Getting the Most From Your Lab Still

Prototype, Scale Recipes, and Test Distilled Spirits With This Essential Distiller’s Tool

Whether you’re evaluating a new grain, prototyping a new recipe, or checking the proof of a liqueur, a lab still can be an essential tool for small distilleries.

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About:

Whether you’re evaluating a new grain, prototyping a new recipe, or checking the proof of a liqueur, a lab still can be an essential tool for small distilleries. In this in-depth course with Jamie Burns of The Family Jones Spirit House in Denver, you’ll learn what they are, how to use them, how to scale recipes from them, how to use them for testing, and more.

Through the course, Burns covers:

  • components of a lab still
  • how to set up and run a lab still
  • how to build recipes that scale up from a lab still to a production still
  • how to use a lab still to check the proof of liqueurs

And more.

Instructor(s): Jamie Burns

Lessons

1. About this Course | Getting the Most From Your Lab Still

What you'll learn over the course of this class on using a lab still.

2. Components of Lab Still | Getting the Most From Your Lab Still

The individual pieces of a lab still, what they do, and other safety and operating equipment necessary for using the still.

3. Setting Up a Lab Still | Getting the Most From Your Lab Still

How to assemble the lab still for safe and functional distilling.

4. Three Principles of Recipe Development in Botanical Spirits | Getting the Most From Your Lab Still

These three techniques form the core of Jamie Burns' process for developing complex botanical spirits.

5. Standardizing to Simplify Recipe Scaling | Getting the Most From Your Lab Still

Learn how to employ standard and consistent measurements and processes for repeatability and scalability.

6. Making a Heads Cut on the Lab Still | Getting the Most From Your Lab Still

Decide when and why to make the cut, and record volume and ABV for repeatability.

7. Building a Recipe With Standardized Individual Concentrated Distillates | Getting the Most From Your Lab Still

Learn how to use standardized measurements to improve repeatability and scalability.

8. The End of Distillation | Getting the Most From Your Lab Still

Making the tails cut and shutting off down the still.

9. Using the Lab Still to Check the ABV of Liqueurs | Getting the Most From Your Lab Still

Use the lab still to find the ABV of liqueurs or cocktails with sugar that might throw off a densitometer.

10. Breaking Down the Lab Still | Getting the Most From Your Lab Still

Disassembling and cleaning the lab still.

11. Resetting the Still and Distilling for Proof | Getting the Most From Your Lab Still

Burns demonstrates the process of using a lab still to check ABV.

12. Conclusion | Getting the Most From Your Lab Still

Wrap up and review of the class.