Paul Tomaszewski

Ladies & Gents, We're coming up on our first winter and I am wondering if we will have to make some adjustments for the colder weather. Our production is in a garage-type facility (no insulation, just a wood stove for taking out the chill). We ferment 100-225 gal. batches, depending on the product. Are we going to need to get some heating blankets or something like that to keep the temp up on the fermenters, or as long as we get the fermentation to start should we be okay? We're in Western KY, so at night we're talking temps dipping down to the 20's during the worst part of the winter, and highs in the high 30's/low 40's. Thanks guys. Paul

Well we've figured out a temporary fix. We're having the grain crushed down a bit finer, then running it through our own simple mill we've got on an electric motor and then it gets down almost cornmeal. I'll let y'all know how things change. Even with the finer crush and doing a cook with that, the brix has gone up, so I'm excited to see what difference using the finer meal will make. The only thing I can say at this point is thank God we're also doing rum and "moonshine" as products, otherwise we really would be in for it for quite a while. I'm sure most of you know the feeling, but this is still what we want to do and quite rewarding.

also, forgot to include our starting brix is 11 and final hovers around 6.

I'm using 2 lbs. grain to each gal. of water, 80% corn, 20% malt. In the case of corn, I'm using food-grade white corn, it does give the spirit a sweeter flavor, so can't use flaked all the way. I could supplement some flaked into the mash bill, but I wouldn't want to use too much. Other than buying a hammer mill, the best I can do is crack the corn again (obviously that will only go so far). Don't suppose any of you have any recommendations for a cheap hammer mill? Being on the poor man's plan, the still is also part of the issue, can't put the grain in it. Therefore, we have to siphon out the grain prior to going into the fermenters (and it ain't fun). One day I'll look back on all of this and laugh... ha ha.

Folks, recently fully licensed and producing and having issues to work through (and I know we will continue to have them for quite a while being that we had to start up the "iron man" way without a whole lot of funding or welding experience). In the immediate, our biggest issue (imho) is getting our abv up for our grain mashes so our runs on the still are a bit better. Our main products are all-grain (corn whiskey) and are hovering around a low 5% abv prior to distilling. I'd like to try to get that up, even if just a little, but not sure if it's possible until we upgrade our equipment. Right now we're using a 50 gal. steel pot for mashing using a propane burner, so we can't keep the burner going when we put the grain in. We get the water/sour mash up to boiling, cut heat, add cracked corn, stir every 15 mins, allow it to cook down for a good, solid 90 mins. The lowest the temp will drop is usually 185 F. We then drop the temp (using ice) down to 155 for adding malt and then allow that to work its magic for a good 2 hours (stirring every 30 mins). I've tried adding additional enzymes, doesn't seem to make a lick of difference. When we move the mash to the fermenter, we have to separate/strain the grain by hand because we can't put the solids in the still and I'm not comfortable with risking moving the solids with our diaphragm pump based on the manufacturer's recommendations (plus it isn't fun to get that grain out of the fermenter after we would pump out the liquids). I know that we're doing it pretty rudimentary, but that's what we've got to work with until we can build up a bit. And to answer some questions up front, no we can't soak the corn prior to (it's cracked and we use the heck out of the cooker being that it takes 3 cooks to fill a fermenter, that's also why we have to move the mash once it's done enough so we can begin another cook). Our products are turning out great, we just can't produce a whole lot going on like this and we'd like to start stocking as many shelves as possible. All of that being said, maybe someone can recommend a cheap 150-250 gal. cooker that will alleviate most or all of this. It is in the cards to upgrade most/all of our equipment as soon as we can, so I realize that. Any feedback, suggestions are greatly appreciated, thanks guys. Paul & MB

We use a standard white corn for our "White Dog" and "Black Dog" KY Corn whiskies. I feel that it imparts a sweeter, less grainy character that makes sipping an unaged whiskey pleasant and more on par with an aged whiskey. Paul