by PeterC » Sun May 20, 2018 8:17 pm
Hi,
Not sure how much you can learn from small working distilleries. I think there is alot to be learnt from this forum and there are big differences in the way things are done. In fact I think in many ways the people here do it better because they do not have the commercial pressures of low yields when they do cuts.
I visited Tassie recently and went to Sullivans Cove, Redlands, Nants, Helliers Rd, McHenrys, Grandvewe and a couple more. Some of them do not do any fermenting and just buy IBC's of fermented barley from brewers. Most have electrically heated copper pot stills ranging from 300 to 2500 litres and do a stripping run to 25% and then a spirit run. I asked some of the distillers how they managed cuts and several places it was just by the numbers. They collected fores and heads till they hit a certain temperature, then they collected hearts till the %abv dropped to a certain point, then went to tails. Feints went into the next run. I asked about how they learnt their trade and some are doing on-line courses (Scotland) and most have been on the job trained. I think they have been taught to run these stills the same way every run as they need to turn out the volume. They can buy ex JD bourbon barrels at $100 each if they buy by the sea container full. They age 5 - 8 years this way plus get smaller barrels so they have some whisky product coming earlier. (plus sell vodka and gin)
Grandvewe ferments sheep whey and they have a 3 plate bubbler for vodka. McHenrys who focus on gin buys neutral spirit and puts it through a plate still with a carter head. Helliers Rd is the one exception I saw to most small distilleries. They are owned by Betta Dairies and do 6 tonne barley ferments and have large stainless steel boilers with simple copper lyne arms making 2500L a week of cask strength whisky through that process. (Very nice restaurant there as well)
It was a fantastic holiday and great to see and talk to the distillers but I am not sure how much you could learn to apply to our hobby. I did the tasting with the tours but I could not bring myself to pay from $265 - $450 a bottle for the whisky that they need to earn to keep the business going. (Sullivans has been broke 3 times) I have pictures from my visit but I am not sure if it is OK to post here.
Regards,
PeterC.