indyspirits

18 hours ago, Glenlyon said:

I find if I use less juniper (I average 25g/L) but macerate a bit longer,

Do you not have a louching problem? That seems like quite a bit of juniper.

Insuranceman is no longer with his previous company. NFC where he is.

The magic louche oils are way the hell down in the tails -- well more accurately the stuff with a high BP. A general place to start is to start with X volume of neutral spirits, macerate. Add X/2 volume of water. Distill collecting X volume of distillate.  In a new receiver collect as much of the X/2 volume as "tails".  You'll end up with a damp mass of botanicals. Dont scorch it or you'll screw up the entire batch.  To say it's unpleasant to clean is an understatement.  Add those "tails" + enough water to get to X/2 in the next distillation. Rinse, repeat.  Absinthe is the most difficult but most enjoyable spirit to master.  

Bubbling an old post to the top. Has TTB issued any detailed guidance on this?

22 minutes ago, bluestar said:

See my most recent post.

Saw it. Thanks!

That's exactly what we bought! 3 bags of resin / column (why aren't the columns full of resin).  It is a Fleck valve.  Thanks for the manual offer. It came with a valve and programmer manual and the Google led me to PDF versions.  

4 hours ago, jenschmunk@gmail.com said:

I just purchased 4 -45gal food grade barrels that we previously used for palm and coconut oil. They are rated food grade as they have what appears to be a sprayed lining in them.

Food grade barrels are usually made of HDPE which is fairly chemical resistant.  Have scrubbed with a degreaser like TSP?  SS barrels are nice but never under $100.   We collect all feints in HDPE barrels and in the early days collected final spirit.

7 hours ago, Buckeye Hydro said:

What valve is on that twin? 

Pentair?  I was complete mistaken on flow rate as we're using the water only for our RO system and boiler feed water.

We ended up getting a dual 96,000 grain system from amazon and installed it ourselves. Works a dream.  About $1,700 all in.  

1 hour ago, Southernhighlander said:

If your juice was not cooked and skimmed it would have made some pretty nasty tasting stuff.

Now you tell me!  I did nothing except kill the wild yeasts (did so immediately upon filling the cornies).  

13 hours ago, JustAndy said:

e've made whiskey and baijiu from sorghum grain, I don't think it will be catching on anytime soon. 

A few year back I was at our state fair and saw a farmer juice sorghum. I asked him if I could have some to ferment and distill.  A month or so later when it has fully matured -- about 12 brix IIRC --  (that which he was juicing at the fair was for show only -- about 2 brix) I brought down three corny keys and some sulphite to kill the native yeast.  I generally treated it as I would cider -- healthy dose of nutrients and some SO5 yeast.  Fermented out dry. Ran in our small test still.... As @JustAndy said, it ain't going to be catching on soon.  I found it rough and "disjointed". Granted the yield was about a gallon of spirit and cuts are notorious difficult in small batches, I just don't see this being a thing.  Here's a pic of the juicer. I love our State Fair!

3 hours ago, Foreshot said:

I hate NAS products that use misleading labeling to portray an older age. 

I'm a big single malt scotch fan and I think this is the single most annoying aspect of the spirits craze. I dont care if it ages 36 months, but I want to know it's aged 36 months. I simply can't figure out why it's not a rqeuirement in the scotch regs.

1 hour ago, Foreshot said:

- DISTILLED ENTIRELY AT ONE DISTILLERY

That will have the crafties throwing a fit.

2 hours ago, Silk City Distillers said:

 Single designates that the distillate was produced in a single distillery,

Pedant mode on:

And from 100% malted barley in a pot still aged for three years. At one low point in my life I read through all of the regs. Enthralling. Bottom line, as you said, no equivalent in the US

34 minutes ago, CalwiseSpirits said:

I have not. Has this already been discussed before in another thread?

Maybe? Im a bit surprised USW didnt give you at least a cheapy TDS pen. You can get them on amazon.

1 hour ago, CalwiseSpirits said:

Yep, I'm using an RO system from US Water Systems

Just to properly flog this dead horse... you've checked conductivity on the out side of the RO system?

Have Paul build you a cart-mounted  "foldback" style wort/mash cooler .   You can build one for yourself out of copper for about $1,500 if you're willing to permanently affix it to the wall.  I'd by lying if I said it wasn't a PITA.

I know Caleb, we've worked with him before. I'll give him a shout today. Thanks!

55 minutes ago, Tom Lenerz said:

It just depends if he has a cleaner or not, and how that cleaner is setup.

He farms about 5,000 acres. I know he puts up beans and corn but discs under the cover crops (if that's a real term). I'll drop him a line and find out.  

Oh I understand how it works, but the corn remains viscous and easily worked when adding enzymes as the temp is on the way up. Stirring 800 lbs of corn as it gels without enzymes can be a challenge.

5 minutes ago, Thatch said:

Field barley would be prior to cleaning. 

OK makes sense. We have been in conversion with a farmer near us who plants both barley and rye as cover crops. Were he to harvest this grain, how much work is involved in cleaning it up up to the point where we can truck it to a local maltster (admittedly I'm a city boy)?

8 hours ago, jenschmunk@gmail.com said:

Have you found at what proof you must keep your sweetened liqueur before crystalization occurs?

We've tested our product from 25 to 35% ABV and anywhere from 190 to 350g/L and never experience crystallization.  As for figuring this all out, I would strongly advise using AlcoDens LQ -- it's greatly streamlined our process. 

beet powder perhaps?

41 minutes ago, Hudson bay distillers said:

it all depends if your talking about field feed barley , malted malt barley , or un malted malt barley . field feed barley is the poorest choice in my opinion .

How does field barley (I've honestly not heard the term) differ from unmalted/raw barley?

1 hour ago, Georgeous said:

curious, how do you calculate how much and what types of enzymes to use?

The enzymes come with documentation. I believe it's around .36ml / lb of starch.  Nice part about enzymes is you can use them during heat up so when the corn begins to gel the enzymes can get right to work. If you're using barley or rye by the time the temp is high enough to gel the starch in the corn the naturally occurring enzymes in the bar/rye have denatured.  I applaud the brave folks that use barley/rye/whatever else exclusively.