Dan P.

Exactly, it was probably made by a bloke who was a pot and pan maker rather than a still maker, and he might have tinned it because it would have seemed odd not to. It would definitely be worth checking it for lead, though. The used to put it everything!

Nor I!

You suggested that the "stillage" would contain nutrients for the yeast, namely dead yeast, while the original post suggested using that left over from a "spirit run", suggesting to me that a strip run had been made, and that no yeast would be present. Thus; confusion.

There seems to be confusion as to what we are talking about here. Traditionally in pot stilling what is left after the spirit run is discarded. Rather I should say in some traditions of pot stilling, it is seen as purely a waste product, or even deleterious to the quality of the spirit if recycled in any way.

Vanilla and coriander whiskey? Yikes!

Try a cultured lacto? Problem with brett is that it can be slow to show itself, and there must be at least as much variety in brett as in cervo. If you want answers of value, your best bet is to experiment yourself.

A lot of the yummy ripeness of a natural fermentation is lactobacillus. That's my theory, anyway.

I have never had a problem with spontaneous fermentation of any fruit. It will give you the funk you are looking for, but there is that unknown small percentage of chance that your ferment will turn on you, or so we're told. I've never seen it happen myself.

Not really pertinent to the discussion, but "traditional" bordeaux is not 14-17% (17%???). More like 12%.

Unmalted grain, and the fact that it is largely made in column stills.

The lubricant is that if 1/2lb dextrose per gallon (2-3% abv?) equates to an increase in the %abv of your wort of 10%, it means your wort is something like 20-30% abv. Pretty lubricious!

I am not an expert but wouldn't the less expensive way of doing this be a steam coil, rather than a jacket?

1/2 lb per gallon doesn't sound that small to me. Seems like a slippery path to start down. Seems like a shortcut, and one of questionable integrity.

Adding water to the low wines to bring them down to 20% or so before spirit run might come under "hydroseperation". Don't ask me what it means or how it works.

I disagree that it will make it hot (you are possibly thinking of cane sugar?), but otherwise agree that it must be more cost effective to better convert the grain you are using, surely? As to whether it would be allowed, you must ask the arbiters of such things directly. I would be hesitant to presume that all "corn sugar" is always made from maize, though.

Beautiful!

Ha! Hate this video! The best that they could do was to cherry pick actually perfectly sensible legislation from wildly disparate parts of the country and put totally lame spin on them. So, the people of Miami would rather have totally anonymous people selling them unregulated foodstuffs, while driving around in unregistered vehicles, without a driving licence or insurance? What a wonderful idea! And the good people of Milwaukee would be happy for unregulated businesses (hot rod shop, jackhammer tuning studio, sub-woofer manufacturer) to operate out of the house next door? Anything less would be oppression that would shame Pol Pot! And balloon advertising! Who could live without it? Really goofy.

Certification has to be regulated or somehow officially (state?) sanctioned, otherwise you just get a plethora of awarding bodies which would mostly be just Mickey Mouse money-spinners for whoever owns them.

By "spirits knowledge" I mean that you will have tasted a broad range of spirits, and have opinions on them. That way when someone spins you a line like "One run a still with plates is better than double pot Distilling. I find you loose too much flavor that way", you will be able to assess it according to your own experience of, say, x, y and z whiskeys which you know to have been pot stilled, versus l, m, n and o whiskeys which you know to have been produced in a plated column.

Vodka is also usually treated with charcoal after distillation, which really flattens the taste out. Some vodka isn't, and has more of a light grain taste, like high quality moonshine or a very light grain whiskey. My guess is that if you are getting 130 proof from a single run on a pot still, you are running quite a high %ABV sugar wash. This may be the beginning of where your spirit is getting its burn; 1. Sugar is quite burn-y. 2. High ABV% wash will probably give some burn. 3. A single run on a pot still is not really adequate to seperate undesirable fractions from your product. 4. Most distilled spirits are going to burn if you drink them at 130 proof! A good place to start is by tasting spirits made using various methods and stills. Without wanting to be patronising you should probably be fairly well versed in spirits knowledge if you want to pursue distilling as a career. Also, if anybody tells you that, for instance, pot stills lose too much flavour in a double distillation, you can just ask yourself "what spirits do I know that are pot stilled in this manner?", and then judge for yourself whether they are bland or not.

Hmmm, say great-great-uncle Igor left to posterity a recipe and process for how they used to make vodka, back late 1800s, in the mountains of Ruritania. Something like x % wheat, y % rye, z % barley, double distilled to about 70% abv. The real deal, vodka as she was drank by bear-skin cloak wearing Slavs of the old stock. How would one market that? After all, to my mind it has the greater claim to authenticity, on some levels. Details; Uncle Igor's recipe is pretty neutral, as neutral as many commercial vodkas. The only problem is the distilled ABV requirement.

See, I wouldn't really say a column with plates qualifies as a pot still. It seems that the definition of pot still gets pushed back further and further. Everyone wants to say they use one, but not everybody actually wants to use one. I would be interested in the economics of pot still vs. column. Imagine if there were a legal definition of pot still introduced? Would the economic paradigm shift? How long will it be before a continuous still is being called a pot still? A "hybrid pot still"!

There may be legal distinctions for what constitutes "craft" when it comes to distilleries in some states, I don't know. But all things being equal, a definition of the term "craft" is a pretty tricky one to pin down. Well, let's say it's pretty much impossible to pin down. However, in my own opinion it would be hard to sell a product to the public as "craft" if the public knew it is made using a computerized and automated process, with no know-how involved beyond following the instructions in a manual. And I think the proof of that is how the cultural icon of the pot still is used for branding purposes by various distilleries who don't actually use pot stills. However, for business purposes, one does what one must, and as long as no one gets hurt, that's fine.

Seems like it.

It's not that great a book anyway, and Smiley's distinction between pot still and whiskey still is entirely specious. The picture on the cover illustrates perfectly the cultural cache that pot stills have, though.