boognish

GRAS?

I have a lot of family down by you guys. My brother just moved to Covington and I have all sorts of family in Dayton and Cincinnati. I am sure I wi be down visiting soon, I'd love to stop in and take a tour.

Personally I would calculate labor to do it times 1.5 or so. Don't forget to include every minute you are handling their project. It is fair considering your investment in your gear, time, etc. 1.5 may even be low. They of course pay for materials

Like I said I don't mean it as a dig, but it really isn't that hard. Don't let anyone fool you out of a lot of money. Any question you have I can help you with, either publicly or thru pm. I am a pro brewer and distiller and beyond that have been home brewing for 16 years or so. Also helped design curriculum for 400 level chemistry and bio fermentation science college courses. Water definitely is important, but that goes without saying. However I view that as an ingredients spec issue. Just like you wouldn't buy corn, rye, barley, or malt outside spec. Of course you need good water. You can send a sample to ward labs for pretty cheap. They have a couple of options, but I would select the cheapest one. The pricier one gets more in depth than what you will need, but if you don't mind spending the extra cash, go ahead.

I don't intend this to be mean, but the OP is pretty hilarious. Fermentation engineer? LOL This isn't a jab, but I am amazed at how many going into this industry have such little knowledge about even the most basic production aspects of an alcoholic beverage. That being said, it is never too late to learn! Look, get yourself some basic homebrewing gear and brew a couple of recipes. It is really pretty hard to screw it up, especially for distilling. Brewing beer is much more difficult than brewing distiller's beer too. Make sure you are pitching enough yeast, the proper amount of nutrient, and the right temperature for your yeast and you will have your wash in less than a week's time ready for the stripper. Is there more to know about fermentation? Sure. People get PhD's in fermentation chemistry, yeast microbiology, etc. Should you learn about it? Sure, if you are interested in it, it is really some fascinating stuff. But on the basic level, people have been fermenting whatever they can for millennia. There is not much to it.

Is it common to drink the results of a single run off of a pot still? Even with a thumper I would think it would benefit from another pass.

In the brewing industry, Fermcap is often used to keep foaming down. I am sure it would work the same here. I don't think it will affect your distillate. It is inert and won't come over.

An oz is a lot, but working with so many herbs, I figured I would just start at a standard mix for everything, and then work from there. Some of them were very potent, others not so much. More work to be done! And you are correct, it is quite fun!

Agreed. We need less regulation, not more. Let your product speak for itself. One thing I have noticed is that it seems like a lot of people in this industry come to it from completely different industries which are not related to beverage alcohol. That being said, I may have a different perception coming from the craft brewing industry, which IMO is pretty much the same as this one. Craft brewing has grown by leaps and bounds all without this type of onerous self/government regulation. The market will sort itself out, especially in the digital age with so many blogs and reviewers. In the 90s, there was a big craft beer bubble, very similar to where I see us heading. There were a ton of new entrants on the market, many being started by people looking for a fun and interesting second career that seemed doable. Many of these startups produced crap beer and sold it to a public which wasn't necessarily educated or knowledgeable about what a well made craft beer should taste like. While unfortunate that some consumers had to dig through the garbage to find the gems, the brewers who sold crap beer were culled out, and the cream rose to the top. Were there unfortunate casualties? Sure. However, those who made good beer but went out of business most likely failed for a different reason. Bad marketing, location, etc. We definitely do not need any more regulatory headaches, self imposed or government.

We have a pretty interesting setup, definitely not an out of the box, turnkey operation. All done relatively inexpensively compared to what I have seen. We are in upstate NY, kinda far from NYC, but I would be willing to host you. PM me if you are interested!

See, and I am looking at 30 gals At this point though, I don't want to "waste" too much product that will be other wise salable. I put quotes around that because obviously the experiments have value as well. Once we scale the herbal part of our offerings up I would like to get a nice alembic that size. It will be interesting like you said to mix the distillate and compare to the mixed maceration. That is definitely in the cards.

So far I haven't tried peppers. So far I have done Angelica root, rosemary, anise seed, lime peel, lemon peel, and bitter orange peel. I have at least 15 more waiting to get redistilled. Plus a list of at least a dozen more herbs, etc on order. So far all of the bitter or sharp characteristics and color seem to stay behind. It is really fun to see how they have been coming out. Very pure and expressive. The trick will be determining quantities for recipes. That is where the art comes into play

Yeah I have read some vague stuff about using backset and "dunder pits".... Anybody have input? I don't make rum, but this seems really interesting to me

I have been working on a little project which I thought I would share here with you all. I am in the process of distilling 20 something herbs and plan to order more in addition. Fun stuff. Basically what I do is take an oz of spice, herb, fruit, etc and macerate it in 120 proof for a week and then strain and resolute to 80 proof distill off. It gives me a baseline for using them and engineering a recipe for whatever. I have been very intrigued by how they are turning out. Eventually I will use the distilled essences to titrate and blend to calculate recipes. Anybody have any suggestions for herbs to experiment with?

I have been working on a little project which I thought I would share here with you all. I am in the process of distilling 20 something herbs and plan to order more in addition. Fun stuff. Basically what I do is take an oz of spice, herb, fruit, etc and macerate it in 120 proof for a week and then strain and resolute to 80 proof distill off. It gives me a baseline for using them and engineering a recipe for whatever. I have been very intrigued by how they are turning out. Eventually I will use the distilled essences to titrate and blend to calculate recipes. Anybody have any suggestions for herbs to experiment with?

I think rum can be made from molasses. Sorghum can be used to make molasses.

Never made rum, but yes, you will dilute it.

It is a whiskey to be filtered potentially.

I leave mine on the whole time. It's a closed tank and the fermentation creates a ton of co2, which is heavier than o2, so I don't worry about oxidation. As far as hot side aeration, I also agitate while cooling. My mash tun is my fermenter and stripping still and my mash will take days to cool down to fermentation temps, so I just turn in the agitator. Without a chiller I don't really have any other option

Does anyone have any suggestions on these? Idk if I will end up getting one, but it could be a good tool for certain products

Does anyone have any suggestions on these? Idk if I will end up getting one, but it could be a good tool for certain products

This. PM me if you can supply

These guys are good. I work at a brewery also and use their stuff.

This. We have a 5 liter and a 5 gallon one, they are awesome.

Nevermind, I just read Brads post in the other thread