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Roger

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Everything posted by Roger

  1. I don't believe taking the bottom off the stream trap will tell you much of anything because if there is a restriction on the return line, you have taken it out of the loop by opening the trap. I can't tell for sure but it appears that your condensate holding tank may be hooked direct to an outside water source. If so, is this tank open to the atmosphere, or is it a pressurized tank wherein the pressure would be pushing back your "gravity feed" condensate return, and not allow the system to freely flow in a complete cycle. Even if this is an open system, is the tall pipe that comes out of the holding/return tank so tall that it is full of water that is building a head pressure that would restrict the flow from the "gravity" system as it would be putting pressure on the condensate return ? And last but not least, i see that you have steam coming out of your "open trap" but do you have "liquid" coming out of the return, if it is closed back up ? I.e. if the float is not working, it would just be a continuous flow of steam, and not be held long enough for sufficient Delta-T
  2. People working on this are typically being paid by the whey producers to take the waste, as they are normally paying to dump it. It is a huge financial liability for cheese producers, so if you were payed enough, it might be worth it. The fermentables are about equal to or less than maple sap, which is also not worth pursuing as a spirit, except for a premium price product where you have a good local story,. I don't see a bulk market for it except as a bio-ethanol, and then your price will have to me very very low. Best of luck
  3. My commentary is not meant to be negative, it is just one distillers look at your offerings to if nothing more, allow you some insight into your future endeavors. prost/Roger
  4. love your enthusiasm, perfectionist attitude and approach, but I have to ask, what's the real goal ? Beyond that, why do you think any small distiller even cares ? the products we make either taste good, or they don't. For clear spirits they are as clear as ones equipment can make them, and for aged spirits the flavor profiles at distillation will change so dramatically during maturation that they make the initial information gained from your exhaustive process, vitually meaningless. The fact that on day one, a specific batch of bourbon had 1/10,000 of congener ax1, vs 3/10,000 is almost nothing but noise, considering that one will not even know what the product will actually taste like for 5 years. Even then the blender will just attempt to hit a representative sample by blending a certain amount of different products with their nose. it seems like your incredible attention to detail would be better (and more profitably) served in something like the medical field, vs determining minutia about something so banal as alcohol. In fact one could assume by the lack of responses to your OP, that this field of endeavor may be very limited. prost/Roger
  5. KRS - Seriously no offense, but after reading your post for the 3rd time, I can still not find one single complete sentence that is either factual, legal or even remotely comprehensible . I have attached the BAM that you might want to look at as you go forward in the industry. In the instant case you might want to peruse Chapter 8. The BAM is essentially the "Working Document" and if you want the reference law, please check the CFR's prost/Roger.
  6. Don't remember where I bought it, but it's been great
  7. If you bottle in a 750ml charred oak bottle, does it continue to age on the shelf ? That would great for the fake NAS operators, as at some point their labels might actually become legal. It's nice that the TTB has all of these regs, but if they aren't actually enforcing any of them, they are really nothing but a competitive disadvantage burden on distillers who actually follow the rules.
  8. Sadly, No. "Scotch/Single Malt"is only NAS because it first carries a regulation that IT MUST BE 3 YEARS OLD. Regardless the Scotch industry is very heavily regulated and inspected for compliance. There-in lies the rub. A few unscrupulous US distillers know that there is no enforcement here (as pointed out by Chuck Cowdrey a couple of years ago) so they harm us all, while the industry puts it's collective head in the sand, hoping the TTB will actually do something. At least companies like High West, et.al. were honest as they were developing their brands by clearly marketing that they were sourcing their whiskey, while their own stock was maturing. Anyone who thinks this isn't causing incredible harm to this fledgling industry is not looking at it hard enough. Sure you might gain a bit of local market share due to local word of mouth or your tasting room, but you will more than likely never gain any national traction if your product is suspect while sitting on a shelf where you have no customer interaction. The national dialogue should be "I'm going to try NAS Craft Brand X Bourbon this week to see how it compares to Craft Brand Y (or Big Brand)". Instead we have "Christ, I'm not going to try that Craft bourbon because the last one I had, tasted like S***. Edith, I'll stick with the Big Brand."
  9. Sadly, requiring a minimum age before whiskeys could be sold in in the US would not alleviate the deceitful practice by those intent on scamming the system. Especially If the TTB continues to approve COLA's based on taking the applicants "word for it" with no threat of actual or preceved enforcement. Some DSP's will just lie about that age, vs what they are doing now, tacitly lieing by merely omitting an age statement. Dirtbags, will be dirtbags. Fees are never going to happen, and they probably shouldn't . The Big Brands and DISCUS would never allow it, and they cant help but love the turmoil in the "Craft" industry. More customers for big brands ! Not a day went by this summer in our tasting room where we didn't hear some permutation of "we are coming in here with really low expectations, because we just have had such God awful "craft spirits" up the road. Its not really that hard to make even halfway tolerably whiskey. There are just so many "my great gandpappys secret recipes" out there. But when it tastes bad because it is really young, but the customer thinks it is old and mellowed, the whole field takes a hit. Our Craft Industry can't afford too many of those fake aged whiskey experiences, before we lose credibility. Most of the scammers just try to run out the clock. They hope that once they are in biz for 4 years, their barrels dumps will get lost in the shuffle, and no one will even bother trying to pin them down. Right now the TTB should put out an amendment cancelling all NAS COLA's issued to any DSP than has been licensed for less than 4 years. This entire issue could go away overnight at virtually no expense.
  10. The entire age issue should just be eliminated. We know of a local distillery (and there are many more) who are selling No Age Statement whiskey (4 different ones) including one that is labeled as Straight, yet they have had their DSP for less than 3 years, and distribute sell sheets that state the age of the whiskeys are 18-24 months old. So there is absolutely no question that the spirits are less than 4 years old and they require an age statement. The TTB has advised that while they are aware of this, they can not release any information pertaining to the individual distilleries involved and they recommend that we get a group of distillers together to contact our State Attorney General and have them look into enforcement action. Then the other day I submitted a COLA app for a reserve Bourbon with NAS and they kicked it back asking for an age. I went ballistic, called the TTB and asked "how can you now demand the age statement verification on the COLA while at the same time do nothing when there is known whiskey out there being sold NAS?" After getting to the supervisory level they very graciously apologized for the kick-back given the circumstances. Since then they have instituted the new red warning on the COLA app for whiskeys which request age statement verification. If most distillers comply with the age requirement and some don't, it puts those who do at a distinct disadvantage. It makes young AGE Statement Labeled products look less desirable on the shelf alongside "craft/small producer" NAS spirits that are of the same age or even younger. Beyond that, every time a customer buys a 24 month old NAS "Straight Bourbon" that sucks, they are thereafter less inclined to buy from any other craft distiller, because they think their legally labeled 48month+ NAS bourbon is going to be equally bad/raw. NOTE TO TTB: If a distiller has had their DSP for less than 48 months, and the label says "Distilled by" that distillery, do not approve an NAS label, and when notified of blatant illegal labels, send an enforcement letter to the DSP ! Failing that, eliminate the entire requirement for age, and stop putting those DSP's that comply with the law, at a competitive disadvantage. The big brands are laughing at this because they know our industry has sleezebags destroying the perceived value of Craft Whiskey by this type of self servig deceptive marketing, which just pushes consumers back to the reliable "Big Brands".
  11. It's nice to have all these numbers, like OG , FG, OHMY , etc but the real issue is: how much alcohol are you getting, from the total amount of grain (carbohydrate portion)? Are you finding a big difference between your various mash bills, or is this particular mash the only one showing less (based on carb content ) ?
  12. No offense, but I suggest you don't spend a lot of time and money on the rack and bags. Try it like you have it on a fork lift and see what happens, but don't even bother trying it with any corn. Prost
  13. Sweet. Now if we can get Ontario/Canada to eliminate the 150% import duty on spirits we will be all set.
  14. Paul - The Danfoss on my German stills do exactly as you say, they feed the coolant into the bottom of the condensers where it then flows upward. The side by side Danfoss valves in my pic release water into the bottom of the condensers based on demand as sensed by the "warmed" water at the top of the condenser. It then flows that "warmer water" into the deflegs on top of my Hybrid pots. So note that not only is it controlled, but it is also "warm" and as such does not shock the defleg, which can aggravate a Huff. I can't run it that way into my column, because I am using the warmed condenser water in my pot deflegs, and by then the output is too hot to also sufficiently cool the column defleg. As such we needle valved cold into the column top Danfoss.
  15. When attempting to use a Danforth valve on a Vodka column be aware that they come in two basic styles. One is a complete closure, and the second is with a small constant flow hole which always allows some water through, even when completely closed. I think the idea is that the small hole type will always allow some water flow, and not permit a condenser to run "dry" by too tight of a setting. That's fine for a condenser, but it is problematic with a defleg because even the "small" amount that is constantly flowing , may be more that you need (depending on water temp) and will huff the vodka in the top of the defleg. If your condenser huffs even with a water control valve completely shut, check to see if it has some constant minimum rate and if so you can reduce that with an in-line (pre Danforth valve) needle valve. It took a lot to win 2 gold medals with our Vodka made from Grapes, but we did it with one of Paul's columns ! There truly is a life outside of Re-bubbled NGS. !
  16. My German stills have Danforth temperature controlled water valves of the condensors. This because condenser water temperature has a significant effect on the complete operation. I don't know if your still has condensor temp control, but it may solve your problem. To test it, just do as previously suggested and minimize your cooling water until your distillate is coming out warm to the touch. Lock your water flow to maintain a constant temp and see if the problem goes away. DO NOT walk away from your still when you are screwing around with condenser cooling !
  17. Yes, already in motion. Was just reaching out in case someone was in the market to move up or down in size.
  18. As previously mentioned, that is a standard for any sink in a bar / restaurant, as it keeps anything from coming backwards up the drain, into your sink. Typically there is a large bell/flange fitting on top of the drain pipe coming up, which acts as a bit of a catch basin for momentary overflow when draining.
  19. If anyone is looking to upgrade, and has a used 250-500 gallon steam jacketed still, we are in need of one. Doesn't have to be pretty.
  20. Bluestar & Indy - thanks for fighting through the insanity ! Prost
  21. Actually scotch can't be called scotch or sold as scotch until it is at least 3 years old. So the NAS under 3 years isn't applicable. This unlike US Whiskey wherein it can be brought to market and sold as "Whiskey" at any time under 4 years old, provided it has an age statement. Of course the reality is the US "Craft Market" is flooded with under 4 year old whiskey being sold with NAS because the TTB is not enforcing complaints against blatant offenders. Note to self: if you have had your DSP for under 4 years, you should use the age statement on your Whiskey. If not because you are afraid of being caught and fined by the TTB, at least because otherwise you are acting like a Sleezebag.
  22. If he had, he could still get an approval for that statement, I believe, if he specifies that the GNS is itself distilled from 100% grains. He can not get a legal approval for an NGS based vodka/gin unless he declares on the label some derivation of "contains __% Neutral Grain Spirits for the segment of NGS therein. Period. No nuance, no special process, no special sauce will change the requirement. The number one craft in our industry seems to be crafty labeling.
  23. Can't help but ask: how did you get a COLA approved that says "Distiled 100% from Grains" when you clearly acknowledge that your "Craft Vodka" is actually 75% source NGS ?
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