Micah Nutt

We use our botanicals "as is" in our maceration; no crushing or grinding.

1) No idea 2) When making gns I consider the column run the important distillation. We perform a stripping run prior (actually two separate strippings of 950 gallons of wash each; then these low wines are combined for our 25 plate column) but when folks ask, I say we perform one column run even though three actual distillation are performed. 3) We remove the foreshots during the spirit run, whether we're making whiskey or gns.

For taking samples: One of our local breweries drills a little hole in a head and plugs it with a nail. Easy to take samples. Their nails weren't SS. I've been thinking about doing this; if so SS nails.

Your entry for 168 proof at 30F is off by many hundreds. The ttb requires the use of this table. We all know that 168@30 is 716.9 proof. I too have converted table 1 into digital form. The above was the most egregious typo made in 1913. A few entries are illegible from the 1970's era xeroxing. I'll, when I have some free time (like that happens), compare my table to yours. I used OCR and then wrote a program to statistically analyze the data and flag entries for empirical verification. I've written a command line program to use the table; an iOS version is in the works; possibly a desktop version at some point.

As per experimenting with saving heads and collecting tails for redistilling, I found it was considerably more time consuming running out the tails. Also, collecting and reusing heads just adds, for the most part, to the subsequent distillations' heads to be collected (and therefor, more time). The finally product I found no better with not much more yield. Sorry about the delay in response.

There really are no "crazy" ideas for gin. Malt would just be another botanical. I don't think you'd need to crush or grind it. Just add it, whole, to your pot or basket.

Gin, for the most part is a very subject distillation . To find our hearts range we initially made the profile by taking fractions and sampling them. We found harsher oils in the very beginning of the distillation; and when we started pulling a bitterness we didn't like we we called that the tails cut. Certainly there is much alcohol left in the still. I fooled around for collecting heads/tails for redistillation in the next batch but found no flavor benefit (and a bit more work). So, when we hit "tails" we just shut the still down.

And one needs to start with 96% abv as the base (before dilution) for redistilling.

My combined gin proof (new make gin) is about 155. I discard a bit of heads, defined by the harsher juniper oils and then shut down the still at about 115. No tails are collected. Pot still with maceration.

Bung pullers are still being made. http://www.stortz.com/OnlineStore/ProductDetail/ProductID/13162/bung_puller.aspx This one is pricey. There are others. Alternatively, switch to silicone bungs. Easy to get in and out. And, they are reusable.

A dephlegmator is also known as a "cold finger."

When fermenting a wash (a beer if based on grain or a wine if based on fruit) other alcohols other than ethanol are produced. In the beer and wines we drink everyday these other alcohols are of such a small quantity that they don't affect the smell, the taste or one's health. Distillation is the act of concentrating these alcohols and by doings so the bad components become a significant factor to the smell, the taste and ones' health. These lower boiling point alcohols are the things that make people go blind or even die. Sulfur is also produced, naturally, during fermentation. If the sulfur is not removed the end spirit will smell and taste like sulfur - like rotten eggs. Again, in beer and wine we drink the sulfur levels are so low one does not notice them. How is the sulfur kept out of the end spirit? Copper. Sulfur bonds with copper forming a heavier compound and clings to the walls of the still.

Why collect tails if you are discarding them? Why not just stop the run and then sewer your pot liquor (most-likely it will not be in need of dilution).

We add most of our feints (heads + tails - foreshots) to our low wines for the spirit run.

We dilute our feints down to 24-27% abv well before charging our spirit still. The low wines are usually 22-25%. An oily slick floats on top of both the low wines and the feints and we never pull the top inch of either into the spirit still.

We run our wash and tails down to below 1% abv.

I liked our 6 month old $2400 DMA 35 until I dropped it in my lap while calibrating it and it fell 3' to the floor resulting in a broken horseshoe glass. Anton-Paar doesn't do repairs. How much is it? But more importantly is it any more durable than the DMA 35?

When you put beer in a pot still and bring it to a boil, the proteins in the beer cause a great deal of foaming. If this foam rises too far up the still's neck there is the possibility of the foam (followed by beer behind it) to make its way down the lyne arm and into the low wines receiver and thus spoiling the run. This is why wash stills have a sight glass one third up the neck; when the foam gets over half way up the sight glass the distiller turns down the heat source. The proteins, causing the foam, breakdown after being boiled for a while and the head collapses. This collapse is the "hot break."

I strip 900 gallons at 8.5-9% ABV down to <1% coming out of the still in 7 to 8 hours. After the hot break I incrementally ramp up the steam as much as I can. I take 1.5 hours to bring my wash to a boil in order to get the entire still hot; then another 1.5 or so hours waiting for the hot break.