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Hi from Michigan


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I'm very early in the process of starting a distillery in northern Michigan.  We'll be producing rum, gin, and whiskey, hopefully utilizing local sugar sources as much as possible.  I'm hoping to do small batch experiments with single grain varieties and different yeast strains as well.  I come from a brewing background and am hoping to take the lessons I've learned there and extend my knowledge into the distilling business.


Cheers!

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I'm planning on opening in Marquette, MI.  The wildly optimistic plan is be up and running in one year.  In reality, I'm probably looking at a May 2018 opening.  As far as I know, we'll be the only distiller in the Upper Peninsula, but if some one else is on the ball, good for them, and for me, because it will give more visibility to the industry in our area.  Where are you at, Shindig?

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On 5/19/2016 at 4:24 PM, Gwydion Stone said:

"hopefully utilizing local sugar sources as much as possible"

You have people growing sugar in Michigan??

Uhh, yeah. Michigan is the largest producer of sugar in the US. Sugar beets.

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1 hour ago, 3d0g said:

Uhh, yeah. Michigan is the largest producer of sugar in the US. Sugar beets.

True. We specifically looked in detail at sourcing sugar beet juice or syrup for spirit for our planned Michigan distillery. Did some experiments 4 years ago. You can use the refined sugar, it is almost the same as using refined cane sugar. But anything less than fully refined has flavor components that must be distilled out, and the "molasses" is unusable. Of course, there are some European traditions of using beet sugar for distillation, especially during periods when grape was scarce because of phylloxera and ersatz rums.

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  • 1 month later...
On 5/23/2016 at 7:01 AM, 3d0g said:

Uhh, yeah. Michigan is the largest producer of sugar in the US. Sugar beets.

That's fine, but you can't make rum from beets, which the OP indicated he was interested in making.  Rum is made from sugar cane.

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4 minutes ago, Gwydion Stone said:

That's fine, but you can't make rum from beets, which the OP indicated he was interested in making.  Rum is made from sugar cane.

OP also said he intends to do gin. Beet sugar would produce an ideal GNS base for that. Also, bluestar is dead-on. Beet "molasses" isn't meant for human consumption.

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Sorry, you've lost me Gwydion. Maybe go back and re-read what you said?

Of course, rum cannot be made from beet sugar. You stated the obvious to this audience. Gin however could.

We cool now?

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