Golden Beaver Distillery

Hire an architect, who has worked with distilleries, to come up with a set of plans to submit to your county/city to get their buy-in. You could just try and go chat with them without the plans in hand but there is a risk if you come off not having a solid vision and understanding of local building and fire codes. Once you get their buy-in you need to start the application process with TTB (you need your plans here) and get a building permit/lease, etc. You will also need to apply to your state ABC for your license - this normally involves an onsite inspection so you might hold off until your construction is nearly done. There is no top to bottom, bottom to top. It all happens at the same time. Good luck.

Looking for an experienced spirits sales rep to work with our regional wholesaler and LIbDib accounts. Expand on and off premise distribution throughout Northern and Central CA. Experience with chains a plus. Salary + commission. Health care after 30 days. Kris Koenig Golden Beaver Distillery, Inc Kris (at) GoldenBeaverDistillery.com

You're going to need both. One is the SKU barcode, the second is the case SKU barcode. Once you get your account at GS1 you will go to the data hub to manage your barcodes. You create the single item barcode first then create the case barcode. It's pretty straight forward. https://www.gs1us.org/upcs-barcodes-prefixes/get-started-guide/power-in-your-marketplace?gclid=Cj0KCQjw5-WRBhCKARIsAAId9Fl4zFly4jkHDjxjRtfblPfkU9Q9ecqwCXgzrgY91iWll7yMD5SnWFQaAk6_EALw_wcB You will need both codes on your box for most retailers. Standard case sizes are 6 and 12 bottle. Best to start out with 6 bottle cases. No one will buy 12 bottle case from an unknown supplier.

Are the bottles dusty inside? If so, sparge them with some high pressure nitrogen and fill. You can get a pony bottle of nitrogen at your local gas supplier / welding supply. Another option is to sparge with high proof - evaporates quickly and you can fill immediately.

You might suggest to your Fiire Marshall that you will install one of these ethanol gas monitors - https://www.rkiinstruments.com/product/ps-2-model/ . We have a 5,000 sq ft production area and we place the monitor between our stills. Super sensitive. You can spill 1/2 oz of spirits across the room from the sniffer and the sensor will go off. If there is no gas detected in the space, a standard electric or propane lift should be safe to operate. Also, make sure you have good cross ventilation in the space to prevent any build up of ethanol in any one location.

Lisa is good people - comes from the moonshining community. Might go easy on her @SlickFloss she posted a legitimate question to this forum and deserves a respectful response. I asked similar questions 18-months ago and I don't remember you going off on me like you've done with Lisa. Yes, bench distillation is the cheapest, but might not be faster or easier for someone not familiar with the process. If not done correctly, it's not accurate. I can have any of my crew pull a sample, run it in the AlcoTester and within five minute I have an accurate test result that is part of both our digital and written records for TTB. Five minutes. I don't have to worry if a mistake was made that might be a tax liability once the product is out the door. Every operation has its way of doing things that may not conform to your ideas of how it should be done but that doesn't mean it's not correct. https://www.wwaytv3.com/carolina-beach-distiller-on-discovery-channel-tv-show/

TTB requires you to do desktop distillation to test the variance between in DDM and desktop results. Once the variance is known you can calibrate the DDM to bring it into compliance. Periodic testing is required along with record keeping.

If there is sugar added you're going to need to do a Proof Obscuration Measurement (watch the series) or buy a TTB approved desktop meter - https://rudolphresearch.com/products/density-meters/alcotest-ri/ We bit the bullet for the meter last year. Solves record keeping to as the system logs every reading.

Email sent. KentuckyBorbonBarrels.com

We dry pitch with no issues. We pitch the yeast and nutrient in the mash tun with the agitator running after crash cooling the mash and then pump over to the fermenter. This insures the yeast/nutrient gets blended into the mash. The fermentations take-off within a couple hours.

Just a FYI here: Here in CA where we face the worst drought in 1,200 years, our farmers are taking our spent grain and water in totes to hydrate and feed their cattle/sheep. They basically just fill a trough with a tote and stand back as the cattle drink and then eat the mixture. Consider it a protein shake for livestock. The hydration is a now wanted equally to the spent grain as many farmers can't turn on their well for irrigation or watering livestock on a daily basis. We've gotten to the point we rinse all our vessels into totes as well as all of our hoses. We figure we now only waste 25 gallons of water a day for mopping...

One more thought. Have you calculated your estimated weekly production and potential revenue off that production? Seems to me that although you can make spirits in that space, it may not be enough to sustain a business.

Consider a small used cheese vat and get an electric steam generator from @Southernhighlander

You can make fermenters out of IBC totes...which are stackable if you have a hand-lift/picker. We're limited to 125 gals of spirit (MAQ) in production, so if those spirit tanks are 50/55 gallons, you maybe setting yourself up for exceeding whatever limits you have in the UK (Fire Code). I'd loose the desk...again, might be a fire code issue as it blocks the doors plus takes up potential production space. Using folding table(s) during bottling may open you up for more operational space, too. I recommend a small mash tun. Cooking is important and although you can "heat and steep" your grain, your yields will be better if you can cook and hold temps. Just my two cents...good luck

@needmorstuffjust my two cents here. Based on all your recent posts, I really recommend you take the 6-day distillers course at Moonshine U or any of the other distilling programs available around the country. You need to see and get some hands-on experience in a distillery before you spend your money on equipment. The courses aren't cheap but the money you spend on them will save you money in the long run by avoiding buying stuff that you don't need or just plain wrong for what you want to do.

What grain are you mashing?

We strip on-grain, as most distillers do with the exception of some single malt distillers, then do a spirit run to make cuts all on our pot still. We then redistill the finish in our vodka still. This approach makes your vodka super clean.

Use a jacketed mash tun to avoided all the pumping. Also consider distilling on-grain. You're making vodka not single malt. Otherwise, yes you can use your still as hot liquor tank.

Sale pending

@BuffaloBinkyou also need to look at natural gas vs propane. Natural gas is a greenhouse gas, where as, propane is not. You also get more BTUs from propane vs natural gas. We run 700g stripping pot still, 300g pot still and 400g mash tun - 2 cooks and a strip everyday and every second day we add a finishing run. Using a 25hp boiler we generate a $900 bill for our propane each month. Remember, we're in CA so I assume our propane cost is higher than anywhere else in the nation...

We have fairly new vodka still for sale - available to ship by the end of February. We won a gold medal (John Barleycorn) for our vodka off this still. Slow output but good spirits. Working capacity: 200L/52 gal Tank materials: Stainless steel 304 Tank shape: Conical top and flat bottom, with 1” outlet, tri-clamp butterfly valve, on frame and wheels With 2*5KW heating elements, control box, 220V power supply, single phase - recommend using a Mile High Distillery control panel and heating elements for better heat control. 16 plates and copper column sections Dephlegmator Two temperature gauges Parrot Water control panel and hoses (on wheels) + crating at cost (materials and labor) $4,500 FOB Chico, CA

If space is tight, CA ABC rules allow you to have an offsite tasting room.

Can anyone point me in a direction of a broker of Irish whiskey or a domestic distiller doing Irish style whiskey? Thanks Kris

We bought an 18"/20HP hammer mill with an auger from Automatic Farm System for about $6K two years ago. We mill about 1,200 - 1,500 lbs of grain a day. The mill is overkill for now but we have plenty of room to grow. Call me and I can tell you how we made it nearly dustless operation.

The labor portion of our COG on a bottling run is about $.30 a bottle. Our minimum wage here is $16.00 plus tax and health care. Looks like your vendor is "tightening up" his fees due to inflation and increased labor costs, billing for bottles/labels/cork/caps on top of labor, or like @EchoJoe said just trying to move you along. Good luck with your bottle run.