JakeH

17 hours ago, Golden Beaver Distillery said:

Separate issue, but based on your plans, you might want to study the Sombrero of Death - https://proof33.com/everything-distillers-need-to-know-about-explosion-proofing-and-the-electric-sombrero-of-death/ Not sure of the stack of barrels in the middle of the production area was just for illustration purposes, but you might want to measure the distance from the boiler to the barrels. Boilers are not explosion proof and vapor from those barrels are present within 25' of the boiler per your plans. 

I only mention it was we had to correct a similar condition after we started to setup our equipment.

Thanks for that!  My architect just put random barrels in there for illustration.  I am going to put barrels likely in the larger storage area.  I don't think I will have many barrels, but its a small place so I have to be really careful with clearances.

21 hours ago, Thatch said:

The door should be fine.  We have two.  Is he saying this is a TTB issue or a fire issue?

Saying it is a TTB issue, which I can understand where he is coming from if you read it by the letter of the guidance, but it just doesn't mesh with what is happening in the field at all.

2 hours ago, 38° said:

We were approved recently and the TTB agent made sure to specifically confirm the seperation was floor to ceiling and secure. We do have a door and she made a point to confirm it was secured with appropriate approved locks.

So, a door is acceptable.

Thanks for that bit of insight.  What is meant by approved locks?  Seems that is something can sort out during construction anyway.

was definitely hoping to get awat from floor to ceiling considering my ceilin is 20’, but if you gotta, it is what it is.

Hi all - odds are that this has been covered quite a lot in the past, but I have a bit of a disagreement between observation in the field and what I am hearing about tasting rooms and how to separate from the production space. 

the guy I am working with to help me with my TTB application is telling me that I MUST have a wall floor to ceiling separating my tasting room from production space and there can not be a door that connects the spaces. 
 

meanwhile several local spots have a bar sitting right in the middle of their production space. Another has a glass wall separating the retail area from production but does have a door right in the middle connecting the space. 
 

I am trying to finalize my plan overall and currently the space looks like the attached with a bar/tasting area and an 8’ tall wall separating production space from that. Both have their own exterior doors. But there is a door connecting them. 
 

it seems to me that common sense would win out and a door connecting spaces in the same building is going to be ok, as long as it is controlled access. But my guy is pretty firm that this isn’t going to be ok.   I really want to keep that door, just for the functionality of the place. 
 

just picking brains here. What in all your experiences would work?  It just doesn’t seem realistic that a building would have to be bisected and no way to get from one side to the other without going outside.  I know many here have much more experience and have actually got real feedback from TTB. So hoping someone would have some credible insight. 
 

Permit Drawings Jakes Distillery A-3.pdf

2 hours ago, Hudson bay distillers said:

 We find that people love to be a part of the RD proçess especially if you ask them to participate in filling out tasting notes . We have sheets with tasting notes listed and color and nose listed and ask people to give each note a number out of ten..it makes for very interesting feed back . We tell people to take it home and fill it out in the comfort of there home and bring it back. Its big fun to put random notes in the list like ....earthy moccasin just to see if people are paying attention lol. 

Tim 

that is a new one I haven't heard or seen.  That is definitely one I will remember.  

Southerhighlander,

      These look awesome, and I would definitely like to go with something steam jacketed I think, My production still is and should be no big issue to tie one of these small ones in.  I am going to have to sort out what size I want to go with, thinking in the 25-50 gal range, the big questions I need to still think about is really what i will use this for.  I think its likely to be small batches of whiskey for R&D to play around with the mash bill, I think I would like to possibly also run small batches of gin to play with different botanicals.  

Will definitely be in touch possibly to brainstorm what could be done.

Thanks for the replies!

Thanks for the reply.  My plan for any of this was to just mess around with different mash bills, yeast strains and develop some botanical formulas for Gin.  

For anything aged, its less useful to actually try out aging as you say, I know roughly what I want the white dog to be like, but that's a whole different bit of R&D really.  This is just mainly to be something where I just try out a grain bill at 1/10th scale or something and allow me to not waste too much raw materials in the process.  

Could also be used perhaps to finish out small runs of gin, etc.  

Was thinking about just getting a hillbilly still type setup with the milk can and toss the column on there.  can find a good enough way to mash and ferment at that scale easily enough as well, just wondering if there have been any suppliers or solutions others have found that worked alright for this.  

Wondering if any of you have done anything at smaller scale in your plants for R&D and pilot production?  I’m thinking of putting together that capability at something like 20-30 gallon scale so we can test out small mash bills without using the bigger equipment. 
 

Are any of you doing this?  Any recommendations of affordable and capable equipment at that smaller scale. Thinking the still part will be easy enough, but mash tun?  Could use the still for mashing perhaps. 
 

Any thoughts?

Hi all - I'm located in triangle area, been thinking about western part of state though for this.  Looking for any partner, would entertain any discussion.  Investment, working, whatever..  

I am searching far and wide to find the right partner for a distillery in NC.  What I bring to the table is a background in chemistry and pharmaceutical manufacturing and high business acumen.  Preferrably I can find someone local that has been dieing to get a distillery going in the mountains of NC or elsewhere in the state.  

I am open to all parties and backgrounds.  I want to make this happen so any and all interested should give me a shout.

Thanks guys.  Definitely helpful, lots of good stuff on here if you know what you are looking for that's for sure.  

Hey all,

I wanted to see if any of you have had experience or any potential success stories in starting up a distillery as a joint venture with an existing brewery?  I've been researching several models and this seems to be the lowest barrier to entry.  The venue already exists, hopefully they have production capacity available to produce your wash.  Meaning all you should need is the actual still and associated equipment, barrels, etc. It would mean I would be able to focus solely on distilling and building the brand, potentially even tagging onto the success of their beer products if it made sense.   

From a capital perspective and from a mutual support perspective it is definitely attractive.  Just looking to see if anyone else has done it and how it all worked out.  

who said what now?  see, what actually happened was I fermented some grain wort and said..  hey, I bet I could distill this..  and never did anything else.

Hi All.  Coming to you from NC.  Been working on pulling a plan together for a craft distillery in the NC mountains.  Currently looking hard for some investors or a cofounder, anyone interested?  

I am probably relatively new to this, but have had a lot of fun with it already.  Tried with some good success some of my own bourbon recipes and playing around with Gin now.  

A lot of cool ideas for pulling this together, but always looking for other ideas and thoughts.