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nabtastic

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Everything posted by nabtastic

  1. nabtastic
    proud people we have here...
  2. nabtastic
    sorry for double post - comp geeked and idk how to delete this or the other one..
  3. nabtastic
    Hey guys, We've been approached by a few people looking to import some of our products. I think that I understand the process from a legal standpoint regarding labeling and such, but I'm a bit confused on the physical act of getting it there.. Does anybody have experience in physically exporting a product to any country? Does the product for export need to be shipped from a bonded warehouse or can you ship it from your front door? Thanks, any advice/comments are welcome! NAB
  4. nabtastic
    Hmm, ok.. we are not "in the distillery" as in, physically inside of the bonded area. Our tasting/gift shop is in the building adjacent to us. When I said in the distillery I was referring to the property that we own - not in the room that we are physically distilling in..
  5. nabtastic
    Hey guys, We've been approached by a few people looking to import some of our products. I think that I understand the process from a legal standpoint regarding labeling and such, but I'm a bit confused on the physical act of getting it there.. Does anybody have experience in physically exporting a product to any country? Does the product for export need to be shipped from a bonded warehouse or can you ship it from your front door? Thanks, any advice/comments are welcome! NAB
  6. nabtastic
    I think some people here may be too proud to admit mistakes.. My favorite is regarding the cooling water - not exactly a laughable matter but works well in explaining how dangerous distillation can be. We are using city water for our condensor until we get our closed loop built. For some reason (won't go into detail here) the water supply was interupted and we had no idea. Thankfully we are using a copper worm so the heat build up was noticeable. Anyway, the water in our condensor got hot, like steaming a bit more than normal, so I decided to take a closer look. In the 3-4 minute process of trying to figure out what was going on with the water it started boiling. utterly confused I stepped back in time to notice a full force cloud of ethanol steam shooting out of our condensor. Clearly a dangerous situation, especially considering that we are direct fired. I very quickly shut off the flame and avoided what could have been a solid explosion. I'm much more careful/paranoid/nervous while running the still now...especially during the hot months! hopefully we can get some others to chime in and we won't be the only asses here. how'd the walnut whiskey turn out??
  7. nabtastic
    All good points. I can't honestly decide which side that I'm on, but agree that the TTB has a lot of work to do. Since we are on the Craft Bourbon trail we have a lot of misinformed enthusiast, especially regarding aging requirements. It's amazingly difficult to convince someone that the popularly concieved notions of aging are wrong - or at least not right. They also need to get together and figure out some rules on tastings and tours. The last question I asked was regarding multiple tours in a given time period (since we are restricted on quanitity sales per tour). The agent responded with "I don't know." also, is there no spell check on here??
  8. nabtastic
    Wait, so the brewer's extracts (LME) have aspergillus Orzaye in them? thats craziness..
  9. nabtastic
    Thats fair. I'd imagine there are some exotic woods that could be potentially harmful but, as the DEA says, if you can smoke it, it must be good or was that willy nelson??
  10. nabtastic
    Ralph, always with the mature answer... I know its an old post and all but I had to comment.. first, this is what I imagine a Maury show with distillers would be like. second, an infusion (for on-premise consumption) typically has to be made on the same day as it is consumed e.g. barrel aged version would be unallowed unless aged for less than a day. Third, cowdery is being a dbag about the whole thing (which is what started it off). He should have said, "hey congrats on opening a distillery" - because we all know how many untruths there is in our industry. Lastly, Tennessee whiskey, as cowdery makes it, is the legal definition that JD has spent millions over the years lobbying for. However, these boys are making whiskey in TN which, I think, was their point. None-the-less, I wish them luck. How has nobody commented on the beautiful packaging they have? [phrasing...]
  11. nabtastic
    tl5612 - that is brilliant. So simple, honestly I'm a little embarrassed I hadn't thought of doing that already. touche'
  12. nabtastic
    My dad, a woodworker, almost died from western red cedar but then again he was highly allergic to it. There are some that I'd be careful with, american Cherry trees (I've read this but never tried it) can be used to make cyanide when boiled and dried. thats the only thing I can think of. Walnut I wouldn't use regardless because it's incredibly bitter, but you also can't use it as fertiliizer bc it'll kill the plants so it's probably not good for us either.
  13. nabtastic
    Pete, I may be wrong but I'm pretty certain that the hydrogen sulfide is created in the still from the heat on the yeast. That's the impression I've been under, but please correct if I'm wrong. I wouldn't think that copper would have any detrimental effects to our wort since all the homebrew kits (that one is probably way too small for a distillers use) are made from copper. It's also a lot better at heat exchange - I'd go with bending your copper. Seeing as this is 5 months old - what option did you go with?
  14. nabtastic
    Are you trying to distill on the grain or just ferment on the grain? If you're just fermenting on the grain you could run it through a false bottom as somebody mentioned. Distilling on the grain will reduce the capacity of your still considerably (grains take up room) so keep that in mind. Personally, I'd just filter it before you distill as it will save room, reduce any scorching (we're direct fire and haven't had problems yet), and it makes the still a lot easier to clean out. but yeah, love the still. best of luck. noah
  15. nabtastic
    that's a good deal. best of luck to ya! I assume that's a standard worm condenser?
  16. nabtastic
    with 55 gallons a 2500g reservoir should be fine until the ambient temperature gets into the 80+ We've been using city water and it's too warm to safely run on warm days with the sun out. I have no experience with a buried line, but that should act as an insulator for the liquid (meaning it'll keep it warm) unless you dig a really deep hole. I'd look into a closed loop chiller. Actually, I am looking into a closed loop chiller. a 15g and a 55g still are both pretty small so I doubt you'll have much cooling problems - but you'll out grow that very quickly. MGThermal knows his stuff (at least what I've read) - got any recommendations on an air chiller? I've been looking into an inline radiator style but can't find any information on how much it will drop the temperature. We've got a 130g hoga still but will be upgrading (gotta make more booze) before long.
  17. nabtastic
    this may be a silly question, but what variety (?) of glycol is used for coolant or does it matter? We are looking into a chiller/closed loop but I'm also interested in a (separate) water bath/bane marie still. Also, good luck Matt!
  18. nabtastic
    We ended up going with barrel inserts - less risky and you can produce nuanced flavors. thanks for the comments.
  19. nabtastic
    So i actually contacted the TTB about this.. They said that anyone can manufacture a still but before the still leaves place of origin the "state" has to be notified (they didn't say who in the state, presumably state TTB officers) with the name and address of the purchaser. Incidentally the website Brewhaus.com recently notified purchasers that all the records of the people they sold a still to (and its size/etc) has been handed over at the request of the TTB or DEA, don't remember exactly. I asked this because I am in the process of manufacturing a still for our distillery and wanted to make sure I wasn't going to jeopardize our license..Thanks to all those that commented and sorry for the late posting - I can't get this forum to notify when a reply has been made..
  20. nabtastic
    Correct me if I'm wrong, but I am in the understanding that you cannot own a distillery and ANY establishment that sells or distributes alcohol. You didn't expressly say that you would be selling alcohol at the restaurant but I'm assuming. You could have an on-sight restuarant (physically) but have the space leased to a catering company if you will - then charge rent based on % of sales (maybe). Thats how the distilleries around here get away with it (read: Woodford)
  21. nabtastic
    Ralph, How'd it go? Good responses or shutdown? Noah
  22. nabtastic
    Rhyno, I've seen this question asked around but never answered...surely somebody has an answer (although I don't). Curious to know how much trouble it was to start exporting? We've been playing with the idea but I've just started looking. Any advice on where to start looking? Thanks, Noah
  23. nabtastic
    sold everything?
  24. nabtastic
    Tom, it can be done. we've been playing with doing so ourselves. the most common issue I've found (this is coming from the brewing world, so it should transcribe well) is that elements tend to develope caramelisation from the wort - or in our case mash. I don't have any direct experience so I'd be happy to hear other's thoughts. although I suppose you could throw a copper coil (for hot water or steam) in it if you took the head off... At any rate, we direct fire our Hoga and provided you have 0 issues with condensing it's awesome: great heat control, fast, etc. However, if your water gets warm for any reason (cirulation, cooling, leak in the main water supply to your building..) it can be potentially very, very hazardous. just my 2 cents.
  25. nabtastic
    What gauge copper are you using?
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