Kindred Spirits

Technically you can just submit your own serial numbers for the equipment. As long as you mark them accordingly when they come in, there should not be any issues. This allows you to have your equipment on the way especially if your manufacturer has a long lead time.

Hey thanks! 2023 was a great year, looking to make 2024 even better!

As 5X mentioned, you would need a location, outside of your house, to manufacture these products. You would also have to put some specifics on the label that reflect the process, such as "produced by XX" vs "Distilled by XX" It would be much easier to make a small production space and be a legal distillery than do this with a bar. If you have any questions, or would like to talk reach out to us on our website. https://kindredspiritscsg.com/

Its 550 gallons, typically there is a 2" ball valve at the bottom of these tanks. I get most of my clients set up with these as fermenters/finish tanks.

Are you planning on implementing direct steam injection? The reason why I am asking is that most steam distillation systems makes use of jacketed kettles, thus the steam never comes into contact with the mash/wash. If going with direct steam injection, and not using chemicals there is nothing protecting your boiler from rusting and having that pumped into your wash with the steam. For direct steam injection, and not treating with chemicals you will need to do a number of precautionary things to ensure your product comes out tasting well. I typically advise against direct steam injection unless you "need" to run it like for a continuous column or other specialized piece of equipment. For other specialized systems it might be easier to use a jacketed system to generate clean steam to inject into your other still like for grappa or other direct steam required distillation.

If possible I always recommend back-flushing the outlet pipe when finishing up a mash. If you have a pump you can reverse the direction on its very simple to do just by grabbing a vessel to fill with some water and flush with. If you don't have a reversible motor you can use ball valves on the ends of your hoses to keep the mess to a minimum while flipping the pump around.

That's great to hear, they have been usually very responsive when either my clients or I have reached out in the past. If you need any help with state approval let me know.

That's the best way to go about it, be up front and open about what you plan on doing. The worst thing is to try to get away with something and get caught. Pig farms are the way to go, they love free slop for their animals.

The TTB cited the discussion on this forum? According to the TTB's own TIB sheet f510016, there is nothing that states only bulk spirits can be transferred. Even section 27 CFR § 19.405 talks about shipments in "packages" However looking a 27 CFR 19.402 The following is stated. "27 CFR § 19.402 Authorized transfers in bond. The IRC allows a proprietor to transfer and receive spirits, wines, and industrial alcohol as provided in paragraphs (a) through (c) of this section. (a) Spirits. Bulk spirits or denatured spirits may be transferred in bond between the bonded premises of plants qualified under 26 U.S.C. 5171 or 26 U.S.C. 5181 in accordance with §§ 19.403 and 19.733. However, spirits or denatured spirits produced from petroleum, natural gas, or coal may not be transferred to alcohol fuel plants. (b) Wine. Wines may be transferred: (1) From a bonded wine cellar to the bonded premises of a distilled spirits plant; (2) From the bonded premises of a distilled spirits plant to a bonded wine cellar; and (3) Between the bonded premises of distilled spirits plants. (c) Alcohol for industrial purposes. Alcohol bottled for industrial purposes in accordance with § 19.366 and subpart S of this part, may be transferred between the bonded premises of distilled spirits plants in the same manner as provided in §§ 19.403 through 19.407 for bulk distilled spirits." Where bulk spirits is defined as "Bulk distilled spirits. The term “bulk distilled spirits” means distilled spirits in a container having a capacity in excess of 1 gallon."

Is the column on top of your boiler? or offset to be after it? While it is totally possible to adjust the settings on small column to produce a congener rich spirit, its much easier to run and clean a pot still. I always recommend getting equipment with a column off to the side instead of installed on the boiler itself, this allows for a lot more flexibility in the way you distill. Especially if you do distill a number of different spirits or desire a "lighter" distillate for blending with your congener rich spirits.

It all depends on the quality of the water. Not all city water is "good" for our needs. Some of my clients use city water, but it is so filled with chlorine and chloramine that it has to be thoroughly filtered and treated in order to be usable to ferment. Others use well water that just need to be softened to take the iron out and its good to go. You will need to have pre-treated water for your boiler, so you will probably end up doing some softening/carbon filtering plus adding chemicals for just that. Depending on what your production goals are and what spirits you want to produce you should be able to come up with some pretty good estimates of what your total water usage will be. If you need any help with that be sure to reach out, I would definitely be able to help with some of those calcs.

So there is a large amount of variability in running each particular type of still, theoretically you can make adjustments to how you operate a column still to get those outputs. The main difference is that for a continuous column you are feeding in wash so you have to maintain a balance on how much you compress specific parts of the distillate. In a column if you have the ability to tap spirit at different points in the column you will be able to “pull” from different sections which can give you a great amount of flexibility. Some stills unfortunately do not have that as an option. In a pot still, you have a single batch to manage, so you simply just compress the heads to the degree you desire, collect them and then collect what you want until you get to tails. It mainly comes down to the understanding of the system/process and skill of the distiller.

I think that has a great color for an espresso vodka, it lets your clientele know that you aren't just throwing some artificial flavoring in it.

Hey Mike, Just curious how often do the ventricular filters need to be swapped out? I see a system typically would run about $3,000-5000 with it mounted on a cart and all the hoses, maybe more with an additional pump. Most startups are looking to pinch pennies, so I can get them setup for about $800 using gravity and granular. Gradually the granular loses effect but it’s only about $100 a cubic foot bag. So it’s not too bad to swap that out. Even if they want to be conservative and swap it out fairly regularly it would take a long time to get to the amount of the lenticular setup.

Have you cleaned the still recently? If you have too much oxidation on the copper of your still, it may not be cleaning up the distillate the way it used to. Also with your botanicals, you said you refreshed them, did you switch sources for them?

You said it right there, the main thing is contact time with the charcoal. You can pump it, use gravity, or any other means you want to pass it through. As long as you have a system that works for you go for it. The main thing is you don't want to do a single pass through a cartridge like @richard1 mentioned. Doing that is a waste of time and money because the contact time is so short its not really polishing your product. It literally is just a filter at that short of CT. You can pass multiple times through a filter housing with recirculation and a pump, but then you have to babysit it. Otherwise you can get a gravity setup, and just set it and forget it.

It might be good to jump on a call to discuss, if you have some time later this week, I would be happy to go through your process for you to try and help identify any issues I see.

You most likely could match the threads and put a barbed fitting on the hose side. If you cannot determine the threads on your own, or the manufacturer is unable to help you out. I would visit any machine shop or possibly even a competent mechanic, they should be able to help you figure out the thread pitch. Once you know the threads you might have to buy or make an adapter to make it work with an off-the-shelf barbed fitting, but then you wont run into this issue again.

I would recommend reaching out to them after logging in to check on the status of your permit. The TTB has been quick to respond to my clients as of late. The last three who filed, had received a response with some minor corrections to make within 2-3 weeks. If you have not logged into your account I would do that today to see if there have been any updates.

Oh man, So sorry to hear that. Its never an easy time when a loved one passes.

It has worked great for all of my clients I have set it up with. The key is letting it soak on the carbon for an extended period of time, letting it slowly trickle out of the bottom of the housing. Sometimes 24 hours or more. If it’s not the way you would want to do it that’s fine. I just know my clients are now making super smooth finished product with a readily available housing which can also be multi purpose for other filtration needs.

Your best bet is to look for breweries that are going out of business local to you. They usually have all of the things you would need at a fraction of the cost of new. The smaller ones seem be failing pretty regularly, so there probably would be some perfectly sized for what you need as well.

Fill the bag filter with granulated activated carbon, then let your vodka/neutral slowly filter through it.

I personally like #2 or #4 stainless filter housings, you can find them all day on ebay, they have all the fittings welded on, and are standalone. Just get the needed hoses and you are off to the races.

How much grain are you looking to process? Typically there is a pretty decent cost associated with implementing a grain processing system into a distillery. depending on the amount of grain you plan on processing each year it could take you a number of years to recoup the cost, vs getting it premilled to start.