adamOVD

Good lord that's sketchy. How can they get away with selling something like that? I don't trust single wall flex lines to connect to my toilet, let alone a still. Between that and the racoon dick history lesson, it's best laugh I've had for a while As for your initial post, the alcohol produced is lighter than water, so a fully fermented sugar wash will have a lower gravity than water. Distillate will need a proofing hydrometer, and temperature also has big effect on your readings. Spending a whole lot of time on homedistiller will help you learn the basics. Filtering through misinformation and finding the guys that really know their stuff is the price to pay when learning over a forum of random people doing it "illegally". Consider a course if you don't want to spend the time. Be careful. Turbo yeast sugar shine isn't worth third degree burns, and that still is very iffy.

Paulson Supply is where we get ours. They have one like you described.

I also missed the previous posts on citric acid, read through some of them, and appreciate this thread. When I go back into production of mashes that require a PH adjustment this Fall, I was planning on switching over to dunder to correct PH anyways. I will now do so sooner rather than later.

I'm aging everything in 15 and 30 gallon barrels in super dry climate with fluctuating temperatures that can get very hot. So over 4 year aging times are something I may never see. Inadvertently I may have the perfect conditions to be aging spirts from high ester yeasts. Though curious, I am also afraid to go too deep into heads, or even tails. I'm pretty cowardly with my cuts, particularly because I think most consumers vocabulary is limited to the word "clean" in their descriptions, and therefore that is what they are looking for. Pretty off topic, but do you think something like Evan Williams is an example of a longish aged product with minimal cuts? It's been a long time since I've had to drink anything cheap, but I recall not disliking it flavor wise compared to other bottom shelf whiskey, but it is quite harsh.

I'd never make a beer without some percentage of specialty malts, so I transfer that thinking into whiskey mashes as well. I've found the influence of strong ester producing yeast and specialty malts have the pretty similar effect they would in a beer, at least in the new make, which was a huge relief to me, coming from the brewing world. As mentioned, you just have to be more heavy handed. I guessing because you loose some flavor in the cuts. Also I like to think those flavors aren't so much lost in the barrel, as they evolve into new flavors while interacting with the barrel. That may be over romanticized, wishful thinking though.

Duke was the other one.

I thought all glass was basicly the same until i got some the Stolkholm. The walls were uneven, and the lables wouldnt sit flat. Multiple bottles split in half when i corked them. The Oslo is the same bottle. There is one other ive ordered too, ill look it up when im at the distillery next.

Vacuum distilled whey spirits seem like a marketing gold mine, super unique. The two businesses seem to go together really well logisticaly as well. I think you've got a fantastic plan.

I only filter my vodka, and try to use the still, cuts, fermentation conditions, and aging to get the flavor profile im looking for in everything else. I change out my charcoal every 2 or 3 batches, but i know it can also be cleaned with steam if you have it readily available.

https://www.westcottdesign.com/ She does a great job for us at a fraction of the cost of what some other companies quoted.

@Lorenzo This is the sheet I made. I have a very basic form I use to fill out my month end reports that is attached to a previous post. Honestly though, I had basically zero Excel experience, and this didn't take me long to make. If you sketched something out, any savvy office worker could make something like this in 30 minutes. Probably even one that adds columns automatically. Distillary Production Log.xlsx

I've been half tempted to offer to fill out people's month end reports for them for 200$.

Looking at their pictures I didn't see any PRV/VRVs on either still. They're also making vodka with a six plate column. So maybe they're charging it with really high proof? With all the fires I'm worried we will all become uninsurable, or rates will skyrocket. Is that a legitimate concern@InsuranceMan 2.0 ? I was speaking to someone over Facebook about a climbing magazine that used to do incident reports when deadly or serious accidents happened, picking it apart to help avoid future mistakes. Could one of the trade magazines do similar reporting?

I stuff stainless or copper scrubbers/mesh into some empty sections of copper pipe. I may try buying some SPP at some point. I'm still playing around to try to speed things up.

According to the latest set of rule changes, you dont have to stop the clock when transferring to a finishing barrel anymore. I assume that since they don't provide a form, any intelligible internal records will do, as long as the barrels are numbered and labeled according to thier rules.

I only started making it to have it for tasting room cocktails, but people liked it, and now we sell a lot of it.

I don't know where Odin gets his SPP, of if he makes it himself, but you can buy it from him at stillcontrol.nl I don't understand why anyone on a "craft" level would want to make a truly "nuetral" vodka. Big brands can produce a "flavorless" spirit 100x cheaper than I can. I choose to interpret the recently altered standard of identity as anything rectified to 95% or over being ok, and aim for a "clean" or "smooth" spirit with a hint of vanilla and butterscotch still present.

I haven't done identical mashes on/off grain, to do a true comparison, but I have distilled on grain malt whiskeys, and have had batches lautered for me by a brewery. I would not call the on grain batches any more astringent or tannic than the distilled beer. One benefit of the beer is the low wines are almost clear first run and don't make much of a mess to clean. Whether or not that also leads to a cleaner tasting product, I don't know, but I would guess it does. The biggest down side of lautering in my opinion is, depending on how efficient your mash tun is, and how big your grain bill is, you're leaving a lot of sugar behind. Probably around 10-20% even with a properly sized mash tun. Pumping out the fermenter isn't any harder than a wheat mash for me, and I have flat bottom fermenters not conicals. I'm not using a roller mill though and have heard that they aren't great for on grain since they don't shred the husk.

The ABC just called me to let me know that if distilleries effected by Covid fill out this form their fees can be waived for 2 years. https://www.abc.ca.gov/abc-scf-instructions/

@whiskeytango I'm not fully up to date on current local Covid requirements, as it isn't really my department, but we started using plastic when we were under "to go cocktails only" and have kept using them as the restrictions continually change. I think we could wash glasses in a 3 vessel sink again, but we are currently only doing outdoor seating, and I believe anyone washing a customer's glass is supposed to wear some sort of full facial cover, and have plexyglass in front of them, so it would probably require having am additional person on staff. Kind of a lazy excuse, but I think everyone is a bit burnt out on constantly changing operating procedures over the last year. From a production standpoint, being able to reuse bottles would probably have a huge impact, and would likely be something people at any size or budget could accomplish.

Covid sure ungreened our tasting room. All the plastic cups we throw away is terrible.

"Reload" isn't the typical terminology. Backset or dunder is what's left in the pot after the run. Fients are a mixture of heads and tails dumped into a following run to retrieve some alchohol from them. If you search those terms on a sight like homedistiller.org you'll find a lot of info on ways to use them.

@MichaelAtTCW thanks, insightful as always. I'll order some glidetech hoses from you soon, and reserve them for finished spirits only. I have some Kanaflex hoses that I hope are suitable for low wines at 80 proof.

My low wines from distiling on grain usually have a thin, black, oily film that floats on the top, and when I pump it out some often sticks to the bottom of the vessel. It requires some scrubbing to clean, not just a quick rinse or even PBW soak. I'm worried about it coating the insides of my hoses and tainting high wines. I'm thinking of buying new hoses and keeping low wines and final distilate hoses separate. Does anyone else do this, or have any hose deep cleaning advise? Will those sponge balls pump through a small diaphram pump, and do they work well?

I have a mixed column of packing and plates so it is it's own animal. This thread goes into more detail of whats needed though.