South Puget Sound Community College expands craft brewing and distilling program with the Russell Liquid Solid Separator™
South Puget Sound Community College (SPSCC) launched its Craft Brewing and Distilling program in 2018, the only program of its kind in the country. Each year, 20 students enroll in the program, and up to 85% of students go on to work in the industry, taking on roles such as lead brewers and lead distillers.
The college produces beer, cider, and a variety of spirits from the program. In addition to its educational role, the college has created an LLC to distribute and sell the products in the Washington state area to bring revenue back into the school.
In the initial years of the program, the college produced beers and clear spirits. There was also a desire to expand its range of products to include dark spirits such as bourbon and rye whiskey.
With these whiskeys, the college planned to remove the grain before fermentation. Fermenting off grain produces a cleaner flavor by reducing tannins within the liquid that lead to astringency, or the extremely dry aftertaste. However, the college did not have the equipment to separate grains from the liquid before fermentation.
SPSCC contacted two distilleries in the Washington state area to learn about the distilling equipment they used for whiskey production. Both distilleries used the Russell Liquid Solid Separator™ to remove grains from the liquid before fermentation, allowing them to ferment the liquid off grain.
The high-performance whiskey grain separator removes large solid concentrations from liquid slurries through a centrifugal separator. The fully contained system protects operators and minimizes their involvement while simplifying the separation process.
A further benefit to SPSCC from using the centrifugal separator is the potential to increase its yield. As the grain removed during separation is so dry, it leaves a greater volume of usable liquid for fermentation.
The college also has the opportunity to minimize its waste disposal costs as the dry grain will have a reduced weight with the liquid removed.
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What our customers say
“We’re very excited to get the Russell Liquid Solid Separator into full operation. The fact that we can churn through the 12,000 lbs of corn and we’re making distillate this quickly is music to my ears. The more we can get accustomed to operating the machinery, the easier it will be to share it with the students. We are quite in love with the machine and its operation.”
