mendodistilling

Hello, I have decided to sell 2 of the 660 Gallon Stills from RMS Distillery in Napa, CA. If you have an interest reach out to me at sellitmarin@gmail.com or 707-972-4484 @ Jeff for further information. Below is a picture of them in production. They are now stored on my ranch 2 hours north of San Francisco.

I think bluestar meant that 20% red wheat is unmalted, and 80% of the red wheat is malted.

I’m considering my options for the best direct path cookers for corn. Live steam cookers with cooking coils by vendor seem to be good options but what are the pros and cons you guys have experienced? What other equipment is required and what other manufacturers make as good or better equipment and in your experience, why?

Hey Stumpy, How did the futures sale work out for you and your clients? Are you growing other varieties or is this it? Is it organic or conventional? What kind of bushel / AC are you getting with tihs heirloom? I'm really interested in growing some heirlooms as well and wondered what the commercial yield is in the Midwest. Would you be interested in selling some for seed? Anyone have any feedback on the taste and other aspects? Sounds interesting.

I lived in Sonoma county, and a bunch of people were having a wine party on the deck of a house in Healdsburg. The deck collapsed. So now, only parties that go on after 10 pm can continue IF there are enough bedrooms for the occupants... Because someone decided to load the damn house up with tones of people on a deck and luck struck, everyone pays. Sorta like if your condenser line on your super over compensated electrical division code fails, it may still blow up bc of something as simple as static... what can you do... try and negotiate as much as you can with the engineer by simply asking them what they are concerned will happen that is different than other division 2 stills. I'd try that first before I spent tones of time to realize later that the engineer types may have over thunk it.

I couldn’t even feed wire yet in this pic... I was manually dabbing and holding it far away. Once you see the southern highlander photos you realize what good welds are bc they look more machine welded than not and the way they are consistently laid down shows good temp control if it looks that good before welding.

I welded this my first day Tig welding... the guy above has a heavy foot and no control over his temp, it’s too hot and has porosity. If that guy runs a welding shop... I hope he isn’t doing structural stuff... or critical work. I was at the community college and after maybe an hour or so I was able to do this... 3A sanitary welders will have much more heat affected zone covered weld control which improve the color along the weld line and keep a consistent metal structure vs. inconsistent heat and choppy depth of the penetration. welding is glorified oxide producing glue. if it looks glued it’s bc it’s glued... if it’s welded to the correct depth it’s going to look good but also will hold. you can polish it but if it’s poorly joined then you may grind through an area poorly penetrated and have a leak or porosity may be exposed leaving sanitation concerns. If I can do this in a hour of learning, your welder should do 100x this all day every day. Otherwise he’s just playing artist..

Does anyone have Dwrich's USDA reference to the %fermentables of small grains beyond corn? I'm interested in growing some that work in my area and am curious which ones may make the best sense. Corn is pretty easy. Wheat may be more of a challenge due to lodging and smut. But some others if there were tables would be interesting to play with. I'm chewing on some heirlooms to try.

Call a lawyer and see if he can write you a polite letter. There may be torts from the loss of potential business that can be curbed by the cost of a lawsuit.

The TTB won't have a problem with it unless the tide changes under the guidelines of the DOJ... seeing how it swings like a pendulum, and the TTB takes the law enforcement approach, not the common sense first approach, I'd say they are going to give you as much trouble as they and the IRS can. Unless you are an investor with sound financials, and can afford that kind of roller coaster, and are ok with the extensive costs involved, I would never do it. I lived in cannabis central for over a decade. I have extensive lists of friends who mingle on both sides of the lines and when they get licensed, they don't mess with cannabis anymore because its just a land mine field of problems all the time. The fact that its federally illegal makes the argument that it is legal void in any court battle, and its a sour disappointment on the grandest level, the legal reason is, it COULD, POTENTIALLY, find its way into interstate commerce, therefore violates interstate commerce arguments.

Is the biggest trick with copper welding using helium to get the output you want into the metal? I'm about to do some of these simple repairs, I'm a super rookie tig welder. I've been through probably 10 1 hour classes at the community college. I'd say every single person I've talked to dissuades me from trying this. The problem is that no one seems to be able to do it for me either. I sent it to a shop, its been really hard, he broke the copper pipe I gave him to bend the swan neck, said it work hardened on him, he didn't anneal it... which is scary bc I googled a few things and almost all of them say, work it a little, it will harden, anneal, then keep working it slowly but surely. If you guys have any good tips I'm all ears. I've been watching weldingtipsandtricks on youtube and that guy is pretty helpful, Jodi I think is his name. He seems to be a dictionary for all the vernacular. I love his technical profiling of each project. I really enjoy playing around. I have a miller 350LX I bought from someone who worked for me to use to help me build some stuff. I have a miller big blue 400 for arc welding and rural/ mobile work. Would brazing a cap on the end of the pipe and filling it slowly and tamping it down with sand work for kink free bending with something like a JD-2 bender or the like? Do you guys use any kind of preheating equipment or just start up and get comfortable to make as long a pass as possible? Do you need to blanket gas the interior / back side? If so, what do you like to use? Thanks for all the help so far. I saw on home depot's site you can buy mueller 10' type M copper rigid pipe. I hope that is the right stuff, I'm trying to find it on their site to find out for sure.

@JustAndy Do you have the name of the book and does it go into more detail about other chemical reactions of other things? Seems like an interesting book. Malolactic fermentation was frowned upon by someone who told me most of what I know about distillation. He said it can take the fruityness out of the distillilate. Now I definitely know why! Great reference, thanks!

Where can you get alloy 122 copper welding rod? What is it called? I can't seem to find it labeled like that. Does anyone use airgas or blue demon on amazon? Do they carry this?

These grants are available with the use of a contract agreement with them, so contact them and ask them what needs to be done in what order. There are many of these available. I spoke to the NRCS about some other stuff and they want to help you line up a contract and then you get paid after you pay for it then complete your project as agreed, then when the quarterly payment comes up, they offer you the payment. Sounds less strings attached that in most cases. Certainly worth the time and paperwork at face value.

Wow, so many distilleries were awarded this series of grants and no one is on here with any experience, rejection or success?

This is a microbe all over LOUISVILLE and has covered the town, it got national attention bc mainly there are massive distilleries right in the downtown area. If I remember the article I saw, it was more geared towards the injustice of people affected than that it existed. Where the distilleries like Heavens hill I believe are located, it's predominately low income and people felt voiceless when everything was covered in this black mold that grows in benches, cars, trees, etc. In Cognac, France, I saw the same thing. It was all over the old cellar houses. The only reason I bring this up is that I've noticed in France they are very concerned about these kinds of things and I would imagine there is research out there for your case to be argued. I understand it is black but doesn't have a health risk. Hopefully maybe a google search about remy Martin or Hennessy and the name of the mold may prove fruitful.

I was wondering if any of you have had any positive interactions with the USDA regarding utilizing the value added grants and the wets grant for energy efficiency upgrades, etc. I'm going to contact them and try and find out what can be done in regard to estate grown items like bourbon inputs, etc. I'm curious what your mileage with them has yielded. I've found some good google search results. It would be fantastic to get real world feedback from one of the champions of the bureaucracy.

I'm working through a series of books and wondered what people have done to address the true form of their customers needs when preparing for investment and execution, as well as, maybe timing of repeated follow up to see where you are with the information. Have distributors been willing to help you produce this information using their sales analysis for your product categories? I'm about to call a few after the weekend to chat about this theory because all the old school score guys I talk to are doing exactly what this book suggests to avoid like the black plague and I have always agreed and found the proforma of the standardized business plan to be just about worth as much as simply not having to repeat the basics of the company over and over again and source people who get the main idea but want to dive further. What I would like to do now because of the size of the investment I'm aiming for is to get as much market analysis info as I can find and work with that for the reverse engineering of the company, from ideal sale exit strategy to finding a good team of people pull off a successful startup and everything in between. Focused primarily on where I can get the most from and for customers. I know once I get started some of this gets easier but I'm curious if discus and others have some really good resources for this industry. I'm half tempted to see what the abc and ttb may be holding on to as well. Look forward to your input guys and gals. Enjoy your weekend.

Does anyone know a stocking supplier of this c122 tubing? I've called around the Bay Area and everyone says it is not in stock and has to be milled at multiple unit cost.

http://www.discus.org/policy/fireprotection/

This guy is a nice guy with quick work and knowledgeable. http://www.wardburner.com/images/Kettle_Venting_Wiring_Instructions.pdf

I stand corrected... don't use it on the floors because its the airborne vapor that also can cause this issue. Makes sense really... its a gas.

https://www.extension.purdue.edu/extmedia/FS/FS-50-W.pdf

http://www.worldstainless.org/Files/issf/non-image-files/PDF/Euro_Inox/Passivating_Pickling_EN.pdf

Is this the same TCA as in using Trisodium phospate with chorine or TSP-C and getting some residual in the bottle which causes skunking? Sounds like not using chlorinated products and a really good acid rinse should start the product off on a safe foot. Most wineries now use quarternay ammonia. It used to be common for chlorinated products to be used but the wine skunking of the cork caused quite a bit of research which led everyone to steer clear of chlorinated products in the production pathway. Its only used on floors, etc. Someone with some out of date methods likely had this equipment. Sounds like if its stainless a good "pickling" of the stainless is probably in order anyway with nitric acid and then should be perfect again. You want to passivate your stainless steel parts from time to time to avoid any chemical gouging and rust. Probably right before starting production would be a perfect time.