Fourlix Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 Trying to figure out how many? How much? What I have so far is 8 x 350 gallon poly fermenters, a 100 gallon spirit still in the works, a 400 gallon stripper still in the works, two 300 gallon ss tanks, one 375 gallon ss Hot liquor tank, a 200 gallon mixing or bottling tank, 40 nice French oak barrels. And a small, 175K BTU propane boiler. and NO MASH TUN. But a nice 1,000 gallon tank I can cut in half and make two mash tuns, or a 500 gallon mash tun and another still. I expect to direct fire the 400 gallon still, and use the small boiler for the 100 gallon spirit still. I think I can jacket the Mash tun and use the boiler for that too. I know I have too many fermenters, I think I only need 4. Do I need two 500 gallon mash tuns or will one suffice? It's getting crowded, and I don't want to make/buy something I am not going to use..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fourlix Posted December 30, 2015 Author Share Posted December 30, 2015 Oh, and vital to this equation is what I plan on making, which is whiskey and rum. The rum will be made from Mexican Cane sugar juice, maybe some molasses. The whiskey will be primarily malted barley. It kind of makes sense to have two mash tuns and two process lines doesn't it? I wouldn't think that whiskey and rum would share equipment well... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fourlix Posted December 30, 2015 Author Share Posted December 30, 2015 I guess I really don't need a mash tun for cane juice rum.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lenny Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 You're loosing me on your equipment and numbers (I'm easily lost), but here's what we run and it works out perfectly... * 600 gallon mashtun - steam jacketed with false bottom for lautered 100% malt mashes * 300 gallon hot liquor tank - which we use for sparge water and refill with the hot water off of our heat exchanger that cools the wash * x3 700 gallon fermenters which we fill to 600g with wash * 600 gallon stripping still - which yields aprox. 100g of low wines off of 600 gallons of 8%abv wash * 140g spirit still Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Humulus Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 Lenny...what is the % of your 100 gallon low wines? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lenny Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 Lenny...what is the % of your 100 gallon low wines? 40% low wines. Worth noting: I'm rounding the numbers up/down slightly. Our wash abv is sometimes a bit higher than 8% and our low wines yield is +/- 100g sometimes. But on average... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fourlix Posted December 30, 2015 Author Share Posted December 30, 2015 Nice. I am thinking that these extra fermenters might work anyway in a two process set up. For whiskey, One 500 gallon mash tun, three x 350 gallon fermenters, a 400 gallon stripper still and a 100 gallon spirit still And then, for rum, 4 x 350 gallon fermenters for cane juice, one 400 gallon stripper still and a 100 gallon spirit still. The other tanks can be used for blending, bottling, storing low wines... So in other words, one good mash tun is all I need. What I need is more stills. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silk City Distillers Posted January 1, 2016 Share Posted January 1, 2016 Your fermenter capacity can be a multiple of your still capacity, especially in a stripping scenario where you can execute multiple strips in a day. A single larger tank is generally more cost effective than multiple small tanks, will consume less floor space, and will be easier to install (plumbing 1 CIP and cooling jacket as opposed to 4). If you are lautering your malt whiskey, I don't see why you would draw any kind of distinction between fermenters or the stripping still, the process workflows would be similar. This would not be the case if you were doing on-grain whiskey. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fourlix Posted January 2, 2016 Author Share Posted January 2, 2016 Is there an issue using the stripper still, for both a malt barley whiskey wash and a sugar cane rum wash? I am thinking it will include a lot of extra cleaning to share. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fourlix Posted January 2, 2016 Author Share Posted January 2, 2016 Hey Lenny, I really want to see your distillery. I understand you direct fire your still. I took the downslope distilling class last year where Mitch told me about you. My son lives in Denver and I am sure I will be back up that way. I am extremely rural with no natural gas, only propane, and direct fire makes sense in terms of efficiency and a DIY approach. How many BTU's per gallon on your stills would be my first question. And, are you direct firing your mash tun as well? Thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lenny Posted January 2, 2016 Share Posted January 2, 2016 Hey Lenny, I really want to see your distillery. I understand you direct fire your still. I took the downslope distilling class last year where Mitch told me about you. My son lives in Denver and I am sure I will be back up that way. I am extremely rural with no natural gas, only propane, and direct fire makes sense in terms of efficiency and a DIY approach. How many BTU's per gallon on your stills would be my first question. And, are you direct firing your mash tun as well? Thank you. Head up here any time! I've got a 300k btu ng burner under my spirit still only. Everything else is steam. The burner was supplied by ward burners and I leaned on their expertise for the sizing and specific style of burner and related safety features. I'm a big fan of direct fire stills, but I wan't too keen on running *that* much fire beyond my small sprit still. Plus, I wanted easy grain-in handling which the steam jackets on my mashtun and stripping still allow for. I hear you on having to work within your resources though. We started out much smaller and would not have done it any other way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fourlix Posted January 2, 2016 Author Share Posted January 2, 2016 I just found a bargain, a Triad 20 hp low pressure boiler, never been used.....The guy says it can be jetted for propane. This correlates to about 680,000 BTU, which is about as much as I can comfortably get, vaporization rate, from a 1,000 gallon propane tank in the winter. I think this would be a real problem solver for me. Direct injection on the Mash tun, steam jacket the stills. Probably only be able to run one at a time....maybe two. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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