Ballast Point Spirits

Having a tough time finding a capsule to fit on our new bottle. The diameter is 33.2 mm and is a bar top finish with the same neck o.d. as the bar top. Anyone out there have an idea who might have these? Especially ones that aren't embossed with a grape cluster. We intend on using a spinner to install them, however, shrinking them is an option as long as they look tight without crinkles.

2005 and 2006 model Parker Boilers for sale. 9.5 Horse Power high pressure with conductivity meter and auto-blow down. Installed in 2006 but only operated for one year. All feed water was treated and filtered. Boilers are in mint condition and ready for service. The boilers do not come with any of the support tanks, such as blow down or condesate return, Price is $5,000 FOB our dock, San Diego, CA. Please email yuseff@ballastpoint.com or call (619) 339-6337 THESE BOILERS HAVE ALL BEEN SOLD

Has anyone had luck with Tricor Braun? I am just wondering if anyone has had a bottle designed and decorated and shipped to their facility.

We have been using our house Ale strain which was originally an English Ale yeast. It has been working great in our beer for 13 years so we figured we would use it in our whiskey as well. The reason to culture your own, which is done by thousands of breweries nationwide, is economy and availability. We have yeast being made every day and reusing it is very simple. Harvesting from a conical bottom fermenter and adding it to wash takes but a few minutes and saves hundreds of dollars a month. The whiskey distillers in Kentucky that use liquid yeast instead of dry yeast are some of the few in the distilling business that think the strain has an effect on the flavor of the finished distillate. How could it not, as brewers we see this across the board in the broad range of beers we make. Never mind the sour aspect of Kentucky mash for now, just the yeast alone is responsible for all sorts of flavors in the finished product. This is affected by fermentation temperature as well and many distilleries don't try to moderate heat produced during fermentation and the result may or may not be something you would want to distill. Some distilleries are not set up to handle yeast propagation or harvesting and doing it may result in more problems that it is worth, but a working brewery/distillery has everything it needs right under the same roof.

Talk to your local brewer. They should have a farmer for you. We use a local guy here in San Diego that sends grain from multiple breweries to one central farmer. Usually it is the cow farmers who want it.

Definitely check the overall capacity. I had many bottles sent as samples only to find that they held European standard volumes of 700 mls. Make sure you get a sample bottle fill it to 750 mls with an accurate graduated cylinder, and check for ample head space. The TTB only recognizes certain bottle sizes as well, so just because there are 700 ml or 500 ml bottles widely available as spirits bottles does not mean you can use them here in the USA.

We are dipping our bottles in a bottle sealing wax (same product as the big boys) and have had trouble with the removal of the wax after it hardens. I have tried the reinforced tape idea, but with the thicker coat of wax (which I like) it does not seem to work. The tape also takes a lot of time to apply. Is there an actual product made for the easy removal of wax? I thought about wire, but that seems like it would be hard to apply quickly. I have had many bottles from bigger spirits producers with the same problem and ended up shucking the wax off with a knife, so maybe there is no solution...Any ideas??

I have played around with pitching rates and it seems that the final gravity is much higher when less yeast is pitched. When we make beer the yeast will go through a nice growth phase and finish the sugars out, but with our rum washes it appears that the growth is less. I think temp. control might be the real key to subdued volatile production.

I have been doing lots of research on the copper issue. My still is all stainless, coming from a brewing background just figured it would clean up better. After a few runs we found the sulfer compounds were coming through and started adding copper packing. It took quite a bit before we got the desired results. The fermentation also will change your sulfur compounds, with high gravity fermentations the yeast is stressed and will produce more undesirables. If you are hell bent on stainless and plan on doing whiskey I would make sure to incorporate copper somehow into your process on the hot side. Let me know if you want to talk further.

Thanks, but have went that route, and they are waiting for a cap from a factory that is not currently producing right now. I was just hoping that there might be another source for this cap.

Does anyone have a source for a srew on cap for the Vitro Gin style 750 ml bottle?

Did a run today and will definately cut down on all the botanicals next time. I crushed the berries in a small roller mill set wide to gently break them open. With even small amounts of other botanicals (like 100 times less than the juniper) there is still more than I wanted. I am considering the soak method and there are definately some botanicals I will leave out next run.

Seems pretty basic, but can't find a whole lot of literature on whether to crush the berries or leave them whole when making gin. Any thoughts? Going to be using a vapor ditillation technique, not a soak.

Thanks for all the type! I have started experimenting with the citric acid and it seems to be doing the trick.

Does anyone have a magical solution that brings back copper to that brand new bare copper look? I have to use copper packing in my still and it comes out looking pretty worn out. I have tried various acids, but nothing very impressive yet. Since it is packing, it can not be scrubbed, so something that works as a soak would be best. Thanks in advance!