Collin

Ralph, can you post the address/e-mail that you sent it to? I will send one on behalf of Harvest Spirits. Though we are not grain distillers, we still understand what abuses like this could lead too...

What happened to this?

There are a few suggestions that I have. First, I would recommend contacting and participating with several distilleries, as each distillery will have its own specialties and unique opinions/problems. What I mean by this is that a fruit distillery will have vastly different fermentation preparations and distillations then a grain distillery. Likewise a vodka distillery to a whiskey distillery. Next, you may want to specify the area that you prefer to be in, East coast, west coast etc. Also, how long you want to participate. If you come into the distillery I work at, I will sit there all day telling you about the process and regulations as long as the day isn't too busy (we are open for tours and tastings, and I am a distiller as well as the retail/information guy). The above post mentions Dry Fly, they, as well as other distilleries do offer relatively intensive training seminars that are informative but require funds -- where as an informal meeting such as the one I describe is free, but most likely much less intensive. So, if you wouldn't mind, I would recommend being a little more specific with what you want, and how much time you want to put in to learning distilling as an academic pursuit.

If you bring it down to a lower percentage of alcohol you could consider it an apple liqueur. Applejack, I believe, is an aged apple brandy, no juice added. So, if you added the cider it wouldn't be considered applejack anymore.

http://kerry.senate.gov/cfm/record.cfm?id=324894 S. 3339

As Ralph said, the problem is not explosions so much as some of the end product: Methanol is a highly toxic alcohol commonly found in automobile windshield washer solvent, gas line antifreeze, copy machine fluid, fuel for small stoves, paint strippers, and as an industrial solvent (Budavari 1996B; Suit 1990). Oh yea, its also found in distillate.

I would recommend talking to one of the still manufacturers -- they will be able to help you decided what would work. There is a list somewhere around this website I think...

Feasibly you can get a still that can make just about anything. While there are specialty stills (Alembic is really nice for whiskey and brandy, not so much for vodka) -- you can get stills to multi-task. Currently we are using a column still for vodka, brandy and aged spirits. It can also handle gin and infusions -- though we have yet to put this function to the test (gin basket).

In terms of pricing, we do the same thing that Coop does -- we have a suggested retail price to all our customers -- which is what we sell at. Some will go over that and some under, we can't control what they do. If asked I will tell people this, and they usually still end up buying from us because of the added benefits of coming to the distillery. Works great for us, we get the extra profit because these bottles are sold at retail not wholesale price.

As far as I know you are correct, but that doesn't detract that New York allows on sight sales and tastings -- there are just restrictions. I should have expanded more. Thanks.

New York.

Sorry misunderstood the original question and got involved with the second conversation.