StillSmart

I went over to Holland this weekend to meet up with a guy who you might know off home distiller called Odin, great guy and damn ive learnt a lot about distilling even to the point of aging and esters.

Had a go on the automated stills he builds and they are incredible, how they take the cuts stop the still at a certain temp etc.

Have you got a link to Odins automated stills?

http://www.istill.eu

There you go, he doesn't target home distillers but his 50 is perfect for it. He had some of his larger stills and they were lovely and could automatically take cuts

I'd love to do the rum day...but he want's you to take the moonshine first...that starts to add up then.

Well I had signed up for the whisky course as he asked me a few questions about what he thought my experience was and he said that enough to take the course above. But there was a group of people who dropped out so it just left three of us which meant we got a tailor made course. He did a lot of focus on the areas of confusion including Cuts and how depending on how much of the hears and tails you take depends on the flavour you want etc.

I would definitely recommend the course, although I do understand the financial part of it as I love holland anyway so stayed two nights and with flights and the train etc is does add up, my girlfriend kindly decided to add it up and said it was about £500.

But he did say that he is sending a lot of these stills to the uk and quite a few to scotland, and when I asked how are they getting a licence for a 50l still he said the HMRC seem to adjusting their position of the minimum still size you can run to get a licence.

Those old fashioned guidelines about still size don't really count anymore, at the time they where introduced, it was to stop stills being taken into the woods at weekends, most people these days setting up small, so called bespoke Gin dislierries are only operating on a rectifiers licence from HMRC, it's much easier to get as your not dislling from a wash, you just buy in neutral spirit and re-distill it with some
Botanicals.

It amazes me how some of these companies can charge so much for so called bespoke Gin, when they haven't really been in control of the whole process of making the spirit from start to finish.

All they've done is but some cheap neutral, probably from a whiskey distilery somewhere that obviously can't wait 10 years for its whisky to age before making a profit, and re distilled it with a few juniper berries and are knocking it out at £60 a bottle!!

Rant over! Sometimes when you start typing, you've no idea where you'll end up lol.

On the other hand I'd quite like to attend one of Odins courses, I once looked into courses here in the UK and the prices where astronomical to say the least.

Anavrin, and Ice too.
I have respect for most of Odin's work.
Just what advice do you think he can sell you for £500 that you can't figure for yourself, find here or live without?
Or haven't already picked up reading online?

A little rant of my own there.

I have read on this subject until my eyes ached, and I have physically tried many washes,and various stills.
I am not trying to distill for commerce.

Every so often I give myself the Carrot and Stick.

A lot less expensive

Robert.

Me and my mate are booked onto this course on 4th June! Can't wait!!!

I met him at the craft distilling expo last year in London village he's a good guy and the stills are very clever

He also supplies very nice barrels something I need to follow up

You guys are right about the gin explosion even people like sipsmiths with 100s of thousands of pounds worth of shiny still gear from Carl are mainly rectifying

Nice product though and cleverly marketed along with many who are following suit and yes very expensive for what it is

Some guys are using this as a stepping stone for other products that need age and other methods

If anyone wants to try a genuine gin made from scratch try William Chase distillery who use cider as the base I think...very tasty

Ooooo what a good idea. I have a freezer full of apples. Was thinking about a mosel wine.

Whats the flavour profile like?

Seagull wrote:Me and my mate are booked onto this course on 4th June! Can't wait!!!

Lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky bastards.......

Phantom wrote:

Seagull wrote:Me and my mate are booked onto this course on 4th June! Can't wait!!!

Lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky bastards.......

I am already looking at booking another visit once I feel confident in using the information that I learnt at this course.

OMG it is SO close!

Sitting in Gatwick pub now like an excited kid!

Already seen an A380 (king of the skies)

Can't wait to learn loads from Odin :-)

What an absolutely brilliant day!

Arrived yesterday and went to find the venue to get our bearings. Odin was there and invited us in for a drink and a chat. I could listen to him for hours - so much good stuff to learn!

Had our course today and it exceeded all my expectations. A brilliant day. The iStill is one sexy piece of kit. I so want one of the 50s now!

I would 1000% recommend this course to anyone. You'll learn loads and have a great time doing it!

There's a distilling convention in London in October. I'm so going now. Can't wait!

Now I'm off to Amsterdam!

I'm so glad you had the same experience as me! Where did you end up staying?
The 50 is an awesome bit of kit and there's the option to get a 100l boiler but use the same column