bluestar

Sorry about that, finally cleaned it up. But you can email me: manager@quincystreetdistillery.com

Locals are most often the greatest challenge and issue to setting up a distillery. Many of us end up having to site at a very different location than we originally planned.

In this case, very small means making less than 5000 gallons/year (on the order of 1000 bottles per month currently), but of that, only a fraction is honey spirits, most of it is whiskey. We have not done the gin yet, precisely because we can not get enough local wildflower honey. The honey spirit (Prairie Sunshine™) is so popular, we can easily sell all we can make now. But we have made an absinthe blanc from the honey spirit base, and it is delicious. That will be out once formula and label are approved; it is called Prairie Fairie™.

No, Feds say nothing about your tasting room if you are selling retail in the tasting room, because then THE TASTING ROOM CAN NOT BE IN THE DISTILLERY as defined by general and bonded premises. It might in the same building, but it can not be on the distillery premises as defined in your permit. A common misconception, but you can not sell retail in the distillery proper.

We use the honeycomb for our "baby" bourbon. After 4 months or so, you have saturated with oak, so we found it only suitable for this short aging. On the otherhand, I think there is a WA distiller that has aged 2 years in a honeycomb, with impressive results.

They probably use rolled corn. Syrup would be too expensive, I suspect.

We use waivers, run it by your insurance agent (we did). But just because you have a waiver, doesn't mean you are completely protected, for example, if the person could prove negligence. But in that case, you might not be covered by your insurance, either.

It is up now (for me). Not unusual for them to do maintenance on a Sunday, but they will usually post that beforehand.

Traditionally, meaning for centuries, the inside of general use copper vessels (mug, ewers, pots, pans) were tinned, for this very reason. While for display, an all copper mug sounds fine, for use, the interior should be tinned. If tinned, then this issue should going away. Key is avoiding scratching the interior in use and cleaning.

I believe Hydro-Logic recommends you use the sediment and carbon pre filter they call Pre-Evolution with chlorinated water systems for that very reason.

We just have an exhaust above the still runs continuously with a heat exchange box, also provides regular fresh air for the entire room, and keeps the room slightly negative to the rest of the building. Far cheaper than modifying entire, and otherwise cheap, HVAC. Also, we have above not far from still a big roof exhaust we can turn on whenever we have a reason to. Luckily, that was already in the building when we leased it, just had to fix the motor.

DI would run you 2-4x more in capital cost, and probably in operating cost, for any reasonable size system (at least a few hundred gallons a day). Also, DI water is "corrosive" so you will need to avoid metal in your downstream plumbing. RO you can get away with SS. And to actually deliver DI to point of use, all the plastic in between would have to be very expensive PP or even PTFE. So I wouldn't bother with DI. JMO.

OK, I call bull donkeys. Yeah, yeah, GIGO, but you can make a better product when not suitable in a prior distillation by an additional distillation, IN SOME CASES. Or to put it another way, for some products, on a low-separation-power still, the only way to get to a suitable product is to perform additional distillations. And the still and how it is operated is a critical component, or you would not be arguing with the rest of us about what kind of still is best. Fermentation is important (the fermentor itself probably not so much, if you really want to parse your English), but so is the still and particularly how that still can be and is used for making cuts (or effective cuts, in a continuous column arrangement). Bull donkeys, I say.

We did that, all native botanicals. You can't sell that legally though, because they are not GRAS.

I would think, if you have decent mineralization and no other issues like presence of iron in your water, you would be best just removing the chlorine and not much else for use for fermentation. But agree, for all else, RO makes sense, if you have it.

To get back to the original question: many pot stills don't have enough reflux to provide sufficient fractionation during a run without running the still at an extremely low rate, and perhaps not even then. Read up on the basics of distillation, paying special attention to the process of fractionation, to understand how different stills and different modes of operation of those stills will affect the ability to use "cuts" to control flavor and aroma profile. Also, to get good separation near the head cut, you need to distill to a higher proof at the start of the run. I am not saying you can't get a good product without doing this, just that you can't get the same product you might be able to get with a different still, or doing multiple runs, etc.

You want it to be smooth at 105 proof, distill the dickens out of it. We have done a 4x distilled, with plates the second two times, to 185 proof. Smooth and tasty at 110 proof. For your edification, I would suggest if you have something you don't like at distillation N, try it at distillation N+1.

Yeah, but I can do both in my still, and I do not find it to be true, so there you go. YMMV.

If you can spend the time, and don't have the cash for week-long courses or paid consultants, intern at a distillery for a few months. We usually have one intern, and expect 30+ hours/week of work in the distillery over the course of 3 months in return for learning whatever one can about any aspect of the business.

Depends how long you are "storing" them and how you characterize your production. Sometimes they stay in production physical inventory unfinished spirits when you know they are just being moved over into the next distillation, sometimes they move to storage, and are moved back later. But why would they going into processing?

Not so unusual, and often clears up with a rest. Those rested low wines should be fine.

You are probably outta luck. Look for another property. There can be no residence in the same building. I have heard where separations by 4-hour fire walls (or ceilings), no common entrance, no connections, etc., got someone to the point of the TTB allowing that the unit was a separate "building" from residences in a nominally common structure, in an urban area. And your local fire marshals can pretty much decide whatever they wish. So get their buy-in FIRST. In some towns, they might prevent you from setting up in a separate building just because of proximity to other residences. Local laws/rules prevail.

We chose to name our still "Tik-Tok", the first robot in literature, a copper robot in the Oz series.

Plates can be great for moonshine, which should actually be taken to higher proof than a whiskey to get that clean flavor. Double distill with no plates for whiskey if you want that maximum flavor, take a small tail cut on the strip and then your accurate heart selection on the spirit run. You might consider including a dephlegmator for the spirit run, though. JMO. Check previous threads for the two versus one distillation efficiency debate.

The Novatech's are a bit more expensive than the H-B's from Cole Parmer. To be the calibrated hydrometer, you have to purchase the calibration extra, far more expensive than the hydrometer. Cole Parmer offer's the single point calibration for about half the price of the 3-point calibration from Novatech. You could also do your own secondary calibration from primary calibrated hydrometers, theoretically.