RBDistiller

What S101 says is correct, the only time you need to record low wines is quarter end. I do not remember off the top of my head where it is stated in the CFR but a product can stay in production as long as reasonably necessary to finish the product and I interpret that as the entire time during the double distillation process.

ohhh I want!! I will have to keep dreaming...

We have used Loggerhead for years, great quality and great people!

I think using it in a CIP would be a bit overkill but I dont see why it wouldnt work. We use it in plastic spray bottles for spraying connections after everything is clean using caustic and ozone. Since we moved the winery into a new building, like everyone else, we have an over abundance of heads and Im looking for something to do with it.

We do the same thing at our brewery and winery.

I have been using a plate and frame filter for spirits for years. I also used it in wine making prior to getting into distilling so I got to practice on it and learn how to minimize losses with a less expensive product. After developing a good SOP on how to flush it after filtration, on average lose roughly 1-1.5 wine gallons of product at 80 proof, doing a 2 step filtration with a total of 14 pads. Depending on batch size and the amount of pads you use that number will go up or down. The filter I have is a Alpha Filter from Criveller.

I just ordered some from them as well, it is on back order at the moment.

We have had a winery and distillery operating out of the same space for years, actually had a full running brewery working out of the same space for a while too. Not quite sure how we had the licensing, as that was obtained way before I came here but we didnt go painting lines on the floor to keep things separate. We did have a designated room where the still is located but most of the building was shared. We never had any issues with the TTB and the way we were running the space.

All of what @bluestar says is true about the sugar and the inconstancy between 2 different suppliers. What you do for one product will most likely not work for the next product, as I have discovered the hard way. Im not sure what SafTeq is but my go to yeast for the successful batches with an different base was DistillaMax LS, but I have tried that and DV10, V1116, and EC1118 and have yet to find something that will work on this product. My suggestion is once you find a product that you get to work stick with it, but even then you could run into the issue of their product not being consistent.

@indyspirits I have not made any more head way on it and had to move on to bourbon for a little while. I have done far to much research and work on this agave for this base to not be fermenting. I have done everything the producer has instructed that other distilleries are doing, I have done everything the yeast manufactures have suggested, and tried what other distillers have suggested and still cant get this stuff to ferment. One semi-successful fermentation I got to finally do something took over 3 months and a lot of work. I was close to giving up and one day it started to move out of nowhere, but still couldnt get it to finish anywhere near dry.

I purchased a Model A CCR machine last year and have not been disappointed, I wish I would have splurged and went with the Model D with the hopper on it. Still beats the hell out of hand application or using a rubber mallet.

We use a 6 spout filler from GW Kent and an aquarium level control and a centrifugal pump with our tank on the ground. https://www.gwkent.com/6-spout-gravity-filling-machine.html

The 48 hour pH after pitch was 6.1

Ph, 6.5 at pitching, current batch using V1116 from Scott Labs (yeast well suited for higher fructose levels.) At the moment I am going to leave the supplier out of this because I do not want them to take this as a public bashing on their product. Sudzie I will PM with the suppliers name.

Sorry to dig up an old thread, but I am having difficulties with this specific batch of Agave I am working on. I have had dozens of successful batches of agave in the last 2 years but I cant seem to get this one batch to work at all. I have spoken to the manufacture about it and he claims that a lot of people use this exact product to ferment for an agave spirit. After working my way through consulting with the manufacture, ETS, Scott labs, and a few other sources I am still struggling to get a fermentation going after putting all of the info given together and building a decent protocol of nutrient and fermentation conditions. Lets just say that my normal protocol for the successful batches isnt working and after multiple attempts at this batch I am getting frustrated. Anyone have any tricks, tips, or ideas for me, it would be much appreciated?!

That's good to know, their pre crushed juniper was a lot dryer than crushing juniper berries your self.

Im in the same predicament at the moment, I usually use Mountain Rose but started looking at Woodland Foods out of Chicago (much closer to me, cheaper, and availability.) But I did a test run with woodland food's crushed juniper, instead of Mountain Rose herbs whole berries and me crushing them. I immediate noticed Woodland's crushed juniper was very dry and in the end product it was defiantly noticeable that it lacked the Juniper of my previous product, now I am hesitant to even purchase whole berries or any other botanical from a different supplier in fear that it will never be the same.

Welcome and great work on the app, that will save me some trips back to the computer while im out working.

Welcome from the lower half. Best of luck getting started, there is a lot of great info and people here.

I use a system called Amphora Wine Log from fermsoft.com It does everything I need it, even though it is designed for wine, and their support is pretty good.

Welcome from sw michigan! I am in kzoo all the time so I will have to stop by soon. Do you have a tasting room open yet?

Welcome from another Michigan guy.

We dilute it and use it as a sanitizer, or you can dilute it even more and use it as the liquid in a cooling system

In my thought process, there may be another reason, but you would want to filter after dilution so you were filtering the water you added as well. You run the risk of accidentally adding something with the water and if you filtered prior to adding diluting you wouldnt catch that before bottling.

We do the same thing as PA_Joe, if its a plastic 55 gal drum with the two holes we lift it over the tank with a forklift and open both ports. Has worked many times and I have tried everything you can think of.