Written by Reade Huddleston
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An Open Letter to Distillers About the Need for Standardized Methods of Measurement
THE EMPEROR HAS NO CLOTHES
ver the last few years, I have had the pleasure of visiting dozens if not hundreds of distilleries throughout the United States and beyond. During these trips, I have made countless friends and talked about a myriad of different topics that affect distillers. In truth, most distillers, be they big or small, all have generally the same problems, and as a result, we all speak basically the same language. Indeed, I’ll bet you $100 that you could walk into any distillery in the world right now and say something along the lines of, “Pumps, am I right?” and you would be instantly regaled with story after story of the difficulty the employees there have had with pumps. This is a good thing. Members of a culture, be they nations or pickleballers, need common things to talk about because it creates connection. From this connection, a language of communication can be built, and ideas formed and strengthened. Unfortunately, though, there is one bit of common ground that distillers don’t have. One bit of communication that seems to elude our industry. I am talking about standard methods of measurement. Sure, there are a handful of standards that have been widely adopted by distillers over the years; however, almost none of these measures were actually developed by distillers, and consequently they frequently do not communicate all the information a distiller needs. In short, we are often trying to compare apples and oranges, no matter how much a single distiller may protest that their method is correct. I must tell you something: The emperor has no clothes, and I think it is time for that to change. Let’s start at the very beginning, with how distillers measure extract from grains. Of all the measures on a COA that distillers care about, extract is by far the most important. At its core, extract is a measure of the amount of alcohol a distiller can get out of a raw material. A good recovery of extract is important because it means that a distiller is operating efficiently and getting the maximum amount of sellable alcohol from their inputs. This makes measuring extract correctly key to building efficient processes. It would make sense then that distillers would want to use a representative method to measure extract and determine efficiency and cost savings. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Currently the distilling industry does not have any unified methods for testing extract from grain. Instead, suppliers and industry members alike mostly utilize methods developed by either the American Society of Brewing Chemists (ASBC) or European Brewing Convention (EBC). This is a problem Currently the because these methods were specifically distilling industry designed for brewers, not distillers, and as anyone who has worked in both indoes not have any dustries can tell you, brewing is similar to distilling but not the same. unified methods As measuring extract efficiency befor testing extract comes more important for distillers trying to control costs and assess the from grain.
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profitability of new grains, the industry as a whole needs to come together and determine a unified method and unit of The problem with measure for calculating extract. this mishmash of This will allow grain distillers to better communicate about new measurements is innovations and will help the that it makes it industry to define baselines for what is considered efficient. extremely hard for Calculating extract efficiency is employees from not the only measurement where distillers lack a unified method. different companies, There are many other facets of the indusor sometimes those try that need unification. Perhaps the most important one is the inconsistency among within the same distillers in what units they measure sugar company, to properly in. Over my travels, I have seen distillers use all sorts of different ways to measure communicate. sugar. Many distillers who come from a brewing background like to use the Plato Gravity Scale, since it is commonly used in the brewing industry. Distillers who come from wine often swear by Brix. There are even a few companies that still use the archaic measure known as Balling (look it up). The problem with this mishmash of measurements is that it makes it extremely hard for employees from different companies, or sometimes those within the same company, to properly communicate. This especially comes up when distillers speaking different units are discussing potential alcohol values. Brix and Plato, the two most popular measurements, align very closely at low gravities; however, at high gravities they differ significantly. This variance can mean as much as a half percent of alcohol in the final wash, which is nothing to scoff at. Furthermore, Brix is a measure of sucrose in water while Plato is a measure of dissolved solids in brewing wort. This means that neither of 41