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Ryan S.

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Posts posted by Ryan S.

    When would you get a zero alcohol read in your mash tank but still be producing a

    in Technique

    Posted

    At the risk of being too straightforward, it sounds like you need some basic education on fermentation test equipment.

    No hydrometer normally found in a brewery or distillery will show a direct readout of alchohol in a mash. They do make instruments for that, but there's no need. The beer/wine hydro is made to show POTENTIAL alcohol, not a direct readout of final alcohol in a mash. And a proof hydro doesn't have a scale low enough to read 5-10% accurately.

    When you make a mash, measure it with a beer hydro to get the potential alchohol, which is only accurate if you get a complete fermentation of the sugars. Ferment it out, take another reading at the end. The difference between the two readings is the alchohol in the mash. Temp correct if you want, won't make that much difference in the overall scheme of things if the beginning and the final are taken at same temp.

    As a rule of thumb, 1lb of fermentables in 1gal of water yields approx. 5% alch. I know it's not exact, but for second checking a recipe in your head it works well.

    Beer/Wine making 101.

    Good stuff Porter, thank ya! And no worries on being straightforward, I prefer it that way, learn quicker.

    When would you get a zero alcohol read in your mash tank but still be producing a

    in Technique

    Posted

    Are you checking with a proof hydro or a beer hydro?

    You can't get a mash temp that far off.

    Im using a 250 gallon tote. Our temp is set within the range of what the yeast were using works best in. Been using a proof hydro but after I posted this I ran and grabbed a beer hydro? Had to take care of some stuff but im going back in just a bit to check it with that? Think that's my issue?

    Selling tips and tricks ideas, thoughts, strategies, etc....

    in Sales & Marketing

    Posted

    So you have your taste down, you have product sitting in bottles, distributor lined up, etc. etc. Now its time to get out there and convince liquor stores, bars, and all the other fun places to purchase your quality product. How do you do it? Just walk in and start pitching your product? Build a team if money allows? What has worked for you? Ill ask more pointed questions as the convo develops. I think a lot of us have a lot of info at our finger tips when it comes to making product but unfortunately when it comes to selling the stuff, info is a bit scarce.

    Bottle washing recommendations?

    in Equipment

    Posted

    For a hand held device, you can build your own. Compressed air with a super fine particle filter inline.

    Would you happen to have any pics of such a device? I can kind of see what your saying but am trying to figure out how/where the particle filter fits in with it......

    Bottle washing recommendations?

    in Equipment

    Posted

    We hand bottle, and rinse with product just before bottling.

    What are you using to rinse? We have shrink labels on our bottles and Im concerned about getting liquid behind the label. For various reasons our bottles are coming to us with the labels already on.....

    What would be better for vodka? EC1118 or White Labs vodka yeast?

    in Vodka

    Posted

    Redstar Champagne Yeast is basically the same as ec1118, but has better propagation rate

    Thanks for the info. Any thoughts on this white lab yeast?

    WLDVODKAAG-1KG Vodka Turbo AG - 1kg *

    High yield vodka strain with extra-ordinarily low metabolite production ideal for use with sugar, grain or potato feedstock in vodka production. Provides complete nutrition for easy fermentation of low-nutrition washes together with amylo glucosidase enzyme for dextrins conversion.

    Steam tunnel?

    in Packaging

    Posted

    Ryan,

    We manufacture both steam and electric shrink ovens. Our electric ovens emulate steam by using a PID Controller and haev low energy usage by recirculating the hot air from the inside.

    Both oven types have their advantages and disadvantages. Let me know if you need some more specific info.

    I am very familiar with the Generic steam tunnel. They are a direct competitor of ours. I think we have more familiararity with shrink systems since we've been doing it for over 20 years. Generic does not have the same experience but a steam tunnel is a steam tunnel. They do not manufacture electric ovens.

    Hello Aaron,

    Thanks very much for the reply. I spoke with the guys at generic. Taking into account the size of our first runs and the fact that we decided to go with PVC I think our best bet is to go with an electric oven.

    Would you be able to shoot me a quote on what you think would be the best piece of equipment for us? Looking at doing about a 1000 bottles a week for the first few months fwiw.....

    Feel free to call me at 281-796-9816 and or email me at ryansovelius@gmail.com and we can discuss further....

    Best,

    Ryan S.

    Bottle washing recommendations?

    in Equipment

    Posted

    The beauty of an auto. bottling line after it rinses it, it dryies with co2 and it does it in a matter of seconds. Do not get me wrong for the amount of spirits that we produce and sell it, I could bottle it by hand one bottle at a time. But because of the winery that we go through over 12,000 cases yearly, we had to buy the line, so it takes us half an hour to bottle six months worth of grappa and six months of limoncello etc. Licening in the state of md has improved so coming April we will be able to produce vodka, wiskey etc. But John remember, I am 68 years old I am training my 26 year old grandson, I love the business I am having a great time. All this was not built in a day, cheers

    Who did you buy your bottling line from?

    Website 21YOA and up ? when you first get to the website.

    in Sales & Marketing

    Posted

    Hey Ryan,

    It's industry self-regulation (via DISCUS - as linked to by Jason). If you're concerned about underage drinking then more important than slapping an age-gate on your site is to make sure your Facebook page is correctly categorized in Wine and Spirits - which automatically excludes people under 21 from seeing your messages and Liking your page. You can see it by going to EDIT PAGE and then EDIT INFO, I've included a screencap of what it should look like when correctly categorized - NOTE: you might want to be a different category than Brands & Products, that's a category I've seen used with small distillers and large brands owned by large distillers.

    Screen%20Shot%202013-02-14%20at%201.51.10%20AM.jpg?token_hash=AAGXSva-wnnBfVyOKCnmMht_PtgknV8ewWRHGT3KWMhkzA&dl=1

    -Eli

    Thank you for the info Eli and Jason. Do you know if twitter, instagram, etc. have something similar? I only use linkedin right now but Ill get back into the other stuff now that Im in a business that requires it.

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