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Still_Holler

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Still_Holler last won the day on December 1 2021

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  • Location
    WV
  • Interests
    Farming, Distilling, Skiing

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  1. Any interest in selling separately the 2 Transtore Spirit Storage Tanks 250 gallon capacity?
  2. We are taking offers on our small distillery. Check it out at www.stillhollowspirits.com or Google Located in the beautiful Allegheny Mountains in a high tourist traffic area. Only a 3 1/2 hr drive from Washington D.C. The centerpiece of the property is the limestone spring with a pH of 7 and no iron, because you can't make good spirits without good water! We currently do all our sales onsite in the tasting room. We are currently exploring limited distribution. Asking $500,000 for the distillery brand, all equipment, materials, inventory and stock of barreled spirits. This can be moved to another location if you want. Asking an additional $500,000 for the 1400 sq ft. custom distillery building, approximately 5 usable acres with plenty of room for expanding operations, the spring, 30 gpm water well, a house, orchard ect.. No zoning, so the possibilities are endless. The tract will be separated from the larger farm so more or less acreage can be negotiated depending on the buyers needs. Contact Athey at 216-225-1899 or info@stillhollowspirits.com for more information. Serious inquiries only please. Thanks for looking.
  3. Yes be wary of this you may lose your ag tax exempt tax classification. The Assessor hit me with this when I got my "Farm Distillery" liscence in WV and tried to classify my entire farm as a commercial property. I had to separate out an acre parcel as commercial to keep ag status on the rest of the farm.
  4. Haha, I appreciate it. I read back through your and Silks recommendations and lots of impressive things in there. Curious about your "generators run off low nox steam boiler turbines" are you running electrical generators off your steam boiler as well as steam heated cooker/still? I had researched everything from wood boilers with catalytic conveters to running biodeisel in a tractor with pto generator before settling on electric with solar offset. Also curious about the no rinse sour mash and how that works. I have an old timer keeps telling me to not run any tails and just add sugar and more yeast after distillation to do a second ferment. I have been unwilling to try because 1. It wont be whiskey, but we do occasionally make some cane and grain products 2. worried the residual alcohol would affect yeast reproduction. We currently just siphon about 15% of mash water volume from the top of the backset, clean still with a quick rinse and reset the mash using backset as part of mashwater. I'd be worried about leaving residual grain from previous mash in increasing viscosity/losing volume of liquid in the mash. We mash/ferment/distill in the same pot so this is probably way off from what you are doing on that size setup but I may be able to learn something.
  5. Solar is not a one size fits all solution, it works for my scale, building and location and I had it preplanned in the startup. Silk City had said it was a "easy cheat" to claim greening, which in my case I strongly disagree with - it certainly isn't a cheap up front cost for my scale - it was a conscious decision to offset my energy use by going deeper into debt. Sure if you are at the scale your at and put up 5 panels and call yourself green that is lame. If solar isn't viable for you it sounds like you are pursuing best technology for your location. There are also carbon offset programs available to offset fossil fuel energy sources. Bottom line none of us are "green enough". Distilling is an energy intensive process to produce a luxury item. My solar panels took energy and materials to produce and have a finite lifespan before being replaced, most of my bottles probably end up in a landfill, and the liquor I sell is consumed and pissed out. In the end, if you are consciously trying to do it greener than most, I give you props!
  6. Our main green factors are Solar System w Insulated Electric Still/Masher local/reused construction materials for distillery building construction local and/or organic grain/sugar ect.. Cold spring water for cooling onsite reuse of cooling water for crop irrigation onsite reuse of mash as livestock feed reuse of barrels no use of caustics/acid/harsh chemical cleaners - enzyme cleaner instead re-use of heads as sanitizing spray
  7. @Silk City Distillers I'd disagree, I think solar power is one of the best thing you can do. Your still going to be using a lot of energy no matter how many steps you take to minimize or recover it, and where that energy comes from is one of the most important parts of being "green". Seems to me running solar/renewable powered electric for your still and mash heating and other electric needs is much better for the environment than running a high efficiency boiler that runs off fossil fuel or purchasing electricity from the grid that is mostly fossil fuel generated.
  8. Thanks, right in front of me but I somehow was reading past it.
  9. I have been reading back through this section because I broke my lab still the other day and am looking at evaporation method until my new one comes. I had been under the impression Evaporation Method was only for spirits containing 400-600mg/100ml of solids and Distillation Method was for any amount of solids, but after rereading the below if seems that all these methods are for spirits in the range of 400-600mg/100ml? What about spirits with more than 600mg? § 30.32 Determination of proof obscuration. Return to Top (a) General. Proof obscuration of spirits containing more than 400 but not more than 600 milligrams of solids per 100 milliliters shall be determined by one of the following methods. The evaporation method may be used only for spirits in the range of 80–100 degrees at gauge proof. (b) Evaporation method. Evaporate the water and alcohol from a carefully measured 25 milliliter sample of spirits, dry the residue at 100 degrees centigrade for 30 minutes and then weigh the residue precisely. Multiply the weight of the residue by 4 to determine the weight of solids in 100 milliliters. The resulting weight per 100 milliliters multiplied by 4 will give the obscuration. Experience has shown that 0.1 gram (100 milligrams) of solids per 100 milliliters of spirits in the range of 80–100 degrees proof will obscure the true proof by 0.4 of one degree of proof. For example, if the weight of solids remaining after evaporation of 25 milliliters 0.125 gram, the amount of solids present in 100 milliliters of the spirits is 0.50 gram (4 times 0.125). The obscuration is 4 times 0.50, which is two degrees of proof. This value added to the temperature corrected hydrometer reading will give the true proof. (c) Distillation method. Determine the apparent proof and temperature of the sample of spirits and then distill a carefully measured sample in a small laboratory still, and collect a quantity of the distillate, 1 or 2 milliliters less than the original sample. The distillate is adjusted to the original temperature and restored to the original volume by addition of distilled water. The proof of the restored distillate is then determined by use of a precision hydrometer and thermometer in accordance with the provisions of §13.23 to the nearest 0.1 degree of proof. The difference between the proof so determined and the apparent proof of the undistilled sample is the obscuration; or (d) Pycnometer method. Determine the specific gravity of the undistilled sample, distill and restore the samples as provided in paragraph (c) of this section and determine the specific gravity of the restored distillate by means of a pycnometer. The specific gravities so obtained will be converted to degrees of proof by interpolation of Table 6 to the nearest 0.1 degree of proof. The difference in proof so obtained is the obscuration.
  10. Your description of your customer that had the taily whiskey but the honey spirit came out nice, its got me wondering if you can go deeper in the tails with a honey ferment with good results? If they like tails in their whiskey I doubt they adjusted their distilling protocol for cleaner cuts on the honey compared to their whiskey. I'm getting ready to run some mead from a neighboring winery that got a little dry for their taste. Not having run it before, I was just planning on following my usual whiskey cuts but any advice is much appreciated!
  11. It is basically a giant soxhlet extractor would also work with other stills of similar height to the iStill.
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