Mike Fiore

Is your beer as good as the tractors? In that case I got to have some. I have had my new holland tractor now for 5 years and i love it. of course new holland today is no longer made in new holland for the most part is a fiat with a face lift on the name.

New Holland PA? in that case you are only one hr from me.

I would talk to my lawyer and let him advise me. I have very low opion of lawyers but sometimes you cannot live without them.

We have a 12,000 case winery and a small distillery, all my ss tanks are 304. Some of the tanks are almost 30 years old but still in great shape. A couple of years ago while talking to a Canadian tank company they sounded like they were running a campaign against 304 ss. Because I need some temp tanks for storage of brandy,I asked the question to people all over the world and the answer was that 304 ss was fine.

Call Scott Laboratoriees 707-765-6666 www.scottlab info@scottlab.com

Vinquiry is TTB certified for all beverage analysis They have a wide range of laboratory equip. 7595 bell road windsor CA. 95492 Tel. 707- 838-6312

The HI99151 is very reliable model bot you stell have replace the electrons once every year

in the winemaking business where the ph is extremely critical after many various ph meter I found two to be top of the line, beckman and hanna. I like th hanna a little bit more simply because they make a bench model that is extgremely accurate. the secret is the electrons are very accurate for approx a year of heavy use. i use the 901 tritrate model which does not only do ph but also free and total so2, va, etc. other stull that you really do not need in the distilling business. the bench ph meter is more than sufficient, fairly inexpensiv e and you can buy directly from hanna and they can supply you with buffers that you will need, ph7,4 and 3 buffers so you calibrate daily.lots of luck.

I usually use a distillation apparatus to determine the alcohol seperation. It is quite an inexpensive and from what my expierence tells me it is as accurate as they come. There is also various lab all over the country that can do a test for about 35 dollars but don't quote me on that price. good luck

I hope that i understand what you got and what you are trying to do. But let me tell you what this old winemaker knows, after 50 years of being in the business. You would never want to distill any wine that has got a significant level of SO2 the results can be unbearable. However, if you want to distill wine that has a moderate amount of SO2 what you should do, before you do anything, you should run an SO2 test and test the wine for free and total SO2(bounded). The next thing you would want to do is treat this wine with Hydrogen Peroxcide hoping to remove most of the sulfites out, personally I wouldnt do it, but at this time I would take another SO2 test to see what exactly what I have. Once that wine is free of SO2 then I'd go ahead and start my distillation, you'll find that you have to remove quite a generous head to get a half decent heart. Sometimes its better, and I would never be afraid of distilling wine that is a little oxidized versus a wine that has a high amount of sulfites. At least if it is oxidized you know the sulfite is gone. Good luck and I hope this has helped you out.

I guess its all in how you define "waste".....down here in the US we consider it "raw product"

I happen to agree with you, totally. The reason why I put the rule of thumb example on my statement is, simply because the TTB ask me how many pounds of grape skins I was using per and how many gallons of water I was using to extract the spirit. I think that, the example gives a pretty accurate explanation. As far as wineries being grateful that you are taking their trash in some countries like Italy the so called trash has become a very lucrative commodity. Frankly I believe we are not doing to bad in America either, however if things would get really bad it makes an excellent feed for steers and milk cows etc.. But if that is too much trouble you can pile them up in an unseen corner of your property dump some lime on it and let it mature really good and when you get done but it in your bobcat and spread it back in the vineyard with a manure sprayer, you will not find a better source of organic fertilizer than that. Knowing all this, why should any winery give you this product if there is nothing in it for them, think about it? The people that I deal with they bag it, splash it with co2 and store it, till I'm ready to pick it up. To me that is worth something.

I can see you have a lot of expierence making Grappa, pomace brandy, etc....

I must admit, from all I read in this forum the one I like most is the guy that said "what's in it for me". The very worst thing that you would want to use to make pomace brandy is moldy grapes. Grape skins will go moldy is you do not take precautions. I don't even like to use micro bins because of that. to prevent grape skins from getting moldy you need to store them properly. I like to store them in heavy duty plastic bags, we put about 75 lb of grape skins in it and when possible splarge with Co2. That removes most of the oxgyn, then we tie the bags very tightly. I can promise you that as long that there is no air, you can keep them until the following april with no problems. Of course, this is a lot of work and who ever does it has to be compinsated especially if we are dealing with 4 or 5 hundred tons of material. How are you compinsated varies from person to person. We also own a winery so we have plenty of grape skins of our own. But since we want to make more pomace brandy, we depend of other people for additinal grape skins. Of course the size of the still that you are using for the strip run is very important.A good rule of thumb is that by using 150 lb of grape skins and enough water to make it look like the way it did when the grapes were crushed and then it just matter of fireing up the still and 4 hours later you have approx. 15 to 20 gallons of strip run at 50% alcohol including head and tails. What you do after that is up to you. Good luck

Jon, My friend its seems to me you are in for a rude awakening don't forget you are in the state of Maryland and when it comes to the three tier system and it comes to their empire, distributors look at someone like us as a nucance......I had to go with a distributor because my production was over 40 thousand gallons....I paid a heavy price for being with a distributor and I'm paying every day. I would like to share with you what I have learned in the mean time please, before you do anything call me you have my number, and I will gladly fill you in with some my expierence that I have learned from with these parasites. I would like everyone to benfit from what I have learned. Mike

I think it be a great idea

George, I have two tanks that are approximately 3000 gallons a piece, or slightly less. We have been using them for wine. They have an 1-1/2 " racking valve with triclover fitting, approx 2' man way by raking valve and 2' man way for the top. I would like to get $2.00 per gallon for them but if you take them both you can have them for $10,000. It is a bargain depending on where you are located, if you are somewhere in the East Coast, I can see it. The price of shipping is not worth it. We got them into our building thru a 8' door so hopefully they should not be any problem. Cheers

Jonathan, I do agree with you partly, here at Fiore we produce Brandy and pumous brandy etc....and you are right as wines they are unfit to drink. Those wines are purposely made in that fashion. There are a lot of things that a decent self conscience winemaker-distiller takes into consideration when he produces those wines to be distilled. One of the things he watches very very carefully is that there is no S02 present neither free nor total. Because you know what S02 will do to a distillation? And yes I'm aware that a mobile distillery was allowed in France I don't know if it still is but I know that it existed in the late 50's but I'm not talking about France because the law is somewhat different there. What I'm talking about is the good ole USA. How would the bonded area work? Who pays the tax and when? Before I got my license I had to send a blueprint specifying where the distilling would take place and the location of my stills.

I had a strange conversation with a gentleman yesterday. He tells me that he wants to put a small still on a trailer and move it to various locations mostly wineries. And distill the unwanted wine into God knows what. He tells me he has clearence from the TTB to do this...I personally don't understand the legality behind this it appears to me that this guy knows absolutly nothing about distilling or the Federal Law. My only remark was,from what I know from distillation is that if you start with garbage you will end up with garbage....Has anyone ever heard of a mobile distilling facility or if it is even legal?

I think Uncle Rob is going to be very surprised to see that the mark-up on the yeast he wants to re-sale is not going to be worth while, I know some distributors that they are selling it more as a convenience to their customers than a profit. But, if you think you can make a buck, you got my blessing.

Hello everyone, I am looking for a 30 gallon, heavily toasted barrel for aging brandy. I would prefer American or French oak. Reasonably priced. Your help is deeply appreciated. Cheers, Mike Fiore

My compliments Jesse they both look good

My compliments

Derrick, You shouldn't have any problem getting pommace in your area. I know a lot of great wineries that make some fantastic wines, one of my favorite happens to be Fen Valley Vineyard and Gran Traverse and many others. Whatever still you are going to use my advise is make sure it has a stainless steel screen twards the bottom, or some kind of mixer so the pomace dosn't stick to the bottom of the still. To make grappa it is very easy, just a matter of mixing the skins with plenty of water. You must make sure that water is free of chlorine, spring water works best. Let the mixture distil, on the strip run I recomend you keep the head and tail all togeather. The alcohol extracted should average between 30 and 40%. There are many untold operations that makes this grappa taste exquisite. When you are ready lets sit and talk about it. Mike.