2013 - February 27

We met with John Barrom (business partner) and discussed purchasing stills vs. having stills locally manufactured.  John has a friend that can manufacture and weld anything.  We will meet with him in the near future to determine if this is a viable option or not.  Locally manufactured stills would be preferable if the price is right.  John also has a friend working on some logo designs and concepts.

Alex printed out reams of paper from the TTB website.  I started reviewing the documents paying particular attention to the application for a Federal Distillers License.  We are an S-Corp so the application requires corporate documents to be attached to the application.  I also needed to determine how to add an additional partner to the S-Corp.  After much searching on the Internet regarding both topics, I discovered that my Master Business License that is filed with the Secretary of State is inactive.  I sent an e-mail to the Secretary of State to determine what I need to do to move my status back to Active.  I suspect that I will have to re-apply and complete the Master Business License again.  This will allow me to add a 3rd partner.  I also discovered that we have 120 days to complete our Initial Annual Report.  This will be part of the documentation required by the TTB application process.  Once I complete and receive my Master Business License from the Secretary of State I can order all of the corporation documents.

Alex ordered 2 books.  I skimmed "How To Start a Micro-Distillery by Thomas Germann".  It was a quick read.  It validated that we are following the correct process and thinking things through properly.  It contains some good information on the distilling license application process.  It also listed some good references for suppliers.

Alex read "How to Make Whiskey" by Bryan Davis.  It contains recipes for whiskey and talks about the importance of yeast and lactobacillus.

The heating element for the prototype still arrived but it did not fit in the fitting.  Another heating element was ordered.

That's it for now...

2013 Feb 23

Found some good information regarding the specifics of Whiskey.  The site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whisky has some great information.

here is a useful excerpt:

American whiskey is distilled from a fermented mash of cereal grain. It must have the taste, aroma, and other characteristics commonly attributed to whiskey.

Some types of whiskey listed in the United States federal regulations[18] are:

Bourbon whiskey—made from mash that consists of at least 51% corn (maize)

Corn whiskey—made from mash that consists of at least 80% corn

Malt whiskey—made from mash that consists of at least 51% malted barley

Rye whiskey—made from mash that consists of at least 51% rye

Rye malt whiskey—made from mash that consists of at least 51% malted rye

Wheat whiskey—made from mash that consists of at least 51% wheat

This little tidbit gives me a good place to start looking at material costs.  If I have percentages to work from, then I can start plugging these numbers into a booze calculator to get a rough idea of yields.  Would like to work backwards from the size of barrels we are going to use.  If we store in 8 gallon barrels, how much raw whiskey will we need to produce.  

I really like the idea of making single malt, single cask whiskeys.  This would make individual numbered batches that would promote a side business in collecting the various nano batches.  

More info from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whisky regarding more specific naming and categorization:

These types of American whiskey must be distilled to no more than 80% alcohol by volume, and any addition of colouring or flavouring is prohibited. These whiskeys must then be aged in new charred-oak containers, except for corn whiskey. Corn whiskey does not have to be aged but, if it is aged, it must be in un-charred oak barrels or in used barrels. Corn whiskey usually is aged briefly, typically six months.

If one of these whiskey types reaches two years aging or beyond, it is additionally designated as straight, e.g., straight rye whiskey. A whiskey that fulfils all above requirements but derives from less than 51% of any one specific grain can be called simply a straight whiskey without naming a grain.

U.S. regulations recognize other whiskey categories,^[18] including:

• Blended whisky—a mixture that contains straight whisky or a blend of straight whiskies and, separately or in combination, whiskey or neutral spirits, and may also contain flavourings and colourings
• Light whisky—produced in the U.S. at more than 80% alcohol by volume and stored in used or uncharred new oak containers
• Spirit whisky—a mixture of neutral spirits and at least 5% of certain stricter categories of whiskey

American blended whiskeys combine straight whiskey with neutral grain spirit (NGS), flavourings and colourings. The percentage of NGS must be disclosed on the label and may be as much at 80% on a proof gallon basis. Blended whiskey has the same alcohol content as straight whiskey but typically has a milder flavour.

So the hardest to make and most collectible would be a single malt single cask straight whiskey - with the identification of the grain used - thus - single malt single cask straight rye whiskey.  This is what I want to make - start laying this stuff up, as much as possible.  For those casks that don't quite measure up we can put to a blended whiskey and mix with fruit liqours.  Just ok 3 year old whiskeys could be mixed with apple liquor to make 3 year old blended apple whiskey.  Cherry, pear, plum, apricot, and berry would be possible blending liqours.

We can also produce concentrated flavorings, something I am looking forward to turning out.

Need to get sources and pricing for corn, barley, rye and wheat with malted options for barley and rye.

We secured the domain names SavageBoar.com and SavageBoarSpirits.com today along with the Washington business license, business as name of Savage Boar Spirits.  Set up a google plus account under the SavageBoar@gmail.com name and started this blog - yeah. 

I ordered a 5500 watt element from Amazon.com today.  I was on The Electric Brewery website checking out the Hot Liqour Tank article and came across the element that I need for our first prototype still.  This will fit into the tri clover element fitting I got from Brewers Hardware.  Ordered other bits and pieces earlier last week to finish up the prototype still including a 4" weld on ferrule, 4" tri clover clamp, 4" to 2" concentric reducer, and various other ferrules, clamps, lids, valves, and angles.  This prototype stainless steel keg is coming in around $450 and this does not include labor to cut holes and weld fittings.  I can get a beautiful 26 gallon kettle at $550 from Hillbilly Stills, but the lead time is 20 weeks.  That is a long time to wait, so I will be doing some checking locally to see what I can source out of Spokane.  

So much to do.  Logo is in progress with a couple of great ideas.  Will be posting those soon.  John made it really pop for me when he said the logo has to look good on a tshirt stretched across big breasts and as the embroidered emblem on a doctor's sailing shirt.  A skateboarder will put the sticker on his board, a lawyer will place a cling on the rear window of their audi tt, and the hot bartender will wear our panties.  The logo has to transend class, age and taste.  I think we have it.  On the fun side our mascot needs to be a boar that stands on his hind legs, wears a smoking jacket and drinks our liquor.

Time to sign off for the evening.  Exciting times, only to get more exciting I am sure.