The start of an interesting journey!

17 April 2013
Hi guys and girls out there! I am very excited about all this! Starting a Blog about my adventures in distilling technology. I will try to make an update every few days. Well, if I have something to report, that is. "Telling about distilling? Isn't that like ... illigal, maybe?" you might want to ask. But it isn't. I mean distilling is only legal with the right paper work. Government approval, taxation administration, that kinda stuff ... At least, that's how it works in most countries. But talking about distilling, sharing opinions, offering parts to designated distilleries that's all perfectly legal. So let's get started! Where? At the beginning. Do you know how I became interested in distilling? On holidays in Hungary. A country where homedistilling is legalized, by the way. I drank some homemade Hungarian brandy (called Pálinka). And sometimes I drank a bit more than just a bit. At one place the homemade stuff was great, at another family it was as if I was drinking terpentine. Or worse. Luckily a friend of mine had a solution for bad tasting brandy. He would just poor some honey in, mix it, and make even the badest drink taste quite acceptable. I wanted to know more, went to the internet, typed something like "making distilled spirits taste good" in Google, and before I knew it, I was reading about "making distilled spirits yourself". Remember, we are talking Hungary here, where homedistilling is allowed. Now at first nothing much made any sense. But I got lucky again. My wife's uncle used to be the master distiller of a big likker company. Retired now, but still making his own. Right, the good stuff. So I asked him, and he answered me, and my learning curve went up. Learning more about distilling has been my passion ever since. And now I want to take that passion one step furter and use my knowledge and the contacts I have made all around the world to help make a small difference. My little contribution or payback for all who shared their knowledge with me. If I succeed, that is. How? By talking about distilling and by making products available for pro distillers who want only the best. By means of a website / webshop that will be launched in just a few weeks time. Products that I hope will take the noble art of distilling a step further in terms of quality or at least in ease of use. For distilling, I quickly learned, is not easy. It is a labour intensive craft, where the biggest challenge is not just to get results, but to get repeatable results. A distiller that wants to make a good drink, wants to be able to make it over and over again. Now that's a challenge. How I want to help distillers to address that challenge? By providing them with the best information and products available on the market place. And if we can't find what you are looking for? Well, then we will develop and test it ourselves. So, do you want to join me on this voyage? I can't guarantee success. Hey, we might even end up ship-wrecked. But it will be an interesting voyage, that I can promise you!

Odin

Comments (6)
Yes, I love to travel, specialy when distilling is a part of it! Great step this blog, can't wait to see the webshop!
Henk
17 April 2013
Hi Henk, nice to hear from you! How are the preparations on your artisan distillery proceeding? Any news or updates ... please share!
Odin
17 April 2013
Nice Blog Odin. I'll be following along attentively to your adventures. Cheers!
Jimbo
17 April 2013
Wow, made it all the way to the start if the iStill Blog :D A bit like reading a book backwards, but what a great read. From humble beginnings to the leading still manufacturer in the world. Quite an achievement!
John Koorn
29 August 2020
Haha, how many hours did that take? Just reread this post. Funny to see how repeatability is already the issue that needs solving. And that - at the moment of writing this - the current outcome wasn't like a certainty, to say the least!
Odin
29 August 2020
I think it took an hour or two a day, for about a month. Mind you, it was also very inspirational. Very glad that you took that first step :)
John Koorn
30 August 2020