Longleaf Distilling

Does anyone have a good source for bulk syrups? Would love to source a rich syrup (2 parts sugar : 1 part water). 50 gallon drums would be great, but I’ve not come across a vendor like this.

@Kindred Spirits Thanks for the advice. That’s what I’m leaning towards primarily for the proofing issue. I really don’t want to have to redistill a sample of every barrel to find the new proof.

This may be a stupid question, but what is the guidance/tradition on barrel aging liqueurs? In all of my reading, I have never come across the subject and would like to store a few liqueurs in used barrels for finishing and bulk storage. More specifically, should the liqueurs be aged before dilution & sweetening or after? Does anyone have any experience with the comparative effects of both? For example, I could store a Nocino at 180PF and save a lot of volume, but I'm not sure how the barrel would react to that high of proof and concentrated walnut flavor. Alternatively, it could be diluted down to around 100 proof and sweetend before being stored. Any recommendations or advice?

As far as I know, storage of high proof spirits in poly is not allowed for more than 24 hrs after receiving. Our totes are SS and Dalkita designed our H-3 rated area. A small amount of venting into the room is fine fire us given our airflow volume. I just figured it wasn’t great practice to leave a cap loose on the tank top.

When storing high proof spirits in IBC totes in an environment with fluctuating temperatures, I'm assuming that the tote needs to be vented to avoid building pressure or vacuum. I've been looking around for tote vents and haven't found much on the topic. What is everyone else using? These vents look promising, but the pressure rating is 4 PSI while the tote is only rated for 1 PSI. Am missing something?

When it comes to sizing hosing for fluid transfer, I haven't been able to find much info on choosing a production hose diameter. Is there a rule of thumb for distillery hose sizing? We are a smallish distillery that will likely not process any quantities of spirits over 350 gallons at a time. We are not mashing in-house, so basically only liquids transfers from vessel to vessel. While I was originally looking at 2" hosing, 1" and 1.5" seems quite a bit cheaper and I'm wondering if it will support our needs. Our EP pump supports 15 Gal/Min with 3/4" NTP connections, but what about gravity fed flow rates from tank to tank? On this same note, any recommended hose vendors and manufacturers that I should look into?

We're gearing up to open our tasting room and I was wondering what people with public tasting rooms had to say about going cashless or card-only? I've run a retail store in the past and cash was a constant headache while only accounting for around 5% of transactions. From what I have been told, a bar-type environment is quite different. Can anyone chime in on their experience with dealing with cash in the tasting room?

Sorry to drum up an old topic, but since the Label Modernization Act changed the alcohol tolerance to +-0.3%, doesn't than mean that devices like the SNAP-41 are compliant now? Where is the list of approved devices? I haven't been able to find that anywhere.

We're about to pull the trigger on bottle purchasing and have been gathering options from domestic suppliers. We are going to have a vodka, gin, and 2-3 whiskeys in our line to start. I am weighing the pros and cons of utilizing the same bottle across all products vs. having 2-3 different styles. All bottles will be filled, labeled and corked in-house, so I can definitely see the logistical issues that having multiple styles could bring. There is also the issue with supply right now as well. Any of you good folks care to weight in with sage advice? What do you wish you had done differently?

Thanks for all the great input. The more I learn, the more I'm starting to chip away at all of the variables and start to find our way forward. I think it's going to be best to start with a tighter concentration, likely around gin, and expand as it makes sense. I'm looking forward to being inundated with new ideas in Portland and New Orleans!

@DrDistillation their facilities are pretty tiny so they started by distilling sugar for space reasons. They make their vodka in-house with it.

Thanks @dhdunbar for the clarification. Glad I asked. Is it common for bottles to be miss-labeled or have errors of omission like this? Their Gin also says "100% Neutral Spirits Distilled from Grain" on it but during the tour I was given to think that the spirit was sugar-based given that's all they distill on-site. I guess they just bring in NGS for that.

I just looked on the front of the bottle and it only says "Produced by Distillery Name". No mention of any other distillery.

While visiting a distillery here in GA, I was asking questions about the distillery's new Bottled in Bond Bourbon and was surprised when the tour guide said that it was not distilled on-site! They had a (very) large Midwestern distillery make up their mash bill, ship them the distilled spirits, and then they barreled and aged them on-site. I'm hoping that the tour guide misspoke, but she seemed to know what she was talking about down to the exact mash bill. How can a spirit be called 'Bottled in Bond' if it wasn't distilled in the bonded area? Am I just reading the text incorrectly? Wikipedia says: "To be labeled as bottled-in-bond or bonded, the liquor must be the product of one distillation season (January–June or July–December) by one distiller at one distillery. It must have been aged in a federally bonded warehouse under U.S. government supervision for at least four years and bottled at 100 (U.S.) proof (50% alcohol by volume). The bottled product's label must identify the distillery where it was distilled and, if different, where it was bottled." The first sentence seems to contradict the last in that if it is distilled by a third party it would require a label, but wouldn't be BnB. I can't seem to find the actual legal text of the act.

@Golden Beaver Distillery Wow that's a fancy whiskey bottle. I'm really not sold on the name either. It does seem a bit too lighthearted or on-the-nose for what we want to accomplish. Also, here are a number of breweries around town that I don't want to step on the toes of, one of which is 'Macon Beer Co.' That's a bit too close for comfort. Honestly, we had to figure out a placeholder name for conference signups and forum names and that's what stuck for the time being. We're going to do the smart thing and have a marketing firm develop our brand from the ground up. @DrDistillation We already have a Ocmulgee Brew Pub, Piedmont Brew Pub, and Fall Line Brewery locally. Maybe your next career is in marketing. I have been leaning towards something using 'spirits' and something pointing to our 'Southern' roots. Having 'Macon' in the name seems like more of a liability than an asset to me. Outside of Middle Georgia, I'm not sure that anyone A. gives a damn about Macon and/or B. even knows where Macon is, much less it's history.