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Restrictions on location


Jeli

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Makes sense. So next stupid question, how do I found out who that is? This website (http://www.ttb.gov/a...locations.shtml) gives the field representative located several hundred miles away in another state (MN). Doesn't seem too "field" to me hence the question. No contact email address is given for sending in a pic other than the general one at TTBInternetQuestions@ttb.gov. Or perhaps ttbspirits@ttb.gov or even permits.online@ttb.gov?

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.

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I've visited distilleries all over the country and have seen apartments above both directly and indirectly and distilleries not located near the road but behind a house in a rural area. So you have to cross the "private area". It seems to me to be totally subjective on the part of the agent.

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I just spent three months working with a very accommodating County Board who after I came forward with my desire to build a distillery on my AG/Residential property, they formulated a Rural Retail Tourism ordinance to allow many different types of businesses to operate on Ag properties. I spent a an afternoon with our Zoning commissioner to determine all the things I need to do to conform with their conditional use permit. I began asking about the existing Pole Shed as a starting point. The county was fine with it.

When I called my rep for the TTB in Minnesota, he discussed the fact that the law doesn't allow a Distillery to operate on a property with a residence. This was echoed by the Home office help line in D.C. They told me they wouldn't permit a distillery in this situation. Then gave me two options: 1) Plat the land to separate the buildings (ie, draw an imaginary line which exists on paper in a county office) which would legally separate the buildings from the residence. 2) If the county wouldn't do it, I could submit a request for permission to use the existing building, accompanied by a site plan and explanation of the separation (Physical) and hope to get the use approved before my application.

This was last wednesday. They tried to make it clear, my application would go much easier if I got the plat done. Luckily I have 15.5 acres in a long rectangle so this shouldn't cause any problems. Also my neighbors and the board are all excited to see this happen. So I am going that route and setting my timeline back 2 months to accommodate planning commission and County board meeting schedules. Just my experience.

So maybe we need the ADI or ACDA to push for removal of this portion of law or redefine it so people with separate buildings don't have to deal with this anymore.

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I've visited distilleries all over the country and have seen apartments above both directly and indirectly and distilleries not located near the road but behind a house in a rural area. So you have to cross the "private area". It seems to me to be totally subjective on the part of the agent.

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

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So maybe we need the ADI or ACDA to push for removal of this portion of law or redefine it so people with separate buildings don't have to deal with this anymore.

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.

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Would separate offices above similarly be a deal breaker with the TTB and fire marshals?

If they were your office upstairs it would be ok but if they belonged to someone else,,, Do you really want to put some else's lives at risk by putting an ethanol plant underneath them?? It would be a deal breaker.

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My understanding is that the distillery premises can not be common with retail premises, not that it can't be adjacent. This is the reason why you can not have your retail sale and tasting shop in the distillery premises, bonded or general, and have to have a physical isolation and security between them and any retail space. This is a revenue protection issue: you must have barriers between taxed (retail) activity and untaxed (manufacturing) activity. Similarly between spirit production areas and wine or beer production areas. For a while this separation was sometimes simple demarcations, but now my understanding is they almost always require secure physical separations. But it is still case by case. JMO, YMMV.

There is a distiller in PA where the only separation between tasting room and distillery is a line of defunct barrels.

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