Creating high-quality distilled spirits means paying attention to detail and getting every part of the process just right. And while the process of crafting spirits can be considered an art, it’s also a science. The Next Century Spirits team is fortunate to have talented people like Scott Hollowell working in the role of process engineer to make sure that you get the best result from everything we do.
We spoke with Scott about the essential role a process engineer plays on the Next Century Spirits team and how he works to meet the company’s high standards for innovative spirits.
A typical workday includes wide-ranging projects which help production operate more efficiently. They involve progress engineering projects, co-location projects, monitoring the production department’s processing parameters, and conducting pilot-scale experiments.
My role has a lot of overlap with the Technical Team and the Operations team, so I have two standard work settings. This crossover between the two groups is vital to ensure lessons learned in one environment are passed over to another.
Quality and consistency!
Our patented post-distillation filtering and finishing technology gives us total control over the production process and allows us to achieve high quality and consistency from batch to batch and lot to lot.
As with any product, it’s vital to maintain quality control from the small scale up through the large production batches. A primary project of mine is to help test and ensure we are meeting the same quality on these different production scales.
Spanning such a large production quantity range means the controls on the tools can be different. But through equipment design, we try to keep these controls as consistent as possible. The work I did helping specify and design our newly opened production facility showcases this aspect.
Chemistry and Physics! More specifically, thermodynamics.
The Gold Rush.
Here’s some background on Scott’s favorite cocktail recipe, the Gold Rush:
Created at New York City’s Milk & Honey by bartender T. J. Siegal, the Gold Rush cocktail is a mid-aughts twist on the classic Bee’s Knees that uses whiskey instead of gin.
The recipe is simple: Two ounces of bourbon, one ounce of lemon juice, and ¾ ounce of honey syrup.
The entire Next Century Spirits team is committed to mastering innovative technologies and a unique process that delivers the best high-quality products possible to the global spirits market.
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