Kothe Equipment Installation

Here are some nice photos of the Kothe equipment being installed. Most of the work involved assembly of the still and electrical hookup. The plumbing is dead simple. We should be distilling spirits tomorrow.

Hoisting the column onto the still kettle was quite the challenge. First, we had only about two inches of clearance at the ceiling when we were in the proper position, and there was a tricky gasket to get in place before we could set the column onto the still. This was by far the hardest part of the install.

Once the column was mostly into place, we could slacken the hoist straps and Robert could tighten down the five million bolts.

Luke provided ample help for Robert in assembling the mash tank agitator.

These little babies are our Mercury contactors. They act as electrically fired switches by the digital controller box at the right. The digital control box senses the water temperature in the still, and cuts on and off the contactors, feeding electricity to the heating elements.

A couple of our electricians, hard at work.

Mike Gittings, the owner of Purcellville Electric, oversees the work of his electrician wiring in the elements on the mash tank.

Ah, the finished equipment. All ready for primetime!