BraedenB
-
Posts
27 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Gallery
Downloads
Blogs
Media Demo
Store
Everything posted by BraedenB
-
Hey all, I had a question about applying to formulas online. We have a re-distilled gin formula that has been approved for FONL and we think we have a very good gin. However, since we are being held up by some local issues and have the time we were thinking of doing some experimentation to see if we could make it even better. My question is can we submit an alternative recipe through FONL for the same product. For example if we have something called "The Best Damn Gin" approved as the brand name can we submit another formula for "The Best Damn Gin 2.0" and amend our COLA to correlate to it if we are approved. For clarification, we are not in production yet so we aren't trying to change the flavor of a product already on the market.
-
Hey William, Good on you with the due diligence, seeing more and more distilleries coming on board without looking at the enormous capital you have to front-load into a distillery. In terms of a bottle supplier, there are dozens of local glass suppliers all over the country. Most states have bulk container suppliers warehouse a ton of glass that isn't particularly unique but can get most products you want in stock. Best way to look at their customer service is to talk to other distilleries, wineries, breweries or food manufacturers and ask them whom they use and whom they like. Just a piece of advice through, most of these are middlemen and although they have better customer service than any of the large manufacturers (Bruni, OI, etc) they will charge you a premium for warehousing and transporting product. We purchased ours directly from the manufacturer and paid almost 40% less than what a middleman would charge. If you have the space for storage and the capital I would recommend buying a large order direct and storing it at your facility. In terms of a labeler, going with a round bottle is definitely going to be the cheapest. From hand operated to fully automated, roll labelers are going to run you anywhere from 20-40% less than a tamp applicator for a square bottle. If you want a truly unique bottle that falls somewhere in between (ours we have lovingly called a sqround bottle) you will probably be hand labeling for a while. There are options out there for automating custom bottles but they are ridiculously expensive (100-120k). All depends on your marketing strategy and how much you want to spend on cost of goods sold.
-
Anderson Grain Group is a cost-effective option for organic corn. They ship all over the country and they have one of the cheapest cost per-ton I have found. http://www.andersonsgrain.com/index.cfm?show=10&mid=136 Definitely not as interesting as part of your story as buying local, but for a lot of places (like us in Maryland) there just aren't many options for local, food-grade, organic corn that can be purchased consistently in bulk. A longer term solution would be to approach farmers (organic or not) and see if they can contract some fields for your use for the future. Most farmers are thrilled to have their grains used for distilling spirits although it takes 3 or 4 years for a farm to be certified organic if they aren't already.
-
We are switching our botanical infusion from a macerated gin to a vapor infused gin and are working through the baseline quantities of what we will need. Our recipe previously had about 11 pounds of botanicals macerated in a little over 100 gallons of 20 percent neutral spirits and distilled through a 500 liter pot still. We are now going to be distilling on a 1000 liter pot and will be distilling using a vapor basket rather than bathtubing it. Our basket can't even fit the 11 pounds unless you really jam it in and I don't want to risk blocking the condenser. I was looking through conversions and before I start throwing away money running some tests I wanted to see if anyone else had any basic conversions they recommend when converting botanical amounts from maceration to vapor basket. It sounds like you need less botanicals from vapor infusing, but I have heard that some essential oils don't get picked up as well in the basket. I would prefer to run the still full to reduce in utility costs but if it doesn't translate well then we might have to run smaller amounts. Any advice or opinions would help. Thanks guys.
-
Thanks for the info Blue Star, i bet the taste profile of the 4th round gin is insane. It sounds like its time to run some experiments...
-
Hey Josh. We are planning on modifying the bottle guides a bit using a rigid foam pad we cut to fit the bottle exactly. Probably will add some time, but will cut down on any mislabeling. I will follow up here with pictures and let you know how it works, once we get it all set up.
-
Wow, thanks Copperworks that is incredibly detailed and helpful. So cool to hear about reusing a barrel 5 times, I bet the flavor on that Elysian beer was unreal. We will continue the experimentation and let you know how it turns out.
-
I was wondering if anyone out there has tried to make any barrel-rested/oaked/aged gin? As both a whiskey and gin lover I really like some of the products out there (Corsair, Smooth Ambler, Waterloo). The trend seems to be expanding over the last year or two and we are about to do some test runs. However we are a small scale distillery and don't really have the overhead to be experimenting with a ton of our base product. I was wondering what barrels people are using. It looks like the larger brands are all over the map in terms of using new casks as well as used bourbon, rum, sweet and red wine barrels. I realize that it all depends on the taste profile we are aiming for but it would be nice to know if anyone has tried something that has not worked. Also what proof are people aging their gin at? Any dilution necessary?Size of barrels and time aged? Any advise would be appreciated, have experience aging out our whiskeys but these oaked gins are brand new to me.
-
Thanks Denher, I will get at you in a bit about a Race. We had looked at the Primara AP550 which is what I think you are referring to. It claims to work with tapered edges, although all the demo videos I have been able to find only have it with perfectly square bottles. Anyone using this that can attest to its ability to do "sqround" bottles? Video of the AP550:
-
Josh, we have heard from another distiller using our bottle that they range between $4-5,000 a pop. Probably an unnecessary expense for us at this time, but great to keep in mind as you scale up. Feel free to DM me and I can fill you in on the RACE.
-
Thanks for the advice Brenton. We will check that out and I am sure we will put in the time to become proficient with the RACE. Pete, for your information we are using just a front and back label that don't cross any of the corners on the bottle. We have talked to a few other distillers using these types of bottles and they mentioned that they had some trouble doing any wrap around with the tapered edges. For anyone else reading this post, we found an automated machine as well. Although it is out of our price range, most Tamp style of label applicators can work with these bottles. Here is a link to a model that we know works with the Bruni Contessa: http://www.take-a-label.com/tal-3100t/ Anyone else with this problem, feel free to PM me and I can fill you in on how these work for us.
-
Hey All, We are using a "sqround" bottle, which is to say a square bottle with tapered edges and rounded faces. Unfortunately that means our bottle does not work with hand operated, square or round labeling machines. Here is the technical specs of the bottle http://www.bruniglass.com/assets/Uploads/pdf/17291D1.pdf We are using the Bruni Contessa and I believe AAC has a similar one in the Milan. I have heard that the 105 Race RLTC SP might work but didn't have the best reviews. We are fine hand labeling until we can afford an automated line, but if anyone has any suggestions I would love to hear them. Cheers.
-
Thanks Lenny, great lead!
-
Thanks Skaalvenn, just talked to them. Any other ones I should keep an eye out for?
-
Has anyone had any experience with alternative fixatives. We are playing around with an American Aromatic Gin and I was hoping to use something other than the traditional fixatives (Angelica and Orris) to secure flavor. Anyone have any suggestions of botanicals they have tried?
-
Looking around at sourcing some new T-Tops with 22.5 synthetic shank. We got some quotes back from a local supplier that seemed a little high so I figured I would take it to the forum to see what you guys think. They are looking at 56 cents per unit for a wood top and 24 cents for plastic for an order of 10,000. I have seen some cheaper on the west coast, but shipping costs kill any cost-saving to get it here on the East Coast. Anyone have leads on wholesalers in the Mid-Atlantic region?
-
I had to post this because of the great experience that we have had getting through our bond requirements and general insurance. Just as background information we were notified 2 days prior to signing our lease that we got the building we were looking at. We needed general insurance and liability insurance turned around in 48 hours. We worked with Aaron Linden at Hub International Mountain states. Not only did he rush to get us our insurance package on time, but we got a better deal than any of the local companies. In addition to this he turned around our Surety Bond in 24 hours after that and we were able to submit our DSP without wasting anymore time. I never thought I would say this, but our insurance agent is the man. I never write these kinds of reviews, but we had such an overwhelmingly positive experience I would like to share this with anyone looking to start their DSP. Aaron is also an active member on the ADI forum boards and is incredibly knowledgeable about what is required to insure people in our industry. Their contact information is below and I am happy to give a personal recommendation to anyone looking. HUB International Mountain States Limited 101 S. Main St., Sheridan, WY 82801 Office: 307 672-5833 Ask for Aaron Linden.
-
Thank you Tory that makes sense to me.
-
Hello All, About to submit our DSP and had a quick question about Subpart D that hopefully someone can shed some light on. Is merchandise sales and tasting included in the DSP, or do you need to clarify those as "other business conducted on DSP premises". It is outside our bonded area, but located in the same building. Any advice?
-
Hey RB, I asked about this a month or two ago, and talked to two distilleries that both use a vapor basket right before the condensing column about this. They said similar things about a heads run cleaning out the gin flavors for the most part. I would recommend calling them at Left Turn Distillery and Great Northern Distillery. They were incredibly helpful and took the time to talk me through the benefits of their process. I am interested to hear about the wax buildup, I had not heard that before. I would imagine the heads run would clear that up nicely, but you can cut down on waxes by using higher quality and un-waxed cucumbers.
-
Thanks for the help. That makes sense that it is just to ensure you are bonded correctly, might have to increase our bond.
-
We are going through our initial DSP permit and need to submit the total proof gallons of spirits that can be produced daily. I called the TTB to determine what exactly this entails and the rep I spoke to wasn't very clear about what was required. Does this refer to if we were running for a full 24 hours with full mash tanks, or what we are expected to be producing daily in year 1 or what we are bonded to produce? Does it include stripping runs or just finishing runs? Does it include the cuts or are we supposed to assume a percentage of loss? I was hoping someone who has already submitted their DSP permit could help me get to the bottom of this, or let me know if this is something they even check or care about. Appreciate the help.
-
Interesting Points. Thanks for your help Jeff and Teton. I thought $15 was high as well considering we are in a relatively large city located at the hub of 3 major interstate highways. Could be the building location and the lift gate necessity. Thanks for your help.
-
Hey All, We are estimating the shipping costs for our COGS. We have heard prices of anywhere between $5 a case to $15 a case and up (assuming 6 bottle cases). We are a destination-based tasting room distillery and will likely be focusing most of our sales within the county and state for the first several years. We are targeting a small to medium scale distributor in a non-control state. Does anyone have any estimates that they would care to share with us? Thanks.
-
Hello all, I had a question about experiences people have had using vapor baskets for column distilled gin. I have seen some low tech solutions to building a makeshift basket in the helmet of the still, and seen some have a professionally made basket right before a 5 or 6 plate column. However, I recently have heard from another distiller that you can put the basket after the column, right before the condeser without too much variation in taste. I was wondering if anyone had any experience with any of these methods and if there are any additional benefits or major flavor differences with any of the methods. Thanks for the help.
