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EchoJoe

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EchoJoe last won the day on May 2 2023

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    Columbus, OH

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  1. A little background: I'm asking this as the distillery side to this relationship, and I have not seen the related distribution contract. In Ohio, we have separate distillery and ready-to-drink canner licenses. A local brewery has the license to can RTDs, and obviously has the equipment to do it with their own operations. Due to the nature of breweries in Ohio, they also handle quite a bit of self distribution. They also have a distribution contract which definitely covers their beer and may or may not cover RTDs. Their lawyer is unsure of whether the distributor would have a right to claim that the RTDs are covered by the beer contract or not since it's the same LLC, even though it's a different type of product and different license. This brewery has approached us about doing canned RTDs with our name on it. They would buy our spirits, manufacture the RTDs including packaging, and would like to self-distribute. In theory we could get the same RTD license, but we don't have canning equipment nor the capital or space to get it. We also don't have a team the size that could handle self-distribution and don't have an interest in signing with a true distributor (we're in a control state). The brewery has all of those things, but has the distribution issues. In short, has anyone dealt with the distribution side of this before? Are there court cases or similar that would give precedence to whether or not a vauge beer distribution contract covers RTDs?
  2. We primarily source from International Molasses. Good quality, good price. That said, I'm also interested to hear who others source from.
  3. 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.
  4. @SlickFloss, do you have a contact at Bardstown for sourcing aged product? Or do they only do custom runs, with anyone having BBC stock in-house having purchased it from them prior?
  5. I don't think this would be something addressed at the TTB level. I'm in Ohio, and this would be covered by either the Department of Agriculture (state-level), who acts as our health inspector for our production side. I don't see why you couldn't do this if you have the right setup to sterilize, etc. You just have to decide if the cost of labor (removing labels, etc.) is worth it.
  6. How large are they, and what contract size do they normally do? It's possible this is like any contract business right now - they're quoting you very high to see if you bite. They may be so busy that the only way it's worth the time and effort to them is if you pay a crazy rate. It may be their way of telling you "buzz off".
  7. We get some used barrels from another local distillery that has them in the top, but we store them sideways. So far so good. Just gotta make sure the bung is pounded in pretty snugly.
  8. We use the Tennessee bottle, which is very similar and available through most major companies. We typically go through Kaufman Container in Cleveland. Imperial Packaging is great too.
  9. Awesome information everyone, and there would seem to be a consensus. Thank you so much for the feedback!
  10. Hi Joe,  we recently opened our distillery about 3 hrs east of you in Washington PA. I was also looking for a quality still that wouldn't break the bank.  I went with Trident stills from Maine.  Jesse, the owner is a true craftsman and we couldn't be happier with both the performance and the look of our still.  I've attached a pic of our main production still (I also have a15 gallon R&D still frontpoint Trident). If you ever make it to Pittsburgh area feel free to drop in and check it out. 

     

    Jim

    Mingo Creek Craft Distillers 

    68 West Maiden Street 

    Washington PA 

  11. I'm struggling to find any aggregated topic on the matter, so I thought I would start one. Please correct me if I'm mistaken. I'm still in the stages of working on my business plan budget and am struggling a bit on the topic of what still to aim for. A little background - I am located in Columbus, OH, and we have two high-quality distilleries in town, Middle West Spirits and Watershed Distillery. Both consistently make quality spirits and win awards, both national and internationally. Both also happen to run Kothe stills. I've been to quite a few distilleries across the US. Some have been good, some have not hit my palate well, and some (even award winners) were flat-out bad, IMHO. Thus far I've been operating under the assumption that I should also aim for a Kothe or other engineering marvel if I want to produce similar quality. However, I know that plenty of other still manufacturers are also winning boatloads of awards, and many are far cheaper (ignore the Chinese knock-offs for the sake of this discussion, I would think). Obviously things like ingredients, cuts, fermentation, etc. have a large part to play in resulting quality, but the still has to be a factor too. However, how large can it be and does it justify the additional cost? Sure, I'd like the Cadillac, but is it worth the cost? Can I make the same quality spirits and save myself $60k for the time being? Ignore the "presentation aspect" for now. Happy to hear any opinions from those of us who have actual experience operating these beauties!
  12. Thanks for all of the advice so far! Things I didn't think about and avenues to consider. Doing some additional research, Bluefish might be right. A year may not be necessary to create a proper dunder. As Silk City also said, it's more about microbiology than the age. Experiments worth trying!
  13. I apologize in advance if this is a question I should have figured out the answer to by now. It's also probably a question best asked of a TTB agent, but I thought I would toss it here to see if anyone knew. I'm still in the planning stages, working on a distillery that would produce rum. Dunder is going to be a key ingredient to the flavor I'm looking for, but all of my research is telling me that it will take a while to get a good dunder pit going. I'm considering ways to get that in process while buildout, still delivery, etc. is happening. The key would seem to be that you want the dunder to have no alcohol left in it, lest you impede the growth of all of the fun bacteria. So... 1) Mix up a batch of molasses water, add yeast, boil the alcohol out, and let the bacteria take over. Can I do that without a DSP, if I don't intend to sell the alcohol? Alcohol is a byproduct of plenty of production processes, just not in that volume. 2) Mix up the molasses, leave it uncovered for a few days, maybe outside. Boil it to sterilize it again, then let the bacteria take over. Anyone have any experience with this?
  14. The original poster did get back to me, and the information is from this document: http://axisofwhisky.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Craft_Distilling_2015_white_paper_update.pdf
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