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you ever wondered how freeze-dried ice
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cream is made well today buckle up
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because I'm going to take you on a
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facility tour of how they freeze dry ice
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cream it's a really fascinating story
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taken from the Stinson Family Farms who
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have changed their business completely
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from a family Run Dairy operation in
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Iowa all the way to selling Freez dried
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ice cream and by the way there's more
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content related to this specific company
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if you want to check out the full series
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check out the playlist on this channel
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or follow the next video after this
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let's go check them out this is our
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production facility to make ice cream we
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do our freeze-dried ice cream in here
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and also we do our hard ice cream with
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these machines so what we do is we'll
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put all our our base mix in here to make
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the ice cream we put all our ingredients
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in here also and then we let that freeze
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down 5 to 7 minutes and then once that's
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done we dispense it with lifting the
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lever up we put so much in the pan we
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smooth it all out and we put them on our
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carts and then wheel those parts blast
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freezer at - 25 to -30° for 18 to 24
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hours now now do you do the same
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ingredients like at the same time if
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you're going to do strawberry like
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you're going to do strawberry in all
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four of these machines at the same time
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or are you doing them all at the same
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time with different ingredients so that
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you can have all four flavors running in
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all the freeze dryers we usually do one
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kind at a time cuz allergens is a big
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thing so we are a strawberry is the seed
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has is an allergen actually actually so
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we um if we pick strawberry for the day
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we we'll do strawberry when we run we
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run one flavor that way it's all dirty
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it's that flavor then we're done then
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the next day we run a different flavor
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machine two machines doesn't matter just
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depends on what we want to do for the
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day or how many people we got let's head
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into where all the freeze dryers are all
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right guys so what is this because this
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looks like a lot of work how do you
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actually clean and air dry and do all
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this do you have a machine that can do
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all this for you not yet we do
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everything by hand as of right now so
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what we do is we actually stick them
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into this we put all our trays in there
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we pre-rinse them cuz they're full of
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ice cream and we'll let them soak in
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this B here for now and then what we do
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is we scrub them all by hand put them on
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this rack we got little slots here and
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then they dry within about a day about
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two days they'll be drying it's hard to
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find a a a dishwasher commercially that
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can clean hundreds of free
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trays no matter what size you have for
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sure yeah so if you're looking for an
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easy way to do this hey uh it's not
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going to be easy right now but with the
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right team you can wash all this like
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they've got this big Basin they get all
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the trays sanitized washed all of that
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and then put it on a big huge rack like
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this so awesome all right so now here is
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where they do all the freeze drying and
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so we saw a couple of the freeze dryers
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we did for candy you also got these for
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your ice cream we just saw where the ice
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cream is poured onto the tray put it in
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the freezer once the freeze is done then
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what happens how do you get it over here
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and you know do you have to be quick
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about it or is temperature control this
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place what's all about about basically
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we'll take those racks out of the uh
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freezer and we you have to move very
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quickly they melt fast but you get you
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set your machines accordingly and you
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take these racks you roll them all out
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here and you slide them in there when
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the machine is ready to go and you push
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your okay and you run 24 to 26 hours and
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then that's about the time that takes
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and it should be done as long as you did
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everything right it should look really
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uniform and with car St I mean it's you
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know I'm looking on a string type of
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thing it's like very easy to use these
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machines but uh like did what type of
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elements especially a free Dred ice
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cream do you have to control and work
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with the recipe we kind of talk about
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that a little bit but what things on the
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freeze dryer do you have to configure to
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make sure ice cream works well on a
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freeze dryer yeah we took us a lot of
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Trials to figure out the right pressures
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in here and then like the temps we had
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played with those a while because you
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overcook it not long enough and then we
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had to get these things down as cold as
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they could get I think at 20 do that
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what helps us is we do it's not running
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right now but it is nice and cool and
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dry so we have a we keep it as cool in
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here as we can this machines give off a
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lot of heat that's what keeps our
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efficiency real down to that 22 to 24
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hours per batch um it's nice so that's
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that's environment so how' you like come
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to learn that pressure might be a factor
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in the vacuum versus like not KN that
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did you have somebody as an expert that
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you calls up and like how did you figure
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it out on your own how did you know that
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the pressure was something that was
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going to be a factor we just kept trying
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and trying and we keep tweaking as we we
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as we went and we we fin figured out
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right where we need to be it's like any
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freeze dryer you got to understand the
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machine the product and it it you tweak
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it as you go and then one time you you
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change it you document you change you
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document then you're okay this is where
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I feel like it's going to be efficient
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and it's just a different recipe for
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everybody basically where we're at right
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now is a pivot point in the business and
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what why I say that is we feel like we
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can U get the right Partners to get us
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to the next level where we see ourselves
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is getting ourselves to that 30 to 40
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machines and getting ourselves to uh
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where we can be easily accessible
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whether it's in the gas stations or in
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in uh retail stores nationally so
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throughout the states and that's what we
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want to do is be the ice cream freeze
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dried people um along with the other
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stuff in the last two weeks actually
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this room here can have about 14
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machines in it so we're going to double
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stack fill up so we have all electrical
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everything's ready to go there we have
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everything cool in here so that's the
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plan and that's probably less than 3
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month goal 3 to 4 month is the plan y
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what's the feeling like with across this
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whole huge family that operates and
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helps out like what's the feeling now
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you know you had this ice cream business
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and all sudden you got this like new
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exciting new product like what's the
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overall feeling now versus maybe couple
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years ago when you didn't have it so I
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would fun exciting CU we us as a family
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love ice cream like the hard cold dipped
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ice cream but we're always like how do
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you get it out there cuz it's so hard to
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transport expensive it's very expensive
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so now we feel like we can get this
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everywhere in the states try our ice
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cream and it's way easier to to ship the
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Shelf stable so that's that's what's
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exciting I feel like for the families we
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finally get out there and it's
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affordable to ship cuz shipping ice
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cream is a kind of a nightmare that's
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where I'm might that's where I say yeah
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you have to have the refrigerated semi
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come transport all that stuff it has to
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be that temperature versus free ice
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cream this is why freeze dry is taking
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off you can take an existing products
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that you have and say oh you know I now
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I can ship more efficiently and I can
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also get the product in a different way