Brewstilla

Title about says it all, just wondering how long folks are keeping columns in full reflux prior to taking product off?

Are you making a heads cut to avoid louching of juniper and citrus oils? I sample my gin distillate and dilute 50/50 with RO and don't start my hearts collection until I reach a sample that doesn't louche. Has worked well for me

Thank you for that @dhdunbar. For clarification, we are not trying to make a canned Manhatten, we are trying to make a canned gin and tonic that contains an IPA based simple syrup. Silk used a canned Manhatten as an example of a canned cocktail containing a base spirit with the addition of another alcoholic component.

Our sister company is a brewery with a taproom (full liquor license), and we serve cocktails from the taproom. One of the cocktails that has gained favor with patrons is a gin and tonic with simple syrup made from the brewery's very popular double ipa. We would like to can this as an RTD, and submitted the formula to the TTB and it was declined because "finished IPA cannot be used in the production of this product" My question is, is there wording to get around this, or is this a no go with finished beer (even tho the alcohol is evaporated off when making the syrup). Our other option that we will trial is simply making a simple syrup out of the wort of that beer. Thanks

Ran into something I haven't seen before. Yesterday I ran a CIP on my still for todays spirit run, PBW followed by citric as usual. This morning the copper was nice and bright, as I was loading the still with single malt low wines, I noticed the bright copper rapidly turning a dark streaky color. Even without the low wines hitting it. The low wines and heads are extra stinky, but the hearts are great. Any idea what would cause this??

Thanks guys!

Anyone use a supplier of Glencairn glassware for logoed glasses that they like? The supplier we normally use for other glasses is in the 8-10 dollar range per glass for this style which clearly doesn't work for us. Thanks

I also used SafTeq Blue and fermented it at 95F. Stripped four washes and final spirit run on pot still. It is reminiscent of tequila, but also has a bit of that sweeter vodka thing going on

Really happy with how our agave spirit turned out and have had positive feedback from accounts

Thanks Silk. The other major variable I believe increasing efficiency in addition to a thinner mash, is the fact that the corn in the second example was hammer milled to flour as opposed to a horrible rough crack on the first. Appreciate all inputs as I continue to get this dialed in.

Final gravity isn't the issue, ferments out fine. Just seems like my original is low for the amount of grain used

So mashed two batches of bourbon today, each 350# corn, 110# unmalted wheat, 82.5# peated malt. Same mash regime as the original post, but the first one at 30 min rest at 195, and the second at two hour rest at 195, both 15 plato original gravity. Hammer milled all grain to flour, no clumping or any issues, ran perfectly smooth. Thoughts?

We are starting some R&D on a product that involves the redistillation of a base spirit with other ingredients, including some fruit. For ease, consistency, and fruits not available in our locale, I would like to use dried fruits. After some research, it seems the vast majority are packaged with SO2. So my question is, will the SO2 come over in the spirit like many other sulfur compounds? I am guessing that this will be the case, and is easy enough for me to trial on the benchtop still, but figured I would throw it out here first to see if anyone had any experience or input before doing that. Thanks!

Just finished wiring it up and running some corn thru to clean/test it. Seems great, will mill and mash with it next week

Most likely referm if you have any sugar source in the product. I would start by checking your pH and potentially lowering if need be

Pulled the trigger on the 5hp model this morning

Been going back and forth with supplier on the milling, they only have a roller mill but are working with me on getting it crushed finer. This last batch came in particularly horribly milled, a bit of whole kernels even. Bummer because I like their products, but looking at alternative suppliers or more than likely a hammer mill for our shop.

Just ran this mash with extended times, 2 hour cook and 1 hour sac rest with no changes. Chalking it up to too coarse of a mill and or weak enzymes

I too was wondering about our enzymes and will reach out. I collect low wines down to 5 abv

I'll give that a go right now and see where we end up, thanks

Appreciate the replies. We don't have a hammer mill yet, and the corn we use is pretty roughly cracked on a roller mill, trying to get our supplier to mill it finder for us. I have played with 30 and 60 minutes for both rests and I see a bump of 0.5 plato max with the extended rest Trying my sacc rest at 145 crossed my mind as well, so will be trying that on todays first mash using the same mash bill to limit to a single variable, for the second mash I will thin it to see how it reacts.

Field corn, on grain ferment and distillation. Original was 16 plato and finished dry

We are getting low efficiency on our mashes, hoping to get some eyes on our mashing regime to see if anyone has any input to up our numbers. 4X 300 gallon mashes 250 gal water, 350# corn, 220# malted wheat, 55# malt add corn to water, ph to 5.4, add 20ml Bioglucanse and 200ml Hitempase from BSG heat to 195 and hold for 30 min cool to 140, add wheat and malt, add 20ml Bioglucanase and 200ml Amylo300 from BSG and rest 30 min Cool and pitch yeast. I calculated this to be 46.13 bushels and we only yielded 124.3 proof gallons, or 2.69 PG per bushel. Any thoughts on getting our PG per bushel number up is greatly appreciated. We are seeing low yields across many different mashes mashing this way which makes me think I'm doing something wrong in my mashing, or its another variable such as weak enzyme or corn that isn't milled finely enough. Also of note, extended rest times don't affect starting gravity.

We just ran a tote of the dark nectar from https://www.nectave.com/bulk-agave-nectar/. All stripped and will do spirit run tomorrow, happy with the product thus far. Shot a bit too high on the original gravity due to available fermentation capacity, and should have used a buffering agent to keep pH from crashing, but lessons learned for next time.

Adding malt at 140-150 is fine, any higher and you're going to denature the enzymes in it. I think there is something else going on as I add my malt low 140s, don't sanitize my fermenters, and never see pellicle. Still makes me wonder about lack of aeration allowing lacto to get off to a stronger start than yeast. Or perhaps a weak yeast pitch resulting in the same.