Mike Fiore

To be honest I fell in love with that still the day that I saw them @ the Vendome facility in Louiville the day the ADI had the field trip. What I am planning on doing is using my three Portugese stills just for strip run, since we are mostly distilling grape skins and other byproducts of winemaking. We plan to use the Vendome for finishing the product. Normally my strip run comes about 50% or 100 proof more or less. What I would like to achieve is a heavy 160 proof +. I'll let you know more after the Vendome is in place and under operation. Cheers

There is an old theory that says "you get what you pay for" and I can tell you that if you go to most of the german still builders and tell them you want to spend $3000 they won't even talk to you in german, nevermind english. I also have 3 stills from the same company that you are looking at and have nothing but great things to say about them. The last still that I bought from them is a 350L water seal and it works like a charm. for what I paid for I feel like I got way more then my monies worth. In the next couple weeks we will be recieving a vendome still and the price between the two is substansial however, the vendome people are also great people to deal with from my experience. If you need to learn distillation before you spend any money at all, my advice is for you to talk to Bill Owens and definatly take one of his courses, believe me that would be the best investment you will make in your career as a distiller. Wish you lots of luck in your adventure, cheers.

The crew at Fiore Winery and Distillery would like to wish everyone on the forum a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous new year, cheers to all.

VA is volatile acids the present legal maximum limits of volatile acidity are 0.110 g.per 100ml

I have no idea of what he is fermenting. My answer is what could have caused the problem he incountered and I thought that I answered as clear as I possibly could without talking in riddles. I do not know who the sailorman is and I personally do not care. I am a wine maker who knows fermentation and have encountered all fermentation problems that exist in the past 48 years in my profession so perhaps I thought I was helping this guy. my knowledge in distillation is very mimimum to be precise it starts and ends with brandies, grappa and various liquours but I am anxious to learn all you can teach me. cheers

I would really be interest to know what Bill got to say about this. This looks like something that we would have had a field day when I was in winemaking school many years ago. Well, let me put my two cents in. The smell of rotten eggs is known to be H2S (hydrogen sulfide) its a bi-product of poor fermentation. If you had taken an analysis on it before the fermentation you would have seen that this product that you are trying to ferment is low in fermenting nitrogen. Dap will increase the fermenting nitrogen if used at the proper time. The best way to use it 1/3, 1/3 and 1/3. Go-Ferm helps the fermenting yeast into a good start, however, if you would have used ferment K to the recommended dose prior or at the same time of the innoculation you would have noticed less chance of H2S because ferment K also contains Dep in it. This is another reason why I like to use ferment K into 3 parts to achieve a smoother, steady fermentation all the way down to minus 2. The vinegar smell that you are picking-up is a pretty heavy dose of VA. On this subject we can talk for 2 days because there is approxiately a million things that could have gone wrong and give you that. That would be a great questions for Bill Owens, Bill would you distill that?

It is a good change that Presquel has the DEP but if he does not have it, I am pretty sure that Eastern Logistics in North Carolina has what you need.

Call 315-521-7568 Richard Turner tell him that Mike Fiore wants for you to have his discaunt.

Yes, but if that mushroom aroma is quite unpleasent I would not waste my time or money on a test. steam clean the barrels and rinse baking soda and the rinse with a solution of water and cittic acid. That should get it out.

Musty/mushroom armoa....sounds like a case of brettanomyces, I have heard of people eliminating it by steam cleaning the barrel, then burning a stick of sulfur in it.....but I would not want to take the chance if you calculate the value of the product you put in there the risk is to high. Some people make nice furniture from those barrels. The only thing I could do is make a flower box.

What we do is charge $3 for a 1 ounce sample, if they choose share its okay...this seems to keep those tasting to the serious customer.....90% of those tasting buy a bottle....we don't make money on the sample but it keeps from giving it away.

I hope that one of those 20 stills is mine. We just ordered a 30 gallon still with the computer control and the oil bath. Im very anxious to go to work with it. Right now we are using a 300l approx 100gallon portuguese still for strip run, and what I'm planning to do is useing my new Shiney Vendome to do the 2nd distillation. The one that I ordered is supposed to be exactly like the one we saw in Louisville. Im usually pretty good on juding character and the first time I met Rob over at vendome, he seems to be a fine gentleman, I think as many years as they have been in business, they have got to be very reliable simply because bad news spreads so fast. -Mike Fiore

Dick I hope I can be some help to you, my profession is a wine maker, but I was born in the south of Italy where Limoncello is king. I use a recipe that has been in my wifes family for many generations the only spirit we use in making limoncello is spirit from wines or grape skins. personally I believe those have the best flavor for a good finshed product.....I like to distill my spirit to about 160 proof but you can go as far as 180 and still retain some flavor (after you remove the head and tail) the type of lemons has a big input into the fact....the amount of time that you soak also has an input....how thin you peel also has an input....we all have our little secrets that has been passed down and we whisper very softly in the ear how to extract the full amount of liquor....and there has got to be a reason why some travel 75 to 100 miles so they can get the product from you. Now my advice if you are producing very small amounts of this product seperate the oil and throw it away.....if you are doing it commercially 200 to 500 cases a year you can not afford to throw it away in our prduction we recyle everything especially that oil that alot of times gets used into the next distillation...and the blended to fine tune the flavor and the alcohol percentage desired..I don't know if this has answered your question but you are welcome to call me and I will do my best to help you. Cheers, Mike Fiore

Good Lord, I'm willing to bet that has got to be at least 2,000 places with in walking distance of where you are that sell this stuff. Wineries use this to clean and sterilize their stainless steel tanks. Maybe I'm exaggerating, but I'm sure there has got to be at least 2 places within walking distance of where you are, just ask the closest winery, he'll open the door and help point you to the right direction. -Mike Fiore

I would like to thank all of you for your input, and yes, I agree organicly is the way to go, so if I decide to procede with this I'll buy from someone who can garuntee me the grapes were grown organicly, and I'll demand for a list of anything that has been used to protect from any fungus. Thanks again, you have given me peace of mind.

I'm hoping somebody has the right answer to my problem.....it is customary among grape growers that we drop a percentage of fruit in order to improve the quality that is left behind. Normally this operation gets done at verasion when they are then aprox 14 to 16 brix I figure if I buy this fruit I could distill it into some nice product.unfortantly some sprays that we use need 66 days prior to harvest interval as posted on the label. This sort of stops me from going to various vineyards and buying this fruit. The chemicals in question are mancozeb, pancozeb, dithane,and ridomil gold mz.All of them need 66 days before harvest. I was wondering if you still need the same amount of time if you are distilling the fuit.At this point and time I have abandon the idea simply because I feel if its not safe to make wine with this grape it is most likely not safe for brandy. I was interested if anyone has done this before and what precautions they used.

Is our main concern on free SO2 or total SO2? One of the thoughts that a wine maker has when he is stuck with bad wine is to distill it. If I am involved in this operation, the first thing I do is do an SO2 analysis. It was poor judgement on SO2 for the most part that made this wine go bad. However I have seen cases that you might only have low free SO2 which yields hardly any SO2 molucume and then the same wine it might have 3 or 4PPM bounded or total SO2. Would beroxcide help eliminate total SO2 or the bound SO2? -Mike Fiore

GW KENT has the machine you are looking for on page 40 of their catalog. It is Item Number 3501, and it costs $1,595, and it works like a charm. I had one I bought 30 years ago, and at that time I had only paid $200 and it still works, however even though we have a bottling line, I will never part with this because it is still a great piece of equitment. GW Kent phone # 1800-333-4288 Good Luck -Mike

Let me put my two cents in, because this is a subject that bothered me for awhile, we own a winery and a distillary, and we produce 22 brands of wine, as well as grappa and limoncello, we have what we call professional tasters around here, they go every weekend when you are the busiest and go from winery to winery and they want to taste everything you produce and then walk out with one or two bottles of wine. There were other wineries in Maryland that got fed up and started charging for their samples, and in the beginning I didn't like it, however, we had come to a point that we had to do something, so we felt that charging for a sample and then reumbrse it when they bought a case of wine was the right thing to do. We have our regular case club customers, and those people do not get charged to sample, as a matter of fact, because they are case club customers and we know how much wine they buy from us, when they come over here we give them a glass of wine of their choice, and they sit enjoy the afternoon outside here at the winery, and when it's time to leave, they buy 1 or 2 cases, and we don't see them until the next time. So after two years of charging for samples, it has been the best thing we could have done. It eliminated the professional tasters, gave special privelage to our steady customers, and controlling how much booze these people can intake in the small amount of time they are on your premises. I would hate to see it if I would be making 5 or 6 types of brandy at an average 40% alcohol and some of these jokers come in feeling that he's entitled to a sample of each, that is not going to happen at our place.

Speaking from experience, a brand new spinner is around $500, more or less. It's like a Johnny on a spot, that if you only use it once a year it's worth having it. We have a fully automatic GAI1200 bottling line, that allows us to swith from spinner to heat and shrink PVC capsules, my sugguestion is from what it costs, buy one, and it will last you two lifetimes. I recommmend you call Tony Prospero at Prospero Equipment(1-888-732-1222), and tell him Mike Fiore sent you, he'll kiss you on both cheeks and he'll provide you with a full spinner at a good price.

Need help finding out the Federal Excise Tax on Limoncello that is 66 proof and 33% Alcohol......does anyone have a chart or formula to calculate this. Thanks