Jonathan Forester

Check this video out. Would never have thought of the first little tip. http://www.youtube.com/user/etchedimages#p/u/3/U9uZqDqSoMw

Ralph- do you have a link to that info? Thanks jonathan

My first attempt at a distillery went bust because of a poor choice of partners. I am assuming that my main partner had some major issues of some type, but didn't have the guts to talk to me about them. He kept dragging his feet on the construction until I ended up using all my capital on living expenses, plus going into debt another $50k. A months worth of work in construction had only progressed three weeks worth in 21 months. Two months ago I packed up my equipment into storage, and I still have no clue why he acted how he did. It's a shame, because prototypes got amazing reviews by the top spirits experts in the world. Now I have several groups wanting me to be their head distiller, but I am now very leery how I will go about this.

I'd get in touch with the guys at Tuthilltown. They probably know more about this than anyone. I've played around but only have used a few dozen barrels. From my experience angel share is around 5-15 times the norm in small barrels compared to large. large it's typically around 2% a year, but I've seen 8-10% in six months in five gallons barrels. This was in a very dry storage area. As for aging time for a five gallon barrel. first use anywhere from 3-4 months depending upon the product and amount of wood presence wanted. The longer in the barrel the faster the aging seems to go. i have had prototypes that were fantastic after 3 -4 months and two weeks later were way over wooded. Second use the time goes up to 4-8 months.

Hi Joel- I am sure we have met during my visits to chat with Ralph, Gable, and Brian. Although I don't think we had a chance to talk much more than a passing hello. Jonathan

I have 10,000+ lbs of high quality Peach Puree for sale. Sixteen - 50 gallon drums. Located in Maine, can ship or deliver myself in New England/Mid-Atlantic. Willing to sell at a greatly discounted price. Or make me peach brandy at your distillery. I supply peach puree, you distill, we small barrel age it. I have the entire batch basically sold in advance. Thanks, Jonathan Forester

Tom- I'll still be helping administer the forum, and working with ADI. As for distilling, several places have gotten in touch with me, but I may take a year or two working in others parts of the industry until I am ready to jump back into a distillery.

Sad to say, but after almost two years of repeated delays by my partners, it looks like construction of Penobscot Bay Distillery will never be finished. I removed my equipment from the facility and put it into storage in Bangor, ME. I have been invited to move it to a distillery in NY next spring, but may just sell it instead.

What type/make of still are you talking about?

Hi everyone, I would like to say a few words about Rob Draper, Jenna Lookner and www.SingleMalt.tv. Yesterday they stopped by for several hours to interview me and it was a great experience. The video should be up on their site this coming weekend. They are working on an ambitious project to visit whiskey distilleries and tape interviews, tastings, etc., all in high definition video. Take a look at their site, they have around 300 videos so far. They started out with a focus on the Scottish Whisky industry, but are now expanding into the American Whiskey industry. So far they have been working with some of the big guys, but they really want to visit all of us new, artisanal American whiskey distillers. if you would like them to come to your whiskey distillery for interviews, tastings, etc., or have any questions, let me know. Also, I want to add that you can submit tasting videos of your own to the site. http://www.singlemalt.tv/ Jonathan

Those communion cups are a great idea. Nice shape, clear, and they hold 1/2 ounce full, so 1/4 ounce when half full. Perfect. $10 for 1,000, plus shipping.

I have one of his condensers. Once we are up and running I will post about it. I think it will work very well because it has 34 5/16" tubes within a 3" pipe, 5' long. That's 175' of condenser packed into 5'.

I did a test of the alcohol level of the wine, which is actually more of a slurry, in the lab still and saw minor burning. I then did a test run in a 7 gl prototype still and had to stop after a short while because you could smell the solids burning. Haven't tried it in the stripper because we are having to rebuild the steam boiler piping to install a condensate sump and pump to relieve excess back pressure.

Basically get a boiler circulation pump. weld a pipe fitting to the bottom of the kettle to take out wash for circulation, weld a concentrator onto the side of the kettle near the bottom (concentrator is basically taking 1.5" pipe down to 3/4" to increase pressure) and pointing alongside the tank to redirect the wash inside to form a whirlpool. As you see in the photo there is a 150 gallon kettle on its side. The 1.5" pipe on the right is the take out going to the boiler recirculation pump. The pipe on the left is the return. Starts as 1.5" and and restricts down to 3/4". It causes a very nice, strong whirlpool inside the tank. 150 gallons got up to nice speed with a small pump within seconds. I am going to put in a larger pump if needed. Video I just put a small video on one of my blogs of the inside of the tank circulating water, try clicking here.

ADI's Hands-on Whiskey Distilling Workshop July 12 – 17, 2009 Tuition ………………………………………………… $ 3,500 Tuition includes a five night stay at the Metro Hotel in Petaluma, CA (one block from Stillwater Spirits) and all meals, we have a good cook for the week. · Lead instructor Eric Watson will cover brewing, distilling and maturation · Tour Germain-Robin, Jepson Winery & Distillery & barrel maker ReCoop · Visit St. George Spirits Distillery & San Francisco's finest whiskey bars · Learn how to operate a pot still and a five-plate Christian Carl Still · Daily whiskey, bourbon & moonshine tastings · Proofing session · Hands-on bottling experience · Legal session on how to obtain a DSP

The following is a letter I received today. I found out that another distillery has gotten the exact same letter, twice in the past two years. I thought it strange because I haven't finished construction or made t-shirts. JIM SKORUPSKI RACING HERNANDO FL & TRAVERSE CITY MI 6395 North Iris Drive Hemando, FL 34442-2552 352-860-1816 352-347-9100 Fax Jskorupski@embarqmail. corn June 4, 2009 Mr. Jonathan Forester Penobscot Bay Distillery xxx xxx Winterport, ME 04496 Dear Mr. Forester: My name is Jim Skorupski and I am the owner of Jim Skorupski Racing. I am both a drag racer and the owner of a company, but by profession, I am a Quality/Logistics Engineer in charge of an ISO 9000 Program. In my travels both professionally and for my business, I have had the opportunity to view many different companies and disciplines and have found that Penobscot Bay Distillery is truly WORLD CLASS. The reason for this letter is twofold. First I wanted you to know that you are viewed very positively by an outside source and second I have a question. On a recent flight out of Portland, I noticed a gentleman wearing a shirt that carried the Penobscot Bay Distillery name. Unfortunately he was off the aircraft before I could inquire as to how he obtained it. I would very much like to obtain a LARGE size shirt to do a little "promoting" of my own. Would this be possible? Please let me know. I look forward to hearing from you. Sincerely, Jim Skorupski Owner Jim Scorupski Racing

What type of still do you have? I may have some suggestions on the circulation.

You do not filter the wash before distillation. The water you use for fermentation, and later for dilution to bottle proof needs filtering, preferably RO. If you do any filtering at all it is cold filtering with activated charcoal after the product has been brought to bottle proof.

As it has been said. What hobby distillers do doesn't really pertain to commercial distilling. Not only that, but at least 50% of the info tossed around by home distillers is not only untrue, it is actually detrimental. If you are going to run a artisanal distillery you need to develop a completely different mindset about what you are doing. I know I had to. The more I learned about REAL distilling, as opposed to hobby distilling, the more I had to throw away a lot of useless information. In commercial distilling, as in your case rum, the fast fermentation actually seems to lead to more yeast and solids being thrown off and settling naturally. Then you just put the wash into the still without fining, just keep most of the solids behind. There are even commercial styles of spirits made with the lees. Very different from small home stills where the lees would give off tastes or burn. Commercial stills have agitators or circulation pumps so that you can distill with solids or particulates in the wash/mash. I learned the hard way when I tried experimenting with a home style still and had burn-on of particulates. I then had to build a stripping still that circulated the wash and had no problems. If you feel you still need to settle out the yeast the best way is with a double wall tank where you can run cold water through the wall to chill out the wash and it will clarify naturally and rapidly itself.

I just want to say that this discussion forum is for those who are, or want to start, a commercial, licensed, artisanal distillery. You should read everything at the TTB website pertaining to distilling. We aren't going to teach you how to distill here. But will help you if you are planning on starting an artisanal distillery business.

Also you should go to the TTB Expo. The seminars are free and tell you all the legal ramifications. It is june 24-26, 2009. http://www.ttb.gov/expo09/index.html

You should check with the local fire marshal about what you can and can't do. I have a colonel wilson still and we are in the process of building a brick and mortar firebox that has an incoming air vent from outside and a flue going up through the roof. Our fire marshal said we had to use low pressure propane indoors, not high pressure tanks like for propane grills, and that it has to have the flame completly separate from the air in the distillery in case of a high proof alcohol spill. I had the fire grate I got from the colonel cut and welded to make it round and the exact diameter as the still kettle. I also had the legs extended so the base of the still is now around four feet off the floor. We have been making a square brick firebox that will round in to the top of the firegrate and kettle base. We will have relatively air tight seal from insulation around the kettle base, and a tight door in the brick box for access and to see the flame level. The plan will allow me to take the kettle off the grate for cleaning, and also to be able to pour out the remaining 5 gallons that won't come out through the poorly planned side waste valve. the still being higher makes it easier to set up the additional condensers that the colonels stills need to function properly. i'll post photos over the next week or so.

Nelson, just a note, but all caps is considered impolite and shouting in emails and on message boards and forums.

I think you can store the low wines in HDPE drums for several months with no problems as far as I can see. A lot cheaper than stainless and NGS is shipped and stored in HDPE drums so there can't be any associated problems.