"Um, wrong number"

Next to the distilling equipment arriving, the most exciting day of our young corporate existence was the day we got the phones hooked up. The company had gone from concept to reality: We had arrived. We plugged in our radio shack cordless phones with the excitement of a six year old plugging in the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. “Good thing we got two of these things,” Dave noted with a tone of relief, “Would just be too crazy putting people on hold all the time.” I wondered who our first caller would be, and I pictured myself like a young boiler room broker yelling incoming liquor orders across the floor at Dave as the phones went crazy, “RECCO!!!!”. It didn’t really occur to us back then that the Still wasn’t even hooked up, and that we had not yet started marketing ourselves. But the funny thing is, we actually got a lot of calls. They were just ALL the wrong number. Sometimes they were looking for “Luke”, other times “Maria”. Luckily, the confusion was cleared up quickly because the person on the other line rarely spoke any English. “Sorry wrong number”, I’d say, and hang up / fight back tears of self pity. It was like being called the wrong name by your gym teacher during the third month of school. So demoralizing. Well flash forward 4 months, and I can say all this with a laugh and a shrug because we have just received our first couple orders. We’re on our way! The second phone is still not ringing though, so please give us a call, and let me know if you need the number.

Here are a few of the places now carrying us. We'll be updating the list periodically. Please ask for us at your local establishment early and often:

Restaurant/Bars: Island Creek Oyster Bar, Stella, Four Seasons Bristol Lounge (starting in July), L'espalier, Hungry Mother, Savin Bar and Kitchen, Pettite Robert (South End and Needham).

Liquor Stores: Urban Grape (Newton), Liquor Land (South End), Wine and Cheese Cask (Sommerville).

Distillery Olympics

The greatest tangential benefit of starting a distillery is the massive amount of exercise you get moving the raw material around – barrels, molasses, wheat, water. Our daily routine is akin to ESPN 2 “Strongest Man in the World” competition…if the competitors were weak and had hair. We usually kick things off around 7 AM with some hydration and light stretching. Because there is no air conditioning, and the equipment is scalding hot, temps are already in the eighties, so it’s important to maintain strong fluid intake. The first event is usually the “Pallet Jack Haul”. This involves hauling 2,500 lbs of water all 80 feet of the distillery to pump into the mash tank. Incredible quad work out because you’re doing this walking backwards. The “Pallet Jack Haul” is akin to the “Tractor Trailor Haul” that Lou Ferigno won in 1983. We haven’t been keeping records, but I did notice Dave looking at his watch while I was doing my haul this morning (we haven’t discussed this yet).

Next event is the 25 gallon “hoist”. This is actually a team event, which I learned the hard way (I tried doing it alone and doused myself in 160 proof alcohol. Dave could have “Zoolandered” me into oblivion by lighting a match, but he didn’t because we’re bros). The “hoist” involves each man grabbing a handle on a 25 gallon tank, which holds our “feints." The feints are made up of “heads” and “tails”, elements that add flavor to the overall mix but are a bit stinky on their own. We store the “feints” and then add them back for flavor. If I completely ruin my back doing something at the distillery, it will be doing the “hoist.”

Next up is the main event: “The Mash.” “The Mash” is the Everest of distilling events. It’s a four hour affair that kicks off with one of us lugging 16, 50 lbs bags up a step ladder, dumping them into 190F degree water, and then mixing with a paddle. After drawing the short stick on Monday, I gear up by donning my distilling hoodie, which I wear to avoid getting burned by the tank, and which has the added benefit of making me feel like Rocky. Using a four foot stainless steel paddle, I mix in the 800 lbs of wheat flour until it’s a viscous consistency (think oatmeal). The work is excruciating, and I often worry about losing consciousness and falling into the tank, but Dave keeps me going with random outbursts intended to pump me up: “C’mon man!! By the power of Grayskull!! Scoreboard!!” I don’t even know what he’s talking about, but the intensity in his voice is inspiring. And so after paddling what feels like 12 miles up the Charles, “The Mash” is complete. The mash tank is now full of beautifully smooth, tan colored nectar, which after it sits for four days and is distilled, will be the source of roughly 100 bottles of pure sipping enjoyment.

Time for lunch.

Spirit Production

A man and his forklift. Willbur's favorite activity: Moving stuff, in this case a 3000 pound tote of Blackstrap Molasses. The molasses arrived from New Orleans. The guy who delivered it got blocked in by a school bus and spent two hours looking over our shoulder and trying to convince us to participate in an underground moonshine ring. Truckers are phenomenally entertaining and consistently the most interesting people we deal with.




40 gallons of molasses and 600 liters of filtered water are the base of our rum "wash." Watching the molasses flow into the "mash tank" is deeply relaxing. Cleaning the tank at the end of the day is not. Actually its torture. It usually involves one of us climbing into the tank and scrubbing it by hand. Not fun for two lanky guys.













The hydrometer, which measures alcohol by volume, reads 85, which means the spirit is coming off the still at 170 proof. On the left is wheat whiskey. Yes, whiskey is clear when it exits the still. It's the barrels that give whiskey it's distinctive hue. At 170 proof, I don't recommend putting this in a mint julep. We'll cut it down to 60ABV (120 proof) with filtered water. It then heads into the barrels to mature. Once it's done mellowing, we'll cut it down to 40ABV (80 proof). Mint Julep time.



The vapor flows through the condenser and then out the spout pictured on the left. We collect it in gallon jugs and separate out the "hearts," which is the middle portion of the run. The gallon jugs allow us to separate the best spirit with precision. We'll combine a small portion of the "heads" (front portion of the run) and "tails" (back portion of the run) for complexity and flavor. The still fills a gallon jug every fifteen minutes (roughly).

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.

Details on our Production

On Thursday, a Master Distiller tested our vodka. He gave us a glowing review, which validated both our recipe and technique. From the wash, to the distillation, to the filtering, everything appears to be on track. While things continue to progress nicely with our vodka, whiskey and rum production are also moving forward. The first delivery of barrels arrived last week from Kentucky. There are new and used American Oak barrels (medium Char) for the whiskey, and used, French Oak wine barrels for the rum (medium toast). Most rum distilleries are aging their spirit in used whiskey barrels, but we went with wine barrels because we wanted to avoid infusing the spirit with smokiness, which creates a confusing half-whiskey-half-rum (“e.g. rumsky”). We also like the sweet flavor-notes the wine barrels impart.

The white whiskey is also coming along nicely. It has wonderful banana-notes, but it’s clean enough to use in most vodka drinks. Why clear whiskeys are not a bigger part of the spirits market is a mystery.

Finally, we are on facebook. If you haven’t checked us out already, please do. And if you like what you see, please remember to “like” us because we like you.

Mash tanks (above) and aging barrels (below)

Production has begun

You have no idea how delicious a hundred pounds of fermenting molasses smells; it’s like baking cookies, really boozy cookies. Admittedly, the first time you sniff 300 liters of alcoholic mash at 10:00am on a Monday morning it’s a touch surreal. But it’s a wonderful reminder that production has begun in earnest. It’s happening. We are officially on our way. Will and I have spent the last couple of weeks refining our recipes and getting used to the still, which, like any new piece of equipment, has its own quirks and idiosyncrasies. We’ve been testing and retesting the product to make sure it fits the taste profile we are looking for, and we are getting close. Stay tuned. As we get closer to our launch, we’ll let you know about some of the exciting things we have planned.

Below are a few pictures of us working on a run.

Stay warm,

Will and Dave

Getting Close: Equipment Assembly and Facility Buildout

Much has happened at the distillery since our last update. For starters, our still arrived from Germany. It took some expert maneuvering on the forklift by Wilbur (he’s a ninja on the Nissan) to get everything offloaded, and I almost lost a finger in the process. O.k., that’s not true, but I was a great cheerleader. Once everything was in the building, air-support arrived from Koethe Distilling. Over the course of three days, with the help of our German 'Meister Destillierapparat,' we assembled the disparate parts into one glorious, copper monstrosity. It is truly a stunning piece of engineering.

In other news, we received our final building permit, which was not a given and led to many, many sleepless nights. And now, we are in the process of finishing the space buildout (i.e., electrical, plumbing, etc.) The building itself is located in the New Market District of Boston, which is essentially the part of town that serves as “back of house” for the city – full of warehouses and small manufacturers like ourselves. Our space is about the size of one indoor tennis court. When finished, it should feel equal parts distillery, tasting room, and art exhibition space. Enjoy the pictures below.