TuftedTurtle

That's pretty groovy. I clicked on your link to your Facebook page and it didn't find the page, but I was able to find you by searching. May want to look into that. On your page, it says, "The Symphony's Conductor is strapped underneath your vessel to transmit wireless power..." Is it wireless power, or magnetism? Because with what experiments I've seen with wireless power, it's horribly inefficient. Have you done a longer test? 2 weeks is a good start, but it's hardly conclusive. Not trying to be overly critical, just very interested in what you are doing and trying to figure out if it makes sense. Good Luck! Turtle

Nope. I bought it.

Reading it now. So far, it seems to be pretty good starting point for someone who wants to make rum.

I've heard of some people putting Dephlegmator above their boiler or thumper in order to condense their heads. Not sure it works that well. -Turtle

Nice! Is that a steam jacket?

I agree with a lot of what has been said so far. If you can only run 2 days a week, having a larger boiler is a must. A used Stainless 55 gallon barrel is a great start. Buying used 55 gallon shipping is a great money saver too. You can get from for much less and you can modify them to have a spout near the bottom. Not as sexy as a stainless steel conical, but still viable. -Turtle

Do you have any plans on selling to the USA?

Does it cut tails as well?

In your post, you mention pouring 40-50 ml in the glass. Does a small sample effect the characteristic of the aromas? In a sampling environment, I'll be pouring 14-20 ml and want to make sure the glass is not to big. _Turtle

Chef, It's kind of a personal preference and how you want to make it. To answer a question like that, you'd need to answer a lot of other questions. Do you want a heavy or light rum? Do you want to use aged dunder? How do you want to run it in the still? What yeast are you using? What are your temperature controls for your fermentation vessels? Do you plan to pitch more then one yeast? And so on and so on. You may want to look into a Home Distiller forum to get some solid research. _Turtle

I'm sure he wants to charge for the information. Which I'm not against. It's not to hard to figure out with some research. _Tufted Turtle

Scotch is mainly my field, but I've interrogated....I mean asked a couple Irish Whisky brand ambassadors about the category. So, don't think this information is coming from an "aficionado." A large part of their uniqueness is from the half malted barley in what they call "Pot whisky." Not all Irish Whisky is made this way, but a large part of it is. Also, the weather in Ireland is very mild most of the year, this largely effects the way it ages in the barrel. That's why Irish Whiskies are usually pretty mellow. -Tufted Turtle

Going to have to clean the drool off my keyboard. Fine work, sir! Tufted

My test still is called "The unicorn"...but that's just me.

I'm a fan of using back set. Backset is the stuff left over in your boiler after you do your run. It can add extra flavor to your fermentation. It's up to you to figure out how much to use. Many people will do 1/4 to a 1/2 of backset and then dilute the rest with water. Dunder Pits are something I've always had interest in. Basically, it's keeping your yeast culture going in a pit more/less open to the wild. Dunder Pits develop bacteria that will add flavor to your Rum. However, it can be hard to control what bacteria grows in your pit and the flavor you produce may not be consistent. It's something I want to do, but am not sure I can reliably produce the same flavors using a Dunder Pit. I don't aerate after pitching. TuftedTurtle

Leslie, Maybe I read your blog post wrong. You can post what you want on your blog, other's may read it the same way I did. Regardless, I'm all for sharing information and would welcome discussions. I'm curious, what amount of capital are you raising? This may be more of a private question, feel free to PM me. TuftedTurtle

Sweet, You've got some good answers. I'm in favor of using a pot still with thumpers, but I'm not against other's using hybrid stills. It's kind of a make what you want kind of thing. Also, the newer hybrid stills are more efficient. Between finding what product to make and finding what cost a business owner can/will except will determine what kind of still they use. I'm in the phase where I'm researching my recipe (for rum) and what kind of equipment to use. I'd love to go Pot-still double thumper, but I'm not against investigating a plated column. Not sure where you are in your research, but I recommend reading all of the home distiller forums. Tons of good information on the types of stills and what kind of flavors you can expect. Cheers, TuftedTurtle

Leslie, I agree that if you don't want to distill, you shouldn't. Personally, I'm not going to put my life savings into a business unless I have a passion for it. If you have a passion for marketing and vodka, then go for it! If you are doing it for the hopeful pay off, just remember you will have long nights and days even if you aren't actually distilling the product. Nue Vodka comes out of a contract distillery in the DFW area and they are doing pretty well for themselves. The owners/branders go to stores and sample to the public and are consistently marketing. Also, they have substantial financial backing and connections...so that helps. Not to long ago, I sold Vodka to the general public. I've profiled all the big vodka brands and most of the vodkas that come out of the great state of Texas. If you'd like to talk about marketing to the public, let me know. Rum and Scotch is my personal passion, but I'd love to share my experience with you. On a my serious note. Your most recent blog post, I think you may have miss understood Drycreek's remarks. His comments about making a sex tape was in reference to his comments about the Kardashians and seemed to be a jab at himself. You've publicly painted this forum in a very negative light. You don't say ADI, but you do say " liquor industry message board" and show a screen shot of the post. I don't think it'd be to hard for people to figure it out. In my experience, most distillers are brash folks, but painting them as sexiest probably isn't the best way to make friends. Just a thought on my part, TuftedTurtle