TylerPederson

Temporary production team member at an award winning American single malt whiskey distillery

Production Team Member (TEMP).docx

Check out the work by Dustin Herb et al. Effects of Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) Variety and Growing Environment on Beer Flavor.  Also of equal importance is their paper on Malt Modification and its Effects on the Contributions of Barley Genotype to Beer Flavor. 

Law firm: Lane Powell

Also a good follow: HoochLaw.com

You could bottle at or above 46%, that should keep the haze from forming.

This topic is discussed in Whisky: Technology, Production, and Marketing    page 168 (2nd edition)

Heres a couple I was able to find:

http://www.pewter-label.com/

http://spirits-wines.metal-labels.com/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI-azQjq6P1wIViGp-Ch1OkgOKEAAYASAAEgL93_D_BwE

ABV will also be a factor.

My experience is that most bars have their speed rail (well) optimized for the 750ml format. Simply put, they can hold more bottles if they are 750's. Most high end places seem to avoid the larger format bottles, and in many states it's illegal to refill the smaller bottles from the big ones. Higher volume bars and chain restaurants might use the 1 liter bottles more, especially if their well drinks are poured from a gun. For most bartenders however, 1 liter bottles just aren't as quick and easy to pour by hand, increasing the potential for breaking them. A lot of bar managers dislike the optics of having plastic bottles, so that's something to consider if you go the 1 liter route...

When it comes to your production staff, what are the KPI's that you use to determine raises and bonuses for your staff?

For instance:

A person mashing for whiskey seems like their KPI's involve consistent volume and efficiency requirements. Given the same recipe, always shoot for the same gravity (with an allowable standard deviation).

The distiller's role seems to get trickier. Depending on how the cuts are made the volume and quality of spirit has a degree of variance (especially if there is any variability in the mashing or fermentation that preceded it). You can have a KPI that includes consistent volume requirements off the still, but there is a risk of cheating and making a wider cut to meet a quota... 

I'd imagine you'd look at medals won as a KPI for the person doing the blending, but what about the whole team? 

Throw in the fact that small distilleries like to experiment with new recipes and one of releases, data on efficiency can get skewed pretty easily...

If you are using volumes/efficiencies, care to share your target numbers?

Thanks

There was a period when we used to call in a freight truck to move full barrels to our other facility for maturation. I generally estimate a full 53 gallon barrel to weigh around 500 lbs. (+/- 15 lbs.). I think we were able to fit 61-63 barrels on a standard truck without palletizing. I don't think there is a big downside with storing your whiskey on pallets, as long as you store them in a manner that promotes reasonable airflow around them. 

Perhaps when you are increasing the heat at the point of your hearts cut you are upsetting the equilibrium that you've created in the still. The increased heat might be prematurely pushing your feints through earlier.

Heritage Distilling is doing that here in Washington. http://heritagedistilling.com/product/mybatch/   It's not an easy type of program to implement, as I think they have probably had more TTB audits than most of us combined. 

Here in Seattle, Sun Liquor is the only one I know of that operates a full bar/distillery concept. They might be a great source of info on the topic.

This blog is an interesting read, and it addresses the influence of lactobacillus on the flavor profile of whiskey:

http://cocktailchem.blogspot.com/2014/04/why-long-fermentation-times-are.html

MGP does have some wooden fermenters if my memory serves me right.

1 out of every 5 beers sold today is a Bud Light. They make "a million" more times the volume of beer than most of their competitors. So by that logic, all other beer sucks because it is outdated compared to to the technically savvy AB-INBEV.

If I make whiskey and age it in wooden barrels does it suck? Is it outdated? Should we all be using the TerrePure system so that our products will stop sucking and catch up with the modern age? I mean, thats what you're doing right Dehner? Nobody wants to be a poser...

I think we've seen as many as 280 empty 53 gallon barrels on a semi. Once full, you max out the weight limit at around 60 barrels.

I know that Eastside Distilling in Portland is going through a huge expansion right now, might be worth a chat with the top brass over there.

I'd also leave a post on the forum for the WA distillers guild. http://www.washingtondistillersguild.org/ If you're willing to relocate your best shot will probably be in Seattle.

And honestly, if you can find some experience in a commercial brewery it would be just as valuable.

Best of luck to you,

-Tyler

Since you can't lauter rye with any kind of ease, I believe most people mill it into a fine flour then ferment and distill on the grain.

So it's my understanding that the distillers in Scotland will cut their low wines to below 30% ABV prior to the spirit distillation. This causes a phase separation of heavier oils and fatty acid esters. The spirit still is then charged with the low wines, drawing from the bottom of the tank leaving the oil slick of fatty acids etc. behind. For more on this see Whiskey: Technology, Production, and Marketing under the Batch Distillation section.

So my question is, who out there is doing this? Are there any bourbon and rye distillers using this technique? Is it just the malt whiskey makers doing it? Have you noticed a difference on batches that utilized this technique versus batches that didn't employ the phase separation?

One issue to keep in mind is the ability of air to circulate in the rack house. I had heard that given the scale of their rackhouses, Diageo has had issue with air flow amongst their palletized barrels. They found those in the center of a stack showed far much less maturity than those of equal age near the outside of the of the stacks. They have had to implement significant upgrades to their warehouses in order to get the kind of airflow that they need.

Obviously most of us will not encounter the same issue given the volumes we produce, but the necessity of good airflow in a rackhouse is something to be aware of.

An alternative to barrel racks is to store your barrels on dunnage, as they do traditionally in scotland. If you roll the barrels on to 4x4's you can get a higher barrel density per square foot. They can be stacked 3 or 4 high like that.

Is it possible that the dephlegmator on your final column is turned up too high? You might just have to dial it back a bit so you're not getting so much reflux.

What is your current mashing procedure like? Are you using enzymes at all?

I've read that some brewers using flaked wheat will also use 6-row for its higher enzymatic activity. Have you considered supplementing or replacing your 2-row with 6-row? With this route it seems that your protein content would be much higher, so foaming in the fermenter and wash still would be more of an issue...

If you are doing grain in fermentation and distillation, I don't see why you wouldn't hammer mill your grist into a fine flour. You will most likely see better yields, and should have an easier time transferring the wort.

This book is a great starting resource, especially if you are making malt whiskey: http://www.amazon.com/Designing-Great-Beers-Ultimate-Brewing/dp/0937381500