So, last week I showed you a gallery of photos of us framing out walls, putting up drywall, prepping them, and priming the paint. This week I will show you how we painted the future Penobscot Bay Distillery & Brewery at Winterport Winery. Because we have windows on the second floor of Pairings Food and Wine Culinary & Education Center looking down into the distillery, we decided to splash a little color around. The main outside wall we left a nice crisp white. This wall is where we will have all the equipment stationed and a plain and simple background will be best to showcase all the copper, stainless steel, and brick nicely.

The interior as a whole was mind-numbingly bright and white. I felt like an Oompa Loompa in Willy Wonka's factory working in the TV Room. (Especially the Gene Wilder version, which I feel caught the original book better than the Depp version.) It was scary how white and bright the room was, so we decided to splash some color around. We looked at color chips for a week or so, and then went with ones that we felt portrayed the image of various of the "Brown" spirits. Scotch, Bourbon, Rye, Cognac, Rum, etc. Then we threw a pair of accent lamps on the wall with aim-able lights to leave on at night for a soft glow of the equipment.

Yes, I know this is a commercial /industrial facility. But I'm the one who is going to have to be in there for hours and hours each day. So much so, that I am setting up a office in the distillery so I can write and do other business while the still chugs along. With distilling slow is good, but since a run can take twelve hours I need some way to keep my sanity. So an interesting and calming paint job, plus the ability to kick back and write for you guys, seems to be a working solution. Of course there was another reason we wanted to have a nice paint job for the facility... Continued after the jump. ;-)>

Gallery: Diary of a Distiller: Chapter Four

Welcome back to Diary of a Distiller.

In the beginning of this journal, Diary of a Distiller, I told you a little about my early life, and how I entered the world of food, wine, and fine spirits. As I mentioned, I became disillusioned with my life and plunged into the world of food and beverages. I started a journey and as I walk down this road I hope that the bricks become yellow, then golden; and don't just crumble away.

I'm still working hard on my still as I told you last week, buffing it to a mirror shine. I put some fancy and expensive protective finish on the Georgia Ridge Rocket still head and the top of the kettle to see how it looks. It's not perfect. You don't have the same intensity of a mirror shine or that silky, sexy smooth, almost oily texture, as you run your hand along it, as there is without the protective coat; but it still looks darn good.

I put the whiskey head on the kettle to hold it steady and started buffing that as well. About an hour later, when I was halfway through I decided to clean it off with some denatured alcohol to see how much of a shine I have. It was looking very nice when I noticed that some of the alcohol had dripped down onto the part of the kettle that I had already sealed and the finish was starting to turn white. I grabbed a cloth to wipe the alcohol off and realized that the alcohol had dissolved the sealant completely. Aaaargh!

Welcome to Diary of a Distiller

Diary- di•a•ry
Function: noun
A record of events, transactions, or observations kept daily or at frequent intervals: journal; especially : a daily record of personal activities, reflections, or feelings

Distiller- dis•till•er
Function: noun
One that distills, especially alcoholic liquors

This is my journal as I enter into the spirit-ual realm, whereby I become a distiller of fine libations. As I write this I am sitting at my desk in what is rapidly becoming my very own distillery and brewery. The Penobscot Bay Distillery & Brewery to be precise. Named such because it is located on the Penobscot River in Winterport, Maine; near where it spills into the rugged but lush, island studded Penobscot Bay. The beauty of which has charmed me from when I was a child and visited the Coast of Maine every summer, through my adulthood as I dreamed of one day living here.

Over the next few months I invite you read my Diary of a Distiller as I go through the journey of building an artisanal micro-distillery and brewery, creating fine spirits and ales for like minded folks to enjoy. I don't guarantee every bit of it will be about food, wine, or spirits; but this journal as a whole is focused on my travels in those directions. A new chapter will be posted every Friday, plus an occasional mid-week one as well.