Packersfan1964

To clarify - we're not a startup: Doing sales for 6 months, open for 18 months. We've managed to keep overhead very low, as we are primarily filling whiskey barrels and selling our white dog, but we have our lease expire in 18 months and would like to buy a permanent facility.

We are getting a SG of about 1.075 - does that seem low to you for our grain? We've used online calculators and that sounds about right. Lastly - this batch hadn't completely fermented, thus the 7% ABV. Never had it above 8.5% though - do you think different yeast should be used? Thanks to everyone helping us trouble shoot this.

yes 2 plates of reflux, we used to be making cuts at 60% but now we've been doing a much more sensory cut instead of simply a proof cut so it's varied every run - our distiller is going to weigh in as well. Thanks for the feedback

Corn Whiskey - grain to glass - 80 gallons of water 200lbs of grain...Starting ABV is 6.91%. We're getting about 1 gallon of heads, 1.5 gallons of hearts, and 3 gallons of tails. (these numbers are pure alcohol, obviously off the still at a lower abv.... Is 25% hearts on a stripping run pretty common / standard? Thanks, ABV 6.91% 80 gallons of water 5.528 Pure gallons of Alcohol 0.8 Heads 14% 1.33 Hearts 24% 3.33 Tails 60% 5.46

We are thinking about buying a building and building out a much bigger operation - we would need investors for this. I'm curious how distilleries value themselves? Is it just like any other small business where you look at revenue, assets, and future earnings growth, or is there anything unique to our industry? I assume it's a little bit easier to raise money from mom & pop investors as it's a cool braggable industry. Any examples of valuation metrics or personal stories?

Dudes, I feel like I've been at the DMV for 6 months. We have so many questions about our excise tax, TIB forms, etc and TTB has never answered the phone or returned a phone call. The only email I got said 'please call our 1800 number' Not sure what to do? Also, been locked out of our account for months and need a manual reset from TTB..so frustrated. Insert other media

Check out this thread for possible solutions:

Bouck Brothers Distilling Co. in Idaho Springs CO is looking for part time production assistant. Wages depend on experience. Responsibilities include mashing, fermentation control, bottling, production documentation required for compliance and business efficiency, cleaning, inventory management, barrel filling and loading, engaging with the public at tasting events when necessary Qualifications: High school diploma, ability to lift 60+ pounds, a, 21 years of age or higher, ability to take direction yet work autonomously with your job duties, special attention to safety, sense of humor Ideal Qualifications: Formal brewing experience and/or education (extensive home brewing history is a plus), experience with mechanical maintenance and plumbing

Conclusion to our issue - we did a re-distillation, aged in oak for 60 days and it tastes great. Thanks for your feedback!

I think consumers would rather drink something that tastes good, and they don't really care if it's from Indiana or grain to glass locally. Back to Breck as my example, they buy most of their barrels, blend it until it tastes great, and people love it. No deception, just great product. Now given a choice between G2G and mega-corporation products that taste equally good, most folks would choose G2G even at a price premium. Hate to say it, but many micro-distilleries are putting out mediocre product.

"Customers aren't easily deceived for long in an open market place." What do you think of places like Breckenridge Bourbon who sell 100k+ cases per year and buy the majority of their spirits?

Great question, right now we only do grain to glass but have been considering buying white whiskey to speed up filling these damn empty barrels!

Our white whiskey has been occasionally slightly cloudy after proofing - the first 4 runs did not have this issue. The last two, we've been forced to do a second distillation to get a more clear spirit. We've tried distilled water and DE-mineralized water for proofing, neither have solved our cloudiness problem. We've also done full runs making a cut every 1/2 gallon to ensure we're not getting tails cloudiness in our bottle. Lastly, we've dissembled and cleaned the columns... Even when the 80% distillate is crystal clear, it's cloudy when diluted. I will note it's not SUPER cloudy, in fact we have been arguing what constitutes 'cloudy' but it is definitely not crystal clear like the 'big boys' on the shelves. I just learned about saponification, and our next project is diluting over the course of a few days to see if that helps.... Thoughts?

We started free-pouring tastes and immediately knew it was a mistake, so we ordered 1/4 oz pourers from Magnusson. Basically the pour-spout stops after a 1/4 oz so you never over pour the taste. As I understand CO law, we can pour a maximum of 4, 1/4 oz tastes so that's our distilleries limit. Having a four taste limit has helped us put the kabosh on people who 'over-sample' and we are already planning on doing 4 tastes and a tour for $10, to reduce the free-loaders.

We are using flaked corn from BSG. With our mash we are using a refractometer and double checking with a hydrometer. Hydrometer can be a little annoying because of the solids present, but we essentially just minimize the solids in the hydrometer. To clarify, we only use the refractometer for OG - the hydrometer for FG.