Author: birendra@midnightmachines.io

How You Can save Money Buying Two Stills

Posted on by birendra@midnightmachines.io

There are a lot of moving parts to starting a distillery or growing your existing operation. We see more new distillers than we should go out of business at least in part because when they tried to save money starting a distillery they ended up saving themselves into the poor house.

We’ve talked about various pieces of equipment that can help save you time and money if integrated into your process effectively and today we’re going to go into some of the benefits that multiple stills can bring to your operation. 

The most obvious benefit of having multiple stills is that with twice the number of stills you can achieve twice the production! This isn’t necessarily the best reason to own more than one still since the cost of production goes down on a per liter basis when you get into larger equipment.

One real benefit is that having redundancies in your system means that you have a backup in case something goes wrong or something unexpected happens. This will save you money by allowing you to keep producing and not lose out on production time.

There’s an old saying warning you to not put all your eggs in one basket and it holds true for production equipment as well. This doesn’t mean that you have to have a spare for everything sitting and collecting dust though, there are lots of ways to utilize equipment to add flexibility to your process.  

Just because you have a second still doesn’t mean that you have to have two carbon copies of the same system. We’ve been promoting a two-still system for people who want to make gin and/or vodka from scratch that actually saves them some cash in upfront costs. 

When we get into larger systems, especially 1000L or more, vodka columns get expensive very quickly, and dropping the diameter greatly reduces the cost. If you do your stripping run through the big still then you can get away with using a single-walled kettle to make your vodka/gin and you can use a smaller column diameter to get the same results. This saves your equipment costs and gives you the benefit of being able to distill two products at the same time.

And this isn’t limited to just gin or vodka. You can have specific stills for different products, especially for things that are heavily flavored or otherwise unique. Equipment can get “seasoned” for a particular product and stringent cleaning can cause off-flavors in the first one or two runs after cleaning. 

Having a test still or a pilot plant still is also a great spot for a second still. You can run test batches in larger stills but you may end up wasting a lot of wash, especially if you’re doing some heavy experimentation. Having a smaller test still lets you try different recipes without using as much wash as doing it in your main still. The test still can also be used for small production runs or limited releases so you don’t interrupt your primary production on your main products.

There are a lot of uses for a second still so if you’re looking to upgrade you would be well served to think about keeping your old still and adding to your lineup with the new equipment. And if you’re opening a new location, or just really want all new equipment, it is worth considering getting more than one still from the get-go in order to increase your flexibility and give you more options to make new products or increase production quickly.

These are just some of the benefits of multiple stills. Please leave us a comment below and share anything we missed! If you’d like our help on how to save money starting a distillery please give us a call at 561-845-8009 or shoot us an email at info@stilldragon.com and we’ll be happy to help where we can. 

Why Is Redundancy Important for Distilleries?

Posted on by birendra@midnightmachines.io

Picture it: you’ve spent 2 weeks fermenting for a large whiskey production order, you’ve got your staff ready to start charging your kettle, when suddenly your pump seizes, now you have no way to get the rest of your ferment into your kettle. It’s at this point that you start wishing you had a second pump just for backup.

That backup pump is a form of redundancy that every distillery should practice! Redundancy is the practice of having equipment on hand that doesn’t have a particular use at the moment, but it could become useful if other distilling equipment fails. It’s like having a generator in case the power goes out during a storm. 

Benefits of Redundant Distilling Equipment

As you’re developing your budget for equipment, it is a best practice to factor in additional costs for the smaller things such as pumps, hoses, clamps, and gaskets. Adding in these extra costs, and the extra distilling equipment to keep on hand in case of emergencies is also a great way to ensure that you are not wasting money on labor or downtime in the future.

If a pump goes down in the middle of the run, you have to spend time trying to move your ferment into your kettle; depending on the size of your equipment, manually transferring could take serious dollars in terms of hourly wages for your staff.

Having even the small things on hand such as gaskets and clamps is helpful – you don’t want to be cleaning your equipment and accidentally wash a gasket down the drain, just to have to wait a couple of days to get a replacement. It could potentially put you days behind in your production schedule.

Having redundant equipment goes beyond just your basic distilling equipment. If you have a forklift to move equipment or barrels around the distillery, you would also want to have a pallet jack that is capable of moving the same weight, just in case something happens in the middle of operations but you are unable to get a forklift tech out for a few days. The pallet jack will at least keep you moving for the time being. 

The most expensive part of distillery operations is the labor, not having redundancy in your distillery can cause your labor rate to quickly eat into your profit margins. If you have to cut hours because the equipment is down, this can also produce low morale amongst your staff.

Try setting up a redundancy cart. Grab a low-cost rolling toolbox and stock it with a few tools that are needed such as a screwdriver, crescent wrench, spanner wrench, and the basics for tightening equipment. Add a few extra clamps, gaskets, and assorted parts that might increase efficiency either when assembling, cleaning, or just doing regular maintenance. The toolbox can be rolled to where the work is being done and decrease the need to run back and forth to the supply room.

Developing a good maintenance procedure is another form of redundancy that can alleviate downtime due to equipment malfunction. Making sure that the equipment is in good working order when it is needed helps increase efficiency as well because it reduces the probability of needing to repair or replace equipment.

If you’re delegating money in your budget, but are wary about adding the extra pump or hoses, add up what the labor cost would be if your equipment goes down. It won’t take much to realize that redundant distilling equipment is less expensive in the long run. If you have any questions about what spare parts you should carry, give us a call at 561-845-8009 and we’d be happy to help you build a redundancy budget!

Fermentation Stopped Early

Posted on by birendra@midnightmachines.io

There is a lot of minutia and detail that goes into the distilling process and you can make it as complicated as you’d like. No matter how much care you take in distilling itself, if you don’t have a good fermentation practice then you’re not building a good foundation for your final spirit. Stuck fermentation happens from time to time but there are some tricks to troubleshoot what’s going on and hopefully how to get things back on track.  

The first thing you want to check is to make sure that your fermentation is actually stuck and not finished. If you took an initial gravity reading you can take another gravity reading to see whether there’s any sugar left for the yeast to digest. If you don’t have a starting measurement then you can do a taste test to see if there’s any detectable sweetness in your beer. If you’re using sugar or molasses as a base then some of those sweet notes will likely be present even after the fermentation has completed. 

If your beer still has some usable sugar left you should check the temperature and pH to make sure they’re in range. Yeast is like any other organism and they have a happy place where they’re the most productive and if you’re too far outside of range they may go on a hunger strike. If your temperatures and/or pH were out of range and bringing them back in line doesn’t kick your fermentation back into gear you can try sparging CO2 to bring some yeast back into suspension but be careful, you may be introducing some wild type yeast that can throw off your batch to batch consistency. 

If all this fails and there’s still good sugar leftover and your pH and temps all look good then your last-ditch effort is to repitch. Ideally, if you have another batch kicking you can transfer some material over from that to get your ferment rolling again, otherwise, it may be difficult to get things started from scratch when your ferment has already been going.

A very wise man once said that “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” It’s much easier to create an environment from the start that keeps the yeast happy than it is to make them happy halfway through. So do yourself a favor and make sure you have good initial readings on gravity and pH and you have a way to maintain the temperature throughout your fermentation. And don’t forget to supplement with yeast nutrients as well, just like we can’t live very well off of sugar alone, yeast needs other nutrients to thrive and be as productive as possible. Please comment and let us know if you have any other tips or tricks for getting stalled fermentation back on track. 

Beer vs Wine in Distilling: What is the Difference?

Posted on by birendra@midnightmachines.io

Beer and wine are both universally familiar words to the average consumer. For some people, the word beer brings and instant, familiar mental image of some popular brand, or favorite kind of food? The “king of beers” with a slice of pizza for example? Or maybe a nice red wine paired with a savory goose liver pate appetizer? Yum!

Getting into a bit more detail, you may understand that beers are typically made with a grain starch source such as malted barley and wines are made with fruit. 

If we go further into our understanding of beer and wine, we learn that beers can be made with multiple types of grains and wines can be made with any kind of fruit. Typically, wine made with grapes contain more alcohol than beer on a by the volume basis, or ABV. With wine, the fruit juice is ready for fermentation immediately as the sugars are readily accessible after pressing to rupture the fruit cells. For beer on the other hand, the grains must first be cooked to render the starches out of the grain, and then the starches must be converted to sugars by an enzyme called amylase and then further broken down into simple sugars by other enzymes. The process of making beer can be far more laborious compared to making wine. Especially considering that alcoholic yield is higher with wine. Having said that, not all fruit contains the same amount of sugar and not all grains contain the same amount of starches. A successful crop for alcohol production is not only determined by potential volumetric / weight yield of the actual crop, but also by alcohol by volume of yield after fermentation. In other words, 100 pounds of grapes makes more proof gallons of alcohol than 100 pounds of barley. And so, there is that. Let’s move on.

The familiar beer or wine word becomes more nebulous or confusing to the lay person when referenced within the context of distillation. In distilling, a distiller’s beer is simply a fermented, low abv mixture that is made from fermented grains. Distilled beer makes whiskey. Therefore, whiskies are made from grains. However, a distiller’s beer very often is not really intended to be consumed as a beer like one would find at the local super market. The main goal of the distiller’s beer is to produce an amount of alcohol without much regard for drinkability. Then distill and allow some of the grain flavors to carry over into the finished distillate based on any number of distillation techniques.

As with a distiller’s beer, wine for brandy production does not have to be a premium beverage wine in order to make a palatable brandy. Again, the goal with a distiller’s wine is to produce ethanol from fermented fruit and utilize specific distillation techniques to allow some of the fruit character to carry over into the finished distillate.

Now let’s move on to the really confusing part that really is more about nomenclature used in the distilling world.  Ok, get this, in distilling there is a thing called high wines and low wines. Neither of which is an actual grocery store variety of wine. And neither has to necessarily be made from actual fermented wine. 

Each is an actual distillate. Let me explain. As a general rule, low wines are the distillate collected from a stripping run. In other words, a first distillation used to reduce the amount of water in the beer or wine kettle charge. There can be some confusion on this term as there is no set standard with respect to ABV of low wines. But generally low wines are about 25 – 35% alcohol by volume. The term high wines describes distillate that has a high percentage of alcohol, but not necessarily the finished spirit. Generally anything above 35% alcohol by volume. So, for example, a spirit distilled through a pot still 3 times would start with a beer charge in the kettle. The resulting distillate could be considered low wines. On the second run the kettle would be charged with low wines. The resulting distillate could be considered high wines. And for the final spirit run, the kettle is therefore charged with high wines and the resulting distillate would be considered the finished spirit. Typically, the distiller would run each batch according to the desired, aggregate abv of the next forthcoming distillation. And it is entirely up to the distiller if he/she chooses to make any kind of cut during a stripping or second run. Some distillers make small heads cut on the stripping run. Others choose not to. There are no hard and fast rules for making cuts.

Ok so that’s it for now. I hope I have been able to articulate the beer / wine difference at the grocery store vs the beer / wine appellation used around the distillery?

Give us ring here at StillDragon if you have any questions. Call 561-845-8009 or check us out at StillDragon.com. You can also check out the global forum (stilldragon.org) where StillDragon customers and other distilling enthusiasts go to talk about all things distilling.

What Gasket Material Should You Use for Distilling?

Posted on by birendra@midnightmachines.io

What constitutes the best gasket material seems to be a never-ending debate, in fact, we’ve discussed this twice already but there’s still a lot of ground to cover. In one of our previous articles, we did a comparison between silicone gaskets, EPDM gaskets, and PTFE gaskets. In that blog, we were very cautious about making claims and what we knew and didn’t know about the different gasket materials. Since then we’ve done some learning and actually come to some conclusions about the best gasket material (at least until more information comes out and makes us reevaluate our thoughts, again). 

What Gasket Material Should You Use for Distilling?

One of our biggest hang-ups with making silicone a frontrunner is that we hadn’t seen much data about long-term leaching effects and reactions at high temperatures. A 2006 study by Guenu et al. showed that soaking silicon in a 95% ABV solution did actually release some small silicone molecules in their experiment. Most of these were released within the first four hours of exposure and in their trials with a 60% ABV, solutions showed no measurable release of silicon molecules compared to the control sample regardless of the exposure duration. This is in line with a 2016 study done by Crnich et al. that showed similar results after soaking silicone catheters for 10 weeks in a 70% ABV solution and found no structural changes to the silicone material. Both of these studies were done on materials that are designed to go into a human body during medical procedures and only showed potentially negative effects at extremely high ABV and those seemed to abate after 4 hours. It’s actually common medical practice to store silicone catheters in ethanol to ensure they stay sterile. Several studies have shown that silicone is safe for high-temperature applications in cooking so while no study specifically says that silicone doesn’t leach at a combination of high temperature and high ABV it isn’t much of a logical leap to assume it does not. As a safety measure against the worst-case scenario, it would be advisable to soak your gaskets in a 95% ABV solution for at least four hours if you think your process will get in the ballpark of those values. 

While silicone is the clear winner for most distillery applications, EPDM is best for parts that see mechanical stresses, like the inside of a valve or any part you plan to disassemble very frequently. It is still a fine choice but because it lacks the flexibility of silicone and may not create as good a seal if the joints don’t line up perfectly it falls to the number two spot on the list. A strong second choice is still a second choice when it comes to the best gasket material so outside of these specific applications EPDM doesn’t beat silicone.

So there you have it, silicone beats EPDM in 99.9% of distilling applications. The only documented potential watch out is if you are making very high proof spirits and presoaking your gaskets provides a workaround. We recommend inspecting and changing your gaskets every year or two but remember, heat accelerates degradation so if you’re very worried about leaching into your product or degradation damage you may want to change your gaskets more regularly. If you have any questions about gaskets or other distilling equipment please give us a ring here at the office (561)-264-6919 or shoot an email to info@stilldragon.com and we’ll be happy to help you out! Cheers!

Column Still Design and Operation

Posted on by birendra@midnightmachines.io

I’ve recently been listening to some industry-related podcasts and have noticed that the word column or column still seems to be thrown around rather loosely. Without knowing any difference, one could almost assume based on the lack of context, that a column still is this uniformly designed distillation apparatus whose only goal is to is to strip the flavor out of the finished spirit that would otherwise be available if rendered from a classic pot still. That simply is not true. 

There are multiple column still configurations that range from continuous distillation stills to batch stills. Tall columns for neutral spirits production and short columns for more full-bodied flavor. Any system with no less than a single plate and utilizing forced reflux could be considered a column for batch distillation. On the continuous stills, it can be a bit more convoluted as a dedicated beer column does not necessarily have to utilize forced reflux to be considered a column. 

My point here is that when talking about the use of a column still to render a spirit, a bit more context should be used to help the listener understand how that column configuration has influenced the finished profile of the resulting distillate.

Why Use a Column Still at All?

The pot still is the oldest known distillation apparatus. And pot stilled spirits are some of the most sought-after spirits in the world. The pot still does its job well. Or does it? Well, there is no dispute that a pot still run by a competent operator does make a wonderful spirit. But the operator more or less has to exploit the inefficiencies associated with using a 2000-year-old technology. Plainly put, pot stills are not as efficient compared to a column at separating the constituents contained within the 100% infinitely miscible solution in the kettle.

To be clear (or clearly confusing) there are many ways in distilling to define efficiency. In the distillery, we can choose to exploit one or two efficiencies, but in doing so we often lose efficiency somewhere else on the efficiency spectrum. For example, the thing that saves labor hours very often requires more utility usage. Similarly, the thing that increases the ability to more efficiently separate the constituents in our distillation process very likely requires more utility. It’s just a matter of prioritizing the most desirable efficiencies against the fixed costs associated with running the distillery. Having said that, the column more easily separates constituents by exploiting a positive feedback loop supplied by the employment of forced reflux.

Does a Column Get a Bad Rap?

Distillers that use pot stills will often sight that columns are known for stripping out too many flavors in the finished spirit. The implication is that the resulting distillate rendered out of a column is a thin and lacking body. And those concerns do have merit. However, not all columns are equal. Utilizing a short column can absolutely increase efficiency with respect to proof gallon yield and the amount of time needed to get through a distillation run. By utilizing forced reflux, the column does a better job at more quickly compressing head constituents. The result being that the heads volume will be lower and therefore the heart’s volume will increase.

Two, three, and four plate columns can do a very nice job of rendering a very flavorful spirit while increasing efficiency. The short columns combined with aggressive reflux ratios can indeed render a full-bodied spirit. Adding just a few more plates into the lineup and reducing the reflux ratio can also render out a flavorful spirit while increasing the collection speed without compromising the ABV. In short, there are several ways to render out a flavorful spirit while increasing labor hour efficiencies.

The rub here is that accumulating enough knowledge and experience with column behavior usually requires capital. Once the capital investment has been made, the distiller is then handcuffed by the limitations of any particular still design. Basically, the distiller ends up making do with what they have to work with. 

A good analogy would be the golf swing in this instance. Who here plays golf? Does one modify one’s swing? Or does one choose the most appropriate golf club to execute the shot? As a distiller, are you able to manipulate the finished spirit through power or heat input management only? Do you have cooling management capability? Or do you render the expression based on the plate count? Pot stills by the way are only ever able to render out the finished product by virtue of power management. Columns (short and tall) have the luxury of utilizing power management as well as cooling management. In other words, the operator can manipulate the heat input as well as the flow rate supplied to the reflux condenser. Both of which provide the operator the ability to manipulate the flavor profile of the finished distillate.

Ok, let me backtrack a bit here. By no means am I saying that a column (short or tall) still makes a better spirit than a pot still. We have already confirmed that a pot stilled spirit is highly desirable. What I am saying is that a short column can increase yield and keep you close to a pot stilled spirit.

My recollection is that there are several distilleries making whiskey with a two-plate column. Those whiskies are delightful. Also, it is a known fact that highly regarded whiskey aficionados like Dave Pickerell (may he rest in peace) have recommended an 8-plate column still for whiskey production. Obviously, the operating technique is not the same for the short column as a taller column. My point here is that the column has two control parameters. Cooling management for the reflux condenser and power management for the kettle heat input. Any adjustment for either control mechanism in addition to plate count on the column has the ability to provide multiple flavor profiles for the finished distillate compared to the pot still that only has power management as its main control mechanism.

Am I poopooing the pot still? Absolutely not. Again, the pot stilled spirit is some of the most highly sought-after spirits on the planet. My point here is that column stills are not all the same and can be very diverse in their operating range based on the plate count. Additionally, column stills do not necessarily strip out too much flavor.

Data?

Please review this analysis table. This analysis was composed by Vinquiry Laboratories.

The baseline, fermented kettle charge for each example is identical. My understanding is that the heat-up time for each kettle charge is also identical. The first half of the panel clearly shows that a column can strip more constituents out of the resulting distillate. However, on the second half of the analysis, we can see that the column allows for more constituents to be carried over into the finished distillate.

 POT STILLTwo Plate ColumnSix Plate ColumnSensory Notes
Distilled Beverage PanelCompletedCompletedCompleted 
Acetaldehyde8 mg/L7 mg/L4 mg/LStrong fruity odor
Methanol41 mg/L41 mg/L38 mg/LFaintly sweet pungent odor
Ethyl Acetate135 mg/L116 mg/L42 mg/LSweet fruity odor
Fusel Oils    
n- Propanol232 mg/L227 mg/L237 mg/LRubbing alcohol odor
Isobutanol460 mg/L473 mg/L494 mg/LSweet odor
1-Butanol<1 mg/L<mg/L <1 mg/LBanana-like, harsh, alcoholic, and sweet odor
Isomyl Alcohol940 mg/L887 mg/L1060 mg/LProduces irritating vapor. Used as a flavoring agent in foods
Active Amyl Alcohol252 mg/L248 mg/L290 mg/LBlack Truffle aroma. Disagreeable odor.

Often it is assumed that the taller column will strip more out of the distillate. But the table above clearly shows that the taller column allows far more fusels to be carried into the finished distillate.

Summary

  1. Not all columns are equal.
  2. Column behavior is often misunderstood.

Why You Should Have a Mash Tun

Posted on by birendra@midnightmachines.io

Mash Tun vs Lauter Tun

What is a Mash Tun?

Well, in its most basic form a mash tun is basically a cooker or holding vessel used to gelatinize milled grains. Gelatinization is a very important process needed to convert the starches within the grains into fermentable sugars. Some mash tuns are equipped with steam jackets or steam coils used to heat the water that is mixed with the grain. Other mash tuns only have an insulating jacket and the water heat up occurs in a separate hot water heating tank, and then the hot water is transferred to the mash tun. The latter configuration only really works well when malted barley is used since malted barely only requires temps between 148°F and 158°F.

Corn (for bourbon production) on the other hand requires a cooking temperature of 190°F. Therefore, a mash tun equipped with a steam jacket or steam coil is a far better tool for spirits production if you plan on putting bourbon into your portfolio. The use of an external hot water tank (HLT) can still be of great use, however, as having a reserve amount of hot water will greatly reduce heat-up times in the mash tun and provide additional hot water for cleaning, sanitizing, or any other odd job that may require on-demand hot water.

A mash tun (grain cooker) is a requisite tool for beer and whiskey production.

What is a Lauter Tun?

A lauter tun can look very similar to the mash tun in that volumetrically speaking, a lauter tun is usually the same size as the mash tun and both vessels ideally (though not a requisite) have a mixing rake used to keep the constituents well mixed for uniform heat distribution and viscosity.

The lauter tun however also has what is called a false bottom. Essentially an elevated floor that is perforated with narrow slots that allow liquid to drain from the grain bed. A false bottom is nothing more than a strainer.

Enter The Combo Tun

If floor space is an issue, you could use what is known as a combo lauter / mash tun. This is basically a mash tun/cooker with a false bottom for lautering. This tool saves floor space but can reduce the potential for semi-continuous production goals. And by that, I mean that when you are cooking you can not lauter. Similarly, when lautering you can not cook the next forthcoming batch. In other words, the combo tank can only do one process at a time. For optimal production capacity, each process would typically require a dedicated tank if optimal production capacity were a goal.

There are also very small, recipe development combo systems that come with the mash / lauter tun welded on top of a boil tank in order to save space.  These types of systems are generally not viable for mass production volumes. They really are barely above the hobby scale volume-wise with a commercial equipment price tag.

Cereal/Corn Cookers

A cereal cooker is a style of mash tun that is more specifically designed to meet the needs of distillers that are making bourbon as the big whiskey houses do. By that, I mean that some of the most note-worthy bourbons are made by fermenting with grain in solids and also distilling with grain in solids. Therefore, no lautering is necessary. Simply cook the bourbon mash accordingly, and pump it directly over to the fermentation vessel. Once fermented the (now beer) liquid is then transferred to the still for distillation.

There are some design differences in a well-thought-out cereal cooker that can definitely help make the tank more user-friendly with respect to operation and maintenance conveniences.

Learn more about beer and distilling equipment by contacting StillDragon North America at 561-845-8009

Why You Should Use a Vodka Rectifying Column

Posted on by birendra@midnightmachines.io

There are a ton of vodkas on the market, all different flavors, and all distilled at various times. But how exactly are those vodkas made to have such a precise and clean flavor? Well, many are made by using a vodka rectifying column to get a cleaner product.

Rectification is the process of removing harsh components through the rise of vapor and the fall of the condensate, which is why a rectification column is often synonymous with a distillation column. A basic rectifying column is a column used in distillation to more precisely scrub ethanol molecules, it cleans the vapor through multiple plate distillation; when you think of a vodka rectifying column, think of a column with at least 10 plates but often many more.

Having more plates would give more opportunities for the distillate to be scrubbed of the harsh and unwanted components that would give vodka an unintended flavor profile. We have some customers who have as many as 30 plates in their system to make vodka.

In the process of creating a good vodka, a rectification column would be the step after stripping. Running your vodka through a stripping run would help create a more well-behaved run through your rectification column. In the long run, doing the stripping run before the rectification run will save time and money. 

So why is the term rectifying column used, well the word rectify implies that is cleaner. The basic vodka rectifying column is nothing more than a forced reflux column, the main difference is that there are usually more plates, at least 10 plates, therefore giving a cleaner spirit.

Don’t let the terminology scare you, a rectifying column is just a taller forced reflux plated column. If you still have questions, give StillDragon a call and we can answer any other questions you may have.

Managing A Reflux Still Column

Posted on by birendra@midnightmachines.io

There are a lot of ways to manage your reflux still column and we previously covered using the temperature principle, concentration principle, and vapor-liquid equilibrium graph in this post. The theory in that blog is a wonderful place to start and you should read it if you haven’t.

In this blog, we’re going to go a little deeper into the practical side and talk about how to use these principles to run your system.  

In our opinion here at StillDragon, the single most important measurement to use when managing reflux still column is the vapor temperature after the dephlegmator, ideally at the highest point in the vapor path. The temperature of this vapor directly correlates to the ABV you’ll get in your final product.

The temperature in the kettle can be useful to avoid scorching and will help you not overshoot your target on the vapor temperature but it does not correlate strongly with the final product when you’re running a column with active reflux. There’s a stronger correlation between kettle temp and final abv with pot stilling but the cooling medium in the dephlegmator breaks this correlation in a reflux still column. 

Similarly, the temperature in the dephlegmator doesn’t really correlate with the final product ABV. If the temperature on the hot side is higher than your target vapor temperature for the product ABV you’re shooting for then that is a problem, but you’ll see that reflected in the vapor temperature as easily as you’ll see it in the dephlegmator coolant temperature.

There’s a balancing act between the amount of heat you throw at the kettle and the amount of cooling you throw at the dephlegmator. Too little heat and your system will run slow but too little cooling and you won’t get good separation and it will affect your final product quality.

Just remember that not all “suboptimal” effects are necessarily bad, you may find that certain conditions allow flavors you want in your final product to pass through the system. Distillation is inherently a separation process and is designed to separate one thing from another, which can include bad flavors or good flavors as well. 

All this assumes that you are running in a batch process and not our continuous system. Our continuous distillation technology collects product as a liquid from the reflux column instead of pushing vapor to a product condenser so the systems are managed somewhat differently.

In this case, the temperature after the dephlegmator isn’t a product temperature, it’s the head’s temperature. While it’s possible to manage a batch system pretty well manually, our continuous system is more interconnected and requires more automation to run efficiently. The continuous system is a different animal and if you have questions about it please reach out to us to learn more. 

Please leave us a comment below and let us know if you have any questions, suggestions, or tricks of the trade when it comes to managing a reflux column still. There’s no real right or wrong way to make spirits as long as the flavor profile you’re shooting for is consistently being made on your equipment.

How to Choose Equipment For Your New Space

Posted on by birendra@midnightmachines.io

Whether you’re starting a new distillery or upgrading your existing business to handle the massive success your hard work has brought you, you’ll want to look at every part of your process to figure out your new distilling equipment needs and how to optimize your workflow. All-in-one systems can be wonderful if you’re just getting started, trying to save space, or if you’re making a lot of different products but they aren’t always the best tool for any specific job and only having one piece of equipment to use can create a lot of headaches and bottlenecks down the road.

A swiss army knife is a handy device but it never can replace the right tool for the job, mashing, fermenting, and distilling all in one piece of equipment can sound like a great way to save money but you may run into some issues sooner than later. Having the ability to do work in parallel can save you time in the long run and time is money, except you can’t print more time. Having the right tool for the job is going to be a big help in the long run.

There are many more types of equipment and options than we can go over in a single article, in fact, it may be more than most books can handle depending on how far into the weeds we go. We’re going to touch on a few different pieces of equipment and since we’ve talked about stills at length we’re going to focus elsewhere in this article. 

How to Choose the Right Equipment for Your New Distillery

Mash Tuns or Cereal Cookers:

Many people will think this is an obvious need but there are some people who pass on this piece of equipment, at least at first. While you can technically cook in your still they are not typically designed to handle the job. Our mash tuns can be used for laundering if you choose the false bottom option and regardless of which option you choose, they make grain handling easier.

The design of a still kettle is not normally optimized for adding and mixing solids so having a purpose-built piece of equipment can make it much easier. As a side note, think about how you’re moving your grains and loading the equipment. We don’t all have the luxury of a grain elevator next door but moving 50lbs bags up and down ladders will get exhausting pretty quickly. These can be very big pieces of equipment and we’d be more than happy to discuss different options with you.

Fermenters:

Most people know that they are important but it can be pretty easy to not have enough on hand to give you the flexibility to operate with different fermentation practices for different products. Also, the argument of jacketed vs non-jacketed primarily comes down to size and ambient conditions. Past a certain size, it makes sense to put a jacket on to keep the system cool during the fermentation process

Blending/Mixing Tanks:

While you can pull spirits off your still at barrel or bottling strength for many products you can’t do that for vodka and it is very difficult to maintain proof throughout a run. Having blending tanks is pretty essential to put out a consistent product, and if your product isn’t consistent you won’t have consistently happy customers.

Hot/Cold Liquor Tanks:

These can help reduce your mashing time or your heat up time on your finishing run if you’re diluting after your stripping run. CLTs can help ease your chiller demand and help you run without overtaxing your chiller so it may help save you money by giving you more time between chiller upgrades.

Collection Vessels:

Your distillate needs to be stored somewhere and while you can store them directly in a blending/mixing tank it removes those tanks from service and may not be the best use of your resources. These normally have wheels or some way to move them so you can house different parts of your process in different areas. 

Pumps and Hoses:

Easy to overlook but they can help reduce your labor and handling significantly. Pumping directly from your mashing equipment to your fermentation vessel can save you some headaches as long as your tools are rated to do the job you want them to do. 

Again, this is by no means a comprehensive list of all the parts and pieces you can add but it’s a good starting point. Leave a comment below and let us know what we’ve missed and what essential pieces of equipment you’d like to see added to the list. If you have specific questions you can always give us a call at 561-845-8009.

Proper Safety Maintenance for Distillery Equipment

Posted on by birendra@midnightmachines.io

Proper safety maintenance for distillery equipment is, or at least should be, top of mind. Knowing your equipment and maintaining proper safety logs are very critical for any safety program and we covered it as it pertains to forklifts in a previous blog here.

However, this is only a small part of a comprehensive safety program and while we can’t cover everything in a single blog post we’ll be expanding on our previous work to get you closer to a comprehensive program. Before you finalize anything, be sure to check with your local municipality to make sure you are in compliance with local ordinances.

There are too many unique situations out there and it is impossible to cover them all but we’re going to try to get you thinking about some common use cases. 

Essential personal protective equipment (PPE) can be pretty easy to overlook but it is crucial to maintain a supply of these on hand and make sure you’re regularly inspecting your stock to make sure it’s in good working order. It’s never fun to use the small disposable gloves on a large hand, or vice versa, when you’re trying to do dexterous work and need to focus.

You’ll also want to check all your fixed equipment as well. Eyewash stations and fire suppression equipment, extinguishers, and sprinklers if you have them, must be checked regularly to make sure they’re in proper working order. They rarely need to be used but when you do need them it’s crucial that they work properly otherwise it can make a bad situation much, much worse.

Speaking of things that we hope will never happen in a distillery, fire safety and understanding the “sombrero of death” are things that distillers of all levels should be aware of.  

If you aren’t familiar with the sombrero of death, it is the space around equipment that is the hazard zone when you are dealing with hazardous gasses that are denser than air. If you have a leak then the gasses pool close to the floor and can create a layer around the equipment that can look kind of like a sombrero. These gasses can concentrate to create a hazard zone and with ethanol, they also create a fire hazard.

Any equipment that is not rated as explosion-proof needs to be located outside of this area. The area in the sombrero is going to depend on the size of your equipment and the area that it’s located as well as whatever your local governing body decides is safe. The last part is probably the most crucial, always check with your local municipality to make sure you are in compliance. They are the ones signing off on your permits so you have to keep them happy.

Storage is also something that can fall into the safety category that can be overlooked. Storage is still subject to the sombrero of death even though we’re storing liquid products. The void space in the tank can still reach a higher concentration of ethanol than you may think, especially in hotter environments.

Proper storage vessels are important as well, the plastic transit totes are approved to move high proof ethanol but they are not rated for long-term storage. The right tool for the right job can make a huge difference and proper signage lets people know what they’re walking into. At the very least having an NFPA Diamond or HMIS Scale posted will help with communication. 

These are just a few things to think about with safety and preparing your space for working and future inspections. Always check with the local governing bodies to make sure that your facility is in compliance and you’re being as proactive as possible. It’s much easier to do things right the first time than it is to fix things after you’re up and running.

Hopefully, this has helped you think about ways that you can secure your space, and if you want to see any other safety blogs or ideas for new blogs in general leave a comment below.  You can also give us a call with any questions you have and while we’re not safety consultants we’re happy to help where we can.

Still Construction: Copper Still or Stainless Steel Still?

Posted on by birendra@midnightmachines.io

In the beginning

The earliest evidence to suggest the age of distillation technology appears to be about 2000 years old. Evidence of fermentation for alcoholic consumption by contrast appears to be about 7000 years older than that! So, alcohol for consumption has been part of the human experience for a very long time, to say the least. And frankly makes perfect sense since fermentation is a naturally occurring phenomenon that will occur without human intervention. 

One can imagine that sooner or later some ancient, hungry traveler must have stumbled upon some fruit lying on the ground under a fruit tree free for the taking? Only to discover that the fruit was past its peak of ripeness. Ancient, hungry travelers likely didn’t have many options and over-ripened fruit for dinner was certainly better than no dinner at all. It wouldn’t surprise me a bit if the result ended up a bit like this hilarious example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIDJ-sTuoO8 .

And voila!! The art of self-medication was born. “This fermented fruit thing seems like something to take a second look at” is what I would imagine went down? Well, notwithstanding the fact that the word fermentation didn’t even exist yet. Pardon my creative license. 

Distillation, by the way, is also naturally occurring since distillation in its most basic form is just evaporation. The entire planet is a distillation apparatus if you consider precipitation. Think rain.

8th-grade chemistry reminds us that distillation is essentially mass transfer and phase change. Humans eventually found ways to exploit this otherwise naturally occurring phenomenon through forced propagation techniques.

Enter the Copper Age

Since copper is man’s oldest known metal that dates all the way back to 10,000 years old, it makes perfect sense that after stone, clay, and wooden pottery copper would become a likely candidate material for all manner of utensils. Ancient food and water storage vessels made of copper were used to prevent the growth of pathogens. Is it any wonder that copper tubing is a common material for modern plumbing pipes? Much later copper was also used on the hulls of sailing ships to protect against barnacle growth for example.

As an aside talent, copper also happens to conduct electricity extremely well. On a scale of 1 to 100 copper rates as a 97 with respect to conductivity. Silver being the standard-bearer at 100, and gold at 76. Copper really is a mythically fantastic material that does so many things really well. As luck would have it, copper also happens to be very malleable and for the times, a perfect material for making all manner of needed tools including vessels to hold liquid.

With respect to distillation, copper also has this remarkable ability to sequester sulfides that are produced during the fermentation process of making beer or wine. This basically means that not only did copper become the material of choice for building stills because of its workability, but also exposing fermented beer and wine to copper during the distillation process helped render a better-finished product by eliminating the rotten egg smells associated with less than the optimal fermentation practices of the time. Some modern-day experts even infer that the use of copper has become a crutch for modern distillers to rely on and therefore they may not place as much care into the fermentation process compared to their beer brewing brethren. That is another debate that we may discuss later.

My assertion is that because of all of the above mentioned, copper simply became the de facto material used for the manufacture of distillery equipment. To summarize, copper is easy to work with, has anti-microbial properties, can mitigate negative orders and flavors associated with less-than-optimal fermentation protocols.

Fast Forward

 The origins of stainless steel began in the early 1800s when chromium was shown to have resistive characteristics against strong acids. By 1861, a fellow by the name of Robert Forester Mushet took out a patent on chromium steel in Great Britain. It seems during the 1800s and early 1900s there was a race to discover and exploit the commercial viabilities of this metal that could resist corrosion. By the 1950s and 60s, technologies had advanced far enough along that a large amount of stainless steel could be produced very affordably. There are over 150 grades of stainless steel today. But of those 150, there are 15 grades that are the most commonly used. Today about 90% of all ethanol refineries in the US are built with 304 stainless steel. 

In the food and beverage industry 304 and 316 are the most widely used stainless steels because they do not affect the taste of the finished product and are easily cleaned and sanitized. So naturally stainless steel seems like a good material to use in the distillery environment.

However, stainless steel does not react to the beer or wine with the same type of outcome that copper provides. Though stainless steel is easy to clean and sanitize and has more resistive protection against mild acids compared to copper, stainless steel does not provide the ability to sequester sulfides like copper.

How much is too much?

So, the good news is that you really can’t have too much copper in the vapor path of your distilling equipment. Indeed, unless you have laboratory-type control over your fermentation environment and are an absolute master brewer, you will need to have some copper in the vapor path of your distillation apparatus. Copper, however, has become very expensive and therefore the question more often becomes how much copper in the vapor path can you afford?

At StillDragon we have found a balance of having a thorough amount of copper on the system while also incorporating stainless steel for all of the benefits that brings to the table. 

Certainly, we can build a 100% copper kettle for you. But there are also some more affordable and objectively better choices available.

Here at StillDragon, we believe that the copper material provides the best reactive behavior when in contact with vapor in suspension. Meaning that once the alcoholic liquid gets hot enough to put vapor into suspension, and pressure in the system then forces the vapor to traverse through the distillation circuitry, being exposed to copper surfaces while in vapor form will provide the best reactive outcome. An alcoholic liquid solution like beer or wine can benefit from contacting the floor and walls of a copper kettle. But we feel the most benefit occurs when vapor makes copper contact. 

Some modern systems are built exclusively with stainless steel materials, but do have an accommodation for the insertion of a copper catalyst installed somewhere in the vapor path. Usually at the top of the distillation column. Hot vapor travels toward the top of the column then traverses through the copper catalyst material just before making its way to the product condenser.

There really is no debate that the use of copper when distilling spirits is beneficial for the outcome of the finished spirit. The debate really is how much copper is truly needed? Again, you can never have too much copper in the vapor path of your distillation apparatus? Too much copper never hurts. 

Not enough copper always hurts.

How much copper does one actually need in the vapor path? Well, that depends.

The debate will no doubt rage on. 

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