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StillDragon Australia and My New Boiler

Hi All,

Just wanted to show of a picture of my new boiler and also give a very big thank you to StillDragon Australia.

Back when my distilling days started I purchased a T500 like many. Then I found the online forums and decided I needed to upgrade to a bubbler. When I was doing my shopping I contacted a few “reputable” manufactures and has some bad experience… Then I found SD AU, had a great experience and have never looked back. Since then I have purchased a few items from SD AU and always been pleased.

Most recently I purchased a new custom made bain-marie boiler with agitator. The build size and specs were not exactly off the shelf for the SD AU store so I had a lot of communication with Garry from SD regarding the build, pricing, delivery and of course the accessories for it. The whole experience was painless and a joy.

I just finished running my batch, both fermentation and distilling in the same beast. Damn I very happy with my choice to go BM. Did a rum for the first batch but can’t wait to begin mashing, fermenting and distilling grains in the one vessel.

Big shout out thank you to @punkin from StillDragon Australia

P.S. the insulation the jacket is out of this world! The outer sides are as cool as a cucumber even when running flat out. You can hold you hand there all day. I was very surprised and how efficient on power this beast is.

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Comments

  • Thanks mate, the rig looks fantastic too.

    StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand

  • Nice outfit for sure.

    StillDragon North America - Your StillDragon® Distributor for North America

  • Agitator too?

    Hot Damn that's a little hot rod.

  • Single phase agitator yes.

    StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand

  • Haha that things better than the rig I started production on. Love it

  • Mind sharing the specs and how its powered?

  • @lumpany I see you SA like me. Unbelievable nice beast. You commercial or thinking of going there? What you making? I just got an 8 plate crystal to go on my 4 plate ss 5 inch baby but i only using 50l keg so she is a bit out of balance now. Cant foresee any pot of gold at the moment to get a nice boiler but dont need that much product anyway so will just go for quality. Have not used it yet as people keep wanting me to be employed where as i want to ease into retirement. Just looked at your picture again - it that 3" or 2" pipe at top.

  • @Clickeral It's a 150L insulated jacketed boiler. The jacket is rated at 15PSI and powered by 3 3600 watt elements. On start up I use all 3 elements to bring the mash to a boil. I then back off to about 5Kw for the run, it chugs along well over 3L/h, 90 ABV and jacket pressure only a few PSI.

    @GD50 nice to see a fellow SA member here :) I currently have a 4 inch column attached. The product condenser and top horizontal pipe are 2 inch. I'm just a hobbyist not commercial. I mostly make rum at the moment however my passion and goal is grain based whiskey/bourbons. I purchased the BM to allow for grain mashing/distilling on the grain. Trying to do grain any other way has been a pain in the ass.

  • I figured it was for grain mashing / distilling. I am more a gin raki or ouzzo pisco and rum guy.

  • @lumpany Nice set up. Great to see another south Australian with a great set up, esp for a hobbyist.

  • @punkin what does one of those boilers cost? Also would bumping it up to 200L cost much more :p

  • edited November 2016

    Send me an email if you want to understand a little more about it, but adding a jacket and an agitator means that not only is there nearly twice as much work in it, there is 3 layers of stainless and the wall thickness has to increase when a jacket or an agitator is added.

    So you can start by pretty much doubling the price of an unjacketed tank.

    StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand

  • edited November 2016

    The insulation on the jacket tanks really is something else.

    The efficiency is very good, as you can easily put your bare hands on the tank walls, even 5 hours into the run, and while it's warm, you can comfortably keep your hands there.

    If we don't dump the 1000l at the end of a run, it holds to near 190-200 degrees the next day.

    Absolutely results in lower power input required for heating and through the run. From my calcs, it makes a big difference.

    Likewise on heat up, the agitator is really a time saver cutting the heat-up time significantly - in my case, it's 30 minutes less with the agitator on.

  • Damn, that's one nice rig.

  • The insulation also really locks in the temp for when you are fermenting too! I would never go back to a non insulated boiler.

    For anyone else who does grain mashing the jacket can be used to cool the mash too. Just run cold tap water through the jacket and out the bottom taps.

    Considering what we pay for electricity in Australia I'm certain the insulation and BM setup will pay its self off over time.

  • I haven't seen the layout but it would make sense to run up through the bottom so the jacket is flooded, otherwise it's mostly air in there.
    I had to have a heap of pipe work redone on some tank jacketing for that reason when the fabricator didn't read the bloody drawings properly.

  • Good pick up @jacksonbrown, I have been opening the front port to release any pressure and avoid it being full of air. I might try your suggestion next time

  • Either way it'll fill up, so long as more flow is going in than coming out that is.

    StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand

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