Clarifying Molasses

moscca

This is the result of 3 molasses runs of 80 L. The scaling did not improve after clarifying I think.

The second run I put a dirty plate in the boiler and it came out this way:

Can't be happier with that result, but I got me thinking that maybe everything removed from the dirty plate is now scaling my plates in use.

It is clear that plate n° 1 has no more "copper function" since the part where the vapor is in contact with the copper is completely scaled.

M.

Lloyd

Real nice, Moscca. How long did it take in the boiler to clean the plate?
Awhile back Punkin said that soaking dirty copper in hot backset was good. He was right. A soak of 3 or 4 hours and the copper was like new again.

moscca

My trials to clarify molasses with calcium hydroxide and aluminum sulfate will be for next holiday. My pH meter was broken and a new one is still on his way.

moscca

@Lloyd said: Real nice, Moscca. How long did it take in the boiler to clean the plate?
Awhile back Punkin said that soaking dirty copper in hot backset was good. He was right. A soak of 3 or 4 hours and the copper was like new again.

It stayed in the boiler during the run, +/- 6 hours.

moscca

Back home finally, so back to distilling.

Cleaned my bubble plates by cooking them an hour in 2 L water + 2 Tsp citric acid. Left them overnight and still had to clean them on the inner parts... so I will continouing with my clarifying.

I put in a 1 gallon jug 2 L water and 1 L molasses @ 70 C.
6 hours later I had already this result.

The next morning it was a bit more defined. But I think that 6-7 hours is ok for separating the sludge.

I tried it in the juge because of its conical shape and it works. with a flat bottem you don't realize so good the sludge. Now I will see what effect it has on the scaling. This molasses is very liquid, so I think it will even be worse with thicker molasses. I will not place dirty plates in my boiler again to clean, because I think it will deposit more scaling on the plates in the column.

M

Smaug

Hi Mossca, Though it can be difficult to acquire a consistant molasses analysis from batch to batch,,,do you have a feel for what percentage of volume within your vessel will settle down as sludge/solids?

Smaug

Molasses clarification Unit

LunaBrille

Damn, I want one of those funnels

moscca

@Smaug said: Hi Mossca, Though it can be difficult to acquire a consistant molasses analysis from batch to batch,,,do you have a feel for what percentage of volume within your vessel will settle down as sludge/solids?

It is around 40 ml for 1 liter molasses with this "liquid" molasses, but I had the idea that with my other batch molasses it was the double. But now I'm thinking, unless those solids are bad for fermentation, why bother clarifying ? If it settles down already after 6-7 hours then it will be certenly settled after 3 days fermenting and by racking it in your boiler it stays in your fermenter. More test will sort it out. I bought this small 3 gallon beer fermenter and am doing trials here.

I'm now playing a bit with incremental feeding. I started with 5 L molasses wash @ 17 Brix, SG = 1.074 or 9.6% pot. alc. and 22gr bakers yeast My idea was to feed 35 Brix wash when the ferment was 10-11 brix, but it was already 8.5 when I checked. So I put now 1 L wash of 35 Brix more. When it falls again to 10-11 Brix I will put again 1 L at 35 Brix. I hope to get 11-12% pot alc this way. Later I'll do a ferment with the same amount of molasses, but in 1 time, no incemental and se the difference I will repeat this with DAP and see what it the difference. I think with DAP it will go faster, but that is not what I'm looking for. Maybe I can get more alcohol with DAP, I'll see.