BobDonovan

Thank you all for your well-thought-out responses. Air was not on our radar as a possible culprit. Yes, we are mixing aggressively during spirit addition and we may be trapping air. Our initial thought was to try to get a homogenous blend as quickly as possible and avoid having pockets of water and the haze/sapponification issue.We are also using pneumatic pumps to transfer the spirits from storage totes to mixing drums and pumping straight into the target drum which also causes splashing etc. We also usually our take our initial proof readings soon after pumping so we definitely have high potential for entrapping air when we take our initial readings. To help answer our measurement method & equipment, yes our hyrdometers and thermometers are certified and are within 20 degrees proof of target. We enter the observed reading and the calibration correction values for the hydrometer and thermometer into Alodens to get true proof for our blending calculation. Thank you everyone for your inputs. We will be taking a hard look at our method for adding spirits to the tanks as it sounds like gently mixing/adding to avoid bubbles and that when successful should have an accurate proof reading fairly quickly (15-30 mins). Which is good news for our operations. BD

We are a start-up distillery in Richmond, VA, and have been struggling with our blending/proofing down operations. I Have read a lot of good advice on the ADI forums on this subject and have settled into the following sequence for proofing down our Bourbon (110pf - 90pf) and Vodka (191pf - 80pf) for bottling using 55 gallon stainless steel drums. We are using AlcoDens to calculate our batch blending and hydrometer correction readings. We are proofing down in two stages as follows: Take hydrometer reading of the source tank (270 Gallon Totes) Calculate approximately how much (by weight) of the source spirit to achieve 52 gallons at 1-2 degrees proof above target bottling-proof Weigh out the calculated amount and get an exact weight of the source spirit Take proof measurement of source batch & update calculation in AlcoDens using this proof and weight to determine the weight of distilled water to add to reach target proof. Weigh out the calculated amount of water in the bottling drum. Agitate with a pneumatic mixer and add source spirit until the calculated batch weight is reached Mix for 3-4 hours then let sit for up to 12 hours Take proof measurement of batch and update calculation in AlcoDens to determine how much additional water to add to reach bottling proof. Mix for 3-4 hours then let sit for up to 12 hours Recheck proof and repeat if needed to get bottling proof. Wait 12 hours after last check to start bottling Now typically,am if I start bottling right after the last 12 hour wait the proof is stable at the checked proof during my bottling checks but not always. Tank is sealed and stored in the same conditioned space when not bottling but am struggling to figure out why the proof can change by as much as 2-3 degrees proof (which would not be good for bottling) by just sitting but cannot find any information on how much time it may take for the proof to settle of even if that is what is happening Any insight from the community is welcome - although I am not trying to stir up the slow vs fast proofing debate as I realize I am proofing down using the fast method. Thanks in advance Bob Donovan