• Equipment

  Using Your Still Vessel to Sparge

  Posted by birster74 on July 26, 2019 at 2:45 pm

  Hi, we are building our distillery setup in a small location, we want to make mash/lauter malt whisky and I want to know if some people use their still to heat (steam) the sparge water to avoid a HLT gear. The only problem we see in this setup is that you can’t use your still to do something else during the process. I’m maybe missing something. Thank you

  southernhighlander replied 5 years, 5 months ago 3 Members · 6 Replies
• 6 Replies

• 

  southernhighlander

  Member

  July 26, 2019 at 2:57 pm

  Birster74,

   

  You can certainly use your still pot as an HLT to save money on equipment when you get started and then once your orders dictate you can add a dedicated HLT.  However if you have existing orders to start and you must distill every day to meet those orders then, you should have a dedicated HLT, so that your still is not tied up. 

   

  Unlike most of my competitors my primary concern is to offer my customers the best equipment for their needs and their budget.  If that means I sell less equipment or do not make as much money that is fine.  That being the case I normally suggest that If you need a 150 to 100 gallon HLT, a commercial hot water heater is the way to go.  You can get a 100 gallon hot water heater for as little as $2,000.00

   

• 

  birster74

  Member

  July 26, 2019 at 3:22 pm

  So you talk about a big hot water tank like the domestic one?

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  silk city distillers

  Member

  July 26, 2019 at 3:24 pm

  On the straight malt side, meaning no cookers, I’ve seen a few guys do pretty well using the Rinnai on demand commercial gas heaters in parallel.  I think they are 299k BTU per unit.  Just add up as many as you need.

  Just need to run the sizing calcs to understand the maximum flow rates at the temperature you need.

  From an operating cost perspective, hard to beat.  Footprint, tiny.  Most plumbers know what to do with them, and most inspectors are pretty comfortable with them.

   

   

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  silk city distillers

  Member

  July 26, 2019 at 3:29 pm

  Rinnai has done a nice job partnering up to meet brewers needs.  I’m not talking about big setups either, but the little guys.  So you know it’s cost effective.

  https://www.rinnai.us/sites/default/files/marketing_materials/R-CSWH-E-29.pdf

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  birster74

  Member

  July 26, 2019 at 3:37 pm

  Thank you for your fast reply

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  southernhighlander

  Member

  July 26, 2019 at 4:43 pm

  Birster74.  The on demand hot water heaters like the Rinnai are a great choice, especially if you are running just a couple of days per week or less.

   

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