CalivoreSpirits

I'm upset to hear that ADI forum moderators have been caving to pressure from Corson and deleting reviews. I hope they now realize that by doing that they are exposing small startup distillers to being swindled out of their money. The only information I could find on them was on the ADI forums and what little I did find was positive. Now I know that's because the negative reviews are being scrubbed but at the time I assumed it meant their operation was legitimate. I was 95% of the way to buying a Corson still. I visited their facility and was just about to write them a $30,000 check for down payment. By a stroke of luck, literally a day before I was going to mail them a check, I found a distiller who was in a battle with them (their story is uncannily similar to everyone else's on here) and I ended the deal with Corson. Fortunately the only money I lost was the cost of my flight and hotel.

I went on to buy from Still Dragon in August. My still is already in transit which actually puts it ahead of schedule. I can't say anything about their quality yet but I will say that Jeff's customer service has been top notch. Even after I had already paid him. 

I'm in the beginning stages of starting a distillery in California and I'm pretty confused over the steam boiler component of the system. I'm going to be getting a 200 gal 4 plate column still. Heat recommendations I've seen range between 400k-600k BTUs (I'm not running a mash tun or anything, just the still). I've heard that certain sized boilers require separate enclosures built out of fireproof materials with a certain amount of ventilation and certain amount of space around the unit. Some have told me it needs to be outside some have told me it needs to be inside. Some have told me you don't need a boiler room at all. I'm finishing up tenant improvements negotiations with my landlord and I need to tell him what I will need him to build into the building. Can anyone offer me some advice on this? Or direct me to the correct agency to contact or website to review?

13 hours ago, HedgeBird said:

I know its not what your asking for, but just wanted to make sure you have already considered, and ruled out placing a new label over the old label as an option.

This is probably what we're going to opt to do. We're going to print small stickers just to put over the name on our label since we're keeping the art the same. 

On 3/5/2017 at 4:20 AM, Sudzie said:

We offer a cheese, dried meat, jams & bread slate $15, mini 3/4 oz. beef wellingtons trio $10, mini crab cakes trio $9, baked Brie w/ bourbon maple syrup and toasted pecans $9. Smoked nuts $4 these all are sized for a single serving except the cheese slate and have a 10 /12 min cook / assemble time from frozen in a countertop convection over (don't use a microwave) where applicable. Other lite bites in the works for summer. Pinterest is your friend. There is a ton out there.

Thanks for the ideas. What tags were you searching on Pinterest?

Hi there,

I'm looking to avoid the 1.5 oz per person per day limit here in CA by having a restaurant ("bonafide eating place") in my tasting room. From my understanding, the minimum has to be a kitchen with a sink, fridge, and something to heat food up. It also can't just be pretzels or something easy, it has to have some variety and be considered a meal. I want to keep the menu as simple as possible and buy as little equipment as possible.

Those of you already doing this, what easy-to-make foods are you serving out of your tasting room? Any menu advice or personal experiences you can share are appreciated! 

1 hour ago, JNorris said:

Piramal

Yep! That's the one. 

Does anyone know of any companies in California that offer de-labeling services? I have some filled bottles that I need to take labels off of to put new ones on. I'm sure I'm not the only one who's had to do this before, any other advice is appreciated...

I know there is at least one big glass bottle factory in Missouri (forgetting the exact name of the company, starts with a "P" though). Many of the bottle brokers here carry their bottles. I use the Tennessee shape and have ordered from multiple brokers and each time they come from the US factory. 

On 3/28/2016 at 8:50 AM, bull said:

Adding to this thread. We have used www.pipedrive.com

Fully customizable!

I second this! I've tried all of the popular CRMs out there and by far Pipedrive is the best.