Diary of a Distiller

Wow, it's the first weekend of Autumn and in marshy areas and along ponds and rivers the leaves are starting to turn red. It's only the first hint of color in most places, but it's that time of year again. My favorite time of year. The nights have already gotten cool enough that I have had the heat on for more than a week and that wonderful smell of woodsmoke from my neighbors' fireplaces drifts by every now and then. Time sure flies. It's been almost ten months since I first met Michael, Joan, and Jody; my partners here in Winterport; and eight to nine months since we first started building the brewery & distillery. A Loooong nine months! I had hoped for a small distillery that would be up and running by Memorial Day. Then I hoped for a small brewery and distillery and hoped it would be up and running after nine months of gestation, but alas, that was not meant to be. Now we are ten times the size we originally planned and will grow even more.

Follow up:

As you may have noticed as I write my journal, things are speeding up here at our facility. I am starting to feel like an expectant papa once again. The feeling is almost indescribable; exciting and scary, filled with impatience and frustration, and every now and then a sense of wonder. We are now finishing the construction that had been put on hold way too many times, until we got certain parts and pieces of equipment. When we first got the brewery equipment we knew it was a good deal. What we didn't realize at first was how badly the equipment had been misused. It came to us third-hand. The first owners knew what they were doing, but the second owners were clueless. Everything that could be broken, was. Fixing it all has cost almost as much as the original price. You wouldn't believe how many hours have been spent on it as well. We have been building, rebuilding, cleaning, polishing, taking things apart, repairing them, and putting them back together. Manuals were ordered, read, studied, and memorized. I see the disaster of equipment in all stages of use and misuse, then partly dismantled and in a state of repair; littering what was once the beautiful and clean home of my future brewery/distillery. Finally it is all slowly coming together.

Do you remember the 70's TV Show "The Six Million Dollar Man"? At the start of each episode they say "Steve Austin, astronaut. A man barely alive. Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability to build the world's first bionic man. Steve Austin will be that man. Better than he was before. Better, stronger, faster." Well that's what's going on here. I feel like we are team of surgeons, or maybe mad scientists... re-building a living being from the horribly injured wreck of what once was great. Sometimes the surgery is detailed. Piecing together tiny wires, resistors, connections. Other times you reach for the biggest hammer or wrench you can find. We are discarding old and outdated parts of the brewery and replace them with the best, cutting edge, adding new technology. Computers, sensors, probes, you name it. We will rebuild it. Better than it was before. Better, Stronger, Faster. It will be The Bionic Brewery! (And hopefully not cost six million dollars!)

Here and after the jump are photos of the first part of installing the steel vent pipe. It was heavy as hell, and I had to lift it into place by hand as the brew kettle was jockeyed into position, that had to be exact to within a 1/2 inch so it could connect to the pre-cut and fitted pipes that attach to other pieces of equipment.
Gallery: Diary of a Distiller: Chapter 19 - The Bionic Brewery - A

Gallery: Diary of a Distiller: Chapter 19 - The Bionic Brewery - B

The past week we worked on wiring for the computer panels to regulate temperatures for the Brew Kettle and the Lauter Tun. We cut a hole in the roof and installed the vent pipe for the brew kettle to let out steam from the boiling wort. Finished rebuilding the transfer station and glycol chilling plate, and labeled all the inlets and outlets. And worked on a whole bunch of other things, always keeping in mind the mantra, "Better, Stronger, Faster."

In addition, just yesterday we finally got in the lost parts for the gas burner, to build the firebox for the still. Mike located a steam boiler for the brewery and it will be here today. So things are looking up. I expect that we'll start brewing beer in late October or early November and it should be available on draft locally and in the bottle in select stores throughout the state by Thanksgiving. (My fingers are crossed.) Have a fantastic weekend folks.