Newbie in CA

Thanks Max. The Beacon 110 will work but my preference would be a portable detector. It would generally stay in one place, but I'd like to be able to test different areas of the distillery every so often as part of a maintenance schedule. Any ideas on a portable ethanol detector?

Hi David, Im on the search for ethanol detectors and was wondering where you found yours, particularly with the 3.5% to 19% calibration range? Cheers!

We were asked by code officials if we plan to put in ethanol detectors (for ethanol vapor) to automatically turn on fans in our barrel room should a spill occur when noone is on site. Anyone ever come across anything like this request before? It is tied to spill mitigation. Also, I've never seen an "ethanol vapor detector" - anyone have one, know where I can find one? Thanks all

Hi Mike Id be interested too in any advice in dealing with distributors (even though we are in different states) Thanks!

I am aware that in chapter 4 of the Fed's Beverage Alcohol Manual the time that different whiskies have to age in barrels is clearly laid out. My question is - do different states have differing regs that go beyond the Fed's? I have seen a couple of posts for example that have mentioned that in California some whisky (if not "straight" whisky) must be aged for a minimum of 3 years.

I think it is a question of what you can afford in terms of time and $$s. It was my experience that every course I attended had within it some important element/s that the others somehow missed out on. Many times the content of the courses directly contradicted "facts" I had been taught elsewhere. There is also a fair amount of "selling" going on at each of the courses, be it of still equipment, or barrels, or insurance, or glass/corrugated, etc. but it is rarely too much. It is difficult to say what the "best" course is as they are all very different, and it depends what you are wanting to learn; distillation, fermentation, business skills/plans, marketing, sales, TTB regs, tasting, etc, etc. some of the courses claim to be for beginners, but without at least a basic knowledge distillation they are sometimes way above some people's heads. As some folk have already said, the most useful "course" I did was to spend several days at a distillery getting some hands on knowledge and being able to talk directly to a distiller without 30 other people trying to get their attention. However, I only did that once i had attended several "theoretical" classes to understand what the process what all about. Another fantastic thing that came out of it all was meeting like-minded entrepreneurs on the same road, some of which have become firm friends and the collaboration between us for information and advice has been invaluable.

testing body.

testing body.