Got some cool news

[thisguy]

Just wanted to give you guys a shout out of all the support!

much appreciated.

[thisguy]

So today I got to help the head distiller proof down a batch of their Gin. Which is real good by the way, not a huge gin drinker but apparently they use rose pedals in it. Very nice and smooth after taste, and almost no overwhelming pine tree taste. Very very taste stuff. They have some oat and rye in barrels coming out in 2016 at the earliest.

[cranky]

So today I got to help the head distiller proof down a batch of their Gin. Which is real good by the way, not a huge gin drinker but apparently they use rose pedals in it. Very nice and smooth after taste, and almost no overwhelming pine tree taste. Very very taste stuff. They have some oat and rye in barrels coming out in 2016 at the earliest.

Very interesting, I made a rose petal and cranberry wine once. It was actually quite good but the cranberry dominated the rose petal. The roses I've been trying to kill for the past 4 years are blooming I bet they would work pretty good in a gin. I've been thinking about doing another gin and hope to do more in the future now that I have the neutralizer up and running. What kind of water did you use to temper? Spring? Distilled? Tap? if it's not giving away trade secrets Thanks for the idea and update Thisguy. Hope to hear more of your adventures in the near future.

[thisguy]

Yah it was real real good, kill those roses and use the pedals for a Gin experiment.

They do tours and im guessing the stuff has been asked before but I dont want to give away too much info without their permission. But from my knowledge of Gin their botanical's list was real basic. They use reverse osmosis water to dilute down finished spirits. They were having some problems with cloudy gin though. The distiller said the past couple batches have been clouding up once it gets down to about 90 proof. Found out they have a jumbo shotgun condenser. I think I mentioned its steam powered.

Tomorrow when I go in I'm going to be helping label some product, I think it was some Gin they reran, and im going to be able to see the still run from start to finish tomorrow. Pretty excited for that.

For those interested in the business end of it. Im taking inventory on everything from barrels, bottles clean and dirty, finished product etc... and putting it all in a nice and orderly excel sheet and organizing the storage. Im hoping they want me to do some forecasting so I can actually use those damn equations i stressed learning...One of the owners also made mention me helping organize their warehouse once the Timbers from the barn they used to decorate the distillery are moved.

[MoonBreath]

Start ya a diary or notebook on your work ..So much goin on, better to have stuff written down to eliminate some forgetting or asking ..We all love any bit of real time distillery work, so thanks for your courtesy.

[cranky]

Start ya a diary or notebook on your work ..So much goin on, better to have stuff written down to eliminate some forgetting or asking ..We all love any bit of real time distillery work, so thanks for your courtesy.

+1 Good idea MoonBreath

[thisguy]

So for those interested, heres a little update.

Got to start building something today. The year they have been open they have accumulated over 1000 used bottles. So they wanted me to do some research as to how to get rid of them. Sum it all up, obviously reusing them is best, each time they reuse them the price of the bottle gets cut in half. So then I had to research bottle washing machines, all the big fancy commercial ones simply wouldn't fit in the distillery, plus they're WAYYY to over sized and expensive, out of the question, then they make machines similar to what youd find in a kitchen in a restaurant, or very small and overpriced systems or...build your own...I told them I could do it, and they let me. So i started a bottle washer contraption today. Its pretty simple and basic; claw design, holds 24 bottles at a time.

I have to figure out what itll take to sanitize the bottles, if anything considering liquor is going back in them. May be okay with a rinse out.

Then if theyre needed, i need a reservoir to hold the water and sanitizer solution , a pump to pump to the cleaning solution(I have one and they have one), and a pump to pump the solution back into the reservoir to minimize water waste.

Or if theyre not, i can just hook it up to the sink and blast hot water through it.

They hired a broke college kid who has been on here for about 2 years now, so i told them I could get it done for under $120 (thats being generous) without chemicals if they are needed. So far, I have all the material for the base of the washer and ive only spent 30 bucks and most of the stuff needed either I have or they have.

Itll be a relatively manual process, but they will only be using it maybe 2 or 3 times a year. So its not worth dropping over a few hundred on.

I'll start a thread in the construction site on Tuesday for it when i get some pictures, figure it may be of use on here.

They also had me inventory everything in the still room, develop a diagram for the new storage layout upstairs and in the warehouse and some other basic fix em up projects, regular inventory counts etc...

[cranky]

Sounds like you are doing well. I think I saw on a youtube video or beer brewing forum where someone built a bottle washing system out of an old dish washer. It sounds like you are on track to save them a ton of money which is a good thing.

[thisguy]

I suggested that, really liked the idea but theres no room in still room, it needs to fit in the sink they have now. Got it done for 50 bucks. Itll be a manual process, but the 2 or 3 times a year they do it, itll be fine.

[cranky]

Glad to hear you could do that for them Thisguy. Having someone innovative and thrifty on your payroll is a real asset and I hope they are seeing that.

[thisguy]

Hey guys, its been a while....but im still pinching myself. The owners are absolutely amazing people, its been such a breathe of fresh air. Only downside is, is I have to work another job because it is unpaid and im still taking summer classes, so I cannot spend full days there slowing down the learning process.

Anyways, I've successfully proofed down my first batch of Gin, which is pretty cool. Ive become a proficient bottler and labeler. The bottles for the bottle washing contraption I made for them are turning out perfect. I think next week they are running a batch of Scotch. We dont have that in the product line. The word is alluding me right now, but we are being paid to run it for somebody - contract distilling?

As far as the business/supply chain end of things are concerned, they are planning a pretty sizable expansion in the future and needed me to figure out how to maximize production given "x,y and z...etc...". So that included annual cost of grain, bottles, labels, energy and everything else. Assigning weights to each product and designing a production schedule for 2016. Not going to lie, that was WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY more of a challenge than I had thought it was going to be...BUT it was a great "grand scheme of things" learning experience for both the distillation process and from a supply chain perspective.

On a side note...our anniversary party is Friday, July 24th. For those of you in the Milwaukee/Chicago area feel free to stop by!

[ShineonCrazyDiamond]

Freaking awesome guy! I'm very proud (? ) of you! Seriously, good for you. I'm glad that it it's working out. Keep doing it!

[thisguy]

Thanks Diamond! Not gonna lie, I owe about 95% of the success i've had there to you guys. If I hadnt been a member of the forums for so long I would have gone into it clueless and the learning curve would have been way to steep. Having an understanding of the chemistry, physics, and biology behind it helped alot, plus the previous experience, plus knowing the terms of the process. Really the challenging part is just learning how to operate their still, what valve does what, yada yada.