CASE STUDIES
CASE STUDY 1 - Lonely Oak Distillery
Pat Hoffman, Owner/Farmer and Distiller
Small Batch Distillery
Improving Raw Stillage Disposal
Prior to SOS, Pat would pump the contents of his 300 gallon pot into a plastic tank he had mounted on an old farm trailer. A local farmer would have to travel the 10 miles over country roads with the whole stillage. The problem was the farmer couldn't make the trip each day, it takes a long time to travel the 10 miles with the whole stillage on the trailer. The farmer also wasn't crazy about the whole stillage in the current form. Pat bought an RDS (Rotating Drum Screen) from SOS to thicken the stillage and reduce the volume of liquid to haul. After installing the RDS, the plastic tank and farm trailer were replaced with a self dumping hopper. Now Lonely Oak can run three, 300 gallon pots before the self dumping hopper is full with 2000 lbs of thickened stillage. The farmer really likes the thickened stillage and installing the RDS has reduced the number of trips the farmer has to make to the distillery. This has turned out to be a big win for both the distillery and the farmer.
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CASE STUDY 2 - Sonoma Distilling
Sonoma distilling, Rohnert Park, CA.
Medium Batch Distillery
Increasing Distillery Capacity
Sonoma distilling has a 3000 gallon pot still. Prior to having SOS install a Rotating Drum Screen (RDS) Sonoma was processing the 3000 gallons through a 16" Vincent screw press at a rate no greater than 5 gallons per minute. The 10 hours needed to process the whole stillage was slowing down production and adding a lot extra labor. Vincent screw press company recommended to Sonoma to install the SOS RDS. SOS sized the RDS and reduced the size of the Vincent screw press from a 16" to a 6" press. With the RDS ahead of the smaller press the stillage can now be processed at 25 gpm without a dedicated employee managing the system.
The combination of the RDS and press now reduce processing time down to 2 hours allowing the distillery to run two stripping runs a day and still process all the stillage during normal working hours.
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CASE STUDY 3 - Louisville Distillery
Major Louisville Distillery
Large Batch Distillery
Cost Savings
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An old established distillery in Louisville, distilling on average 90 gpm of beer, had been using a 1940's custom stillage dewatering system and old rotary presses prior to installing the SOS RDS (rotating drum screen) and screw press combination. After the SOS process was installed the average moisture of the ddgs coming off the press was 8 points lower. The result is a significant reduction in thermal energy required to dry the ddgs. The savings in energy produced a 20 month ROI for the project.
CASE STUDY 4 - Tattersall Distilling
Tattersall Distilling
Medium Batch Distillery
Increase in Production & Reduced Costs
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Prior to utilizing SOS’ treatment system, Tattersall Distilling was pumping spent mash into IBC totes and then letting them drain via gravity into a Russell Finex. This produced a suitable dry ddgs and effectively separated the thin stillage. The process however, required a full-time employee
and was only capable of processing a few hundred gallons of stillage each day. Installing the SOS process eliminated the need for a full-time employee and increased the throughput capacity of Tattersalls system by increasing the distillery process from approximately 750 gallons a day up to a capacity of 2000 gallons a day. In addition to the increase in production capacity, the SOS process reduced the organic loading in the thin stillage by 60% allowing the distillery to discharge directly to the city.
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CASE STUDY 5 - Tarpon Springs Distilling
INCREASING CAPACITY & IMPROVING EFFICIENCY
Prior to the introduction of the SOS system Tarpon Springs Distilling was using a lautering ton to remove the grain before fermentation. To process a 500 gallon cook required 4 hours. After installing the SOS system, the 500 gallon lautering process was reduced to little over an hour.
Additionally, the average yield of proof gallons of alcohol for a 500 gallon batch increased from 40 proof gallons to 60 proof gallons. These improvements have reduced lautering time by nearly 75% and increased output by 33%.
CASE STUDY 6 - Large Louisville Distillery
EXTENDING RUN TIME BETWEEN EVAPORATOR CLEANINGS
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A major Louisville distillery, utilizing centrifuges to dewater the ddgs before their dryer, was seeking a way to reduce the load on the evaporator. The centrifuges threw out a lot of suspended solids that caused the evaporators to loose capacity before the scheduled cleaning. A SOS RDS was installed to filter the thin stillage ahead of the evaporators. Using a 150 micron screen, the RDS is processing on average over 100 gpm of thin stillage and removing on average 5 lbs a minute of suspended solids. The net result has been an increase in full capacity run time between normal cleanings.
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