cheatreynold

Fellow Head Distiller calling in from Canada! Glad to see you love it like I do.

• I'll be honest I just like talking shop, especially equipment. Number of plates in your still? Manufacturer? Do you ferment on or off the grain?
• What's your opinion on which gives a better quality product: fermenting on, or off, the grain?
• The barrier to entry in making Bourbon seems to be really high, even more so as a startup, given the need for new oak barrels. What do you feel you did right to make it work for you?
• Lastly, how is it working with mashing and fermenting corn? We deal with wheat and rye exclusively, and while it's something I'm interested in working with the need for additional equipment (such as a pressure cooker to gelatinize the corn) makes it look cost prohibitive.

Unfortunately it's a slightly further drive than that haha, chiming in from the west coast! Although you can pick a few of our things up at the LCBO should you find yourself in Ontario. No chance you distribute to Washington state? In any case, I'll keep an eye out for your stuff!

That's interesting about the bourbon barrels, don't know why I never considered selling the bourbon barrels as a form of cost recovery. I can only imagine the demand for them! Do you make them yourself or buy them third party?

I feel you on being covered head to toe. We buy our grain pre-milled so very often I find myself fully covered at the end of a mash day. Heaven forbid I start to sweat, then I'm caked in a fun flour paste!

Would you be able to define "crap"? Finings, clarifying agents, and filtration are all well established and documented in their use in both the beer and wine industries. Consistency isn't a bad thing either, though I attribute that to more of a QA program being in place than anything else.

Just curious if I'm missing something that the bigger players use in their processes.

Maybe not High Life (for myself anyways) but something in that style of an American or European Pilsner. You want light body with higher carbonation to cleanse the pallet. There's a reason these kinds of beers (esp. American Pilsner) go so well with your standard pub and arena food; the food is often greasy enough that you need that lift from the carbonation.

Also you can get tired of drinking your own product after a while, so you start to reach for something else. That and taste panel fatigue is very much a real thing.

That's not "crap," that's indicative of the style. Adjuncts are well known to be used in all sorts of places and styles. The American Light, Standard, and Premium lager styles all see the use of corn or rice up to a certain percentage, 30-40%, which has a historical context. And corn/rice isn't just used in macro lagers, you're seeing it used by craft breweries as well. In the end it contributes to fermentable sugar without imparting flavour, leaving a drier finish. So there are legitimate uses in it beyond "macro swill."

You can't legally call a beer "beer" if it doesn't contain 50% malted barley as it's fermentable sugar source. So to say it is used as a bulk of their fermentable sugars is not an accurate statement.

Now, would I drink it? Not personally. I'm not a big fan of high gravity brewing due to the impact it has on the finished product, in that is has an overall lower final RE compared to a single strength equivalent brew. But there's a historical context to, and legitimate uses for, corn and rice in beer. Whether you disagree with macro lager is a completely separate issue.