Men at Work
On the left is the beginning of a 1,200 liter, wheat mash. The wheat is mixed with filtered water and enzymes are introduced to break down the starch. Once the starch has been converted to sugar, yeast is added to convert the sugar to alcohol. The mixture is pumped into a fermenter and sits for five days, at which point it is 11% alcohol by volume (scroll down).
Here's a picture of Will mixing in 16 bags of wheat, which weigh 50 pounds each. The wheat is shipped from Aurora Mills Farm in Linneus Maine, a small town on the border of Canada. On average, we go through 1,600 pounds of wheat a week (Scroll down).
Once the mash is finished fermenting, we pump it into the still (more on that in an upcoming post). Once the cuts have been made, and the best spirit has been separated, we blend it down to 40 alcohol by volume with filtered water. In the case of our vodka, it is then chilled to 30F and carbon filtered, after which it is filtered again using a particle filter (scroll down).
The production board. Keeping track of what mash finishes when gets confusing (I know. Sad). We take down the date of each mash, the BRIX (percentage sugar), and the specific gravity at which the mash finished. The specific gravity helps us determine the alcohol content.
A new delivery of wheat. Watching the eighteen wheelers back down cramped Cedric Street while angry commuters spew vitriol gives me the sweats. Those drivers have nerves of steel.
On the left is the beginning of a 1,200 liter, wheat mash. The wheat is mixed with filtered water and enzymes are introduced to break down the starch. Once the starch has been converted to sugar, yeast is added to convert the sugar to alcohol. The mixture is pumped into a fermenter and sits for five days, at which point it is 11% alcohol by volume (scroll down).
Here's a picture of Will mixing in 16 bags of wheat, which weigh 50 pounds each. The wheat is shipped from Aurora Mills Farm in Linneus Maine, a small town on the border of Canada. On average, we go through 1,600 pounds of wheat a week (Scroll down).
Once the mash is finished fermenting, we pump it into the still (more on that in an upcoming post). Once the cuts have been made, and the best spirit has been separated, we blend it down to 40 alcohol by volume with filtered water. In the case of our vodka, it is then chilled to 30F and carbon filtered, after which it is filtered again using a particle filter (scroll down).
The production board. Keeping track of what mash finishes when gets confusing (I know. Sad). We take down the date of each mash, the BRIX (percentage sugar), and the specific gravity at which the mash finished. The specific gravity helps us determine the alcohol content.
A new delivery of wheat. Watching the eighteen wheelers back down cramped Cedric Street while angry commuters spew vitriol gives me the sweats. Those drivers have nerves of steel.
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