Why Go Through The Trouble Of Distilling

[ptech]

I was given a few reasons as to why it's better to make your own than to buy from the store. But what reasons would you give (other than taste). What I would really like to know is the details of commercial distillers and how those details compare to the home hobbyist that makes in comparison a tiny amount.

For example, Is there a chemical or an ingredient that big names use for the sake of profitability but slightly sacrifices the quality of the product. I'm not talking about taste...I'm talking about for example hangovers or potential toxins, pesticides, herbicides, stretching the cuts, etc.

ptech

[jholmz]

the big companies dont take the time and make the slow runs and extra cuts that we do the chemicals in the heads gives you the hangover we cut most of that out we strive for quality and best taste they just want more profit so more volume.rad or one of the older members can probably do a way better job at explaining this than me but thats the way i see it.

[BourbonStreet]

True, most of the big companies just throw it all in a bottle and sell it. Very few of them make decent (or any) cuts or double distill, especially not the low-end brands. Some, like Jack Daniel's, just distill 24 hours a day with a continuous still. There's no way to make cuts, so every bottle is smeared with heads and tails.

[jholmz]

and i forgot to say in my last post its way fun

[Pyewacket]

It is an interesting hobby. On one hand, you can make a superior product that is less expensive for sure. On the other hand, it is a lot of work requiring time and patients. My pragmatism says that weighing cost/value/time it is essentially a wash; I don't think it would be worth it if this were the only reason.

The tipping point, like jholmz mentioned, it is a ton of fun! It is a hobby and a skill that few people understand. This hobby has almost limitless potential and should challenge you for a lifetime. I have had a bunch of hobbies in my life that were also time consuming and costly...without the pragmatic aspect..it really makes this a win/win hobby for me.

My start in distilling was 20years ago, a miserable failure -- no such thing as Home Distillers or even the internet as a resource. Once I put my hands on things again, and after finding this site, I have been hooked...I find it thrilling to do the builds and to produce a nice product. I have two degrees with 9 years of college...this hobby provides an education as valuable to me as many of my college experiences.

[Durace11]

For example, Is there a chemical or an ingredient that big names use for the sake of profitability but slightly sacrifices the quality of the product. I'm not talking about taste...I'm talking about for example hangovers or potential toxins, pesticides, herbicides, stretching the cuts, etc.

ptech

The answer is that they have to produce millions of gallons of product and ship it all over the world. That is their business and business is good but it also costs money to comply with different regulations from several different state and federal agencies. Therefore, their costs to produce are much higher than the average Joe making a gallon a month or less in his/her garage. This is why we can make it cheaper by compairson & better. We have the time to make cuts, they are running 100,000 gallons in one spirit run on a continuous system that cuts at a point where it is most likely to contain the least amount of heads for their product. They are not batch running 10 gallons at a time making wide margin cuts for aging on a few oak sticks.

If you had to make 100 proof gallons a week every single week of the year you'd be making crappy cuts too.