Bagel Posted April 13, 2017 Share Posted April 13, 2017 Hi. This is my first time on here, and seems like an awesome community. Im currently in the process of putting a distillery together, and need a few suggestions, if anyone is willing to help. So for starters, I'll post a picture of what I have to far. It's a 110 gallon stainless steel tub, and includes a whirlpool pump. I have somewhat of a sparge arm built, and the perforated plate in the bottom are the last largest pieces of what I got. I have a ton of materials, and can probably accommodate most any design. Thanks in advance! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeteB Posted April 13, 2017 Share Posted April 13, 2017 A couple of questions. What grain are you going to mash? If corn then you don't need sparge or perforated base. Is that the perforated screen in the bottom? if so then it should go full width otherwise you will get a dead area to the sides that won't get sparged efficiently. Sparge arm looks a bit over-engineered but not a problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
captnKB Posted April 14, 2017 Share Posted April 14, 2017 you said you need suggestions but did not ask any questions. I suggest making some Raki, its the hot new spirit of the year Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bagel Posted April 14, 2017 Author Share Posted April 14, 2017 Pete- I'm hoping to accommodate multiple styles with the same piece of equipment. The false bottom can be removed and the circulator pump could be used instead, if needed. I kinda thought the same thing with having dead spots if it all wasn't covered in perforated stainless, but maybe there's a different way with the pieces I have. And yes, the sparge is a bit much. Haha, but I had a stainless manifold I thought would be perfect and figured I'd use all the ports, change it later if needed. Captnkb- I guess I was sorta just fishing for any input. Haha. I have a few ideas but it's always awesome to see what others would do. And what is raki? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foreshot Posted April 14, 2017 Share Posted April 14, 2017 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rakı Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bagel Posted April 14, 2017 Author Share Posted April 14, 2017 Haha thank you, I should have just looked it up myself, but it sounds interesting. Might be worth investigating Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bagel Posted April 14, 2017 Author Share Posted April 14, 2017 So, raki is almost the same as grappa? They have a variation that's not flavored with anise that would be similar, right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foreshot Posted April 14, 2017 Share Posted April 14, 2017 One thing to think about, and it's been said on here many time: You are a marketing business that sells booze. You can get as fancy, clever or cheap as you want but it boils down to can you sell product. Making the product is a small percentage of what you should be spending your time on. You should be thinking about what products are likely to sell in your area, are you selling or can you sell in your distillery, are you selling to a distributor, how are you setting up your website etc. Don't get me wrong, production is important. Doing something unique with your equipment is cool and you could use that in your branding. If you follow through with it and make as much of your equipment as you can could make a unique experience in the distillery that customer would enjoy. I know I would geek out if you had a space filled with crazy hand built stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bagel Posted April 25, 2017 Author Share Posted April 25, 2017 On 4/13/2017 at 10:05 PM, Foreshot said: One thing to think about, and it's been said on here many time: You are a marketing business that sells booze. You can get as fancy, clever or cheap as you want but it boils down to can you sell product. Making the product is a small percentage of what you should be spending your time on. You should be thinking about what products are likely to sell in your area, are you selling or can you sell in your distillery, are you selling to a distributor, how are you setting up your website etc. Don't get me wrong, production is important. Doing something unique with your equipment is cool and you could use that in your branding. If you follow through with it and make as much of your equipment as you can could make a unique experience in the distillery that customer would enjoy. I know I would geek out if you had a space filled with crazy hand built stuff. Dude. What can I say. I mulled this concept over since you posted it. Excellent advice. I wasn't going about it in that perspective. I definitely need to broaden my approach on this. I've done a ton more research on products I can make available, and ways to make different attachments on different stills to get what I need. My main enjoyment from this is the design and configuration of the whole thing, and the chemistry behind it, but man your right on the whole marketing thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foreshot Posted April 27, 2017 Share Posted April 27, 2017 So the thing with marketing is that technical people generally suck at it. It's not our thing. In entrepreneurship it's called the Engineer's dilemma. You make a great product but no one knows about it. As business there's a fix. Hire someone (or a company) to do it for you. Plan on spending a lot more money that you ever imagined you would on it. Don't hire a sales person to do marketing unless they have a background in it. Sales and Marketing are two different animals. Marketing is about getting people to know you and get them in the door. Sales is what happens once they are in the door. You can do it on your own but it's pretty tough to have enough time to do well. For a smaller company a part time person or a company probably is your best bet. http://www.diffen.com/difference/Marketing_vs_Sales The video is a little odd but it helps I hope. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
indyspirits Posted April 27, 2017 Share Posted April 27, 2017 8 hours ago, Foreshot said: Plan on spending a lot more money that you ever imagined you would on it. Don't hire a sales person to do marketing unless they have a background in it. Truer words were never spoken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NADERHANNA1719 Posted August 6, 2020 Share Posted August 6, 2020 Raki is hardly new. It's an offshoot of Arak, which is the world's oldest spirit. It originates from the Levant (i.e. Palestine, Jordan, Syria & Lebanon) and Iraq. It is a triple distilled (via pot still), grape brandy infused with aniseed, and usually aged for at least one year in clay amphorae. Arak is the grandfather of all spirits, as it was the first distilled spirit, because the Arabs of this region created the alembic pot still and successfully distilled wine in 900AD. Through trade, Arak quickly spread throughout the rest of the Mediterranean Basin, and these countries began making their own arak, and each modified the original recipe (i.e. grapes & aniseed) based on available ingredients and culinary preferences. The italians sweetened it and called it Sambuca; the French aged it Oak and called it Pastis, the Greeks added additional herbs and spices and called it Ouzo (and Tsipouro in Cyprus); the Tunisians made it from figs and called it Boukha; the Moroccans made it from Dates and called it Mahia. All of these are similar anise-flavored spirits, all of which are direct descendants of Arak. For more on the little-known history of Arak, checkout this article: www.muaddi.com/arak-muaddi-heritage-in-every-glass To see how traditional Arak is made, checkout this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OULUs5kMDc Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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