Do you want to know more about the pro’s and con’s of plated stills? Do you want to learn more about how we reinvented the perforated plate column? Odin spills the beans …
Category Archives: iStill Equipment
Blog posts on iStill equipment.
New 50 Liter iStill Mini Boiler is Huge Success!
Since we introduced the new 50 liter boiler to the iStill Mini, we sold over fifty of ‘m. It turns out that the additional 50 liter boiler is a huge success, as it helps distillers in two ways:
- The longer runs, relative to the 10 liter iMini boiler, better simulate the longer runs on bigger production iStills;
- The bigger boiler allows for small-batch initial production, which makes the iStill Mini a more versatile set-up and purchase.
Given its success, we have decided to increase production batch-size. From the initial 3 boilers per batch, we are upgrading production to 15 boilers per batch.
Want to start distilling? You’ll need an iStill Mini for training and for recipe development. If you also want to do production run simulations and small-batch initial production, then please add the 50 liter boiler to your order, as all of the customers in the pictures below did. More info on the iStill Mini? Please reach out to Esther@iStillmail.com.
Last 3 boiler batch was produced a week ago …
And is already sold, assembled, tested, and readied for transport …
Off you go, to the crater and then to the forwarder (iStill Mini + additional 50 liter boiler) …
Why iStill Boilers are Square instead of Round!
Our patented flush square boilers bring amazing advantages to the craft distilling industry:
- Counters vortex formation, which results in much better mixing, allowing for:
- On the grain distilling for 20% more flavor;
- Direct heating;
- Maillard Reaction for another 25% more flavor;
- Higher net boiler capacity (+20%);
- Stable gas bed above the liquids;
- Resulting in more stable vapor speeds inside the column;
- For more control over cuts and flavor composition.
A video to prove our points? Here you go (flush square jar to the right, round one to the left) …
iStill Rawhide Pricing!
We are adding a new option to the iStills. You can now order your still with additional leather insulation to the boiler and column. It looks amazing and saves another 5% on energy expenditure! Here are the prices for the various units:
- 10 liter iStill Mini: EUR 1,000.-
- 50 liter iStill Mini: EUR 1,250.-
- 100 liter iStill: EUR 1,500.-
- 200 & 250 liter iStills: EUR 2,500.-
- 500 liter iStill: EUR 3,500.-
- 1000 liter iStill: EUR 4,500.-
- 2000 liter iStill: EUR 6,000.-
The iStill 5000 will always be on special request and real cost calculation, as leather prices and sizes fluctuate.
iStill Mini with Rawhide Option …
Shipping More Distilleries Around the Globe!
This morning, under icy conditions, we are shipping more iStill distilleries to the crating company and then the transport company. Today, we ship iStills to France, Canada, the USA (Texas and New York State), and Ireland. A few of the new iStills 250 even! Here are some pictures …
Texas, here we come!
This morning, Fladderak picked up a distillery that will be crated and sent to Texas. An iStill 2000, 250, and a mini with 50 liter boiler. A 500 liter Extractor. Three 2000 liter iStill Fermenter. One 2000 liter iStill Masher. Here are some pictures …
Perfect Storm equals Perfect Opportunity!
Introduction
A perfect storm is a situation where multiple unfavorable circumstances converge. Imagine big waves, hard winds, a cold front, and the darkness of night all conversing on that one ship, in the middle of the ocean. The craft distilling industry is facing its own perfect storm. But with perfect storm comes perfect opportunity. Let’s investigate what is going on!
Unfavorable circumstances
Energy and grain prices are at all-time highs. This puts a strain on craft distillers’ input costs. In plain English: the costs of goods produced rise significantly. In even plainer English: it costs more to produce a bottle of spirit at the expense of profit.
Labor is hard to get by. This results in rising staffing costs, that – again – make the costs of goods produced rise significantly. Or, if the owner is both the sales person and the distiller, it results in less attention and focus on sales and marketing, hurting revenue streams.
Inflation, interest rates, and uncertainty are on the rise. This makes it harder to come up with a business plan that shows a profit. New entries to the market may postpone their plans, existing distillers may decide to hold-off on further investments.
Components are in short supply. This makes setting up a distillery take longer, because the parts and tools you need might take longer to acquire. With shortages come higher prices. More people fighting over the same limited resource? That results in this resource becoming more expensive.
Favorable perspective
Consumers are looking for adventure, for a story rather than a one-liner. And local beats global each and every time. The trend of localization – as a counter-weight to seven decades of globalization – is here to stay.
So there you have it: looking at our industry, there is both an amazing perspective as well as four major threats. What do we need to do, to turn that perspective into the prefect opportunity? Here’s what we need to do: we need to simply take counter-measures for the threats of input costs, labor shortages, uncertainty, and component shortages. Each and every threat needs to be dealt with.
Curiously enough, that is exactly what we have been doing at iStill. Curiously enough, iStill has been preparing the exact counter-measures you need in order to turn this perfect storm into a perfect opportunity.
Creating a perfect opportunity
iStill unfortunately cannot help with lower grain prices, but we do offer a solution for the energy part of the peaking input costs. iStills use 70 to 75% less energy. The savings you make on energy will offset the rising energy costs and most of the higher substrate costs as well.
iStills are designed to take care of the repetitive tasks associated with distilling. As a result, they help save 1,0 to 1,5 FTE on the work floor. Investing in an iStill basically makes your additional staffing costs, as far as production is concerned, go to zero.
Starting a distillery comes with many uncertainties. Spirit quality and equipment longevity can be added to the list discussed above. Can I make great enough spirits, drinks that make a difference, have an impact? Does my production equipment support the products I want to make? iStills are the most versatile machines on the market. One unit can make any spirit. Our controls ensure the highest spirit quality. Longevity? How about our 10 year warranty!
Do you want to hit the market sooner rather than later, tapping into the huge commercial potential offered by local drinks production? A less component-dense still at a more affordable price-point supports this move. The all-new iStill “Essential”-series is designed to achieve just that: lower priced units that can be delivered quickly, yet still take the guessing out of distilling.
Prediction and conclusion
The only craft distillers that can turn today’s perfect storm into a perfect opportunity are the ones choosing for our amazing technology. Sorry for the copper fetishists, sorry for the romantics and nostalgics, but 1870’s technology no longer cuts it. Not in the 21st Century.
Outsail the storm with iStill …
The iStill Parrot is Here!
Project “Rawhide”!
Introduction
Here’s an update on Project “Rawhide”. The name doesn’t really do justice to the leather that’s actually involved, but it does sound so much better! Leather on the iStills? Yeah, that’s what we are investigating. Time for a deeper dive …
The goal
What do we intend to achieve with this project? Simple: we want to start offering more color and fabric options. Henry Ford famously said, a little over a century ago, that his Ford Model-T could be ordered in any color … as long as it was black. And so far, in a way, the same holds true for the iStills. They come with black insulation and that’s it.
As we grow, with now over 1100 iStills in use around the globe, we want to offer our customers more opportunities for customization. If you want to give your iStill a personal touch, we want to see if we can support that. With this project, we hope to create a future where our customers can add multiple colors and textures to their iStills. From iStill Mini to iStill 5000.
Starting points
So why leather and why not simply choose a different color of insulation? Because we strongly feel that form should follow function. Researching other insulation colors taught us this: the black version we developed has the best R-value. Put differently: our black insulation provides better insulation than any other color of insulation. So the insulation stays the well-known iStill variety. We’ll add leather of a different color on top of that, for those that want to differentiate their stills.
Why leather? It is an amazing product. Natural, full of texture and smell, history and craft. The skins we use are from Woerden-bred calfs. Woerden is where iStill HQ is located. Up, close, and personal. Or at least very local. More locality? Saskia de Vries is the craftswoman responsible for the “leatherification” of the iStills. Saskia works with vegetable-tanned leather, believes in slow design, and small batch production.
Project status
We are currently “rawhiding” the first iStill Mini. The iStill Mini is first, because – as it is our smallest unit – it provides the biggest challenge both technically and as a business case. This first unit will be used in the upcoming iStill University Master Distillers Course, so that we can find out if leather provides the durable solution we are looking for. Saskia is almost finished, so the testing will start soon.
When testing is concluded, and the results are positive, we’ll create a definitive business case for this project as well as for the bigger production oriented iStills. The intention is to make this an option on the iStill, whichever one it is, you order by the end of the year.
Calf hide from Woerden …
Saskia de Vries performing her craft …
Working on the boiler …
Boiler is ready …
Column is next …
Details …
More details …
The complete set-up …
Barrel fest …
iStill 200 NextGen Potstill for Sale!
We have an iStill 200 NextGen Potstill for sale! Fully automated. Ready to start distilling on the shortest possible notice. All crated and ready to head to your distillery. Price (ex crating & transport) is EUR 25.000,-. If you are interested, please reach out to Esther@iStillmail.com.
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