Under Construction.
Dave Robison owner and head distiller of Pioneer Spirits, Chico, CA.
Dave is planning to make whiskey and is standing next to his mash tun.
The pot still will arrive in late September.
==================


TRAVERSE CITY - Kent Rabish believes his new Traverse City business - Grand Traverse Distillery - is part of a trend, similar to the evolution of mirobreweries two decades ago.
"Just as the beer industry experienced an explosion of different beers that offered a much wider variety of taste with the emergence of microbreweries, now the distilling industry is seeing the development of handcrafted, small-batch spirits from microdistilleries," said Rabish..
His first product, True North Vodka, is a "super premium spirit" produced in small quantities, under close supervision and with local ingredients..
"We discard up to 25 percent of the alcohol that comes out of our still because it doesn't pass our high standards," Rabish said. "That's what sets us apart from the big companies.".
Rabish buys local rye, then uses a blending tank to reduce the 190 proof vodka to 80 proof, with the help of filtered northern Michigan water..
The attention to detail determines the end product, but it also helps to have the latest technological equipment, including a 1,200 liter (325 gallon) still from Germany made from more than 6,000 pounds of copper..
"It makes all the difference," he said. "As I've gone through this process, I've learned that distilling seems to be the perfect blend of tradition, art, technology and passion.".
Rabish got the idea for a microdistillery six years ago while visiting friends in Oregon and couldn't get the idea out of his head. He learned that microdistilling was not a new idea, but a return to distilling as it had been done for centuries..
Both Poland and Russia claim vodka as their own invention, dating back to the 14th century. But the liquor didn't become popular in the U.S. until after World War II. Strict government regulation and lots of paperwork slowed the growth of distilleries..
"It's a daunting process to get a license to manufacture spirits in this country," said Rabish. "Quality and safety are assured, but every drop is carefully accounted for and taxed.".
The state of Michigan closely regulates distribution. Three distributors are in the state, and manufacturers are required to use one of them to get their product to a licensed seller. Manufacturers, including Rabish, can't distribute or sell it..
"It means that unlike local wineries, who can sell directly to the public, you won't see any bottles on a shelf at our distillery," said Rabish. "If I want a bottle, I have to go to a local store - a licensed seller - to buy my own True North Vodka.".
===================.

ANNE BROCKHOFF SPIRITS & COCKTAILS

Spirits jump on local bandwagon

Local is trendy these days. Local tomatoes, cheese, beef, you name it. So why not local spirits?
There are more choices than you might think. High Plains in Atchison, Kan., makes a pair of vodkas and two whiskeys, while McCormick Distilling produces a full line of spirits in Weston. And then there's SKYY90, the "luxury" vodka owned by Gruppo Campari that's also distilled in Atchison.
But let's start with the little guys. According to conventional wisdom, High Plains owner Seth Fox did everything wrong when he launched the Most Wanted label in August 2005. He didn't have outside money, didn't have a big ad campaign, didn't have a mega-distributor. But it didn't matter.
"Most people wouldn't attempt this without a million dollars," says Fox, the first in a long family line of distillers to do it legally.
Fox and his wife, Dorcie, do much of the work themselves at their 100-acre farm outside Atchison, and he expects sales to top 15,000 cases in 2007. That includes three Most Wanted products - vodka, Pioneer Whiskey and Kansas Bourbon - and Fox Vodka. Fox laughed when I asked about the self-named vodka's label. Is that a dead gray goose in the fox's mouth?
He's not saying, though he is justifiably proud of the contents. The vodka is smooth and heavy in the mouth, with a grainy, almost grapey character. I'm keen to see how Fox does with the rest of his to-do list: rum, London dry gin and a Scotch-style malted whiskey.
McCormick is best known for spirits sold under the distillery name, but it has in recent years added premium brands such as Polar Ice vodka and Tequila Rose liqueur. 360 Vodka is the latest, hitting the market earlier this summer.
360 is an "ecologically friendly" vodka made using a highly efficient process, packaged in a bottle made with 85 percent recycled glass and labeled with chlorine-free, recycled paper. McCormick also donates $1 to environmental groups for every flip-top bottle closure returned to the distillery.
So much for the buzz. How does it taste? Clean and toasty, with a wintergreen finish. In other words, pretty good.
The biggest local secret, though, is SKYY90. The 90-proof vodka is assertive yet balanced, with hints of wheat and citrus and what other reviewers have called a velvety texture. SKYY90 is distilled in Kansas, using Kansas-grown wheat, by Kansas native and master distiller Randall Schrick, before being shipped off for blending and bottling. Why Kansas? Because that's where MGP Ingredients is.
MGP supplies ingredients for the food, personal care, pet and alcohol industries and counts SKYY Spirits (a unit of Campari), McCormick and High Plains among its clients. Its position as a leading beverage alcohol maker is, ironically, at least partly due to a 2002 explosion that destroyed much of the plant.
SKYY invested $25 million in the rebuild, helping create a high-tech wonder. I'd love to see it up close, but the business's proprietary nature means no tours for journalists. I guess I'll just have to content myself with drinking it instead.

A cocktail to try SKYY90 is perfect for a powerhouse martini, but any of these local vodkas is delicious in cocktails. Try this recipe adapted from Lucy Brennan's Hip Sips (Chronicle Books, 2006).
Goosey
Makes 1 cocktail

1/2 ounce Green Chartreuse liqueur
3 ounces vodka
Lime twist for garnish

Fill a martini glass with ice and set aside to chill for several minutes. Empty ice from the glass and add the Chartreuse liqueur. Coat the inside of the chilled glass with Chartreuse by gently rotating the stem of the glass in full circles. Pour out the liqueur. Fill a cocktail shaker with ice, add vodka and shake for 10 seconds (see note). Strain the drink into the martini glass. Garnish with the lime twist and serve.
Note: Many recipes call for shaking vodka with ice, but shaking makes clear spirits turn cloudy. I prefer to stir so the cocktail remains clear.
Per cocktail: 235 calories (none from fat), no fat, no cholesterol, 4 grams carbohydrates, no protein, 1 milligram sodium, no dietary fiber.
Anne Brockhoff writes from her farmhouse outside of Kansas City. To reach her, send e-mail to food-drink-life@hotmail.com.
===================

Made in Pekin

MGP Ingredients Inc.

Located just across from the city's Riverway Business Park on the Illinois River, MGP has a distillery operation that produces both food-grade alcohol such as vodka, gin and spirits and food-grade industrial alcohol, a high-purity alcohol used in a variety of food and beverage products, pharmaceutical and personal care products.
It's also the largest wheat-protein-starch processing company in the state.
In 1980, the distillery was sold to Midwest Grain, which later became MGP Ingredients, based in Atchison, Kan.
MGP bought its Pekin plant in 1980 from the former American Distilling Co. Looking to expand its Atchison, Kansas-based business, doing it in Pekin seemed ideal, company officials said.
"Its location on the Illinois River was a plus. We ship our product by barge, but also use truck and rail. It's great we're able the ship the product in three forms. Plus, Pekin has a strong Midwestern work ethic," said company spokesman Steve Pickman. "It was a natural synergy."
The company also makes ethanol, wheat proteins and wheat starches used predominately in food such as bakery goods and a number of prepared foods and various wheat by-products for livestock feed.
MGP employs about 460 people in its four plants, including about 150 in Pekin. The Pekin facility is the only one that produces Skyy vodka, as it has for about the past 15 years, Pickman said, adding the vodka is bottled and marketed elsewhere.
"We custom produce for a variety of bottlers and rectifiers but have strict confidentiality agreements," Pickman said. "We've developed a very strong relationship with Skyy vodka owners over the years and it's been a mutually beneficial relationship and one we're very proud of to have."

Aventine Renewable Energy
Based in Pekin near the Illinois River, Aventine Renewable Energy is among the top five ethanol producers in the United States.
Aventine, a publicly traded company, took over the Pekin plant in 2003 when Williams Bio-Energy sold it. The facility itself, though, was first built in 1899 to process sugar beets used to make granulated sugar.
It produces 157 million gallons a year of fuel-grade ethanol, including 100 million gallons at a wet mill facility and about 57 million at a dry mill facility. There are plans to build a second dry mill facility in Pekin that would boost local production to nearly 270 million gallons annually and two others in Nebraska and Indiana, said Roger Bushue, the company's vice president of business resources.
With dry milling, the corn is first ground and processed without separating the various components.
By contrast, wet milling, in which corn is soaked before it's separated into various components, produces nearly 17 pounds, or 2.6 gallons, of ethanol per bushel of corn.
The product is shipped throughout the United States. Some of Aventine's biggest customers include Exxon Mobil Corp., Shell Oil Co. and BP. "Logistically, with the railroads and the river, the location is ideal because we can easily truck to Chicago and St. Louis markets," Bushue said.
The company employs 285 people in Pekin and stresses being a community player and giving back to the city and area not-for-profit organizations, Bushue said.
"We think the future looks very bright. There's going to be a lot of supply coming on and that's a good thing. We're possibly going to see a huge turnaround in usage of ethanol," Bushue said.

Karen McDonald can be reached at 686-3285 or kmcdonald@pjstar.com.
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The agonies of agflation
Aug 25th 2007
From Economist.com

Fuel for the body and the car

SHARING pain is usually deemed a good thing. So advocates of dishing out agony will be gladdened that the wallet-crunching pangs of car drivers filling up with petrol are now equalled by the wince-inducing stabs felt by shoppers piling up their supermarket trolleys. As oil prices stay high, wheat prices hit an all-time peak of over $7.50 a bushel for December delivery at the end of trading in Chicago on Thursday August 23rd.

The soaring prices of bushels and barrels are not unconnected. The cost of agricultural commodities, just like oil and metals, has gone up sharply over the past couple of years. Aside from wheat, the prices of corn, rice and barley have all risen by over a third since 2005. Food prices around the world are rising so quickly that a new term has been coined to describe the ballooning price of breakfast staples and dinner-time favourites: agflation.
The latest spike in wheat prices has come in response to news that Canada's crop could be reduced by roughly a fifth this year after bad weather hit the world's second-largest exporter. This sent countries that rely on imported wheat, such as Japan and Taiwan, scampering to the market to secure supplies. Whether climate change is to blame for Canada's poor summer is unclear but its underlying pressure on prices is in less doubt.
Demand for grain is accelerating not to feed humans or livestock but to fill petrol tanks. Compared with 2000, three-times more corn is used to make ethanol in America; distilleries that produce biofuels hoover up a fifth of the country's corn supplies. Demand for cleaner energy in turn keeps demand for corn growing. Farmers are having trouble keeping pace with the burgeoning biofuel industry. And to produce more corn farmers are switching production from wheat and soya, pushing up the prices of those crops too.
On top of these pressures, rising prosperity in poorer countries, particularly India and China, is also lifting prices. Normally the response of the world's farmers would be to increase output by planting on marginal land. This is happening. In the coming year the International Grains Council reckons that global grain production will hit 1,660m tonnes, some 90m tonnes more than last year. Nevertheless, demand will still outstrip supply. The wheat crop hit by Canada's run of bad weather is likely to weigh in at 607m tonnes while demand may top 614m tonnes.
And the reverberations are felt right down the menu. As grain prices rise so do the prices of other agricultural products that rely on it as an input. As the cost of keeping poultry and livestock goes up so do the prices of eggs, chickens and other meat. Even if new land is planted this may not help to push down food prices. Because generous subsidies ensure that biofuel production is handily profitable, that industry is likely to grab new grain supplies to prime its distilling towers.
Agflation can also cause headaches for central banks. In most countries, the measures of core inflation that banks monitor most closely when making decisions about monetary policy exclude food and energy prices. Both are volatile and vulnerable to supply shocks. As central banks try to control demand they tend not to react to price fluctuations caused by see-sawing supply.
But in consumer-price indices, at least in some countries, food has a greater impact. In America food carries just 14% of the weight of the consumer-price index, but in China it accounts for 33% and in India 46%. In such countries the rising price of food obviously could push up inflation levels overall. In addition, if food prices stay high, and if consumers spend less on other goods, other parts of the economy might suffer. Good reason, therefore, for central bankers and others to hope that the pain of agflation is not shared too widely.
==========================

Make Mine a 020001
By ERIC FELTEN
Source: WSJ
September 1, 2007; Page P5

For vodka sellers, these are the best of times, in that sales of high-priced vodkas continue to grow. And they are the worst, too, in that just about anyone can -- and is -- getting into the vodka marketing game. "Go into a liquor store or a bar, and there are 20 vodkas on the shelf," says Vic Morrison, marketing veep at McCormick Distilling. The challenge is to come up with some clever gimmick to set one's vodka apart.
The salesman who thinks he can crack the market with claims of superior taste will be sorely disappointed: I went to a vodka tasting hosted by the head of a prominent luxury liquor house. It was an exercise meant to dispel the notion that the differences among vodkas are illusory. But after being walked through the vodkas on the table with elaborate descriptions of the characteristics of each, I found myself hard-pressed to discern much difference. So I asked the executive to demonstrate the differences by tasting the vodkas blind. He couldn't even identify his own flagship brand.
Eyeing the crowded premium vodka field, McCormick decided to market its new 360 Vodka as the choice for those who care about the planet. The bottle is made with a high proportion of recycled glass; the recycled paper label is printed with soy and water inks; the shipping boxes are designed to be reused; and the vodka itself is made on an exceptionally efficient column still that captures all the carbon dioxide that would otherwise escape into the atmosphere. This last claim is made possible because the contract distillery that makes 360 Vodka for McCormick, MGP Ingredients of Atchison, Kan., recently installed a new high-tech still.
While McCormick is pushing the green credentials of its energy-efficient vodka, other brands are selling "organic" vodkas. They also rely on the manufacturing skills of contract distilleries. Square One Organic Vodka is made by Idaho's Distilled Resources Inc., or DRinc, which does the manufacturing for more than a dozen brands. Among them is Ocean Vodka, a Hawaiian brand that takes DRinc's organic vodka in high-proof bulk and cuts it with desalinated seawater. Another organic, Vodka 14, positions itself as a Colorado vodka, but it, too, is a product of the Idaho still. An organic brand made from soy, 3 Vodka, also comes from that factory, as does a brand called Zygo.
Zygo is one of a handful of "energy vodkas," including P.I.N.K., that spike alcohol with fashionable stimulants, such as guarana and taurine. If there has been a drink of the decade, it is the clubbers' Red Bull and Vodka. Caffeinated vodkas obviate the need for stimulant-packed Red Bull (or amplify its hyperactive effect).
The clutter has left vodka marketers struggling to distinguish their products. One of the most reliable strategies -- the celebrity tie-in -- has proved problematic. Last spring, Svedka vodka was in talks with Lindsay Lohan's management to sponsor her 21st birthday party at Caesar's Palace. And then the not-quite-21 Ms. Lohan crashed her Mercedes while under the influence. The Swedish brand sagely decided to opt out of the Vegas festivities. It has since focused its marketing efforts on a more reliable spokesmodel, a naughty animatronic "fembot fatale" named "Svedka_Grl." Their slogan: "The future of adult entertainment."
Nudity is the theme for Christiania's new campaign. The Norwegian brand hasn't abandoned its trademarked phrase "The World's Smoothest Vodka," but its emphasis on dishabille shows just how hard it is for a vodka to get any traction in the muddy and crowded field. Christiania is sponsoring a nude art contest, and invited fleshy submissions at its Web site. The winning entry will be flaunted on a downtown New York billboard a few days from now; no doubt the marketing execs are counting on the publicity that will come should Mrs. Grundy be sufficiently mortified to complain.
Christiania, it should be noted, equates nudity with a highfalutin philosophy the company calls "Purism." And what is that? It's not clear, though Christiana does offer a quote from Albert Camus: "With integrity there is no need for rules." The next page on the Web site, however, displays this bold heading: "RULES FOR SUBMISSION." Which I guess is as it should be, given that the Camus quote comes from an essay, "The Myth of Sisyphus," extolling life's inescapable absurdity.
For all the sexy come-ons, vodka isn't a very sexy product. Achieving the "purity" so essential to the spirit is almost impossible on an artisanal pot still. Making pure ethanol is what industrial stills do best, which is why two of the other major players producing vodka in the U.S. are Archer-Daniels-Midland and Grain Processing Corp. of Muscatine, Iowa. ADM sells its 190-proof beverage alcohol (product code 020001) packaged one of three ways: "Bulk Truck, Bulk Rail, Tank." Cut it with water -- preferably from a source that will lend itself to a pretty picture on the label -- bottle it, and you're in the vodka business.
Over at Grain Processing Corp., the "focus in producing ethyl alcohol is directed to the distilled spirits and beverage industries." But its Web site brags that "this same high-quality grain neutral spirit is used to produce a variety of 190 proof and benzene-free anhydrous industrial ethyl alcohol products." That is, industrial solvents, mouthwash, hairspray, astringents and such.
The serious cocktail crowd is turning away from vodka as too bland and too easy, but drink it if you like: It's up to you whether you choose from the essentially interchangeable products on the basis of a brand's boasts of superior quality, its organic spud goodness, its small carbon-footprint or the gyrations of its fembot. Or, if you can't decide, just order product code 020001.
========================
Enough on vodka, lets talk about whiskey!.
Bill
=======================

Bay Area home distillers make modern-day moonshine
Camper English, Special to The San Frnancisco Chronicle

Moonshiners live among us. By day they appear to be respectable members of society, perhaps writing software to make your Internet experience run smoothly. But at night and on weekends, after a visit to the farmers' market or a nice brunch, they work in secret, sterilizing equipment, taking specific gravity and temperature measurements, and waiting impatiently as their illegal hooch drip, drip, drips out of tiny stills.
" 'Illegal' is such a judgmental word," jokes Doug (not his real name), who makes moonshine along with his friend Ron (also not his real name) at Ron's house in the Upper Haight.
The two have been distilling for less than a year. "We started home brewing, then we got into 'advanced brewing,' as we like to say to the neighbors," Ron says.

Illicit hobby

Home distilling is just another hobby for DIY-loving San Franciscans - except that, judgmental or not, it's a federal crime with penalties up to 5 years imprisonment and/or $10,000 fines just for setting up an unregistered still.

According to the United States Alcohol and Tax Trade Bureau (TTB) Web site, "You cannot produce spirits for beverage purposes without paying taxes and without prior approval of paperwork to operate a distilled spirits plant. There are numerous requirements that must be met that make it impractical to produce spirits for personal or beverage use (including) paying special tax, filing an extensive application, filing a bond, providing a separate building (other than a dwelling) and maintaining detailed records, and filing reports."
Matthew Rowley, author of the book "Moonshine!" (Lark Books, $14.95) that came out this summer, agreed to meet up for drinks when he was in town from San Diego. The book is an in-depth starter guide to home distilling, complete with blueprints to weld together a still and recipes to produce different kinds of liquor. Rowley says he met with about 40 different home distillers in the process of writing and then touring with the book, and has seen large regional differences in moonshiners.
"They're different out here. The ones in the southeast tend to have some family history with moonshine. The ones in the West tend to be brewers or winemakers and they come at it from some sort of food angle. It's another form of locavore consumption. That strikes me as a very Californian outlook."
Local food consumption was the only option in early America, when home distilling was legal, common and tax-free for a while. Distilling was a good way to transform rot-friendly grain and fruit that wouldn't travel over long distances into whiskey and brandy that could be used as currency or just to help pass the time during lonely winters.
Nowadays, since eating (and drinking) local is often considered part of a gourmet experience, many home distillers are also foodies. Rowley and I met with Charles (again, not his real name), a Noe Valley computer professional whose first attempt at distilling was during college while underage, using bananas stolen from the cafeteria. Four years ago he decided to repeat the experiment with a still he bought online.
"When you're distilling at home you're not just doing it to make alcohol," he says, now well over the legal drinking age. "You want it to taste like something."

Playing with spirits
Charles says he's had success with high-proof corn liquor, several versions of absinthe and several kinds of brandies, including a plum brandy made with fruit from a friend's tree. Ron and Doug say they've have the best success with applejack and absinthe in their experiments so far. They ran some holiday beer though the still and were surprised to find the spice flavor carried over into the spirits, and they have plans to make and age an apple brandy this fall.
Ron, Doug and Charles have each made absinthe, and say they know other people who are making it too. Rowley says that New Orleans was a hotbed of illicit absinthe production before Hurricane Katrina. This is likely because it's an ingredient in the New Orleans classic Sazerac cocktail. The Bay Area distillers all say they've enjoyed Sazeracs with their homemade absinthe.
Each of the distillers said they knew of other moonshiners in the area, but didn't reveal whether they met up or belonged to local groups that share tips and swap products, like you find with other crafts and culinary clubs. But then those other craft projects are not illegal.
Many people have heard about careless home distilling resulting in blindness from bad alcohol, but Rowley says, "Those people going blind are (drinking alcohol) from bootleggers, not moonshiners."
Bootlegger or moonshiner?

The distinction is important. Moonshiners illegally distill spirits. Bootleggers sell legally or illegally produced products under illegal circumstances, and have historically made low-quality hooch adulterated with substances like lye, embalming fluid and even horse manure. These adulterants are often the cause of the reported injuries.
Rowley says bootleggers still exist in this day and age, often selling the products to the urban poor. The products can be purchased by the shot or the plastic bottle in "shot houses," and some unscrupulous bar owners will serve it to unaware customers. His book doesn't track these commercial operations.
Rowley says none of the 40 people he's met who home distill have been arrested for the practice. But earlier this month, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported the bust of a bootlegging operation in North Georgia.
(Editor note, big difference between home distilling and bootlegging and selling spirits)
"You have to be trying to sell it, pretty much, or have an enemy on the police force," in order to get caught, Ron says. None of the local moonshiners I interviewed sold their products or knew people who did.
Rowley says, "Nearly all the moonshiners I know feel that profit leaves a bad taste."
Doug says that he enjoys brewing and distilling because it is more physical than working on a computer all day, which he does for work. Ron says, "We're experimenting just to do it, and in most cases have something nice to drink afterward." He and other home distillers tend to be tinkerers, constantly planning, assembling, repairing and upgrading their stills to make a better output.
Rowley says, "There's a strong geeky component to it. If this were the '70s a lot of the guys into this would probably be into muscle cars."
Finally, isn't it time for these guys to join the American Distilling Institutue and obtain a DSP license to ddistill and sell their products!
bill
==============================

Illicit whisky trail walks opened.

It is hoped visitors will learn more about whisky history The historic illicit trails used to smuggle whisky in Speyside are being opened up for guided walks. It is hoped visitors will learn more about the history and importance of whisky to the area.
The Glenlivet Distillery and The Crown Estate have taken the step back in time to launch the three historic walks in the Glenlivet Estate.
They range in length from a family walk to longer hikes which explore the secret smuggling paths.
Each trail is sign-posted and an accompanying leaflet is available from the visitors centre at the distillery to bring its history to life.
Alan Winchester, malt distilleries manager with Chivas Brothers, said: "We are delighted to launch the Glenlivet Smugglers' Trails and we are keen to encourage visitors to try out the walks to get a taste of The Glenlivet's smuggling history and enjoy the fantastic scenery.
"These newly created trails enable visitors to Glenlivet to experience how whisky was transported by the illicit distillers of old."
'Truly memorable'
Andrew Wells, countryside and forestry manager for the Crown Estate said: "The Glenlivet Estate has a fascinating history, much of which is associated with its past connection to illicit whisky distilling.
"This history, combined with a picturesque landscape of wide open spaces and rolling hills, make it a truly memorable place to visit."
Moray MSP Richard Lochhead added: "Moray has a wide variety of attractions for visitors and the Glenlivet Smugglers' Trails will add another impressive string to the bow.
"Whisky plays an important role in the heritage of Moray and I welcome the work done by the Glenlivet Distillery and the Crown Estate to open these historic routes to the public."
================

FREEPORT, Maine - Spirit Journal, an international publication focused exclusively on spirits, wine and beer, has awarded Maine's Cold River Vodka with five stars, its highest recommendation, in its September 2007 issue. F. Paul Pacult is the author and publisher of Spirit Journal, and in his review of Cold River, he wrote that it is "smooth as silk yet complex and layered...a coming superstar." He wrote that Cold River's taste "makes for the best North American unflavored vodka drinking since Skyy 90, Pearl, Charbay and Shaker's."
The Five Star Rating is Pacult's highest recommendation.
On his Web site, www.spiritjournal.com, it states that five stars signify "That rare, highly distinguished, distinctive, and classical distilled spirit or fortified wine which represents a benchmark within its category. This product presents a standard against which its peers can be judged. (It is) a product of extraordinary quality, scope and character which transcends price."
A quarterly journal which is supported totally by subscription fees rather than advertising, Pacult's Spirit Journal has been one of the most trusted newsletters on spirits, wine, and beer in the industry. The journal renders unbiased reviews and ratings that are considered the gold standard within the alcoholic beverage industry.
"To say that we are thrilled with this national recognition is an understatement," said Chris Dowe, head distiller and partner in Cold River Vodka, which is owned and operated by Maine Distilleries of Freeport. "We have worked long and hard on our taste profile, which is unique due to the fact that we batch distill our vodka from potatoes. Less than one half of one percent of vodkas sold in the world today are made from potatoes. Our vodka is the only brand in the U.S. that is 'ground-to-glass,' meaning that we control the ingredients and the process from the time we plant the potato seeds at the farm in Fryeburg to the time that the bottles are sold in stores, bars and restaurants. This recognition validates the work we have put into this brand over the past five years."
The potatoes are grown at Green Thumb Farms in Fryeburg. The Saco River Valley Aquifer in the fertile Fryeburg region of western Maine provides the water source for Cold River Vodka, and the spirit is distilled in a copper potstill at Maine Distilleries' home on Route One in Freeport. Free public tours are offered at the facility.
In addition to Dowe, who resides in New Gloucester, the company is owned by Bob Harkins of Paris Hill, Dr. Lee Thibodeau of Cumberland Foreside, and Donnie Thibodeau of Fryeburg.
The vodka is being produced in small batches of 2100 bottles (750 ml each) with each batch numbered to ensure its exceptionality and excellence. Cold River Vodka is comparably priced with other super-premium vodkas. For more information, please call (207) 865-4828 or visit www.coldrivervodka.com.
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1 Liter round Liquor Bottles, 28 mm screw top finish packed necks down in plain Kraft brown boxes 12 per case.
Originally purchased from Saint Gobain.
Mold number 9935034. $7/case takes all 28 pallets at 91 cases per pallet. Terms can be arranged.
Call Mike at (505) 440 8666
====================

Want to learn how a thumper works?
The most used reference book on the subject was published by Seagram is:
Fundamentals of Distillery Practice, 1943, by Herman Wilkie and Joseph Prochaska.
Note, this reference book is out of print and difficult to find

To read back issues of DISTILLER newsletter?
Go to:
http://distilling.com/backissues.html
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--To obtain a distilled spirits permit go to: http://www.ttb.gov/spirits/index.shtml

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--To obtain TTB list of DSPs go to: http://www.ttb.gov/foia//err.shtml

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--To obtain TTB statistics on distilling go to: www.ttb.gov then scroll down to "spirits" and then the "year".
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--To obtain Distilled Spirits Laws and Regulations go to: http://www.ttb.gov/spirits/spirits_regs.shtml

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--To obtain label regulations go to: http://www.ttb.gov/spirits/bam.shtml distilled spirits manual circular.
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