bluestar

Anyone know of a good printer for a bottle top label with fixing adhesive (you can't remove) in the shape of an excise stamp? Or next best thing, rolls of such blank labels that can be printed in a digital printer like a Primera? Thanks

Brad, did you end up moving all of your bottles?

2 years for a straight whiskey, by statute. You can age for less or more, depending on category, etc.

The 150 gallon mash tun looks interesting to me. But if you are planning to post availability of new equipment here, I think we would all be interested to know more about your business and who you are, how manufactured or sourced, etc. Do you have a web site?

For distance calculation, where in MO. And are there any outlets/valves? Any drainage slope to bottom?

Gas-fired bain-marie, I think.

Is the bulb well on these stainless or brass?

Pete's right, nothing in your description so far indicates how your are doing your starch conversion.

We have just run into the same problem. The local fire protection entity makes the final decisions on what is required for safety, and they can require that all occupiable space be free to exit, and they can define almost any space as occupiable. So, in our case, they have not accepted the use of the padlocks for this purpose. The only way around this as far as we know is to ask for the exception. The biggest issue with the exception might be the requirement for key retention in the lock, if you are planning to use standard door locks.

We will be running gelatinized corn shortly, and will let you know our experience with it. If anyone else has done the same, we would be eager to hear before we start.

We took a bit over 2 months for the original, and even that delay was due to the application being lost track of, so just a telephone call was needed to resolve things and get it back on track. The key is finding out the specific individual that has been assigned to it, I think. You didn't say, but are you using the electronic submittal?

Link works if you drop the www, for some reason right now the router or server won't open the ADI main site as www.distillery.com, but as distillery.com so someone maintaining the ADI web site needs to make a correction or modification at the server, I suspect.

Has anyone done a strip stamp as a continuous tape? If so, what custom printed tape vendor did you use? Challenge seems to be getting something that will dispense but still shear when opening. On the other hand, if printing strip stamps of fixed length, what vendor do you use, same questions? Search of earlier forum discussions don't show specific solutions, but it has been awhile, and there are more products out there using them.

Depends on your water. First thing to do, get an analysis done of the water as delivered to your site. There is a lot of info out there about what should or should not be in the water, search this site and look at almost any of the texts. You could need nothing, minor chemical adjustment, simple filter or softening, or even full RO.

Yes, I assumed they would be very different, but wondered for those actually doing it, what the difference in character is, specifically for a corn whiskey versus bourbon on the same mash. Thanks.

Your choice of dilution affects both extraction if you pre-steep, and it affects distillation too, since the starting proof will affect the temperature at which you distill, and hence how the aromatics come across in the distillation. You can separate these functions to some degree by extracting at higher proof and diluting before distillation. You can fine tune the extractions by separating the botanicals for steeping at different proofs, then recombining for distillation. Or go whole hog, and extract and distill each botanical separately. Or any combination thereof. All these allow the distiller to tweak the flavor profile, in addition to the choice and proportion of botanicals. Or use a gin basket. Or throw some botanicals in the pot without steeping. There is no "right" answer, experimentation in this (and all the rest of the distilling variables) is the fun and art of gin making. By the way, trying to "stay true" to the flavor profile you get in an extract gin going to a distilled gin is probably not possible or desirable per se, and certainly it won't be just an issue of proportional strength. That is because all the various congeners that make up your flavor profile from the botanicals will distill over in different relative proportions, and may even break down or react, depending on specifics of your still and process. Have fun.

Given that, anyone currently making the same product 80+% corn, but aging some in new charred oak as bourbon and aging other in old or uncharred oak as corn whiskey? Would be very curious to know how they compare, if mash bill and distillation was the same, just barrel type was different.

Get in touch with me, and we can discuss. We were able to work things out in advance with our locals, they had to create a new permit and change zoning laws for us specifically. They also had to hire a consultant to do the code review, and they ended up treating the bonded area as F1, as suggested by Rickdiculous. There are some real coordination issues between the local, the state of Illinois, and the TTB that make interpretation of space usage and type not so obvious. We are in a small suburb outside of Chicago.

In addition to Steve's point, the packing will also strip much of the flavor out that your are trying to get from the botanicals. If you had a plate system, you would probably bypass them. But if you have packing, just remove it.

Sorry, Dave, to hear you seem to be caught in the classic (Classick?) "data mining" situation typical of regulatory agencies when they learn enough to suspect that not all required information has been submitted in the past. In this case, if you have had changes of DBA that were not filed as permit amendments (which is required), then they may want to update the complete history. Sounds like they may have let you slip through in the past, and now they are trying to retroactively obtain all the required information. Did you speak with your assigned specialist to make sure you are both on the same page before making another submission? Let us know how it is resolved and why, so we can all benefit from any lessons learned.

Right, if you actually are listing your DBA as distiller on the label, and that DBA is not on your permit, you have to amend the permit or change the label. They do not allow you to DBA without registering it with the TTB, not just your local or state. Doesn't mean it may not have gotten through before, but it is legally required. When you amend, they will want the documentation from local/state for DBA, as they would for initial filing.

Why are you selling?

I know Jennifer did our federal for us, and will do a state, for Illinois.

Presuming you want to create and market a brand, and produce in quantities to support yourself rather than a hobby, put the bottom end at $150,000.