iStill NextGen

Place for craft/micro distillers in all stages of build to show and share.

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Odin
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iStill NextGen

Post by Odin »

I have developed a new line of stills with quite some innovations. They go under the name NextGen and the goal, when designing them was twofold. First, I wanted our stills to offer 30 years longevity combined with 10 years of warranty. Secondly, I wanted our innovation curve to go up. Improved performance, improved efficiency, and process integration.

Things that may be interesting to discuss here. Like that the boiler is square (flush square to be exact), has a special agitator, and can be used for mashing, fermenting, and distilling. This unit is tailored for distilling taste rich product.

Here is a picture of the iStill 2000 NextGen. 2000 liter boiler, automated cuts. This version will, in the near future, distill gin and whisky. It has a column that consists of 4 parts: redistillation chamber, product collection chamber, product purity selector and column cooler. And there's packing inside. Our new Helicon Column Packing. Like SPP, only not prismatic, but heliconal.

The column can be dialed in on anything from 1 to 5 distillations during normal production runs, and can be stabilized for further heads compaction. Also, during the run, a multiple distillation approach can be done. Like you dial up the amount of redistillations near the end of the run to keep tails at bay.

Regards, Odin.
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Re: iStill NextGen

Post by bitter »

istill 2 would be he name I would give it.. Its the second generation so the 2 and its square... but a mtath guy might frown on the pun.

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Re: iStill NextGen

Post by Odin »

Thanks for the advice, Bitter!

For now we'll keep it at iStill and NextGen.

Here's a picture of 8 of our iStills 100 NextGen. We have a very interesting day ahead, coming Monday, with 6 distilleries visiting us on the same day. Four come over to collect their iStills 100 NextGen, two come to play with the iStills 2000 NextGen. People from the UK, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the USA.

The party will start on Sunday evening, when we'll all have dinner together, here in Woerden. Starting with (what else?) a gin - tonic that's got Odins Gin in it.

On Monday we'll spend the whole day training and making gin and rum together. I guess we'll end the day at the iStill Bar that's nearing completion and should be up and ready by Friday afternoon.

I'll try to share some pictures!

Regards, Odin.
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Four iStills 100 NextGen to be delivered on Monday, the other four will go one week later ...
Four iStills 100 NextGen to be delivered on Monday, the other four will go one week later ...
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Re: iStill NextGen

Post by Odin »

Here's a picture of another iStill 2000 NextGen that will meet it's new owners next week. In test configuration. Over the last week, it mashed and fermented and distilled 2000 liters of product.

Regards, Odin.
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Re: iStill NextGen

Post by bitter »

Darn those look nice!
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Re: iStill NextGen

Post by Odin »

All the units that are being picked up on Monday are now assembled, tested and disassembled. Here's a picture with one unit still standing tall.

Regards, Odin.
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Re: iStill NextGen

Post by cuginosgrizzo »

Beautiful....what is the behemoth in the background?
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Re: iStill NextGen

Post by Odin »

On the background are two 500's and one 2000, so I guess that's the behemoth you are referring to, Cuginos! Glad you like it.

We have full PLC and industrial standard robotization on most units. Pretty darn expensive. So, for the smaller iStill 100 NextGen, we decided to also offer a "light" option of automation. Mini-PLC, with SD-cart for updates, touch screen, graphics, SSR, etc.

Here are three first pictures of how the user interface will look like. Project is nearing completion. I expect we testrun in on Friday or Saturday. That's next weekend. This weekend has some great stuff ahead as well. Going to make brandy in that 2000 liter behemoth!

Anyhow, more on that later. Here are the pics:

Regards, Odin.
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The flames actually move!
The flames actually move!
Dial in your settings.
Dial in your settings.
Graphs of your run.
Graphs of your run.
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Re: iStill NextGen

Post by Odin »

Here's a picture of an iStill 500 NextGen. This one is going to the UK next week.

Regards, Odin.
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Re: iStill NextGen

Post by skow69 »

Way cool graphics, Odin! What type columns are they? CM, LM, VM, plates?

EDIT: I just reread about the 4 part column packed with HCP. Fascinating. Sounds like a whole new genre. Could you explain more about that or is it an iStill secret?
Last edited by skow69 on Sat Sep 24, 2016 11:51 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: iStill NextGen

Post by Odin »

iSecret ...

;)

Regards, Odin.
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Re: iStill NextGen

Post by skow69 »

Righton. So I'll have to buy one to find out, eh? lol. It sure sounds cool.

Best of luck with the new product. I just love innovations, modifications, extrapolations, and creative applications.
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Re: iStill NextGen

Post by Odin »

If you are ever in my neck of the woods, come by and let's do a run together, Skow!

Oh, some things are so much fun. Today we did a run on a distillers wine in the 2000 liter unit. Supposed to be around 10%. Nice percentage for brandy making, right? I decide to stabilize to compact heads. Temperatures don't make sense. Around 100 degrees Celsius and a bit above. How's that possible? What's going on? When we start collection, the first liters comes of at ... 7%. WTF? Turns out the wine was closer to 0.1% than 10%!

Some more fun on testing that new column, Skow. The potstill with benefits. Now, the original potstill column had three probes. One in the heaters, one in the column base, and one in the cooler. Imagine the PLC being designed in such a way to deal with those probes and the input they give. Let's say T3 (top probe) measures above 50 C. That probably means lack of cooling, so the system automatically shuts down and gives a warming. T1: if it's above 120 C, there must be dry cooking in the boiler, so - again - the system stops and gives a warning. T2, the one in the column measures vapor temps. You dial in temps for when to finish heads, hearts, tails, and it directs heads to the heads outlet, tails to the tails outlet, etc.. Now, I took down the old column and put The Big Tasty on it instead. Right, with redistillation chamber, our new HCP ... and two more holes / connectors (whatever you call them) for probes. So we can measure in and above the redistillation chamber. Great to see how the packing and redistillations influence product ABV and purity ...

Now, we only have one more spare space in the PLC (that was originally designed for just 3 probes). So ... let's put the probe above the redistillation chamber, so we can measure product entering the column (T2) and product ready to be taken out (a new probe: T3). Remember we still have T1 in the heaters and T4 in the cooler. So one of my automation & control engineers adds the new probe, adds it to the PLC, redesigns the touch screen so it gets displayed.

All right, I start the run by dialing in some parameters. Like this:
1. Switch from 100% heat-up power to 55% run power when T3 (the new probe!) reaches 50 C;
2. Collect heads until T3 is 82 C;
3. Collect hearts until T2 (column base) is 96 C;
4. Collect tails until T2 is 98 C.

So I start the run ... and the rigs heats up and heats up. And then it heats up some more. T3 is 50 C. T3 is 60C. T3 even gets to 82 C and nothing happens. It doesn't switch to run power and a lower agitation level. It doesn't take heads. What the heck is going on? I call my engineer, who's at home by then, and I connect the unit to the internet so he can see what goes on. What the problem was? He renamed the new probe T4. So we were sorta trying to manage the column via ... the column cooler temperature! And since that never gets to 50 C, the unit saw no reason to switch to the next step. Luckily the new design is internet connected, so he could change T4 (cooler temp) to T3 (temp above redistillation chamber), and within a minute I could restart my run and now with great success.

Long term solution? All units get 5 probes. Even if they are not used all the time. That way nothing can get mixed up by Odin wanting to change columns last minute!

It's fun, increadible fun to have been able to take this from the hobby level to the pro level. Quite the adventure. And sometimes it feels like it is only just beginning ... For sure there are more crazy situations ahead. I'll try to share the stories as they come along.

Regards, Odin.
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Re: iStill NextGen

Post by ga flatwoods »

Odin you will be a miserable man having to go back to just a pot, column, and worm when the SHTF! With your programming anyone that can follow directions should be able to make a product as long as IStill gives them the program for a certain product. Does the Distiller have complete control of the timing and temp cuts in these new units? What if they do not know the science behind it, would they be lost ?
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Re: iStill NextGen

Post by Odin »

Those are great questions, GA. You always want to be prepared for the best ... and the worst. I'll dive in deeper on how we do that.

First, we have gas fired units and electrically heated units. Say you lose electric power on a gas fired rig, well, as long as you have water and gas, you run. You may run by taste or by abv, using the optional parrot.

Now, say you run electric and there's no electricity. Well, in that case of course you do have an issue. But say it's an intermediate problem. You can fire the rig, but not the computers. In that case, we have manual versions, where you control product purity. No problem there. You cannot run by temp and by automated cuts, but you can still run the unit by taste and by abv.

Okay, what about the robotized version. For sure if there's power to the heaters but not to the automation, the robot will be closed, so no product comes out. But the robot is fed through a line that can be bypassed. So as long as you have power and cooling water you can run any of our rigs manually.

But more importantly, we have imposed a new build strategy, where our goal is to build the best quality rigs in the world. It added 50% material, and imagine we now have Netherlands made solenoids that cost EUR 74,- a piece, but heck are they better than the online stuff you can buy more affordable! Anyone that comes over should lift our three valve system for cuts collections. You need two hands. "Build strategy" is not a hollow term. We offer 10 year warranty.

Also, on how easy it is to run our rigs, please know that our units have two distillation programs. One for pot distillation and one for robotized distillation (if you have the robotized version of the column). In the pot distillation program the distiller can dial in power settings and agitator settings during heat-up and during the actual run (you ay want to tune both down when the run starts). He (she) can also dial in temperatures for cuts, so that the correct valve opens. Heads in the heads container, hearts in the hearts container, tails in the tails receiver. It's that easy. Anyone that knows pot distilling can do it.

See the pics underneath for the settings and run screen for pot distillation mode. I think they are pretty much self explaining.

Robotized distilling is on the one hand easier and more difficult. It's easy because the unit guides you through the steps. You can take fores, heads, hearts, tails at whatever purity level you want. But since there's more you can play with, it is something you can easily do wrong. Say you dial in 96 C for end of Hearts and 95 C for end of Tails instead of the other way around, of course the unit will not collect Hearts until 96 C, but will switch to tails at 95 C. And what about people pushing the power to 100% during the run?

In other words, understanding of what happens while distilling, and how we automated and robotized that, is essential. All of our (future) customers always come over for a day of training, so they understand our philosophy on distilling. We also do a few runs together, so that they get training. What we also have is preset values that are pretty much fool proof. Factory settings so to say. But on the background the distiller can dial in anything, actually pretty much program a run if he wants to. And we have two people available online, to look into their rigs and help them out if they feel they need guidance.

Regards, Odin.
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Re: iStill NextGen

Post by Odin »

From Sunday till Tuesday we had a total of 13 distillers visiting us for training and to pick up their stills. I'll share a few pics underneath!

Great times. Inspiring and also tiring. Didn't sleep much for the last few days, but boy did we have fun together!

Regards, Odin.
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Re: iStill NextGen

Post by Odin »

Automating an iStill 100 NextGen. Computer and touch screen are integrated on this unit and can be mounted on the wall. More on that later.

Regards, Odin.
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Re: iStill NextGen

Post by Odin »

iStill 100 NextGen with wall mounted computer. Project is nearing completion ...

Regards, Odin.
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Re: iStill NextGen

Post by Odin »

Just back from an awesome London Distilling Expo. Updates on that later. Still in the recovery phase. But here's a picture of a distillery from Sweden that just started using the iStill 100 NextGen for product development.

Regards, Odin.
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Re: iStill NextGen

Post by Odin »

Here's a link to a blog post with the story of our visit to the London Craft Distilling Expo that we sponsored last week. With lots of pics:

https://istillblog.wordpress.com/2016/1 ... ling-expo/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Regards, Odin.
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Re: iStill NextGen

Post by Odin »

How's that for versatility?

Regards, Odin.
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Re: iStill NextGen

Post by Odin »

Coming week I'll be in Utah, the week after that in Scotland. If any of you want to have a drink, please let me know!

I also got interviewed on my company for Whisky Magazine. I hope I can put the pdf in this post. Otherwise, I'll try to upload a link of some sort. Interesting read, especially for those wanting to learn Dutch! ;)

We have also been approached to be part of a documentary on tv.

Interesting times ahead!

Regards, Odin.

PS: uploading the pdf seems to work!
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Re: iStill NextGen

Post by Odin »

We deisigned a new robot. iStill Robot 3.0. To help make alcohol production even easier. The first robot had an accuracy of 0.1 mm. The second one was 10 times more accurate. This new one is again twice as accurate (0.005 mm). More importantly it can go from one position to any other one. That makes it possible to start working with feed forward loops. Predicting where things will go and our robot still head anticipating.

Here's a picture of first "dry" tests. We'll continue feeding in theoretical situations for the coming 2 weeks. After that we'll start "wet" tests, making actual product with this new unit.

Here's a graph of a first test.

Regards, Odin.
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Re: iStill NextGen

Post by Odin »

Here's a link to a tv coverage of how they make cranberry vodka with the iStills on the island of Texel. Beware, it is in Dutch!

http://www.npo.nl/texelse-wodka/11-11-2 ... KN_5944569" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Regards, Odin.
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Re: iStill NextGen

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Here's a picture of a 500 liter unit we just put on transport to Canada.

Regards, Odin.
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Re: iStill NextGen

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Here are some pictures of a 2000 liter iStill that is on its way to the Orkney Islands ...

Regards, Odin.
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Re: iStill NextGen

Post by Odin »

And today we will ship yet another iStill 500 NextGen. This unit will go to Ireland. It has fully automated mashing, fermenting and distilling (pot and reflux) capability and is - as all of our new units - internet connected for easy management and remote control and so we can send future software updates. Heck, we can even run these units from Amsterdam HQ, if the customer insists. Or we can help the distiller with dialing in recipes for pretty much anything. From rum and whiskey to vodka and GNS or gin.

Regards, Odin.
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Re: iStill NextGen

Post by Odin »

Here's an iStill Blog post on first wet tests of our new robot.

https://istillblog.wordpress.com/2016/1 ... robot-3-0/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Regards, Odin.
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Re: iStill NextGen

Post by Odin »

Finishing another iStill 2000 NextGen. This one will go to the USA. With a few pictures to share ...

Regards, Odin.
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Agitator ready to be installed ...
Agitator ready to be installed ...
Wiring all but done, touch screen mounted ...
Wiring all but done, touch screen mounted ...
Column sections are ready and packed ...
Column sections are ready and packed ...
PLC is build and programs are installed ...
PLC is build and programs are installed ...
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Re: iStill NextGen

Post by Bushman »

Hope it is going somewhere on the West Coast so maybe we can meet up again!
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