the fear of scorching to about 165. Then cut the heat way back turn off agitator and it slides into 180 or so and runs more or less for 4 hours. total time about 5 hours to 30%. I was getting close to 7 hours without agitator. I like direct fire pot stills and I dont rack the wash just strain the heavys. This is by far from any textbook but it works for me right now and might not for you.

[Artisan Still Design]

BTUs into a system are BTUs. average temperature of your load will rise at a constant rate. the real difference is in the stratification of these BTU's into the mash, and in particular the top most strata.

without an agitator, your mash can form a cap while distilling, said cap is extremely insulative, this will cause problems on your run, if you're doing grain in, you must have agitation.

same can be said of grape skins and Grappa production.