mheisz

I have always read the same.....but I have always wondered how much of the "consistent flavour batch to batch" is science (not sure what the science would be and would definitely be interested) and how much is marketing. Seems to me that mash pH needs to be lowered for enzymes and yeast and distilleries happen to have a free source of acid (backset/dunder) to use and make things more cost effective than purchasing acids. That said, rum won't taste like rum without some sort of bacteria (i.e. dunder pit) in my experience (tried to make rum, tastes like molasses distillate and none of the rum-like headsy flavours...suppose I could have distilled it differently with wider cuts but rum was just an experiment).

Try Equals Brewing in London. I have been to their facility and it is impressive. We do a base spirit for them that they make into an rtd for a contract customer. Pm me if you want any more info.

If you don't mind me asking, what size is the hopper and approximately how much did it cost? Looks like a good solution...

I am also in Ontario. Also using J Tech Sales. Shipped out of the US....I am guessing that Wolfhead does the same.

Couldn't you just buy old barrels and flush them with water repeatedly (maybe let them sit for a few days full each time). I think that would get close and would have a really well sealed barrel. That would pull all residual product flavours out of there or most of it anyways I think....

Just curious...how did this work out?

I am looking for ideas on simple digital temperature probe readouts to monitor vapour temp and water temp in our dephlegs. Nothing sophisticated as we use manual controls but really just want to see the temperature with accuracy. Something where the readout is separate from the probe as our vodka column is 18' in the air so we would want the readouts away from the dephlegs. Trying to avoid anything overly pricey or complicated...looked into RTDs with an electronic readout but figure there has to be something simpler out there that someone has done. Thanks! Mike

How bad do you need one? I have an extra but I am in Canada so shipping may be more difficult...

I am looking to source the plastic figure 8 shaped parts that are used to hang a 50ml bottle off of a 750ml bottle. Does anyone have a source for these (or any idea what they are called so I can search them)? Thanks! Mike

I started on this: https://milehidistilling.com/product/1-3-gallon-5-liter-alembic-copper-still/ And ended on a 300 gallon Artisan Still Designs Complete system,

I will take a shot. 1. I would suggest looking through the vendors on this forum or the general ADI sponsors etc for still options. I am sure you will get many people here who can push their own products. I will gladly recommend you check out Artisan Still Designs as they are more than capable of this type of setup. 2. My personal opinion is not really if you are able to understand the technical aspects by reading the vast amount of info out there for free. 3. This I can't answer except to say that your throughput with a Gin from NGS is going to be very high and you don't need a huge still to make a lot of product. 4. I started by testing on a 5L still and scaling up the recipe from there. 5. I think most buy and store (I do). Making your own would be a good marketing story but be careful that you aren't sacrificing quality. The botanicals are the essence of your gin.

I don't know that I will be doing it ever but curious if someone is willing to share their process for mashing stone fruit? How do you get the flesh off of the pit? How do you get the pits out post ferment? Are there a lot of solids other than the pits at the end? Do you strain those out somehow? I am curious as it is something we may be looking into this summer when fruit are in season and I have never really figured out how I would do that. Thanks!

I m in Canada. We have different naming rules to go by so there are a few options. We won't have all that much so if it turns out we will cross that bridge when we get there.

We are actually doing the same thing as an experiment although we are combining the late heads and tails of various product distillations (wheat vodka, corn whisky and whisky) together and running those as a whisky. To be honest we don't have a clue how this is going to turn out but our thought process is the same as yours and the flavour was similar to what you describe. Hope it works for both of us!

Do you have a forklift? We are finding a fair bit of success milling into bulk bags and then using a forklift to hold it over a rigid 4" auger (`$1K new) to fill our mash tun. We use the same auger to go from bulk bags into the mill as well so it serves 2 purposes and we can wheel it our of the way easily. That way we batch up a weeks worth into bulk bags at once and use them all week. Not sure that works in your setup but we found it to be the most cost effective methods. For reference we are running a 300 gallon system here. Obviously some ceiling height is needed to make that work.

Has anyone had any experience with off shore bottle suppliers? I am currently debating going to a custom bottle with an off shore manufacturer but I am unsure of the suppliers and was wondering if anyone had any experiences and/or advice to share good or bad. Specifically, I am looking at a chinese company for production of my bottles that would cut my costs but almost half delivered... Thanks! Mike

In case anybody reads this and wonders that happened.... I had a second mash that produced similar (though not as pronounced results). I combined those with 3 other stripping runs and ran through a spirit run yesterday and found no issues in the spirit run. It is possible there re slightly more fruits flavours in the early hearts but nothing extreme.

I did cut a little short on this run although I don't usually get much milky color anyways but do get some.

Thanks for the information! The yellow colour is only visible in large quantities in the tank and hard to see in a small sample. See attached. The colour and odor were definitely from the beginning of the stripping run so I assume that they are in the heads. The still did not puke at all in running them.

Anyone have a good resource for the effects of bacteria in a fermentation on flavour for various bacterias? Also, information on the final distillate affects would help. And more specifically, I ran a corn mash that had some sort of bacterial infection through a stripping run and the results was a golden colour and smells different than usual (I would describe it as sour smelling but not vinegary). Anyone know what bacteria would cause this and what I should do with this? Will it dissipate with time? Will it be cut with the heads and tails cuts? The aroma has dissipated slightly in the past 2 hours if that helps. Thanks for your help.

What volume of barrels do you have in those sizes? I might be interested in buying them for second use whiskey in Canada. I assume you are in Michigan?

Not a definitive expert by any means but I went through similar questions and will answer what I thought...will let any experts out there correct me if I am wrong. 1. I assume there is a drain that remains open in addition to the vapour path through the condenser remaining open so I assume there is no reason not to other than you will have more volume coming through as a lower percentage due to less reflux. I run mine through with the vodka column on but the dephleg temp set high to allow ambient relax and lower the volume of tails. 2. If you have run it through tails there shouldn't be enough alcohol left to be problematic with opening it. However I assume that it would be ok leaving it shut to cool but that depends a lot on construction. Vacuum should dissipate through the condenser fast enough to avoid a vacuum I would think. My normal method is to open the many but leave it loosely closed so that steam doesn't escape quickly. Leave it overnight and drain the next day. 3. I do. Not sure if it matters though but I can't see it hurting. Should maintain a more consistent temperature profile in the liquid by agitating it. The boil may have the same effect though. Again, not an expert but have had the same questions and those were my conclusions and the logic behind them.

I had a lot of trouble trying to use both. A lot of the time I leave the first dephleg off and let ambient reflux takeover as adding too much causes the plates in the 16 plate column to start flooding (can't drain quickly inning in my setup). Once I get everything up to temperature I run with my steam valve open about a quarter of an inch or less. i use this to control the flow rate coming out and the second dephleg to control the water temperature in that dephleg to control what comes out. When too much heat gets in (i.e. column starts flooding) I back off the heat until it is back in balance. Controlling those 2 things has worked well for me. If your dephleg isn't getting enough flow wouldn't it heat up too much too quickly and allow more vapour through and effectively lower your run time but not achieve 95%?

I should add that my first runs were 20+ hours trying to figure out how to get to a stable state that worked...that is what I ended up at....

I use the same system for the same purpose with low wines the same way. Here is what I have found to speed things up for what it is worth. 1 I set the dephleg on the first four plate column only after achieving reflux on the 16 plate column and even at that I set it very close to vapour temp. I heat up the 16 plate column fully without the 4 plate column engaged at high steam input. Once I have reflux and significant reflux I engage the 4 plates and lower the steam input to a minimal amount. This heats the tall column up quickly (getting enough heat through the first dephleg to the top of the second column was very difficult). At that point I carefully control the temp of the second deploy setting to maintain the water temp and slowly increase this to allow through heads. Once I get to hearts I open the second dephleg temperature to allow more through. I try to hold of tails for as long as possible with the second dephleg. It sounds to me like you are using a lot of calling and negating the heat input in your deplegs or ambient in the tall column. Only issue I have is flooding in the bottom plate of the tall column which just requires backing of the heat for a bit. I control the temp settings of the dephlegs very closely and monitor them as vapour temp rises to maintain constant water temp. That is my experience. Not saying it is perfect or even the "correct" way but I really like what I get that way. And I just ran a half charge (slightly diluted with water beyond 40% to have more volume) yesterday off of a 600K BTU boiler in about 6 hours including heat up time.