TNaq

The 3 in 230/3/60 is going to be prohibitive if that signifies 3 phase - at lease at startup, anyway. If this grows to the point of becoming my sole income, I will upgrade the single phase when and if I significantly increase capacity. That said - how about this - is there something single phase 220v in the neighborhood of a couple grand that I could use looped to an insulated tote that I could draw from the tote, chill the water and return to the tote that would have the cooling capacity to take 275 gallons of water at an ambient 90 degrees and get it down to at least 65 degrees even if it took a few hours to do so? I could then make a run drawing from that tote returning hot water to another tote, then chill that tote for the next run since I would not be running back to back days.....

Thanks. Thanks to all, you guys have been a big help!

This "small chiller" intrigues me. I'm still in planning/permitting and will be starting out small enough that a couple 275 gallon totes will suffice for volume - but where I am we'll be hitting 100 days soon and tap water will approach 80 degrees....I'd like to have some sort of pass-thru continuous chiller between tote and condenser.

Thanks. I realize the records keeping - especially the accuracy and depth of such will be exponentially greater than what I'm used to, but I don't think it is going to be what would take the enjoyment out of this for me - but that remains in the back of my mind. And thanks again for the knowledge and experience. The thing that is new and formidable to me is having to ask permission for E V E R Y T H I N G and wait for permission.

Thanks, this answers my question. Can this be submitted on the TTB site once you create an account and obtain your DSP?

Been there done that! Offshore fishing rig. Bought it when fuel was 2.50 a gallon - eight years and twin Yamaha Offshore Series 150 HP motor replacements later fuel was 4.25 a gallon. Nobody wants to buy a 25 foot boat with two 150 outboards when fuel is 4.50 a gallon, either. Boat = Bust Out Another Thousand.....but yeah....it WAS fun while it lasted......could have bought a lot of fish though.

Understood. That's where I am now - asking questions of people in-the-know but asking off the record of people who know people - since many questions asked of the wrong person, they cannot be "un-asked". I've already verified that my location is a go for manufacture as well as retail sales. The trigger would be sales for consumption - I'm a no-go for that, but that was NEVER in the plans anyway - that would be classified as a bar and that is another whole can of worms - fortunately my state and local government is alcohol friendly - we have drive-thru daiquiri shops and all that is required to circumvent the open-container law is a piece of freezer tape over the lid. My state recently passed legislation allowing distilleries to also have a retail sales store on premises - so my major hurdle is going to be with feds and the fire marshal....and to my understanding the trigger for major fire marshal headaches is having 10,000 gallons or more stored on site - that's not going to be a trigger - I could be wrong about this, but I will CERTAINLY have all these legal bases covered before any equipment is purchased. One encouraging thing is that a young fella locally just went all-in, sold his house, moved back in with his parents, bought his equipment and opened a vodka distillery in basically the same size and style metal building as I have available and seems to be making a go of it just ever so slightly larger the scale I'm looking to do.....I don't know the guy personally, but I know some people who do and I haven't heard any legislative horror stories he encountered. I'd love to talk to the guy, but I'm still at a point in all this that I'm not ready to let the cat out of the bag yet of my plans - I've got a vodka distillery and a rum distillery all within a 15 mile radius of me, so it's certainly doable - whether it is worth doing for ME still remains to be seen, but I'm still feeling positive.

Thanks, Paul. I actually have had correspondence with you about a 105 gallon distill-on-grain setup. I truly appreciate your insight. The slllooow procession of this process is quite unnerving for me, I'm used to making decisions one day and putting it into practice the next.

Understood - this is my biggest uneasiness with all this - it's not the business, not the work, not the long hours - I've owned a 6 bay auto repair business for soon to be 30 years wearing many hats in this business, from actually being in the trenches, being the guy doing all the sales tax filings, payroll tax filings, dealing with the EPA and DEQ - I understand all too well lots of work for just a decent living and what was once an enjoyable occupation turning into just another grind, but the EXPONENTIAL nature of the paperwork and reporting, etc is quite unnerving. Can many of these approvals and applications be done electronically, or is most of it paper sent via snail-mail?

Understood as far as the classification.....I assume this "distilled spirits - specialty" will have to appear on the label as such? Also can the spirit still have a name - just for example, "sweet sunshine"? That was the "pirate spirits" reference - the marketing name, not the classification. This is definitely worth taking under advisement, thanks. I have already own a building with the space for equipment that would easily allow 75 gallons a week proofed spirits if it's single run process, but that's about it - past that relocation and debt will be involved to acquire more space for larger equipment footprint. Thanks for that insight.

Hey all, first post here, been reading for quite some time. I'm in the very early stages of "construction" of a nano or more aptly defined, a pico or even zepto distillery. This will not be my primary income, at least that's not the plan, but who knows what the future may hold, but will be something I want to keep enjoyable - a hobby producing just enough volume to net enough money to make the hobby free plus a small net positive just to make me feel like I'm at least making minimum wage for the toiling while doing everything 100% legally. My question is, I know that there are federal laws governing spirits - what you label them - e.g. Rum, Brandy, Whiskey, Bourbon, Vodka, but can you create craft spirit recipes and sell them legally IF they are not called and not labeled the aforementioned? For example could you produce a "rye rum" being a recipe of 50% rye, 25% molasses and 25% dark cane sugar and call this "Pirate Spirits" and sell it legally? (this is just an example for the sake of the question)......can one legally sell a spirit that is not a whiskey, not a rum, not a vodka, not a brandy, etc? Thanks for any knowledge and insight - I'm sure I'll have many more questions in the future and never be able to repay the knowledge.