EchoJoe

FYI for anyone searching for this later, I did find a vendor with a product we're going with. Once we have it installed and in use for a while, I'll try to remember to report back on my experience. https://www.singleshotbarrelworks.com/

Yep absolutely. By "in my taproom" I mean at my location. It's in bonded premises.

That's my primary concern. We're worried about leaking somewhat, though hopefully a little barrel wax can help with that. The big concern is that it fails entirely, the spigot pops out overnight or when no one is watching, and we lose the whole thing.

We're spinning up a fill-your-own bottle experience in our taproom. For now, we'll likely just use a barrel thief to extract from the barrel - and I'd like to pull this right from the barrel if possible. Some bigger distilleries have fancier equipment, but I'm having a hard time even finding a spigot or faucet that I trust. I'm thinking I would need a tapered thread on the opposite side to bite into the wood of the barrel and prevent leaks. We tried drilling a whole for a beer tap as a proof of concept, and just didn't trust that the threading would hold and not leak. Any ideas? What am I even trying to look for? Searching isn't getting me very far.

A little background: I'm asking this as the distillery side to this relationship, and I have not seen the related distribution contract. In Ohio, we have separate distillery and ready-to-drink canner licenses. A local brewery has the license to can RTDs, and obviously has the equipment to do it with their own operations. Due to the nature of breweries in Ohio, they also handle quite a bit of self distribution. They also have a distribution contract which definitely covers their beer and may or may not cover RTDs. Their lawyer is unsure of whether the distributor would have a right to claim that the RTDs are covered by the beer contract or not since it's the same LLC, even though it's a different type of product and different license. This brewery has approached us about doing canned RTDs with our name on it. They would buy our spirits, manufacture the RTDs including packaging, and would like to self-distribute. In theory we could get the same RTD license, but we don't have canning equipment nor the capital or space to get it. We also don't have a team the size that could handle self-distribution and don't have an interest in signing with a true distributor (we're in a control state). The brewery has all of those things, but has the distribution issues. In short, has anyone dealt with the distribution side of this before? Are there court cases or similar that would give precedence to whether or not a vauge beer distribution contract covers RTDs?

We primarily source from International Molasses. Good quality, good price. That said, I'm also interested to hear who others source from.

I looked into them and other online sellers, and the answer, like everything, is it depends. Running our numbers, we needed to sell close to 100 bottles per month through them just to make up the monthly fees, and that's assuming I can sell that many bottles without investing a dollar or minute of my time. Maybe that can happen, but with the struggles we've had to sell through our regular channels, I don't buy it. I think online sales through a platform like this can work, but they require a pretty serious time and cash investment to make them work.

@SlickFloss, do you have a contact at Bardstown for sourcing aged product? Or do they only do custom runs, with anyone having BBC stock in-house having purchased it from them prior?

I don't think this would be something addressed at the TTB level. I'm in Ohio, and this would be covered by either the Department of Agriculture (state-level), who acts as our health inspector for our production side. I don't see why you couldn't do this if you have the right setup to sterilize, etc. You just have to decide if the cost of labor (removing labels, etc.) is worth it.

How large are they, and what contract size do they normally do? It's possible this is like any contract business right now - they're quoting you very high to see if you bite. They may be so busy that the only way it's worth the time and effort to them is if you pay a crazy rate. It may be their way of telling you "buzz off".

Hey Rick!

We get some used barrels from another local distillery that has them in the top, but we store them sideways. So far so good. Just gotta make sure the bung is pounded in pretty snugly.

We use the Tennessee bottle, which is very similar and available through most major companies. We typically go through Kaufman Container in Cleveland. Imperial Packaging is great too.

Awesome information everyone, and there would seem to be a consensus. Thank you so much for the feedback!

I'm struggling to find any aggregated topic on the matter, so I thought I would start one. Please correct me if I'm mistaken. I'm still in the stages of working on my business plan budget and am struggling a bit on the topic of what still to aim for. A little background - I am located in Columbus, OH, and we have two high-quality distilleries in town, Middle West Spirits and Watershed Distillery. Both consistently make quality spirits and win awards, both national and internationally. Both also happen to run Kothe stills. I've been to quite a few distilleries across the US. Some have been good, some have not hit my palate well, and some (even award winners) were flat-out bad, IMHO. Thus far I've been operating under the assumption that I should also aim for a Kothe or other engineering marvel if I want to produce similar quality. However, I know that plenty of other still manufacturers are also winning boatloads of awards, and many are far cheaper (ignore the Chinese knock-offs for the sake of this discussion, I would think). Obviously things like ingredients, cuts, fermentation, etc. have a large part to play in resulting quality, but the still has to be a factor too. However, how large can it be and does it justify the additional cost? Sure, I'd like the Cadillac, but is it worth the cost? Can I make the same quality spirits and save myself $60k for the time being? Ignore the "presentation aspect" for now. Happy to hear any opinions from those of us who have actual experience operating these beauties!

Thanks for all of the advice so far! Things I didn't think about and avenues to consider. Doing some additional research, Bluefish might be right. A year may not be necessary to create a proper dunder. As Silk City also said, it's more about microbiology than the age. Experiments worth trying!

I apologize in advance if this is a question I should have figured out the answer to by now. It's also probably a question best asked of a TTB agent, but I thought I would toss it here to see if anyone knew. I'm still in the planning stages, working on a distillery that would produce rum. Dunder is going to be a key ingredient to the flavor I'm looking for, but all of my research is telling me that it will take a while to get a good dunder pit going. I'm considering ways to get that in process while buildout, still delivery, etc. is happening. The key would seem to be that you want the dunder to have no alcohol left in it, lest you impede the growth of all of the fun bacteria. So... 1) Mix up a batch of molasses water, add yeast, boil the alcohol out, and let the bacteria take over. Can I do that without a DSP, if I don't intend to sell the alcohol? Alcohol is a byproduct of plenty of production processes, just not in that volume. 2) Mix up the molasses, leave it uncovered for a few days, maybe outside. Boil it to sterilize it again, then let the bacteria take over. Anyone have any experience with this?

The original poster did get back to me, and the information is from this document: http://axisofwhisky.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Craft_Distilling_2015_white_paper_update.pdf

Posting this here in case anyone else is having similar issues. While I never did find the original article, this one has a chart in it, titled "% Producers in Category by Entry Year" which is basically the same information I was searching for. I did reach out to the author to see if I can track down the source material for the chart, and I will also post that here if I hear back.

Not the same information as I thought I remembered, but helpful nonetheless. Thank you! The specific information was either along the lines of "There are X craft distilleries producing rum/vodka/whiskey/etc. in the United States" or "There are X craft rum/vodka/whiskey/etc. labels in the United States." Obviously this is a long shot. It may have been a dream for all I remember; I'm fairly rigid in making sure I save or bookmark information that I think will be important, but I can't for the life of me find this anywhere in my notes.

I'm hoping someone can help me. I recall reading an article within the last month or two that had some statistics about the US craft product mix. It had counts, I don't remember if it was by pure products or by DSPs, of how many of each of the major types of products were made. For example, X vodkas, or at least X small distilleries producing a vodka. Same breakdown for rum, whiskey, etc., resulting in a sort-of net product mix for distilleries in the United States. I've been looking for this for days and simply cannot find it. Any pointers (to that article or similar information) would be much appreciated!