cannibalpeas

Exactly. This has been the case in my experience both with Gin and Absinthe. Here's some information on how this works in the context of Absinthe. As far as louching goes Ben, I have worried quite a bit about this and how it would appear to a customer or bartender when they pour a drink that suddenly goes milky. Certainly not the best time to "educate" the customer. Louche is pretty easy to control, however with the addition of more spirit. This may run afoul of the TTB definition interpretation of "distilled gin". However, it would help you determine scaling for the next batch based on how much you add. Do it on the smallest scale possible and make adjustments.

Hi Blair. I am currently using two vendors for 99% of my herbs: San Francisco Herb Co -- www.sfherb.com Mountain Rose Herbs -- www.mountainroseherbs.com There are lots more, but for accessibility of information, origin and lot tracking, well-stocked inventory and price I keep returning to these two. Incidentally when preparing for scaling a production gin I was worried about supply issues. I happened to be visiting Magic Hat Brewery in Vermont and asked John (Brewer, Head of Ops) is they had ever had any supply issues with either of these vendors. He said he hadn't and they often place very large qty orders multiple times a year.

It goes back to the question of water soluble and ethanol soluble compunds. I can't speak to the chemistry involved in all of the botanicals you may want to use, but I have done quite a number of experiments with herbs for compounding as well as distilling and have found that when distilling gin 110 proof is just right for me. A bit more water and I get too many dank notes, a bit more ethanol and I'm not happy with the total extractives. The best thing I ever did when researching gin was to distill every herb of interest in a 10 L baby still to get a sense of their character as well as any spirit variations of interest (proof or substrate). It really helps to understand each actor's part in the whole production. A 1-4 L run takes me around an hour total. Lots of information and very little waste.

Great, thanks! I don't have that volume yet and none of mine specifically mention remediation. I'll check that out.

Thanks for the info Charles. I have seen this mentioned multiple places, but have been a bit afraid of pulling the trigger on the large quantity of really good cider I inherited from NH. It began to go ML, so they dosed the living daylights out of it with SO2. I am having some success simply aerating the low wines between first and second distillation, but of course I lose some amount of ethanol and multiple other compounds. Gwydion Stone mentioned the use of Hydrogen Peroxide correction in this thread: http://adiforums.com/index.php?showtopic=1926&st=0&p=10816&hl=sulfur&fromsearch=1entry10816 With a recommended dosage of 300ml 3% solution to 60 gals wine. Can you speak to this dosage? Are there any other major factors to consider when using H2O2 for sulfite correction? Thanks, -Joel

Yes, but not apples, yet. We really want to source specific varietals and don't want to put out some inferior, tight product with no structure or character. Fortunately we live in a great area for orchards and have been able to locate and graft some great colonial and old world varietals. Now we just wait. I have had a chance to play with some wine this year, though I doubt it will ever hit the shelves. Thanks for the warm reception. See you at ADI '10 of not sooner! J

Hi there. Joel Elder, Distiller at Tuthilltown Spirits here. I've been reading the forums for a while now, but just made my first post so I thought it appropriate to go ahead and introduce myself. I've been with Tuthilltown for about two years now and absolutely love this job. My background includes brewing, but my main area of interest is sustainable agriculture. Distilling is the perfect compliment to a fully realized sustainable ag economy and I'm excited as hell to be a part of it. I look forward to meeting more of you in the future. Cheers! Joel