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bluestar

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Everything posted by bluestar

  1. I think it would be a disaster. IRS is a far less navigable agency than the TTB. And the FDA? Really? You want to talk glacial? RIght now the TTB is as responsive as it is because it is motivated to make decisions on your products, etc., in order to generate revenue, its primary focus. If those functions are separated, the FDA would be only focused on preventing things from moving forward and IRS on punishing you for making mistakes. Think about it.
  2. Just wanted to wish all of the forum members Happy Holidays and wishing for a great New Year for craft distillers!
  3. We are in about the same status as Yellow Rose. Would be very interested in any suggestions or offers, especially KISS solutions.
  4. Thanks, that is helpful to know. I think their tubing is a slightly odd size, but I will investigate.
  5. Well, just to be scientifically accurate, one could do very high plate repeated distillations on a top quality fractionating still, and eventually should be able to get something as pure as you would get from activated charcoal filtration, so long as the contaminating material is not a strong azeotrope with ethanol and water. Most are not. And it would certainly not be a cost effective way of doing this. But perhaps what you heard is what I heard when I was having my discussions about classifications of GNS as base spirits for redistilled gin, because I thought I had heard the same thing somewhere along the line. Yet Denver's point is still nominally correct: unless they test or inquire, how will they know? Without a required formulation, they would not know that you did not charcoal filter, unless you are doing vodka only and your DSP application does not include filtration in the process description? And I fear if they did inquire it would just come down to this: if you did filter, they would leave you alone, but if you did not and there was any reason to suspect you did not meet the requirement, they could just say you didn't meet it. Hmmm...
  6. True. So caught up with other discussions about formulation with them right now (mostly distilled versus redistilled gin), I forgot that.
  7. Actually, there are other ways, using other filtration beds, but these are far more expensive and exotic than charcoal, and you would likely have to demonstrate to TTB that it works. But if you indicate in your process description for the formulation that you finished with charcoal filtration, you have met the requirement, or at least they are more likely to assume you have done so?
  8. You only need to run it through activate carbon if there are any flavors or aromas that might be interpreted as not meeting the neutral character requirement, or at least to present to TTB as evidence in your process to achieve the same. But it is not required per se.
  9. I will re-ask my question on the Enolmatic replacement Pyrex vessels: any sources. We would like to use our Enolmatic for absinthe, and that would probably be too high an alcohol content for the plastic vessel.
  10. You can't use the portuguese stills for vodka. Given that is fairly basic knowledge, I would encourage you to read up and take a course with a vodka producer. In the midwest, there is the MSU course given using a Carl still at Michigan Brewing Co., and 18 Vodka does a nice short course that takes you from rye grain through finished product using a Holstein. The cheapest way to get a still useful for vodka is one with a column with structured packing of some sort. There have even been a few of those for sale used on the forum here. Good luck!
  11. Just to be clear, these are bottles suitable for wine fill levels, not spirit fill levels? Is that why you are selling these?
  12. Is that 304 or 314 type stainless? Can it be electropolished? If you have a number of the plastic parts milled, you might also consider selling those as a kit where we can add our own metal tubing at any length, material, and/or finish.
  13. Actually, I just really wanted to kick off a topic in this category, but since I am gearing up to start production of an Absinthe, it would be interesting to hear opinions on the topic of using a colored versus flint glass bottle. Assuming one is making a true absinthe verte with chlorophyll-based coloring, how to choose in the trade-off of a flint glass bottle that will allow the color to show on the shelf, including its eventual fade and accelerating that, versus a colored bottle that may protect the absinthe from fading, but hides the state of the product from an educated buyer of an artisan absinthe?
  14. It would be nice if either your catalog or the web site would show what spirit bottles you have available, similar to what you do for your wine bottles. Or if any of the bottles in the wine brochure are actually spirit bottles, that should be indicated.
  15. Seems reasonable, although I don't think it has to be GNS, it could be some other base spirit you bring in. But if you are correct, the difference may reflect the TTB's license differentiation: if you a start with ferment, you are a distiller of the gin, but if you start with someone else's base spirit, you are a rectifier!
  16. You could be licensed as a warehouser and a rectifier/bottler, to allow you to have someone else distill the product for you and put in into barrels. Then you could have a bonded warehouse and bottling facility and transfer the barrels in bond to your location. TTB can help you with that.
  17. Yes, although I suspect the wine business numbers are heavily skewed toward west coast companies, which pay far higher than much of the rest of the country for food and beverage product business. I suspect there is wider variation in the craft distilling business reflecting the greater geographical diversity.
  18. We have established our location for Quincy Street Distillery in Riverside, Illinois. We are preparing our application for a DSP license.

  19. OK, this thread prompts a follow up question: what is the average success rate for a submitted label for most of the artisan distilleries? How many resubmits is typically required? Is Curt's experience typical? Inquiring minds want to know!!!
  20. try dropping the pressure with a regulator before the flow control valve, if you haven't already done that.
  21. I have contributed through Kickstarter for a couple of documentary films as well as to sponsor a music group's cutting a CD. It is a nice mechanism, but I am not sure how I would use it to start up an activity for a business like a distillery directly. On the other hand, could be great for a community or entertainment activity that the distillery would like to co-sponsor and generate buzz.
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