Gusher Provides Pumps to Wisconsin’s Dancing Goat Distillery

Distributor Anderson Process collaborates on sustainable cooling tower projectishments

Dancing Goat Distillery (Cambridge, WI) is the product of three generations of the Maas family’s passion for the distillery industry. Since opening in 2017, the company has steadily grown, expanding its production from the original line of whiskeys to include brandy, gin, rye and liqueurs. That expansion necessitated the addition of a new cooling tower, completed in 2023. Through distributor Anderson Process, Gusher vertical and self-priming pumps were selected for the project.

John Vorpagel of Anderson Process worked closely with Dancing Goats’ operations director, who oversaw the design and build of its facilities since the beginning. Anderson Process has provided pumps throughout the facility; their track record of excellent service before, during and after the sale in those initial phases made them a natural choice to facilitate the cooling tower project. Anderson was involved in the total system design, working with Dancing Goat, its mechanical contractors and engineers, and the cooling tower supplier.

The resulting central cooling tower system cools the plant’s cooker, fermenters, beer well and Vendome Still. Based on the reliability of previously installed Gusher Pumps, two Gusher 7550 vertical pumps were specified for the system’s cool side. The identical pumps are used in a lead/lag configuration to supply constant pressure regardless of how many processes need cooling water at a given time. The pumps’ lead/lag roles switch every 24 hours to equalize their run time.

The sealless design of Gusher’s 7550 Series Pumps uses heavy-duty bearings to eliminate the need for a mechanical seal. Removing this common failure point reduces maintenance and assures reliable performance. Each Gusher pump is highly customizable to application specifications. For Dancing Goat, the 3”, 250 gpm pumps were manufactured with an extended shaft. This option accommodates the depth of the sump basin, which was designed to hold much of the water below the frost line, protecting it from freezing in winter.

On the system’s hot side well, a Gusher 8000 Series pump handles the hot water coming in from the distillation processes. The 4” self-priming pump has a capacity of 500 gpm with a suction lift of up to 20 feet. To maximize sustainability, some of the hot water from the distillation process supplies heat to in-floor heating coils in the recently completed 18,000 square-foot expansion.

As the cooler tower is situated very close to a large line of trees at the distillery’s picturesque location, all three pumps need to handle leaves and other natural detritus. The open impeller pump design easily passes light debris. Additionally, cleanout ports on the self-primer facilitate easy maintenance.

All three pumps were installed in March of 2023 and have been running reliably since.