Galapadoc

Thanks. I may reach out when I get that far down the road. Gotta get these first two products ready for prime time first.

No website. We were looking into that but all of our sales will be local for the foreseeable future. Not much need for a website in a place where everyone knows everyone. We're all electric right now but we'll have to go to steam when we upgrade. We were originally going to go with steam but it was cost prohibitive for this scale. The built-in baine marie oil heater from Affordable Distillery Equipment was the best choice for 100 gallons, but the electricity is going to be too expensive when we go up to 600 gallons. There's a regressive sliding scale based on consumption so the more we use, the more expensive the kwh. Who knows? There's a 5 acre solar farm right behind my property and they just privatized it, so maybe I can strike a deal directly with them. Gotta get through phase 1 first.

I'm hesitant to even get into gin. Seems like more trouble that it's worth. With the clients we have lined up already, I think we'll be near capacity for this still with just the vodka and the cachaça, plus I'm still hoping to make at least a few barrels of corn whisky since it's the only other thing that grows here. We'll see once everything is moving. The floor has been poured and dried and the plumbing and electrics are being installed. Hopefully I'll start putting the still together this weekend. Been staring at these crates for far too long.

So if I wanted to add a gin basket to mine, that's something you could fabricate to add on? I'm not much into gin (anymore) but all of my potential customers are asking about it.

How do you make cuts on a vacuum still? I'm thinking if we have to upgrade to a bigger operation, that's probably our best option because electricity is limited here and the whole archipelago is trying to go carbon zero (i.e. no gas), but cuts are essential to what I'm trying to make. Maybe Paul can chime in because if that's what we get, we'll be getting it from him.

Yeah, definitely a home distiller setup. My still is only 100 gallons and it's only economically viable because of the unique opportunities offered by being on a small island in the middle of the ocean.

What are those three extra things on the right in that 16-plate still where the condenser usually is?

Nothing yet. We just got the roof put on our distillery a few days ago. Floor is being poured this week, then I start assembling the still while the electrical engineer wires the place up. I'm going to give it a shot to see what happens. The Cuban cedar we have here is the only lumber tree on the island. They're an invasive species so the national park encourages us to cut them down. If nothing else, they'll make for nice decorative boxes for some limited edition spirit.

The ship is being unloaded as we speak. Hopefully our container will be here tomorrow. Can't wait to get started.

One island away!

Hey Paul, you didn't post our still's baby picture! It finally cleared customs and is now on a boat from the mainland. Hoping to have it on the premises next week!

What are you asking for them?

Barrel Rick!

An engineering Mountweazel! 🤣 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fictitious_entry I love it! I'll admit, I reached out to some Chinese manufacturers. The pandemic meant everything was going slow. There was lots of time to brainstorm. They did offer better quotes on paper, and with customs tariffs the way they are here, it's actually cheaper to import from China than from the US. But I knew something felt off. They couldn't answer any of my nerdy questions. @Southernhighlander could. This is our family business. Every cent invested comes from our labor. I justified the difference in the price point to the CEO, and why craft and institutional memory matter, and we went with Paul. This is just the beginning.

What specific model of machine do you use to generate ozone for use in the CIP? Sounds like a good way to disinfect everything since we're very limited at to what chemical agents we can import into the Galapagos. Citric isn't a problem (because they classify it as a food ingredient), but everything else is highly regulated. Ozone is great because it breaks down naturally to water so it can go down the drain. And just a heads up. I'm not sure what kind of PPE you're using when fogging with gaseous ozone, but keep in mind that it's super toxic to human tissue. We use it in ozonated water for wound care, especially for patient's with decubitus and diabetic foot ulcers, but you definitely don't want to be inhaling that stuff. It will do a number on your alveoli and over the years can lead to COPD.

You're killing me! I just ordered that same still 2 weeks ago retail. Might go for the mash tun, though. I need to see how much it will cost me to get it through customs.

Thinking about making it, at least in a limited run.

Thanks! I'll keep that in mind. The nice thing about living here is it's never hard to convince people to come visit.

Thanks for the response Slick. I should have been clearer up front. We're starting production in 4-5 months. I just put in the order for the still and it's going to take awhile to build, get through customs, and then shipped out here to the middle of the ocean. The plan for the processing is to shred them in an industrial potato mill and boil them in the tun, essentially turn them into a puree and dilute. I thought about baking them first as that is a well known way to pump up the sugar content in sweet potatoes and you get a nice Maillard reaction, but that's more equipment than we're willing to invest in right now. The still is a steam jacketed column still with 20 plates on two columns. I am actually going for something with character, completely unlike all the NGS vodkas already available. We're a small operation and our market will only be local for the foreseeable future. Once the product I'm going for is dialed in, we'll see about expanding. I've never done this on anything larger than a 5-gallon pot still, so I'm not sure how long it's going to take to ferment out 100 gallons at a time. It just seems like the enzymes, while there, might not be enough to convert the starches in a reasonable amount of time. Every source I've come across said there's enough amylase already in the yam to get it done, but those were all home distillers working on a much smaller scale. I'm going to try some sour mashing and see how that pans out. Thanks for reminding me of that option. As for the yeast, I'm gonna try several and see which works best. I've seen plenty of recommendations from others on this forum and I've poured through the suppliers' literature. I've only ever used regular brewers yeast (or even bread yeast because anything else is hard to get out here), so I think the best move will be to just narrow it down to three or four options and see which one works best. The moonshine distillers out here don't even add yeast, they just let nature blow some in and then recycle what they have. Frankly, the stuff they make is better suited as paint thinner, but it gets an entire party drunk for very little money. You can fill your own gallon jugs at the distillery and save even more because the law here allows farmers to sell liquor tax free on the farm's premises. You only pay liquor tax on bottles sold off your property. Nobody on this island has any concept of making cuts. They sell everything that comes out of the parrot, so a wicked hangover is guaranteed. I have enough microbiology experience that I'm sure I can eventually have my own culture that works best on the yams in our weird climate, but that may turn out to be more trouble than it's worth. I kept my sourdough starter alive for years, so maybe not.

I didn't realize this was going to cause such a ruckus. My bad. I bumped it because I wanted to see if people who are doing this currently could chime in on their experiences. We'll be starting production in a few months and sweet potato is the only thing that grows well on this island so we're going with that. That being said, I do have some things I'm not sure about. First off, I've plowed through tons of scientific papers on the nutritional content of sweet potatoes. From what I can tell, it seems I won't need to add any nutrients to the ferment, but has that panned out for anyone in the distillery? It's one thing to do a chemical analysis on a plant and characterize everything that's in there, but just like the stuff we eat, it doesn't mean everything is bioavailable. I'd be interested in hearing what others have to say on the matter. Also, while the plant does contain alpha and beta amylase, is it enough? I know with enzymes a little goes a long way since they aren't consumed in the process, but I don't want to wait 10 days for it to ferment dry. I have a friend on the mainland who has the first malt house in the country, so I was thinking maybe I could add that. We're trying to limit the amount of products we have to import into the country to get this done because the customs service here is really hit or miss. Things get delayed, things disappear. I'd prefer to not have production halted because some guy in Guayaquil is waiting for a bribe. Once again, sorry for the 14-year-old bump. I didn't realize that was a thing. I was pouring through old posts on the subject and didn't really pay attention to the date. I just wanted to revive the conversation since it was the only one going on the topic.

While doing "market research" yesterday at one of the local watering holes, I ran into a "black vodka". I'd never seen it before so I did a little searching. Turns out there are many on the market, some with various flavors added that create the color and others that only use mineral solutions to create the dark coloring. We're on an archipelago in the middle of the Pacific so anything that comes from the mainland costs twice as much as the domestic price, and anything imported from other countries costs 2-3 times what you'd find in the States or the EU. Our business model is to replace as many of the imported products as we can (vodka, liqueurs, and the like) for the local cocktail industry. Anyone making a black vodka out there? Can you give any suggestions?

It was less about asking questions and more about sharing experiences. A lot of sweet potato vodkas have appeared on the market in recent years. I think I've covered all the bases but I won't know if I have any questions until I start running into problems in a few months.

🤣 I had no idea. I was just hoping to reignite the conversation.

bump

Any chance you got Covid? I have patients who had mild/asymptomatic cases over a year ago and they're still having trouble smelling certain things. That bug really likes to tear up the olfactory nerve. I think it's unlikely they'll get it all back given the nature of brain tissue. The olfactory nerve is just an extension of your brain that protrudes through your skull into the back of your nose. Brain tissue is terribly difficult if not impossible to repair after adolescence.