JohnD

Caution is best when it comes to sprays/pesticides/herbicides. Many of them are small molecules that are quite volatile and will pass through the distillation process and into your product. I'm with the organic guys.

Hi all, I have a few spreadsheets I use pretty regularly for proofing, for determining volume by weight and proof at temp, for calculating proof gallons, etc...all of the things we need to do on a daily basis. Does anyone here program well enough to turn these into simple calculator apps? Android or iphone apps perhaps? It would be great to have them in a really simple form that can't get goofed up when someone forgets not to save over the formulas in the spreadsheet. Thanks

I believe (haven't read the book I'm thinking of in a while) the only time it is necessary to use direct fire is in those industries that are cooking up additional reactions in the pot with extremely high heating temps. Ex: cognac, armagnac.

I just met with a Tricor Braun guy who showed me samples of black glass bottles. He was quite open to 1-5 pallet orders for regular glass, not sure if he'd do the same for black. He's out of Chicago but could steer you toward their West Coast rep. Joe Barber <jbarber@tricorbraun.com>

If you age low wines in a barrel and then distill, you will remove all of the phenolics and colors you have spent time extracting from the barrel. For the most part their boiling points are too high to make it through a distillation system. Additionally the 116-130 proof range has been found to be ideal for the kind of extraction you're looking for in your spirit. Low wines are too low. Stripping run, finishing run, then the barrel, then the fun!

We're using a Carl 3 plate side column still. We have always done a stripping runs first and as above, have had great results with one or two plates engaged and low reflux to the column. Because our stripping still is roughly 3 times the size of our whiskey still, one stripping run gives us a full charge of low wines for the whiskey still. This relationship works great. We've made bourbon style mashes, corn whiskey, and rye this way and the results are always better when we disable a plate or two. I prefer to run higher cooling at the beginning to concentrate the heads and then open it up for hearts. Best, John

Clean in Place (CIP) refers to the system of spray balls and valved manifolds that are commonly built into fermentation/distillation equipment to make cleanout simpler. Usually you hook up to a manifold with a pump to rinse, run caustic, and an acid wash. In a still this exposes active copper to remove sulfer compounds and in stainless fermentors this insures that there is no unwanted microbial life in the tank.

Thanks Coop, I've been wondering how folks use those to get good numbers. Looking for one of those charts now. I'll post it if I find one. Best, John

I may be wrong here but these refractometers give an indication of simple sugars in the mash, but have no way of quantifying starch left in the mash. You know that you are getting hydrolysis, but have no way of knowing whether you are hydrolyzing completely. I'd say if you want to remove solids invest in a small centrifuge.

The answer has been made previously that the dephlegmator helps to determine the rate of reflux and therefore the purity of the spirit. This concentrates the heads cut (low volume high concentration) and gives you great control over the amount of congeners in the hearts cut. You never really get full use out of your plates if you are not force filling them with controlled reflux from the dephlegmator. Think of each plate as another pot with liquid that is being vaporized by the vapor heat beneath it. It is difficult to keep liquid on the plates with only air cooling of the helmet/column from the outside, and you have no real control this way.

I think with a small hobby still the likelihood of a boil-over through the spirit tube is much higher than on a larger commercial still. This may be the reason for finding ways to get sediment to settle. It's not much of an issue with a larger still as long as you are patient and attentive to the warming process. Some mashes are much more prone to foaming.

Hi there, I work under Dr. Kris Berglund at Michigan State University, and we're going to be doing some research on extraction from alternative oaking products with spirits. I was wondering if you have any information on the rate of extraction from your spirals, or if you would be willing to send us samples so we could test it. Our goal is to do as much research in the area as possible and make it publicly available to the artisan distilling community. We would also possibly be interested in purchasing barrels to do comparisons on. Best wishes, John D. Jeffery

Seems like much of the challenge lies in building the reputation of brands and scale. If we can build the reputations of our small brands, and our movement in general, to the point where the prestige of buying a "craft" or "artisan" outweighs the prestige of buying yet another product put out by the large commercial producers, we will be cutting into that market. I was just discussing today one of my recipes with a larger retailer here in Chicago(actually the liquor buyer for Sam's Wine and Spirits mentioned in the article), and he was suggesting that it would make a great holiday drink, and if marketed as such in small batch releases could facilitate just that shift in perception that we've seen in the food industry with farmer's markets. I don't have much specific experience with the distributors themselves(which may of course alter my perspective), but I think we could be going for just the kind of exclusivity that people feel when a high end liquor store person tells his customers about this wonderful small batch cognac from xy distiller in France, or when we meet the actual farmer at the farmer's market who gives us a real reason to pay a bit more for a product we can find on super market shelves for less. Some of you guys are already trailblazing that path. All of the restaurant and bar owners in Chicago know about the local distilleries like yours Guy, or North Shore and are excited to have the option. Seems like they are the first step; the merchants, and the excitement will trickle down to the consumer making it easier to get the attention of the distributors at key moments.

I make Polish/Slavik flavored vodkas (called Nalevki) that come from an old tradition of blending/steeping and aging from Poland all through to Russia. When we travel there, one of my greatest pleasures is going to relatives and friends' houses and tasting everyones recipes, some of which are handed down through families for generations. One of the things that took me by surprise was that wormwood grows everywhere and one of the most common recipes is called Piolunuwka(dangerous to pronounce these Polish words), which is made with wormwood and other herbs. Most of them are pretty indelicate, and wouldn't be considered even a relative of absinthe, but I think it's interesting that the tradition of mixing and flavoring lives on there. I made one but the only person who could stomach it was my uncle who swore it was good for digestion. I think it's closer to paint thinner than absinthe. Am I correct in understanding that the psychotropic claims about wormwood and absinthe are false? I had read at some point that the only ones that had any of that were made with substitutions that were dangerous and the likelihood was that the effects were from toxicity.

Thanks for the input. Right now I'm just looking for a location, thinking about SW Michigan, so I have a ways to go before I'm ready to purchase. I'm just looking to lay the ground work and make connections so that when I'm set up I can jump right into it, so I'll keep you in mind Jonathan. I've been going back and forth with TTB folks about the DSP and they've been surprisingly helpful. In Illinois we get used to cranky gov. folk so it's refreshing to get prompt responses. Thanks again.

Hi there, I've been making flavored vodkas in the Polish/Eastern European tradition for 7yrs. I'm starting a business(Novina SpiritsLLC) to sell them and eventually will distill myself. In the meantime I'm looking for a way to buy spirits wholesale. If anyone could help me out I'd appreciate it. I've contacted a few distillers nearby (I'm in Chicago), but most don't seem to have any extra. Thanks, and looking forward to Kentucky next month, I'll bring samples.