A sheet on the still house wall
The stillman charges the still, notes the time and temperature, watches for the foreshots, makes the cut to hearts, notes the time and reading, then makes the cut to feints later. Volumes to the receiver are noted at the end. It all goes on a paper sheet with a pencil hanging next to it. At the end of the week, the sheets go in a folder in the office.
When the new make tastes a little different, or yields seem lower than last month, someone opens the folder and starts comparing sheets across weeks. The folder does not make that easy.
Why the run log stays on paper
Paper is quick and reliable next to a hot still. The alternatives people try, a spreadsheet on the office computer, mean typing up later, which gets skipped when production is busy. And the run sheet is not connected to the wash it came from or the casks the spirit went into, so even a typed-up version answers only half the questions.
- Readings are written in pencil and typed later, if at all.
- Cut times and readings vary in how they are recorded between stillmen.
- The run is not linked to the wash or fermentation that fed it.
- Spirit volumes are not linked to the casks or tanks filled from them.
- Comparing runs means laying sheets side by side.
What that costs
Changes in spirit character are hard to trace back to a cause. Yield questions take days to investigate. Training a new stillman relies on shadowing rather than on a clear record of how good runs look. And production records needed elsewhere, for your own quality work or your adviser's records, are copied by hand from the sheets.
How you run your stills and where you make cuts are your own craft decisions. What we build only records them better.
A run log beside the still
- A tablet in a heat and splash resistant case, mounted by the still or spirit safe.
- Your run types set up with their steps: charge, heat up, foreshots, hearts, feints, end of run, clean.
- At each step the stillman taps the time and enters the readings you ask for. Normal ranges are shown so an unusual reading stands out.
- The run is linked to the wash or low wines charged, and so to the fermentation and grain behind it.
- Spirit volumes to the receiver are recorded, and when spirit is filled to casks or tanks, those fills link back to the run.
- If your stills have a control system that logs temperatures, we pull its data in alongside the typed entries.
- Charts compare runs of the same type over weeks and months.
| Question | From the folder | From the run log |
|---|---|---|
| When was the hearts cut on Tuesday? | Find the sheet | Shown on the run |
| Did runs change after the new barley? | Compare dozens of sheets | Chart by grain lot |
| Which casks came from this run? | Cross-reference fill sheets | Linked |
| What does a normal run look like? | Ask the senior stillman | Typical ranges shown |
Still house records you can use
The stillman records the run in the same time as the pencil took. The distillery manager sees runs as they happen and can compare them over any period. Questions about character or yield start from charts, not folders. Casks carry a link back to the run that filled them, so years later you can see how a cask's spirit was made.
Is this your still house?
- Still run readings are on paper sheets in a folder.
- Cut times are recorded differently by different stillmen.
- Runs are not linked to the casks they filled.
- Yield questions take days to investigate.
- Production figures are copied from sheets by hand.