Transcript: Distillery 209 (Part 3)

Cocktails on the Fly
Episode: “Distillery 209 (part 3)”

Alberta Straub: In our last two shows we learned all about what goes into distillery number 209’s world famous gin. From the spirits to the herbs and spices that make its flavor oh so special. Now it’s on to the test lab.
Ah! So what do we have here?
Arnie: These are my practice stills. Here a pair of safety glasses for you.
Alberta Straub: Safety first, that’s always important when alcohol is involved.
Arnie: Mmm hmm, drink responsibly.
Alberta Straub: So Arnie, what are these things?
Arnie: Well, I mentioned our good Hetch Hetchy water but we do take out the chemicals that are put in by the municipality so that’s what these little tanks do and take it right back to snow melt.
Alberta Straub: Ok, snow melt, well, it can’t be more pure than that. And what’s going on here? I see a bubbling cauldron.
Arnie: Yes, this is a distillation I set up for you of bergamot, so I know how much you love bergamot…
Alberta Straub: Are you serious?
Arnie: Yes.
Alberta Straub: Fantastic.
Arnie: SO what we have here is our alcohol and water in a glass version of the big guy over there.
Alberta Straub: Oh my gosh this is wow, its so amazing.
Arnie: So what happens to distillation is you see the little simmering going on. And the alcohol is coming off but it is completely transparent and then just as it starts to cross the lie tube. You start to see when it starts to come back to a liquid form.
Alberta Straub: Ok, wait so hold on. So this is what happens up there only in smaller form and then it comes down through here, and then. Where would the spirit safe be in this setup?
Arnie: Well the spirit safe is right about here.
Alberta Straub: Ok, fantastic. But you don’t have one on this thing do you?
Arnie: No we don’t. This one we can sample. And as it comes across here as a vapor it comes in contact with the chilled water tube in the center here which is made of copper. And copper is very important, because copper takes out the natural sulfides in anything. So it makes for a very clean spirit. And you notice our copper pot still is copper for that reason also among the fact that copper is very good about conducting heat.
Alberta Straub: Now the coil is there something to do, I read about maybe perhaps the surface area type issue or is that…
Arnie: when I created this coil I made it a very tight coil just so we would have a lot of cooling area in here.
Alberta Straub: Ok, fantastic. So you’re telling me that some bergamot spirit comes out?
Arnie: Yeah let’s collect some right now.
Alberta Straub: Oh goody, this I my favorite part of on location.
Arnie: As you can see it is a very slow distillation right now.
Alberta Straub: Lovely, I certainly love the bubbling cauldron part of this, it’s amazing.
Arnie: So here have a nose.
Alberta Straub: Oh that smells so good. Bergamot is fantastic. Is it ok if I taste it?
Arnie: you can taste it its going to be a pretty high alcohol level though.
Alberta Straub: But it’s good. I am a professional don’t try this at home. No but I really taste the bergamot. And one fabulous event that Arnie held was recently he distilled individually each of the spirits, or not the spirits but the botanical elements that he puts in the gin or I guess you add one or two duds that weren’t really in there.
Arnie: Oh quiet possibly.
Alberta Straub: But it was so much fun to actually get an idea of what these things were, sprits of coriander, and spirits of juniper berry. And we got to taste how each one of these tasted distilled. And this is apparently the bergamot this is quiet amazing. And you really learn a lot about how the process you go through is evolved just by kind of simply tasting and smelling. That’s amazing, so you work at these stills all day long. You got some secret things coming out some day soon.
Arnie: Of course yeah. We have got the next generation of products and I am always working on those and when we find something that is interesting we will bring it to the market.
Alberta Straub: Oh, I can’t wait to possibly get some taste test of that, so this is your experimentation station, so as far as the still is concerned, what happens next after that.
Arnie: well we collect all the gin out of the heart of the distillation, and then we let it sit for about three days. Because each different botanical has a different interaction with alcohol and water so you can actually taste the cardamom stage, and you can taste the juniper stage, and the coriander stage. So at the end we stir it all up, make sure it is very well mixed. And we let it sit for about three days, and at that point we are ready to bottle.
Alberta Straub: Fantastic ready to bottle. So how does that happen? Because you know I want a bottle.
Arnie: Yes you do and I will be happy to help you out on that. What we do is put it into one of our bottling tanks, which is one of those tanks on the far side.
Alberta Straub: ok.
Arnie: And we add water to bring it down to our bottle strength.
Alberta Straub: By tanks on the far side you mean, there’s one tank that you started off with but the ones on the end are the…
Arnie: Actually its one of our square tanks right on this side. And we add in our water because the spirit is a much higher proof than we want to actually go to the bottle.
Alberta Straub: Well what are you looking for to go to bottle?
Arnie: We put ninety too proof is what we have 209 at.
Alberta Straub: Ok fantastic.
Arnie: And then when we have got it down to the level that we want we pump it over here to our bottling line.
Alberta Straub: Arnie lets go over here and see what happens. Can I take my glasses off?
Arnie: Yes you can take the glasses off now.
Alberta Straub: Ok Arnie now that we have this fabulous gin and its all done and made how do we get it into the bottles? How do I get it to me in my hot little hands so I can make a cocktail out of it?
Arnie: Well we use our filling line which is right here.
Alberta Straub: This is really neat look at all this equipment.
Arnie: It’s very similar to what you see on television. We have got a rinsing unit over there, we make sure the bottles are clean; they march down the line here. These six wands will go up and the spirit will come in from these hoses and then they will go back in to the bottle and fill up the bottles and then once there filled they will march down the line here.
Alberta Straub: Lovely, lovely.
Arnie: And when we get to this section we will have a cap on the bottle, and we call this little guy NASCAR because it goes Vrrrrr, vrrrr, vrrrr. Just like the race circuit, so that comes down and puts the cap on to its specific height and tightness. This little guy puts a little coat on it so I can always trace back the bottling of the gin that we made.
Alberta Straub: Ok, cool.
Arnie: And it keeps marching down the line here to our sorting table. Where we have several folks help us put it into our boxes.
Alberta Straub: Do you sort it?
Arnie: Well we hand inspect every bottle. And make sure that the quality is there because that’s our motto there actually, the best is good enough.
Alberta Straub: The best is good enough that’s right and we have the best here at 209.
Arnie: So we do a one hundred percent inspection of every bottle and then I put it on our cartons, and it goes on our pallets, and we are ready to send it to the world.
Alberta Straub: Wonderful. Ok, so well there you go the gin is bottled and it is sent out to all of you and me. So we can make our fabulous cocktails. This is distillery 209. Thank you so much for showing us around, I had a great time. I hoe all of you will go out and buy a bottle and try it out for your cocktails because you will enjoy it. Thank you very much I am Alberta Straub and this is cocktails on the fly.
Distillery number 209, they start with premium grade corn based spirit, which is mixed with sierra snow melt. It’s brewed with juniper berries and a mix of coriander, cardamom, and bergamot and other spices and herbs. Maybe, the exact recipe is a secret. The brew is steeped over night, and then is slowly distilled. The test lab is a miniature still. Ingredients are stilled and tested. Then this little gin is bottled and sent around the world, delicious.