Ned

I think you'd pay off that one time $600 plate cost quickly when compared your label costs, you could blow your artwork up on the box, and leave fields to add batch and bottle info. Forgot to answer your second question from above, I've gone with a graphic designer for everything.

I've got case art as well, can't comment on the impact to sales but agree that you have some nice display opportunities, can add a case unit barcode, and I like the look. Considerations are that art adds the cost of a printing plate which can be $600 and extra expense for 1 color or four color printing; if you have multiple products you may end up carrying case inventory for each line (alternatively you could have a standard design with all products listed with a check box to mark what's inside). Are you currently using a label on your cases?

No doubt O2 is good stuff but I'd argue that it's not necessary. O2 is taken up by the yeast in the growth phase of the fermentation to help create good flexible, permeable cell walls. The more O2, the more yeast you'll grow; and here's the kicker, the more yeast you grow the less alcohol you produce because the yeast uses all the good food you gave it to make more yeast rather than alcohol. There's absolutely nothing wrong with using O2 you just really need to monitor how much you pump into the mash, it is very easy to blow right past 8 ppm (ideal mash/wort O2 concentration) when you're pushing straight O2. Using filtered compressed air is considerably cheaper, provides plenty of O2, and you're much less likely to overshoot on the concentration because O2 only makes up 21% of air. I would guess the brewpubs that you're referring to either under pitch or under aerate or both and so experience a sluggish fermentations. Personally, I choose air and a big pitch of healthy yeast, less for me to worry about. All that said, drayman, you guys make some great beers down there and so make a strong case for O2. Great beer = greater whiskey

I would say not much cooling, air isn't great at heat transfer and you'd have to pump a lot of air to get any significant temp drop. I'd also be cautious adding air to hot grain mash or wash because if you're not pitching a ton of really happy yeast you may find that you're doing more harm than good. The oxygen in the hot mash/wash can lead to the creation of some pretty undesirable off flavors like stale papery flavors and even DMS. Big issue in breweries, I try to keep them to a minimum in the distillery.

That's pretty good! I'd hate to see what would happen if they inhaled too hard... So from the posts above, I'd bubble up through the fermenter drain valve so you're getting decent turn over at the top of the mash/wort, don't need to go crazy. If you're at fermentation temp run it for 1+ hr and use it to mix the fermenter after you pitch the yeast. you should see a reduction in the lag phase and a good vigorous fermentation.

Can't pass up a good deal on O2. The info on mash aeration is a brief reference in the Handbook of Alcoholic Beverages Series, Whisky: Technology, Production and Marketing, pg 196-198. They mention its use for reduction of sulphur compounds as well as precursors of ethyl carbamate. If you're in Maine you should definitely swing by. www.facebook.com/NewEnglandDistilling newenglanddistilling.com (coming soon)

A note for PeteB, you can experiment with the effect of mash aeration relatively inexpensively by using your air compressor, a 0.02 micon inline filter http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/in-line-sanitary-filter.html and preferably a sintered SS stone (even that can be skipped for the experiment). Using straight oxygen is great but you can easily over oxygenate, a problem for beer but for spirits it's more of a cost issue; if you just use filtered compressed air your expense is minimized and you can get very similar results. I've also read about the benefits of aerating the wash immediately prior to addition to the still, this makes the wash more reactive with the copper thereby removing more sulphur compounds. I haven't experimented with that myself yet but I do use compressed air for mash aeration and it's very effective.

If you're talking a spirit run then this can happen when you don't reduce the low wines to below 30% ABV; above 30% the heads will remain dissolved in the low wines and when added to the still can run through the entire run. The other scenario is storing your low wines below 30% ABV, allowing the heads to separate but then dumping the entire mix, heads and all, into the still for the spirit run.

I'm coming a little late to the discussion but have recently given this a lot of thought as I prepared to send my labels in for approval. The way I interpret the BAM as it pertains to gin is that they are interested in the base material as it entered your plant. In the case of distilled gin, you start with a mash and may distill it a couple of times before adding botanicals, but you start with a mash; grain or fruit or sugar entered your plant to become that mash. In the case of redistilled gin you are starting with GNS as your raw material, a container of GNS entered your plant. The fact that you run a stripping run and then run the low wines back through the still are simply part of the process from mash to gin, the same as if you run a whiskey through your still 2-3 times you're not making redistilled whiskey. That's my interpretation, and as Coop pointed out, it's the best I can do.

You might want to check out St. Louise Lithography, they run the gammot on printing (pressure sensitive, wet glue, digital, flexographic, lithographic, and foil stamping). I had a great conversation with Ed Relling there, very helpful, had samples of their work on my doorstep the next morning. Given the qty of labels typically ordered i don't think shipping should be a determining factor, you're only going to vary a couple of days from one side of the country to the other and if you're in a bad way they could send you a small qty overnight. I'd choose quality over convenience on the labels they are very often your first introduction to your customer.

I think there are a couple of really good reasons to install a glycol system to control fermentation temps. One is that you need to control the fermentation temperature or it will rise throughout the fermentation, stressing the yeast and driving the production of excessive amounts of esters and fusel alcohols that will need to be cleaned up in the still. The second reason is that by controlling fermentation temperature you can standardize the fermentation, time and output, resulting in a more predictable finished product and production schedule. Without glycol your fermentation will vary throughout the year with changes in ambient air temp, or water temps if you're using street/well water to chill.

I'll second Chip's advice to call Ward, I took it and am very glad I did. Mark Ward knows what he's talking about and after a couple of conversations with him I think a take away for this thread is that these systems really depend on a lot of variables unique to each installation and require a little custom design. The gas pressure you'll have at your burner (not to your building) will drive the size of your burner, intensity of flame, and determine all the controls. Do you want full electronic control or are you going to manually light, if so how manual? Long lighter? You need to think about combustion air, venting the burner, how much clearance you have. There's a lot to consider and Mark was very helpful getting it all figured out. I don't think their website shows them but they sell impinged flame jet burners and their prices are pretty reasonable when all is said and done.

The perforated sheets will absolutely work but I think you'd be better off going with something like what PeteB is talking about. I've used those same sheets before and the holes are the perfect size to fit a piece of barley ALMOST all the way through so you'll have some clogging, clean up will be a bit of a pain and at 1/16" you'll need a lot of support underneath. With a 400 gallon tank I imagine you'll hop in to shovel it out and those sheets won't last long with a person walking around on them. The wedge wire is stronger, less prone to clogging, easier to clean, and tough.

John, one thing you may want to consider is a period mega-clean where you alternate your hot caustic with a hot acid. The reason being that caustic primarily removes fats and oils, deposited heavily during fermentation, but it's not effective for removing minerals and that's were the acid comes in. Over time you can develop a layered soil deposit in your tanks that won't wash out with caustic because is covered with a layer of minerals. It's built up over time layer by layer so needs to be removed layer by layer (fats, minerals, fats, minerals). You could probably get it done in 3-4 cycles but if you already have a deposit that doesn't wash off it may take more than that for the initial clean.