Black Creek

9 minutes ago, Naked Spirits Distillery said:

Raise your fermentation temperature. At your temperature the ferment will definitely stall. It will take off if you are at least 85F

Agreed. I run mine at 94 degrees. Most rum yeast runs hot.

Been a screen printer for 40 years. Even I do not print my own labels. Label company can do it cheaper than I ever will. I would advise you not to try screen printing in house if you have never been a screen printer.  Been thinking about a laser myself for leather labels for our higher end products and other items for the tasting room and my sign business customers. Lasering a bottle requires an additional accessory to roll the bottle under the laser. 

If it flowers use it for seed cane. jmho

I use an enolmatic and while slow, you could do this yourself. Keep the bottling cash for upgrading your own bottling area. In house is under control.

Jason (Sugar Daddy) might be a good source for you. He is in South Florida.

Try bascom maple.

Just me or is getting a couple hundred boxes at a time and dividers for packaging just a nightmare. I can print the dang things myself just need em blank. Had one supplier tell me a minimum of 7000 lineal feet but no idea on price til he had time to go over measurements. Crickets since. My storage room has boxes displaying everyone's product but mine, lol

I use barproducts for shot and rocks glasses. Very good experience to date.

19 hours ago, Minnetonka Dan said:

Do you use any backset or other adjustments for pH buffering and yeast nutrition, or does the panela have enough of that already?

No backset ( although I can see instances where you might use some), ph crash needs a little adjust after 24 hrs, I am very small and in no hurry so no supplement nutrition. ferment can take 10 days or so. If you want it quicker, feed it. 

100% Panella in my craft distillery from Sugar Daddy. Waiting on next shipment. Makes an excellent rum.

9-12 months and beyond. Depends on product. Generally around 7-9 months I start doing occasional tasting until I am satisfied it is ready for gauging and bottling. I have some 2 year old rum now that has a nice creamy sweet front end in both white and matured on wood.

21 hours ago, FijiSpirits said:

 How do you deal with letting the spirit “breathe”. Has it been a non issue?  Shorter aging times?

Non issue so far. I do intend to pick up a couple jack daniels barrels from my sugar guy next trip and fill those for a bit see what happens.

Almost don't want to know how much they want for those. I use stainless barrels with spirals for my rum. Happy with that.

Buying direct from China is a recipe for failure. Use a reputable manufacturer. One thing to look for is how will you get service when needed. A cheap piece from china can save you money if it works at all when and if you actually get it, but if you cannot get it serviced or repaired it is dumpster fodder at first failure.

Been in the sign biz 40 years. Desktop lasers, large format printers, etc have become available, affordable and fairly easy to learn the software if you are at all computer savvy. The detail you can get with a laser on wood is amazing. No messy inks, stencils, etc. Win win.

All sugar washes here. l For me, 80 degrees would all but stall a ferment but I am using a different yeast than you. Also, ph below 4 can be a problem as well. Hard to tell how much it has fallen since you were last able to measure it. Hopefully you get a meter quick.

I do not print cans but I have been in printing/signbiz for 40 years. If you can show them the art they had you approve before printing does not match their printed product, that should be on them. If they show you that you approved otherwise it is on you.

It's only Quarantine if it's in the Quarantine province of France. Otherwise it's just sparkling isolation.

 Dave, you ever get down this way after we have some tastings I'm taking you to the best seafood place in Florida.

Ok so it is designated by class (apple) flavored rum, got it. Can we consider it rum after the stripping run and consider the second spirit run the flavoring process to an already existing rum? Or should I just get some extract, lol?

Thanks D and Silk. I thought so just wanted to be sure. I am guessing no need to submit a formula? Will have to submit for new label of course, no problem there. Thanks again.

I have built a thump keg to attach to my column still that I intend to fill with apple puree and tails to pick up the apple flavor in the distillate. Anybody know if I can gauge it by my normal method using hydrometer and thermometer prior to bottling or will 
I need to gauge by distillation? TIA

I got my filters for enolmatic from Great Western Malting. When I purchased I couldn't find the bottler and filter from one place. Took a little while to piece the system together but by the time I was ready for it we were good.

Can't speak for all of course but my still has electric heat elements and I can't imagine running it to the point that they might be exposed instead of submerged.

The poll is flawed, you have to enter values for things you do not offer to go to next question.