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bluestar

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Everything posted by bluestar

  1. You make the sale to the state and they send payment, take that as revenue at that time. You take your purchase from the state as expense at that time. You take your sale to the retail customer as revenue at that time.
  2. Yup, that sounds about right. You have to keep pinging your local rep, they are your only point of contact. My situation was worse. Part way through, my local rep left the company, and I was in limbo. Luckily, after, a newly assigned rep eventually got us back on track, only a few weeks lost. Yes, you need those special labels, they will come by FedEx, of course! You will also have to learn how to properly navigate the use of their web portal for shipping alcohol, you need to have it appear as a selection on your account. That did not work for us on day one.
  3. Generally, the key with FedEx is regular contact with your officially designated representative by telephone. That's what they are there for. It took us 3 months.
  4. I wouldn't do that. If you get caught, not only will you be violating all the alcohol laws, but since liquor is a flammable liquid, you can be construed as violating federal transportation laws for shipping of hazardous materials. The fines can be enormous. You can lose your DSP or other licenses. You can be permanently banned from the industry.
  5. Correct, that does not look like Juniperus communis var. depressa, the common juniper, which is the juniper used for making gin. Communis has very short, sharp, pointy needles (leaves). Var. depressa is also a relatively spread-out, lower growing juniper, although not ground crawling, like horizontalis. There are a few others that can be used to augment the communis, but none of the typical nursery junipers will be suitable. Generally, all have edible cones (fruit or berries), but flavor and aroma vary considerably. Some western juniper smell like cat urine to many people.
  6. I think the best we could hope for this year would be a one or two year extension.
  7. Actually, the biggest outcome of this case potentially from follow on cases, beyond expanding Granholm clearly to spirits, will be preventing states from giving privileges to in-state distilleries without also making the same privileges available to comparable out-of-state distilleries. For example, if you create a license that allows a distillery producing from a farm in your state to self-distribute, but don't allow a farm distillery from out-of-state to obtain an equivalent license, that might be found unconstitutional if challenged as an extension of the reasoning of this decision.
  8. Are you in fact producing 100% Neutral Spirits Distilled from Whey, and then using that to make a "London Dry"? IE, a redistilled gin made from 100% neutral spirits? In other words, are you distilling the whey ferment to higher than 95% ethanol?
  9. Sorry, is doesn't matter what the COLA people know, you are responsible to make sure you meet the requirements for a label for a spirit that does NOT require a formula. For example, the COLA people don't know if you age your whiskey for more than 4 years, but if you submit a label with no age statement for the whiskey, it will be approved, even though there is no place for you to indicate on the COLA that you aged less than 4 years. They ASSUME you will have done so, and won't know unless they audit you. The SAME is true for gin, whatever the rules actually are. If you make a compound gin and bottle it and label it with a label that says it is a distilled gin, they don't know, UNLESS you submit a formula that says so, and tie it to the COLA. But I do agree, that a statement on the label saying "100% Neutral Spirits Distilled from Grain" suggests at some time the spirit was classified as neutral spirit, in which case, making it into gin would be a change in classification, and would require a formula. By the way, it was the TTB that let me know that moving something into storage or processing NOT as one spirit (in this case NOT gin), and then later processing or further production so that it CHANGES classification (in this case, into gin) will trip the requirement for a need for a formula. OF COURSE they won't see that when they approve your COLA. It will only become apparent if someone audits you, sees your paperwork changed the classification, checks the bottles of product to determine what label was on it, and ties it to the production records. So sure, they will probably never catch you.
  10. Someone could probably make good money selling pyrex replacements for the Enolmatic plastic filter housings. Why Tenco stopped producing them I will never understand. I suspect they did so before the explosion small craft distillers, not realizing the market was there, and knowing they were unnecessary for lower alcohol products like wine.
  11. Whether you macerate, use a gin basket, or vapor expose, does not determine if you are distilled or redistilled. For sure, with any of these methods, if you are distilling directly from ferment, you are a "distilled gin" and do not need a formula. Moreover, if you distill from any spirit previously classified as ANY specific spirit other than gin (purchased, stored, transferred, etc.), you made a "redistilled gin" and require a formula. Okay, here is where it gets tricky, and where I have obtained conflicting guidance from different people at the TTB. If you are distilling a product in production, and it stays in production for additional distillation (never moved to the storage or processing account), with the final distillation producing the finished gin, and maintain in the intermediate gauging and records that the product is gin "in production", then it could be considered "distilled gin" and not require a formula. Just like if you distill something 5 times to make vodka with only the last distillation being over 190 proof, or 3 times to make whiskey. In this interpretation, it is the change of classification of the spirit from a non-gin class to gin that makes the formula a requirement, as it would if I had product that was classified as whiskey, then redistilled to make vodka, and thus would normally require a formula. However, two countervailing points: 1) we have submitted formulas for vodka where we redistill essentially unaged whiskey or feints, prior to its finish, and have been told that a formula is not needed (or submitted formula was not approved with the comment that it was not needed); and 2) we have had one TTB officer in Formulation tell us a formula is required for gin as a "redistilled gin" so long as more than one distillation is performed. It would really help if the TTB would write a guidance note on this specific issue. It is all about how one defines "original distillation", since it does not call out "single distillation".
  12. It is not about the still. It is about the bonded premise, so storing whisky in barrel has the same issues as distilling, with regard to a residential property. That does not say it can't be approved, but they may want you to have some separation of the property with public (not private) access. For example, putting up a separation fence, possibly separating plots and ownership, and making sure there is a public road access to the location that is NOT on your residential property. And then you must make the property secure (think solidly built, with locks that meet TTB requirements), consider adding surveillance camera(s), and you will need local/state license for a bonded warehouse. Contact your regional TTB field rep for advice.
  13. Primera is nominally higher resolution (1200dpi vs. 600dpi). At comparable resolution, Primera is cheaper. There are a couple other producers of label printers worth considering, including Afinia and Neuralabel (using HP printheads and ink, 1200dpi). I have not used either of these, but they are intriguing. The Neuralabel uses HP Pagewide, a single wide printhead that does not move, and is suitable for fast quantity printing.
  14. Are they sulfured? Sulfured wines are not suitable for distillation for most craft distilleries, without good means for desulfuring before distillation.
  15. This was the first class I took before laying the groundwork for starting our distillery many years ago.
  16. Curious to see what you find, Guy. We were having boxes made for us custom, to hold 3 x 375ml bottles, because we could find nothing affordable. Keep going from one local carpenter to another. Hard to source this at a reasonable price, which for us meant $10 each or so.
  17. Which definition of angel's share? 1) the amount of spirit that is lost to evaporation when the liquid is being aged in porous oak barrels 2) the greater part of the equity in your distillery that belongs to your early investors
  18. It would be nice if the ACSA would start working toward getting spirits the same status as wine...
  19. You always need some sort of ventilation for a distillery, both for air change-over for removal of background levels of alcohol and CO2, but also a higher speed exhaust for when large quantities might occur from spills, still swamps, etc.
  20. Great detailed walk-through by @dhdunbar, and pretty much where we were at after prior discussions with others and TTB. Our understanding was that a distillery could NOT add sugar to a fermentation for brandy (in the production area). Also, that a "standard wine" transferred from a bonded winery could be used to produce brandy, even if they added sugar prior or after fermentation, in accordance with rules for production of "standard wine". But, if the sugar is in the wine after fermentation, it could not be further fermented to increase alcohol levels prior to distillation. Our supposition has always been if you want to use a "standard wine" made at the location of the distillery with added sugar, you could do so only if you produced it in a bonded winery (adjacent or alternating premise with distillery), and formally transferred from the bonded winery to the distillery. But it would really be nice if we could one day get a written clarification from the TTB on this in a notice, rather than having to chase down the labyrinth of the CFR like @dhdunbar just did...
  21. We started with a 1.095 start and finished just under 1.040, but are considering diluting a bit more. That includes 20% of wash as dunder. We are using a high-sugar content (baking) molasses. I don't think you could use blackstrap effectively at the same concentration because of the ash content, unless you plan to add sugar.
  22. Above is the relevant statement, Paul, in your excerpt. While they DO accept shipments of spirits, BOTH the shipper and recipient have to be licensed for alcoholic spirits. And that must meet both federal and state requirements. In a state that allows shipment to final consumers, they MIGHT ship to the final consumer. It depends on the state. In my state, FedEx has determined that they will not allow me to ship to a consumer in my state or any other state. I can ship to someone with a license that allows them to import/export/sell alcohol. On the other hand, I know many people who have shipped spirits, even when not allowed by FedEx, but do so under the nominal aegis of sending wine. FedEx will ship wine to end consumers in most states. If FedEx doesn't check the package contents, how will they know? All they do is ask you what the contents are. So, sure, you might get shipments of spirit via FedEx without having a license, but that could be because the sender is doing so in violation of both law and FedEx policy, or it could be because your state and the source state allows it.
  23. I believe that in Illinois, you could do a retail sale nominally on your premise, and deliver to customer, BUT, you are responsible for age verification both at time of purchase and delivery, and of course carries like UPS and FedEx won't deliver to alcohol non-licensees. So you are limited to delivery services that will take on the age verification task, and that can be expensive.
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