Importance of equipment

[gryghost]

Hey Guys,

Just wondering what everyone thinks is the pieces of equipment that makes the biggest difference to your spirits? Mostly I muck around with different types of whiskey and have been using a biab style with just a standard large stockpot wrapped in blankets to stabilize my mash temps. A plastic bucket fermenter and the trusty t500 with both the reflux and the pot still style condensers depending what style I'm doing.

The first major upgrade I have done is going to a proper mash tun that has a false bottom and nice insulated walls and am hoping that this makes a perceptible difference... At the very least it will be a lot less messy for me.

In an ideal world I would love to make every thing nice and shiney, however the ministry of finance has severely limited my budget. Next on my wish list is converting some old kegs I bought from the local brewery and buying a copper onion and some column pieces to build a new still. Or perhaps upgrading the fermenter to a smallish stainless conical with better temp regulation.

Love to hear peoples thoughts on this

[howie]

good temp regulation can be done with a cheap/free old full fridge or full freezer.(freezers have better insulation)
doesn't have to be working but it depends on where you live.
i have to have working ones as the summer temps are over 40c.
some guys just build a box out of foam insulation.

[zapata]

I see absolutely no value in conical fermenters. Temp regulation is quite helpful for fermentation though as it frees you from having seasons.

If I had to rank things.
1. A scale that you can get ahead of your drinking to have stock aging and experimenting. For me this was keg sized boiler.
2. electric heat for that keg instead of propane
3. Whatever makes mashing pleasant and efficient for what you want to make. So that might be mash and lauter tun if you're into malts, or just a BOP or the keg if doing bourbon but maybe you want a mop bucket for straining. Whatever makes this aspect pleasant for you, but keep in mind if you're doing corns or bourbons or ryes a mash and lauter tun may be a waste of money.
4. I would actually rank this most important to me, but it doesn't make much sense without doing the others. Being able to distill grain in. So whether that's a steam kettle, a steam injector, thumpers, whatever. Malt whisky lauters great. Everything else is 1000x easier grain in that it's almost a religious experience.

[Yummyrum]

As far as best improvement on product , I would have to say buying my Oak Barrel to age in . Sticks in gas jars just doesn’t cut it anymore .

The rest of the equipment upgrades I have made , is just to make the job easier .

[Sporacle]

Patience

[TwoSheds]

Precision control on your still heat. I made only a couple runs without it and it was miserable. With a good controller and internal elements on electric the change is almost instant too (at least in pot still mode, nothing is instant with a reflux column) so you can really dial in the run.

With reflux it becomes even more important as you try to load up plates or a column.

[jonnys_spirit]

Large batch mashing in the 55g HDPE barrels has reduced my labor time significantly.
All copper still/vapor-path/condenser was a well worth it upgrade IMO.
+1 on aging in barrels - ~5g Gobbs and ~1.7g BadMo's - I still also use glass.
I'm also going to suggest premium ingredients make me feel better about the product however feed-store corn also makes very good product but considering the price per bottle I don't mind spending a bit more for boutique materials.
Continuous Solera style aging has allowed me to age longer with what I consider to be a more three dimensional product in the bottle due to the nature of averaging multiple diverse runs into the last barrel/jug over time for a particular spirit...

Cheers!
-j

[Ben]

Whatever will make life easier on the operator, electric heat for your boiler/still (same pot?), more convenient fermenters, better lighting, more time to practice the hobby.

For me: it's my march pump, I don't have to lift things (jacked spine), cleanup from the still is a snap, can move the hot backset immediately after power cut, no handling hot water on brew day etc.

[Twisted Brick]

As far as best improvement on product , I would have to say buying my Oak Barrel to age in . Sticks in gas jars just doesn’t cut it anymore .

The rest of the equipment upgrades I have made , is just to make the job easier .

+1

I think the deeper one gets into this hobby the harder it becomes to avoid getting a barrel. They do wonderful things to a spirit.

The mods made to my kegs have proven invaluable: 6" ferrule (filling and cleaning) on top, 2" ferrule on side bottom (drain, electrical element - some day). Mods are not required, but tighten up distillery processes significantly, not to mention save wear 'n tear on one's back.

I see absolutely no value in conical fermenters.

My stainless conical has become an integral vessel (brite tank) in my shed. After racking the clear from a keg ferment into a carboy, the balance of grains get squeezed into my conical to clear, leaving a tidy volume of yeast/custard to rack off of.

[Saltbush Bill]

Aging in barrels , the other most labour saving mods would be a fill port and drain tap on a boiler. Wheels on a boiler so that it can be easily shifted around the distilling area are also a real back saver.

[Deplorable]

Barrels. Fermenters (large) on casters. Electric conversion. Anything the improves process efficiency and repeatability for you, the distiller.

[NormandieStill]

I would say anything that makes life easier. I started out with an unmodified keg, heated on a gas stove in the kitchen. It now has a 4" fill port, a drain at the bottom and an electric element and I run in the shed using rain water to cool. Each step has made things better, either by making it faster, or easier, or more controllable. But I couldn't really point at any one of them and say that it was *that one* that changed everything.

Edit to add: I would say that the decision to go modular has made it much easier to evolve.

[gryghost]

Great info guys! Love the feedback of what each of you consider to be important. I'm looking forward to moving away from the biab method with the falsebottom and hopefully stream lining the mash day process a bit. I also have a SCR due in the next week or so which hopefully will lessen the pukes I keep getting.

Would love to get my hands on some mini barrels, hopefully Mrs Claus will be kind this coming Xmas

[NZChris]

My two best decisions were a fermenter/mash tun four times the volume of my still and a preheater. All of the others have been bells and whistles that have made my distilling easier and more interesting.

[armor99]

I am an aerospace engineer, so my take is probably different than most. I have just completed my 2nd run of whisky. Aging on oak now. I spent a LOT of time, money, and planning put into this.
I have discovered that over time, planning usually wins the day. And that starts with equipment. When I decided to start whisky making as a hobby, it was important to me to NOT do anything in a "janky" way. No wierd pipes from home depot etc. All of the equipment I have is new, proper, and quality for the task it is meant to do.
All of my friends that have come over to help me (it is a fun time), have commented on how "smoothly" everything always seems to go. There is a reason for that. The level of forethought, and planning I have put into every aspect of the process I am sure most people would find shocking. But... I did not run out of propane 1/2 way through a run, discover suddenly I did not have enough glass to contain distillate during a run. Realize too late I would not have the physical strength to lift 130 lbs of wort onto a cart without spilling it, etc.
Others might disagree, but I would say for the long haul, spend more on quality equipment. Think through literally every aspect of what you plan to do. Do a dry run before you do it. (Nothing more embarrasing that dicovering a tube will not reach, at the precise moment you need it to). When you start doing those sorts of things, it amazes me how smoothly things tend to work.

[Bushman]

Building my 4” CM. I can make products that were not possible on my VM still. I would also agree with barrel aging.

[squigglefunk]

stainless steel (or maybe oak?) fermenters are my top priority at the moment, I am struggling to save up for one now. Boiling hot liquids sitting in a plastic bucket or barrel for hours bugs me at least as much as silicone seals (this is how many recipes on this site are done). Oak aging barrels are definitely important depending on what booze you're making.

[armor99]

stainless steel (or maybe oak?) fermenters are my top priority at the moment, I am struggling to save up for one now. Boiling hot liquids sitting in a plastic bucket or barrel for hours bugs me at least as much as silicone seals (this is how many recipes on this site are done). Oak aging barrels are definitely important depending on what booze you're making.

I have a 15 gallon fermentor/kettle from Anvil. It is SS and build quality is very high…

[squigglefunk]

yeah I "need" a 55 gallon, hence the struggle - also why I am considering an oak barrel as I can get once used JD barrels for about 2 bills locally. I haven't been able to find one in stainless for less than about 5 hundred.

[Setsumi]

My 2 biggest improvements on equipment are my flutes and electric. Flutes because I like wiskeys, electric because I can watch the amps and not worry about flame height or wind or a spill. Nothing wrong with propane but electric is just less worries, even in RSA... I type this at 18:00 local time, our power is off from 16:00. Our utility cannot generate enough so twice a day areas are removed from the supply grid on a time rotational shedule.

BUT the most influential are 2 procces changes I made. High temp enzymes and maize meal and running low wines. Since changing to low wine charges I have 3 x 9 lt corney kegs aging and usually 20 to 40 lt low wines or 20 low wine and 70lt mash cleared, pressed and ready for strip and 1 or 2x 90lt ferments to finish.

NZChris said it many times your production start with your fermenters

[whiskymonster]

A really useful piece of kit that nobody seems to use except me is a stethoscope.

I have a couple around the house since the mrs has health problems, and they are all kinds of useful.

No sight glasses on my rig, so i use the stethoscope and i can hear the starting of a flood in the column and i know to back off.

I can hear how close my boiler is to temperature on warmup.

I use it to check fermenters without opening them. You can hear the slightest fizz telling you your yeasties are happy and alive, or the silence telling you they are done.

Worth a few bucks on amazon for sure.

[NZChris]

I have used a stethoscope. Very handy but, that said, I probably haven't used mine for at least a couple of years. I put my ear to a fermenter today and that was enough to confirm that it was working well.

Thermometers and temperature controllers are what I've collected a lot of. I can tell how well a ferment is going by how much heat the yeast is putting out. I used to keep records of how much power was being used to keep the temperature up to the set point and that was a very good indicator of what stage a ferment was at, but my hour meter died and I haven't bothered to replace it, so I guess it's not that important, just another nice tool to have in the box.

[goose eye]

Most important pice of equipment is between your ears
Gotta use your head for something other than a hat rack an you can make do with the basic.

So I'm tole

[shadylane]

The piece of equipment that let me be more consistent and successful.
Is having a fermenter with a heated water jacket.
You can connect a water hose and the jacket can also be used for cooling.

[Metalking00]

I went more than a year without a funnel. Then i realized theyre cheap and readily available. Much nicer with one!

[Yummyrum]

I went more than a year without a funnel. Then i realized theyre cheap and readily available. Much nicer with one!

Beautiful .
Sometimes , its those little things .
Can relate to the Funnel .

[Andrew_90]

As a guy who ran 24/7 manufacturing business I have a slightly different take.

The equipment you buy must be able produce repeatable results, time after time. I learnt from the 6 Sigma boys, you can only claim to be in control of a process when someone "breaks the process" and you can easily fix it, this illustrates a full understanding. So these boys will also argue that even if the process is wrong, that is not a problem as long as it is repeatable you have a fighting chance. You can alter the process / times / temperatures / recipe etc. this is easier than making the kit produce repeatable results. For example, lagging a column reduces the effect of ambient and improves process control. Same would apply to the boiler.

Would take us a week to stabilise our heating ovens before we even ran one kg of product.

So I aim for consistency in the equipment I have.

[ShineonCrazyDiamond]

Metalking, you reminded of an old thread I had years ago that was alot of fun, with some good names back then.

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=47836&p=7196071#p7196071

[Uncle B]

I've been meaning to ask a similar question - what equipment outside of the essentials (your rig, fermenters, etc.) made your process easier and more efficient - but I'll create a new post so not to hijack this one.

But to answer the question here, and building off of Andrew's point, repeatable results is key, and fermentation seems to have the biggest chance of variable results. Getting control over fermentation took some time, and picking up a couple of InkBird temp controllers was a huge step for me. These fixed issues I was having with temperature-swing induced yeast stress, and allow me to run side-by-side batches while playing with other variables like yeast pitch amount and starting pH. It seems others had the same experience shifting to climate-controlled bins, which I think shows how important this is in creating a good product.

Also going to plug Go-Ferm yeast hydration nutrient - my sugar wash ferments instantly became so clean (zero scent, clean tasting), that stuff must be magic. Not that I believe in magic, but hey, lightbulbs freaked people out at one point too, right?

--B

[Salt Must Flow]

For me, everything is on wheels for convenience. I built a 2x4 frames with plywood on top and 5" swiveling casters for my 55 gal fermenters so I can move them around easily. I use one for my BIG boiler I use for stripping runs too. Even my 15.5 gal keg boiler has 4" swiveling casters.

I made a fermentation box in a corner of my garage out of OSB using a space heater, a heat controller and a small fan to recirculate the air when the space heater kicks on. It's not insulated, but works just fine in the heated garage.

It's really nice to have plenty of electricity, a water supply, a nice big sink with counter top and a floor drain in the garage/distilling area. It took a good bit of work years ago, but it's paying off.