Vincent: “Are copper plate and bowl properly installed for heads collection?”
Odin: “We really need a French translation of our assembly manual!”
Category Archives: iStill Team
Blog posts by or about the iStill Team.
Register Now for iStill Online!
For an introduction on iStill Online, please see:
We are slowly loading the site with more content. The site differentiates between customers, iStill University students, and people interested in iStill. When you visit the site, you can now fill out your relationship with iStill. As a customer you get access to the manuals and Q&A. New students get access to the iStill University Online (work in progress!)
After registering, the iStill Team will verify the application and grant you access. After access is granted, you can fill in your profile with more detail, like what iStill(s) you are running. As a result, you will see the information specific to your account and profile!
Hmmm … writing it up actually makes it look more work than it is … so here is my invite to you:
Got to: https://istill.web.app/videos and register!!!
Sunday in Time of Corona!
New World Distillery’s Ashley Cross makes an amazing gin … and more! Stay safe, stay healthy …
iStill Online is Live!
Introduction
We are very proud to inform you that iStill Online just went live! What it is? An online community from and for iStill customers and aficionados. For people that are interested in craft and advanced distilling! Go check it out via http://www.iStill.com/online !!!
Lay-out and Levels
What iStill Online offers? Basically there are five major topics:
- Articles;
- Videos (iStill University online!);
- My Distillery;
- Calculators;
- Support.
There are three levels at which you can participate:
- Customers;
- iStill University students;
- Distillers in general.
Articles
A selection of articles is available to all. We want to share our experience and knowledge with as many people as possible. The articles are therefore open and available for anyone that wants to research distillation, advanced distilling, craft distillation, or iStill.
Videos (iStill University online!)
The whole iStill University Training is video-taped. People interested in the iStill University’s curriculum, distillers that want to learn more about the craft and science behind their (future) job can subscribe and order and study online. Purchasing the online iStill University Training is possible from next week onwards.
The online iStill University consists of 25 series of videos, ranging from making whiskey, gin and vodka, to still design, and the business side of affairs. Two videos are shared for free, so that potential students can get a good feel for the level of detail and practical applications the iStill University Training offers, before investing in their further education.
“Yeast Management” is the first video that’s free for all to see and enjoy. “Understanding Barrels” is the second one. Have fun watching them! We feel they contain information any distiller should have access to.
My Distillery
This is where you design your own distillery. In such a way that iStill Online remembers you and your design, so that you can easily come back and improve your plans as time progresses. The design center is already fully operational. The memory function will be added next week. My Distillery is available for free and for everyone.
Calculators
Calculators are available for customers and people that followed the iStill University Training. In the past or now, via online. The calculators help you hone your business and distilling processes. We are currently building calculators that help you gain insight in yield, operating costs, brewing vs. distilling capacity, ABV/proof, SO2, and more.
Support
This part of iStill Online is specific for our customers. What you can find under Support? Well, your manuals, for instance. On iStill assembly, testing, calibration, and cleaning. There will be a Q&A, that helps answer your questions. If you have an issue, Support is the section where you can find the online Issue Management Protocol. Customers will be informed about registering for support in the next few days.
iStill Online …
Important notices related to Corona virus!
1. We cancelled the iStill University Course planned for the end of March. Students have been informed. Traveling from around the world, and assembling in a group from all over the world, didn’t seem right. The tickets will stay valid, and students will be invited to other courses, that we planned for later this year, for free.
2. The trade-shows in the USA (ACSA, ADI and CBC) were cancelled due to the Corona virus, so you won’t be able to visit us there. Please know that we are working hard to fill the knowledge-gap you may find yourself in, with no trade-shows to participate at, and to get you the information you need to start or upgrade your craft distillery. How? By filming and releasing a series of informational/instructional videos on the original dates of the now cancelled shows. More info soon!
3. At iStill’s production facilities it is business as usual. So far, no one has fallen ill, and we have taken measures to minimize the risk of anyone getting sick. Production, to keep up with the huge boost in demand 2020 shows, has actually been upped and if anything, we expect to be perfectly able to deliver the iStills you ordered on schedule. If not ahead of it.
If anything changes, if any new information presents itself, that we need to act upon, please rest assured that we’ll approach it the iStill-way. With decisive action at our end and open communications with our friends and customers all over the world.
For now, stay healthy and prosper.
Regards, Odin
CEO of iStill.
New Master Distillers in the making!
Referral Fee for Supporting Customers!
Introduction
We are happy to inform you that we launch a Referral Program! This post explains how it works and how you can benefit, both as an existing iStill customer and as someone ordering our equipment for the first time, and investigating how it is to work with iStill.
Existing iStill customers
There is no better publicity than word of mouth. And who is better equipped to inform wannabe iStill distillers about how it is to work with an iStill? Right, exactly, our existing customer database!
So, if you are a customer, helping us and others out by spreading the iStill gospel and answering questions, why don’t we remunerate that? Well, from Februari 1st onwards we do.
When a potential new iStill customer visits your distillery, and he or she finds that visit and your help valuable, ends up buying a still, under the condition that he mentions your distillery specifically, you get a referral fee.
The referral fee is based on the equipment the new customer buys. As follows:
- iStill 100, mashers, fermenters: EUR 250,-
- iStill 500: EUR 500,-
- iStill 2000: EUR 1.000,-
- iStill 5000: EUR 1.500,-
Does someone buy, for instance, an iStill 2000 and and iStill Fermenter 5000, well, if the new distiller tells us they visited you and enjoyed your help, you get EUR 1.000,- for the iStill 2000, and EUR 250,- for the iStill Fermenter 5000. A total of EUR 1.250,- that can be either billed to us or used to purchase additional iStill equipment.
Please note that customers that are in default, and didn’t pay their bills, are excluded from the Referral Fee Program.
First time iStill buyers
We find it important that you inform yourself before making a purchase decision. You probably found us online, on one of the forums, or via a visit to an existing iStill customer. Reaching out to us, to organize a phone or Skype call, is probably your first step. After we spoke to each other, we’ll probably advise you to visit a customer of ours in your neck of the woods and/or follow the iStill University course. Purchase decisions usually take place just before or after your visit to our distillation course.
If you meet one of our existing distilleries, and find that visit beneficial, please inform us when you are ready to order. We’ll then make sure that they get adequate compensation for their time and for helping you out.
When you want to meet one of our customers, Chris can help with suggestions and a proper introduction.
Please note that the Referral Fee Program starts on February 1st 2020.
Referral Program in two words …
Becoming a better distiller!
Introduction
In an earlier post, just a week ago, we explained how the iStill University courses, the iStill Mini recipe development still, and our support during your first mash, fermentation, and distillation, help make you a better craft distiller. But we do more to support your success. This post explains how we take support to the next level.
iStill University Network
Students, that attended iStill University, become members of the iStill University Network. The iStill University Network is a closed Facebook group, where members give peer advice to one another regarding the set-up of their distillery. Very practical topics like “what pump do I need?”, “what’s your bottle supplier?”, “what’s your preferred labeler?”, or “how do you make your whiskey?” are just a few examples out of many discussions and consultations that take place.
The iStill University Network is considered a great source of information on how to set-up your distillery. Imagine dozens of more experienced distillers (at least on the matter you are investigating) helping you out at solving your issues and challenges.
Please note: the iStill University Network is only open for students that participated at an iStill University Course.
iStill Recipe Development
We have a team of 3 colleagues that man the iStill Laboratory. Together, the team has helped develop 300 recipes for brandy, gin, rum, vodka, whiskey, liqueurs, and more. For whom? For our customers. For students that participated at the iStill University, worked on their initial recipes, took an iStill Mini home, and feel they need our help to nail it before they order bigger production size units. And for existing customers that want to expand their product portfolio by introducing new spirits.
We basically have three levels at which our Recipe Development Team can support you:
- Spirit Evaluation: you send in your drink and we evaluate and benchmark it, and give feedback on where and how to improve (EUR 1.250,-);
- Recipe Development 1: we help design a drink that is made via distillation or extraction, using neutral alcohol (EUR 5.000,-);
- Recipe Development 2: we help design a drink where the alcohol is made in-house (whiskey, rum) and optimize for mashing, fermenting, and distillation (EUR 10.000,-).
Please note: our Recipe Development Team only works for iStill customers.
Procedure
If you want to discuss the purchase of iStills or learn more about recipe development, please reach out to Sales@iStillmail.com. If you want to participate at one of the iStill University Courses and/or become a member of the iStill University , then please contact us via Veronika@iStillmail.com.
Becoming a better distiller with iStill …
Further Professionalizing iStill Support!
Introduction
This post dives into how we support you at being a successful distiller and iStill user. Of course, you, as the craft distiller, are responsible for the actual mashing, fermenting, and distilling that you perform. And, in order to do so correctly, you are also responsible for obtaining the right amount of training and learning, via your own research and reading, via traineeships, with the help of forums or consultants, or via peer advice. We chime in and help you out along your path. Here’s how.
iStill University Course
We offer a 4-day course, where we bring you up to date on the latest science regarding mashing, fermenting, distilling, and aging. It is a great way to learn about distilling, to learn how to develop a recipe, and to experience how the iStills work. With a score of 9.8 on a 10-point scale, it is considered the best course in the craft distilling industry and that’s a great way to get started and find out if craft distilling is meant for you.
iStill Mini
Did you fall in love with distilling in general, and our amazing theories and technology specifically? Then it may be time to take the next step and purchase the iStill Mini. Our product development still helps you finalize recipe formulation, while you gain hands-on distilling experience.
iStill Support
Buying a production size iStill (like the iStill 100, 500, 2000, or 5000) automatically gives you access to four hours of consultancy. Use it to bridge the time, size, and experience gap between the course and the reality of you opening up, between the small-size semi-manual iStill Mini and the big size automated production unit!
Here’s how:
- Use one hour of support to have us help check your assembly of the iStill, to upload the latest software, and to talk to you about cleaning protocols.
- Use the second hour to inform us about the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) you want to use for your mashing. Let us check it, before you use it.
- Use the third hour to inform us about the SOP you want to use for fermenting. Again, let us check it. Four eyes see more than two.
- Use the fourth hour to share your distillation SOP. Use our experience to help make sure your first distillation run is going to be the success you deserve!
Procedure
- After you assembled your iStill, send an email to Support@iStillmail.com and name it “Assembly done”. Our support employee will give you a date and time slot for the check to take place, to update you to the latest software, and to instruct you on cleaning protocols.
- When you want to start mashing in the foreseeable future, send an email to Support@iStillmail.com, name it “First Mash Support”, and include your SOP. As before, our support employee will give you a date and time slot for feedback.
- When you are planning to start your first fermentation, send an email to Support@iStillmail.com, name it “First Fermentation Support”, and include the fermentation Standard Operating Procedure. Our employee will contact you.
- Almost ready to distill? As before, send an email and name it “First Distillation Support”, and include your SOP. Our support employee will propose a time and date to help check and give his feedback.
Disclaimer
The runs are your responsibility. Mashing, fermenting, and distilling, even with automated equipment, can be challenging, so make sure that you know what you are doing. The machines we produce have no brain, so you better learn how to use yours! It is among your tasks to make sure you are equipped with the required knowledge and experience to do your runs professionally and safely. Using iStill Support does not take anything away from that responsibility.
Create more control with iStill Support …
iStill Blog Statistics!
More and more, the iStill Blog is becoming the go-to place for all questions related to distilling. Last year, 2019, saw another strong increase in visitors and views. Here are the statistics (with 2018 between brackets):
- 212 new posts (188);
- 36.331 visitors (23.636);
- 83.426 page views (57.692).
We are incredibly proud of the success of the iStill Blog. It reaches tremendous amounts of people (100 visitors per day!) and is quickly becoming the leading body of distillation knowledge, both adequate and applicable.
Please rest assured that we will continue to help grow the iStill Blog’s success and put even more effort into it, wherever and whenever we can. In 2020 and beyond.
The year 2020 will see a new series of posts on the iStill Blog, that will be called “Myth Busters”, where our CEO Odin will dive into the various anecdotes and myths surrounding the noble science of distillation, and explain what really goes on. Replacing myth by science is basically what he has been doing for a decade now. We feel we better the iStill Blog by making you part of the nonsense, the sense, the BS, and what’s real.
More and better information translates into you, as a craft distiller, being able to make better choices. Freedom only persists where options are developed. Options only become viable choices, when the decision makers (you) have access to more and better information. There you have it: the goal we started the iStill Blog with. And it is as valid today as it was 6 1/2 years ago.
If you have any suggestions for Odin to dive into, please feel free to email us via Sales@iStillMail.com
Accelerated growth: this is what information diffusion looks like …
