LaChascona

Thanks for the input. I want to do it because I think I'm a good guy but also its a pretty big well known charity and it would get a lot of good press around here, I think. Where I live, philanthropy is basically non existent. I guess I could just make the general statement without naming any charities but to tie myself into one would be nice. I'll see what happens. Hopefully they get back to me soon.

Hello all, I want to donate a portion of my profits to a charity that is sort of related to what I'm doing. But I also want to make it public that I am doing so. I have reached out to the charity but haven't heard back yet. My question to them was, Can I donate 1% to your charity and in-turn say so on my bottle label , on the back next to the barcode? And can I use the logo of the charity to accompany the statement? Does anyone know the legality to something like this? Thanks

Does anyone have experience with ESTAL glass coming from China? Is it good quality? The price quotes I have received from them are better but I haven't ordered yet.......

I haven't seen that. Are you going to try it? It looks like you don't ferment with it, you add it after. So maybe the guy at Tuthilltown distillery was right. They make it like a gin almost. Ethanol, water, and a barrel of liquid cacao right into the still..... and then they must add a sweetener after the fact.....

Cool stuff. The fermentation of chocolate is pretty interesting. ......I never knew anything about the fact that it was fermented...... Distillerie Mozart.....I would love to get a bottle of that and do my due diligence but I'm not in the position to acquire. I travel to New York a few times a year but I live in Chile. NOTHING COMES HERE..... only the big brands. BUT, very good insight. I think I will have fun with playing around with this.

Not too long ago I went up to Tuthilltown distillery, It's a beautiful farm and I highly recommend the trip to anyone that finds themselves in the area. Anyway, I had the Chocolate Liqueur which is amazing. The guy giving the tasting said they poured liquid dark chocolate into the still with their vodka and distilled it. It was definitely sweet so I'm sure they add some kind of sweetener. I have never made a chocolate liqueur but that one made me want to try. Does anyone have any good methods to try out? My still that I would use is only about 100 liters. I appreciate any input. Thanks.

Thank you everyone for your input. A lot of good stuff here that I didn't think about. nabtastic- sail on down if you got the time.

No, I'm not fermenting on grain. I do everything like a brewery because of my past experience and the equipment that I have. I cook the mash, remove the grain, boil the wort, then pump into the fermenter. It's just like a beer but I'm not adding hops during the boil....and I only boiled for 5 or 10 min, not the hour I would do when making a beer. Thanks for the insight. I didn't think about that. But if my gravity was 1.070 after the boil, doesn't that mean it was converted? Thanks!

Roger-I boiled the mash because I'm a newbie to distilling and I thought it would do no damage..... I can boil a beer as I add my hops and herbs for different intervals and it doesn't effect the fermentation, so I thought it would do nothing but kill any weird stuff inside... Silk City- I'm going to check the ph first thing tomorrow. Bluefish- Temp related is what I'm leaning to..... when you where using EC-1118, was it with a grain mash bill? Nabtastic- rookie move on the boil? ....ok got it. Ferm too cool, makes sense now. Fermentations with other yeasts have been fine but this is the first time I have tried a high alcohol wine yeast. My last batch was not as bad but also had a lower yield then expected..... So, I'm in Santiago, Chile. Water quality fluctuates but really only the ppm, not bacterias. The fact that it is winter and the rainy season means that there is more surface water coming off the Andes Mountains going into the system.....I never even thought about this. Before I started cooking the ferment that I'm currently having the issue with, I checked the dissolved solids..... only because I just bought a meter. It was over 900ppm. I thought it was high because in the booklet that it came with it says that the EPA does not recommend drinking anything over 500ppm. Do you think that could have an effect?

Thanks for all your input. So do you think I could restart it by just warming it up? Or better luck next time?

No enzymes. ph 5.4

huh. Interesting. So you think it might have been the temperature...?

Thanks Tom!

Hello, I have a fermentation predicament I was hoping that someone might be able to shed some light on. So I wanted to try and make a base for my Gin. The plan was to make 1000 liters/265 gallons with a mash bill of 225kg / 500lbs of malted barley, 50kg / 110lbs of malted wheat and 25kg / 55lbs of malted rye. Cooking times and temps were no different then when I make a beer. Before I went over to the boil my SG was 1.070. I boiled for only 10 mins and then into the fermenter it went. I cooled it down to about 14c / 57f. Normally a beer wouldn't be that cold but its winter down here in Chile and the tap water through the heat exchanger was super cold. I want to try a new yeast. It's supposed to be this "super yeast" because it will ferment at temps ranging from 10-25c / 50-77f and an alcohol tolerance of 16% or more. It is called EC-1118 and I pitch 500grams although I only really needed 250g....according to the packaging. The tank temp stayed around 14c / 57f for a week. After a week the bubbling had stopped. I checked the SG and I was at 1.024 or 6%abv. I was hoping the super yeast would be giving me 9%... So, blew CO2 into the bottom of the tank to pick up all the yeast that had settled, heated the tank up to a temp of 18c / 64f and let it sit for another week. The temp eventually went back down but never got below 10c / 50f. Today, a week later I checked the SG and I'm still at 1.024. The yeast is known to work at temps ranging from 10-25c / 50-77f so I don't get it. Does anyone have any experience with EC-1118 or any ideas to what might have happened? Also, How would I go about restarting it? EC-1118 is a "killer yeast" which I have never used before, but it's supposed to kill other yeast that might be present. So, I'm thinking it could be an issue if I pitch another yeast strain... What do you think? Thanks in advance!

I'm doing the same in Chile. Lets talk. info@patagoniaspiritscompany.com

Hi everyone. I have looked around but haven't been able to find and answer. Does anyone know if there would be any kind of difference in taste or production by using malted wheat opposed to flaked wheat in your mash? Thanks.