Skaalvenn

Another system using pressure, vacuum, temperature changes with wood chips? I'm not saying it won't work, but it probably won't nearly as well as proper time in a barrel. Every year we read about someone "speed aging" and it's like those creators of perpetual motion devices. Many have tried, some things have been better than others but every single one is a failure. Granted, some day speed aging to perfection will be a reality, unlike perpetual motion. I just don't think we're there yet as in barrel aging there's an awful lot of chemistry which has yet to be completely understood.

Agreed. My farmer has our grain milled/bagged at a price so cheap that I'll probably never buy my own mill, even if we grow 50x in size. I think I pay $17 per ton. Even if I got a mill and equipped room for free, my time is worth far more.

Impossible to say without the important variables. Temperatures, enzymes, etc.

That was the coolest thing and I've gotten more compliments on that small detail than anything else in the entire distillery!

Very cool. US and more importantly locally made is very important to me. I can't ask my customers to support a local or American business if I'm not doing the same.

Looks familiar! I'm just a couple days away from firing it up for the first time--I'm excited. Joe did a great job and was pretty easy to work with. I might not be the easiest customer in the world as I requested a few changes along the way but I had a good experience and am so far very happy with the purchase.

Wow, I wouldn't have thought that. Good to know! Losing something like $30-40k of value sounds terrible when you consider how much time, labor and bottle sales it costs just to break even on the loss.

Edit: Was driving today and realized someone said that the energy used to phase change goes right back into heating the product when it condenses. Very interesting read though. As a science nerd I learn more stuff off this form by accident than I learn intentionally--I love it!

I'd ask for a re-translation. There is probably a word or phrase which is not translating correctly between the languages. They might mean the still needs to put out alcohol which is safe for consumption, but I'd clarify. For example, in Khmer the word for "snake" and "stomach" is the same. So depending on how it is translated to English saying "my stomach hurts" can mean two very different things. =)

One of my biggest frustrations with the alcohol industry is that no terms are standard... Gallons, litres, pounds, kilos, corn bushels, wheat bushels, brix, gravity, fores, heads, etc. As for the real topic, I'd be interested in knowing what others get as we are going to start our first wheat mash in the next couple days.

I'd be surprised to see professional distillery equipment selling at much of a discount given the lead times by most manufacturers. Maybe I'm wrong? I'm guessing the larger stuff would have a higher residual value right now since a lot of distilleries are expanding.

That's ridiculous. I hardly had to do anything for my buildout except to appease some basic/easy/cheap GMP requirements for the department of agriculture. I lost a lot of sleep in the days before each of our inspections but in the end the inspections were an absolute breeze. However, just a few miles away in another city I've heard of some distilleries going through a complete nightmare of BS with the city. I think the hardest part about opening a distillery (especially on a budget) is the great unknowns in regards to local/state requirements and inspectors who choose to go far above and beyond what is required.

I just bought a bottle of rice "wine". It states multiple times that it is wine, yet it is 35% alcohol. Clearly a distilled spirit. (No reviews on it yet as I'm taking it back to the states)

I'm traveling in Cambodia myself at the moment. Rice wine is very popular out in the country. Sometimes it's actual wine and sometimes it's slightly distilled by some methods low budget moonshiners would laugh at (hey, you gotta make due with what you have). The term "wine" is thrown around quite loosely in this region for any alcohol other than beer. My mother in-law used to help her mother make rice "wine" (she describes using bamboo to cool the steam--so, distilling) back in the 60s and 70s--she says they just used bread and/or regular bread yeast. Clearly though, this is just the way it was done in a poor corner of SE Asia many years ago and may not be the same as what is done now in 2015.

10,000 watts at 100 gallons is going to take forever to heat up. Quick calculation shows a rise of a little over half a degree fahrenheit per minute. If you have the power available I'd seriously consider putting more elements into the still.

I had Dehner build my still as Bain Marie. I haven't been able to fire it up yet (waiting on state approval) so I can't say yet how well it works but I'm guessing it should make my life much easier than running a direct element still.

I received this answer from the TTB today. In short sampling in the bonded area is not allowed. ------ The reason the regulations require that the sampling/tasting area be completely separated from both the bonded and general premises of a distilled spirits plant is because the spirits that you offer for sampling/tasting is be taxpaid (meaning the federal excise taxes have been paid to TTB). Taxpaid spirits are not permitted on bonded or general premises of a distilled spirits plant. It does not matter whether you sell your spirits at retail in this separated tasting room. The regulations do not allow for the tasting or sampling on untaxpaid spirits thus the need for a completely separated area for the tastings/samplings. This would require 4 walls around the sampling/tasting area and it having its own separate entrance from the outside.

Is there a major price difference? I don't have experience with trench drains, but with a lot of required things in life you rarely wish you bought the lesser item instead of the better one. For instance, in my life I do not recall many instances where I wished I had bought a tool that performs at a lower level. I have however had plenty of regret for not spending just a little bit more.

Since when can we not bring 50ml on airplanes? I always travel with a zip log baggie full of them. There's no better cure for a rotten flight!

Won't be long until it's banned due to someone eating spoonfuls of it for a dare or attempt at youtube fame.

Rick, keep me posted on this as well. I got the same response, when I asked for clarification on the "most likely includes sales of alcohol" I was directed to a generic questions e-mail at the TTB where I've been waiting on a reply for about a week or so. Rick and I are both in Minnesota where bottle sales are not currently permitted therefore "most likely includes sales" is more like "absolutely no sales". Therefore I don't see why we can't sample in the DSP?

Dehner brings up a very good point. I'm starting our distillery almost entirely on my own and thankfully I don't have kids and my "day job" is just something I work at for 3-4 hours each morning and I can take off as much time as I need whenever I need. I could not imagine doing it by myself while having kids and/or a full time job. Just trying to get the distillery to the point of having all the federal/state/local approvals requires a lot of time to talk on the phone and have meetings with people working during normal business hours. I'm guessing this is another reason why people have investors--just someone with the time, experience and extra capitol to make things happen. Shindig: I'd imagine businesses are the adult version of teenagers and fast cars. People go broke buying bigger, better, and shinier things that they really don't need yet to get the job done. Similar to teenagers going into debt on their car just because they want the nicest car NOW instead of slowly building it up over a few years time. I'd love to have the coolest distillery in the coolest building in the coolest part of town. but since I don't have the money in my wallet for that I've got a functional distillery, in a functional building and it's located in a affordable part of town. That's just my uneducated guess/opinion.

It's the same idea I have, but we aren't operational yet so it's not proven. Just have 1 wash lid with a spray ball attached inside that you screw on to each IBC when it needs cleaning, in theory it should do the trick.

Jwalla I don't have an answer to your question, but I'd suggest using the term "cocktail" to ensure you are on the same page as whatever authority. In MN both samples and cocktails are allowed. I ran into some confusion with the state/locals because they thought "tasting" was cocktails. I had to clarify that I would only be doing very small samples.

If anyone is thinking about using 750ml Jersey, the warehouse is out and they aren't scheduled to run more until June per my packaging rep.