Foreshot

I would love to make some single malt love with that.

This ^ We use camlocks for transfer hoses. We have males on the vessels and females on the hose ends. It helps but it's still a pain.

Ask a lawyer and an accountant. The biz structure is mostly about protecting assets and limiting tax burdens. For you situation it will most likely be a LLC. The fed doesn't treat different biz structures differently other than to make sure they know who owes taxes and how much. The vast majority of new small businesses today are LLCs. Each state treats LLC a little differently. That's why you need to ask a local lawyer/accountant. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limited_liability_company In essence if you're going to have fewer than 100 or so significant investors you'll end up being a LLC.

Can you describe the off flavor? That would be helpful in determining what is causing it. Are your yields consistent? What products are you making? What is your mashing/fermenting protocol? Do you measure pH?

For using ginskey as a class/type name - probably not. If someone already has a trademark on the name I don't believe that the TTB would try to use that as a name. The company holding the trademark would most likely have a strong case against them.

I asked to be one of the first to get moved over but I haven't heard anything back. I'm assuming they are moving some friendly long term customers first.

One of the reasons why for the big guys is that saponification is reversible in an high proof/acidic environment - like a barrel. If a spirit has some saponification occur before barreling the tannins and other acidic components will reverse the reaction. Barrel entry proof effects flavors and the number of barrels you'll need. Higher barrel proof means fewer barrels, lower proof more. Again, big guys want to spend less so they normally go with high proof. For some smaller folks barrel entry tends to be lower - I've know some do 100p or less. The downside is that since you loose the angel's share it makes it so that your exit proof won't be the same. So people will put their spirit in above bottling proof. So no matter what, unless you're lucky, you'll have to proof down post aging. Some people proof at the end of aging in the barrel. Compounds in the barrel are a mix of water and alcohol soluble. Proof would effect extraction of specific compounds. Oxidation is a separate thing. I don't know if proof effects oxidation. Acidity does, so a lower proof might affect pH/TA based on what compounds are extracted.

OH COME ON! Great now for the next couple weeks every time my skin itches I'm going to think that I have that disease. If they used a plate filter it might be some of the loose filter material coming off. This is supposition though.

We've been working with several filtering methods. We use cheesecloth to get rid of the large bits. Then we have a canister filter at 5 microns then a small plate filter at .5 microns. Works well for us. We're small so keep that in mind if you're trying to filter more than 100g at a time. We filter when we remove the botanicals and again with the plate filter only for bottling. For non amaros/liqueurs it works great and we have a perfectly clear product. We haven't used it on our limoncello yet. We plan on it next week. I've been testing it but I'm having problems with that clogging up every filter I have due to the pulp from the juice in it. I have a bag filter on order but it's not here yet. Our canister filter is like this one: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01JIRHRBK/ Plate filter: https://www.amazon.com/Buon-Vino-Super-Jet-Filter/dp/B0064OG4WE - I wish we would have gone with the 6 plate version though.

Are the people getting inspected currently producing or are there folks that have stop producing getting inspected? We only did a few barrels and stopped. Nothing here to inspect other than paperwork. I haven't heard anything other than a survey they sent us. No phone or emails.

I think he either had a typo or else he's suggesting you grab a beer while cleaning the still.

For your situation I think that's a good idea. I like having the locals process the wood - it adds to your story of being local.

Yup, that too. No reason for it anymore. I get those points. It wouldn't be a groundbreaking change. But it would make things go faster and make things simpler. 100 liters (call it wine liters if you want) of a spirit at 40% ABV 100*0.4=40 LAA. There's no though required to understand the equation. 234 liters at 45%? Ok, a calculator would help there but still not hard to do: 234*0.45=105.3 LAA. There's no conversion to 50% ABV for Proof Gallons for no real reason other than what's we do. It's simple to training new people. You don't have to explain the story behind it. I know that mostly we use wine gallons for day to day stuff. But we still need to report proof gallons.

As the saying goes - oaking isn't aging. Without breathing you miss that part of it. That being said if you're doing a short aging on the spirit anyhow it probably won't make much of a difference anyhow. For price the 59g Titan Barrel (basically the same thing) is $1000 for the barrel and $400 for the replacement staves. https://www.titanbarrels.com/ The Squarrel (you can search for previous post on this) is $760 for a 10g version and $90 for replacement staves. They have bigger version but they don't list the price. https://www.mtka-bec.com/search?searchterm=squarrel At least with the Squarrel you're getting better storage density. Too bad they didn't make it more easily forkable for a pallet jack or forklift.

So after talking to some people about this subject I put this post together. This is early thinking but it can be used as a draft for something we support as an industry. Please post up your thoughts/revisions/etc. All input is welcome. Let's end the use of the terms Proof and Proof Gallons. Let's end the use of the term Proof. It might sound like a silly thing to do but it's also a very practical thing to do. Proof is an old term that has no real place in modern distilling. It does not have a worldwide standard of meaning. It confuses customers. It is an add on to a label that is unnecessary as ABV is required (Proof is not but still common). Proof Gallons and Wine gallons are incredibly confusing to participants in the industry. Proof gallons, while not hard to calculate, they are very easy to miscalculate. It's also easy to confuse on various forms. Why would we care about a theoretical 50% alcohol spirit in wine gallons? Other than for tax prep NONE. What should we use: For everyone: We should convert everything to Metric. We use a mismash of Units of Measure (UOM). In our industry converting everything to metric would reduce conversion errors and rounding errors. This can be done in most software programs now but it needs to be converted to Imperial for reporting purposes. The more conversion the more likely there are errors. For Consumers / Bottles: ABV - Alcohol by volume: This enables consumers to compare spirits equally. It's not a perfect solution as it still requires obfuscation proofing. The term ABV is universal. You can go anywhere in the world and it mean that a 40% ABV spirit is the same as a 40% spirit in the US. This a great advantage over the term Proof as it can vary in value across different nations. For the Industry: ABW is much easier to understand and calculate for industry. It's what the vast majority of us use in our daily operations. There would be no real change required for this. If we can get the forms changed to reflect this it would make reporting slightly easier. The exception is obfuscated spirits, but that is a current exception anyhow. For Taxation: LAA - Liters of Pure Alcohol. By using Proof Gallons we in effect use a very convoluted version of this already. But using LAA we would make tax calculations much easier. If our tax is $13.50/$2.70 per PG, that would make it ~$7.13 LAA. So to calculate tax on 200l of 40% ABV would be 200*0.4= 80LAA, 80LAA*7.13 = 570.62 for 100,000+ or 200*0.4= 80LAA, 80LAA*1.32 = 105.67. It is trivial to convert from ABW to ABV for tax and bottle filling purposes and we do it to convert to PG currently. Again the exception would be obfuscated spirits, the same as now. What else would need to change: TTB/IRS: These would be non-trivial changes. It would require significant push from industry and consumer groups to push them to change. It would require a significant change to forms and to online systems. And for them it will likely cost a fair amount of money. There would need to be a decision on what to do with archived data - convert, convert a certain time frame, or leave as is. Industry partners/Large industrial producers: Software providers will need to change their software to account for the changes. It won't be trivial but shouldn't be huge either. Removing the endless conversions (Imperial to Metric and back) may help reduce rounding errors.

I having similar issues with juice. Plan on using some of these to get the big stuff: https://www.utahbiodieselsupply.com/bagfilters.php

Would it be great to have more info? Yes. Consumers aren't knocking down doors for it yet. Most wouldn't understand or care about it. The flexibility in not disclosing that info is what most large producers prefer. There's also accountability - who if any will submit to any form of audit to verify what's on the label. I think we all know little self certified statements are worth. Until some companies start adopting any form of standard the large producers won't feel any pressure to do so. It will be hard to create and enforce a uniform standard. I appreciate what Matt Pietrek is suggesting. I think his suggestions are a little too detailed for use but it's a good start.

Potassium Metabisulfite and Potassium Sorbate. K-meta kills, K-sorb stops growth. We're going to be using it in our recycling system. Food safe. I don't know anyone using to fight algae but hey why not try? Both are fairly cheap to use in extra high doses. https://ingredi.com/blog/potassium-sorbate-vs-campden-tablets-in-wine-making/

Try using wild cherry bark instead of the fruit. Available at Herbco and most other botanical suppliers. http://adiforums.com/topic/11531-botanical-and-herb-suppliers/

Dude, a 12" basket is huge. Are you planning on doing vapor infusion for everything or are you going to be macerating some of it? Have you started working on your botanical load? Maybe try to calculate the physical volume of stuff you're putting in there vs how much volume a 12" basket would hold. There's also complications for botanical load for macerating vs vapor infusion (most people us less for vapor). We do partial maceration and partial vapor. Our vapor stuff is minuscule. It doesn't even cover our 4" basket's bottom. SD's gin basket is - Diameter 11 13/16" (300mm) Height: 19 1/8: (486mm) - The volume is ~0.034 cubic meters or ~1.2 cubic feet. http://adiforums.com/topic/10090-on-stating-botanical-loads/ Sorry if I am adding confusion to an already complicated subject.

I talked to our PLCB guy - You can't do it for your distillery, but you can do it for the PLCB stores.

Looking to understand if that is consider enticement or is it ok? Especially does the PLCB consider it as such?

For terminology purposes: A perforated plate/tray can also be called a sieve plate/tray. You'll find in this industry that terminology is not well defined. In different countries/regions words do not always mean the same thing. There is no defined dictionary of terms. You kinda have to figure it out sometimes. https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-bubble-cap-tray-sieve-tray-and-valve-tray-in-distillation-column If you search the forum for sieve plate you'll find discussions on the subject.

Gin basket - You don't need this but it is nice. There's a number of people that weld a hook to the inside of the still near the manway and just hang a bag there. Not as effective as a basket but close enough for starters. If you have an offset gin basket you can get put all of your botanicals there and NOT have to clean all the still or plates after a gin run, just the basket, vapor path and condenser. We bought a second small still specifically for gin so we don't have to clean it as often. Whiskey Helmet - Helmets help increase reflux via a change in pressure differential. If you have plates above it doesn't do much. A second part of this copper contact - it help pull sulfides out of the spirit. If you have copper plates they do a better job of it. No plates a helmet a good idea, with plates maybe not so much. Lots of bling potential if you have a still in a public place. Glass column - if you have your still visible to customers this is a great way to show it off. If it's hidden then it doesn't matter. It does not effect the process to any real degree. If you're making multiple spirit types you'll find that it's important to be able to very thoroughly clean the still between spirit types. Gin will stick around and taint everything after it if not cleaned like hell. Plates will be a pain to clean well if you don't have a plan when you build the still (CIP or take it apart). PBW does wonders.

Every distributor is different but generally will do their best to get as low a price as possible. Most do not just take your price and then slap on a markup. They want to sell and low prices move products. Sharing your costs will get them to look at you as a cost plus vendor. That's not a good position for a premium product. If you're looking to be a lower cost producer then it's a good idea. For craft folk I would highly suggest Value pricing. Take a look at what other craft spirits are selling for in your area and price in that range. For distributors you will need to understand what your end price is any where they need to be. You can also try do somethings like offering bonuses for opening new accounts and sales goals. This might make it so you can get a better price for your spirits as you're paying some of the cost of their business. After time it should work out in your favor. Just be careful as the laws in each state vary wildly and you might get in trouble for things in one area that is ok in others. https://hbr.org/2018/07/when-cost-plus-pricing-is-a-good-idea https://www.investopedia.com/terms/v/valuebasedpricing.asp