Rich Morgan

Must be vegetable based, coconut is best. make sure its STEAM activated, and preferable acid washed. Most of the good stuff comes out of Fiji. We use 18 mesh in size, but you will need to trial, its a complex relationship between, dilution, flow rates and granule size. Fundamentally its all about 'time in contact' with the carbon.

Hydros (of any sort) should be calibrated against purpose designed SG calibration fluids, not ethanol reference solutions. The calibration fluids are temperature stable, and usually NIST certified. You buy them at the nominated SG. You'll have to calculate the ABV to SG of course.

Production Hand/Trainee Distiller, Hunter Valley, Australia We have a new position vacant, for a Production Worker/Trainee Distiller at the Hunter Distillery, located in Pokolbin, Hunter Valley Wine Region, NSW AUSTRALIA. This is a new position, to compliment our existing production team. Applicants must be able to work full-time in Australia. Full details at: http://www.hunterdistillery.com.au/news-details.php?nid=6

All good Gins start with a good neutral spirit. If my memory serves me correct when I was working for Seagrams, the Guild specified the 'botanicals' run (last run) to be on 90% or better NGS, when using a Carthead still. Personally I believe the better the NGS the better the Gin. The yeasty ethyl acetate nose you get from poor spirit detracts from what I believe good London Dry gins should strive for. I do not believe you will get an outstanding product from steeping, then distilling off. In my experience, holding the botanicals in the vapor path (aka a Carterhead still) is the best way. I have had good success from suspending a large teabag in the pot, above the surface of the boil. Extraction rates are far less so you'll need more botanicals. As for the amount of botanicals, Nick's comments are good, check out HomeDistiller, or there is a great section in the excellent book "Distilled Spirits Worldwide Conference: Production, Technology and Innovation" by Nottingham Press. The problem you will find with your botanical is the freshness, or apparent dryness, hence the available level of essential oils. The vast differences we see here in Juniper and coriander, means we have to trial every batch. It can be a real chore to get consistency from batch to batch. One approach is to distill the botanicals sepearatly and blend, as you would a wine from different casks.

I have to share our pain from down-under. The Australian Tax Office increased our excise on distilled spirits to AUD$69.16 per LAL. Almost 50% of our retail price now does in taxes. Whinging over :-)

Congrats ! Nice pot, love the 'reflux capacitor'

Check the head o-ring on each filter element is in place, check they are seated properly. No you cant damage them with too much vacuum in the Enolmaster, they are very robust. A damaged filter opens up, you'd get full flow with no resistance. What is the flow rate with just water? Or without the filter in line.

We have a glass calibrated 'reference' thermometer in the lab, locked up safe. We then use medium price electronic 'multimeter' style thermometers with external K type thermocouple stainless probes. Rugged as hell, easily calibrated from the master, easy to read.

Sugar CRM. CRM = Customer relationship management

All our water is rain water, but we still RO and Carbon filter. I look at it this way, in the bottle, water is 60% of your product.

What is the filter size (um)? What are you filtering? Do you get proper flow when there are no filters in the line?

The key to carbon filtering is the 'time on bed', that is how long the spirit is in contact with the carbon. Less carbon, slower flow rates. Personally I am not a fan of static soaking. We pump the spirit at about 100L/hr through 4 x 3 meter columns in series.

We use several 2500-3000L closed top wine tanks for fermenters, cheap, high quality, no issues. Just only fill to 75% of working cap or you will get blowover. We also use a number of variable capacity (sliding lid with pressurized skirt) for small batches, as they easy to clean. Red wine pomace is far more bulky than spent grains.

Traditional, true Brazilian Cachaça is made from ONLY sugar cane juice. **However**, I know of several top brands that are made of either 1st run molasses or blackstrap. Cane juice will naturally start to ferment after 2-3 hours, it does not transport well, and spoils easily. An IWSC Gold medal winner I know is using raw sugar. You need to consider your overall process, as a pot still will struggle to strip the heavy flavors from a molasses wash, whereas a column would.

Probably carbonates from the water. Get a sample and perform a basic acid dilution test. Weak Sulphuric or Hydrocloric acid will make any carbonate fizz. RO your water.