Day 20:  I have to apologize for the random disordered look to this blog.  I am new to this thing and the pictures just do not line up like I want them to in the template.  I have gotten a few messages asking about why the pictures are so small.  I do it that way so the page doesnt get to big. If you click on any picture you will see a slide show of them full size with thumbnails at the bottoms of the page.

The first picture above is Tim, the plumbing guy, making all the final hook-ups on the beast.  Today he plumbed in the steam, condensate return, water in and out.  I spent most of my day reclaiming valves and other parts for the plumbing from a bizarre contraption this beast was hooked up to in its old home.  Hopefully I saved the guys here some cash.  So tomorrow we need to get a few bolts and tighten everything up.  Monday is go for the Rye test batch.  I sat down with Justin and Ari and talked about doing some big mash tun runs of this whiskey as well.  For those of you considering joining in with the merchant bottling idea, where you buy it from someone like LDI and bottle it yourself, The guys here are very reasonable and will help you make a whiskey that is your own.  You should consider talking with them.  I agreed not to post any particulars about our contract as numbers and prices will change with the market and energy costs etc, but I would doubt you can get any better deal on a custom whiskey from anyone else.  After our discussion I recommend them without reservation as someone you will enjoy working with.  Justin later gave me a lesson on how to calculate your yield of ethanol for grain in your mash.  The idea is to know what you can expect to get theoretically and practically.  The numbers give a base from which to know if your mash is going as expected.  Very informative and useful.

 I posted the next two pictures just for interest.  If  you are following this you know I am a glass artist in my other life and I thought this was a real cool looking thing.  This is a tray which goes into a glass column still to support the column packing.  It may seem like a simple piece of glass but I can assure this is a special thing which requires a lot of skill to make.  It is about 8 inches in diameter.


Tomorrow I am heading to Burgdorf's Winery about 15 minutes outside of Lansing.  I am going with Adam and Jake.  Adam is going to do a few tests for the owners to analyze some of their processes.  I'll post a lot of pictures.  According to Adam she is excited to have us out and is planning to give us a really detailed tour.  So check back.  Oh, and we are going to get the test results from the lab experiment afterwords.