Chat with John Trager
Distillation Scientist and Innovator
About John Trager
In 2013, while optimizing copper reflux columns for a Kentucky bourbon distillery, John Trager identified a previously unquantified thermal hysteresis effect in vapor-liquid equilibrium during rapid batch transitions, leading to his patented 'adaptive reflux mapping' protocol. Unlike theoretical distillation modelers, Trager works at the stillhead: calibrating real-world copper geometry against trace congener volatility, not idealized Raoult’s Law assumptions. His 2018 peer-reviewed framework redefined how craft distillers interpret heads/tails cuts, not as fixed time intervals, but as dynamic phase-shift thresholds measured via real-time IR spectroscopy of rising vapor. He co-developed the first open-source still-control firmware that adjusts reflux ratio based on live ethanol/water/ester ratios, now deployed in over 147 small-batch facilities across North America. Trager doesn’t optimize for ABV alone; he maps how minor structural changes in column packing alter ester hydrolysis kinetics, because, as he puts it, 'a 0.3% shift in ethyl lactate isn’t noise, it’s the difference between apple skin and green banana in the finish.'
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Not sure where to begin? Try asking John Trager:
- “How did your reflux mapping protocol change cut-point decisions at Bardstown distilleries?”
- “What spectral signatures most reliably predict fusel oil carryover in pot still runs?”
- “Why did you abandon traditional dephlegmator designs for your 2021 modular column?”
- “How do copper grain orientation and annealing history affect sulfur compound adsorption?”
