Key Milestone Reached for Virginia Distillery — Stills Are Set!

These pot stills are central to the promise of VDC whisky. In the U.S. anyone can call their whisky single malt, but to be authentic it must be double distilled in single batches in copper pots. This view is from the mezzanine level of the distillery. Here you can see the wash still and the spirit still are connected with the lyne pipes. In the center is nerve center of the distilling process, the spirit safe. That is where the quality of the whisky is controlled.

The spirits from the both the wash still and the spirit still are sent to the spirit safe. There the master distiller monitors the alcohol content with a hydrometer. The low wines are from the wash still are tested for quality. The spirits coming from the spirit safe are fractionated into thirds — the foreshots, the potable spirit and the feints. The foreshots and feints are returned to the process and redistilled. The remaining spirit goes into barrels for aging. The narrower the middle the lower the yield but the higher the quality. That’s how you can tell the quality of whisky before it’s aged a day.

Rare View of Copper Pot Still

This photo was taken before the final flooring was placed on the mezzanine which allows for a full view of the installed stills. The stand was specially fabricated by a roller coaster company because they were the only ones who could bend the steel to provide sufficient stability.

Inside the VDC Single Malt Distillery

 
VDC’s consulting engineer, Jim Taggart, sets the swan neck on the stills. The swan neck stretches to the rafters and will be the most visible section of the stills from the Mezzanine level.

The rakes inside a mashtun are rarely seen. This photo was taken before the top was installed. This equipment mixes the malted barley with water to make the mash. The liquid from the mash, called the wort, is then transferred to the fermenter where yeast is added.

The tanks and fermenters are now in place. The next phase is boiler and pipe installation followed by electrical.

Harry Cockburn, VDC’s master distillery engineer, visited from Scotland in January to check the status and plan the next phase. He, Chairman George Moore and President John McCray visited the distillery just prior to closing off the mezzanine floor.

Virginia Distillery Company
299 Eades Lane P.O. Box 509 Lovingston,
VA 22949
info@vadistillery.com
http://www.vadistillery.com/