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Commercial Practices, Equipment for Micro Distilleries, Tips&Tricks, Info Exchange and Photos

Hello everyone,

My name is Patrick from Falbygdens Distillery AB in Sweden, which is a small and relatively new legal distillery that will produce single malt whiskey with full flavor smoked & non-smoked and vodka of the same mash, single malt vodka and a lot of different spirit types in between as desire and interest incur, everything hand-made ​​in small batches.

My intention with this thread is that small commercial producers exchange experiences, equipment, tips, recipes and how efficiency of our common chore for it differs between countries, both in equipment, recipes, ingredients for booze and how we make our products.

So if you are operating 8" of column diameter and larger please post pictures and information on the result that comes out as a product on the other end!

That's one side of the larger artillery and everything related to that size ... and with many many photos to come ....

Cheers from a badly writing and spelling
harley :ar!

Posting beautified by Moonshine (harley, your writing & spelling is not bad at all! With an international audience there surely will be a lot more non-native English speakers joining in over time)

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Comments

  • Here! Here! Way to go, Patrick/Harley. Everyone, especially me, is interested in your journey. Any and all small details are welcome. We gobble this stuff up!

    (Keep your camera in your left hand and your laptop in your right hand so we can stay up-to-date)

  • It will be great to have a place for the commercial guys to post and if it grows like i think it will we may be able to turn it into a forum section in time. Great idea Harley.

    It will be good to offer a more relaxed alternative to ADI.

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

  • edited June 2013

    Welcome, Your feedback is appreciated and post on so hopefully we can exchange ideas and experiences that will benefit us all, for gives you so you can expect to get the opportunity to also take and it benefits all of us sooner or later, small or big ... Photos say a lot and are enjoyed by many ... Unfortunately, I have in the current situation nothing quite freshly drawn but a lot of "old pictures" of my equipment (available on other forums ) that is being slowly but surely coming together .. Cheers

  • harley.... You asked about my wheat mash. I use Soft White Winter Wheat as it has the highest starch and lowest protein of the wheat's that are produced. Below is my process and recipe.

    Straight Wheat Wash using no Malted Grain. 985L or 260 US Gallons of Wash. @ 5% +/-

    1325L water treated with Campden to eliminate the chlorides in the water. 204kg Wheat freshly ground. (You will have to fine the grind that works for you and your setup) .6kg Gypsum 150g High temperature Alpha-Amylase Liquid Enzyme 150g Beta-glucanase enzyme (Viscosity Buster) Liquid Enzyme 150g Glucoamylase Liquid Enzyme

    1. Bring all water to 100c in boiler.
    2. Pump 662L of 100c water to Mash Tun/Lauter Tun/Combi Tun. ( My Combi Tun is 1900L Total Capacity but I only use about 40% of the capable volume with this process)
    3. Add .6kg Gypsum
    4. Add 150g Beta-glucanase enzyme (Viscosity Buster) Liquid Enzyme
    5. Quickly stir in 204kg of ground wheat. Shooting for Strike Temp of 88c with Grain Mashed in.
    6. Add 150g High temperature Alpha-Amylase Liquid Enzyme
    7. Check PH and adjust if needed to 5.6ph
    8. Stir every 15min intervals for 90 mins. Temp should say above 63c. ( The hotter the better if you have a RIMS system try to maintain closer to 88c )
    9. Sparge over the top until running's are acceptably clear.
    10. Extract 1st running thru wort chiller with output to fermenter at 26c. First running are usually 14-15 Brix.
    11. Collect 360L of 1st running's to fermenter.
    12. Batch Sparge with the remaining 663L of 100c water.
    13. Stir well for 15min.
    14. Sparge over the top until running's are acceptably clear.
    15. Extract 2nd running thru wort chiller with output to fermenter at 26c. Second running are usually 7-8 Brix.
    16. Collect 624L of 2nd runnings to fermenter.
    17. Add 150g Glucoamylase Liquid Enzyme to fermenter.
    18. Check PH of wash in fermenter and adjust to 5.2ph if needed.
    19. Test Total Brix. Normally 10 Brix. +/-
    20. Add Yeast.

    Should give you 985L of wash at 10 Brix or 5% ABV. The Glucoamylase added to the fermenter allows me to ferment very dry to .990-.995 as it breaks down all the long chain sugars to short chain that the yeast can convert easily.

  • Excellent. Nice write up RDD.

    StillDragon North America - Your StillDragon® Distributor for North America

  • edited June 2013

    Thank you very much, This is the ferment of unmalted barley and I have no experience of and always wondered how to get out the sugar when you do not Malting the grain to to convert starch into sugar. This recipe I have to try it when it's all finished and I get going for it is an extreme difference in the cost of raw materials on malted and unmalted barley ... Thank you again.

    Cheers

  • Harley, Barley is not wheat its in the grass family if i remember correctly..

    RDD shared a wheat recipe: HE SAID: **********You asked about my wheat mash. I use Soft White Winter Wheat **********as it has the highest starch and lowest protein of the wheat's that are produced.

    HE continues: Below is my process and recipe.Straight Wheat Wash using no Malted Grain.

  • Hello Fs, Yes you have right.

    wheat, oats, barley and rye are the four seed types that we have here in Sweden

    But we call - says wheat grain, oat grain, usually barley and rye ... and usually actually just grains common to all these four types of grain, when you translate it via Google when it might be a bit wrong meaning sometimes unfortunately ... and once I see it with my own eyes then my time to change this expired unfortunately ... as you all know, I am Swedish ...

    This with vodka in wheat is very interesting and especially when you do not have to ferment it because then you can buy it directly from the farmer and the price of wheat is so cheap here in Sweden so many uses wheat to heat their houses in winter, they burn up it and it is cheaper than wood shavings and other waste from the forest ..

    Cheers

  • They burn the wheat grain or the wheat straw left after the grain is harvested?

  • wheat grain for it works perfectly with a screw from a magazine and a special burner that sits right in the heatpan-houseboiler, the downside is that it gets a bit much ash from wheat grains only ...

  • You could use a similar recipe for unmalted Barley. But you would need to adjust the total kg of grain and water. Using the 3 liquid enzymes you can totally avoid the need for malted grain. But as I indicated above you strike it as hot as you can as you are not limited by the temp issues of malted grain and killing off the amalayse.

  • edited June 2013

    This is to avoid having to buy malting barley and insted use of unmalted barley in vodka production is something I'm really interested. I'm a novice on how to do it, for almost everyone here in Sweden are using malted barley and the price difference between malted and note malted is big becouse a can buying note-unmalted barley directly from the farmer and this is about 5-7 times cheaper then a buy it when it is malted from the big manufaktures

    Are you able to make a recipe - procedures in the same way as you have done for the winter wheat so I would be very grateful.

    Cheers

  • edited June 2013

    This with sieve plates is something that I have "snowed in" on really well and I have put many, many hours trying to optimize an 8 "to maximum, both production speed as user friendliness, and both get as much product per hour as it just goes from 8 "to both max speed as I should have when I distill vodka and a lower speed for whiskey, this I hope to achieve through the 1.5 mm hole and about 10% of the wet active surface.

    Here are some pictures of the different versions of the same plate in 8 "but with different numbers of 1.5 mm holes and even different holes%, which will depend on whether you roll a copper plate around the plate or pinched between 2pc 8 "ferrules ..

    Cheers

  • edited June 2013

    I also have a homemade cip head in pure copper (an x squared with hacksaw in caps) so I can squirt warm water on each plates after distillation, I will have 3pc interconnected to each crane then I get enough pressure so I will be satisfied.

    Cheers

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  • But there will be a difference in flavour between malted/unmodified.

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

  • edited June 2013

    Then, as you look at picture # 5 on the far right, where I've really maximized the plate with 28mm returnpipe with waporlock the cup in the air, as much as I can and there is about 1730pc 1.5 mm holes and the plate is about 203mm 8 "in external dimensions and puts it on - pinched between 2pc 8 "ferrules having an internal diameter of about 197mm, it becomes wet activation surface about 10.3%. becouse it is the size 197mm that counts...

    Should I instead choose to roll a copper plate around this 203mm large 8 "plates with 28mm return pipe with vapor lock the cup in the air and about 1730pc 1.5mm hole (same as my big copper column), then the wet activa surface decrease and become about 9; 8%. so with this I want to show that you have to count on the diameter of the column where the plate is fixed and the surface area of the plate that is-gets wet ....

    Same plate but with 197mm pipe-column = about 10,3% Same plate but with 203mm pipe-column= about 9,8% cheers

  • As you can see, it is a small round copper plate in the middle that's where soldered and there sat my 8mm threaded rod so I got all the distans right when all the plates brazed there with copper solder and since then, I took this away for it had served its purpose and made just ugly through the sight glass ... This 8 "copper column is made in the tradional way with 28mm return pipe standing in a cup forming vapor lock, and this takes a lot of unnecessary plate area to use so this is not in my view a maximal solution but I did not know better when it was constructed. If you look at picture # 3 from the left and you'll see how much the plate surface that is not active and this means that i have only about 1444pc 1.5mm hole in this plate and it is about 8%...

    Cheers

  • Hi punkin, "But there will be a difference in flavour between malted/unmodified."

    yes a think so, but it shall be intresting to taste the differents... and a shall use it to make neutral becouse all my neutral a shall allso cleaning by let it go by about 3 meter 4 "pipe with the Active carbon so it'll not taste anything ... and then I can add flavor to it that I want. A new rule has come to the EU if you use pure sugar so you must indicate this on your bottles and then it will probably not be so easily sold directly ... whatever you flavor it with ...

    Cheers

  • Correct. I would only plan to use this for Vodka or Neutral spirits. But I do plan to see how it works for a wheat whiskey. When I run my strip runs now at about 60% what I get tastes good an almost like a soft white whiskey. I plan to put some into small oak and see how it ages. It does totally lack any smokiness so definatly would not be scotch like in anyway.

  • @reddoordistillery, good write up of your mashing process thanks.

    As a passionate AG home brewer, I don't quite understand a couple of your comments. Could you please clarify a couple of things?

    I believe that you're batch sparging, so on your 1st runnings why do you say you are you sparing before taking any runoff (steps 9/10)? Don't you just runoff from the tun to your chiller then add the hot liquor for the batch sparge?

    For the 2nd runnings you say you add extra liquor in step 12, let sit & stir but why "sparge over the top"? That seems to me that you are doing a combination of batch & fly sparging. Is that right?

    cheers crozdog

  • You just recirculate till you get clear runnings croz. On my set up it,s only a litre or two.

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

  • AHHH I get it now reddoor is doing a vourlouf before draining his runnings to the wort chiller.

    cheers punkin

  • Correct. I should not have said sparge. But I am not quite sure what the right word for it is. For me I run it for about 15mins over the top to use the grain bed to clarify the runnings as much as possible before heading to the cooler and then to the fermenter. Yes I Vorlauf.

  • My Current Setup. 350 Gallon Boiler. 8x 5500w Elements 44,000 Total Watts. 4" SS 5' long Column packed with SS Scrubbers. Will look a lot better once I have my new 8" Crystal Dragon sitting on there. ;)

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  • My Grain Grinder. Grinds out 450lbs or 204kg per hour.

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  • Thanks for clarifying @Reddoordistiller. Makes sense. Nice setup you got there.

    Is your boiler made from a SS dangerous goods IBC?

  • edited June 2013

    Now I see your problem with the height-column height, but you can solve this in a relatively simple way by putting a "kind of ventilation hood" for you seem to have the column as well as on the roof's highest point, a 1 meter by 1 meter ventilation hood and about 1 meter high look good from the outside and does not require a building permit from the authorities in Sweden anyway ...

    Just a tip on how you can get 1 meter more to the ceiling in a simple and inexpensive way .. and then you can have 1 meter higher column ;-) then a think that you can get yours "target" in one destillation, so this ventialtions hood safe both time and money for you....

    Cheers

  • edited June 2013

    Now when you upgrade from 4 "to 8" column size you need to have control on the temp in -on both last plate space and also water-temperature in the reflux condenser, and it is much easier to make next batch-distillation same as before... so it all taste same ;-) This is as far as I know, solve the 2pc way when it gets so high in the air so you do not see a picture on a fixed thermometer. Watch this little video clip from YouTube how hill billy stills have solved this problem in a simple and inexpensive way and without having need for electric power ...

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVpcSRjep58

    Fester can maybe fix these 2pc "manual" thermometers with about 2 meter long copper tubes to the sensors for you in china for you or maybe they are available in United States.

    A more expensive and, more automated option is to cover an automatic reflux control from swede, check out this link, he is friendly and knowledgeable to talk to and he has delivered all my control panels to my distillery ..

    Distiller Controls - Swede's Custom Control Systems >> Dephlegmator Control Center

    Cheers

  • edited June 2013

    Harley i have moved your last post to your other thread. If you would like it somewhere else please send me a message. Please keep your progress posts where they will be in sequence in the other thread and keep this thread as what you intended it to be. We would like to see plenty more involvement from our commercial producers here in the format you originally proposed.

    My intention with this thread is that small commercial producers exchange experiences, equipment, tips, recipes and how efficiency of our common chore for it differs between countries, both in equipment, recipes, ingredients for booze and how we make our products.

    So if you are operating 8" of column diameter and larger please post pictures and information on the result that comes out as a product on the other end!

    StillDragon Housekeeping - Longing for a clean & tidy Forum

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