Day 13:  Lucky day thirteen.  I started today with an introduction to what type of things you need to do to prepare your business plan for getting a distillery off the ground.  What types of things the TTB is going to want from you and where you need to start.   Kris discussed a lot about starting at the local level, before you even think    

 about a building.  He suggested going to your local city planner to find out about zoning and restrictions that may end up in your way.   By respecting your  local authorities you have a better chance  of ending up on there good side.  Kris thought you would find many towns open to finding a way to make this happen for you, if you are willing to play by the rules of your town.  Going back to the TTB, they are going to want to know you have gotten all of this taken care of before you approach them.  Step one is to get your business structure set with the state and EIN from the feds. Obviously this is just a nut shell of what we discussed, but this is the outline.

A lot of cool things got done around the distillery.  The big mash tun got electrified so it is now plumbed and ready.  The beast was getting plumbed so it should be set when my materials are ordered and arrive,
 we can get right to work on the rye whiskey.

In the afternoon it was back to the lab to check on our experiment and to mash the small 1L batch of the Rye.  I have to admit we are mostly doing this one in the lab for fun.  Justin gave us a priceless look when we told him what we were doing, which could only be described as "Why the hell would want to do that?!"  So the first picture at the top is the mash right after the grain was added to the water.  The second picture is of Adam looking at some of the yeast from the earlier experiment.  The two pictures below that are of the healthy yeast cells propagating  and looking happy from batch F1, while the second slide shows the unhealthy cells run at too high a temperature.  Although, this experiment was largely run to teach Jake and I how to use the equipment and prepare the specimens,  I have

learned a ton about what one can learn from paying attention to their mashes.  I can see how valuable knowing how to diagnose problems as they occur, or how to discuss your issues with a lab can be extremely helpful.  I wasn't planning on adding a microscope to my equipment list, but I am now.

The next two photos are of Jake prepping the yeast for pitching after the mash cooled to fermentation temperature, and one of the two yeasts we are comparing.  The other is Distilamax LS.   The next photo is the finished mash, after spinning in a centrifuge so we can get a sample to put into the HPLC.  The next photo on the right are the two 500 ml batches with the yeasts pitched in.  On the left is the glass still we will be using under the hood in the lab.  On the right, a bit out of order is our improvised chiller.  This bucket and ice water did the trick pretty fast.  The bottom photo is of the two batches set into a water bath for temperature control at 35C, where we left them to head home.  We'll return first thing in the morning to see how the fermentation is coming along.