Copperstill

Micro is a a small producer. Craft is subjective. Let them try its as arbitrary as the words "Farm Fresh" or "All Natural". Besides Craft Distiller is owned and the copyright hasn't been contested in the time frame required. http://www.craftdistillers.com/.

I think his point is this:

http://www.brown-forman.com/company/

Kind of a different league than what the folks here are dealing with....

I'm more interested in Woodford reserve not the company as a whole. To be honest I know the answer to the question I asked I just wanted Chuck to clarify for others. After all there is a difference between craft and micro right?

Chuck,

Would you please share with everyone to the best of you knowledge how Woodford Reserve is made?

What does this mean for the small Washington producer?

Yes, although I suspect the wine business numbers are heavily skewed toward west coast companies, which pay far higher than much of the rest of the country for food and beverage product business. I suspect there is wider variation in the craft distilling business reflecting the greater geographical diversity.

I agree currently there is a wider variation in micro distilling salaries. Its more likely because most of the early gen. micro distilleries grossly under estimated their start up costs, and have no capital to pay well while their brands gain traction. Also if you look at what a cellar person makes its 30k+/- so that seems right to pay a full time employee if you don't want a total nitwit working for you.

one can extrapolate for this where wine maker and master distillery are exchanged.

http://www.winebusiness.com/wbm/?go=getArticle&dataId=81509

If your referring to French Cognac style, the entire still, and condenser must be made of copper. As Cognac stills must be fired by naked flame, you get all sorts of weird (hence unique) chemical reactions occurring on the inside face of the still bottom, due to the high temperature. Copper is also used in the vapour path to fix any free sulphur, and, reacts with some of the esters being formed, again adding character.

Cognac is a real chemical cocktail.

This is a good example of why I asked. If you had said Christian Brothers your still would be entirely different.

The style of brandy are you trying to emulate in my mind will dictate this. What style are you interested in?

What ever region your in I would confirm this so talk with local liquor shops and distributors. Liquor sales are highest from September to December then everyone makes their new years resolutions and the demand drops for a few months. Then it starts to pick up and when it gets hot everyone switches to beer. Rinse and repeat. Plan your roll out accordingly.

I have noticed it in very high end brandies. I agree with Jonathan that its wiser to use synthetic or screw cap.

Nice find.

I'm interested in them for grain weights, and pre-distillate tanks so I'm not worried if they are off by a lb or so although it would be nice if they weren't

Please tell us a little more about them and their use.

please tell us a little more about them and their use.

Is anyone using load cells under tanks, stills, for grain? Love to know how they are working for you.

You can contract mash, but fermentation of wort must be done on the distillery site, or fermented wort piped (not trucked) from a brewery.

To my understanding you can bond to bond beer or wine to a dsp bond. And this can be done by truck.

1

I'm thinking there are so many different still manufactures being represented in the american market that we should Have a technique topic for each of still makers. I.e. a vendome page, a christian carl page excetera excetera. That way people could respond to each other questions specific to each type of still they are running what do you think?

Jordan,

Give BW here give me hollar if you like and I can share what I know bout building bbl ricks from GR

We recently setup our new 1000 gallon open fermenter. Do you guys know of any type of chemicals that are safe to clean it with? What is the preffered method for cleaning?

If your fermenter does not have it make a 2 part half moon cover it fits over the top. make it out of wood and put cross beams to prevent warping don't make it out of plywood.

Use an electric pressure washer and clean all particulate from inside of the fermenter first.

From your steam line Make a. Line out with a globe valve to a hose that can handle steam that runs over to a SS Pipe that can be inserted in between the two half moon tops.

Run steam into your wash back for one hour then shut off the steam and crack the top

To let it cool down. After is cools run steam again for 1 hour. Then pump your wash into the fermenter. This will knock back lactobacillus long enough for your yeast to get the upper hand. During the summer You may have to steam for additional third hour but let your palate and nose decide this. If you have any other questions please contact me I'll be happy to go over it with you.

BW

I had a strange conversation with a gentleman yesterday. He tells me that he wants to put a small still on a trailer and move it to various locations mostly wineries. And distill the unwanted wine into God knows what. He tells me he has clearence from the TTB to do this...I personally don't understand the legality behind this it appears to me that this guy knows absolutly nothing about distilling or the Federal Law. My only remark was,from what I know from distillation is that if you start with garbage you will end up with garbage....Has anyone ever heard of a mobile distilling facility or if it is even legal?

I had this idea about five years back to set a mobile distillery up but lacked the funds(sounds familiar anyone? ). Currently there is already precedent with the TTB of running a mobile distillery(I should know I worked for one of the companies that set the precedent wow?!? almost 9 years ago). This idea really I think only works in winery dense areas such as CA or maybe WA or OR, and you wouldn't be able to cross the state line. I think the real market would be in being a value added service to wineries who want to have estate desert wines and less in making your own product. That said it would be a paperwork nightmare and would make filing for you DSP look like the 1040EZ.

Does anyone have any experience making a distilled spirit directly from crushed sugar cane? This is the way Cachaca is made in Brazil, and I am curious how much sugar cane would be required assuming 14-16 Brix on the cane juice itself. It is my understanding that the weight of sugar cane is at least 50% juice, if not more.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

give me a call I'd be happy to share what I can.

808 214 zero two two zero

Anybody ever seen these for sale or know of anybody using them in the USA?

I saw these being used in Japan and thought that they must be less money than SS tanks.

The geese sound like a great idea, until you think about all the goose crap. Living in an area with an overabundance of Canada geese I know how much of a problem it is.

you have to take the good with the bad.

The higher the temperature of the cooling water, the more volatiles will evaporate from the distillate once it leaves the still.

Higher outlet temperatures may be desired (to let the volatiles evaporate) but then the product cannot be nosed as the volatiles mask more subtle aromas.

Lower water temperatures allow volatiles to be contained in the end product (which sometimes, but not often, might be desirable) but allows "in-line" nosing to identify different fractions from a pot still.

A general rule of thumb I use:

When stripping - run fast boil and a hot distillate/hot cooling water out

When rectifying - run a SLOW boil and low temperature distillate.

I agree with Copperstill on the "cloudiness" - it is the result of water insoluble oils emulsifying when water is diluting the alcohol (in which the oils were soluble).

Again coolant output temp and spirit output temp depend on many factors the rule of thumb your describing is only one way. I am curious are you using a shell and tube condenser or a worm?. I know production houses keep the coolant temp the same for both runs. I know of production houses that run lower coolant temp for wash and higher output temp for spirit. Coolant temp output is just one element and is independent of heat input in that both effect the productprofile/vaporflow/reflux differently. Sorry I'm not explaining this as well as I would like if anybody wants give me a call and we can talk about it.