I guess you'd have to start by looking at what your regulations say about vodka.

Food and Drug Regulations @ Justice Laws Website Canada

Vodka B.02.080 [S]. (1) Vodka shall be a potable alcoholic distillate obtained from potatoes, cereal grain or any other material of agricultural origin fermented by the action of yeast or a mixture of yeast and other micro-organisms.

(2) The distillate shall be treated with charcoal or other means so that the vodka is without distinctive character, aroma or taste.

(3) Vodka produced, in whole or in part, from material of agricultural origin other than potatoes or cereal grain, shall carry in close proximity to the common name, the statement “produced from” followed by the name of all material of agricultural origin used.

Seems you are not restricted to proof off the still etc, unless i just haven't googled properly (likely). If that proves to be the case you can use any combination of methods to render it tasteless and odourless and may not need to do it purely with plates.

Try asking on their forum? [-O<

Butch's corn/shitstorm is my all-time favorite. I tell it every time somebody asks me about getting the liquid out of fermented-on-grain corn. I hope he's healed up by now.

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@needmorstuff said: I have spent the last few hours looking at how to stop things going brown, about all i came up with was adding lemon juice! not exactly something i could sell.

The concept is an anti-oxidant. Many of the organic compounds in a fruit are subject to browning reaction - oxidation. No chem lesson, but oxidation can involve sulphur, iron, but in this case most likely atmospheric oxygen. Anti-oxidants are merely chemicals which are more prone to oxidize without bad color or flavor effects and therefore protect the food product quality. Some oxidation reactions in fruit are driven enzymatically, but these aren't, I think, of much concern in a high ethanol solution. Citric acid is a weak anti-oxidant. Raspberries and a lot of fruits contain natural phenolic anti-oxidants like quercetin, but this is bitter in quantity. There are literally hundreds of approved food anti-oxidants, but you'd want advice from a food chemist wrt which one would work in this circumstance (and legal jurisdiction).

Interestingly ascorbic acid is another weak anti-oxidant present in most fruits, but tends to brown the anthocyanins causing many fruit colors.

Yeah - avoid oxygen contact. Nitrogen is your friend. O2 is only a little less soluble in ethanol than water, and for both increases with temperature.

Whenever there is a hurricane coming our way, the shelves are stripped of bottled water, TP, and rice. The same thing is happening here now.
Toilet paper? Really?
Hello? - Coronaviruses are respiratory infections, not stomach infections. (No diarrhea)

The USCDC just reported that one's susceptibility to being affected by COVID-19 is directly proportional to one's susceptibility to fake news (aka irrational hysteria).

Reminiscent of the Y2K end-of-the-worlders back in the day.

@zymurgybob people (read idiots) are stockpiling. dunno why.

Toilet paper shortage from coronavirus panic buying sees argument break out at Woolworths in Sydney @ ABC News AU

Easy Order @ LaserMaster Ltd (UK)

Like this?

Black EPDM - Standard Orifice Plate @ GVC Direct, Inc.

For example: Consequences of a Lower pH @ Ethanol Produzer Magazine

At an ethanol plant experiencing bacterial contamination, lowering the pH in the propagator/fermenter is typically the first step used to control bacterial growth. Phibro’s Diagnostic Kit services show that over 80 percent of the bacterial contamination in ethanol plants is from the lactic acid bacteria (LAB) family. The pH for optimal growth of most LAB is between 5.5 and 5.8. In contrast, S. cerevisiae yeast can tolerate and multiply better than most bacteria in acidic environments—from pH 4.0 to 6.5.

Knowing this, it seems logical to lower the pH during contamination to inhibit the bacteria while allowing the yeast to grow.

At the risk of being the RTFM guy, there's a couple of cooling options explained in detail by @crozdog in the Dash manual stickied up top that apply the same for the Baby Dragon:

The StillDragon Operation Manuals

Welcome, you are about to turn your spirits from 'homebrew' to artisan.

Make them coin-op and retire on the proceeds.

As @SingleMaltYinzer says, acetobacters metabolize oxygen and alcohol into acetic acid (vinegar). If you can keep a carbon dioxide, or pure nitrogen gas blanket over the surface of your ferment, acetobacters will not be able to get a foothold in the absence of oxygen.

I use carbon dioxide from my beer kegging system to purge the air out of the headspace over my long-term stored ferments. A friend of mine does the same thing using argon from his welder.

Stay away from sulfite additions. They carry-over into the distilled spirit bigly.

Ferreira wins Pipe Masters. Slater wins Triple Crown of Surfing

Sheep's whey and wakame: Tasmania's off-beat gin boom @ The Guardian

Both use SD kit & make fantastic products. Well done guys.

Hi,

After reading that some of you guys use aquarium heaters to keep a fermentation warm, I thought I'd give it a go. I'm using a 300W German-made titanium heater in a 250L fermenter which doesn't have any element control. I figured this would be more reliable by switching the heater on/off via a separate temp controller.

It worked great the first time. The second time, it has burnt out 3 days into the fermentation. I had it set to 30°C and the fermentation is largely finished (rum fermentation). When I looked at the heater tube, I can see that there is a 2-inch band of yeast which has "cooked" onto the titanium casing. Presumably that's the reason for the burn-out.

Has anyone had this issue before and how did you get around it please? Since the yeast will drop out of suspension as the fermentation dies down, it's surely inevitable that yeast will be exposed to the heater, because it's positioning is in the bottom third of the tank?

Hi guys,

Currently busy working out a design for a still with both pot still and high-reflux characteristics. Currently looking at a 4" Crystal Dragon on a 150L vessel. Would this (possibly with additional segments) give close-to-azeotropic when running in high-reflux using the dephleg, while still flavoursome alcohol when not (or hardly) using the dephleg at all? or will either of those be sub-optimal?

Alternatively, I was thinking of using one of the 2" ports (or both!) to fit a simple pot still column, for stripping or whiskey while having a crystal on the main 4" port). I guess I would need a valve at the top so I can run it in pot still mode. Not sure if this makes any sense :P. Or, maybe even Tee halfway on the column?

Maybe I'm overcomplicating things.. :) Appreciate your input!

Holy Christ. Lotta talk with no answer.

You need a still with a gin basket to start.

1. If you buy neutral spirits then you’d want a bottle filler and labeller and some stainless work tables and some pumps and hoses.
2. If you want to ferment your own alcohol you’ll need a very tall column still of at least 16 plates to make a neutral spirit. The boiler will want to be the same size as the fermenters or some equal fraction there-of.
3. Then you’d want a second smaller still with a gin basket.
4. If you are going to do grain then you basic setup will need a Mash Tun and two fermenters of the same size as the mash tun as well as a grain grinder and a dewatering press for the grain.
5. You’ll want a lab bench to work and out your test equipment and lab instruments.

You’ll want a few scales. Fine, medium and pallet scale. Also a pallet jack or small forklift/pallet lift.

I have no idea what you’d want in a tasting room.

As mentioned above, you can get to 96% using 5 or 6 plates, a packed section and a slow take off rate/high reflux rate. No-one had ever complained about having too many plates or too many packed columns when it comes to making neutral. Don't skimp.

A VM configuration would be my suggestion.

It's worth noting that you will only get 96% for a very short time, after that, the abv will slowly drop.

Collect in lots of numbered jars and leave the kids off overnight. Come back the next day and grade them to make your hearts cut.

To achieve a constant 96% abv requires a very different and far more expensive setup.

Thanks @CothermanDistilling - completely understand you can't provide one-to-one support :-)