Having been in software development in my entire adult life, I know a thing or two about R&D and a thing or two about planning. Plans are great, but they always change and should change, rolling with the blows. However, the overall goals will often stay the same. Having been a football player, not the stuff where you pick up the ball with your hands
, but the real thing where you actually play the ball with your feet, my calendar year is divided into two seasons. There’s a spring season and a fall season. All my hobby related plans are season-wise, i.e. 6 months long. Around Christmas time last year, I outlined the plans for my first 6 months of distilling. I’ll start my reflections here.Reflection after six months
My overall goals for spring 2025 was to “Get into it”. I needed to get my sea legs both for mashing and brewing as well as for distilling. With a background as a home brewer, I was anxious to find out if my old brewing equipment still worked and if I had the skills left in me. After all, it had been 12-13 years ago since I last brewed beer. My plan for Spring Season 2025 was:
• January: Getting the Brewery/Distillery in order, remove the cobwebs from the all the brewing equipment
• February: Fermenting sugar washes for Reflux distilling, making neutral base for Gin and Aquavit.
• March: Learning Pot Still distilling. Making Panela Rum and Clairin.
• April: Getting back to All Grain brewing. My first Bourbon, Green Diamond.
• May: Advanced Bourbon making. Making a high rye Bourbon.
• June: Getting dirty with Rum. Molasses based Rum, building up a bit of volume in my glass jars towards a Solera.
I was a bit unlucky with my first boiler. It was leaking and I had to wait for a replacement. This made my plans get out of whack. Reflux distilling needed to take a step back for me to focus on pot still distilling. My first project, Panela Rum, was wonderful experience. It really went well. The fruits of which I am enjoying as I write. My first session making cuts was big experience. How difficult it is, I had no idea! My tastebuds are so not collaborating with me. When is it too much heads? When are we too far into the bitter tails. Man, this was much more difficult than distilling. But I am very please with what I ended up with. I will write a separate thread about it later this summer.
My next project was a wheated Bourbon, Green Diamond. Again, the experience was great and, again, the blending of cuts really difficult. I think I ended up with a much too tight heart’s cut than what I needed to, but I chickened out. However, the 4 liters I’ve got are really promising.
Then followed my high Rye Bourbon project and it all went pear-shaped. Scorching to the extent I had to cancel the project. The low wines I was able to save went to my Vodka project instead, about 25% max. Super sad. Rye is officially put on hold for a while. This meant, however, that I could start early with my next project, Molasses based Rum. Again, issues with scorching impacted the project. About 50% of all low wines were contaminated and had to be tossed. But in contrary to the Rye, I still got some Rum out it, not as much as I had hoped, but aging these will be something I look forward to in coming months.
So, in summary, a great start to my distilling experience, perfect for getting me deeper into the rabbithole. But also a bitter realization that there’s a lot more to it than I had envisioned. The scorching and the consequences from it, having so much of my effort go to waste, took me aback. Now that I am making my plans for Fall Season 2025, I need to adjust my plans based on the experiences I’ve made. I had plans for making two Rye Whiskey projects using YLAY this year but I will shelve these for now. But before I go into the plans for the next 6 monhts I decided to collect some data to end the reflection of the half year that has been.
• 10 all-grain mashes and 22 ferments.
• 19 Stripping runs, 6 spirit runs and 3 sacrificial runs.
• A total of 18L of hearts (keepers) produced.
Looking forward to Fall Season 2025
I think I was planning going into “advanced” already this Fall Season but I’ve realized that the objective for the new season must be “honing my skills”. Instead of trying more complex Whiskey and Rum recipes, I think I will focus more on improving the recipes and styles I have already started working on. Instead of making several different Whiskies, I will be growing the stock of the wheated Bourbon I made this spring, improving the process and hopefully the product. I will get my first attempt on YLAY, but with a less complex recipe – I’ll take it from there.
My only must this season is the Mirabelles and Apriplums from the garden. I will harvest, juice, ferment and distill the fruits. It was one of the reasons why I wanted to start distilling and I can't let these goodies go to waste.
I also have to consider if I should set up a steaming rig. This to allow me to strip with less scorching issues. But it also means digging myself further into the rabbithole. I was done with investments this year, I thought. This hobby sure is a money sink. Still on the fence but leaning on getting the gear. If I do, I will need to spend time this fall getting comfortable with steam – that was definitely not in the cards when I started planning 2025 back in December last year.
Upcoming projects:
- July: Phase 2 of my wheated Bourbon – Green Diamond. Focusing on improving the mash efficiency and yield from mashing. If I have time, I also wanted to make xmas Aquavit with my 6 liter Alambique.
- July/August: YLAY. Doing a Oated Bourbon (Yellow Diamond) and phase 3 of Green Diamond.
- August/September: Mirabelles and Apriplums.
- October: Apple Brandy? Or back to Panela Rum?
- November: Phase 4 of Green Diamond.
- December: Open. I am planning a Barley malt focused Bourbon – Blue Diamond.[/list]
I believe that if I get a steam rig, I will need to spend time learning how to run it efficiently. The last three months are pretty much up in the air to be honest. We’ll see when we get there.
That was about it. In the hole, digging myself deeper, it seems. Looking forward to the Fall Season of 2025. And looking forward to interact with you, all of the great members of this forum. The knowledge and experience here is just phenomenal. Thank you!