MDH

For the record, I have had this same issue occur with a batch of blueberry in which the blueberries were heat processed, strained of liquid, combined with equal the juice weight in sugar with an addition of acid. Years later, it remains in a gelatin state in the bottle. As I understand, the reason the pectin begins to structure is because there is a certain concentration of sugar, acid (which cranberries naturally contain a lot of) and water within the same solution. The fact that a given volume of your spirit contains mostly ethanol means that only a bit of water is reacting with a lot of sugar, acid and naturally occurring fruit pectin.

So, needless to say, I am interested in how this turns out for you. Let me know.

Have you tried treating a sample dose of cranberry juice with pectinase and doing a test batch with it?

There are some niche situations where it would make a difference. If you have a yeast strain that metabolize hydroxycinnamic acids, it will contribute clove and medicinal flavors in 2-row with higher phenolic content. My understanding of it is rudimentary at best, but growing site and also seasonal conditions can affect the amount of phenolic acids that a grain will naturally produce.

What is the airflow like in your warehouse? What are your temperatures? A move from 30 to 53 gallons shows you want to age more efficiently or perhaps minimize wood impact - so would you be willing to fill to 65-70% of the potential volume?

More airflow, higher temperatures and more empty space in a barrel means faster reactions of aging.

19 hours ago, Silk City Distillers said:

Whiskey flavored with venomous ants

It was done already, but as a gin. I believe the client was Noma in Copenhagen.

On 1/25/2019 at 9:07 AM, SlickFloss said:

SF Spirits comp judges feedback on a brand I consulted for in 2016 (Brandy). Upon receiving that feedback that I had also never heard before I delved deeper into the google and found this from pg 10 of Bergland's Artisan Distilling: a Guide for Small Distilleries (2004). ""The bacterial decomposition of citric acid leads to formation of lactic acid, acetic acid, formic acid, and acetaldehyde which can be detrimental to the mash and can appear in the resulting distillate."" Section is on fruit fermentation, not all wheat, but that's what I have for you.

 

Can also testify to this. Specific strains of lactobacillus will break citric acid down into diacetyl which is very undesirable for distillates that require grace, such as gin and fruit brandy. For this reason, fruits to be fermented spontaneously or controlled fermentations to be stored for a long time should never be picked in anything less than a fully ripe state; fruits that are unripe contain higher levels of citric acid.

Here is a Science Direct link which may be helpful to you: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/food-science/liqueurs

Regarding coffee liqueur, there are several ways to approach it. If you are looking for more volatile, caramel aromas, make a redistilled liqueur with the beans. A major brand, Van Gogh Coffee Liqueur, has a variant which is just coffee distillate. If you want more body, do an infusion of beans. Or do both, and then blend them.

I personally like to use medium to medium-light beans, but not too light or dark - the former being rather vegetable-like in aftertaste and the latter being acrid. I do a 24 to 48 hour infusion with the beans in chilled spirit - like a cold brew - and then quickly separate them. This allows volatility and body without anything acrid or astringent.

Last but not least, the secret to a good coffee liqueur is to find flavors that are already in the coffee - dissect the beans like you would a spirit, wine or fragrance - top notes (most volatile) to base notes (least volatile) and then pair it with the flavors you find in it. So if your coffee has a bit of an orange aspect, add a little bit of orange. Or if it smells caramelly, add maple, and so on. All just in amounts enough to enhance the central coffee flavor but not overwhelm it.

Sorry to be long-winded.

I don't have the time to do a full post today, but this reading may be of interest to you:

http://www.alcademics.com/2012/11/essential-oils-and-cointreaus-centrifuge.html

Over-extraction simply tastes like too much of the oak characteristics. Hence, a highly aged product that is overextracted will taste very strongly of vanilla, wood, spices, caramel that one might associate from a Bourbon. However, astringency, bitterness and acrid taste exist in your spirit because it is simply underaged. Extraction does not equate to aging. It is only the very beginning of it. The components you have over-extracted now need to react with alcohol and other compounds in the spirit, and the most volatile fraction of spirit (Which even with a very effective head removal will always be present in newmake spirit) still needs to gradually be reduced through air movement throughout the barrel by varying forces (air movement in room, temperature swings, etc).

So simply transfer your overextracted spirit to some well used barrels and allow them to age there conventionally. If you can find a very large barrel (a hogshead or sherry-butt for example), fill it only 60% of the way to allow faster interaction with oxygen and reduction in highly volatile compounds.

My personal opinion is that distilling outdoors is a constant battle for quality control - so-called "parasitic reflux" can be a huge issue, even with pots, making a complete headache of cuts. 

The silvery film is the result of fatty acids and other large compounds forming complex larger molecules. Think of tannins in wine precipitating as the bottle ages. They are harmless and will not make it into your final product.

The tastings in San Francisco and London are committed completely blind.

I've asked about this before myself on these forums. My position is one of general skepticism for the vast majority of competitions, especially regional ones.

The important are London, New York, San Francisco. The other important ones aren't awards at all, they're just influential people's opinions (eg the likes of Jim Murray, Robert Parker, etc). Media and those on the outer-circles of the industry (e.g. bartenders) do pay attention to these as well and often buy products which appear with top honors.

For convenience, I'd say dry is better, and is also much better for neutral if you plan for this to be used as a base for other spirits.

But everything has volatiles. That's what we're doing, is capturing those. When you work with dry material, you don't obtain volatile flavors it once had. I've tried many potato vodkas - William Chase, Schramm, etc., all made with completely fresh potatoes, that were borderline potato eau de vie. So, it depends what you want. 

Let me know how it goes, Andy.

If it were that, he'd be getting it from every run.

What was the vinification method? Do you make the wine or does someone else? Ask them about maceration times. It could be a volatile component from maceration with grape seed.

Not sure how my post could've been taken literally.

I hope these people are found and imprisoned. Having a track record this long certainly goes beyond the realm of all legal plausible deniability.

Well, I know that Distillery Nonino is run by three women...

Hello everyone,

I have two books which have served their purpose.
Traditional Distillation: Art and Passion by Hubert G.R. - if you want to know both the approach and attitude of Cognac distillers, this is both a novel read and a good reference.
Distilling Fruit Brandy by Josef Pischl - This is a much more technical, straightforward, less "flowery" book by a German experienced in schaps production. He goes into precise detail about sourcing good quality fruit, fine-tuning a dephlegmator, etc.

I am selling for $15 each.

They will be shipping from an address in Canada and the shipping cost will be calculated when an address is provided. It is worth mentioning, that the Canadian dollar is currently 80% of the USD.

Please DM if interested!

 Not sure if I'd pour dark chocolate, with all its sugar and other products, into the still. Instead, I'd put a blend of dark, medium and light grade cocoa nibs into the boiler and do a very careful run through a few plates. Cocoa is very high in fatty acids; some of the short and medium chain will make the fresh spirit smell not so good, and it'd be wise to age the resulting distillate for a while and also do a careful tails cut to avoid louching.

Since Vanilla, to me, is an important part of chocolate, I would infuse the cocoa spirit with vanilla bean for a while. You'll get a little bit of straw color, though.

There are a few examples to work from that already exist - Distillerie Mozart does age their chocolate distillate, though I don't know precisely how long they age it for. They don't sweeten theirs. You may want to pick up a bottle, do some nosing.

In the spirit of the Brooklyn Bar Menu generator, I'm wondering if someone here would do the honors to come up with a Artisan Brand Story Generator?

All spirits improved from resting, even white spirits, because there are chemicals which break down, oxidize or react with other chemicals which are distilled over from the mash.

The effect is more noticeable if you are making spirits with wide cuts, such as unoaked rums or eaux de vie.

It's not uncommon for French and German distilleries to age white fruit spirits for several years after distillation.

I have seen an increasing amount of fairly basic jobs, such as small-sized vineyard management, asking for specialized degrees. I would hope these positions offer flexibility to their applicants in this regard. Credentialism is a serious and real issue that is costing an entire generation much more money and time than it did to their parents and grandparents.

I would not trust a highschool graduate to be my heart surgeon, but I'd certainly trust one who showed incentive and interest in learning to distill a spirit.

You're right, yes, that would count as pasteurization.

But in terms of what heating our mash does -- certain strains of bacteria can survive temperatures up to 70-80 degrees. Certain strains of clostridium can even survive boiling, which creates a challenge for large scale food preservation - canned foods are heated by pressurized steam to 120+ degrees Celsius!

Since most of us are heating to only 63-67c, many strains of lactobacillus survive and will gradually take over the mash, working anaerobically on it, as the fermentation winds down and yeast autolyzes into nutrients.

This is, of course, ideal - lactobacillus is essential to the character of a developing whisky as it ages. They produce lactic acid itself, and many other compounds which are desirable flavor precursors. We just don't want them metabolizing citric acid.

If you are not pasteurizing your mash, like most don't, then citric is less than ideal. Certain strains of lactobacilli will metabolize it into diacetyl.

Instead, malic acid is ideal - it does not impact the performance of fermentation like some organic acids do, and is metabolized into the very ideal lactic acid by bacteria.