Last Call: A final case for the birectifier

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I am in phase 3 of 4 for my Portugal project and my wife has given me 5 months notice for moving. This means it is last call to purchase a birectifier or clevenger apparatus [e-commerce link]. It may take significant time to restart production and the price will certainly increase for the American market.

A recent collaboration has introduced me to DARPA’s Heilmeier Catechism method of framing a project. I had heard of it but never used it. It seemed like a good idea to apply it to the birectifier. The method revolves around eight succinct questions that help frame a project.

1. What are you trying to do? Articulate your objectives using absolutely no jargon.
2. How is it done today, and what are the limits of current practice?
3. What is new in your approach and why do you think it will be successful?
4. Who cares? If you are successful, what difference will it make?
5. What are the risks?
6. How much will it cost?
7. How long will it take?
8. What are the mid-term and final “exams” to check for success?

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1. I have revived an early 20th century tool for spirits analysis that should be known to all distillers, standard in all distilleries (because of affordability) and helpful to product development, quality control, and production troubleshooting.
2. Today, distilleries either choose to do nothing or pursue $30,000 forms of GCMS that have steep learning curves, interpretation problems, and technical blind spots (certain high value congeners).
3. The birectifier analysis method is affordable, easy to operate based on principles distillers already know, easy to interpret, and solves some of the blind spot issues of GCMS.
4. As machinists say: You cannot make what you can not measure. Distillers care because they have so few affordable tools to assess qualitative aspects of their product. An enhanced qualitative understanding can help problems solving, pursue specific targets for increases in sensory quality, and facilitate making a product more competitive. If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it.
5. The risks are nothing more than a small capital outlay and lost time.
6. The cost is the cheapest in history as I have produced a discount version of the birectifier myself in a small shop at lower cost than a master glassblower. Needed accessories are the cheapest in history because eBay is covered in high end discount equipment (Variacs & heating mantles) and China has flooded the market with other subsidized parts. The learning curve is the shortest in history because of an experienced community of operators. You can outfit a birectifier setup for nearly $1000.
7. Production lead time has been shortened and I keep a glass inventory. I am available to answer any operation questions which reduces the time until results are actionable.
8. Mid term exam is successful equipment configuration and fraction collection. Final exam is actionable interpretation of the results. The mid term exam can be achieved in a few hours of active time while the final exam can be achieved in twice that which is dramatically shorter than GCMS.