Micro distillery tour

[darcmoon]

Hi Folks, In my travels to Cobble Hill on Vancouver Island last week had the pleasure of a tour of Merrydale Cider's still house. Merrydale is well established, has a wonderful restaurant worth a visit if in the area.
Nice wood fired still (my Lady will not let me sell the house to buy one) the owner Master Distiller spoke and answered questions, some tasting, including some pics of the still.
Cheers

[Odin]

Beautiful pics! So ... what did you learn from the master distiller? Very curious!

Odin.

[Braz]

Wood fired, huh? That would certainly add another degree of difficulty to the process.

[LWTCS]

That still is a cute lil rascal. Maybe they don't have enough electrical service? Or maybe they stilling on the grains?
How big is the boiler?

[Odin]

It looks like a standard 150 liters version, if my eyes don't deceive me. Some choose for wood or gas burning. Usually no question of electrical power. Even 450 or 800 liter versions can be made electrival. On the grain or of the grain, many of these stills are most often run on a waterbath, so all options are open for heating. I remember an interview with a distiller from Liechtenstein (about the smallest country in Europe) where they make bier schnapps in a still very equal to this one. The reason for using wood is that it is environmentally neutral. CO2 from burning comes from trees growing and taking CO2 from the air. Or something like that.

Odin.

[LWTCS]

Thanks Odin.
I was more refering to the physical plant being maxed out. In some of our historic districts,,service to the building is often minimal. Upgrades can represent yet another expence to a small upstart (on a shoe string budget).....,just thinking out loud.

[rad14701]

That's quite a versatile little rig there... It has several different ways of operating and would definitely be a hoot to play with...

Thanks for sharing the pictures, darcmoon...

[darcmoon]

Hi Folks, Sorry I didn't take note but think 500ltrs, 10-12 ' high at product condenser, rather than plates had "stair type" system, water jacket wood burning to match their wood burning oven in restaurant. Quite large orchard and cidery, restaurant, spa and new distillery very good marketers!

This is a good time to compliment all the members of H.D. that freely share their knowledge, the info on these pages just amazing! Most of us don't have the wife that will look at you and say so now we have spent $1m on distillery where is the profit? He probably still got lucky that night as well. AHH what a beautiful still!