The spirit safe

The spirit safe is finally installed. The centre piece of the distillery, the spirit safe is both a historical and functional artefact, apart from being a beautiful piece of kit. We splashed out on a brass stand and all the trimmings, and LH Stainless did a beautiful job of constructing this one for us. 

For those unfamiliar, the safe is really a control system that allows sampling of spirit being made without interrupting the flow or removing any liquid from the process.  Patented by James Fox in the 1820's , it was made mandatory for distilleries in 1823 when the Excise Act came into law and the process was "locked down" literally with the excise man having the only key. 

Our safe is split into 2 sides, the wash side and the spirit side. Each chamber has a sampling valve that allows the filling of a vessel containing a hygrometer that can measure the gravity of the current distillate. 
The spirit side also contains a directional valve that allows control of flow of spirit to either the feints tank or the spirit receiver. The handle on top controls flow. 

You can see the fork hoist behind the crate holding the safe ready to lift it to the gantry. 

Here Zane checks for clearance as we lift the safe over the gantry handrails. 

The brass stand is ready for the safe.