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Everything posted by Foreshot
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Stählemühle—The Art of Master Distiller Christoph Keller
Foreshot replied to Foreshot's topic in General Discussion
Thanks. I saw that the other day and I figured that's what he was doing. As I've never been into brandies/gins/etc it's interesting to see the crazy stuff they do to develop flavors. At first I thought it was to quick freeze the liquids to expand them to break cell membranes to release more flavor instead of physically crushing the fruit. Sometimes fiction is more fun than the truth. -
I totally agree with what you're saying there - that you should listen to your customers and not just "believe" something without data. Sometimes you need need to make a leap of faith, but bottling in a bigger bottle isn't really something that one should believe will change their business without data. Exceptions do exist - In PA if you sell to the PA state store they require the best prices on products. You can't charge less than what they pay. I know one local person that bottles in 1L bottles to sell at a better price from the distillery. Since it's a different size/SKU they can do it without violating that clause.
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U.S. ethanol makers steer away from fuel, reach for booze
Foreshot replied to Foreshot's topic in General Discussion
SCD - let me rephrase that for you: "So in one day they can double the number of Craft Distillers?" Yes, yes they can. Probably will see cheap booze will get even cheaper and people will find a way to "add value" with flavorings. Tons of new "craft" brands are likely on their way. Look at High West. *This is not a doom and gloom post, just a warning of possible future events. -
I think that you want something like this: http://www.wineandbarware.com/Slow-Wine-Pourers_c_25.html Or this: http://barsupplies.com/capon-liquor-pourers-pack-p-5373.html I would suggest calling your bottle supplier and see what they can find for you. There's probably an industry term for this type of fitting. If you can figure that out then you'll probably find a ton of suppliers.
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Paul - so what you're saying is that if I buy a deep fryer you can sell me the rest to make my Pot/Vodka tortilla chip dream come true??? hahaha Actually I never new any of that, pretty interesting, thanks!
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I'm going to patent marijuana infused Vodka flavored tortilla chips. Satisfy all the cravings at once. I can also see someone on a tour: "Do you mean it's got weed in it when you say it's pot distilled?"
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This is not my stuff but it's a great deal for someone that needs it: https://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/for/6196466344.html
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A lightly wet paper towel will stick to most things, even upside down, and will stay wet for a while. Load it up with a citric solution and let that sit for a bit. Or put a magnet on the opposite side of the still wall and then wrap another magnet or piece of iron/steel in a plastic bag. Use wrapped metal to hold the paper towel in between the bag and where you want the SS treated. If it is a big spot then this hillbilly method probably won't work.
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Greetings from Pittsburgh, PA
Foreshot replied to Larrysputnik's topic in Welcome & Introduce Yourself
Ha - I was at Pussadee's a couple days ago. I live across the river a little down from there. I was talking to the Porter Beer tours guys about a distillery tour. Your location would be good for them. Once you get setup let them or me know. I know they would love to have you as an additional stop. We were talking about Wigle, Maggie's, POP (when they open), Boyd & Blair. B&B is only open Saturday. If you're planning on being open Sunday they could swap B&B with you guys. Jim - I was talking to him about a South Hills tour with you and Red Pump too, but they want a 3rd. Not sure there is another close to you. -
Greetings from Pittsburgh, PA
Foreshot replied to Larrysputnik's topic in Welcome & Introduce Yourself
Hi Joe, welcome to the forum. You'll find tons of great people willing to help you with any topic. I'm assuming that's you've stalked this place out before so you already knew that. There's a couple other Pgh people here. Where in Pgh? I know the place in the Strip is opening this fall, I didn't know if you were part of that one. Are you specializing in anything in particular? I would love to check the place out if you're open to it! Christian -
That's a horribly bad idea. The best situation you can be in is that you've sold every drop of product you produce as it is ready. If you wait to build a sales pipeline until after you have product to sell you've going to be building up that pipeline for several months. A lot of manufacturing businesses (not just distilleries) fail because they don't understand you don't get paid until you get a check from the customer. And that check can be 30-90 days after you ship your product, which might take 10-15 days after you get the order, which might be 5-10 days after you "sell" your product. So best case scenario you might get paid two months after you "sell" something, or up to four months for a normal transaction. Worst case you ship product that you never get paid for, which will be 5-15% of the time. Sales may suck but you have to have work on it all the time. It should be the first thing your business works on. Understanding where you're going to sell, to whom, distribution of the product, how long it takes to get paid, how are you going to collect accounts past due, the industry bad debt % and a million other aspects of business is something you need to understand as you build your business plan. As has been said on here many times, you're in a sales/marketing business that happens to sell booze.
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By filing a patent and labeling their products as "Patent Pending" it actually opens them to legal liability if they are not serious about it. Personally I think they are doing it for marketing too but who knows. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent_pending
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http://www.cell.com/chem/fulltext/S2451-9294(17)30174-2 A whisky sensor based on a dye-replacement assay has been reported by Anslyn et al.1 The age of different whiskies was determined by detection of the concentration of gallate and other phenolic species, the concentration of which increases with age. However, the most common way to discriminate whiskies is to use mass spectrometry,2, 3, 4 but simple quantitative UV-visible (UV-vis)5 or mid-infrared (IR) spectroscopy6 have also been used with reasonable success, but with less than spectacular discriminative power.
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SCD - that's the one I'm used to using. Both styles have a top that is used to bump the caps down on the bottle. Best practice is to push the bottle in until it hits the top then pull it back just a bit, maybe a half inch. Otherwise you risk melting the bottle top or shrink wrap to the bump stop. For the clear ones that are open leave ~1/4 inch of the plastic above the top of the cap and let the bump stop push it down. It will make it even with the top of the bottle. It's faster than trying to do it by hand. And in keeping of Rule 34, here's a video. You can skip to 1:30, before that it's just fluff. This video shows what happens when you don't hit the bump stop. Look at the top of the bottle when he pulls it out, it's a mess. Not a good look for customers.
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For the thin clear sleeves hair dryers/heat guns work fine. For the heavier colored pvc ones hair dryers/heat guns can cause it to wrinkle due to uneven shrinkage. My OCD won't let me have wrinkles. From a speed perspective the heat tunnels are the way to go, way faster and easier. The clear ones are in, out and done, less than a second. PVC will take slightly longer, maybe a little over a second.
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Ok, I'll revise that - as long as you don't smash a bottle and threaten them with it then you're ok. To the OP - have you done any homebrewing/winemaking? I picked up a lot from local homebrewers when I realize I wanted to make whiskey. The brewing/fermenting process is basically the same. With distilling it's actually easier. If you haven't started snooping around try http://homedistiller.org . The forums there are great for beginners. Commercial distilling is slightly different due to batch size but it's a good place to start.
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As long as you're not rude to them I don't see an issue with the way you handle it.
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So the thing with marketing is that technical people generally suck at it. It's not our thing. In entrepreneurship it's called the Engineer's dilemma. You make a great product but no one knows about it. As business there's a fix. Hire someone (or a company) to do it for you. Plan on spending a lot more money that you ever imagined you would on it. Don't hire a sales person to do marketing unless they have a background in it. Sales and Marketing are two different animals. Marketing is about getting people to know you and get them in the door. Sales is what happens once they are in the door. You can do it on your own but it's pretty tough to have enough time to do well. For a smaller company a part time person or a company probably is your best bet. http://www.diffen.com/difference/Marketing_vs_Sales The video is a little odd but it helps I hope. Good luck!
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What he said ^^^^ She was just being defensive. There are a lot of people interested in being a distiller so she probably hears that a lot. I will say that my personal experience is that you get about 50/50 with people being friendly about it and not. Luckily @Huffy2k is local to me and has been really open and friendly. I have stopped out at his place a couple times and he's always been welcoming. Other people in the area weren't as much. Do you need a master's degree in Chemistry? No. I know several distillers that make money that don't have the slightest clue as to chemistry. They pick a mash bill and repeat it. If they encounter a problem they dump whatever it is they are working on and start again. If you have a good bio/chem background you can adjust and probably save whatever it is you're working on and save money. It also helps with the repeatably of the process / consistency of the product. Distilling is a limited though complicated subject. Any reasonably intelligent person can pick up a couple books and learn. That knowledge is what allows distillers to make nuanced changes to make a flavor different, or to know when a step can be ignored to save money, or increase efficiency.
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Paul at ADI (aka @Southernhighlander ) should be able to make them for you. Just two 1/2" tubes welded together at the bottom with the turn at the top. It V's slightly outwards so that friction keeps the tubes in place while upside down.
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Bloomberg article: Improving sense of smell
Foreshot replied to Foreshot's topic in General Discussion
Thanks for the advice, I'll try that. I'm not a wine person but my wife is. -
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-04-11/how-to-improve-your-sense-of-smell-and-why-you-d-want-to Curious - how many of you have tried the sense kits? I haven't yet. I found the thing that has helped me most with nosing/tasting was trying a wide variety of different whiskeys. I'm still not where I want to be with it but am slowly getting better. Whiskey kit: https://www.winearomas.com/shop/LeNezduWhisky/
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Hitting 140f for 45-60 minutes will kill most but not all bacteria. It's how the sous vide guys can safely cook food for long periods at lower temps. Most of us mash for at least an hour at that temp, Hitting 145 reduces the time down to 30-45 minutes. http://www.foodhandler.com/cooking-pasteurizing-safer-foods/ MDH - I didn't know malic acid would encourage lactic acid production. Thanks very much for that.