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Congrats on your new role! That is awesome. Goodness....things I wish I knew earlier...is there a character limit on these posts?? haha. Making whiskey is the fun and romantic part about the business. Selling it is the hard part. It is a hell of a lot easier to scale a distillery than it is distillery sales. Understand your weaknesses and hire people that are better than you. People have been doing this for thousands of years. Good Lord, there aren't hardly any secrets so let people take pictures in your distillery! None of our brands, technicques, tactics, etc haven't been done before. "Unique" ideas you think you have don't make money; proper execution of a plan makes money. Learn how to say "no" and not feel bad about it. If it doesn't feel right for you or your business, use those 2 little letters together. Sometimes it's harder than it sounds. If it doesn't make sense, it proabaly doesn't make cents; and if it doesn't make cents, it doesn't make dollars. Make sure to take care of your house before you take care of someone else's. For God's sake, DON'T LET ANYONE EFF UP THE TTB REPORTING! It really isn't that hard, just +'s and -'s. Dot every i and cross every t as soon as an event happens. It's about attention to detail, not bookkeeping. Don't put it off and fall into the trap of "I'll get that later". The more PGs that go out the door, the bigger the magnifying glass. Make sure that when you delegate that responsibility, you trust, but verify. It's your butt on the line. Make sure there is redundancy in your system...not just the production equipment...people too. Cross-training is super important. If you lose a key person that is the only subject matter expert in your organization, how do you recover? A lesson that I am still learning: your time is your currency and you can't ever make any more of it. Spend it wisely. There are plenty of days you can find a reason to stay at the distillery until the wee hours of the morning. The truth is that the work will still be there when you get back in the morning but those hours won't be. Days go slow and years go fast. People talk about work-life balance and that is unbelieveably hard to find in a new distillery. Make sure you understand where that teeter-totter tips for you, your family, and your company. The point won't be the same for all 3 and it's up to you balance it. Most importantly, and you already know this, it's all about people. It took me far too long to realize that this business is ALL about relationships. I think that's enough for now. Probably time to go grab another glass of bourbon and prophesize a bit more! haha. Congrats again and great post! Making the post alone says a lot about you. Cheers!

This is NOT a paid post - I just wanted to let everyone know how much appreciate the way Larry and his team do business. We've used StillDragon equipment ever since we started production in 2016. While you can spend a lot more, we've produced the 2023 Best Small Batch Bourbon <5Yrs at San Francisco on their 4 plate columns mounted on a second-hand jacketed tank. Despite us being one of their smallest (and cheapest) customers they've stood by us with hand holding and advice every step of the way. We're what you might call a "High Maintenance" customer! We haven't even spent that much with them because we get most of our equipment off auction or used. They still make time to quote anything we need, sell us great quality for almost nothing compared to Vendome or Specific, and Larry knows as much about distilling as anyone I've ever met. On Saturday we were doing a mash and we ended up overloading the gearbox on our mash cooker/stripping still, which started shooting out smoking oil. Now Larry had only sold us the gearbox and seal assembly, so this was not a huge purchase, and the sale was 2+ years ago. I called Larry panicking around 11am on a SATURDAY, and he immediately sprang into action to help us figure out what was going on, how we could get this to limp through the mash, and how to get a replacement if needed, which he quoted within 30 minutes after making sure he had the replacement gearbox on the floor. He even provided a procedure for changing it out if we needed to. This overload was OUR FAULT (staff forgot to add Alpha-Amylase), but Larry never once suggested that we were on our own, this was too much trouble, or he'd get back to us Monday. He treated this like a warranty situation until we figured it out, and even then he offered us the parts for an incredibly reasonable replacement price with immediate shipping. If you want to work with a company that stands behind their customers, goes above and beyond, and genuinely makes you feel like you're not out there alone, buy their equipment. They're genuinely interested in long-term relationships with customers. If I'm buying new stuff - it's StillDragon 100%.

So I believe I was able to find a solution to the problem I was having. As I was comparing old (good) corks with new (bad) corks, I noticed the old ones felt a bit softer. So I purchased a durometer hardness tester and checked the actual hardness of the stoppers. The new stoppers were measurably harder/stiffer. After Tapi looked into it again they did confirm the material can have different density from the plant, and said we can specifically request a lower density stopper. So we had them run a new batch of lower density stoppers, and so far they seem to be working normally like they used to.

I would love to know how a 100 liter setup, costing probably as much as one 10 times its size, can be an economically viable way to produce spirits. Do the math: 100 liters of mash might yield 3 proof gallons of finished whiskey (it can't produce vodka). Assume aging loss of 10%, you'd have like 12, maybe 15 bottles of spirit. That's the yield for like 4 days of your labor. And that is, of course, assuming you are an exceptional at mashing and your ferments are perfect and your cuts are generous. No offense, but this pitch is better suited for homedistiller.org

I doubt anyone would say anything unless you brought it up. Barrels don't have tri clamps so you're not likely using them in every application anyways. Tri clamps are cheap and terribly convenient and useful though, so I don't why you wouldn't want them in as many places as possible. Avoid a wild hose spaying 100p spirit all over your DSP once and it's payed for itself.

Search 1.5" tri clamp butterfly valve internal seal, along with the brand name. Call TCW they are good at answering questions and will find you the right hose.

That's the one! Aaron added some awesome equipment to the lot. Cooker, heat exchanger, and centri-sifter look awesome. Not going to lie....thought about buying it back but when I mentioned it to the war department (my wife 😜), I was met with a resounding "eff-you!" 🤣

One island away!

Trying again to post a sketch of my continuous stripping still

Run.

The Primera AP550 is the one to use: https://www.primera.com/ap550-flat-surface-label-applicator-config.html Sometimes Primera even offers reconditioned units for those who need to economize, but you just need to get on a call list when they become available. Good luck!

I have used RangeMe to get into the AAFES system (AAFES requires it). RangeMe is an absolute fucking scam of the worst order. The VA somehow allowed them to be the gatekeeper for veteran-related/certified businesses and the bullshit they pull is absolutely shameful. They want thousands of dollars to 'accommodate' 'introductions' to buyers. Fuck that. That's what your distributor does (when you lean on them). RangeMe is zero value added. They will collect your sensitive personal and business data. You will be absolutely hounded with calls and emails for the privilege. If I wasn't clear before, i am now: I hope they all die in a fire, and whoever empowered these assholes to do what they do for veteran businesses should do so as well.

Jason Parker referenced this in his "How a Barrel Works" presentation at ADI 2023 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/352442235_Sources_of_variation_in_bourbon_whiskey_barrels_a_review

OK, here's what I know at this point: This yeast definitely ferments a LOT slower than what I am used to with Red Star. Even at 86-91F it takes 5-6 days VS 2-3. The end product is very nice if you have the time to wait. I've done 3 runs so far and I got quite a bit of aroma during the stripping and spirit runs. Fresh off of the still produced an extremely small amount of heads after an hour of reflux in the column. From there the hearts were very tasty and pretty far into the tails. Took my cuts according to Arroyo's "Heavy and light rums" advice. The light rum was very drinkable after about 3 weeks of slow proofing down to 40% and the heavy part went into a 5 gallon barrel for aging at 55%. As a note, I do a 1.5X distilling process where I add the strip from first run directly into the wash of the second and then run it. Hope this helps. FC

Silk, the robot overlords will be coming back for everyone that threatened its rise. I for one always express extreme gratitude and best wishes, and end with "I look forward to serving my robot overlords."

The difference in a lot of the terms you are mentioned is whether grain is in or grain in out, but really, these terms often mean multiple things, so context is important. Brewers spent grain (aka spent grain) - Spent grain separated when lautering. Generally sweet, spoils (ferments) very quickly). Distillers spent grain (aka spent grain, DSG) - Spent grain separated from stillage post distillation. Generally sour. Beer - In the case of distilling, this is the fermented mash. Wash - Same as beer, although sometimes this is used to indicate the liquid-only version of beer. You tend to hear this in Rum, where it's confusingly called both wash and 'rum beer'. Stillage - the remaining liquid in the still, in the case of an American style whiskey, this contains the spent grains pre-separation (sometimes called whole stillage), in the case of rum, there are no solids. Mash - Mixture of grain and water, pre-fermentation. Spent mash - Grain in stillage. Could be processed post-distillation into: DSG, Spent Wash (mostly discarded), and Backset (spent wash reserved for the next batch). Spent wash - Liquid-only stillage. Backset - Typically liquid-only stillage that is reused in the next mash to acidify (sour) the whiskey mash. Dunder - Spent wash for rum, and yes, this is similar to using backset in whiskey. Dunder may be aged/ripened, but doesn't need to be. In the case of Jamaican rums, dunder and "muck" are often confused. Sour Mash - Two types of sour mash, both have a similar end goal, which is reducing the pH of the mash by introducing acid. Backset is one option, the other is bacterial, using lactic acid bacteria (or other bacteria that may be present in the equipment, for example, living in the walls of a wooden fermenter). Worth noting, backset and dunder are sometimes used to reduce the water required to mash, or even to reduce the nutrient required - goes beyond only being acidification.

Hey Paul, you didn't post our still's baby picture! It finally cleared customs and is now on a boat from the mainland. Hoping to have it on the premises next week!

We have Mori presses being used for herbal extraction, and even grain pressing. They're probably quite a bit larger and more expensive than the home fruit presses you're using, so will depend on your scale.

The folks at TCW equipment can fix you up with some breather tubes for dumping barrels

Pete, I hope you can post some pics of this evolution of your column system.

Thats a great looking setup Mike. I ended up making my own, sharing my setup.to inspire others.

Now that I'm getting things up and running one of my first issues has been grain separation. My main still is 105 Gal so I'm a bit too small to spend the big bucks on a centrical separator or screw press but too big for just a small pot with a false bottom. Here is what I've put together! I started out with a 275 Gal IBC tote. I got it for $90 since there was already a small hole in the top. I cut the cage down one level all the way around and then down another two on the side without the drain. I also cut a hole in the top to access the inside. Once I had that done I went around the tote drilling holes and zip tying the tote to the cage to keep it secure. Once it was secure I took a multitool and cut out the top and side using the rail as a guide. My son cleaned it out and I waited on the mesh to arrive I ordered 4 ft x 5 ft #6 Stainless Steel Mesh from TWP Inc for about $180 after shipping. I rolled the edge on the drain side around the top bar and zip tied it into place. After rolling it out, I cut tabs every 6 or so inches to help with bending. Once it was bent into place, I secured the other end to the opening and tried to make a nice curve. Everything was secured with zip ties. Next was testing it out. This was a single malt of Red Wheat so it was an easier starting test. Will be testing it with a corn mash here soon. My son and I pumped everything from the still right onto the mesh and the grain separated great! Used a shovel to flip the grain around as the squeegee wasn't working the best. The system easily held 200 lbs and could do more if someone was scooping out the spent grain as it was going. After the first run I sadded a few additions. I added an attached discharge hose so I don't have to worry about the hose coming out if unattended. I changed from a hose to some steel pipe for the drain and added an attached washdown hose for afterwards. The last upgrade I'll need to make is to cut a small hatch on the drain side so that I can get in there with a shop vac. IBC totes have those two wells on either side of the drain and some liquid gets stuck there. Overall it has been a success and only cost me $300. I'll see how it does with some bourbon next week!

That's what we do, Fill 3 bulk bins per mash and have same set up by mash minus the mill.

Hello fellow ADI members I`ve been lurking the forum for some time and now decided to finally join to share my experience and to get in touch with distillers worldwide. About me: Been running distillery since 2016, currently working with 250 liter column and main products are different berry infusions, gin and vodka. In this whole journey been through it all - from building the distillery in abandoned house, digging through all of the licensing paperwork, valuable lesson why it is bad idea to start business with friends and so on. Currently all is streamlined and running well so for the last year I`ve been helping the new enthusiasts with starting their dream of distillery, so if anyone has any questions about do`s and dont`s feel free to contact me. Although I`m operating from Latvia and do not know the legislation in US, the basics of setting up are basically the same worldwide. Also if someone is thinking about opening up distillery in Europe - we have some of the cheapest licensing costs here. Have a nice day, drop a line and keep on burning that stove

I recently found some cypress wood fermenters for sale and am looking for feedback regarding their use before we consider buying them. I have never fermented in anything other than glass or stainless. Thank you for any help.

Proceed as usual. Likely there will be no issues.

If a production designer or actor or producer wants your brand in a movie or TV show it will happen, in our experience usually without you paying anyone. Not saying these guys aren't legit, but, when we were contacted by them a few days ago and told him we've been in movies without paying....he was pretty excited to get off the phone with me.

I picked up a factory refurbished Pimera labeler for flat bottles. Unfortunately I have not used it yet to give you feedback but it seems well made. https://www.primera.com/ap550-flat-surface-label-applicator-886.html

Square bottles can be tough to label, I have tried getting a flat semi-auto labelers to work work for clients in the past, however there was too much fluctuation in the label placement on the bottle. Depending on your amount of cases you are looking to might be better off just hand labeling your batches until your demand grows. Otherwise I would try a race labeler style applicator: https://www.crusystems.com/labelers/flat-surface-square-label-applicator-large-1

Sensient came through for us. They've got regular old fashioned caramel coloring, as well as new natural alternatives that will not trigger proposition 65 warnings. If people don't know, there's a legal issue in California that requires a warning label if you have certain chemicals in your product that carry more than an allowable amount. The chemical is: "4-methylimidazole (4-MeI), an impurity and potential carcinogen created during the manufacturing of caramel coloring, in various soft drinks. Because 4-MeI is a potential carcinogen, and identified as such under California’s Proposition 65 law, any food or beverage sold in the state that exposes consumers to more than 29 micrograms of 4-MeI per day is supposed to carry the Proposition 65 warning." Apparently Coke and Pepsi contain a lot of this because there's a lot of caramel coloring in sodas. Much less in our product, but finding a local lab to analyze for 4-Mel has been challenging. The alternative coloring agents from Sensient don't have quite the effect of caramel coloring and aren't as stable, so there's still more research for me to do. I'll let you know what I find out.

Consider oxidation/reaction of pinene as well. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Α-Pinene In the atmosphere α-pinene undergoes reactions with ozone, the hydroxyl radical or the NO3 radical,[9][full citation needed] leading to low-volatility species which partly condense on existing aerosols, thereby generating secondary organic aerosols. This has been shown in numerous laboratory experiments for the mono- and sesquiterpenes.[10][11] Products of α-pinene which have been identified explicitly are pinonaldehyde, norpinonaldehyde, pinic acid, pinonic acid and pinalic acid. Given that you indicate that the flavor profile is still (mostly) correct, it sounds more like you are seeing pinene react and form low-volatility compounds. Interesting that there is so much research on just how efficient this oxidation reaction is: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-21172-w Reduce exposure to air, reduce exposure to light, reduce splashing, pouring, pumping, mixing. Essentially, do everything to reduce exposure to air, mixing in a way that introduces air, reduce the time sitting in tanks (that are not purged with inert gasses like nitrogen), purge bottles with nitrogen, keep tanks and liquid cool to prevent evaporation, store bottles cool (only a temporary measure), etc.

Video greetings for the Independence Day of the United States of America from military musicians of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Love it Tim, its these types of things I feel us small distillers on a small budget do well, taking a little creativity and making something useful that others can put into place. Reminds me of my diy bottle rinser! Thanks for sharing and best of luck with your distillery!

Love dealing with these guys. Super helpful!

I looked into them and other online sellers, and the answer, like everything, is it depends. Running our numbers, we needed to sell close to 100 bottles per month through them just to make up the monthly fees, and that's assuming I can sell that many bottles without investing a dollar or minute of my time. Maybe that can happen, but with the struggles we've had to sell through our regular channels, I don't buy it. I think online sales through a platform like this can work, but they require a pretty serious time and cash investment to make them work.

Hi e-mail sent

We use Excel to keep track of the cases produced, then MS Word to do a mail merge to print that information on Avery labels. Send me a note, and I'll share. Sean

We are a veteran owned distillery and we successfully got our products in the local CGX stores. BUT the AAFES is a nightmare for us. Yes, the Rangeme site is a pain and they are always seeking ways to take money from you and tell you that they can help build awareness and therefore sales (which is a stretch). Now, the buyers for the AAFES tell me that they will look at any brand but they lean on the National and larger Regional brands mostly. What ever happened to giving a Vet a break? BTW, the AAFES still has not accepted our products.

Below is one of our barrel dumps. If anyone needs a barrel dump just let us know. 417-778-6908 ask for Paul.

The first thing I want to lay out is that in no way, shape or form do I consider myself a know it all. But due to some recent postings on this forum, and just people who have approached me in my local area about opening a distillery, I figure I'll do us all a favor and throw down some info based on my experiences over the past few years. Take them for what they are. If you disagree, feel free to post. If you want to open your own distillery, this is what I suggest. In my case, I don't come from money and didn't have the opportunity/ability to get a bunch of well-endowed folks to throw down a shipload of cash. I got a bank loan and used my personal funds that I had set aside during my time in the military. I won't go very far into how much I had, but the total allowed me to do some work on our site to set it up (those figures will obviously vary based on your individual circumstances), get some bargain equipment (total was about 20K) and then make it all work with almost daily trips to LOWE's (not being paid by them) over several months. So, if you have 500,000 dollars or more and don't need to start seeing a return for quite a while, then more power to you. But if you're on a limited budget and enjoy working 18 hour days, here's what I did: ***IMPORTANT STARTING NOTE: In 2007 (when I started to work on our business plan) there were very few options out there as far as educational opportunities for those interested in smaller scale distilling aside from books, the internet, and visiting working operations. However, there are now many, many options ranging from 1 or 2-day courses that may cost a few hundred dollars all the way up to full blown internships that are in the thousands. Case in point, I personally hold a 1-day workshop a few times a year (Camp Distillery, info on our website at www.mbrdistillery.com, and we fill up several weeks in advance). We specifically do this to help those seriously thinking about getting into the business that don't have a full week to spend on a course. I don't do it for the money, I do it because I literally have individuals wanting to stop by and meet with me on the matter at least every 2 weeks and I just honestly don't have time to entertain that many people for free. I can obviously vouch for our course that I teach, as I have had nothing but positive responses on the quality of instruction from those that have attended. Before you do get knee deep in a business plan, look into AT LEAST a one or two day workshop and attend it. The few hundred dollars you'll spend will save you either 1. At least tens of thousands of dollars in avoided mistakes or 2. You'll learn that getting into this business may not be for you BEFORE you start spending too much time and money. The longer I'm in this business, the more I honestly believe that there's really nothing quite like it, even beer and wine are usually very different from the spirits business both on the production and marketing sides. Plus, the amount of regulation and taxes we, as small-scale operations, pay is like the NFL compared to college or high school football. 1. Make yourself a REALISTIC business plan, then make several alternates in case you can't do it the way you want. I had plans A, B and C. I ended up going with plan C due to lack of funding. If you don't know accounting, teach yourself or find someone that can produce good financials for you if you're going to present things to either the bank or investors (or even just yourself). However, even if you have someone else produce them, you or they need to be able to explain them in detail if you're going to ask anyone for cash. Those two items (business plan and financials) are your foundation. You need to live and breath them and know them left, right, up and down. Working on those were pretty much my only hobby while I still had a day job, I spent the better part of 18 months on mine and it paid off because my numbers were almost dead on, and that was quite impressive when the bank or investors were trying to take me seriously about the business. 2. Start researching the art of distilling. Get books, go on sites, talk to other distillers, but don't expect to learn how to distill by reading. If getting hands on experience means visiting several distilleries, see below. Go to TTB.GOV and start reading, the regs are there. You can't know the regs well enough. I'm not lying when I say that I go on that site probably once a week or more to lookup info or just to go over things to ensure that they're fresh in my mind. When you get licensed and you produce a product, you are swearing under law that you are making that specific product according to the federal (and your state) regs. Your state may have some additional regs (mine does) that add to the federal regs, look them up as well. In essence, you are getting into a socialized business. It doesn't matter how much money you make (even if it isn't enough to keep the lights on), if you sell product, you pay the man. In most cases you have to "ask" the fed govt for permission to do certain things and, even if they're wrong, they're right. You can argue with them all you want, but you could be heading down a slippery slope to do so. IMHO, the only way that I would ever challenge the feds is if they were TRULY mistaken about something and (hopefully) I really won't upset anyone. In most businesses you don't have to ask the govt permission to make a product a certain way, to increase your production amount, or to change the setup of your facilities. In this business you do. 3. Go visit SEVERAL distilleries in different states. When you do so, call ahead and make an appointment to meet with the actual distiller and/or manager. Take into account my initial statement about time with regards to those individuals. If they're busy, just take note of their setup during your visit. But, in general, get in and get out and realize that they're not there to be your personal consultant for 2 hours or more. In total, I toured about 20 craft distilleries prior to making the first move to get ours going. Different states have different licensing requirements and different distilleries will have different techniques. During those visits I also met several people that I can call (or they can call me) if I have a question about something. I won't mention some of the guys that have helped me out and probably will still call (maybe they don't want the publicity cause I'm sure they're as busy as me), but they have helped make our business to some degree (FYI, I still owe most of them a free bottle or two and a whole lot of appreciation). I would also add that it helps to go talk to folks that aren't across the street (and preferably are a state or two away) because common sense will tell you that they won't really see you as a direct threat to their business. I'm not saying not to tour any nearby locations, but I didn't spend too much time questioning them about too many things because they may see me as direct competition, particularly for their local distribution business. My biggest trip included a tour of 9 craft distilleries, lasted 5 days, was several thousand miles of driving, went from KY to NY and cost me a grand total of 500 dollars in gas, budget hotels, and food (pack an ice chest to really save). That being said, I do have a Honda Civic that gets 40 mpg on the highway. Also, there are the distilling workshops and the ADI conferences, but I still recommend you hit as many small-scale craft distilleries as possible to broaden your understanding of the business and to get as many points of view as possible. Even if you go to a workshop with several distillers there, it's not the same as seeing them at their location with their equipment and in full business mode. The small-scale distilling industry isn't near as well-developed as the wine-making or brewing business, you'll see some very interesting things at different operations. 4. Get your site (and if you don't know yet, YOU CAN'T HAVE A FEDERALLY LICENSED DISTILLERY AT YOUR HOUSE without a property subdivision of some sort, this ain't a winery or brewery kids, the law is gonna tax you and tax you again, they don't want you makin stuff in your basement), refer to CFR Title 27, Part 19, Subpart F, 19.131. And, just for some fun, go lookup the federal tax rate on spirits compared to wine and beer, it's about three times as much, and that's not even taking into account that small-scale wineries & brewers pay a fraction of that 1/3. Now, back to the whole distilling at home thing, you can subdivide property, put up a fence, or tell the feds that you have a "force field" separating the "house" from the "distillery" to get around that. But, BOTTOM LINE, you MUST GET FEDERAL APPROVAL FROM THE TTB, go talk to them because they only give that appproval on a case by case basis and don't expect them to snap to and give you an answer overnight. Furthermore, you have to deal with local zoning first and foremost because the feds WILL ask you about that. For all planning, I recommend you start locally, then go state-level, then federal. The feds EXPECT that you are in complete compliance with all local and state regs and will ask you about it when they interview you. Bare in mind that your location is one of your biggest factors that will allow your business to be successful. First thing is that the environment (city vs. country) will make a huge difference in the local requirements that can add tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars difference to your startup cost. Second, state (and even local) laws will determine if you can sell your products from your gift shop/tasting room. You make up to three times the profit when you sell a bottle from your gift shop vs. to a distributor. Finally, if you are off the beaten path, how many folks will venture to come and see you? All of those factors are important to consider for your location, so setting up shop in one state that may allow tastings and product sale out of your facility vs. another state where you can only sell t-shirts can make the difference between needing to sell 500 cases or 2500 cases your first year. 5. Once you have a place that you can legally set up and is zoned appropriately and the townsfolk won't come at you with pitchforks and torches, set it up for distilling. What does that mean? Well, either you can hire a consultant (there are many out there) or you can do it yourself. We have started with some pretty bare bones stuff and when we are able to move along, we'll buy (or make) the "nice" equipment. Cost is up to you on all of this, but you are going to need at least SOME money, more power to you if you can make your own equipment. 6. Once your equipment is in place and your site is ready, send in your federal paperwork (the feds require that your equipment is in place prior to licensing). Again, if you have money, you can hire someone to do this part for you. The paperwork itself isn't rocket surgery. But, if you mess it up, it very likely can slow things down. For example, I had something on our permit changed, it took 3 months to add two words on our already existing permit. Plan for a 3-6 month wait, hope for less of course. I can't tell you about your state requirements, that's up to you to figure out cause each state does it their own way. 7. Once you're licensed, make some hooch and sell it (probably to a distributor, or the state if you're in a "control state"), and start beating feet to get it on shelves. If you're not a natural or can't play the part of salesman/diplomat, find someone who can do a good job for you. Even if you can start up your operation on a very, very slim budget, you're going to need a few bucks for this part. I would plan for at least six months of not selling jack through distributors. These distributors manage many, many products and you are just one piece of their usually very large pie. You're going to have to make an effort to build a quality relationship with these guys and work around their schedules. Anything that seems like it should be easy with them WILL NOT BE. If you happen to be setting up on a location that will garner loads of tourist traffic, that's always a plus. But, even then, you're going to have do some sort of marketing (may not cost you a bunch of money, but some of it will) to get the word out that "there's a local distill'ry here" (so come and visit so we can keep the lights on). During this entire process you also need to keep your lights on at home on. In my case I have a wife that kept her day job for our first 4 years of business, so we were able to support ourselves with her income alone until the business could afford to pay us. When you start producing product, you need enough cash to run your business and your home expenses for six months or more. Basic business expenses will include but are not limited to the following: lease/rent, insurance, utilities, payroll (if applicable), raw material costs (grain, molasses/sugar, yeast/nutrients, packaging, etc.), MARKETING (everything from signs and ads to travel brochures for nearby locations), EXCISE TAXES for product that you sell, items for your gift shop (if you have one), and some buffer for the honorable Mr. Murphy (he WILL pay you a visit at least once in your first few months, so be ready to throw some cash down for when he comes). A very realistic rule of thumb is to take your budget and cut it in half. Use half for your facility and equipment, then the other half for your initial production costs and unappropriated costs. But I'd say that advice is still marginal at best. Finally, another important thing to think about is your workforce. I was the only full-time employee for our operation for our first 2 years. I served as distiller, bottler, tasting bartender, cashier, tour guide, sales rep (on the road to stores/on premises accts), accountant, handyman, groundskeeper, and whatever else needs to get done. Until we were able to begin hiring full-time employees, we had friends and family help us out with many different things. I'm sure that this experience is somewhat normal for many small businesses, but it seemed to take a while before we were able to truly afford standard employees. Again, this is just my experience, but that's something to think about. NOTE: This forum has a wealth of information, so do other forums when it comes to techniques (homedistiller.org). I recommend that you read through it and others extensively prior to posting and, when you post, attack a single issue at a time. Don't ask something like, "How do you distill???" or "how do I start a distillery?" Look through the postings, get Bill's book (not being paid for that either), and any other references prior to posting. But, bottom line, be specific when you post so people don't have to write a book IF they do decide to respond. If you don't get much feedback, bank on the fact that you asked a question that already has an answer on the forum. If you really, really don't know anything about distilling or setting up a distillery, refer to steps 1-3. But, just because you can make a product, does not mean you can run a business that profits from that product. I know quite a few folks who can do some good things that they could turn into a business, but they don't want to or can't start a new business for whatever reason. Even when I was the only employee, I spent 75% of my work time NOT MAKING HOOCH. In most cases you are going to have to work at it to make some cash. But, know this, no matter what, the feds (and your state) WILL PROFIT IMMEDIATELY, but that does not mean that you will. From idea to an actual working distillery making hooch, my timeline lasted about 3 years. We're now beginning our 5th year in business and we have 6 full-time employees (including myself), and 6 part-time employees. I still drive a Honda Civic, but I work for MB Roland (consequently that's my wife's maiden name ). Good luck and I hope this serves as a good reference and starting point for those who need guidance on this topic.

Lol this thread, I can't. This is the best advice on distilling I've ever heard. You deserve the thumbs up.

A couple of the stills that we have built in the last few weeks.

Sorry didn’t want to make it feel like a stay in your lane type thing I’m just trying to save you the literal hours of heart ache and burns…. Big issue is the batch not moving and the fixed nature of a recirc line. All grist put into the kettle will be chased away by the flow of the recirc and all that flour will press together into clumps, if you’re at temp it will gelatinize the outsides completely water impermeable and you can find flour I shit you not on the other side of your strip. you could splurge for a grist hydrator but I’ve never really found one I’ve liked, always end up taking them out. you could plumb your recirc line to cause flow in the tank and weld a paddle baffle into the tank but you’d want a mother fucker of a pump

There's a few very helpful oxidizing reactions for pesky "SO2" in between your double distillations: Calcium oxide is used, it will react with SO32−- in wine to precipitate out as CaSO3 in your kettle -or- Activated Carbon is effective as always, SO2 can and will be absorbed and oxidized by AC in presence of O2 and H2O. -or- H2O2 is used to oxidize SO32− to SO42in which case it leaves with your stillage instead of hopping over into your collections tank Addressing SO2 in it dissolved form SO32− is the most convenient but flavor detrimental option. Good luck

Amaro By Brad Thomas Larson

Check out the book "Amaro" by Brad Parsons. Pretty good place to start

You dont need to pay a premium for fermaid-k, just make your own from (basically) deactivated yeast, vitamin b complex, DAP, and a bit of mag sulphate.

urea is a precursor to ethyl carbamate, a known carcinogen. you can boil bakers yeast (as the homedistiller forum suggest, yeast hulls don't provide nitrogen but thats also not the point of using hulls) for amino acids. DAP is also better than urea because it has a N base (diammonium) and P (phosphate), the two macros that you'll likely be deficient in. You need to ensure that all of the nutrients (or at least the DAP addition) is metabolized before the finish of fermentation because residual N will affect flavor. This is one of the reasons why you add at the beginning of fermentation or after 1/3 of the sugars have been depleted. For my current use, I add it at the start of fermentation and after 12-16 hrs depending on ferment speed and lag time - but I'm doing fresh pressed sugarcane (agricole-style) which is an entirely different beast than most of y'all

Buddy, you need to find another post to troll.

Your first post almost suggested this was about a fermentation problem. But from your second post, this suggests an issue in distillation, as to where the cuts are? Are you still getting the right amount of total alcohol in hearts + feints, but just getting a bad cut? That is a very different situation than loss of total alcohol yield, which was how I read the initial post. If it is a bad cut, much more information would be required about the still and distillation method to provide any feedback.