Denver Distiller

Mechanical grinding is the only way you'll get a full yield. Simply boiling longer won't break down those cell walls. Even with malted barley the difference between fine grind and course grind is usually a couple of percentage points in extract, even with a decoction mash. With corn you need to rupture those cell walls mechanically. Seems like you already know the answer to your question.....

Well, as I said, not all of the goats will eat it. And often, the farmer simply mixes it with other things. Same goes for our Rye stillage, actually. His cows won't touch it. But if he mixes it with even a little of our Bourbon or Vodka stillage, they can't get enough of it. The goats will eat the absinthe stillage, which really astonishes me. That stuff is really something.

You could ask your famous neighbors. You might be surprised by their answer. Or, the Siebel Institute. Alltech in KY might lend a hand as well.

No need to be rude. I guess I wasn't clear enough, so my apologies there. If this law is interfering with your business (I don't think that it is in the least, but I digress), then the problem isn't the law: the problem is your business plan. If you go into a bar, and some guy says "why should I buy your stuff, when I can do this myself?" You should take a look at your portfolio, and makes something he DOES need. Get it now? Make something that they actually want to buy. So that's all I meant. I didn't mean to offend you. Delaware Phoenix got what I was saying just fine.

Make something that they actually want to buy. Problem solved.

Carryover from whatever is in the boiler feed water which could either lead to eventual off-flavors on your distillate. Pickup up of various salts into your mash that you may not taste, but could be at levels that are toxic to yeast. Think things like iron. What is your boiler made out of? If your boiler goes down and you don't notice it, you could get mash back into your boiler. Steam check valves are notorious leakers. Depending on how you mash, you can scald various sugars in the mash and lose yield or change flavors. You can also kill enzymes from scalding steam if they are present regardless of what the overall temp of the mash appears to be.

Combination of simple hot water for most mashing, and jacket for corn mashing. I don't like direct injection of steam for mashing. Too many potential negatives.

Ask him to cite which regulation he's referring to.... ask politely, and tell him that you want to make sure you comply. If he can't do it, you're in the clear. All that you need is a simple cleanable steam filter from McMaster-Carr. They are indeed used for steam sanitizing kegs, John. You can't use a liquid sanitizer for kegs, so you just use a few pounds of steam before the beer is filled into the keg. The steam needs to be clean so that you don't get any carry over of salts. Think of what your blow down water looks like, and then imagine that gunk getting mixed with your beer. Look here under "sanitary steam fliter", page 362. You'll want a Y strainer and a basket strainer upstream, and you'll want to disassemble and inspect the entire assembly at least monthly. http://www.mcmaster.com/#steam-filters/=epbd3w IMHO, coop, I'd put one in regardless of what the inspector says. If you have a unexpected change in the makeup of your water supply (and therefore steam), you could get some off flavors in your distillate. Hope this helps.

Goats. Well, most of them, anyway.... seem to love spent Gin botanicals. And I know some chefs have used some spent botanicals out there....

No, most small guys aren't testing for pesticides, but there are advantages to purchasing cleaned and graded grains where there's a bit of liability and responsibility attached to the seller. Farmers can't really do that on a smaller scale. Buying local is great, but it comes at the price of your shop having to increase testing and sampling. Get a grain sampler and check anything and everything that comes into your shop. Sounds obvious, I guess, but that's your best course.

FYI, absinthe does not behave the way whiskey, vodka, or even beer does in terms of sedimentation. You can have a perfectly brilliant filtrate on the day you bottle .... and have a mm or two of sediment at the bottom of the bottle after it sits for a few weeks.

Ain't that the truth. We had all three licenses back in the day.... brewing, wine making, and distilling. An agent told us that we had to fill out a Bulk Transfer form to "ship" our brandy to our "winery", which was, oh, about 15 feet from our bonded distillery and under the same roof. It's a one page form, and really not a big deal.

Hit the colored absinthe with water, let it sit for a couple of weeks, and then rack it off the sediment. Repeat.

Yes, they can buy the brandy back from you. Just make sure what you distill conforms with the SOI for Brandy, and you're all set. You have to make sure that he didn't add anything squirrely to the wine, but outside of that, you're fine. All you'll need is for him to fill out a Bulk transfer form and sent it in to the TTB for signature. You'll have to make sure that both of your bonds can handle the tax $$, and you'll have to pay the taxes on the brandy. He can purchase brandy for use in fortified wines with his winery license. Now whether it will taste good is a whole different issue, and without tasting the wine in question, I can't really help you there. Acetic Acid in the distillate certainly isn't inherently bad. If you age it and give it access to O2, you'll get some interesting esters for sure. Cheers, and I'm happy to hear you're almost open

Respectfully, you're always going to need a pump to get the condensate back into the boiler. You've a boiler sitting at 14 psig or so, and condensate at close to 0 psig, making it impossible to get the condensate into the boiler with a few inches of head. And all of this is for naught if you don't check your State and Local regulations, as they frequently conflict with one another. I'd be surprised if you could legally do the work yourself.

I wouldn't go below 17% abv, Mr. Tomaszewski. Not without serious lab support. JMHO.

If you're truly that concerned, the no-cost option is to pitch early, and not wait for the entire run off to have collected in your fermenter. The healthy yeast will outcompete the bacteria. Pardon me for asking, but why are you lautering this rye mash?

SImple CIP process, assuming you have a CIP sprayhead in your still Rinse with tap water. Brush out any large solids. Circulate caustic at 50 C. Inspect for solids, use brush w/plastic bristles if needed. Rinse w/tap water. Circulate food grade citric acid at 50 C. Inspect. Rinse w/tap water. That's it. That'll get out any soil you'll come across. I've used it for fermented whole cherries, bourbon mash, rye mash, whole peaches, whole apples, whole cherries, beer, molasses, cane syrup, potatoes, wheat, Gin, Absinthe, etc.....the whole shooting match. The only thing I've ever had to do is increase the caustic concentration slightly, and that's a rare case. And I should add if you have really hot water, you may have to use acid first, to get the mineral coating off before attacking the proteinaceous soils, then caustic, then acid one last time. Keep it simple. Keep it safe. IMHO, using water hotter 50 C is unnecessary and dangerous. If you don't have a CIP system, then put the chemicals in the still, warm it up making sure you cover the heating element (or jackets, or whatever), and use a brush. If that's your method, it's even more important to use gentle temperatures. Cheers

Certainly don't mean to, Mr. Cowdery. I'm just offended by the lack of reciprocity, and the lack of respect for our customs. Like all obstacles, there are ways around such silliness.

Sure, it's just shade more than "whatever France says it is", but it still defers to the French "laws and regulations" are in regards to what Cognac is. The US definition most certainly doesn't contradict, or more importantly, narrow what the French Laws are regarding what is Cognac. It says, essentially, it's up to the French to define what Cognac is. Seeing as how there's a long, long history of production and sales of whiskey here in America that's spent far fewer than three years in a barrel, I frankly find it insulting that the EU wants to define American Whiskey for me. The number of years in the barrel that they're asking for doesn't bother me, per se, and I understand that they have that minimum with a nod toward guaranteed quality (such as it is).... it's that they aren't respecting our methods and laws that irks me, particularly when we're respecting theirs.

Respectfully, I think that you're missing what Ralph is saying. Right now, if you look at the TTB reg's for Cognac, Scotch, and Tequila, you won't see anything other than these beverages are produced in France, Scotch, and Mexico according to the laws of those countries. That's it. There aren't any qualifying statements. If France says it's Cognac, it's Cognac, and that's the end of it. If the TTB did what the EU is doing, then we could construct some arbitrary law like.... hey, it's not Scotch unless it's put into American barrels.... and Scotch distillers would be, rightfully, up in arms. All Ralph is saying that this arrangement should be reciprocal, and the EU should accept that if an American Whiskey meets all American TTB rules to label it as whiskey, this whiskey should be immediately accepted by the EU. To do otherwise is protectionist, and unfair.

We've done a few barrels of Tennessee style whiskey. I think that you might find that it takes a bit longer to age out since you're adding congeners (phenols) rather than pulling them out, and those congeners take a bit of time to oxidize and reduce. Just my opinion. Your own process may lead to a completely different result.

IMHO, if you are an all-malt distillery, or that's where the majority of your work will be, lauter plates is where the majority of your capital outlay should be. A 10% gain in lauter efficiency will pay for itself in a hurry. We had laser cut plates made for our brewery, and the capital outlay was paid in full inside of a year. Food for thought.

If I was new to the biz, and was looking to actually learn about real production procedures, I'd drop everything, and head south. Bravo for offering, Mr. Morgan. Hope many are wise enough to take you up.

You're being modest, Mr. Morgan. Hunter is quite a large operation. I still believe that the lacto. is a symptom rather than the underlying issue. 1/2 a drop in yield is an awful lot to ask of bacteria, and bacteria alone, when such a large portion of a mash is boiled, and we're talking about a fermentation that takes place in well under a week. I'm sure coop will share more as time allows.