glisade

You transfer the beer in as a raw material on your production report. Not a TIB and you pay tax when you transfer out of bond. The brewery should should not have to pay any tax but in the end they need to best understand how to deal with the TTB to fulfill any potential tax liabilities.

I've seen this with a copper condenser and all corn mash on stripping runs. Do you have copper in your distillate path? Is it real thick and hard to clean off your hand? Smell real bad?

Stop by PostModern Spirits next time you're in Knoxville. We just started distribution in the Chattanooga area so maybe we can swing by and say hi next time in town. Ron

What I was told by the TTB was that no cannabis derived terpenes can be used in a spirit. The only hemp products can be: seeds and hemp seed oil. They still have to be tested for THC and submitted to TTB. They have no cannabis/terpene like flavor though. But as you said there are multiple companies selling non-cannabis terpene blends that taste like different cannabis strains but the few I've worked with don't have any approved TTB drawback formulas so those can't be used until they get one from the TTB.

Big Gin in Seattle I think is only gin.

So you distilled a wash of fermented malt, sucrose with hops? We have something very similar where the formula contained grain(s), sugar and hops. We got a DSS with a SOC of " Spirits distilled from Grain and Hops and finished in charred oak barrels. "

If the sediment clogs the first filter housing the second one won't help. You should pre-filter your product before you run it through bottling at a filter rating lower than the filter in the Enolmaster. I use cheap filter bag at about 1um to filter my liqueurs before I bottle them. http://www.dudadiesel.com/search.php?query=%2Bfilter+%2Bbag+%2BPTFE You should think of the bottling filter as a last chance to grab a hair or fruit fly or something that fell in the bottling drum not to filter sediment from your products.

Could you give some examples of how they were difficult? We're located in downtown and didn't have any issues with zoning or other local issues. On the state level, we've been visited by TN ABC multiple times and they've always been professional and helpful in making sure we don't break any violations. They don't seem out to get anyone. The TN guild is in a good position as well and works with the state legislature quite well. It certainly doesn't hurt that we have Jack Daniels in TN and they are on the guild.

For TN: of course you'd have to go through local zoning and get your property first. But once you get your federal permit, then you apply to the state with owner info (similar to TTB OOI), pay distillers license fee, any local license (privilege fees) then sign up with a distributor and register your brands with state (more fees). You'll be inspected by TN ABC and TN Dept of Agriculture. Both are typically very fair to deal with. I have yet to see the TN ABC deny someone a distillery license. TN is a three tier system and your TN distributor "owns" you in that region they operate. They can dump you if they don't want your product, but you have to go in front of a state judge to get out of contract with them if they won't want you to leave. And then you still may not be able to leave.

I've had an Enolmaster for over 2 years. Probably use it on average once every two weeks. Never had a problem with it that wasn't easy to fix. Is it breaking when you are screwing the top lid on it with the four screw handles? From what I've seen the Enolmatic can be used for spirits and the housing is plastic.

We do 100% malted barley whiskey. We do grain-off since we source wort from a local brewery. I can't tell you difference in flavor of grain on vs off since we've never done it and I think there are too many factors in comparing different distilleries products. Our wort goes through a typical brew process. Only thing I would recommend is trying it on a small scale and see if you can tell the difference between on and off grain. You could always do grain-on with your system and ask a brewery to do a grain-off for you and compare if you don't have a way to lauter. Regarding barrels, if you want to call it a malt whiskey is has to go into a new, charred oak barrel just like your bourbon.

I would start with filtering as low as you can go with the cheap bags..usually about 0.5 micron. Then let the spirit sit for 1-3 weeks and see if anything drops or separates from the spirit to a non-acceptable level for you. Then start experimenting with fining agents. I fine with bentonite after filtering to 0.5 micron for a couple of my liqueurs and it works well. Some just don't need anything more than a good level of filtering.

Some cheap filter bags work well. http://www.dudadiesel.com/search.php?query=%2Bfilter+%2Bbag+%2BPTFE

Jon, a beer gallon is the amount of water you use per bushel of grain (corn). Roger's asking because this is the main factor in your starting gravity. In other words, how many gallons of water do you use per bushel (56lb) of corn when you mash. Example: A 28 beer gallon mash would be 2 pounds of corn per gallon of water....or 28 gallons of water per bushel of corn.

Yes it worked good and the pump is polyethylene which is good for alcohol.

Pretty sure that's the exact one I used to use to pump out of 55 gallon GNS drums.

Though you might need a formula I disagree with DSS. We were told the same and put DSS on the label but I researcedh how many many other whiskies do this without a DSS on their label. They end up being qualified as a whiskey specialty. So next time we do this and TTB requires DSS, they will be getting a call so I can find out how to get a whiskey specialty classification instead. So I suggest you call TTB and do a public COLA search for some known whiskeys finished in xxx barrel and you'll see the classification they got and you should request the same for yours.

The key is the word "produced" in the definition. TTB defines it to mean: " Produced at. As used in 5.22 and 5.52 in conjunction with specific degrees of proof to describe the standards of identity, means the composite proof of the spirits after completion of distillation and before reduction in proof. " So you could start collecting as high as you want as long as the total distillate is no more than 160.

I assume you mean hearts and not heads. My wash is about 8% ABV and I collect hearts starting around 160-170 proof and stop around 100 proof. Hearts to tails cut, I think, is much more subjective than heads to hearts cut. So go with what you think seems right...or ideally try both and see what works out best.

TTB will ask for OOI, Owner/Officer Information. Basically they want to know who owns the distillery along with bank records and some other information. For us, investor/owners comes first but also in parallel to securing a location, local zoning approval and creating and signing an operating agreement based on how your business will be run. The TTB will ask you to submit owner information, location/lease and who and how your business is to be run along with supporting documents. And all of those things need money, i.e. potential investors. So to answer your question: When do you start reaching out to investors? Once you feel confident in your business plan and your knowledge of the next steps to take. Good luck!

You could get a SS coil, something like this: http://www.bubbasbarrels.com/cooling-coil Not as cheap as a copper coil from Home Depot but easier to deal with if you're worried about copper flavor in your vodka.

Vodka would be tough without knowing product vapor temperature. If you're trying to get 190+ proof then you need to know proof coming out and that's where the exit vapor temp comes in because you'd have to adjust coolant flow to dephs to create enough reflux to get to 190+. So if you can't monitor your exit proof then you won't know if you're making vodka or not. Gin is all about the flavor as there is no proof requirement so not knowing exit vapor temp is not as critical but can still be very helpful. I would seriously look into a way of adding a port to add a probe after deph.

I would completely agree with FijiSpirits but you're not SOL. First though, what product are you making an how many times do you want it distilled (or what proof do you want it to come out)?

Our rye fermentations foam alot, Fermcap helps but still some foam over but nothing to worry about other than a little loss of product due to foam. Though we also pitch at about 70F and hold fermentation to usually under 80F. Fully attenuates in about 5 days. Other than foaming everything runs fine during distillation for us. Does your wash boil at the right temperature based on calculated or measure wash ABV?

TN. No age restriction.