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What ever happened to iStill?


Wayward

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Hey Friends,

I was just looking at my iStill50 I bought a few years back for R&D (holding up my collection of hats in my living room) and got to wondering, What hapened to those guys?

I remember lots of activity on this board from a bunch of months ago, but then nothing.

How are they doing? Do you have one and want to talk about it (good or bad)

Anyone bought one recently?

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Hey Guys,

Thanks for the link but I'm hesitant to look to a manufacturers website for unbiased reviews of their equipment and customers service.

I was looking for to hear if anyone is still using them, and if they are happy.

There were a lot of people with a lot of opinions talking about them last year but nothing at all lately.

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Odin just built his own distillery / training center in Amsterdam. He's moving equipment at a fast & furious pace by all reports. And while iStill isn't my cup of (automation) tea, I can offer a character reference as we spent an evening drinking together last year at ADI. Hell of a guy, never short of opinions, and crazy passionate about distillation. Were I in the market for such gear, I wouldn't hesitate buying from him.

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I run pretty much all his equipment. It's great. It does as advertised, and IMO, is a great value. Anytime I've run into a question Odin has been a great resource. If anyone wants more detailed informaiton feel free to ask on this thread or in PM.

Oh, and as noted, he's opened a new distillery and kept new innovations rolling out. On top of it, from what I've seen on his media sites, he's pushing new equipment out all over. The market response alone is a sorta endorsement.

Yeah, I think the website and blogs are a good way to check in on the progression of iStill.

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  • 4 months later...

After taking a step back and thinking about what's next for our growth, I am looking forward to providing a first hand report on iStill's next generation still soon.  As I've said, I'm happy with what I have, but looking at adding existing capabilities or going another way I came to the conclusion that it's iStill that continues to offer innovation.  Thats how I come out on this.  Not to disparage anyone or other equipment choices, but I think the history lines up with present day offerings.  If anyone wants my Intel after working with their new i500; check with me late this year after I've had some time. 

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iStill review from the US

We purchased an iStill2000 from Odin and have it running almost around the clock making vodka.  The grain that we use is very unique compared to your typical vodka as we use long grain white rice, which meant that our heads and tails cuts are very different than traditional grain distillations.  The flavor profile that we are trying to capture with the rice necessitates variations from the default iStill settings, something that we were struggling with.  In order to help, Odin flew in to our still and spent several days with us dialing in the iStill to our unique needs.  The results.....nothing less than impressive.  We doubled our yield in half the time it had been taking, running off 96% alcohol in one run.  One of the most impressive characteristics of the iStill is the ability to distill with precision and purity, in just one run.  Odin went above and beyond in his visit and is truly a partner with our still.  We also ordered an iStill5000 and can't wait to get it online to more than double our production.  If you have any questions, please feel free to ask us.

Graybeard

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Last summer I went to the Netherlands to see Odin in his natural habitat, I saw them building an iStill2000 NextGen and it is an impressive beast. I went to Utah recently and took a class with Odin and ran an iStill One and an iStill250 both worked flawlessly. In addition to the stills being amazing the spirits New World Distillery is making with them are genius. Agave Spirit, Agave based Vodka (that is amazing), and a Gin that just jumps out at you then finishes nice and clean. If you have time to wonder what happened to iStill...

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  • 2 months later...
On 5/4/2016 at 10:21 AM, Odin said:

Here are some pics of a distillery we delivered today to a distillery in Utah, USA ...

https://istillblog.wordpress.com/2016/05/04/new-world-distillery-from-utah/

Two masher/fermenters, each of 2000 liter capacity, an iStill One of 1000 liter capacity, the iStill 500 Pro, and an iStill Pump.

We will fly over soon for assembly, testing, and training!

Regards, Odin.

New World's "Ooma Gin", and "Rabbit and Grass Agave Spirits" that come off these are great!  Odin, it was nice to meet you last summer -- I'm glad we had a few minutes on the way to the airport to chat!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks Odin, that's helpful.  Is the resemblance to a soxhlet extractor intentional or coincidental?  I can't see all of the plumbing to see if it works in the same manner.  Generally though, that much carry over I've only ever seen with higher vapor speed extraction.  Some very interesting things happen when vapor speeds are high enough to begin carrying over non-volatile flavor compounds, a technique used commonly in the extraction of botanical oils.  But, if you are working like a soxhlet, that shouldn't be the case.

Boy, Hazi, where do I start with that?  I was gifted a jar of some "very fine" hazi, wow was it rough.  Not just in tails (it was visibly cloudy at 110 proof), but the heads cut?  What heads cut.  I told the person, you've got to be fooling with me.  How do you simultaneously be happy that this person smuggled some back all the way from Hungary for me to try, but not have the heart to tell them it's absolutely awful!

 

 

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I just finished the iStill University workshop in Utah!  I have to say I didn't want to leave!  I attended the course to gain an understanding of the guiding principles in distilling, how to utilize in order to make really good product and get a 'feel' for the iStill NextGen500.  As a food scientist new to world of craft distilling - the content of the course definitely delivered! I would absolutely recommend this course for novices (like me!) and experienced distillers.  In just a few weeks, my husband and I will be proud owners of the iStill!

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  • 2 weeks later...

I can't say that my review is unbiased since we bought a 100L and 500L iStill NextGen and will be hosting a training seminar with Odin at our distillery:

https://twotalldistilling.com/classes/

But I can tell you why we decided to go with iStill.  I have an engineering background so I approached distillation as a series of steps with a goal of  consistently making a great spirit.   I visited distilleries and asked a lot of questions about process control and tried to learn more about the science of distillation.   Traditional stills are beautiful, but they can be hard to control and a lot of the distiller's time was spent watching the equipment.  In the back of my head I thought that there had to be a better way.  

Fortunately, a friend of mine built an automated home brewing system:

http://www.ni.com/newsletter/51643/en/

and I figured I could do the same thing with a still.  But while I was searching for a base still to build off, I came across the iStill site.  I contacted Odin and he was already building stills with the type of control I wanted.  It was an easy decision to buy iStill after I understood all the thought that had gone into it.

When I talked to Odin I realized that he doesn't just make great stills, he also wanted to understand the science of distillation.   What this meant to me as a new distiller was that I didn't have to go through a bunch of trial and error testing to come up with a great spirit.  And we could easily repeat recipes that we liked.  

We have a small distillery and wanted to automate as much as possible.  This means that we get to spend our time developing new recipes and doing the things that we enjoy.  This wouldn't have been possible without iStill.

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