Alambic stills

A couple of days ago we finished installing our new hand-made copper alambic (it's also called "alembic") in our distillery. Ours is a 500 liter alambic hand-crafted out of solid copper with brass fittings. Since all of our products will be single-batch, hand-made premium spirits, it only made sense for us to obtain an alambic still that was made with those goals in mind. We've been asked several times why we don't use one of those high-tech modern stills from Germany that look so nice and shiny with stainless steel tubes all over. We have several reasons. One is our approach to spirits making. We are committed to the methods of spirit-making as practised by the craft distilllers of the 19th Century. To this day, fine whiskeys, gins, cognacs and many other fine liquors are manufactured using the same methods, and often the exact same stills that have been in use for well over 100 years. Another reason for choosing a copper alambic is the chemical properties of copper during the process of distillation itself. Copper has excellent heat transfer capabilities, resistance to corrosion from wine being distilled into brandy, and copper helps strip out some of the unwanted flavors that can ruin a liquor. We hope to be able to show off our new copper alambic still to visitors in the near future.

Our new still

Here's a picture of our new handmade, 500 liter copper alembic still. As I type this it is winging its way to our distillery. The still is manufactured by Destillarias Eau de Vie (copper-alembic.com) of Portugal. My thanks to David and Jose for sending me this picture.

This has nothing to do with the distillery...

...but we wanted to share with all of you.
Our family went to the University District Street Fair yesterday (each year a springtime street fair is held in Seattle's University district). During our visit we went into "Gargoyle." Gargoyle is a shop that specializes in unique fantasy art and such. On display is a show featuring a selection of wonderful drawings and paintings from local Seattle artist Trinity Stone. There was a wonderful absinthe-themed portait based upn a famous Belle Epoque advertising print by Charles Maire. The show runs through this month and we encourage you to visit.

Dedication to quality

Well, we've put the knowledge we've accumulated over the years of running our small family herb business to good use. We have begun sampling varieties of botanicals that we will be using in our artisan distilled gin and absinthe. Botanical samplings from around the world have been coming in, that's in addtion to what we've been growing ourselves in our own place. We strongly believe that to make world-class products, you must search the world for the best ingredients. The botanicals in our products will be not only some that we grow ourselves, but will include those from faraway places like Italy, France, Spain, Sri Lanka, Asia and North Africa. Our alcohol will be of the purest USP grade. It wouldn't make much sense to source the best botanicals when you're using inferior spirits now would it? We can't tell you how disappointing it is to sample a new spirit that you have been waiting for only to find that the makers have cut corners in materials to save a few bucks, or they haven't captured the essence of what the spirit should taste like, or the base alcohol isn't recitifed (pure) enough and muddles the flavor of the spirit. Clear, clean, and pure alcohol is essential to making gin and absinthe. We will always source the best materials for our spirits.
On the equipment front we have taken possession of our new mixing and storage vats, imported from Italy. We are still on track to have our still delivered by the first week of June. We've installed the sinks and water piping for the still condensor yesterday.

Well, the paperwork for our surety bond to satisfy the TTB's requirements has just been completed and paid for. More equipment has been coming in. We've purchase a few more hydrometers, alcohol pumps, fire & safety equipment, scales, and more computer stuff. I'm beginning to feel like a kid at Christmas time! I'm about 1/3 of the way through with the paperwork for my TTB permitting. We're aiming for having our paperwork ready for submission on June 1, 2008.

We have a place!

Our patience has paid off. We will soon be taking possession of our location to build our distillery! We will be in the heart of Woodinville's Wine Country near many of the fabulous wineries. We should be finalizing our lease this week, and taking over our new distillery home by the first of May, 2008. I hope to have some pictures up in the near future. We have also finalized the specifications for our new 500 liter traditional hand-made copper alembic, and will be making the formal order this week. We should have our new alembic still within the month.

I've been interviewed by the paper

I was interviewed by the Everett Herald (of Washington State) reporter Sarah Jackson last Thursday regarding the passage of SB2959 into law here in Washington.
Here's the link:
http://heraldnet.com/article/20080330/NEWS01/331878595&news01ad=1#Hard.liquor.business.made.easier.in.Washington