Conejo148

You & sound a little alike as far as doing thing on our own. I rarely post here for a number of reasons, but mostly because I get tired of reading what can't be done. I did it. I'm not a lawyer, but do have business degree & a licensed DSP 100ft from my garage. Possibly the smallest in the country. I make a small profit, but have a straight day job, too, so making liquor is not an every day thing for me. As mentioned above I have a DSP on my residential property, no rezoning required. However, I did need a township zoning variance, a new physical address and a rental agreement between myself and my LLC among other things. This was done 3 years ago, so my recollection may be fuzzy but i have since helped 2 other rural distillers get set up on the same property as their house. If you need different direction, I know of another distillery that is located on the first floor of a dual use building with apartments on the 2nd floor. The big things that the TTB will absolutely require: Secure the revenue, meaning a secure building to lock up the liquor WITH a separate entrance to the bonded area that leads directly outside. They do not want to know what is happening in the unknown 500sf in front, or your retail tasting area. Donot even label it on your sketch. Just write "non-bonded area" and move on. A permanent line of delineation that is easily distinguishable and "difficult" to remove which discriminates between your residential yard and DSP, including a standoff of at least 8ft from the building containing the DSP. Driveway, fence, hedgerow...something that is not easily removed. You will need a separate physical address. I had to contact my county engineer's office. Probably the easiest out of all these. City people or non-rural or commercial addresses don't need to worry about this. It's already measured in the plat book. But...measurements to the building in the nearest 6" increments from a permanent known feature. This means the surveyor's pin on your property, or closest pin to it. It has to be from the pin, no other feature will suffice. MUST BE SURVEYOR'S PIN. I can't stress that enough. It's probably on the road and may be half mile away, but you need to measure from that point, then around your building. I'm going to guess that more than 99.5% of distillers don't know how to survey and use a transit, and will have to pay for it to be done by a licensed surveyor. I am fortunate to be in the half percent who has a transit and was trained to use it. Of all things that foul "residential DSP's" these measurements are the most critical and usually screw up the deal. Read a property description in the deed recorders office to get an idea what I mean if you're not familiar. Your DSP must be a minimum distance from your residential structure, including attached features such as porches, decks, garage etc. That distance is between 100ft and 50ft depending on the agent, size of your DSP and time of day among other things. I'm between 50 and 100ft, but my DSP is small, and my nearest neighbor is over 1000ft away. One last thing, callaheas. I got lucky & talked with a very nice lady who basically hand-carried my packet through, answered and questions i had, and previewed my permit app before I sent it to streamline everything. Approval to exactly 45 days, for a 1-man, no investor DSP in rural Ohio in 2015. Your mileage may vary, good luck.

May 16th 2015. Aproved July 1st 2015. At the time the average processing time was around 130 days give or take. I posted earlier on this same post about that time. Have you talked to your state inspector, Elaine or Cheryl?

Killbuck, you've already submitted to the state, yes? As soon as you're federally permitted you can begin making liquor. Feds control production, state controls sale. Also ask your inspector about the provisions for excise tax reduction from 40% to 8%. You can apply it to anything except whiskey.

My application took 45 days. Would have been sooner but the regs for filling out the bond changed just after I submitted & I needed it reworked. Anyway, I established a contact there just by emailing & calling the same agent with questions. She was very helpful and pretty much hand carried my app, requested to review it for her super & bam, done. My DSP is also on residential property, was told it needed to be 50ft minimum from structure & also fenced.

You guys are missing it. The complicated math is the wholesale case computation...Monique Beasley at the state computes that for you. She's the pricing control supervisor. The state tax is 40%, plus County tax, based on retail price. Of course, fed tax is separate as well. You can set your price wherever you want, but it will need to be inline with similar products. Fees after permit are $50 per listing...each package size as well, but no $300 fee if you are an A3 or A3A permit holder per Cheryl Hunter, Operation assistant supervisor. On top of that, if you go thru the state warehouse there are handling fees which are listed in the bailment manual. I'm assuming the Op already figured out the correct answer long ago, but just clarifying for future reference.

TTB permit filed May 26, approved July 1st Cola..2 days First Label...18 days, with 1 minor correction

Old post, but did you ever get an answer? If you didn't know, someone in Indiana had a label approved for unaged and aged products. Here's the link for one. Search the public COLA for "sorgrhum." I think the brand is no longer available. https://www.ttbonline.gov/colasonline/viewColaDetails.do?action=publicDisplaySearchBasic&ttbid=11314001000147 BTW, I used to work in Pittsboro for HydroTube from 1998-2000. Kind of miss the place.

I am sort of going through this now. Here's a little back story: My DSP is located on my personal, residential property. I was told by a reviewing agent before I submitted the permit packet 2 things: First, direct from the email: "§19.52 Restrictions on location of plants. A person who intends to establish a distilled spirits plant may not locate it in any of the following places: (a) In any residence, shed, yard, or enclosure connected to a residence; So, essentially, a residential property should not contain a Distilled Spirits Plant. However, we deal with these on a case-by-case basis. Also, once we receive and “perfect” these applications that are on a residence, we internally forward them to our Regs and Rulings Division for an opinion." I was told that the building containing the still had to be a minimum of 50ft from my residence. The reviewing agent said this was an absolute must, no exceptions. ^See above, case-by-case note. Now, being in a multi-use commercial property is a whole other animal. Mine is a single family home in the country surrounded by corn. Second: For this to be approved, I had to construct a fence around the DSP building to create a permanent, defined, distinguished boundary between my private, personal yard, and the general premises of the DSP. My packet has been passed up for legal review, in my 2nd week of waiting. I'll tell you though, call TTB and straight up ask your question. They're friendly folks who'll give you a straight answer. If there is a way to make what you want to do work, they'll be able to tell you how if it's possible/permissable

My encouragement came from a guy that started for right about $10,500. I think he unofficially claims the title for lowest cost start-up from scratch, but I know there's a ton of other folks just like me. If you own property (I think the feds like 2 acres at a minimum if your house is there,) you can do it. Regs say it can't be on residential property, but they look at each case individually. I had to add a fence to surround the DSP to distinguish the boundary between that and my yard. My rural setting helps immensely. Like I said, my nearest neighbor is 1/4 mile away.

I'll play. I already own my building/property so that alleviates a lot of the cost. I'm using 20 and 60 gallon traditional pots-no fancy columns, plates, or stuff like that. And, being in Ohio, I have to say we have one of the friendliest small business climates there is. I'm running a one-man show, incurred no debt to date, and I don't mind being small for a while. It's a legal hobby that I can enjoy and make a little money while I'm at it. I plan to quit my day job within 5 years. That said: State fee was = $204, which allows up to 50 gallons/week of alcohol. I won't hit that, but micro it's $2 per 50 gallons + $100 base. I needed a goal. LLC/DBA registration = $175 Background Check at Sheriff's office = $45 $20k bond = under $150 Township variance = $200 Stills = under $2000 in parts/materials (helps to know how to work metal) Building improvements = about $3000 - electrical, fence, plumbing upgrades, driveway improvement (again, helps to have the tools and knowledge) Label applicator & bottle fillers, Enolmatic, I I built a plywood jig for labelling--about $500 Certified lab equipment-$200 (Avogadro's Supply in NJ sells certified hydrometers and thermometers for much less than every other place) Miscellaneous containers, buckets, fermentation tanks, etc = probably $500 I'm pending right now with TTB & of course state, but the state inspector's already been out and said I'll have no problem getting him to sign off. I live at least 1/4 mile from the next nearest structure, and clear open farm ground all around me. Should be hearing something this week. If I ran 5 days a week, I could make about $2000 a week profit selling at +/- $30 a fifth. BUT...you need a market that support's that quantity regularly. We can't all be Jack Daniels right out of the gate. If I had to guess, I'm probably the cheapest startup on here, under $7000, maybe $7500 total because I forgot something. I didn't mortgage anything and bought things only when I could pay cash. I didn't hire a lawyer, I talked to other guys doing the things I wanted to do and they helped me out. I called TTB and established a relationship with an agent. They fast-tracked my packet through rfeview since they were basically checking their own work. I know I'm the rare exception, and some on here may laugh that I'm buying mason jars at Walmart for now til I can save up for a pallet of bottles. I don't worry about paying a loan for the business, I don't have any partners to answer to, and I control my own future.

Hi Mike I'm in NW Ohio myself. You guys licensed yet? Didn't see you on the liquor control pages. Mine's pending right now, hopefully only a few more weeks.