Diary of a Distiller

After a hectic week in NYC I finally made it back up to Maine for a relatively a quiet and relaxing weekend. That is if you call driving 160 miles round trip on Saturday relatively quiet and relaxing. And that's after driving the 470 miles from NY City back to Winterport on Friday. Well, it's Maine; driving is part of the deal. You have to go quite a bit to get from place to place.

Follow up:

Saturday turned out to be a day all about seeing my friends all over the place. Starting in the morning I had a date and we drove the 25 miles to Blue Hill for the North East Regional Mixed Doubles Petanque Championship. We didn't play, but were there to watch a friend of mine from NYC, Ernesto, play. He is a seriously good Petanque player and it was fun to watch.
In the afternoon we drove from Blue Hill down to Rockport for the the First Annual Mid-Coast Food and Wine Festival which was coordinated by my friend Bettina of Cellardoor Winery and Cathe of the State of Maine Cheese Company. It was like a reunion in that I saw so many friends who I only get to see on rare occasions, now that I moved up north 55 miles to the border between Mid-Coast and Down-East Maine.
There were several wineries represented; my friend Keith's Sweetgrass Farm Winery & Distillery, my friends Buddy and Holly of Savage Oakes Winery, and of course we at Winterport Winery had a table at the tasting. Mike and Joan's daughter and her husband were there representing our winery, as I played hooky for the day. Another friend, Brian, who just started up Oyster River Winegrowers was supposed to be there, but couldn't make it for some reason. That's too bad because I haven't yet tried his white wine that came out this summer.


At the food stalls I ran into several more friends. Ann Marie of Ann Marie's Kitchen was there serving great pork cooked medium rare and juicy after being marinated in her Secret Sauce. Ann Marie is a firecracker and I like her and her fiance a lot. They don't live to far from me and I have to get together with them soon to kick back and hang out, although hanging out with Ann Marie is usually anything but quiet, more like being in the presence of a human dynamo that's putting out 10,000 volts.

Safe Harbor Confections was there and I was hoping that my friend Martha, the owner, was going to be there so we could catch up, but in her place was the chocolatier, Candy. (I kid you not, the candy maker is called Candy!) I know Martha and Candy from my first summer in Maine. I spent a few weeks in their chocolate factory learning about making chocolate and helping to create a line of spirit filled and other chocolates. My friends Merrill and Jim of Maine Food and Lifestyle Magazine were also there. I wrote a few pieces for them back when I first moved to Maine and was writing for several local magazines and newspapers. Now I just don't have the time to research and write long and in-depth articles for anyone, besides Slashfood.com and AOL.com.
I also tried a few new products and hope to write about them soon. One is a passionfruit/maple syrup that blew me away. Another was a vendor of extremely high quality spice mixes, flavored salts, and flavored balsamic vinegars; some of the best I have ever tried.
Then we headed to Suzuki Sushi in Rockland so we could get a fix of some world class sushi and sashimi. I told you folks about a meal I had there a few weeks ago, so I won't go into the details, except to say that like usual it was fantastic. My friend Keiko, the owner, told me that Monday started the local uni (sea urchin) season and asked me to contact my friends, Carl and Mason Johnson of Grindstone Neck of Maine smokehouse (who I also wrote about around the Fourth of July) to cold smoke some local Atlantic uni for her restaurant. I had arranged for Carl and Mason to cold smoke uni for me (the first time he did it commercially) last winter for Keiko's New Years Eve dinner extravaganza and for Mid-Winter and Spring specials, and it was a big hit. Fellow blogger, Joe Distefano, wrote about this smoked uni for Gourmet.com last March. When I get the order I'll take some photos and write about it in detail.
On the way home the moon was so huge and full that we stopped off at Lincolnville Beach to watch it for awhile as it hung over Penobscot Bay, lighting up the bay and night so bright that you could practically read a book by its light. Then the mosquito's attacked and we hopped back in the car and headed home. I have a feeling that those were the last skeeters of the season. The temperatures have started dropping at night and in low lying and boggy areas the leaves are starting to turn red.
The week turned out to be very busy. To start it off we worked on a bunch of stuff to finish off the distillery. We still don't have a steam boiler, but we got a few more pieces of equipment and started to repair and install them.
Jody, Fred, and a small crew made it to the ex-brewery whose equipment we had purchased, and got out the stainless steel vent stack for the brew kettle. I wasn't there, but I heard it was quite the adventure involving equipment we had bought having 'disappeared', wasp nests in the vent pipe, a potentially collapsing roof, and much, much, more.
Anyway, this vent pipe goes up through the roof to vent the steam and heat from the boiling wort in the brew kettle, as the liquid that will be beer is called before it gets fermented. We had to cut a hole through the roof for it. Then, later, we can put the vent pipe up, attach the bottom to the kettle, seal the roof, and install downspouts; so that steam and condensation can get out, but rain, snow, leaves, squirrels, bugs, birds, bats, and other critters interested in some tasty brew can't get in.
But first we have to clean up the vent pipe. It's in terrible condition, just like everything else we bought from those guys. The great thing about stainless steel is that with a little elbow grease, OK a LOT of elbow grease, you can bring it back to looking and working like new. There was a reason why we got such a good deal on the used equipment. It's because the last owners didn't have a clue about what they were doing. It started out pretty ragged looking, but after Jody and I worked on it for several hours it shined like new.
I also spent some time on deciding about what bottles I want to order for the distillery. A bottles size and shape are very important, because they showcase the spirit, and set a tone for what it is. I want a nice, old fashioned look that says premium quality, and has a pre-Prohibition feel to it. I will be making my spirits in old fashion, artisanal ways to get flavors that haven't been around since the late 1800's.
My goal is to create some truly classic and rare spirits for connoisseurs and cocktailians. I had quite a few samples of bottles sent to me and finally found one that I like a lot. Soon I will have to place my order since it can take months to get the glass delivered.
Finally, Thursday morning I arrived at the winery and found Mike and Jody already hard at work. Mike located a source for the steam boiler for the brewery, at a cost that he felt comfortable with. It will take a week or two before it is delivered and installed, but first we have to make room for it. Our current boiler that heats the building and hot water is in decent sized room. Another boiler could possibly be squeezed in, but it would be a tight fit.

Gallery: Diary of a Distiller: Chapter 18 - Hey! Cut it out! - A

So we decided to tear down a wall that was shared with a corridor to the store room for our retail shop. Then we had to turn the section of wall 90 degrees and put it back up. This would close off the entrance to the store room, so we had to also cut a new door to the store room from the winery, right next to the door to our laboratory. It took about half a day to do the renovation and construction, re-wiring, etc. But now we have a nice sized space for our double boiler room, and the store is the same size, its just lost its corridor which was wasted space anyway.
Gallery: Diary of a Distiller: Chapter 18 - Hey! Cut it out! - B

Well, after all that's gone on the past few weeks, I'm plum wore out. Have a great weekend folks! I'm going to find a nice tree or rock to relax and lean against, and watch the clouds float by in the cool, blue, sunny, Autumn sky.