jbdavenport1

Anyone have a Flavor Ingredient Data sheet for Angostura bitters?  We need it to get our Rock n Rye recipe approved. Angostura has been a pain since they're our of Barbados and their distributor here in the US says they don't have it.

Thanks in advance.

Anyone have a 'Flavor Ingredient Data Sheet' for vanilla extract that someone could send me?

Thanks in advance.

Fellow Virginia distilleries, what do you serve as far as food in your tasting room? Are you registered as a full blown restaurant?

Try Affordable Distilling Equipment. Paul and his folks are great to work with.

Same here. We’re thinking cured meats and cheese, crackers, grapes, etc. that a local deli delivers daily. 

For those of you with tasting rooms without full kitchens or are not full ‘bars’, do you serve any food?  If so, what foods do you serve?  What are your best selling items? Do you price for profit or simply as value add?

thanks in advance. 

Realistic sales numbers. Thats the hardest part.

So I have a question and maybe a gripe. So the Anton Paar Snap 50 is not TTB approved yet their specs meet all TTB requirements. Is the only reason it’s not approved is they’re trying to protect their revenue from the DMA 5000 that just happens to be $27,000!!!!!!

is it just that they haven’t submitted the SNAP50 for approval?

just curious.

Would adding glycerin count as ‘solids’? And thus still fall under the 400mg/L?

If anyone is looking to unload 30 and 53 gallon barrel racks cheap, we’re looking. We’re a bootstrap start-up...so cheap is good.

Thanks in advance. 

DAVE DUNBAR!!!!!!!  Can't recommend him high enough.

Saved us tons of time and headaches. application sailed through in about 70 days.

From my understanding, a bonded premises, without having to have a separate DSP, must be within 10 miles of your primary DSP location. 

To be called whiskey, it only has to 'touch' an oak barrel.  'Straight' whiskey has to be at least two years old.

Okay. Here’s a real stupid question for the peanut gallery. So some bottles have that thin strip of a label that goes over the top of the bottle as the tamper evident seal.  What is that type of label called?  

In my google searches everything I’ve called them just leads me back to standard tamper evident seals.  

Also, if you know what they’re called, who can I get them from?

Thanks in advance. 

Looking for feedback from Virginia distilleries. Since Virginia owns us lock stock and barrel for distribution in VA, what has been your experience with distributors for out of state distribution? Any words of wisdom?

Echo the comment on equipment leasing. We leased our stills which left TONS of cash in the bank account. Yes, interest rate is a little high but we are not going into opening our doors 'cash poor'. It has been a true life saver as we've encountered numerous unforeseen delays and costs That if we had bought our stills outright, we would have been scrambling to meet these unforeseen costs.

The other whiskies or bourbons I've seen that do solera only state 'solera aged'.

Consistency across small batches is the goal. Plus, solera aging in other spirits is well respected. Essentially, the oldest spirit is in the bottom barrels. Half of this is drained blended then bottled. Bottom barrel is refilled from the barrel above which was a little less old, that barrel is refilled with spirits from above barrel, etc until the top barrel is refilled with new make.  given the age of you bottom barrel this would be the minimum age of the spirit since a portion of that barrel is always getting older and the spirits above are aging as well.

Looking for people's thoughts on solera aging whiskey. I see several companies have offered up version (Hillrock, Blade and Bow, Samuel Franklin). I know Solera aged rums, brandys, cognacs, etc. are well respected.

Allegedly provides for greater consistency of product and a smoother product. 

Any feedback would be appreciated.

Could you still call it bourbon?

So here's one for the peanut gallery. I was watching an episode of "Moonshiners' and two of the guys were running a honey wash in one still and a rye mash in another still and letting the separate vapors come together in the lyne arm and condense together. Said it made for a much cleaner spirit where both the rye and honey carried over more flavor.

That got me thinking, could you run a pure corn mash, distill it. Then run a rye mash and distill it, then blend the two together and call it bourbon (once you age of course)?

I wonder if there would be any taste benefit, operational benefit, etc.  

Comments from the peanut gallery.

70 days

Thanks. 

Someone on here recently warned against using a particular discount barrel maker. The gist of the discussions that they never delivered on time and the barrels were poor quality.

If anyone recalls which company this was, could you please share. I can't remember and can't find the original post.

Thank you.

So is anyone doing the following....

Making your own mash/wash but then adding to that mash bulk spirit from say MGP or ultra pure. Essentially re-Distilling theirs with yours.

It would greatly increase our yields...but how do you label it? If you’re doing it, does COLA allow you to say ‘distilled by’ on the label?