waterpocket

Good thing to experiment with to find what you like...That's hard to decide for another distiller. If you just want to get started making your first test batches....do what I did and order a tote of molasses and 2-3 totes of sugar. Just keep in mind some might want more (or all) molasses or more or (all) sugar...depending on rum they're designing.

http://www.luwest.com/default.php Lula-Westfield has been a good partner for us.

This was used as a mash tank? Heating jacket?

A common problem if your botanical load is too high. The only options that I know if are to a) reduce botanicals in formula or b) chill filter

Makes sense. I haven't been up there in a bit to see any upgrades they may have made. Nice stills!

Those look like the stills from Roughstock in Montana...down to the smallest detail.

I cannot find a GRAS listing for it...prob why it's being rejected. Lots of things are permitted in Euro liqueurs that are not in US...

Looking for any bargains in custom-metalcraft 4x4 tank stands or separators. Message me here or send to spirits@waterpocket.co

Nice forests...good mushrooms in Slovenia.

Hey Mott- We're just starting up...and with a fresh perspective I can say you've asked a bunch of questions only you guys can answer. Simply going down the path and preparing to risk the capital can really help you focus on what you want to do. You'll hear a whole spectrum of advice - start small, start big, only do this or do that! Write a business plan on your top spirit that YOU want to make, and let it go from there. It will help you see what it really costs and how much time it will take before you see a return. If I were in a nice agricultural area, I'd see if I could find a good location with lots of tourist traffic. Check zoning, building codes, fire regulations, local acceptance among stakeholders, etc first. If you can endure that set of special headaches and still want to do it....that's a good test. Visit every distillery you can in a multi state area and talk to them about how they did it. Good luck!

Good luck..... It's easy to underestimate how hard location finding will be. Fire, zoning, neighbors, size, electrical, landlords, local officials, state officials...all can make it hard to find the right place. I know in some cases (including ours), you have to compromise on location until you get going. Then put it in your 5 year plan to find the perfect place. It's a lot easier to sell a town council on a profitable business that can hire right away (rural esp.) versus asking them to take a risk on you with a zoning change. This was number one variable cost in our business plan...and we decided to reserve $$$ for marketing and development rather than taking higher risk for an expensive location. That will also cost us $$$ in terms of traffic, exposure, etc. Be prepared to compromise was the lesson for us. Having a number in your plan does not make the location materialize...A couple of charming brick buildings seemingly begging to have a distillery were in the wrong neighborhood (zoning)...In one case....only one block away.

You might also check out Custom Metalcraft - http://custom-metalcraft.com/ They make a similar fermenter...and they have been very responsive. They have them in many sizes & options...plus many other items for brew, wine, distill. I found a lot of info at http://www.prochiller.com/reSalesLit.htmland they have also been responsive and helpful. I found a couple things were relevant: Are you using glycol to chill any intake water for distillery? How quickly do you want to chill the volume you're working with? Are you crashing any ferments? I think I started with this page as a general starting point: http://amchiller.com/size-brewery-chiller/

Thanks for post!

So far with our facility, sprinklers allowed us up to 240 in a control area (with sprinkler mods vs how we found facility), then to get another 240 is more mods to sprinklers plus addition of fire rated walls to create a new "control" area. Beyond that we're looking at H3 classifcation, which requires a another building altogether - with fundamentally non-flammable construction.

Distillers - What setups are you using for chill filtering? I'm looking for a lower-cost, lower-volume solution for a startup distillery. Please no vendor responses at this time...thanks.