bluestar

True, it is legal under state law in MO, but the federal law supersedes it. So, it is still illegal. And it is very unlikely that what happened for beer and wine will ever happen for spirits. Part of that is historical, it was legal to home brew, but always illegal to make spirit with license and taxation for most of our country's history (c.f. the whiskey rebellion). And, you pretty much can't enforce "no fermentation" since things will spontaneously ferment. But distillation generally requires an intentional manufacturing process.

Actually, it is illegal to distill at home in much of the world. In the EU and Canada, for instance. But there are places where it is legal, like New Zealand.

Also, everything here that applies to apple brandy should apply to any fruit brandy.

For us, doing whiskey, on the final spirit run, we cut hearts (not heads) from tails at much higher proof than many others, as high as 140 in some cases, down to 120. Depends too on the whiskey. We prefer a less "taily" spirit. We also tend to recycle most of those tails into the next spirit run.

As @Silk City Distillers makes clear, you will get vapor loss at pretty cool temperatures. And that is of the condensate/distillate, the cooling water needs to be colder than that to get to that temperature. But on the other hand, if you are collecting into an open container (as opposed to a spirit vault), the surface of the collected condensate will equilibrate to room temperature and your evaporation rate at the surface will be that due to about room temperature. Hence, we try to set our coolant temperature and flow rate to get us close to room temperature on the collected condensate/distillate. Anything much more than that will likely mean alcohol loss and reduction in proof. Also, much less than that means condensation on vessels and maybe even drop in proof by extracting water from air in high humidity situations.

We don't see foam, because as I said, we don't use the StillDragon on mash or wash, just on wines or previous distillate.

We have not submitted for flavored rum yet. But my post was just to show that the BAM is actually inconsistent with the interpretation you just gave, and experience posted here. Not that the TTB doesn't sometimes contradict the BAM. In fact, I suspect the BAM may be outdated, with some interpretations of the CFR having evolved since it was issued.

Agreed. Fine for round bottles, you need enough traction on top/bottom of label to keep bottle properly rotating.

We have a 17-plate 4" StillDragon with Pro-Caps on top of Affordable Distilling 50 gallon w/ 3x5kW direct. This works great for distillations of high wines to vodka, for example. Even then, we see significant blackening of the bottom plates after a few distillations. I am not sure I would use the StillDragon for production of low wines from mash or wash. Why not do a strip without the StillDragon plates, just a copper upper still body?

Because of their sensitivity, perf plates are very hard to stabilize if you decide to use more of them: as a larger stack they can get into oscillatory behavior where the higher pool depth and boil intensity will move up and down the column.

Guessing, 8" plates?

Sounds like a good topic for a clarification letter from the TTB.

Same here.

Dimensions and weight, to get shipping info...

Here, quote this from the BAM: 1 A distinctive or fanciful product name with a statement reflecting the composition and character of the product is sufficient as class and type designation, e.g., “Spiced Rum, Rum With Spice Flavor”

Pricing is still good, but as I pointed out, what is on your website is not what you quoted here ($8/lb), I am curious what is the difference? Also, I note that the price on the website went up overnight by $15 for 25 lbs.

That is a different price than the web site (which is lower), so is that a different grade?

Actually, the price on the web site looks very competitive. We are not far from you, so something to consider.

Draw a marker through it. Paste/staple a label over it. Some distillers actually paint out the whole head of a used barrel (use something acceptable for food grade, wineries sometimes use whitewash) and then relabel over that. Some will just cross bad info out, and switch to the other head for new labeling.

Also, you can not have misleading or incorrect labeling information on the barrel. For example, you can't have another distilleries information on the barrel and not indicate it is out of date and replace it with your own. Otherwise, the TTB would be in its rights to presume the legacy markings on the barrel ARE the correct labeling of the barrel, and hijinks would ensue. You should at a minimum cross out prior dates and batch/serial numbers with a marker, if you are not doing that already.

Advocate for it, or it may well get reset back to the old rates.

Just keep in mind, if they find an error like that, they could just say "fix it", but they could also say: we estimate the following potential errors in tax determination could result from lacking legally required numbers on the barrel, so we will charge you all possible back taxes plus fines. Just doesn't seem like it's worth the trouble, when you could just staple a label on the barrel.

There are molasses producers and wholesalers throughout the country. Check with any supplier of sweeteners for the baking industry in your area, for example.

I think if you got inspected you would be dinged for that, and asked to fix it.

Low concentration to avoid pitting. Controlling temperature and flow/agitation is key to increasing rate and quality of etch. Higher concentrations will preferentially attack welds and defects, so don't do that.