iskiebaedistillery

Not sure if this is the reason, but a lot of buildings have forced air for heat. Its not running 100% of the time, so if it was positive pressure then the ethanol vapors could be forced through the ducts. Obviously, if you just had exhaust ventilation directly from the distillery to the atmosphere and radiant hot water heat, then I could see it working.

One other thing, the manufacturer suggested flying the cargo. Would a FF handle that kind of shipment as well?

Great info to know, thank you very much Silk City!!!

Thank you, the manufacturer said they will have no problem getting it to the port. I am assuming a freight forwarder just arranges the shipment from the port to the destination. I am more confused on what you have to do legally to import. Are their certain documents and fees related to the legal aspect, aside from the shipping costs.

Does anyone have any experience with importing a still? Buying a still from Scotland, Eastern Europe, China, Portugal, India, etc. and shipping it to the United States? What is involved in the process?

http://www.brewhaus.com/Stainless-Steel-Filter-System.aspx You can add more stainless pipes with triclamp ends to extend it longer.

Ok sounds good, thank you.

Does a material like glass have a fire classification of its own? Like sheets of drywall do? Say, 1/4" tempered glass?

The MN Fire Code groups wines and distilled spirits in casks together as non-applicable under the chapter of flammable and combustable liquid, but I'm sure conflicting codes can be found in just about every aspect of a DSP. I would really like to stay away from H occupancy, so I think the F1/B combo is the way to go if we can.

Yes, will be sprinklered. Ok good to know, I will ask my architect that! Thanks for the suggestion 3dog!

Thank you for the replies gentlemen. No need for unlimited storage, I am starting out small in quantity and budget. The 240 gallon limitations should serve me alright along with the wood cask exception. Our big focus is whiskey and rum, so the majority of the stored spirits will be in processing (and I if I recall there might be an exception for that as well?). Bluestar, do some fire marshals really require anything in direct line of sight be explosion proof? Being that the space is a rectangle, that would get pricey extremely fast. Is there a certain thickness of Lexan that qualifies as explosion proof? 3dog, from what it sounds like talking to the city we would be classified F1, but I'm not sure on the tasting room. Is there fire ratings for glass in general? I have seen two distilleries with glass walls separating the cocktail room and production area.

Bluestar, the plan is to have garage doors both between the production area and the cocktail room as well as between the cocktail room and the outside. Neither of the doors will be in close enough proximity to the stills deeming explosion proof shielding necessary. So my main concern is security for the exterior garage door. Thanks for the info 3dog, yes the space will be sprinklered.

Hello, I have seen a lot of breweries with garage doors, and a few distilleries here and there. I am looking at the glass ones in particular. Given you have approved padlocks or locking mechanisms, can anyone share info about how these doors fit into the fire and security codes? I think they look very nice and would like to incorporate them into my distillery if it is feasible. I am looking at doors along the lines of these: http://www.etodoors.com/full-view-aluminum-clear-glass-commercial-garage-door-2598.html/ Thanks!

Great job in recognizing something wasn't right. The vinegar run helps a lot, but I've always been able to taste production residues in the sacrificial run . . . hence why it is discarded.

What type of heat are you using? What was the take off time on your last run?

Did you do a cleaning run (or two) on your still and a sacrificial run? If you didn't, there is a good chance there is left over residue from production and polishing.

Thanks for the suggestions blue star. What it is essentially is a dock loading area that will be partitioned off for a "patio" and accessible to all tenants and their customers. We would be paying for that square footage, but not serving on that square footage. It would be purchased cocktails brought from the distillery to that portion by the customer.

Thank you for you reply HedgeBird!

Does anyone know if a customer could bring a cocktail from the cocktail room to a shared patio space? All 3 tenants, including a restaurant and brewery would be paying for that square footage of the patio space in the lease agreement. Distillery production and cocktail room space would be exclusive to the distillery. Thanks!

Yep the basement is below. Yeah, I plan to separate the productions space and cocktail room with a glass wall, so we can poor cement, tile, epoxy or whatever in the production space, separate from the cocktail room.

Hi Tom, Yes those are steel plates. I think you are right, for point loading and for easy in moving around the pallet dollies. Thanks, we will see what the architect says monday. The architect just confirmed that timber beam over 6" have great fire ratings, and these are at least double that. The planks, however, are not of course.

Hi Falling Rock, it is the first floor but there is a basement under neath it. The basement has an elevator and will actually work great for a rick house. The second/lower picture is from the basement looking up at the support for the floor. So the distillery will be above the second picture. The beams are very hefty, personally I am not as worried about weight as much as the fire and cleaning aspect. That is so awesome about the salvaged lumber. I see a lot of wood in the production spaces in the large distilleries, many use cypress wood fermenters as well.

Hi Tom, thanks for the reply. That makes sense, we could build build a frame for each fermenter and then tile it. That way a rectangular box is spreading the weight. Ill update this with what the architect thinks of it. As far as cleaning goes, I think we will tile the productions space. But I'm not sure how this is even done. One distillery in a similar situation suggest concrete board and tiles, but they are also a rural farm distillery, and unfortunately a lot of that stuff doesn't fly in the city. Hi Tyson, yes I agree, it does look like a ridiculously expensive project. I think the biggest hurdle will be the floors, however. I think the wood frame should be ok because it is sprinkled, and a lot of times if the beams are big enough they have a higher fire rating than steel according to an architect who works with another local distillery. Here is a pic of the potential space, there are offices mixed in which would be demolished: This is a pic of the floor support from the basement:

We are going to be be very micro, our still is 55 gallons, we have a 200 gallon and 300 gallon dairy bulk tank for fermenters, a 160 gallon mash tun, a 400 gallon cooling pond, etc. The space is 3000sf which will include the cocktail room. The building in the past would process soaps and hold the chemicals, it is meant for pretty heavy use and has sprinklers, the beams in the basement are huge. I am getting my architect out there early next week to see if he sees any red flags. The proposal by the landlord gives a fairly nice allowance to help with the buildout, but I am unsure of what to do with the wood floors. I think if it came down to it, concrete could be poured, but I'm sure it would be extremely expensive and eat a large chunk of the allowance.

I didn't mean to be misleading twadosmikwadios, those 4 things can definitely give you hell. But if it is zoned right and has sprinklers, you can be sure that heavy power is nearby. Getting them to your space can be extremely expensive, but most likely if it is industrial zoned and has sprinklers, it was used for something similar in the past (not just cold warehouse).