Airman700

We get ours from all American containers contact Denise at dsztroin@allamericancontainers.com

The guidance put out by the TTB specifically states that if undenatured alcohol is used, it is still subject to excise tax. My question is there an easy way to change it to denatured alcohol to save the excise tax? Not a huge expense, but as we will be donating the product to our local first responders, every bit of savings on the bottom line helps. Also, any ideas how to account for this on the monthly TTB reports?

We have been approached by a regional celebrity to create a private label Bourbon/Whiskey for their use. As we are a startup, our Bourbon is still a few years away from maturity. Therefore we are looking to source some Aged product to use for this opportunity. If you have aged product available, please contact me so that we can move forward on this opportunity. Tim.

Very interested, tired of Obamacare options in Illinois.

I highly recommend Wright global graphics. They have made some awesome labels fo our 40 winks whiskey, RFD Vodka, and our rum. Eddie is a wizard with any design idea.

Don’t bother renting a shipping container. You can buy one for under $1800. We store in a 40 ft and I know of At least 5 others that do the same.

To all, regardless of how hard you search and what advice you get from attorneys, there is no way to prevent trademark bullying from a marginally close big name company. We searched our name Grant View Distillery and were advised by attorneys that there would be no issue in registering. The trademark office reviewed the filing and allowed us to continue the registration as I they did not see a conflict. The name had quite a significance to us and the community as we live work and distill on a hill named “Grant View Heights” as it overlooked the former Camp Grant military base. On the last day of publication, Grant’s distillery from Scotland owners of , Grant's, The Balvenie, Kininvie, Monkey Shoulder, Aerstone, Clan MacGregor, House of Hazelwood, The Gordon Highlanders, Tullamore Dew, Hendrick's, Reyka, Sailor Jerry, Old Vatted Demerara, Woods Old Navy, Vat 19, Gibson’s Finest, Taboo, Montelobos, Milagro, Drambuie, Solerno, Ancho Reyes, Ancho Verde, Three Barrels, The Raynal, and Art In the Age Craft Spirits, asked for an extension and eventually filed an opposition based on their “Grant’s Elementary” trademarked Scotch. As discussions progressed our attorneys all said they had a weak case as there was already a Glen Grant trademark and an unregistered Samuel Grant Bourbon (bottom shelf Safeway brand made by Barton 1792). The consensus was that we would be almost guaranteed to win but expect to spend $50,000+ in the fight as they were just trying to strengthen their mark and as a startup, we were an easy target. As a startup, I have other things I would rather spend money on (like some SS fermenters & a chiller) We proposed to change our name to GrantView (one word). They initially agreed as long as we did not register the mark and limit our capacity to 100,000 gallons (definition of Craft in Illinois). We drug or feet for a bit and now they want us to change our name to GrandView (one word) Limit our production, and submit every future label for their review. Along the way we also had a graphic artist design a tree logo based on a huge Walnut tree on our property. They also threw in that they now wanted us to loose the logo no matter what our future name is as the boxes they ship their product in have an unregistered “Grant’s family tree” logo on them (totally different from our tree” Bottom line, as they have a virtually unlimited budget, I am being forced to change our name and loose a significant historical connection that is of great value to our community. I guess that because they have an unlimited budget, my only real recourse in this all is to ask all of you as Craft Distillers to join me in Boycotting all their Products because of their bulling tactics.

Is it still available?

In our experience it is all dependent on the ttb agent assigned. We submitted 2 a day apart 3 months ago. They were assigned to two different officers. The second one was approved in 8 days. The first one sat idle for 30 days till we we made an inquiry. It was approved the next day. Tim

Rob, Thanks for the complement. Good luck with your upgrade and we look forward to trying to create the great spirits we know the still is capable of. Tim

Thanks Paul, we purchased the still and sent you an email regarding rewireing the control panel. Tim

PAUL, I tried to send you a PM, but get a message you are unable to receive them. please contact me at tim.ford@gvdistillery.com. Interested in SS Transfer tanks and quote on a still. Tim

Looking to buy a small quantity of recently dumped Rum Barrels.

Interested in samples please email Tim.ford@gvdistillery.com

Where are the barrels located?

Ditto for Us, we only submitted Drawings got our DSP last month. Tim

To Jessica and Falling Rock, Thank you for sharing your experiences. I am sure that our (relatively) short approval time was in part from the experience agents have received from processing previous applications like yours. For that I do honestly thank all the pioneers ahead of us in the game. As was pointed out on averages, we are just one point on the graph. I would in no way imply that anyone else could expect a similar timeframe. I did feel it important to post our data point for others to see. Our application like I am sure most, had some straightford parts and others that were a bit tricky. I humbly say that the only special skill I claim is a little familiarity with government bureaucrats. I spent 25 years as a consultant in another heavily regulated industry (aviation) and learned to speak federal bureaucracy...... Like most startups we are working with a budget so we made the decision not to use a DSP consultant for the application. In no way do I mean to take away from the value of a good consultant, we justed decided to save our consulting budget for assistance in production issues after the DSP approval. We must have done something right because we were part of the minority of applications that did not generate any correction requests. We simply reviewed, rechecked and rechecked again the submission. Thanks to all in the forum for ideas we have received during the last few months. Tim

51 days to receive DSP approval Filed Nov 1 approved December 21 if interested here are the particulars - No consultants used - No additional questions or submissions requested from TTB - In a rural area, DSP in building on the same 22 acre plot of land as our house (109 feet apart) - Owners US citizens but lived out of country in last 5 years (required 10 yr background check) Now the real work begins!!!

Help, Looking for some info from anyone who was granted Specal Use in an Ag Zoned property as an Agri-Business. Our county zoning folks have said that they will only grant us the Special Use Ag zoning if we can prove the majority (80%) of our ingredients are grown by us on the property. For those of you out there operating in rural areas, what percentage of your ingredients do you yourself grow? My thanks to all ahead of time.

Having the same issue

Link to the equipment does not work. Is anything still available?

Interested in the equipment you listed. Can you send photos? Also what is the reason you are getting rid of it? Thanks Tim