Hudson bay distillers Posted April 16, 2018 Share Posted April 16, 2018 hello all i was wondering if there are any Canadian distillers using wooden wash backs or fermenters .thanks kim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenlyon Posted April 16, 2018 Share Posted April 16, 2018 I've looked at them. I have a couple of barrels I was considering converting to fermenters. I suspect though, we probably won't get around to it anytime soon. In episode 4 of of Netflix's "Cooked" series - they investigate using wooden barrels in the raw milk cheese making process. The results are not what you might expect and further, offers a very interesting set of possibilities visa vie whisky and lacto's role in it. Check it out. Likely you will be more inspired to get happening with some wood. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CountySeat Posted April 17, 2018 Share Posted April 17, 2018 We're not in Canada but we've used them. Our experience was not good. If you are going to use them, you need to be able to keep them full of ferment pretty much constantly. It is a longer story, but we had some equipment issues our first year when we had the wooden fermenters and weren't able to run them all the time. If you let them dry, they warp and dry out and need to be tightened. If you keep them full of water, they can mold up which requires extensive cleaning. Ours leaked all the time (bottoms were wooden and staves were press fit, not tongue in groove and we eventually took them out of service and went stainless. Plenty of people use wooden fermenters with great success but for us they were more of a hassle and liability than anything else. Wood are sometimes cheaper but if we had to do it again, we'd get stainless from the start. Again - others have had great success but my .02. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenlyon Posted April 17, 2018 Share Posted April 17, 2018 12 hours ago, CountySeat said: Ours leaked all the time (bottoms were wooden and staves were press fit, not tongue in groove and we eventually took them out of service and went stainless. Plenty of people use wooden fermenters with great success but for us they were more of a hassle and liability than anything else. 16 hours ago, Glenlyon said: Likely you will be more inspired to get happening with some wood. Or not Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hudson bay distillers Posted April 17, 2018 Author Share Posted April 17, 2018 thanks for the info guys were not in a position to buy one yet lol . i was just curious if any one in canada was using them as we had an inspector tell us that they cant be used in Canada for the production of beverage alcohol . Tim broke out laughing but i figured id ask if any one is using them . Kim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenlyon Posted April 17, 2018 Share Posted April 17, 2018 Watch the Netflix show I mentioned, it will help you change the inspector's paradigm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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