adamOVD

I've got electric elements directly submerged in low wines in my nuetral still. Not an ideal set up from a safety standpoint, but it sure is stable. Once it is set, it pretty much runs itself.

Out of curriosity, when running that set up, do you start by equalizing the first column, before sending vapor to the second column, and then also equalizing it at well, or do you do it another way?

How should you determine the necessary LBs/Hr for a given still? I don't think I've ever heard throughput of a PRV mentioned before, and it is a great point. To be clear, I do not have any water heater PRVs on anything, I'm just interested.

If I come visit your distillery I'll be sure to knock first.

What if instead of putting Beer as an ingredient in your syrup, you put malt and hops?

Yeah this seams like nonsense. Unless it is specifically beer that is the problem. We got RTD with multiple liquors in it approved. Maybe try submitting again from the beginning, and hope for a different agent.

@OnBatch I've played around Hoochware and talked to you before. I'm sure it's improved, but I'm extremely cheap, and I can't really justify the price. Now that I understand the reports pretty well, it's actually kinda nice to get off my feet for bit and type some numbers while the still runs. It's only a pain if I make a mistake and have to track it down. I'd gladly pay you or someone else for something that would just eliminate transcribing errors. Like I said though, I don't know if how much work would go into something like that and if it would be worth someone's time.

@EZdrinking I wonder what that .15% per bottle translates to the Smirnoff bottom line per year.

I'd love a more basic program, with a one time purchase price, where I just input how much I distilled, the ingredients that went into that distillate, bottled, barreled, dumped from barrels, removed from DSP, losses, and month end inventory, and it auto-filled out my monthly reports. I'm no programmer so I have no idea how much work it would be to write something like that. Attached is the form I fill out at the end of each month, before doing my month end reports, and it usually has all the info I need to do the reporting. Reporting Short Form.ods

http://www.katmarsoftware.com/alcodens.htm worth every penny. It will print your proofing calculations if dont want to create a form.

I can see how Costco or Trader Joe's can get away with doing what you're talking about, branding their own sourced spirits, because they already have a massive distribution chain in place in pre existing stores, and get the full retail cost. How an independent company can pay someone to produce, age, import, package, get lable approval, and possibly distribute your product, that is likely very similar to a product that already exists, and still make a profit is beyond me. I know most bourbon all comes from the same place though, so it must be possible. I'd rather do the grunt work, and make a decent margin.

I remember reading once about using olive oil as a substitute for oxygenation as well. The theory being that it contains sterols and Unsaturated Fatty Acids used to form cell walls that are normally formed by the yeast during thier initial aerobic phase. We tried it once at a brewery when we couldn't get a replacement O2 tank in time. I remember it working moderately well. Since many distillers dont aerate their wort/mash, that might be another justification for olive oil.

@SlickFloss Thanks for the $.02. I wasn't trying to get you to trash talk anyone. Coming from the brewing industry there were a handful of brewhouse fabricators that built highly engineered beautiful brewhouses at a premium cost. Both German and US based. In the distilling industry I seem to hear more horror stories than anything else. Like Corson, or the Chinese copper fabricators you mentioned, building stills with stolen designs they don't really understand. My equipment is mostly built in house, and the only equipment I've purchased has been from Paul, who has always stood by his equipment, and fixed any problems I've had. It seems like his target customer is building workhouse equipment for small to midsized distilleries though, not the mid to large sized distilleries. Distilleries I've been to with 'unlimited' budgets seem to mostly be running Carl or Vendome. I assumed equipment from those two would be immaculate with tons of support. Makes me feel better about my bootstrapped equipment though, and this is all just conjecture anyways, as I don't have a budget for anything high end anyways.

Keep internal records, but they don't go on the reports except on the production report during your quarterly inventory under "unfinished spirits".

Caustic is corrosive to brass and copper. I believe most people use PBW from five star to clean proteins.

I clean with PBW between runs, and with acid whenever the copper gets dark and looks like it needs a refresh. Last time i ordered chemical they were out of PBW so i bought bru r ez which cleans better than PBW but also gives off slighty harsh fumes when mixing. It is non caustic, and I called Birko before ordering and they said it was fine for copper.

It will certainly help. Think the rule of thumb is, height should be 20x the width of your column. That's about what I have and it works. Sure you can get away with less if your packing is set up well, but like Silk says I went to the ceiling. The higher you go, the easier your life will be.

I doubt anyone would ever give you any trouble if your vodka is coming off the still over 190P (in the U.S.). From what I understand many vodkas made at small distilleries aren't though.

Thanks. I been putting off trying to make an American Single Malt for the reasons you mentioned, but really want to give it a go.

Interesting thought. Could be neat way to age something like a white rum that you just want to mellow without adding any barrel flavor or an age statement to. When I was making beer, I remember seeing concrete fermenters at a trade show. They look like a mix of a giant egg, and an ancient statue of a fertility god. Think they are usually used for wine, but they were pitching them for wild/sour beers. Some Yeast/air/bacteria stays in the pores kind of like a foudre. Hadn't thought about it till now, but they might be ideal for spirit fermentation. I think they were quite expensive though.

Older post, but I was shopping around for a new mill, and stumbled on this. Are you also distilling on the grain, or separating post fermentation?

Sand they need to pay 14,000$ to the FDA in order to own apparently.

I take it that with the last belated signature last night, this is finally set in stone. Thanks for all the hard work of everyone working on this.

Sure would be nice to get a little good news. I'm pretty worried next year is going to be even harder than this year. From what I've heard from suppliers is that material and shipping costs are going to go up. A tax increase on top everything is really going to hurt.

I know there's a lot of disadvantages to a copper condenser, but those long worm condensers sure are cool.