bluestar

Not obvious from picture what the damage was, and if it is only cosmetic, why sell it?

We had the same thing happen to us, we unwrapped one and let it dry too long and the hoops fell off. They told us just to drive the hoops and reswell them, which we did successfully. But they didn't send us a free hoop driver, we had to by our own. So, others should NOT expect they will all get a free hoop driver (about a $50 item).

We have heard different things at different times, so YMMV. But our best current understanding is that the bonded area must have access to the street through property that only you control, but it does not have to be bonded premise, general premise, or "distillery" at all. For example, it could be your retail shop (which can not be in bonded or general premises). Currently, we access our bonded premise through the general premise, which has a direct access to the street. We are thinking of changing the general premise into our retail space as part of an expansion of the distillery elsewhere, and then the street access to the bonded premise would be through the retail space. During the original application discussions, we had been told by the TTB that the latter would be acceptable, but we are now awaiting confirmation of such for approval of our planned change. We would have an additional entrance to the bonded space, but it would access the street through common public space that we don't have exclusive control of.

Generally I agree with you Ralph, although I am not sure how I feel about it with regards to the botanical distillations: gin, absinthe, aquavit, etc. One could argue that even if done from purchased NGS or other spirit, it is distillation really and not rectification, in the sense that the intent is to use the fractionation effect of distilling from/over/through the botanicals to extract essences and produce cuts that provide a target product flavor and aroma. The intent of rectification is purification by repeated distillation, predominantly, so the redistill for a vodka or something similar is certainly rectification. I think one way to define distilling separate from rectification is require that some raw (undistilled) material must contribute substantially to the final product as part of the process of distillation: this would encompass distilling from one's own ferment, from procured wine, beer, or pomace, from spirits with added botanicals or agricultural products, etc. The "craft", then, for any craft distiller, would be in how the processing of distilling extracts flavors and aromas from the added non-spirit materials into the final product.

Can you elaborate? TTB restriction on tours? Sales during the tour? In the distillery? My understanding is there are no retail sales in the distillery proper, bonded premise or general premise. Tastings can sometimes be managed as part of an educational activity, but not as part of retailing, and in this sense a tour might be considered an educational activity. Tasting for retailing should be in retail area, outside of distillery. Although I have been to events where a tasting is in the distillery, and the retail sales are outside of the distillery, and nominally these two are treated as "independent".

We get ours from Country Malt because we can just pick them up with our grain orders (they have a warehouse near us). You should be able to mail order them from any wine making supplier.

You need a physical, secure separation. You need an access to the street that you control (others cannot control the locks for).

What makes that difference is the number of owners, not that it is S-corp per se. You can be a sole owner LLC, and it is no more complicated than an S-corp. It is a harder question to say whether a sole owner LLC or an S-corp is better for a sole owner. That is more a matter of how you want to handle your taxes, so talk with your accountant.

Production of gins, aquavits, etc., can be done by redistillation of NGS with choice of botanicals in a way that most of us would consider craft, and would be prohibited by this definition. Would we really feel that requiring someone to product their own NGS in order to make a London Dry gin is what distinguishes them from someone that makes their own NGS? What do you think, Ralph?

Have you built a 150g version yet? Will it have the same diameter column, or smaller?

OK, run your NGS through the still with two juniper berries.

Their bungs are shallow and easily splinter. We buy a bunch of silicone bungs and use those. Easy to remove, seal well, don't leak, last forever. After losing two bungs stuck in barrels, and others that leak, we switched to silicone.

I will bring this up at the first meeting of the Illinois Craft Distillers Association, and see if we can get the membership to agree to an Association position to support this measure.

What undercuts the oak flavoring requirement as part of what is the "taste, aroma, and characteristics generally attributed to whisky" is that corn whisky is also part of the category, and corn whiskey does not have to be aged. Moreover, some of the lesser whiskey categories can be stored in used oak, and if heavily used, may impart almost no flavor from wood. Hence, a good argument can be made that wood flavor is not a prerequisite for "taste, aroma, and characteristics generally attributed to whisky".

6" diameter shotgun, about 4' long, should work for you.

We make a gin that is a single distillation from corn mash. The key here is that most mean dry gin or London dry gin when discussing gin. That has to be made on NGS for London dry gin (Euro requirement), or from what we might call a light whiskey for a dry gin (because for us NGS is 95%, but elsewhere 90%). But gin does NOT have to be dry, and types like old genever are not. So, our product is not intended to be anything like a dry gin, and so many who think the only good gin is a dry gin think it flawed or hate it. We don't, and we find many others that like the product, particularly those that don't like dry gins but enjoy sipping whiskey, they find it is a good sipping gin. In addition, there is a growing number of American craft distillers that are producing a redistilled gin where the base is not NGS but an unaged whiskey. We plan to make one of these as well. Both do nicely when later allowed to age in barrels.

No legal standard. The general interpretation is that it is unaged corn whiskey or a special made from corn and sugar. All sugar would be sugar shine. Most assume it is 100% corn whiskey, or nearly so (perhaps some malt for conversion). We respect that general concept, hence we call our unaged corn whiskey "white lightning" because it is not 100% corn (has rye and barley). Others consider white lightning to be a higher proof version, a light whiskey, rather than a whiskey. Some consider moonshine could be the same. We do call one of our products moonshine that is a corn whiskey with some honey in the ferment.

Changing the CFR requires an act of Congress. Think our Congress is likely to pass a law that says you can make booze near a residence? Where we can have some reasonable modification is making reasoned arguments to the TTB on points of interpretation of the CFR or its implementation, particularly where language in the CFR allows for other approaches. For example, this is happening now for issues related to gauging, where a manufacturer wants the TTB to approve another method not specifically described but nominally meeting the requirements of the CFR.

The CFR requires no adjacencies to a residence. But you are correct, the agent makes the final call. We were told explicitly we could not be in building that had residences. YMMV

They give you a telephone number, use it. If you chat with the field rep, he/she can probably give you their email address. Don't be afraid to call the TTB with questions, that is what they are there for, even though it can be hard to get through to the right person initially.

Do what we did: send that pic to your local TTB field representative and have them give you an opinion. It might not be final, but it is better feedback than asking any of us, I think, or certainly in parallel.

Not really for us, but we are not far away (Missouri to Chicago). It has to go truck, and they shipped unpalleted, so after 4 or so it was fairly linearly priced.

They are just restarting Craft Distiller barrel production in August, as they finish working through the backlog.

We use their Craft Distiller's barrel, both Char 3 and Special Distiller's Char. Prices are very reasonable, but they only supply 53 gallon barrels. You will want to replace supplied bungs with your own. We also use barrels from Black Swan and Barrel Mills, both good suppliers for smaller barrels. Not disparaging any other manufacturers, just the ones we have used and are happy with.

Unless you then end up printing it out. It is cheaper, and less carbon foot print, to buy the published print version than to print it out yourself, if you print the whole thing. On the other hand, about 2/3 of it is wine and beer, so you could just print out the 1/3 on spirits.