I'm going to keep it brief this week. It's been hectic up here in Maine for me, and I am heading out for the weekend for a much needed vacation. Maine's nickname is "The Vacationland," so how come I feel like I need to get away to get mine? I thought I had a vacation early this summer around the Fourth of July, but it wasn't as relaxing as I needed. I was so set on relaxing that I never did. Then I was in New Orleans for eight days for Tales of the Cocktail, but that turned out to be hectic work as well. So I'm heading down to the Hampton's on Long Island in New York for the weekend. I'll be seeing some of my oldest friends who I have known since I was in my late teens. It's been a year or two since I last saw some of them and it should be fun.
So it's wine making time for us at Winterport Winery, and bottling time as well. We have been making blueberry wine this week. The wild Maine blueberries are in season and we are making the most of it. These tiny, low bush blueberries have an intense, sweet flavor. Much better than those giant blueberries you see most of the time in the supermarkets. We have had an order placed for a year waiting for harvest time and earlier this week we got our delivery of organically grown wild blueberries. Joan scooped up four quarts for me to take home and packaged up a many more for the rest of the crew. I figure I'll take mine to the party and make blueberry pancakes and preserves for breakfast.
As for bottling, our sparkling apricot wine, Fancy That, became the star at a bottling party Wednesday night. After closing for the day we sat down with a few pizzas and were joined by friends of the winery, come to add a few more pairs of much needed hands. To efficiently bottle the sparkling wine at any type of speed it takes us eight people. A few more would have been better, but at least we had the critical number. This is only the second time we have bottled a sparkling wine and while we have some equipment on order to make it easier, right now it's a pretty exhausting and frazzling process.I'm glad that it was only a couple of hundred gallons that had to be bottled.
Well, most folks have a dry job, but mine is wet. Making, serving, and enjoying fine libations is a hard and trying occupation. If you are one of those dry types, it just isn't your calling. Me, I like it wet. I lived near a dry county once. I shudder to think about it. Yup, I like it wet. But in some things moderation is key. Until recently I wondered what those things were. Now I know. Sometimes it can be too wet. I guess it's time to finally break out the umbrellas.
It's been a dreary week here in Winterport, Maine. Actually a dreary summer is more like it. The weather has been the same as far back as mid-June. Hazy, rainy, humid, hot, wet, yuch. I'm normally like a duck and love wet weather, but some times it gets to be Just Too Much.
One day last week the weather broke and it was a Beautiful Maine Summer Day. Yes, it has to be capitalized. Warm with Cool Breezes, Sunny, Occasional Puffy Clouds Decorating the Skies, the Smell of Green Growing Things All Around and the Scent of the Ocean on the Wind. Not too hot, not too cool, as Goldilocks said, "This is just right." Well, that lasted all of one day.
Building our brewery and distillery is much like building a wall. first you have to lay the foundation. Then the first course of bricks, then corners, edging, etc. If you goof up in one area, it affects the whole thing. So you have to tear it down, correct the problem or make the change, and start all over again. As you can see above, we are taking apart every piece of equipment, one by one, and cleaning sterilizing them, replacing any wort out or broken parts, and putting them back together.That specific piece of equipment with the parts laid out on the floor is the diverter and chilling plate. It's the arteries and veins of the whole brewery. By placing the elbow joints in various configurations we can send water or wort (freshly brewed but unfermented beer) to any piece of equipment such as fermenters, filters etc. and heat or chill it.
Well, this has been an intense week. As I mentioned, a few weeks ago we got out federal brewery permit, but the state permit is the one that makes us official. On Tuesday the state inspector came, and even though we still have lots of work to do before we can start brewing, we now have our state and federal brewery permits and are an official micro-brewery. Hooray! Now we just have to locate the rest of the equipment we need and finish putting it all together. Then we can work on recipes for our beers.
Once the brewery is up and running it won't take much at all to finish off the distillery. Of course the simple, small distillery I imagined at the start of this whole journey, is nothing compared to what is in store. One small still is rapidly becoming two, then three...
It's been a long week for me since I last wrote in my journal and Tales of the Cocktail beat me silly. I had a great time but got laryngitis and a cold, and my camera was acting up on me for a while, so I have only a few photos out of hundreds that I took. Finally, my travels home were a complete disaster. A half day trip turned into a multi-day epic. I was pulled off several planes because they broke down, had numerous ones rescheduled, sat on runways for hours, and didn't get anything to eat for 40 hours; just a few glasses of water. (The last is probably not a bad thing, in N'awlins overeating great food is easy.) There were a few times I wish I had Dorothy's ruby slippers because I wanted to be home sooo bad.
There is absolutely nothing worse than having to travel when ill, and then get rescheduled. Last time this happened I was quite ill after returning to the US from a voyage around the world. I got stuck in a blizzard and it took several days to get home, all the while shivering in unheated airports. I ended up losing my hearing for several weeks and so sick i was in bed for three months. Well, at least this trip wasn't as horrific; just maddening.
Usually I'm quite happy to receive lots of goodies at events, although it is starting to get a bit more difficult to impress me. Well, Tales of the Cocktail certainly did! Sadly, I got sooo much schwag that I had to give most of it away or leave it for housekeeping at the hotel. The above photo is less than one days worth of stuff! By the way, there is a difference between swag and schwag, and what I got was a nice mix of the two. I kept the Plymouth Gin tips clock, the cool tiki cocktail stirrers, a bunch of nice notebooks and cocktail books, cocktail kits, and the dozen Riedel crystal spirits glasses; which were a nuisance to get home but much appreciated.
As I wrote last week I had several friends in town on vacation. We traveled all over and ate our way up and down the coast. I ditched the camera for awhile so I could stay in the moment so I can't show you most of our meals, except for one day when we stuffed ourselves on local specialties. Maine Lobsters and Glidden Point & Pemmaquid oysters. I had a specific request from Joe Distefano for raw oysters, a favorite of his in hot weather, and it sure has been warm out the past week.
So we took off on a drive to get the best and freshest. We went direct to Glidden Point Oyster Sea Farm and picked up a dozen fresh Glidden Point's that had been in the water just a few hours earlier. Then to Oyster River Lobster Company for some Pemmaquid oysters and eight 1.5 lb. soft shell lobsters. (Remember Oyster River Lobster Company? I wrote about their famous Blue Lobster and their amazing Lobster Pies.)
When we got home I shucked the oysters and steamed up the lobsters and we set down to a feast. Just a word of warning. If you take several guys away from their girlfriends for a week, add in several bottles of cold and crisp white wine, and good food; it can get rather silly out.
Gallery: Diary of a Distiller: Chapter Nine - Lobsters and Oysters
Since I last updated my journal I have supposedly been on vacation. Different groups of friends came to visit and so at first it was work, as I gave them in-depth tours and tastings at the winery and brerwery. I helped out a bit at the same time by doing some tastings for visitors, because everyone else was busy as can be. Mike, Joan, Jody, and Fred were making deliveries, bottling wine, disassembling and cleaning the new brewery equipment, researching what other odds and ends of stuff we need to replace, locating manuals and technical info on the brewing system, etc.
A few mornings I let my guests sleep in and helped tidy up the brewery/distillery. Mundane things like sorting through garbage for nuts and bolts, valves, gaskets, and anything else that might conceivably be of use. The previous owners of the equipment had to move everything out fast from the old location and some important odds and ends had somehow made it into garbage bags topped with refuse. I'm glad that we ended up with a few of the garbage bags, even if it it wasn't pleasant to dive into them, because solid stainless steel valves, tubes, etc. are quite pricey and it was worth it to save every one we can.
On Independence day my buddies Joe and Rob joined me for a weeks vacation, and we went in to Bangor to for the parade during the morning and the fireworks at night. I've been to quite a few great, small town parades since I moved to Maine a little over a year ago. This wasn't one of them. It was a bit mellower than I expected but still interesting. I always like to take some great photos of characters in the crowds dressed in weird outfits, or some candid shots of overwhelmed kids, harried parents, and calm seniors enjoying the sights.
Happy Independence Day Everyone, and X-mas in July too!
Well if it isn't one thing it's another. We have been at a standstill in building The Distillery, again. We've been back ordered for six weeks on delivery of a large, low pressure, multi-ring propane burner to heat the still. The large size we need limits us, and seems to be unavailable in the US, except from one company who imports them from overseas. I have been looking to order a smaller, temporary version that I hope to use for when we build the stills heating unit, called the firebox. It is going to be basically a brick oven that heats the still from below with a direct propane flame. Since we are a commercial space with an indoor set-up we want safety to be the #1 priority. So our firebox has to be well ventilated with an outside air intake and a flue to exhaust the unit up through the roof like a chimney on a fireplace.
I have also been searching like crazy on the Internet for stainless steel fermenting tanks and other pieces of equipment that I hope to get cheap. They're hard to find and expensive, and we need them so we can finish building the rest of the distillery, and maybe get a small bit of brewing done as well. Our brewery permit should come through in the next few weeks and we want to make a small batch of beer for the fun of it. We don't really plan on being a full scale brewery at this time because the equipment is so expensive. So we hope to pick up odds and ends, here and there, over the next few years. I'd love to have a full scale brewery as well as the distillery, but just don't see it happening any time soon.
Last week I was warned by my partners, Mike and Jody, that on Monday I had to have my camera and be ready for a road trip. They wouldn't say where or why, but that I could only make one phone call, if I even had cell phone service. Then they clammed up and wouldn't say more, letting me stew on it all weekend.
Some times you need to work like mad, other times you want to just chill out and wallow around enjoying life and making a pig of yourself. Today started like the former, and ended up the latter. Or was it the other way around?
Since I last wrote in my journal it has been bottling time at the winery. We had several batches that were ready to go and so we decided to get as much done in one fell swoop as possible. I've bottled wine a few times here at Winterport. Usually Jody and I retire to the basement and work our way through a pallet or so of cases of bottles. This time it was a bit more systematic and speedy because Mike was on the bottling line with us. Mike and Jody have it down to a science. They are such good friends, and done this so many times, that they can anticipate each others thoughts and needs. So I have to try and fit into the scheme.
Today I worked the filling and corking stations. It starts at my left with a pallet of bottles where I would grab a case and quickly, but carefully turn them upside down on a wood counter. I was scared at first that they would break, but now it's no problem. The bottles end up standing at attention ready to grab and fill. I toss the box over to the end of the filling line, ready to pack up again later. Two more cases soon join the first ,and it's time for the next step. I grab a bottle in each hand, placing first one then the other top down over a air nozzle which blasts out any dust or glass chips. Then put them into the filler. Our bottle filler holds six at a time, grouped in pairs, and as a set are filled I pull them out, again one in each hand, and place them into the automatic corker machine. Finally I line them up so that Jody, who is to my right, can label them. It took a time or two for me to get smooth and efficient at this, but now I find that if I think about what I am doing, I get confused, and sometimes skip a step. So I go on autopilot and think about other things.
At the next station Jody quickly and smoothly feeds them into the label machine and pulls them out, lining them up to his right with the front label facing away. I asked if he wanted to switch stations for awhile but Mike warned me that he defers to Jody when it comes to running the labeler. It's a finicky machine and they told me that until you get real friendly with it, you stand a chance of getting your fingers caught in the rollers a few times, a painful experience. Knowing my luck it will be just moments before I get my fingers rolled for the first time. I'm a quick study and pick things up fast, but I also have a tendency to try to figure out better and more efficient ways to do things. Occasionally I find that the old way is the best way, usually by some minor but painful learning experience. I still have some cuts and scrapes on my hands and shins from my last learning experience, so I decide to wait a week or three before tackling the labeler.
Wine a bit, you'll feel better! We do! As junior man on the Winterport totem pole I am constantly having to be reminded to wine a bit and enjoy myself. Sometimes I have 17 different things going on and setting apart some time for fun falls to the wayside. I'm constantly worrying about back ordered equipment, monetary deadlines, and so much more; and that's just for the distillery. Then there are my writing and consulting gigs, traveling to events, and staying connected with all the big things and new trends coming out of NYC and the rest of the world. It's completely overwhelming at times, so every now and then I have to remember to pick up a glass of wine and say "Skoal!"
Last week I mentioned that I had been on several radio spots. The past week I was down in NYC, and ended up back on Mike Colamecco's Food Talk show on WOR radio taping several shows about artisanal spirits and basic introductions to rum, gin, and cocktails. Mike had recently been turned on to the world of cocktails, so that was a good topic to chat about since I was in New York for several cocktail events, including Jonathan Pogash's Summer Cocktail workshop at the Astor Center; which was excellent. So we had a nice talk about cocktails and he invited me to come back later this summer to do a few shows on the Cocktail Revolution, the New Golden Age of Cocktails that started around 6-7 years ago, an area I have been focusing on the past few years. You can check out the archives at WOR to hear many interviews with top food and beverage experts, and hopefully several interviews that I did, that will be playing over the next few weeks.
When I got back to the winery / distillery everything was quiet since we are waiting on back orders of equipment, and so construction is delayed, again, like usual. Last Saturday morning I wandered around taking photos of the outside of the facility and our retail store. It's Spring in Maine, what is usually called early summer elsewhere in the US, and the trees are starting to get lush and flowers are blooming. The Penobscot River's stately flow down to the bay ebbs and flows quite radically with the tides. We are ten miles up from the ocean, but still get tides of around 12.5 feet. Winterport got its name because it was exactly that; a winter port to keep ships safe from the violence of Nor'easters, those intense storms that come in from the North East off of the Atlantic. They're like a winter version of a hurricane at times, although they can form at any time of year. Here's a glimpse of our building, the view of the Penobscot River across the street, our retail store, and the art gallery. The building doesn't look like much right now after a hard winter, but we'll spruce it up a bit when we get the chance. You'll be surprised by the inside and we're mighty proud of our place.
Gallery: Diary of a Distiller: Chapter Five- Winterport Winery Outside & Store
As the week progressed we started focusing on the monthly food & wine dinner at Pairings Food & Wine Education Center. The June dinner had an Asian theme and Chef Robert Waldron planned a tasty menu for the sold out event. Let's see if it makes your mouth water as much as mine. Continued after the jump...
So, last week I showed you a gallery of photos of us framing out walls, putting up drywall, prepping them, and priming the paint. This week I will show you how we painted the future Penobscot Bay Distillery & Brewery at Winterport Winery. Because we have windows on the second floor of Pairings Food and Wine Culinary & Education Center looking down into the distillery, we decided to splash a little color around. The main outside wall we left a nice crisp white. This wall is where we will have all the equipment stationed and a plain and simple background will be best to showcase all the copper, stainless steel, and brick nicely.
The interior as a whole was mind-numbingly bright and white. I felt like an Oompa Loompa in Willy Wonka's factory working in the TV Room. (Especially the Gene Wilder version, which I feel caught the original book better than the Depp version.) It was scary how white and bright the room was, so we decided to splash some color around. We looked at color chips for a week or so, and then went with ones that we felt portrayed the image of various of the "Brown" spirits. Scotch, Bourbon, Rye, Cognac, Rum, etc. Then we threw a pair of accent lamps on the wall with aim-able lights to leave on at night for a soft glow of the equipment.
Yes, I know this is a commercial /industrial facility. But I'm the one who is going to have to be in there for hours and hours each day. So much so, that I am setting up a office in the distillery so I can write and do other business while the still chugs along. With distilling slow is good, but since a run can take twelve hours I need some way to keep my sanity. So an interesting and calming paint job, plus the ability to kick back and write for you guys, seems to be a working solution. Of course there was another reason we wanted to have a nice paint job for the facility... Continued after the jump. ;-)>
In the past few weeks I have complained about how we have been held up for months waiting for the gas lines to be installed. Well they finally were. A simple job that took them three hours, but a several month wait for them to show up. Now at last we can finish ordering equipment and building the facility.
The distillery didn't look like much when we first started construction back at the beginning of February 2008. It had been a storage room for holding bottles and equipment for Winterport Winery and was just a big, barely used space with half finished walls, some painted and others just framed out.
As you see above in the rough blueprint of the floor plan, the facility is a decent size, but not too large. It's apx. 13x44 feet with a few extra areas at the front end under some stairs for storage and at the rear for sinks and a refrigerator for yeast and other supplies that need to be kept cool. We were in no rush with the construction, because, although I had ordered the still in mid-December, it wouldn't be built and delivered until the end of March. But I was still in a hurry to try and get things done, although so many things were out of my control that I was totally stressed out all the time. To find out more, read on after the jump.
Below is a photo gallery of the start of the project. It shows framing and painting walls, and installing a special, explosion proof fan for evacuating volatile fumes. Installing the fan are my partners, Mike Anderson at the top of the ladder, and Jody Connor holding it for him. A friend, Fred, is priming a wall in one photo.
In the beginning of this journal, Diary of a Distiller, I told you a little about my early life, and how I entered the world of food, wine, and fine spirits. As I mentioned, I became disillusioned with my life and plunged into the world of food and beverages. I started a journey and as I walk down this road I hope that the bricks become yellow, then golden; and don't just crumble away.
I'm still working hard on my still as I told you last week, buffing it to a mirror shine. I put some fancy and expensive protective finish on the Georgia Ridge Rocket still head and the top of the kettle to see how it looks. It's not perfect. You don't have the same intensity of a mirror shine or that silky, sexy smooth, almost oily texture, as you run your hand along it, as there is without the protective coat; but it still looks darn good.
I put the whiskey head on the kettle to hold it steady and started buffing that as well. About an hour later, when I was halfway through I decided to clean it off with some denatured alcohol to see how much of a shine I have. It was looking very nice when I noticed that some of the alcohol had dripped down onto the part of the kettle that I had already sealed and the finish was starting to turn white. I grabbed a cloth to wipe the alcohol off and realized that the alcohol had dissolved the sealant completely. Aaaargh!
Diary- di•a•ry Function: noun A record of events, transactions, or observations kept daily or at frequent intervals: journal; especially : a daily record of personal activities, reflections, or feelings
Distiller- dis•till•er Function: noun One that distills, especially alcoholic liquors
This is my journal as I enter into the spirit-ual realm, whereby I become a distiller of fine libations. As I write this I am sitting at my desk in what is rapidly becoming my very own distillery and brewery. The Penobscot Bay Distillery & Brewery to be precise. Named such because it is located on the Penobscot River in Winterport, Maine; near where it spills into the rugged but lush, island studded Penobscot Bay. The beauty of which has charmed me from when I was a child and visited the Coast of Maine every summer, through my adulthood as I dreamed of one day living here.
Over the next few months I invite you read my Diary of a Distiller as I go through the journey of building an artisanal micro-distillery and brewery, creating fine spirits and ales for like minded folks to enjoy. I don't guarantee every bit of it will be about food, wine, or spirits; but this journal as a whole is focused on my travels in those directions. A new chapter will be posted every Friday, plus an occasional mid-week one as well.
Chocolate-stuffed bananas on the grill
Tyler Florence welcomes new daughter
Beware kids' menus!
