Anti-Foam

[17A]

Has anyone had a problem using anti -foam in a steam injected still ?

[Humulus]

I've heard of a white particulate coming over in the spirit. 

[indyspirits]

What anti-foam did you use?

[17A]

Femcaps S

[17A]

It starts out white then turns brown/black the longer the run goes 

[captnKB]

I use fermcap but have never had that issue in a steam jacketed still. 

What kind of ferment are you distilling? Some malt wash will foam a ton if to much heat is put to it, causing it to foam all the way to your condensor

Have you cleaned your condensor recently? If you got any foam into your condensor, the next distillation you do will pick up some of that foam and carry it with the distillate

 

[indyspirits]

I've used patcote 376 with absolutely no ill effects.

[17A]

1 hour ago, captnKB said:

I use fermcap but have never had that issue in a steam jacketed still. 

What kind of ferment are you distilling? Some malt wash will foam a ton if to much heat is put to it, causing it to foam all the way to your condensor

Have you cleaned your condensor recently? If you got any foam into your condensor, the next distillation you do will pick up some of that foam and carry it with the distillate

 

I`m doing steam injected. Plain corn wheat and rye. I`m only using the anti -foam in the mash none in the still and only using 1/2 oz. per 40 gallons..Starts out white in the distillation run then gets darker as you go..Almost looks like tar

[17A]

57 minutes ago, indyspirits said:

I've used patcote 376 with absolutely no ill effects.

I`ve never had this problem and don`t plan on using it any more..

[bluefish_dist]

Dose rate seems a bit high. I use the firmcap AT at 15ml to 82 gal.  dose is 1-6ml per hl.  

[17A]

Are you using it in a steam injected still

[SlickFloss]

We run our own anti foam mixture through our DI steam column for our Rye and Bourbon (head frame- you should get one)

 

We doctor ours up though, use half of the volume of the antifoam (usually five star or fermcap) and make up the rest of volume with corn oil (and actually wheat oil for our cheated borubon as well)

 

No problems here.

[Micah Nutt]

We occasionally use Wesmar's D-Foam.  I don't use the stuff unless I think it's absolutely necessary.  Whereas the anti-foaming agent  does a great job of keeping the foam down, the side effect is that the proteins, which cause the foaming, coagulate into ropy strands which get tangled on the coils; this makes the wash still much more difficult to clean.

[17A]

I thank you 

[17A]

Thanks for the input. I lust don’t trust it.