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Are you considering starting up a distillery? One of the most daunting tasks is figuring out the equipment that you need. It’s especially challenging if you’re not yet sure what you’re going to produce and how you’re going to produce it. This guide breaks down the different types of equipment according to production operations, so you can get a sense of what’s required. We’ll also cover some basic definitions and process descriptions, so you understand exactly what purpose these items serve.
Knowing what equipment you need is only part of the battle. Your equipment must be sized correctly so that you aren’t blocked by occupied tanks or fermenters, and to ensure that you use your equipment and utilities efficiently. This is a more complicated question that’s best handled case-by-case. Here, we’ll just cover the what and not the how big question.
Cooking & Mashing
If you intend to produce whiskey, you need to be able to process grain (containing starch) into a mash (or beer) containing fermentable sugar. If you plan to produce most anything else (brandy, rum, vodka, etc) you can skip this section and jump straight to Fermenters.
You will need a mill if your grain comes in the door “whole”. Typically, distilleries choose either a hammer mill or a roller mill. The appropriate type and size of mill will depend on the grains you intend to process and your desired grind size.
Alternatively, you can buy your grain pre-ground and bypass the need for a mill. This tradeoff means paying more per pound but avoiding the expense and danger of milling on-site. It’s good to keep in mind that dust from milling is potentially explosive and is generally considered a greater hazard than flammable spirit vapors. You ideally want a dedicated room/space for milling, and you want to have processes in place to mitigate and handle the dust that gets created.
Once your grain is milled, the next step is cooking the grain to hydrolize (wet) the starch, which makes the starch available to enzymes. All grains have some enzymes, but malted barley has far more than any other grain. Traditionally, malted barley was used to provide all the enzymes needed to convert starch to sugar, whether you were making Rye, Bourbon or even Malt whiskey. These days, you can also buy pure enzymes for this purpose, saving you time, money and effort. The enzymes work at specific temperatures for a specific amount of time, and Mashing describes that enzymatic conversion process that yields a sweet “wort”, ready for fermentation.
You will need a cooker and a mash tun. For smaller operations, a single vessel can serve both of these purposes. If you were making beer in your kitchen, you would probably just use a large stainless pot as both your cooker and mash tun. Commercial operations have to consider the economics of production (and the time factor); this often calls for more equipment, bigger equipment, and more specialization of equipment.
It’s helpful to have an agitator installed on both your cooker and your mash tun, to ensure even mixing and avoid clumps of dry grain. A cooker needs to be able to reach gelatinization termperatures (124-180F, depending on the grain). A mash tun needs to be able to reach mash temperatures (130-160F, depending on the grain). Heat can be provided by steam jacket, direct steam injection, oil/water jacket (“bain marie”), submerged electric elements, or direct fire (gas, wood). The appropriate heating depends on your intended production flow, cost and availability of utilities in your area, and other variables. Cooking takes about 30-90 minutes once the appropriate temperature has been reached; mashing is similar: 30-60 minutes at temperature.
Fermentation
Fermentation is the process by which yeast consume the sugar in your wort, wash or wine and convert it to ethanol and carbon dioxide. The makeup of the liquid that you ferment varies quite a bit depending on the product, style and source of sugar. Ultimately, though, you’ll have a liquid with dissolved sugar in it.
In a classic Bourbon ferementation, you would typically leave the solid grain particles in the liquid during fermentation (and distillation). Separating out the corn solids from the liquid is nearly impossible at scale, so this is the only feasible option.
Scotch-style production uses less corn or no corn, and much more (malted) barley. The barley grain bed serves as an effective “filter” that lets you remove the sweet wort and leave behind the grain solids. In this case, you’d be fermenting a clear liquid.
If you’re making Rum, then you need to start with a sugar cane product as your sugar source. This can be cane juice/syrup, cane sugar, molasses, or other byproducts of sugar cane processing. You typically dissolve the sugar into an appropriate amount of water and, well, that’s it! Your liquid is ready to ferment, possibly needing only adjustments to pH and nutrient levels.
Distilleries producing Brandy might need fruit processing equipment, if intending to ferment from fruit directly. More commonly, distilleries outsource this part of the job to a winery or cidery and simply take in unfermented juice or fermented wine.
For fermenting on the grain, you’ll want a fermenting vessel that allows you to pump “grain-in” liquid both in and out of the tank. If you’re thinking that a grain-in fermentation sounds messy, you’d be right. You want a tank that has ample ports for pumping in, pumping out and CIP (“clean-in-place”) hardware. It also helps to have a manway for better access, and a sloping tank bottom for draining.
For all other ferments, your fermentation vessel needs are simpler. You still need to be able to pump in and pump out (or use gravity instead), but the diameter of ports and hoses can be smaller. These ferments are usually easier to clean, so you can get away with less CIP (or no CIP at all, requiring manual cleaning). In fact, some distilleries use 270gal/1000L plastic or metal IBC “Totes” as fermentation vessels. Ultimately, you want to be fermenting on stainless steel to avoid microbiological issues, but plastic totes can work in a pinch or when you’re getting started.
Next Up
In Part 2, we’ll cover Distillation (Stills) and barreling/blending/processing equipment. For a similar article about Bottling Machines and Lines, see All About Bottling.
