Diary of a Distiller

It's been a long week for me since I last wrote in my journal and Tales of the Cocktail beat me silly. I had a great time but got laryngitis and a cold, and my camera was acting up on me for a while, so I have only a few photos out of hundreds that I took. Finally, my travels home were a complete disaster. A half day trip turned into a multi-day epic. I was pulled off several planes because they broke down, had numerous ones rescheduled, sat on runways for hours, and didn't get anything to eat for 40 hours; just a few glasses of water. (The last is probably not a bad thing, in N'awlins overeating great food is easy.) There were a few times I wish I had Dorothy's ruby slippers because I wanted to be home sooo bad.

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As I wrote last week I had several friends in town on vacation. We traveled all over and ate our way up and down the coast. I ditched the camera for awhile so I could stay in the moment so I can't show you most of our meals, except for one day when we stuffed ourselves on local specialties. Maine Lobsters and Glidden Point & Pemmaquid oysters. I had a specific request from Joe Distefano for raw oysters, a favorite of his in hot weather, and it sure has been warm out the past week.

So we took off on a drive to get the best and freshest. We went direct to Glidden Point Oyster Sea Farm and picked up a dozen fresh Glidden Point's that had been in the water just a few hours earlier. Then to Oyster River Lobster Company for some Pemmaquid oysters and eight 1.5 lb. soft shell lobsters. (Remember Oyster River Lobster Company? I wrote about their famous Blue Lobster and their amazing Lobster Pies.)
When we got home I shucked the oysters and steamed up the lobsters and we set down to a feast. Just a word of warning. If you take several guys away from their girlfriends for a week, add in several bottles of cold and crisp white wine, and good food; it can get rather silly out.

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Since I last updated my journal I have supposedly been on vacation. Different groups of friends came to visit and so at first it was work, as I gave them in-depth tours and tastings at the winery and brerwery. I helped out a bit at the same time by doing some tastings for visitors, because everyone else was busy as can be. Mike, Joan, Jody, and Fred were making deliveries, bottling wine, disassembling and cleaning the new brewery equipment, researching what other odds and ends of stuff we need to replace, locating manuals and technical info on the brewing system, etc.

A few mornings I let my guests sleep in and helped tidy up the brewery/distillery. Mundane things like sorting through garbage for nuts and bolts, valves, gaskets, and anything else that might conceivably be of use. The previous owners of the equipment had to move everything out fast from the old location and some important odds and ends had somehow made it into garbage bags topped with refuse. I'm glad that we ended up with a few of the garbage bags, even if it it wasn't pleasant to dive into them, because solid stainless steel valves, tubes, etc. are quite pricey and it was worth it to save every one we can.

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Happy Independence Day Everyone, and X-mas in July too!

Well if it isn't one thing it's another. We have been at a standstill in building The Distillery, again. We've been back ordered for six weeks on delivery of a large, low pressure, multi-ring propane burner to heat the still. The large size we need limits us, and seems to be unavailable in the US, except from one company who imports them from overseas. I have been looking to order a smaller, temporary version that I hope to use for when we build the stills heating unit, called the firebox. It is going to be basically a brick oven that heats the still from below with a direct propane flame. Since we are a commercial space with an indoor set-up we want safety to be the #1 priority. So our firebox has to be well ventilated with an outside air intake and a flue to exhaust the unit up through the roof like a chimney on a fireplace.

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