StillDragon® Community Forum

Welcome!

Be part of our community & join our international next generation forum now!

In this Discussion

Product & Process Inspiration

If you know me from the other place you'll know I'm always looking for something different or new to try. Since this is a different crowd I'll ask you folks - what inspires you? Where do you look to get ideas for new products/processes, etc. More than just changing the mash bill, really trying to make something new or trying a different setup?

Me - I watch cooking shows to get me to think about different flavors and how to pair them. I've never made Gin or Amari before so I wanted to get past the normal mix to try ingredients that could really bring something different to the table. I also read (a lot) about the science behind spirits and fermenting to understand it better. I also was just in Scotland learning about whiskey and gin there. Fun stuff, made me think about how I do mashing and maybe about changing it.

«1

Comments

  • Ate a salad yesterday the mixed pistachio, mint, and citrus and immediately thought of how it might work in a spirit or cocktail. It was very unique and distinctive.

  • I spent a year living in San Francisco and I become a local at a bar and every night at the end of the night the bartender Roger would pick a whiskey and I had to pick where it was from. So in about 9 months I tried about a hundred or more different whiskeys. As well too I got Darek Bells book and that was a huge inspiration. I am trying different wood combinations but I am allowed to where I live in Argentina. I am still not in commercial production but some different combinations I have tried have been very rewarding, and tasty too.

    As for gin, the same can be said. I was travelling through London a lot and every month I would try a different gin. And I got a copy of a flavor wheel and tried some different combinations with locally available botanicals. Its all good fun.
    As for processes there is more discussion here about processes than almost anything else.

    This community inspires me to learn and get better and just make great booze. One day I hope to know as much as @grim about making whiskey. Maybe I will be able to send him and @Smaug a bottle of my booze.

  • Cooking was my inspiration back in the day as well. I did things like Peaches and Corn, Thai Terror, Turkish Delight etc, these are all documented on Artisan distiller from conception to fruition and a couple are still appreciated to this day.
    Many have made the Thai Terror and love it.

    StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand

  • I put some posts on Artesan distiller website until I put a post saying that I was going to set up my own distillery and these two fuckwits said I had no fucking idea and I was never going to make it. Well I am 5 months away from having my destillery and I have already bought all the gear, I have made about 600 litres of whiskey in tests and 500litres of gin and I have purchased my land with a started shed. I am sure the fuckwits mentioned are still on that website when they are not beating off and watching porn. On this website guys and gals are a lot more helpful and respectful people. Still thats the difference between people who do things (SD webboard) and who spend their spare time hanging on web boards telling people who fucking good they are (AD webboard). Anyway back to work figuring out a US$180MM contractual dispute for a highway in Honduras.

  • Can you post a link mate? I moderate there and have done almost since inception and unless i'm one of the fuckwits mentioned i don't recall much of that attitude as that's why Pint built the place to get away from that shit.

    StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand

  • Can I get back to you in a few hours. Got some work to do mate. It wasnt you mate. I forget who but I stopped logging on there after that. I will have to find my logon. My handle there was DonMateo again from memory.

  • edited July 2019

    Your memory is faulty or you have slammed the wrong forum....

    image

    image.jpg
    697 x 403 - 46K

    StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand

  • I've found spirits really match flavors that are more dessert like. If you look at spiced rum it's very similar to spiced cookies/cake. I'm not sure which came first. I think amaris can influence desserts in a very positive way. I've been asking myself what would gin go well with. I could see a lot of fruit pies with gin or arami with the fruit or in the meringue. I think the aromatics alone would make it awesome. I want to try lemon meringue pie with a strong juniper forward gin with the lemon pudding and then a campari meringue. I might have to try that soon.

    And similarly how I want to make something like a lemoncello but with more stuff but keep it bright. Use it as a base for an amaro. Some anise, cardamom, a dash of cinnamon, ginger, things like that. I think it would be great once I get the ratios down. I have made some lemoncellos but nothing special yet. I need to work on the base first. Then I'll move on from there.

  • I try to find Fijian ingredients and use those to inspire something unique. I’m still learning about fermenting with local resources so even getting an decent neutral is a challenge.

    We did start messing around with local cacao beans today tho and last week we worked on a cucumber vodka (sans rotovap) by building flavor using blending and not extraction.

  • edited July 2019

    @Fiji_Spirits. Now that takes me back to my youth in Fiji and Savusavu your area. I seem to remember as teenagers we used to make an alcoholic drink by cutting a hole in a soursop and adding passion fruit and resealing. A few days later we had a good brew. It might have been jackfruit though.

  • I always wanted to use cacao beans back when i was playing around as they are used as street trees in Tamworth.

    StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand

  • @DonMateo said: I spent a year living in San Francisco and I become a local at a bar and every night at the end of the night the bartender Roger would pick a whiskey and I had to pick where it was from.

    Which bar in SF?

    I'm more like I am now than I was before.

  • @DonMateo said: I put some posts on Artesan distiller website until I put a post saying that I was going to set up my own distillery and these two fuckwits said I had no fucking idea and I was never going to make it. Well I am 5 months away from having my destillery and I have already bought all the gear, I have made about 600 litres of whiskey in tests and 500litres of gin and I have purchased my land with a started shed. I am sure the fuckwits mentioned are still on that website when they are not beating off and watching porn. On this website guys and gals are a lot more helpful and respectful people. Still thats the difference between people who do things (SD webboard) and who spend their spare time hanging on web boards telling people who fucking good they are (AD webboard). Anyway back to work figuring out a US$180MM contractual dispute for a highway in Honduras.

    Still pretty sure you have the wrong website mate, Artisan is a great place (although pretty quiet the last few years)

    StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand

  • @GD50 said: Fiji_Spirits. Now that takes me back to my youth in Fiji and Savusavu your area. I seem to remember as teenagers we used to make an alcoholic drink by cutting a hole in a soursop and adding passion fruit and resealing. A few days later we had a good brew. It might have been jackfruit though.

    I think it woulda have to had been a jackfruit. The soursop is so soft when ripe that there ain’t no cutting a hole and resealing! How ripe was the fruit? Did it have a hard skin?

    I’d love to make something with soursop. Problem comes when you discover no one grows commercial quantities or quality.

    Actually honey is on my list. Fiji jungle honey is pretty unique actually. Really dark and flavorful. Almost like molasses.

    We also have a really great bush lime called Moli Karo. Best way to describe it is if you crossed a lime with a mandarin orange. It’s got great flavor and not super bitter.

  • It must have been the home distiller webpage. Sorry to the Artesan guys. All up it left a pretty bad taste in my mouth and I shut up and just lurked for a long time. And I only started to get back online after I started to get more experience and get closer to realising my ambition. When I set a goal I dont fuck around but then again maybe I am the exception. There are a lot of fakers and pretenders online. The thing I like about SD is a lot of guys here walk the talk. As Master Yoda says do or do not. There is no Try. I dont try to do things and neither do many people here on this board. This is way off topic from the original thread but I am still inspired by the folks on this board. I hope soon to be able to post photos of my distillery and some more of my multiwood aging techniques. I have special steel barrels already fabricated.

  • @Kapea. I used to go to the Royal Exchange on Front and Sacramento for about 14 months from may 98 to about July 99 when I shipped out to a job in Peru at a fucked place called Antamina at 4300m above sea level. Closer to god as they would say. Thats 14000 feet for the non metric folks out there. The mine top was at 5300m or 17000 ft. I only went up there once.

  • @punkin it must have been the home distiller website. I havent checked my log in but its been a while.

  • edited July 2019

    I go to SF 4 or 5 long weekends per baseball season to watch the Giants play. The Royal Exchange is not too far from where I stay when I am there. They've got quite a beer tap selection. I might wander over and check it out when there next.

    I ride my dirt bikes around 3000-3500 meters up a 4,200+ meter tall volcano. Haven't been able to ride much lately though. The local Luddites are trying to stop a new telescope from being built up there, so the DLNR has closed the area I ride in.

    I'm more like I am now than I was before.

  • @kapea if I am ever in Hawaii I will look you up. Yep the Royal exchange was my version of "cheers" great place. I wonder if Roger the bartender is still there. The last time I went through there was about 7 years ago. Actually I have to go to another minesite next month 4700m as well. Yeyy.. I have to get my distillery working.

  • edited July 2019

    @DonMateo said: punkin it must have been the home distiller website. I havent checked my log in but its been a while.

    All good mate, i didn't think it would be Artisan Distiller, we run a pretty tight ship over there (not that anyone usually needs moderation) but the attitude of the management, and therefore the mods and ultimately the users is very similar in structure to here.
    The advantage that this forum has is much more input from the commercial guys that livens things up.

    Plus of course the relentless housework and behind the scenes tech stuff from @Moonshine

    StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand

  • edited July 2019

    Turkish Delight-Development Thread @ AD

    This is the thread where i started development of 'Turkish Delight'. Follows the process described in this thread to a 'T' (intended).

    StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand

  • edited July 2019

    I'm not a fig plucker,
    Nor a fig plucker's son,
    But I'll pluck figs,
    Until that lazy son of a bitch fig plucker decides to drag his lazy ass to work!

    I'm more like I am now than I was before.

  • edited July 2019

    @punkin. Yes mate its all good and I am happy lurking and reading and finally also contributing to this board. Cant wai to get going and post fotos of my distillery, only 6 months to go.

  • @DonMateo said: It must have been the home distiller webpage. Sorry to the Artesan guys. All up it left a pretty bad taste in my mouth and I shut up and just lurked for a long time. And I only started to get back online after I started to get more experience and get closer to realising my ambition. When I set a goal I dont fuck around but then again maybe I am the exception. There are a lot of fakers and pretenders online. The thing I like about SD is a lot of guys here walk the talk. As Master Yoda says do or do not. There is no Try. I dont try to do things and neither do many people here on this board. This is way off topic from the original thread but I am still inspired by the folks on this board. I hope soon to be able to post photos of my distillery and some more of my multiwood aging techniques. I have special steel barrels already fabricated.

    Darn. For a while I though maybe I got upgraded from just wanker to all the way up to fuckwit. I was kinda excited, for a while, anyway.

    I'm betting you had some other forum in mind. We ADers are pretty tolerant, as Punkin said.

    Zymurgy Bob, a simple potstiller

    my book, Making Fine Spirits

  • edited July 2019

    @zymurgybob said: Darn. For a while I though maybe I got upgraded from just wanker to all the way up to fuckwit. I was kinda excited, for a while, anyway.

    Yeah was wondering myself, you nearly went up three ranks in one swoop. Happy enough as a self described poser, oh and sociopath according to home distiller.

    StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand

  • Got me interested enough to go and log in there for the first time in years. Some clever bastard has got the idea to take the Punkin's Muck tried and proven bailey's knock off and put it in a cream whipper for deserts.

    Fucking ace idea!

    StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand

  • @zymurgybob. No it wasnt you it was a couple of other assholes and I am certain it was on Home Distiller. All of the posts I have seen you write have been great. You got me into potstilling both runs on my ongrain ferments. I am a true believer. My first couple of runs I did with my SD 4 plate column. Then I read a post you write about pot stilling and I did two runs with my whiskey helmet and I was converted to potstilling. Anyway as Punkin said there tends to be more guys who are actually producing and have their own distilleries here. I think Home distiller has a few guys who are never going to make it to the big leagues and probably have some issues about the small size of their...... stills. Anyway back to my estimate review. Underground mining, the world of rock apes.

  • Don, I'm with you on the Home Distiller site; Ran across some real pricks, one who was a mod who threatened to kick me if I ever mentioned my boiler again (because it was larger than their self-imposed limit). Seems like some of them are more interested in fighting than conversing.

    Artisan is/was a good site as is ADI. Artisan seems to have shriveled over the years.

    This one and ADI are the only one's I visit (distilling related). I am a regular member on about 6-7 sites unrelated and this one is at the top of member civility. Bunch of classy people here.

    FC

  • Interesting. Regarding people, the one person at ADI whom gets my "goat up" is an obnoxious know it all. Always claims he is originator of all designs, says he is the best, knows it all and always threatens legal action against others whom indicate flaws in his design etc. Guess who. 8-}

  • @floridacracker. Yes mate. Well when I first started looking at home distiller and their size limit was 100litres I think about two weeks later I had ordered a 150l still for gin and a 240 for whiskey. I guess how big your still is does matter to some people. Still its not how big your thing is its how you use it. Ha ha ha ha. I cant wait for my tank guy to finish my 1000l boiler. I would buy SD but you cant put something like that in a suitcase. I know a guy here who bought a chinese still. It cost him US$8000 to buy and US$15k to get it out of customs after it arrived. Anyway thats OT to this thread.

Sign In or Register to comment.