Greetings from Vermont's Northeast Kingdom

New to distillation, or simply new to the HD forums.
** Your first post MUST go here. Introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your interest in distilling. Any posts asking distilling questions will be deleted. **

Moderator: Site Moderator

Post Reply
User avatar
Hooker Mountain
Novice
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Jan 25, 2017 5:58 pm
Location: Cabot, Vermont

Greetings from Vermont's Northeast Kingdom

Post by Hooker Mountain »

Hi all,

After much reading on HD, I thought I would join and introduce myself. This site has been indispensable for me in starting my own distillery, which I opened in fall of 2016 after finally getting my federal and Vermont state permits. I'm now the proud owner and founder of New England's first farm-based diversified agricultural distillery. I've been a full-time farmer for over six years now. I began with raising livestock, then started growing small grains on my 65 acre farm, and have been working on building my distillery for the past four years. I built my distillery with lumber I harvested and milled from my woodlot. All the grains I use in my spirits I raise on my farm, along with the wood I use for aging and the maple sap and syrup that sweetens my spirits. I specialize in alternative whiskeys that showcase the flavors and ingredients from my farm and forests. It's been a long journey for me to become a full-time distiller and achieve my dream, and I have a big debt to pay back to this site and all the amazing information all of you have contributed to it.

Despite being a professional distiller now, the reason I want to be a member of this site and contribute is that the scale and techniques I employ in my work has more in common with home distilling than the bigger craft distilleries. Right now, I use two pot stills, a 6 and 13 gallon stainless milk can style, for all my distilling. I mash in direct-fired kettles, grind my grain on a drill-powered monster mill, and make all my spirits in really small batches. For me these methods give me the best control over my products, and allow me to truly make craft spirits by hand, which is my whole objective.

One angle on distilling that I have a lot of experience with is how the practice of distilling fits into a diversified farm operation. The technology of distilling at its heart is an agricultural art. It's the best tool we farmers have to concentrate the flavors of our work into a valuable product. Distilling can incorporate all the various inputs we farmers grow from grains and fruit, to herbs, to forest products like aging wood and maple syrup. And what would ordinarily be waste products in any other distillery, spent grains, still residues, wood ashes from heating, those are just inputs for other systems on the small farm. I feed all my spent grains and still waste back to my pigs and chickens, which yields me high quality meat for my family and farm store, and their waste in turn is returned to my fields to grow more and better grain to feed my distilling. Not only have I saved my farm through the art of spirits distilling, but I want to encourage others to emulate my model. I want to return the still to back to the farms from which it came, and put our fields, orchards and forests back into the system of producing high-quality and original alcohols.

In short, I'm a crazy person with an abundance of gumption and lots of land that I use to indulge my passions. And to those of you dreaming of making the leap to micro-distilling some day, just do it. Come visit me at my farm, try my whiskeys, and maybe I can inspire you to take that leap into the abyss of true farm-based spirits.

-Kempton

http:// http://www.hookermountainfarm.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
User avatar
Bushman
Admin
Posts: 17988
Joined: Tue Mar 30, 2010 5:29 am
Location: Pacific Northwest

Re: Greetings from Vermont's Northeast Kingdom

Post by Bushman »

Congratulations and I would like to officially welcoming you to the forum. Just a reminder for our licensed Distiller's we have a Craft Distiller's forum to post and share information.
User avatar
Wooday
Swill Maker
Posts: 232
Joined: Tue Jun 02, 2015 7:14 am

Re: Greetings from Vermont's Northeast Kingdom

Post by Wooday »

Will you be getting involved in any of the farmers' markets around the state?
Will you be sharing your still here on the forum?
User avatar
Tater
Admin
Posts: 9678
Joined: Mon Oct 25, 2004 9:19 am
Location: occupied south

Re: Greetings from Vermont's Northeast Kingdom

Post by Tater »

Bushman wrote:Congratulations and I would like to officially welcoming you to the forum. Just a reminder for our licensed Distiller's we have a Craft Distiller's forum to post and share information.
What he said +1 :thumbup:
I use a pot still.Sometimes with a thumper
Post Reply