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  • HOME
  • BLOG
  • LEARN BASICS
    • MINI DICTIONARY
    • BASE MATERIAL
    • CONVERSION
    • FERMENTATION
    • DISTILLATION >
      • A DISTILLATION TOUR BY ROBERT SCHROETER
    • NON ALCOHOLIC SPIRITS?
    • GRAIN BASED SPIRITS >
      • BAIJIU
      • KORN
      • SOJU
      • SHOSHU
      • VODKA
      • WHISKY INTRODUCTION >
        • SCOTTISH WHISKIES
        • US WHISKEYS
        • IRISH WHISKEYS
        • WHISKEYS FROM THE WORLD
    • HERBS AND SPICES FLAVORED SPIRITS >
      • ANIS FLAVOURED SPIRITS
      • AQUAVIT
      • BITTERS & AMARO
      • JUNIPER BASED SPIRITS >
        • JUNIPER BERRIES
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        • GENEVER
      • LIQUEUR AND CREME
      • VERMOUTH
    • FRUIT BASED SPIRITS >
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      • GRAPES BASED SPIRITS >
        • ARMAGNAC
        • BRANDY DE JEREZ AND LESS KNOWN BRANDIES
        • COGNAC
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  • MEET MAKERS
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    • CHRIS MONTANA
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    • STEFAN ZIMMERMANN
    • THERESA BULLMANN
    • KOENEN AND VOLLMAR
    • FLORENT BEUCHET
    • ROLAND BARICS
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  • VISIT DISTILLERIES
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    • DSM, BERLIN
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    • KING'S COUNTY, BROOKLYN
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A VISIT TO THE VAN BRUNT STILLHOUSE DISTILLERY, BROOKLYN

Welcome to the Van Brunt Stillhouse Distillery in Red Hook, Brooklyn!

It is surprisingly easy to find the distillery in this hard to reach by public transport area : it is just behind Ikea. Should you not have a car : take the Ikea shuttle, not only will you have the chance to see the Statue of Liberty one more time but you will be brought very close to you real destination.
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What is the history and who is behind it?
The distillery was created in 2012 by Daric Schlesselman who worked at the Daily show. The first product was a Due North Rum, which I didn't get to taste as our conversation focused on Whiskeys during my visit.
Why "Van Brunt" ? Cornelius Van Brunt was one of the founding fathers of Breukelen (which became Brooklyn). He farmed the land along the Gowanus Creek (close to Red Hook).

The distillery is on the first floor/ground floor of a industry building. It is rather compact, the maturation barrels area, the bar and the distillery area must occupy around 100 sq meters.
How do they work? What about the base material?
The grain is coming at 85/90% from a farm in Finger Lakes. It is a compulsory factor  when you operate under a New York Farmer's Distilling License to have at least 75% of the grain coming from New York State.

When the grain arrives, the first step is milling. It will create the grist.
How do they proceed ? First the grains are weighed, then milled (separately) and then ground in the grain hopper located outside (see picture on the right and left side below).
They use 1 ton of grains per batch, the weigh is important because the recipe is done by weight and not by volume.
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This is where the grain is miiled
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This is also where grinding takes place
Corn is smoked before being ground, in the little oven trays below before undergoing the same process as above.
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This is where corn is smoked.
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The wort is about to become one when cooking starts and heat added to the process. The grains are pumped into a conversion tank in the next room (inside) and the conversion starts. Remember that step ? If not, check here.

Water is added to the mash along with enzymes (amylase in malt) and it converts starch into sugar. The ending product is the wort.

This process takes between 6 hours for a single malt to 16 hours for a Bourbon.
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Where conversion is happening
When the conversion is over, the wort is pumped into the fermentation tank below. It is when yeast are added (they seem to develop their own strain of yeast, but use commercial ones too). The mash/wort is cooled down to allow yeast culture to develop.
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Whre fermentation is happening

After 4 to 5 days fermentation, it is time to start distillation. They work with an hybrid still, half pot, half column.  They use the pot still to "strip" the liquid, they call it the "stripping run" it isolate alcohol from grain. They obtain what they call "low wines".
The second run uses both the pot still and the column still for what they call a "spirit run". After 6 hours a clear white dog is ready to become many things...
Look at their beautiful German still from Carl (below).
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When distillation is achieved, the white dog is filtered and goes into 15 gallon car boys (like demi john transparent glass container) and will then be barreled according to the category (new charred barrel for Bourbon, etc etc)


Look at their maturation barrels.
They use 10, 15, and 25 gallon barrels, the later for Bourbon only.

When the whiskeys are considered ready by the master blender, it will be dilluted (filered Brooklyn tap water) and bottled.
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What Spiritsfully liked about this visit:

How welcoming and passionate they all were. And they are craftmen definitely providing their customers with an handcrafted spirits.

SITE MAP TO FIND YOUR WAY

SPIRITS FAMILIES
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Plant based spirits
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Flavored spirits
Herbs and spices based spirits
(anis-based, raki, ouzo, pastis, liqueur, creme de liqueurs, vermouth, gin, genever, aquavit, juniper based spirits)

URBAN DISTILLERIES TOURS
Du Nord Craft Spirits
La Distillerie de Paris
Van Brunt Stillhouse Distillery
King's County Distillery
Industry City
Preussiche Spirituosen Manufaktur (PSM)
Deutsche Spirituosen Manufaktur (DSM)
Mampe

SPIRIT MAKING
Base material
Conversion
Fermentation
Distillation
INTERVIEWS OF DISTILLERS
Robert Schroeter
Florent Beuchet
Franziska Bischof
Theresa Bullmann
Stefanie Drobits
Pati Hertling
Theo Ligthart

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Roland Barics
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WARNING
ALWAYS ENJOY WITH MODERATION ! DRINK MINDFULLY !
MOREOVER YOU MUST BE OF LEGAL DRINKING AGE WITHIN YOUR COUNTRY OF RESIDENCE TO ENTER THIS SITE (It will make us feel a whole lot better).
IF NO SUCH LAWS EXIST IN YOUR COUNTRY YOU HAVE TO BE OVER 21 TO VISIT THIS SITE.

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