Skaalvenn

Litres, gallons, wine gallons, hectolitres, absolute gallons, proof gallons, barrels, beer barrels, kilograms, pounds, grams, oz, bushels of corn, bushels of wheat. Drives me nuts. When I'm calculating our results I just do it in absolute gallons of alcohol and the pounds of grain/cane used. Makes an simple base value to calculate any further number that I could ever need.

I'm a small distiller and couldn't imagine operating without at least one floor drain. I was visiting another distiller without a floor drain and one of the tanks overflowed, using a shop vac and a mop to clean up ~20 gallons of liquid didn't look fun. I've had a tank foam over, I squeegeed everything into a drain, parked the tank over the drain and washed it off, then sprayed down the floor and mopped it with cleaning solution. Also your subject asks about sprinklers. I couldn't imagine doing any real quantity of production without the increased capacity which sprinklers give. I can't remember, but I think without sprinklers it's MAQ of 120 gallons of ethanol in a closed container? I've got 115 gallon spirit tanks that are becoming too small, and to give you an idea of my size we started out with less than $100,000 in startup costs and began production about 15 months ago.

Wouldn't you want to add your enzymes at the temperature that the manufacturer recommends? If you add a high temp enzyme below 150 you might as well not add any enzymes.

Looking for some vertical tanks for holding finished spirits, aprox 150 to 250 gallon in size. Being on wheels is a huge plus. Would consider HDPE, but stainless is preferred. Thanks!

It's been about 18+ months since I filled it out and I can't remember what I put. You want a certified scale that reads to at least .2 pounds. I'd put that down as part of your process.

Your best bet is to use a certified scale and measure weights instead of volume. 500 pounds of 95% ethanol is always 500 pounds of 95% ethanol. 100 gallons of 95% ethanol is not always 100 gallons of 95% ethanol.

I do not. I believe my farmer does some work with the U of M. Please contact me at media @ skaalvenn.com Thanks!

I don't argue that they are both interpretations, or that whiskey should be judged based on flavor. I'm with you 100% I'm not going to try and interpret the TTB in a way that could have a whole world of hate coming down on me. The TTB is the judge, jury and executioner and I'm not going to try and get creative with interpretations unless they say, in writing, that my or anyone else's interpretation is OK.

Was it explained to you by an employee of the TTB?

I can't imagine how many tri clamp gaskets I'd lose in a drain like that...

While true, Chapter 4 uses "....in Oak container" as the definition for all whiskeys. All whiskey needs to spend at least some time (even ridiculously short amounts) in a barrel (unless you have some other type of oak container)in order to be in compliance with the TTB.

The only thing I can possibly think of is high iron levels in the proofing water oxidizing? The "supposedly turned pink" leads me to believe it's a customer making the claim? Maybe someone wearing lipstick decided to sneak a swig from the bottle and some of the lipstick dissolved on the vodka that touched their lips? Just an idea.

Are you using a calibrated hydrometer that only reads in the 190 range? On the cheap 0-200 hydrometers it looked like we were at 188ish, but with the precision hydrometer we're at 190.# The parrot fills from the bottom and the flow rate also makes the distillate appear to be at a lower proof, but in a cylinder and correcting for temp we're hitting what we need. We've got 20 plates and strip first.

Myself and a couple others haven't had the best results (very low conversion) with Specialty, but each of us were using wheat. I've been very happy with using Novozymes.

I hope not!

http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=16a5aa18f560926c0b7ce8d021db2cbb&mc=true&node=se27.1.19_1489&rgn=div8 Can't say I've ever seen the bigger DSPs put the date filled, and some other stuff on there. But it's good to do. And for what it's worth, we have been on the market for over a year and are still using case labels, but are looking to get cases printed as liquor stores have been buying and stacking multiple cases. Now custom cases is no longer the thought of sending money straight into the recycling bin, but another piece of advertising we can use.

I use square/cube mash tun/fermenters, but they have rounded sides and corners. No issues, takes an extra second to scrub the corners but it's not an inconvenience. I'd suggest the ability to have lids because it just makes sanitization much easier and shouldn't cost you much more. I would never get anything with 90 degree corners though, that's just asking for headaches.

Try giving them a call. I had some issues with a formula and was completely perplexed over what they were asking, I called, left a message and to my surprise they called back. After a 15 second conversation it was resolved and they approved the formula. I think the problem is they have a handful of people who deal with thousands of formulas and labels each day.

Yep. They wanted us to remove "Pillage Responsibly" from the inside of our labels. We fought them and argued that if Bud could use "Remove "no" from your vocabulary tonight #upforanything" then we could use something as harmless as "Pillage Responsibly".

Here's my $0.02. You're starting up a small, one man distillery. Your reputation should be everything to you, which means you should be making the best product with the best ingredients possible (within reason). A quick google about turbo yeasts will yield plenty of information on reasons why not to use them for anything but fuel. If you need to flip your fermenters quicker, I suggest purchasing a couple more fermenters and using a standard distillers yeast. A turbo yeast will cut a day off your fermentation, but you'll probably make up that day at the end of the process trying to clean up the spirit.

My rule of thumb: If you estimate something to cost $10,000, expect that it will cost $15,000 If you estimate something to take 6 months, expect that it will take 9 months If you estimate to be selling 200 cases per month, expect that you will be selling 100 This makes for surprises in the form of dollars in your pocket instead of dollars being spent.

I don't think a diagram is quite necessary. One simply puts carbon in a tube and pumps vodka in from the bottom instead of pumping it in from the top.

No recommendation here on how to treat it. Hows the specific gravity comparing to the starting? Does it smell bad? If it's not completely destroyed I'd run it and see how it goes. Maybe it's going to be terrible, maybe you won't notice a difference? Only one way to tell!

As much as I love buying American, it's wrong to just slap the "Chinese junk" label on everything in China. I've seen plenty of garbage come from American manufacturers who try to be the cheapest on the shelf. Just as with American made, business owners in China cater to a certain price, market and customer. Some owners are very ethical and very skilled and some are not--which is no different than in America. I can guarantee you that there's factories in China which will make you equipment every bit as good as the American or European still manufacturers (maybe sans some trade secrets), but you won't find them when sorting by lowest price first.

All I can think is "Is there a freight elevator?" If not, you're going to be spending an absolutely ridiculous amount of time moving boxes/bags up and down.