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!