Sudzie

Been using same setup as jocko for over 12 years. Go 110v so you don’t need a 24v transformer. We also use the alarm feature for our kettle as we hit our various strike temperatures. https://www.amazon.com/uxcell-Indicator-Flashing-Electrical-Projects/dp/B082S37JMJ

No we expanded. Just would like a small Vendome and bumped the post. Talked with a guy a while back and the guy was very sketchy. So the hunt continues. -Cheers

Bump Still looking……

What is your temp, pH and brix or specific gravity when you pitch your yeast?

We might be interested in helping, as we also own and operate an oil and propane company in southern Maine. We have been in the Oil & Propane business for over 20 years and have been in the distilling business for 11.

Bump

Give Steve at Loggerhead a call

Welcome to the forum. I was a pleasure to meet you when we went down to check out our new still.

We’re looking to buy a 250 gallon Vendome Still for a product extension.

Info@wigglybridgedistillery (dot) com

Very interested but need to see it in action to see if it could adapt to our corker. I would also be interested how noisy it is.

Totally agree, For aged spirits it’s more of a cash flow thing due to the lag of production to final sale of the product. To offset the cash flow we decided to develop a line extension of special barrel projects that sell at $129.00 - $189.00 per bottle that are released quarterly for the past year and are available only at the distillery. These sell through in 5-10 days and increase our net per bottle profit $4.38 per bottle without increasing prices. With all that said the second / third quarter of 2023 we are going to need to increase bottle prices 14% unless the forecasted (by some) deflationary period comes to a realization. Cash is king but cash flow keeps you in business.

We’re looking for a larger cook kettle. 750 gallon would be great but would consider up to a 1000 gallon one.

Going on vacation for three weeks in October and shutting down production while I am gone. I may have 36 barrels available if you’re interested.

We have 50 once used barrel mill 30 gallon barrels for sale. These were used to age our 4-5 year bourbon. Fresh Dumped (within a month) $125 Dumped (1 to 4 months) $95 Dumped (5-9 months) $75 For more info email us at info@wigglybridgedistillery.com

How many folks out there Dry Pitch their yeast?

We went to a 750 gal striping still and we’re changing it out to a continuous striping column. Much shorter run times and a boat load less but’s of heat.

PRCDC - Why 1.082? Give 1.054-1.058 a try.

Will you be loading the truck?

We might be interested. Why are your letting it go? do you have any current pictures of the system?

So I’m hearing rumblings that glass is really, really getting hard to source. The US manufactures are running very long lead times 6+ months in some cases regardless of the (even 50k+) quantity. Is it a China uncoupling? Is business that good? Or has all the sand disappeared? Just wondering?

We make a great product from imported 100% blue agave syrup. Our Platinum received best of category and double gold. I’m sad to admit that our Reposado and Anejo didn’t fare as well they only got gold. We’ve never thought of selling any of our product in bulk to another distillery, but I guess if the price and volume is right we might be interested. www.WigglyBridgeDistillery.com

Bump this is a great read and would love more info and discussion.

That is a tall order. The average craft distillery sell less than 1000 cases per year. Let’s say their 6 packs that would be 6000 bottles. If you wanted to pay someone poverty level compensation let’s say $28k per year their Commission would be around $4.70 per bottle or $28 per case. You will also have to pay them mileage if they use their own car to go around. The last figure I saw was .58 cents per mile driven. Let’s say they drive 6500 miles in that year to sell your 6000 bottles then that overhead cost would be $3770. Your are now at $5.30 per bottle or $31.77 per case. I’m not going to touch on expense account reimbursement at all. My 9 years of doing this is the owner needs to peddle their hooch until they get to 2500 cases per year and then it makes monetary sense to creat a sales persons position. We compensate our two sales positions $40-$46k (salaried) per year and provided each of them with a wrapped Wiggly car. You will go broke paying the IRS minimum mileage reimbursement and not have a billboard driving around. Been there, done that. And if you don’t pay the IRS reimbursement and it’s found out your screwed. And they only find out from past sales people..... Now you could have a person that just loves what you do and wants to be part of it. That’s awesome. We have done this in the past and works marginally. We paid $6.50 for every bottle placed. Tracking is hard but doable. Don’t forget the competition is using professional sales people and the mistake craft distilleries make (we did) is they don’t. We lucked out, now our two sales people are huge fans and left their previous sales position to come on board. We do bonus them out when agreed to numbers are hit for the quarter. And that can add up to an additional $3000 for the quarter. It’s only been hit 1 time in the past 8 quarters since we started this but, you know there is this COVID thing going around and they feel secure having a job. We’re just now seeing improvements on the sales side. Best, Dave