BeerPilgrim

You don't have to charge at 95%... dilute that to get your vodka "low wines". Just run the numbers to see why small distilleries (and even big ones) might not be making their "craft" vodkas from scratch. Anything with enough sugar to be worth fermenting is gonna cost you a lot more to ferment, strip and spirit run than the $6 or $8 per gallon you'll pay for your 95% neutral spirit (which you will be diluting with water). The fermentables themselves will make the product more expensive than the NGS, then you add in the time, labor, power, etc it takes you to actually make it and youre now having to charge the same price for this vodka you would for the rum or grappa you should have made. These products already command the higher prices, people understand the "value added" in them, you don't have to come up with a marketing spiel about how you make your flavorless odorless spirit only from dwarf albino beets harvested under a blue moon, crushed under the feet of umpalumpas in willy wonkas wonderland, Yadi yada and the intense marketing budget to continue to convince people they're not wasting their money on your expensive product. Not saying this is law, but in my opinion craft, and small, producers can compete (with the big guys) in the marketplace by offering products that the big boys can't or won't (commonly niche products driven by a sense of place or region). Vodka sales are driven by huge marketing budgets. Small distilleries can't compete with big boy marketing dollars. Not that you can't produce a vodka that is superior to the big boys, but your new, unique and interesting product can and will be obscured by the dozens of seemingly unique and interesting bigger money vodkas that they churn out (which people will likely have already heard of through adverising even before they can walk into the liquor store and learn of your products existence). That's my two cents, and here's a grain of salt .

Sounds close, but ridiculous unless you're making whiskey/brandy/rum. What are you fermenting to make vodka and why? Thats where the ridiculousness begins. Unless you have free fermentables, it's gonna be impossible on the scale you're talking about to make a competitively priced product. You don't need to ferment and you don't need real "low wines." You start with spirit that has already been rectified to 95% or so, then theres no concern about how high it comes off your still, it's way cheaper and it's just how it's done. Why try to put more character (and cost) into a characterless product (legally speaking, not harping on vodka)? The stuff gets distilled and filtered through charcoal to remove taste/flavor, not enhance it.

There's plenty of whiskey distillers in Texas. Being able to afford one will be the problem. You might have to hire someone away from their own project. If you hire someone and "teach" them how to distill, you will save lots of money in the beginning, but you will eventually lose that person to an organization who will pay him properly. And that's assuming you have the knowledge to teach. There's lots of thought going into opening (whiskey) distilleries in Texas these days, still not much forethought given to the people who will actually be running these facilities and producing the products and how they will be compensated in the first few years of a new distillery while it's only loosing money and requiring lots of time... Good luck!

You just have to put the White and Whiskey on different lines, so they don't think you're trying to create a new category. They're regulators for the purpose of collecting taxes foremost, you'd be better off creatively designing your labels to comply with current standards than you would trying to teach them something. Just look at a Stranahans bottle, they had to put Colorado and Whiskey on different lines and they probably got more time and money to argue bout it than you or I. This is to show how they will confuse White in White whiskey with a category, Light whiskey (excerpt from Rev. Ruling 71-188): "Consideration must be given to the relationship that whisky described as "White" would have to "light whisky." Light whisky has many of the production characteristics of the whisky presently proposed to be subjected to treatment. Production of "light whisky," although barred from bottling until July 1, 1972, began on January 26, 1968. In order that the merits of the present proposal may be recognized without adversely affecting the production, bottling, and designation of "light whisky," it is held that in view of the substantial lack of color, whisky distilled prior to January 26, 1968, at more than 160 degrees of proof, stored in reused cooperage, and subjected to treatment before bottling with activated carbon within the limits described in 27 CFR 5.23(, may be described as "White" provided the treated product has not more than 0.1 color units Lovibond. Further, the adjective "White" must be separated from the designation "whisky" and must appear in smaller type than that used for the designation "whisky.""

Thanks to chuck for another puff piece hyping up the establishment. Everyone can rush out to buy unaged whiskey from the guys who can afford to age it for years, but want to gobble up market share wherever possible.

You want to "make" vodka and you have money- sounds like you're all set. Do some more web searching, look for companies supplying bulk Grain Neutral Spirit. Some of these guys make it real easy for people to get their own label vodka out there- all it really takes is money (and a license which they can probably tell you more about) and they can do the rest for you. Sounds like you already got the sales covered, but check your state laws as you might have to distribute through a middleman.