Ray Distillery: from Passion to Profession!

>> An interview with Raymond van Schaik by Adam Janicsak <<

Let’s start with an introduction! Who are you and from where do you come to the distilling world?

I am Raymond van Schaik, 44 years old, living in the Netherlands, in a city called Papendrecht. My distilling project has started during covid actually. I was always at home, couldn’t go to my work and from there on I began looking into distilling. I already had an appreciation for whiskey and I was thinking, how is it made? That’s when my journey with this project - which I call ‘from passion to profession’ - has started. I am currently still in the passion state, as it is more of a hobby, but it is slowly growing bigger as time goes.

Every project starts small and passion brings success later down the road! Are you selling your whiskey already or making it for yourself at this stage?

I am making it for myself. I am a one man team at the moment.

How was it to learn everything by yourself and starting from zero?

I was super excited to be honest when I bought the iStill Mini and saw the mail with the access to the course popping up in my mailbox. It was already the middle of the day, but I just finished it in one go. There was so much new information, I did not want to stop. The best thing about it is that you can revisit it anytime, it is always there.

Exactly, you can refresh your knowledge at any point you need. Do I see it correctly behind you that you made an upgrade to the 50 liter boiler?

Yes, I started with 10 liters, then ended up with 50. It is a more practical volume size for me. I already made a business plan with this size and I think that I can make it work as a micro or nanodistillery and be profitable.

Very determined, I like that! I hope it will be a success. What product(s) are you making with your Mini?

Like I already mentioned, I am a huge fan of whiskey, so that is my main goal to produce. This also brings me to the biggest problem, because as you know, the whiskey has to sit in a barrel for 3 years, so it is not something that you can sell right away. I am working on first perfecting my whiskey before making other kinds of beverages. Brandy and malt wine I have tried and I want to use the malt wine in some way, maybe to give extra flavor, I just haven’t figured it out yet.

Can you walk me through a week of yours and explain your approach to distilling?

If I would be able to operate like a business, I would run it every day. Unfortunately, that is not possible at the moment, as I have a full time job elsewhere. My routine nowadays starts on Sunday, when I make a mash with a separate machine. On Monday I add the yeast to it, let the fermentation run for 5 days and on Saturday I do the distillation. It is a repeating cycle, so actually I complete one run every week. As you know, whiskey has to be distilled two times, so every first run I collect in a tank and I only do the second distillation when I have 50 liters again.

That’s quite efficient then. As you mentioned, so far you are making these drinks for yourself. When are you planning to introduce your whiskey to the public?

There is still more than 1 year left from the 3 years long barrel aging process, so sometime after it is done and I have a good amount of finished product. I put some whiskey in smaller caskets for a few months, to be able to get an idea about how it will taste in the end. The whiskey from these caskets I bottle for myself, and the barrel aged spirit is going to be sold once it is ready to be bottled. I cannot wait to have it, so once a year I take the lid off the barrel to pour a little for myself.

Yeah I can imagine that 3 years of waiting is intense, but once the first batch is ready, you are good to conquer the market! Do you give a sample to friends/family members from the casket aged spirit? What feedback do you get?

They really enjoy it! That is why I was thinking that maybe I can do something with it on a business level. When family members, friends or colleagues visit me they often ask me to pour them a glass from my own whiskey, so that feels great. I have my own label and bottles as well now, so everything is prepared for when the whiskey has served its time in the barrel!

It is all planned out I see! I am glad iStill can be a part of this journey. Were your expectations matched with the still? How does it feel actually using it compared to when you were just reading about it?

Yes, I did a big research when I realized that distilling is something that I might also be able to do and ended up with iStill. I loved the course, Odin is an awesome presenter who made everything very clear even for a beginner, like me. In my job I am a specialist in logistics, where I am constantly looking for automation and innovation, so I always keep an open mind and this technology convinced me quickly to not go with the traditional copper stills. Even though I like the history behind them and how they look, you just can’t beat the iStill. I know I made the right choice.

Do you have any feedback for us? Maybe things that you would like us to improve in the future?

99.9% it is all a positive experience really. The reason why I wanted to do this interview is because I am on the hobby side and just wanted to stick my head up and say: come on guys, you can do this! It is a very enjoyable and nice thing to do, I hope the iStill Mini gets the love it deserves. I am always looking forward to seeing more updates about the automated version that was teased a while ago on the blog. So my only advice is to keep up the good work and I hope to see that version being released soon!

Yes, it is a work in progress. I am not sure when it is getting a release, as we are busy with other things at the moment, which I cannot reveal, but hopefully it will be coming sometime down the road. What are some milestones that you are proud of achieving in your learning curve? When did you feel that you finally figured it out and had a solid recipe?

It is a slow, but always rewarding process, because every time you get a little bit better and understand more than before. I think in the first few times I ended up with only about 5 liters of spirit in the end, so I was not satisfied with that result. Nowadays I am able to get 10 liters out, and it is getting better with every run. I feel like I reached the level where I am confident in the processes. There are still tiny things that I can improve of course, but overall I am happy with how things are looking right now. A great milestone was the first bottle, which I keep to myself on the shelf at home. That is really special.

That’s great and you are just getting started. I hope that the future brings success to you! What are your short-term and long-term plans that you are focusing on at the moment?

Like I said, my motto is ‘from passion to profession’ and my goal is not to open a big distillery, like Jameson or whatever. I want to keep it small, to have something for myself that I can be proud of. A nano or microdistillery, where I can do my passion and make some money with it as well at the end of the day. Hopefully one day I can quit the job that I am doing now and switch over to running my own distillery full time. I don’t really have deadlines or milestones linked with certain timeframes, it is going to happen at its own speed. I always tell myself that it will come.

For sure, if you keep up this enthusiasm and passion that you have, you will get there sooner or later.

The biggest problem for me right now is that it is really hard to find a place in The Netherlands where you can open a distillery. Especially, that I would like to stay in my hometown and options are pretty limited here. Buildings that could be used for this purpose are usually pretty big, and as a nano or microdistillery I don’t need that much space. Also, it would be very expensive.

Yeah I understand. You have time at least, there is no rush and as you said, it will come one day.

A little bit to inspire other people as well, I spoke with the city council here and they actually said that it is not allowed to distill at home as a business, but they gave me a written permit to do it for myself as a hobby. There are possibilities, you just need to have a good vibe, stay positive, don’t give up and you will get there eventually. Hopefully I will end up with a successful business as well.

These are great final words for this interview, so I think we can wrap it up. Do you have anything more to add?

IStill is great even on a hobby level, so don’t think too much about it, don’t be afraid, just do it! It is a lovely journey.

www.iStill.com