Diary of a Distiller

Over the weekend we had a very busy time at the Winery. Saturday night was the culmination of a month of work by several dozen people from the area who entered in our Gingerbread House competition for charity. We have had several classes a week on how to make and decorate gingerbread houses and ended up with almost thrity contestants. There were five categories: Professional, Under 17, Traditional, Historical, and Fantasy. There were some absolutely wonderful creations, and I was surprised at the quality of all the entries, especially the fact that some of the best were by people who had never done this before.

Sunday night I went to a Sunday Night Cocktail event hosted by my friend and award winning mixologist, Lydia Reismueller, formerly of the speakeasy style cocktail bar PDT and restaurant/cocktail bar Elettaria in NYC. Lydia has been having these Sunday events for the past two months at the Westcot Forge restaurant in Blue Hill, ME and they have been a big success. I tried a few of her new creations and said my good-bye's for the season, as she heads off to travel the world until March with her chef boyfriend. I'm already looking forward to when she starts up the Cocktail Sundays again next Spring when she comes back to manage one of the excellent, local, organic farms.

Follow up:

My supposed days off, Sunday and Monday, were filled with working on distilling and brewing research, writing, and consulting. Having three or four careers at the same time is getting exhausting. Tuesday we were back at the brewery, putting in some of the final touches. We still have a few more things to wrap up, but are now able to brew beer. Wednesday I got a delivery of another two tons of peach puree to make into brandy when we put the distillery online. Later in the day we did a wet run on the system, boiling water and testing how well everything works. Then we brewed Old Factory Whistle Red Scottish Ale...

I will be on break for a few months while we are closed for the winter, then I'll be back in the Spring.

Now it's time to move on to brewing and distilling full time. Stop by our winery, brewery, and distillery to try our products and keep your eyes open for premium spirits from Penobscot Bay Distillery starting in Summer 2009. Cheers!