Miss Brewbird

I'm taking you to Cardiff, Wales where I wrote my Module 1 Distilling Diploma exam. I need to pass three modules, or three exams, in order to obtain my Diploma in Distilling from the Institute of Brewing and Distilling (IBD). What is the IBD? The IBD is an organisation which awards qualifications in malting, brewing, cider-making, distilling, and packaging to people working in the drinks industry. In this video I'll go over what the IBD is, what topics are on the IBD Distilling Diploma exam (Module 1), how I studied for the exam, and whether I passed the exam or not. So let's go!

We're distilling rum today! It's Part 4 of our journey into rum series at the Shakespeare Distillery. In this video, we transfer our blackstrap molasses wash from the fermenter into the iStill 500 to distil into rum. As well, we do a small scale test distillation of the same molasses wash in our copper alembic stills over in the gin school. Will our rum be any good? Well, you'll have to watch the video to find out. Since the Shakespeare Distillery opened in 2015 we have been making gin here. However, we have recently started attempting to produce rum using blackstrap molasses. This new series documents our trials and errors as we try to produce our first batch of white rum using our iStill 500 and our new 2000L iStill fermenter. As of this video's publishing, the rum is still not on the market yet. So follow along as we bumble our way through making white rum.

Do you ever wonder how gin recipes are crafted? In today's video I'll show you the methodology behind how gin recipes are designed and why certain botanicals seem to pop up more often than others. You'll learn how to make your own gin recipe and distil it yourself in this guided gin experience with me. I'm in the gin school at the Shakespeare Distillery, where I'll go over the different botanical groupings: essential, herbal, citrus, spicy, floral, sweet, nutty, and fruity. Then, I'll guide you through how to distil your own gin by weighing out the botanicals for a gin recipe, distilling it in one of the copper alembic stills, and then diluting and bottling the gin down. So let's go and learn how to craft a unique gin recipe! Jaffa Cake Gin Recipe: 25g Juniper Berries 1/4 tsp Orris Root 5g Coriander Seed 4cm Orange Peel (Fresh) 1 Pink Peppercorn 3mm Vanilla Bean 1 Chestnut 6 Currants 3 Mulberries

Today at the Shakespeare Distillery, I'll show you how we make our sweet mulberry gin liqueur. It's a naturally purple gin liqueur that conjures up feelings of Christmas time, raisins, and rich dark fruits. This purple gin liqueur is one of our four core gin products here at the Shakespeare distillery. We distil the gin in an iStill 250 and then we steep dried mulberries in the gin for three months in order for the gin liqueur to take on the wonderful colours and flavours of the mulberries. Mulberries were a popular fruit during Tudor times (the time when William Shakespeare was alive), which is why we have chosen it to make a gin liqueur with. After steeping the mulberries we add reverse osmosis water and sugar syrup to bring it down to the correct alcohol percentage and correct sweetness level. So let's get down to making our purple mulberry gin liqueur.

We're developing our spiced rum recipe in the gin school today! It's Part 5 of our journey into rum series at the Shakespeare Distillery. In this video, Sam and I are making a Tudor inspired spiced rum recipe to go along with the white rum we are distilling in our iStill 500. I'll take you along our recipe development process as we distil, assess, and update our spiced rum recipe. It's a long process, but a tasty one too. Will our spiced rum be any good? I sure hope so since I helped come up with the recipe for it. Since the Shakespeare Distillery opened in 2015 we have been making gin here. However, we have recently started attempting to produce rum using blackstrap molasses. This new series documents our trials and errors as we try to produce our first batch of white rum and spiced rum using our iStill 500 and our new 2000L iStill fermenter. As of this video's publishing, the rum is still not on the market yet. So follow along as we bumble our way through making white and spiced

How do you make limoncello? I didn't have a clue before, but when my boss at the Shakespeare Distillery said he wanted me to create a limoncello recipe for the distillery, I got busy researching, experimenting, and learning how to make a limoncello recipe. I documented the entire process, so let me show you how I got on. https://missbrewbird.com/developing-a-limoncello-liqueur-recipe/

Disaronno is probably the most famous amaretto on the market, but how is it made and what are the ingredients? My boss at the Shakespeare Distillery tasked me with coming up with a Disaronno style amaretto recipe for the distillery, so I got busy researching, experimenting, and learning how amaretto is made. I've documented my attempts to make this sweet almond tasting liqueur in this video. Although I am sure the good people at Disaronno will probably laugh when they see my sad attempts to replicate their iconic drink.

I've talked a lot about how gin is distilled, but in this video I'd like to go over the long and eventful history of gin, and how terms such as "blind drunk", "mothers ruin", and "dutch courage" came to be. Special thanks to Sam Evans for providing the information, and the Shakespeare Distillery for the illustrations used in this video.

My boss at the Shakespeare Distillery gave me the opportunity to develop my very own gin recipe in the gin school, which was very exciting for me. This video details my experiments with different gin recipe ideas. From Hong Kong Lemon Tea Gin to Mango Mulberry Gin, I experiment with various fruity recipe ideas. Mango Mulberry Gin Recipe 7cm Dried Mango (7.45g) 1/2tsp Ground Almond 30g Juniper Berries 2g Coriander Seeds 2 Pink Peppercorns 0.75g Angelica Root 3mm Vanilla Bean 5 Dried Mulberries (3.22g) 2 Pieces of Dried Orange Peel (0.24g) 1 Piece of Dried Lemon Peel (0.1g)

Thanks for 1000 subscribers! When people think of a distiller, I know that I am probably not the image that comes to mind, so in this special chatty video, I'd like to talk about how I winded up working as a distiller at a scotch whisky distillery. Being a distiller is not the most conventional career path, so I get a lot of surprised looks when I tell people what I do for a living. Anyways, I hope you'll enjoy listening to the story of how I became a scotch whisky distiller (which was also my first job out of university by the way).

Sad to say goodbye, but now it's time for the sixth and final journey into rum video. In this video, we fine-tune the production process for how we make our white rum here at the Shakespeare Distillery. After our first distillation, we decided to only clean the fermenter with water from a pressure washer, and to omit the addition of citric acid (which was used to lower the pH of the molasses wort). In the distillation in the iStill 250, we adjusted the settings on the iStill and added more copper to the still. Did we manage to decrease the number of distillations on the iStill from two to one? Well, you'll have to watch the video to find out. This is also the final video from the Shakespeare Distillery. Since the Shakespeare Distillery opened in 2015 we have been making gin here. However, we have recently started attempting to produce rum using blackstrap molasses. This new series documents our trials and errors as we try to produce our first batch of white rum using our iStill 500

I sit down with Jesse Willson @StillIt from the hugely popular home distilling channel, Still It: Chase the Craft, to talk about how he got into home distilling and his YouTube journey thus far. So grab a drink, get comfy, and let's learn more about Jesse.

I'm at a new distillery! Hello from Boothstown Gin at the Coal & Cotton Pub in Manchester. In this video we're making strawberry gin in a copper moonshine still with a thumper keg. We'll be using the single shot distillation method to make our strawberry gin, which means that the distillate is diluted with water only. By comparison, in the multi-shot distillation method, the gin concentrate is diluted with both neutral grain spirit and water.

In this super chill video I show you what a typical day is like for me working and living inside the Coal & Cotton Pub/ Distillery. We don't distil spirits every single day on the distillery side. Some days we just bottle and label gins and do other miscellaneous chores that need to be done. Once in a while it's nice to make relaxing, vlog type videos rather than super technical distilling videos all the time, so I hope you'll enjoy this one day living and working inside the pub.

While the most common way of making money on YouTube is getting your channel monetized, which requires 1000 subscribers and 4000 hours of watch time in the last 12 months, that is not the only way YouTube can help you make money. In this video, I sit down with my boss, Adam Culpan, the distillery manager here at Boothstown Gin, to talk about how he found me on YouTube and subsequently gave me a job working at his distillery. When Adam first found my channel I only had around 400 subscribers and the channel was not yet monetized. However, documenting myself working at different distilleries paid off, as Adam could view my entire employment history through the videos on my channel. We stayed in touch on Instagram and later on when I asked if he could provide me with a job, he said yes! So I hope this story inspires people who are thinking of starting a channel to just take the leap and try, because you never know what can happen.

Today at Boothstown Gin, we are using the air still to test out different spiced and dark rum recipes which we will later scale up on our big copper still, Tessy. We experimented with a number of different botanicals such as cola nuts, grapefruit peel, star anise, and ginger, to come up with our final rum recipes. After we were happy with our ingredient list we also experimented with adding homemade caramel, toasted oak sticks, raisins, and natural food colourants to see how they would impact the flavour and colour of the final rums.

Back home in Canada now! I'm visiting my friend Xander Szymanski, the head brewer at Monkey 9 Brewing in Richmond, British Columbia. Today he's making a mainstay beer of the brewpub, Dad's Lager. Dad's Lager is a crisp and clean German style beer with a mix of floral hops. The hops in it are Apollo, Hallertau, and Spalter Select. In this new beer series I'm visiting my old brewing classmates, who are now working as brewers in various breweries in BC. So let me take you on a Canadian beer production tour. =)

I sit down with Mark Townsend, one of the owners of Silver Fox Distillery in Ontario, Canada. Mark is also the Master Distiller at Silver Fox Distillery. You may be familiar with his Youtube channel @STILLinCANADA which documents his journey establishing the distillery. In February 2020, Silver Fox Distillery started selling its spirits to the public. Two weeks later, Ontario went into its first lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time, Mark had just finished production on his first batch of new make spirit for whiskey. However, he and his wife decided to donate this spirit to make hand sanitizer to help front line workers in their fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Let's hear how the new distillery has been coping during this period and dive a little deeper into Mark's background.

In the mood for a Berliner Weisse? Well you're in luck, in this video I visit the head brewer at Container Brewing in Vancouver, British Columbia to make a Berliner Weisse (ish) beer. It's a sour wheat beer which features the unique ingredients of bitter orange peel, coriander seeds, and blueberry blossom honey. This sour wheat beer is soured using lactic acid and lactobacillus bacteria and is Dave's own crazy beer recipe.Dave came up with this recipe near the start of the covid shutdowns, and fittingly named it ‘Be Right Back’. This video features some new brewing terminology, so if you are unfamiliar with brewing terms such as vorlauf or the grist hopper, you might want to watch the “Brewing Dad’s Lager Beer” video first In this new beer series I'm visiting my old brewing classmates, who are now working as brewers in various breweries in BC. So let me take you on a Canadian beer production tour. =)

I sit down with Steven Liesch the owner of Bräu Supply, ​a home brewing equipment store. Steven started his career cutting hair and slowly worked his way up to become a hair salon owner. From a young age he had an interest in hydroponics and marijuana, and became involved in the growing marijuana industry in Canada. One day his friend invited him to a home brew, which led Steven to turn his passion for designing automated systems for marijuana production into designing automated systems for home brewing. Thus began Steven's journey designing and manufacturing several home brew systems (UniBrau, HERMS) that would bring professional level brewing equipment to brewers at home. You can find Steven on his own YouTube channel @Bräu Supply, where he demonstrates how to use his brewing equipment.

I've distilled a lot of rum in my videos, but today I'd like to go over the wild history of rum and its ties to slavery, the Caribbean, and prohibition. We'll also go over terms such as "rum row", "Nelson's blood", and "rumbustion". So let's find out more about the crazy history of rum! Special thanks to Sam Evans from the Shakespeare Distillery for doing all the research for this video.

The most expensive bottle of whisky ever sold was a Macallan Fine and Rare 60 year old 1926 which sold on Thursday October 24 2019 for a whopping £1.45 million pounds at auction. With whisky commanding such jaw dropping prices, it's no surprise that fraudsters are trying to get in on the action. In Part 2 of 'To Catch a Whisky Fraud' we go over new research which is being developed to detect counterfeit and adulterated whiskey. New techniques include: the artificial tongue, laser spectrometry, and vibrational spectrometry.

I sit down with Bearded from the YouTube channel @BeardedBored. You may be familiar with his facial hair, which is undoubtedly the source of his humble and understated charm, or from watching one of videos on making spirits such as hard cider or pineapple rum. We discuss how he was inspired to start his YouTube journey with the help of @BarleyandHopsBrewing, @StillIt, and the liquor fairy; and his thoughts on the legalization of hobby distilling in the USA. So grab a drink, get comfy, and let's learn more about Bearded.

Today @Brausupply , we will be going over how the Unibrau Pro Brewing System works. This innovative two vessel home brewing system has one vessel which acts as a hot liquor tank, kettle, and fermenter, while the other vessel acts as a mash tun. My brewing friend, Iain Warren, will be demonstrating how to use the system by brewing a Vienna Lager on it. This lager is hopped Tettnanger and Saaz hops, and contains a variety of malts such as Munich I, Munich II, and wheat malt. So let's get to home brewing this Lager.

I sit down with Brendan who worked as brewer for Driftwood Brewery in BC for five years, before moving to Scotland to work as a whisky blender for Brown-Forman. We discuss his journey from brewing to distilling and blending, and his role at Brown-Forman working under Master Blender Rachel Barrie. He worked as her assistant to blend whiskies and develop new recipes for the Benriach, Glenglassaugh, and Glendronach Distilleries. He gives us the dirt on what it's really like working at a global company to produce spirits. So pull up a chair, grab a dram, and listen to Brendan's story.

I get a lot of questions about distilling gin, so I decided to compile all the questions and answer them in this video.

In this video I visited Mad Lab Distillery in Vancouver, BC, Canada, to learn more about their fermentation and distillation process. Interestingly, the base spirit used for all their spirits here is made from malt. The wort collected is fermented via a continuous fermentation process in three intermediate bulk containers. The fermentation is not temperature controlled and the yeast they are using for the fermentation is the same yeast culture that they started with on day #1, incredible! So let's take a peak inside Mad Lab Distillery. #craftdistillery #fermentation #alcohol I'm Miss Brewbird, a Canadian girl training to be a distiller. I'm also tickled pink that you've found your way here. If you are interested in learning more about the drinks industry this is the channel for you. Hit that subscribe button for more videos about distilling and brewing. Cheers!

I sit down with Nancy More, one of my old brewing instructors, and a certified legend in the brewing industry. She started her career as a trainee with Labatt Brewing Company in Canada in a time when brewing was still a very male dominated profession. She went on to be Canada's first female head brewmaster, before making her way to Europe and then Africa to improve the quality and production processes of beer worldwide. Her career has inspired many young woman (like me) to follow in her footsteps. When I was a brewing student, I loved to hear Nancy tell stories about working around the world to make better beer, so I am pleased to have her share some tales from her fascinating career. So pull up a chair, grab a beer, and prepare to be wowed.

In this follow-up video of my visit to Mad Lab Distillery, I go over their zero copper distillation set-up. The fermented wash which we saw created in the first video is distilled in batches in their stainless steel still. Their still was lovingly retrofitted together by Scott, the founder of the distillery, who did not have the money to purchase a brand new still when he started Mad Lab. Copper is traditionally the material of choice in still construction, since it is known to remove sulfurous compounds from the distillate. To counteract the lack of copper in their still, Scott devised a complex distillation method to produce a clean tasting spirit. So let me show you their distilling procedure.

I sit down with Sho Ogawa, the head brewer at Mountainview Brewery in Hope, BC. Sho is originally from Osaka, Japan, and before embarking on his brewing career, Sho spent his time working in academia. He holds a Ph.D. in film and media studies, where his research focused on the representation of queer men in Japanese softcore porn. We discuss beer culture in Japan, softcore Japanese porn, the Asian identity, and how Sho transitioned from being a Ph.D. student to a head brewer.

In this video, I am making a Mexican classic, tepache! It is a refreshing beverage made with pineapple skins, piloncillo sugar (brown sugar), water, and spices such as cinnamon and clove. The pineapple skin has yeast on it that helps ferment this pineapple brew. It's light, refreshing, bubbly, and a great way to use pineapple skins which normally end up in the compost bin. This beverage has a very low alcohol percentage, between 0.5%-2%abv, so you can drink a lot of it without having to feel bad.

I sit down with Tarquin Melnyk, a bartending consultant, and professional mixologist. Tarquin grew up in a cult believing that the world would end sometime in the '90s. When the apocalypse did not come about as expected, Tarquin realised he had no real job skills. Not knowing what to do with his life, he was later inspired to become a bartender and traveled the world to improve his techniques and knowledge. In this video, we discuss Tarquin's journey to becoming a professional bartender, what he does as a bartending consultant developing cocktails for various restaurants, and "Ms. Better's Bitters", a bitters company he created with his partners.

I often get asked about what it is like to work as a distiller, and whether I recommend it as a career choice. In this video, I'd like to go over 7 reasons why you shouldn't choose to pursue a career as a distiller.

Last year I took the Module 1 IBD Distilling Diploma exam. This year, I took the Module 2 Distilling exam. I need to pass three modules, or three exams, in order to obtain my Diploma in Distilling from the Institute of Brewing and Distilling (IBD). What is the IBD? The IBD is an organisation that awards qualifications in malting, brewing, cider-making, distilling, and packaging to people working in the drinks industry. In this video, I'll go over all the distilling qualifications you can earn with the IBD, and break down all the different units in Module 2 (distillation theory, batch distillation, continuous distillation, non-matured spirits, maturation, pre-package, and quality). I will also go over how I studied for the exam, and what my results were. So let's go!

What's in a gin? Well, a lot actually. In this video, I go over six of the most commonly used botanicals in gin. We have juniper of course, which is the defining ingredient in gin, coriander seeds, citrus fruits, cassia bark, orris root, and angelica root. So let's go!

We're heading to Mountainview Brewing Co. in Hope BC to see how they brew an experimental batch of blackberry kettle sour. The wort is soured in the kettle with lactobacillus bacteria. The lactobacillus bacteria consume the sugars in the wort and produce lactic acid. This lactic acid lowers the pH of the wort, making it sour. Blackberry puree is added during secondary fermentation to give a juicy kick to this tart beer. So let's go see how it is made.

In this video, I discuss why copper is so important in distilling alcohol. Distillers love using this material because it is aesthetically pleasing to look at, malleable, and a great heat conductor. Most importantly, copper reacts with many compounds and removes them during distillation to create a more refined and cleaner tasting spirit.

When a food product or drink is made, who's in charge of deciding the final taste and flavour of it? Who makes sure it consistently tastes the same from batch to batch? In this video, I talk about my favourite subject in the beverage industry, sensory analysis. Sensory analysis or sensory evaluation is important when developing a drink recipe and maintaining its quality throughout its entire production lifetime. It is defined as a scientific discipline used to evoke, measure, analyze, and interpret reactions to those characteristics of foods and materials as they are perceived by the senses of sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing. I discuss what sensory evaluation is and how it is used in the beverage industry.

Have you ever wanted to make a sensory panel to get feedback on a drink or food? In this video, I discuss how to recruit people into your sensory panel. Sensory panels are great for developing new products, making sure there is consistency among batches of the same product, and gauging how consumers will react to a product. Sensory analysis or sensory evaluation is important in the beverage industry and utilises human beings as instruments to measure attributes of drink products. It is defined as a scientific discipline used to evoke, measure, analyze, and interpret reactions to those characteristics of foods and materials as they are perceived by the senses of sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing. This is Part 1 of a series of videos discussing how sensory panels are created and maintained in a brewery.

I sit down with Vanessa Braxton, the first female African-American Master Distiller in the United States. She is the founder, master blender and distiller at Black Momma Vodka in New York. After working as a structural engineer for two decades, she decided to open a distillery in her retirement. She used all her retirement savings, and some of her husband's savings to finance her dream of owning a drinks brand. 2022 marks the 10 year anniversary of her distillery. In this video, we discuss everything money, from how Vanessa financed her distillery to the costs involved with the day-to-day operations of Black Momma Vodka.

What's the difference between cask aging and cask maturation? Also, why does whisky have to be matured in casks anyway? In this video, we discuss how maturation affects the overall flavour of whisky and what kind of reactions are taking place inside the cask to transform its flavour.

What's the pH of wine, beer, and whisky? What does pH stand for anyway? In this video, we discuss what pH measures and the pH of common alcoholic drinks that we enjoy. Drinks with low pH mean that they are more acidic. Drinking acidic drinks on a regular basis can wear away at our enamel and promote acid reflux. So let's take a deeper look at pH and how it relates to our consumption of alcohol.

A distillery's pot still has a few different parts, but how do these parts come together during spirit distillation? In this video, we'll go over the different parts that make up a pot still (pot, man door, heating element, onion, sight glass, swan neck, lyne arm, condenser, and collection tank) and how each part functions during a distillation.

How do we make sure we're running good sensory panels? And that all our results can be relied on. In this video, I talk about my favourite subject in the beverage industry, sensory analysis. I talk about good practices your panelists should follow to eliminate bias during a sensory evaluation session. Sensory analysis or sensory evaluation is an important part of food science and technology. It is defined as a scientific discipline used to evoke, measure, analyze, and interpret reactions to those characteristics of foods and materials as they are perceived by the senses of sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing. I discuss what sensory evaluation is and how it is used in the beverage industry.

If your face gets red and you feel nauseous and tired after drinking just a little bit of alcohol, then you might suffer from the Asian glow, or Asian Flush Reaction (AFR). This Asian flush occurs because of a common mutation in a key liver enzyme involved in alcohol metabolism called aldehyde dehydrogenase 2, or ALDH2. The mutation means this enzyme doesn’t work properly and this leads to a build up of acetaldehyde, which is a toxic byproduct of alcohol metabolism. In this explainer video, I explain and demonstrate what it is like to suffer from the Asian Glow.

What is methanol, and why do distillers worry about it so much? Methanol, like ethanol, is produced during the fermentation process. Fermenting grains such as corn, wheat, and barley will lead to only a small amount of methanol being produced, while raw materials that are high in pectin will lead to a higher production of methanol. Consuming as little as 10 mL of pure methanol can cause permanent blindness by destruction of the optic nerve, while 15mL of pure methanol can prove fatal. In this video, we are doing a deep dive into methanol and its relationship to alcohol and distilling

While there are many kinds of sensory evaluation tests, discrimination tests are one of the most common. Discrimination testing is a technique employed in sensory analysis to determine whether there is a detectable difference among two or more products. In this video, we discuss overall difference and attribute difference, as well as the triangle test, duo-trio test, 2 out of 5 tests, simple ranking tests, and paired comparison tests. Sensory analysis or sensory evaluation is an important part of food science and technology. It is defined as a scientific discipline used to evoke, measure, analyze, and interpret reactions to those characteristics of foods and materials as they are perceived by the senses of sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing. It is used in the drinks industry for quality control and during drink recipe design.

A column still allows for the rectification of high abv spirits, such as neutral grain spirit which is 96.5%abv. It has a stripping section, a rectification section, and can have many plates inside it to allow for more reflux to occur in the still. In this video, we quickly go over the parts of a column still and a continuous distillation process.

Have you ever cracked open a bottle of beer and found that it tasted like wet cardboard? In this video we go over the common beer off flavours: wet cardboard, skunky, sweet, and moldy. A wet cardboard flavour in beer is caused by beer oxidation. Oxygen reacts negatively with molecules in the beer to produce unwanted stale cardboard flavours. As for skunkiness, that is caused by UV rays breaking down the alpha-acids in beer hop. Overly sweet beer can mean that there was a stuck fermentation and the yeast was unable to convert the sugars in the wort into alcohol. Moldy-tasting beer can be the result of mold in the grain used to make the beer. So let's dive into beer off flavors in beer!

Have you ever cracked open a bottle of beer and found that it tasted like butter? In this video, we go over the common beer off flavours: buttery, green apple, salty, yeasty, and rotten eggs. Diacetyl is the compound in microwavable popcorn which gives it the "butter" flavour and mouthfeel. While diacetyl is naturally produced during fermentation, it is also taken up by the yeast during the course of fermentation. An incomplete fermentation or bacterial infection by lactic acid bacteria can both cause high levels of diacetyl in finished beers. Beer that tastes like rotten eggs is caused by sulphur production during fermentation. This off-flavour is usually found in lager beers. Green apple or nail polish flavours are caused by acetaldehyde production during fermentation. Salty beer is caused by adding too many brewing salts, and yeasty beer is caused by beer that has been left to sit on the yeast cake too long. Let's take a closer look into some more common off flavors in beer!