A few days ago I posted a “Position Wanted” on the artisanal distillers online discussion forum, of which I am one of the two administrators. Amazingly, by the end of the business day I had been contacted by seven distilleries or distilleries in planning. I ended up being hired by two as a consultant to help them get up and running, and was offered a job as master distiller for a rum distillery on a Carribean island. I turned down the distiller position, it wasn’t the right distillery for me to work at and I don’t think I want to work for someone else. I’d rather have my own place. the following day I was contacted by a brand new, local distillery  about 20 minutes away. I went for a visit, and after an hour of talking we decided to collaborate on some distilling projects together. The first of which will be making my late 19th century style, barrel aged peach brandy. I’ll have to go back up to Maine to get my distillery equipment and the 12,000 lbs. of peach puree and bring them down to NY. Hopefully this will be in the next week or so. If the project gets up and running I’ll post about it, including photos.

I am rebuilding this site, chapters and photos will be posted as fast as I can get it up and running. Chapters One through Thirty of Diary of a Distiller were originally published at AOL.com / Slashfood.com on the dates indicated.

Hi Folks, here it is over a year later and there have been many changes. Penobscot Bay Distillery is no more. After a year of my supposed partners playing head games, stalling on construction, and other assorted idiocy, I pulled out of the project. They managed to draw out construction for so long that I ran shorter on funds than I had planned. There wasn’t much work that had to be done, but it was one excuse after another. A total of 6 weeks construction wasn’t finished after 21 months. I’m not sure why they did this. It makes no sense to me. After all the hard work I did to help improve and market the winery, after helping build the brewery and establishing a brand, they let me down when it came to the distillery. Shysters? Crooks? Scared and intimidated by my talent and success? Who knows?  I’ll let their conscience, or lack thereof, deal with it.

I moved back to the New York City suburbs a few months ago and I am in discussion with several groups about starting up a distillery again. It will be located somewhere in NY State. Whether in the NYC Metro area, or an hour or so upstate i haven’t decided yet. So currently my distilling equipment is in storage, but my plans are to move on with the project. Eventually.