Elixir Distilling Company

Why not just redistill it - I have had excellent results after redistiallation. My only issue I have had is how to proof it down. As once you start to add water the oils drop out of suspension and it gets cloudy. My guess is It wont do that until it has a certain percentage of water - but I have not spent enough time trying that out at this point and have just left it as is. I would love to see how people have overcome that - there must be a simple way. As far as the browning - same issue here though it takes some time to happen. What your looking at, I believe, is oxidation. Just like a leaf on a tree that turns brown. Again I have not spent much time trying to fix that issue. I can tell you my ABV is 90 so you cant cure it with higher percentages of alcohol. Perhaps no air in the bottle and use it up rather quickly once opened? I havent made this in a couple of years but i believe I steeped my intitial herbs using water and NGS. Then distilled. Then added coloring herbs and heated for a short time (15 mins). Then gravity filtered. (i dont think i redistilled after coloring). Final outcome was nicely colored, tasted where I thought it should (You need to like the taste of licorice) and looched as it should into a pearl-essent white when cold water was added. Hope this helps -Scott

Thank you! Ill check them out. Scott Correction: its www.emerlinginternational.com

This product isnt automotive glycol - in fact its not glycol at all. I have no idea what it is - but I have been told its some sort of a soap........ Would I put it in a glycol chiller? Absoultely not! At any rate - I was referring to using that in a non-glycol chiller environment. Such as the dry cooler - or the radiator/fan idea. -S

You might want to look into this product: https://www.redlineoil.com/waterwetter-coolant-additives It is an additive that increases the performance of heat trasfer by removing air bubbles and etc.. It might actually help increase the cooling. I have used it in the fresh water system of a boat with a noticable decrease in operating temp. That boat had a heat exchanger and a pump that passed relatively warm bay water (upper 70s) as the cooling source. -S

I think it would make an awesome poster! -S

You may be able to force carbonate the way we do beer in 5 gallon soda kegs. We dump CO2 into them at higher then pumping rate and shake. You can do it without shaking too but you have to pump the C02 in the "out" port and give it time to absorb. Once you hve it gassed you can tap it out with a bottle filler. Just a thought.. Edit: OR just go for non carbonated drinks!

They do make a resealable screw top can for beer - miller, anheiser, and coors all use it or some form of it. 355ml would be a 12oz can... so if you made your cocktail in your bonded premise and used one of these aluminum screw top cans - doesnt that work? Or am I missing something? -Scott

What about just using the tried and true "wort chiller" copper pipe like we have done forever with homebrew. Especially if you have a small enough mash tank. You can drop a coil in before during or at the end of the boil. Then run cold water through it and cool it down that way. You will have to agitate the hot wort to help cool it quicker. If not that then a coil in a cold water bath (50gallon drum with a 3/4 coil in it) you can run the hot through the coil instead of the other way round. Id imagine that will work pretty fast and will be an inexpensive solution. Thats pretty much how Payton Fireman does it in his book "Distillery Operations". I think he used a hot water heater to do it (or the coil from it). -Scott

Silk Which bank? -Scott

Well thats a ridiculous cost to work with for totes so - pomace i have a source for when the season hits - but as you said its a once a year thing and Ill end up paying for cold storage for any I want to freeze and time-shift. I am hoping a grape concentrate might help - or frozen juice. I was going to stop by corrados worst case but I am pretty sure the cost will be as you said too expensive. I suppose a different fruit may work. What do you think about that?

I am working on a recipe and I am looking for sources for grape juice either frozen, concentrated, or fresh, grape must, and even pomace (cake) would be considered. I only need them in 5 gallon (or about 50lbs) at a time at the moment. Thanks Scott

They are actual business plans for distilleries that have been shared along with some other good information. Scott

I have actually been playing (on try 2 now) with using "sweet" rice and the "chinese" yeast balls that are used for traditional rice wine. The wine made on the first test batch was rather high in alcohol for me (12%) and this one is still doing its thing. Its a very slow process this way at about a month.... But I would be trying it with some other types of yeast in the future. In my case I cooked the rice as you would to eat it - crushed the rice balls and added them into the cooked rice. Then--- wait... As time goes by the rice converts into a liquid as it breaks down and it does it pretty completely. Of course I am talking uber small batch testing. I have no idea what will happen if I expand that. Thought you might be interested. Scott

It woudl be great actually if we had an idea of whos coming and where -- sometimes i think we are all too hush hush! So who is working on a new distillery in Jersey besides me? -Scott

Is there, or has there been any motion. on a New Jersey guild? Id be interested. Thanks! Scott

Yup Thats what i figured. Thanks!

Thanks Silk - much appreciated. Do you add that to the price as a bottle cost - or when you sell it along with the sales tax? I assume you add it in to the price per bottle like you would the Fed Tax. Thanks Scott

Can someone please share with me the taxes that are collected from NJ based on sales? I am assuming they get a piece of each gallon...... Thanks Scott BPD

What about Corrados in Clifton? Have you had any experience there? Its alot closer to me - and you for that matter. Gino Pinto has nothing online so its harder to see what they have to choose from. Thanks Scott

These do look great! Thanks!

Where do you get the new O-rings (cap and in/out fillers) - ALSO Silk where do you get olive oil tanks? Id like to look into them. Thanks Scott

Thats exactly what I did years ago! Of course I ended up with both styles of pin locks - but the adapters are readily available so I trade them out in the Kegorator.... The soda kegs are starting to become more rare so ive been told as most soda places have switched over to boxes for syrup. Most howbrew places (where most homebrewers shop) will still find them used - but about twice what they used to go for. -S

Ive been to Silk's place - nice setup! I loved the use of the pasteurization tank! Thats how to think outside the box. Silk when is that Ballantine spirit going to be ready?

Interesting some of the math in here..... but I think math alone is oversimplifying things... Lets assume the beer is half the margin of the spirits. When you sell a drink you can either pull a beer from the tap ............ or you can have your drink mixer pull some fresh herbs (that you need to bring in every couple of days), muddle, add crushed ice (that someone likely smacks with a wooden hammer), flavors, juices, cap and shake then pour and pass... dont forget rinse out shaker etc. The costs of the addtional time, man power (you have alot of people to serve) and all the extra mixers and attention has to be added into the equation. And lets not forget you need to pay that "mixologist" too. And also the difference in the time and energy (gas/electricity) just to make the product... I agree the profit in the end is still higher - but not quite as drastic as youd think. Just my .02 -Scott

I am also thinking hard whether to setup in NJ or in my case just over the border in NYS. I WANT to stay in Jersey and the plan we are working on centers around staying here. Its tough though with some confusion as to what we can do and what we cant. Granted the laws are pretty recent. Have any of you NJ people run into anything unexpected? How much easier is it to get going in New York State? Thanks -Scott