daveflintstone

Blue bottle? Is Skyy a dirty name for some reason?

Have you considered applied labeling from the manufacturer? They will put it on the bottle for you and save a lot of headaches.

That's a good point. I'll be using a bar top closure, which Vitro says they can source for me. One stop shop!

Is that first bottle similar to the Skyy bottle?

In speaking with Vitro Packaging, they recommended to ship bottles (imprinted 750ml) to me in the 12pack cardboard cases I would be using. I'd remove the bottles, fill them, and replace back in the cases ready to send out. I had not thought of this before. It seems like a good idea to me, but are there reasons for not doing this? Is this common? Does anyone else do this? Obviously from my questions, I have no experience with any type of packaging, and would appreciate any comments. I forgot to mention, they would supply both the bottles and the cases, if that wasn't clear.

thanks for the helpful replies. I wasn't aware the BTI offered "unpublished reviews"; I'll call 'em and find out. And brush up on my german to contact the good doctor. If I can. Though taste is certainly subjective, I value the opinion of someone with a trained palette. Are you serious? Is it my product if I didn't design and build the still myself with my own smelted metal? If I relied on the collective experience of hundreds of years of distilling? I'm going to say yes, it is indeed my product.

Anyone know of a tasting/testing service one can submit samples of not-yet-released product to, for critique?

Yes, upon further research, I see no reason not to use the regular water supply I have available. Chlorine readily evaporates when adding hot water to dilute the molasses I will be using. I shall save the purified water for final dilution.

Goodness gracious, you are dramatic. Nothing wrong with using beer fermenters for distilleries; I am familiar with folks who do. a tank is a tank is a tank...use a fiberglass tank, use a 55 gallon steel drum, use a hdpe tank, use a glass tank, I know distilleries who are using each one (yeah, even the glass one). I know nothing of whiskey washes, but I don't see how ngs and rum would be incompatible. In fact, equipment from a microbrewery is ideal because it will have temperature controls already on it, in case you need to control the fermentation temperature. Plus if it's a good deal, you could use those stainless tanks as holding tanks. If anyone here has some used, good condition tanks from a microbrewery at a great price, contact me. You probably don't want to contact ckrogstad I wonder how much they'll get for the piano

I mean a Revenoor still, from revenoor.com

Has anyone any experience with a Revenoor still?

ok, thanks

But if one is making vodka, does one need to be concerned with inconsistent flavors, since those will be removed during distillation and filtration? In my mind, using regular water that will then be distilled will result in a product the same as using distilled water in the first place. Am I missing something in translation?

Is there any reason to use purified water in the mash? I'm assuming since it will be subsequently distilled one should be able to use regular tap water.

hats off to ckrogstad for the funniest post I've read anyhoo, joe, you should go to www.milehidistilling.com They have lots of info for you, and you can probably contact them directly to answer your questions, since they sell the product in question. As you see, this is not the place for you. aloha

HC&S, owned by A&B, does have molasses available here; the final molasses, blackstrap, etc., whatever's left after they've done I think 3 extractions. Haleakala Distillers, makers of Maui Dark Rum and other varieties, uses it. The chemist tells me it is approximately 50% sugar by weight. I will use defoamers and do a stripping run, aka separate pot still then pot with column, so there should be no issues in my columns. I wasn't aware of the decline in molasses quality. It needs to be watered down anyway, so maybe a lower sugar content just means a slight added cost? I'll certainly test the %. I'm still uncertain of the percentage sugar to dilute to. What % do you use when producing rum? ckrogstad, what do you mean, 'the Ag people won't go for that'?

Just getting started with a micro distillery in Hawaii, Island Spirits Distillers. I'm going to use molasses, since sugar cane grows here. And I'm going to make vodka from it. Any other molasses fermenters out there, I'd like to hear your experiences. From reading this forum, I didn't see any posts involving sugar cane molasses... Dave