ryankf

100 gal. 95.3% GNS for SALE Location: Southern California Source: beer turned into GNS Inquire with Ryan - 657-888-2958

Hi Calwise crew...any luck on this one? Same questions here.

Makes me wonder what most "small" distillers who don't have full labs do with products that contain over 600mg/100ml solids. Send to outside labs? But then how does one reproduce...or hit a COLA approved proof. Just trying to wrap my head around this before I venture down a path to a liqueur or schnapps, etc.

It is a great deal. My next question is if it's min. temp setting is ambient temp how does one get a sample to 20C?

Thanks Silk City, hadn't considered looking on the used market. I'll check it out. Ultimately would be nice to have a reliable manageably priced vendor to work with.

Hi Carlos, any tips on where to source some of this lab equipment, especially the water bath. Cheers, Ryan

Thanks DH, the consensus here and elsewhere seems to be it has to be tax paid. That was my big question, and I guess it was alluded to in the CFR. Honestly, that makes it easier anyway. I wasn't looking forward to trying to track the samples during a bottling run or from the Processing account anyway. Thanks again.

Thanks for the reminder Tom. It's a good point. We are only in one state right now, but it's something I'm sure we'll be dealing with soon. As for the samples themselves, do most people just send whole bottles? Or make a separate bottling size for samples? And can it be withdrawn non-tax paid?

I see that "...spirits may not be used for consumer testing or other market analysis...", but what do people generally do if they want to put together small samples to be sent to bloggers/reviewers?

Yeah, that's what I've been hearing from other farmers down in Paso and Tehachapi Valley. For it to be realistic for us we'd be looking at around $0.30 per/lbs, so you're really not as far off as you might think. The freight might be an issue, but if we purchased in large enough quantities it might work. Maybe I could give you call sometime and we could talk about possible options? - ryan

That'd be great, we're definitely interested if/when the economies of scale make sense. I'd be looking for around 15-20,000 lbs per year. right now i'm taking grain in 2,000lbs super sack totes.

Hi Ryefarmer, Just curious if you were looking to sell any of that extra rye you are growing? The distillery where I work is on the lookout for California rye. Preferably organic. If so, reply here and we'll get in touch. Cheers

The foam comes and goes on my rye wash stripping run. As pot temp climbs the foam rises and then diminishes and then rises again. Having a tough time figuring it out. Have tried knocking it down with extra reflux - only works temporarily. Shouldn't the proteins eventually be breaking down and stop foaming? Thanks for any feedback/thoughts.

Thanks Blockader. So I shouldn't be shooting for zero (0) on final Brix reading to reach attenuation? Is that due to the alcohol being present in the ferment and skewing the refractometer?

Thanks for the tips everyone. I'm sure the solids were the issue. I just did another test at 2 hour rest filtered through coffee filter and got a dark maroon or brown color. Not purple or blue. I've read that red/maroon/brown means starch is saccharified, but I was thinking it'd be lighter like the color of thinned out iodine, or pale. Perhaps not? Starting Brix: 20 Ending Brix: we shall see - doing a longer gluco hold than normal to see if i can get it to go lower. in the past i've been getting about 12 point drop. Trying to troubleshoot lower than desired ABV.

Hello all, Looking for feedback on experience doing iodine test on grain-in mashes. Have read the husk can cause false positive. Having used recommended dosage, temp ranges, and hold time and still not getting negative starch test results (using commercial enzymes). I use a hammer mill with 1/16th screen. Have considered taking a sample and essentially sparging or rinsing it through a fine screen (coffee filter) and doing starch test on the run off. Photo is of cooled sample after 2 hours rest at 135F with glucoamylase. Still very dark purple.

Is Race Label still around? Their website seems to be down.

Just curious absaroka, what did you end up getting as far as volume limitations for spirit storage not in barrels? Our local fire code checker is limiting us to 120 gal. per control room. It's not really a reasonable amount of spirit to work with in processing even with multiple control rooms.

Thanks Donutboy, I'll check it out. cheers.

Looking for thoughts/experiences with dust collection during grain handling and processing. We will be using a Rad Equipment hammer mill, augers to move the grist, and a loading hopper to charge the mill and a surge hopper to charge the mash tank. The city wants us to install dust collection, which we figured we'd have to, just wondering if anyone loves their equipment, or hates it...? Thanks, Ryan

Not personally, but our founder has. They do seem to be pushing things along. Exciting to have it nearby. ryan

Hey Rob, glad to hear from you. Kudos on starting up in Ann Arbor. I'd love to hear how things are going. ryan

It would indeed

any reliable formula out there for calculating?

...if as we get better at our established process and recipe (no changes in formulation, enzymes, temps, or cleaning) and our efficiencies go up, all be it slightly, will we also notice an increase in the volume of heads we cut?