Craft Distillery Resources

This is the whiskey thief that works and if you're just pulling samples, you ain't worried about it too much because it did not cost 400 bucks. I can make changes to length etc. But this model is 175.00 plus shipping. I have some on hand but usually can have yours ready in a couple days notice. Let me know if you're interested I can make more to resell on your tasting room too.

Yes sir, glad to help. My wife has some pictures of one of the models. These are superior to anything on the market. Her name is craft distillery resources lady. These are traditional beer stills used to make bourbon etc. I have designed stills for several large still manufacturers and I find that the craft distillery market is ripe for continuous stills and those switching are finding that they are not what they have been told in the past. Continuous stills of this type are not for neutral spirit. And they find they produce an extremely superior product than that produced in a pot or pot hybrid still. And I find a disturbing trend. Everybody I talk to running a pot are either spinning there wheels business wise or they are teetering on the edge of financial ruin. They switch and find things turn around if they can afford to turn it around. I have taken to the drawing board again on continuous still design. I found some people are not to happy or may be down right afraid of say a 30 foot tall hulking still. I have a unique patent pending design that allow me to shorten the tray spacing. Also, to drop head height, I separated the beer section of the column from the wine section. The wine section sits on the doubler thumper hybrid. There is a deplegmator on the beer and wine section, making these stills very tunable and allows for many weights of spirits. This to me make them easier to operate. The thumper doubler hybrid is something new in the industry. Having a heating coil inside allows it to function as a continuous doubler, IF you add another condenser to condense the so called low wines coming off the beer still instead of sending vapor . To use as a thumper, it is equipped with a sparge arm so that you can use it as a thumper by not adding a second condenser and allowing the vapor to heat the thumper and thump distill the low wines. You can install two condensers to begin with and have it valved to allow for more flexiblity. And if interested, we can enlarge the thumper hybrid as large as a couple hundred gallons and add an agitator and you could use it as a separate pot still. The possibilities are endless. These stills unlike some, distill solids and can make all whiskey types, rum, Brandy, you name it. And in trials I have had the still prototypes run clean vodka at 190 to 193 proof, but until I do more trials I don't say for sure it's possible. Lets lay to rest the debate on the myth that you can't make a heads and tails cut on a continuos column. Bull, started probably by whomever said double pot distillation is the traditional American way. Yes, heads and tails cuts are made on continuous column stills. As long as ran so that the base of the still is the right temp, say 208 or so, the tails cut is made for you and stays in the stillage. It is called your base loss and depending on your tastes, can be a bigger or smaller tails cut depending on still bottom temps. The heads cut is made for you by means of a vent on the condeser and is best piped outside, Heads don't want to condense so we encourage them to float away. The still proof is maintained and adjusted by your preference, either by one or two ways. By adjusting beer feed in, more beer higher proof and less beer lower proof. Some just adjust the steam rate, more steam lower proof, less steam higher proof. I like to use both ways and the deplegmators. Most find them easier to run than pots. These stills come with screw type pumps to feed and drain the still. And we can provide cookers, fermenters, beer wells, pumps, yeast propagation equipment, stillage separators of the old type with send backset or thin set on way and heavier solids another way so that you may sour mash with the solid free thin set, and get all the goodness that creates while lessening the amount of material to have to get rid of. A lot of people have bought the expensive sepeators only to find farmers won't take just the solids. The feed part of stillage for livestock is protein. Approximately 18 percent. The only thing higher for cows is Kudzu. The protein is in the liguid. And the solids are crude fiber mainly and will plug a cow up in a minute. We can provide anything you need for your distillery and consultations too. And usually at a way better price than the competitors. Give us a try. I do what I say I can do. Period. We also have US made in Kentucky equipment as well as foreign made. The choice is yours. And I have a list of pleased customers who will tell you that I did them a good job. Also, in a few weeks I will be announcing the first in a series of digital books at first that are the first real textbook style books on distilling in close to 75 years. I tried putting it all into one book. But you could not fit it. First in the series is titled, Traditional Bourbon whiskey techniques for the small distiller. And goes into great detail and I tell it plain, I call out myths and lies that are one day going to catch up with the industry. As a long time consultant, I have seen just about everything. Do you know that I would say 90 percent of micro distillers can't tell you what the bushel gallonage is? Nor the bushel yield of their distillery is, and most don't know what a bushel is. I am old school. Why? Because in this industry old school works. I do blend old and new ideas, but like a good friend who has a large distillery says, whom I listen to. Tom, if they did not have it 200 years ago then why do we need it now? A great deal of truth there. But up till now, there have been next to no resources out there where one could read up on what they did 200 years ago. They are not cheap, looking to be 75 to 100 dollars retail digital and hard copy both. later. But you can buy better info. And I intend to cover every topic book by book. Please watch for the announcement, and get in touch and give me a shot on your equipment. Thanks

Some very nice equipment soon will be available through them. Very nice folks.

I can get you the same size still and have it look nice and be more functional. Probably for less than custom Metalcraft.

Hello all, This is DistilleryResourceLady, Thomas' wife. I am going to be filling y'all in on some things that we have that you might need that are new and exciting. I will chime in where I can to help with some of the products we will have available. Thomas will be getting back into the forums to see how he can help folks. Ill be listing details on these items, but here is a list of some of the products we will be offering in 2016. *We have started production in KY and overseas on a new take of the old-fashioned continuous whiskey still. This still has things that makes it more user-friendly for a smaller distillery. More details and pictures to come. *We are offering high-quality, distilling specific charcoal to be used for spirits filtration such as hard sugar maple for TN whiskey and all other types of whiskey. We have found that white oak charcoal is very good for filtering vodka. Better than anything we've tried on the market. Charcoal is a way to aid in the way of the aging process of spirits that has been overlooked by many. *Another offering is with grain. We've heard a lot of distilleries looking for grains that haven't been commercially available and some that are. We have three different types of malted corn, white and yellow dent, and interestingly enough, popcorn. Different things like hard red winter wheat and may do some rye as well. These are all hand malted right in KY by us. *We can also offer custom milling of these products with a roller or hammer mill. We also have ground white corn of the highest quality available. *Last two things, we have a natural fix for lactobacillus problems which have been a huge issue in distilleries this year. Some don't even know it. It's well priced and effective. *We are also representing Black Water Barrel Company in South Carolina. We will also have some oak alternatives in the near future. We will list all this in detail in the coming week or so. We hope to connect with y'all and be able to help many of you. And, I'm nicer than Thomas. Many Thanks! Marisa

I'm not able to attach my portfolio because it's too big a file but you can use this link to view: https://www.dropbox.com/s/p0pdu8vmt8fpdgz/T. McKenzie Portfolio Overview.pdf?dl=0

This is Thomas McKenzie. If you aren't familiar with me, please google me. Use "Thomas Mckenzie" distiller. Over 15 years experience in the spirits industry. Looking for a full-time head-distiller job producing a full portfolio of spirits. If you are starting up a distillery and need a distiller and help getting your facility up and running, this is my area of expertise. Looking in the south but willing to consider all offers. I have continuous stills that can come with me. Serious inquires only. Resume and portfolio available upon request. I can be reached at 315-414-1810 and tmckenzie25@yahoo.com.

All fairly good answers , Tom worked for me and he noticed a lot. And y'all ever get by his place stop now. I will tell you, it's not a boil you need anything like that you need a yeast fermenter a good. Varying flasks with air locks heating stir plate, lot of dme or a small tun for worts , plates ,and a good yeast jug. I sell the jugs and can consult on the issues. I also sell nutrients and vitally lacto be gone . You want lacto for a while then kill it. It seems complicated but not at all. Contact me and I can help .

I use and have for years Mohawk high temp brass laquer . Clean all and I mean clean citric acid no polish . About 3 coats your good

Hello all. I would like to announce a new line of commercial 60 to 230 gallon pot still column hybrids. Stainless and copper stills fast delivery and meticulously built. They are what some people expect when they given say $4K for the flute type stills built for home users but intend to use in a commercial setting. We can do anything to like to customize your still and have it your way. Our first unit will roll out today. And I will post picture. This model is s 60 gallon working capacity, with a 4 plate dual flow sieve tray column and deplegmator, Condensor, heated by steam or propane this is a propane model. Stainless and copper has a brushed finish and heat stable clear coated to be easy to clean , if you have time to polish it, your doing it wrong I say. This model is roughly $8k with delivery and setup possible on a mileage and labor basis. The other unit will begin production Monday. I produce one unit at a time . So no wondering where is my still? It is 230 gallons same specs as above . Also let me note, these stills are not agitated by an agitator. The seals are all Chinese and poor quality. These seal vapor in and allow the agitator to turn. I use a method time proven by larger companies. Pump circulation. Highly effective. The 230 depending on options this still is around $15K. I will show production pics for now and also the large thumper that can be added for $5K with a column for high proof and $4K if not. Contact me here or at 315 414 1810 . And always American made with as many American made parts I can find.

It is not just happening with stills but all equipment . Boilers are probably worse than stills. Boiler companies are afraid of the liability because they have a false notion about stills. When I take on a still, I try and work on one until it's done . Too many see the opportunity a become greedy.

We have not as of yet. But contact me and we can se about going one. Thanks

Hello all, these are popular and well priced and have this model and can do solid stainless and smaller theifs. This is $260 plus shipping. All hand made.

Jedd. They are typical my style beer stills. They take solids and there is finished whiskey when you are done. Through out all depends on the diameter of the still and how fast you want to run it. I will have a website up soon enough. But they are a game changer in the small distillery market. So far one large manufacturer, whom I designed for, and several small companies have made them. The only one to run are the one made that I designed. The ones built that need a pot to reboil to help make steam and cook the booze out the column left do not make the right flavor. These stills are depending on size are cheaper than most China built pot stills. I do people honest and so not mark them up several times.

Yes I am. Please give me a call or text message and we can talk.

Jedd, we don't have a website yet because we trying to fill orders, but please give me a call to talk about the details if you're interested.

Hello all, This is Thomas Mckenzie. I have poked around here for a few years trying to help where I can. I worked at Finger Lakes Distilling Company till January of this year. At which time I have started back consulting for craft and large distilleries as well as having stills built to my design in Kentucky which have proven to be popular so far. We have designed a new continuous still that is smaller, more user friendly, more compact and produces an outstanding product. We also produce pot stills and pot-hybrid stills as well. We offer contract distillation work at various places across the country. We also can provide you with copper whiskey thrives, funnels, test stills, yeast equipment including yeast jugs and more. We also sell barrels for Black Water Cooperage in South Carolina which we be available this summer. Look forward to meeting you and finding out what we can do for you. Thanks, Thomas Earl

I think about the most outrageous claim made in this thread is about doublers in distilleries being ran dry and being there just for show. You know what? This forum was set up by Bill Owens as a way for people to come together and talk and hopefully learn from others that have more experience, learn from others mistakes etc, but when someone like me who has experience offers advice, you all scoff at it, get pissed off, do everything but listen. Its a shame. I have much better things to do, and I think I will go do them and let you all continue to damage what I see as an industry that is going to fail sooner or later if things do not get rained in quick. Thanks and good luck.

Tank bottoms, mainly yeasts, which could be called lees, can make nice brandy. But it would seem bad to but residue brandy on the label. But I have seen it on the market. And pricey too.

You are dumping them in? Best to buy a pump, put a lid on the tank, ground everything right, and not expose yourself to such fumes. This is one of my pet peeves along with people running a still by taste. Constantly sticking a finger in to taste. It does not work and by the end of the day you are knee walking and there is no way to run a place under the influence. A small aod pump should take care of your problem.

The FIP pump is OK for small amounts of grain mash. But if you plan to move say 500 gallons a day plus, every day, it will not last. You will be rebuilding it. They,will not stand the abrasion of the grain. They stand up better than most flexible impellers than I have seen but they are expensive to maintain period. For the same money, you can buy a moyno style pump that will move any amount of grain mash you would like to. And a rebuild is half the price should you need one.

Continuous stills for making bourbon, rum, the first leg of the vodka making process in this country, are always called a beer still. They make cuts by themselves. The high boilers or heads blow of the condenser vent. The tails go out with the stillage. Now, a continuous still with a beer still and a separate rectifier off to its side is the original coffey still. It has draw points where you can pull certain grades of products of at certain places in the column. Heads go to the top and are bled into the atmosphere, tails go out with the stillage. There is only one distillery ever in existence that made whiskey which ran a beer still as a stripper and condensed the product and redistilled it in a pot still. That was the old Michters plant in Pa. Most in KY use continuous doublers meaning the vapors come off the beer still condensed, go into the doubler, basically a pot still which is hot and boiling by means of steam coils and that vapor is condensed as high wines to be cut and barreled. Those plants using thumpers, take uncondensed vapors from the beer still and go into a thumper which is basically a pot still heated by the vapors themselves, the vapors pass through and are condensed as high wines ready to be cut and barreled. Coffey stills for whiskey are not used in this country. Mainly in Canada and Scotland.