On 1/12/2020 at 7:40 AM, Adam Aloni said:

I have an apple mill with rotating blades (standard type for craft cideries and distilleries), and was wondering if it can handle a few tons of agave per annum? I would go ahead and give it a try, but wanted to ask first (in case it would break it).

I don't know. The fibers in agave are pretty tough which is why the old method use a big stone mill or more modern distilleries use a roller mill. I'll ask a guy I know and get back to you.

6 hours ago, Canuckwoods said:

How many other spirits were there in the style? if there were only 3-4 I would say no but if there were 100 I would say yes we were 3rd out of 100 of the finest spirits in the US

@Canuckwoods all of the major spirit and wine competitions in the world award medals based on their own internal quality metric which means if a 100 spirits were entered into a category and base on their quality 100 could receive gold medals or none could receive medals. However, the Great American Beer Festival and their subsidiary competitions use a 1-2-3 model so that no matter how many entries in a category they only award 1 gold, 1 silver, and 1 bronze.

I haven't heard of anyone selling the pulp. Once cooked and crushed the must starts to ferment. However, cooked agave (whole or halved) seem to be pretty stable, I've seen distillers in Oaxaca leave their cooked pinas for more than a week before crushing and beginning fermentation. 

A number of years ago St. George purchased cooked agave from mexico and then trucked it up to Alameda, CA where they shredded it and distilled it, though from the stories I've heard they had some difficulty with this process.

ADI uses a licensed importer to receive all of our competition entries which allows entrants to ship from licensee to licensee.

Certificates of Label Exemptions only available for spirits sold exclusively in the sate they are produced? 

https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/27/13.11

Certificate of exemption from label approval. A certificate issued on Form 5100.31 which authorizes the bottling of wine or distilled spirits, under the condition that the product will under no circumstances be sold, offered for sale, shipped, delivered for shipment, or otherwise introduced by the applicant, directly or indirectly, into interstate or foreign commerce.

I don't think there is an issue for you to use a different neutral base. The base will impact the mouthfeel of the spirit so depending on how you want to support the botanicals, you could go a number of ways.

On Friday the forum received a security update. If this problem is more widespread, I wonder if they may be related.

Thank you for posting this. I'm sorry you got wrapped up in this scam but hopefully your experience will help others avoid something similar. 

ADI at Indie Spirits Expo

ADI will have a table at the Chicago Indie Spirits Expo on September 25, 2019 to promote a select number of winners from our 2019 Judging of Craft Spirits who are pouring at the event. Distillers and spirits distributed in Illinois can register to be an exhibitor at Indie Spirits and first time exhibitors can save $225 when they use the discount code "ADI" during registration.

2019 Chicago Indie Spirits Expo Supplier Registration

I believe TTB requires a new COLA if the class/type changes so if you went from bourbon to straight bourbon or straight bourbon to Bottled in Bond Bourbon, those would require a new label but if your straight bourbon goes from 2 years to 4 years, I don't believe that would need a new label. 

It sounds like what you are looking for is the home distiller forum https://homedistiller.org/forum/ not ADI's

44 minutes ago, JNorris said:

My objection to this is the same as we see in the grocery stores currently, if you have noticed. 

Many food producers are moving to smaller size packages, incrementally smaller most times, and the prices remain the same.  For example (I do not drink milk, so I purchase a lot of orange juice) the standard carton of OJ is 64 oz, or it was a few/ten years ago.  They have moved from 64 to 59 oz.  AND now have moved from 59 to 52 oz, yet the price remains nearly the same for less volume.  How many consumers notice this??

If large producers are allowed to do 700ml instead of 750ml, do you think that they, like food manufactures, will take advantage of the 50ml difference and put those bottles on the shelf for the same price? 

I've noticed this same thing. I'm sure some of the big food companies have done market testing to see by what percentage can they reduce the volume of a container before the customer notices they are buying less. 

If the above proposal was just to add 500ml and replace 750ml with 700ml so that the US was in line with the rest of the world that would make some sense but to have no standard fill levels feels seems like it could result in a race to the bottom, but maybe I'm missing something.

I am really curious, how distillers in our community feel about this proposed change? I could see how this would allow for greater flexibility and make import/exports easier. However, as a consumer it seems like this would create more confusion in the market with some spirits bottled in 700ml and some bottled in 750ml. According to WhiskyCast the Distilled Spirits Council is currently apposed to the proposal as written. I'd love to hear people's thoughts.

Hello All,

I am working on a 2019 update for ADI's Survey of Tasting Room Laws. I got a request to track which states expressly limit distillery tours and or tasting room access to persons who are 21 or older. Please let me know your state and if there is a age restriction for people who visit (not taste or drink in) your distillery.

Thank you.

Good point.

I can add this to the posting requirements.

2019 Judging of Craft Spirits

Who Can Enter?

ADI accepts US and International entries in all classes and categories of distilled spirits, RTDs, cocktail bitters, aperitif & fortified wines from small and medium-scale producers (maximum annual sales of 750,000 proof gallons).

What Do I Get for Entering?

All spirits entered will receive written feedback from our expert judges, be considered for awards both for the spirit and the packaging and be evaluated to see if they if they meet the standards for ADI’s Certification of Craft Spirits at no additional cost or paperwork. Award winners will receive physical awards as well as digital renderings of all applicable medals, awards and certifications.

Deadlines

Deadline for International Entries: November 30, 2018

Deadline for US Entries: December 14, 2018

Deadline to Receive Spirits: December 20, 2018

Entry Fees

Early Bird Registration Up through November 18, 2018

ADI Members

$200 per spirit for US entries

$250 per spirit for international entries

Bulk discount for members who enter more than 10 spirits

Non-Members

$300 per spirit for US entries

$350 per spirit for international entries

Standard Registration Begins November 19, 2018

ADI Members

$250 per spirit for US entries

$300 per spirit for international entries

Bulk discount for members who enter more than 10 spirits

Non-Members

$350 per spirit for US entries

$400 per spirit for international entrie

Discount for Affiliate Associations

Members of the following Affiliate Associations may enter their spirits at the ADI Member price even if they are not current members of ADI:

The Gin Guild

British Distillers Alliance

Ontario Distillers Association

BC Craft Distilling Association

Australian Distillers Association

Verband der Deutschen Whiskybrenner

Southern African Craft Distilling Institute

Bureau National Interprofessionnel de l’Armagnac

Award winning spirits will receive their medals at ADI’s Annual Conference and Vendor Expo, March 18-21, 2019 in Denver, CO.

For more information on how to enter visit www.distilling.com/judging

Ready to Register? Enter Today

ADI 2019 Judging Fact Sheet.pdf

ADI 2019 Judging Shipping Label.pdf

ADI 2019 Judging Submission Guidelines.pdf

Registration Check List.pdf

The meeting with TTB went very well. I was able to give a presentation to all of the label specialists about some of the spirit trends in the market and I met with the labeling managers to provide them the feedback that distillers shared through our survey. If there are any specific questions about the meeting, contact me directly.

On 6/14/2018 at 6:10 PM, Silk City Distillers said:

What happened to the new topics list on the mobile view?  Now I get a bunch of ads and old articles in a graphical list that are totally irrelevant.

@Silk City Distillers I was able to turn this feature back on. They show up below all of the forum topics.

I just tried two mobile browsers and it took me directly to the forum. If anyone else encounters your same problem, I will create a support request from the forum host.

Here is a quick resource that explains the basics of how spirits can be decolorized. 

http://www.silcarbon.eu/2014/cms/upload/downloads/Entfrbung_Eng.pdf

ADI has been invited by TTB to speak to Label specialists about issues distillers face during the label approval. Please provide us feedback on your experience of applying for label approval. We will aggregate and anonymize the information provided and before it is shared with TTB. It is our hope that opening dialog will lead to reduced rejections and change requests which will save distillers and TTB time and money. I will be traveling to DC July 23, 2018 so please submit your responses before then.

Google Forum: https://goo.gl/forms/X306I2pyUURz7BBQ2

Going from bourbon to straight bourbon would be a change in type so I believe that would require a new COLA.

 Hello,

I want to let users of our forum know that we are in the process of adding a more dynamic advertising system to our forum. If you encounter bugs that get of the way of using the forum please message me. eric@distilling.com

Thank you. 

One producer of agave spirits I spoke to said he uses multiple yeast strains to full attenuate the syrup. He didn't share which strains since it took him a lot of trial and error to figure it out. Given @bluestar comment about the different sugar contents of bulk agave syrup, maybe using a couple of yeasts more suited to each sugar type would help avoid stuck ferments.

On 9/12/2017 at 7:17 AM, bluestar said:

We didn't experiment enough with it to know, so like Round Barn, we gave up. But keep in mind that one of the things that distinguishes agave is that it is like the fructose version of corn: corn starch is primarily converted to dextrin that gets converted to dextrose (glucose), which is most easily consumed by the yeast for conversion to alcohol; agave primarily contains inulin that gets converted to fructose (mild heat will do it). So, agave syrup or nectar is primarily fructose, with some glucose and maybe some residual inulin, depending on how the syrup was processed. Yeast will consume both glucose and fructose, but efficiency of conversion of fructose to alcohol varies depending on the yeast strain. And inulin needs conversion. There can be a lot of variation in the content of the agave syrups, so even if you processed the same way each time, supplier or batch can affect the result. Sufficient glucose in the syrup will get a yeast started that might initially consume glucose and eventually fructose. Too little glucose, and some yeast may never start up. We notice this with honeys, where there is wide variation in sugar content depending on the flower source. We see that reflected at times in the speed of fermentation, startup, or even stuck fermentations. So I suspect that could be another factor in difficulties with agave syrup. Round Barn is right, that V1116 is specifically intended as a yeast for wine fermentation in extreme conditions, including high residual fructose due to stuck fermentations. I don't know how that compares to something like SafTeq Blue or Silver, which are specifically formulated for use with agave.