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CountySeat

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Everything posted by CountySeat

  1. OK - seems like Stoeltzle is making some but not all of the Anchor Bottles we use. Can anyone recommend any good substitutes? We prefer USA made if possible. This is what we use: 750ML and 375ML Nordic/Stockholm Style Anchor Hocking 750ML Tall Wine/Bordeaux Style Anchor Hocking If anyone has found good substitutes for these, we would appreciate the info.
  2. Thanks for the info - ended up getting through to someone at Stoezle who bought the plant in PA earlier this year. He was great and is working on it. Seems likes its a mix of complications from the sale and general glass shortage. They are keeping the Anchor products it seems but things will be tough for a bit. Just glad I was able to reach someone. I was concerned they shut down or something.
  3. That’s what I’m guessing but we didn’t get any notice that the order would be short. It just arrived very short. Mainly just concerned because I can’t get an answer/response.
  4. Is anyone having issues reaching them? We've been using their bottles for years and they are usually pretty easy to deal with but it took about a month to get our most recent order in and they only sent a fraction of what we ordered. It looks like their website for spirit bottles was taken down and I can't get anyone on the phone. We use their Stockholm (375ML and 750ML) and Bordeaux bottles if anyone has a supplier they like that sells similar bottles.
  5. We recently did a label with High Proof and were happy with them: https://highproofcreative.com/
  6. Nice - are you getting a solid Tequila flavor? We used a different brand of nectar and SafTeq Blue Yeast and it was a solid product but a little too clean and not exactly what we are looking for. If you are getting close to a blanco tequila flavor instead of a sweeter vodka/rum flavor, I'd be interested in what yeast you used if you would be willing to share.
  7. The back label is printed double-sided if that helps. That was the reason as I understood it. If you have a label company you recommend, please let me know.
  8. We currently use a manual Race Labeler (https://www.racelabel.com/rl-1/) for single label application. We are doing our first two-part (front and back) label soon and the label company says they can't print it alternating due to the design and label type so we are looking for either 1) a new label machine that can accommodate two (2) different rolls (preferable) or 2) a cheap second manual labeler to do one of the two (2) labels. Specs/Info: 1. Labels are fairly tall (vodka) bottle not at least one is not very wide; 2. They need to be properly spaced to line up correctly for the design. 3. We use a standard vodka style bottle for this design (Anchor Hocking Bordeaux) and short bottles for most of our other products 4. We don't have the $ for a fully automated system but willing to consider affordable semi-manual systems. We looked at the Primera applicators but they don't allow for two (2) different rolls on the double label applicator. Any suggestions much appreciated. Anthony
  9. Anyone have a current source for NGS? We don't use any in our process and Ultrapure won't sell us any until they fill needs of current customers. We are making what we can from our own spirits to donate but would obviously prefer to use a sourced NGS for this purpose. Appreciate any help! EDIT - sources for suitable bottles would be helpful too.
  10. We make vodka on an old iStill250 with the upgrade Genio column. Second what Skaalvenn said, makes good vodka but VERY slow. We run low wine strippings of about 30% ABV through it and if we fill it to the top (close to 250L), the run times are 16 to 20 hours. On the positive side, once you take a few front cuts, its essentially fully automated so you don't have to make any adjustments while its running (we still keep different cuts but its largely unnecessary). Good kit just very slow.
  11. Looks like they sell also it in a liquid form that can be sprayed? Any experience using it that way?
  12. Potential scorching issues with both. You may be able to filter out the yeast with some filters that fit over 5 Gallon Buckets. The non-fermented sugar will be there though. I used to run a similar system with a replacement low wattage element without major issues but you may have that risk if the ferment is not completed.
  13. Depending on what kind of still you are running, there is a risk of scorching.
  14. You should reach out to Yianni at Mason Dixon Distillery in Gettysburg. When his iStill failed, he modified it to direct steam injection and swapped the column out both with great results.
  15. We have a pretty poorly designed mash tun/stripping still so we can only do step down mashing. We heat the water to the max temp we are using, add a high temp enzyme to the water and then add the milled grains at the temps we are mashing them in. It generally works OK for us. We do get some clumping on the surface of the mash due to the design of our equipment and we used to use a paddle to deal with that. A couple years back we added an electric grout/mortar mixer which works well to break up the clumps on the surface. Our mashing vessel stirs the mash and we hold the mortar mixer through the manhole and let it rip, it chews up the clumps on the surface and they get mixed in. Its not perfect, we'll run the mortar mixer for a few minutes, close the manhole and let is continue to mix for awhile, repeat as necessary until everything is smooth. The mortar mixer is a lot easier than the paddle was.
  16. I would suggest finding someone reasonably close to you who makes the same types of products and runs the same model still. You'll probably still need to run a sacrificial wash or two to fine tune your process but you can probably save yourself some time finding someone reasonably local who will give you some tips.
  17. I would suggest looking at Affordable Distilling (Paul), Cage and Sons, and Stilldragon. I know AFD and Cage offer systems like you are looking for.
  18. Is there a practical limit to using electric bain marie in larger sizes? I know some manufacturers hesitate to quote electric bain marie at 300G or more because of the heat-up time, etc. We'd like to replace our current 340G stripper/mash tun but not ready to spend the upfront cash for steam (and we don't really have the space for a boiler in our facility right not.
  19. I think the SafSpirit American Whiskey is now called the USW6. If so, you can pull the technical sheet online which recommends an optimum max ferment temp of 89.6. You may want to try pitching at around 85 and seeing the difference.
  20. These guys are local to us. This is a fantastic opportunity to work for a top notch distillery in PA.
  21. As mentioned in our prior post, we did our test batches with BSG. Ferments went easy but the final product is kind of boring. Storm King - are you getting a big, bold tequila like flavor? Ours comes out really clean but more like a clean different rum. We were hoping for a bigger flavor profile. We are trickling it out on a potstill. We dunder our rum which works great but that isn't really viable for us since if we moved this into production, we'd do a single large batch. Our system is about 340G and I'm not comfortable with ordering agave for 3 to 4 batches of that size.
  22. We've done a series of malt whiskeys with a brewery in the same building. They sell well. We did a stout that came out nice, a wheated beer which was a huge hit, and an IPA beer which was niche but people liked. The IPA took much longer to age out - too harsh at first. If possible, you may want to have the brewery tweak their recipe to remove the hops which do't always distill out well and which add to the mashbill cost. All in all its a fun collaboration opportunity though if you are buying the beer you'll need to up the price a bit as the raw material costs are higher than a bourbon/rye.
  23. What do you sell the tube in shell mash cooler for and do you have any specs on cooling time, etc?
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