googe wrote:Awesome!, you've made.my year Paul!. Thanks heaps for the pics and explanation mate, invaluable!!!!. This is the way I wanted to do mine from the beginning!. The connection between the two vapor lines cleared it up good like AC said, wasnt making sense earlier lol. I have two more questions if you don't mind me bugging you!.
1. How do you keep the plates loaded on the tall column without a dephlegmator?, passive reflux?
2. Doing brandy, you have the two valves set so the vapor goes straight from the boiler to the shorter column?
Doing vodka, you set the valves to run through the tall column first then into the short column for takoff?.
Thanks again mate.
1. I preload my plates with water using a CIP (clean in place system) if i didnt have a CIP i would fill from the top sightglass and then let it down out of the pot (overflow) before i put my mash in.
There is a drain stem through both columns, when rotating the drain it will drain the top plates before the bottom plates ( I am not an engineer so i could not tell you exactly how the mechanism works).
2. You are right. The valves isolate to either go to the tall column first or the short column first.
Thanks for the kind words. I'm live in SLO also, we are shooting to have some none aged stuff in bottle at the beginning of 2015. I will keep you posted!
Thanks Paul. Best of luck to you in your new venture. Looking forward the beginning of 2015!
Thanks mate, I've been thinking of a cip system, wouldn't be hard to add. I put water or low wines down the top connection to load the plates and fill the drain traps, havnt run it without the dephlegmator off yet though, need to try it!. Really appreciate the info mate, it's very hard getting this kind of info from a holstein owner!!. You've given me.alot to think about!.
Cheers
Here's to alcohol, the cause of, and solution to, all life's problems.
"Homer J Simpson"
Hi Paul, great to see another craft distiller here. I look forward to hearing what you come up with for label names.
Great piece of kit you got there, its got all the bells and whistles. It strikes me as odd your columns appear to not have plate disablers? I was under the impression that Holstien usually added them to all their columns, or is it a different model?
I guess you dont need them when you can switch columns at will.
I'm a fan of Holstien stills, I think they would have to be amongst the best you could buy. I'm kinda jelous, lol
Good luck on your journey, keep us informed
You design it, I make it. Copper and Stainless. Down under. PM me.
emptyglass wrote:Hi Paul, great to see another craft distiller here. I look forward to hearing what you come up with for label names.
Great piece of kit you got there, its got all the bells and whistles. It strikes me as odd your columns appear to not have plate disablers? I was under the impression that Holstien usually added them to all their columns, or is it a different model?
I guess you dont need them when you can switch columns at will.
I'm a fan of Holstien stills, I think they would have to be amongst the best you could buy. I'm kinda jelous, lol
Good luck on your journey, keep us informed
I asked that same question in another thread and his smaller of the two columns when running stripping has the disablers.
On the big guy I have disables in the short column, on the small one the the drain stem acts as a diablers because it plugs the top plate first down to the small plate depending on how you adjust the drain stem. Although the tech seems non comparable I get great results with both. Although the small run is a little more difficult to run than the large one because the small one doesn't have thermometers built into the columns =) I feel more like a moonshiner doing weird things like rubbing wax onto it to see when it melts.
Just these past couple weeks I have been getting into researching and learning about distilling. I am already lined up to visit a couple local distilleries in Sacramento, CA this month so I can observe and ask questions.
I am originally from SLO and am driving down to visit my family in See Canyon (you should use some apples from Creekside Farms for your cider < brandy!) on the 26th of Dec, and would love to swing by as I pass through Paso if you are taking visitors.
If it's too close to the holidays I totally understand, also, I can see you are just getting operations going. Let me know!
Just these past couple weeks I have been getting into researching and learning about distilling. I am already lined up to visit a couple local distilleries in Sacramento, CA this month so I can observe and ask questions.
I am originally from SLO and am driving down to visit my family in See Canyon (you should use some apples from Creekside Farms for your cider < brandy!) on the 26th of Dec, and would love to swing by as I pass through Paso if you are taking visitors.
If it's too close to the holidays I totally understand, also, I can see you are just getting operations going. Let me know!
Best,
Fallon
P.S. I'll probably ask a lot of silly questions
Hi Fallon, See canyon is a beautiful area, I have been through there a time or two. Welcome to the forum. Why don't you stop by the new members lounge and tell us a bit about your self. What do you want to make, or what type of still you are looking into using, and again welcome.
Just these past couple weeks I have been getting into researching and learning about distilling. I am already lined up to visit a couple local distilleries in Sacramento, CA this month so I can observe and ask questions.
I am originally from SLO and am driving down to visit my family in See Canyon (you should use some apples from Creekside Farms for your cider < brandy!) on the 26th of Dec, and would love to swing by as I pass through Paso if you are taking visitors.
If it's too close to the holidays I totally understand, also, I can see you are just getting operations going. Let me know!
Best,
Fallon
P.S. I'll probably ask a lot of silly questions
Fallon, sorry I missed you- We were open that weekend but the still was shut down as I was visiting family down south as well. Next time you want to swing by the give me a heads up. Also, I love to get apples or cider from local see canyon orchards. If you wanted to make a connection I would love to talk about getting cider this year or even next year. Cheers!
Hey guys, i've been a bit absent from the forums recently because I have been busy with both the upcoming grape season and distilling. Here's an update
Got label approval for our first Grappa and Pear brandy (will hopefully bottle and launch by June)
Working on formula approval for our organic Nocino (walnut liqueur) from our own estate organic certified dry-farmed walnuts.
I will also be mashing a small amount of beer and barreling down some Kentucky style bourbon! I'm very excited for that. I'll be more active on the forums and get back to contributing to the regular home-distilling threads.
I was just in PR a few weeks ago visiting friends and did some winery crawling. I noticed that many of the wineries are installing distilling gear and it just makes sense what with access to grapes and such. I'd much enjoy dropping by some time to chat and check out your location, etc. I'm in the mountains south of Bakersfield.
Many congrats on getting up and running. That is a beautiful rig.
I'm an amateur malt whisky maker in New Zealand - perfectly legal here if you don't sell it! I've done about 50 development batches on a 4" modular bubble cap column that I built myself and I'm pretty happy with the results after 12 months on oak.
I'm close to starting on my next still build and I'd really like to incorporate a plate disabling mechanism that I can operate during the run, along the Holstein lines. I just can't work out how it's engineered and how I could build it.
Any chance you could give a detailed description of how the plate disabler works and how it's put together? I just can't put it together in my head from the description you gave (shown below).
I'd be really grateful for any help you could manage.
Cheers
Mike
Paul Quinn wrote:On the big guy I have disables in the short column, on the small one the the drain stem acts as a diablers because it plugs the top plate first down to the small plate depending on how you adjust the drain stem. Although the tech seems non comparable I get great results with both. Although the small run is a little more difficult to run than the large one because the small one doesn't have thermometers built into the columns =) I feel more like a moonshiner doing weird things like rubbing wax onto it to see when it melts.
wow thats a beautiful rig. 