Glenn Raudins

From a theoretical calculation, due to the non-ideal mixing behavior of alcohol and water, you will need .519 liters of water to produce 1 liter of 40%ABV. (for your example scenario.) I have written some calculators which compute these relationships. But I am not using them, right now, in a commercial distillery. Glenn

I have the 2002 proceedings (Distilled Spirits Tradition and Innovation), and can speak about those. (Can't comment on the 2005 proceedings until I receive them.) The papers presented in them cover many different levels of topics. Some are definitely beyond the scope of a micro-distiller, but others are well suited. Flavor development, technical production aspects of specific spirits, marketing/market direction, new wood usage, etc. I guess you have to decide if reading these types of technical articles have interest for you or you feel you can work the ideas into your production. You can go to the conference site to get more information on the presenters and topics: 2005 Distilling Conferences I am interested to read an article by a presenter from Angostura, entitled: FROM SUGARCANE TO RUM – THE TECHNOLOGY OF RUM MAKING. I assume they will have some interesting insights into the whole process. Hope this helps, Glenn

There is a good indirect example of the impact of adding sugar: Mixto tequila. Mixto can be made from up to 49% non-agave sugar. Obvious flavor differences occur between mixtos and 100% Agave tequilas, but from a brand development standpoint these differences are offset by the reduced price point these tequilas can be marketed at. So for Tom's situation, you could make a case for developing both a premium 100% apple brandy product, and a "less than 100% apple" spirit from apple. Glenn

For those people who have been waiting, it appears the conference proceedings from the Worldwide Distilled Spirits Conference 2005 have been published. You can see the table of contents here: Distilled Spirits - Production, Technology And Innovation Amazon seems to have a good price on it, until it arrives: Amazon: Distilled Spirits book Disclaimer: I have no association with the product nor have I seen it yet, but have ordered it, so I can let people know what I think when it arrives. Glenn

Nice find! That link contains data from the Adams Liquor Handbook (or the Liquor Handbook as it is now known) that I mentioned. Might save a trip to the library. In case you have about $1000 that needs a home, you can buy the handbook here: 2008 Liquor Handbook This pretty much shows that across the years there isn't a large shift in market share between the various types of spirits, so any given year's data will probably give you a good idea of the relative markets for each type of spirit. Glenn

One good source is Adams Liquor Handbook. It is produced annually. Usually a close by metropolitan library has it. It contains breakdowns by state. I have some data for 2003, which showed Colorado (I figured you wanted home turf numbers) had the following percentage breakdown: American Whiskey: 13.2% Imported (Canadian+Scotch+Irish): ~18.5% Gin: 5.4% Vodka: 26.7% Nationally, the percentages were very close to Colorado's. Glenn

What software are people using for inventory, barrel tracking, and distillation information logging, specifically for easy collection of data for the TTB reports? I know many brewers use home grown spreadsheets for much of this. Anyone found a good solution?

On a related note, Misako Udo in his book The Scottish Whisky Distilleries does list extremely detailed information on the production techniques from your favorite Scotch distilleries (past and present). Grain ratios don't apply to Scotch mashes, so you wouldn't find this info in here. But you will find for some of the distilleries, infusion temperatures and cut points. The entire book is simply lists of these details (if available) for each distillery. Glenn