grehorst

Hi all, As the sole administrator of this board (at least for now) I'll throw in my two cents. When I started this forum, I did so because the home distiller forums were not filling a need I had to be able to communicate with fellow distillers in a more effective and timely manner. I've been happy that the forums have become as active as they are and hope to encourage more members and more participation. It is not possible to please everyone, whether you'd like to exclude or include various levels of experience and membership. When this forum was established under the auspices of the ADI, I discussed with Bill Owens his thoughts on access. I, early on thought this should be a benefit of ADI membership, but Bill felt it should be open and available to all. I have since come around to agreeing that access to the info shared here will benefit all and encourage the growth of our little industry, It is also why we have the number of members we do- if it were not open, we would be a much smaller and likely a much less vocal group. That is not to say I wouldn't be willing to establish some member only categories. I'd love to hear your suggestions if you have any ideas this way. I have never been one to at-will eliminate threads that I felt were unproductive or merely trolling, in fact by allowing some of those threads to continue I have noticed that good information and discussion sometimes results even though the original posters intention was to stir up trouble. In essence a certain amount of self policing happens and that has a good effect, hopefully the original poster recognizes they were being inappropriate and corrects their own behavior as a result. If off color or insulting comments do come up do not hesitate to contact me. After reviewing the comment I may choose to delete it, the whole thread, delete the user, or leave the thread for further discussion. As new home distilling questions pop up, please direct the poster to the forum rules and warnings. The range of user ability on these forums is drastic- there are many who are familiar with using a board like this, and there are those less technically inclined who cannot seem to "get it", this sometimes results in a lot of my time trying to troubleshoot member problems. This is a volunteer position, and recently I've been heavily involved in relocating my own distillery. Because this move has taken so much time and effort, I have not been able to spend the time maintaining this forum the way I would like to. For that I apologize and hope to rectify this situation soon. In the meantime, I ask for your patience and your involvement in continuing to make this board a success.

Money, blood, sweat and tears.

Tried to play the word games, unfortunately our local guys are smart enough to know that whether we're using it to produce a beverage or to burn in our cars it's still 190 proof ethanol and it's still flammable (thus a hazard). Believe me, I didn't want to go through the expense and delay they put me through, but there were no other alternatives. So... I could "paint myself in a corner" or I could not be in business, those were my only two options. Some localities are more flexible on this stuff but mine was not. Glad to hear it worked out for you.

We use a Race labeler http://www.racelabel.com It is completely hand powered- no motor drive, the threading of the web helps to power it, just lay the bottle on the rollers, rotate the bottle and roll the label right on. We have pretty big labels (7"x9") on some of our stuff and Race makes a version for handling larger sizes. They also have a version that handles tappered bottles. We've found the speed to be quite adequate and have labeled over 300 bottles an hour with this. I like it because it's pretty forgiving of defects in label die cutting and bottle shrinkage that can cause automated labelers problems.

A friend sent me this link. http://www.reason.com/news/show/129476.html If you desire, filter out the John McCain political premise and take it for what it is- an article that does an excellent job of summarizing the wholesale end of this industry and is a must read for anyone considering opening a distillery.

Just came across this- http://www.co2meter.com/products/co2-tempe...-humidity-meter this one is priced right and is oh-so stylish.

We considered control areas but found they were way too limiting- I couldn't see building a room for every 6 barrels we have laying around.

We are in the process of relocating and had to deal with this issue. Our answer was to get "hazardous occupancy" in our space. This can be easy or difficult depending on your set of circumstances, it also typically adds to your costs significantly because of needed upgrades. If you share a wall with another tenant, the seperation must be fire rated. If there are other buildings close to yours there can be some problems with windows, etc... We had to install a sprinkler system, a vapour exhaust and makeup air system, replace some windows with fireglass, and other things that I can't recall. But first thing I'd do is ask your local inspectors if the space you're using could be rated hazardous (H3 in our municipality) occupancy. It might be a good idea to find a PE or Architect who can help you. Good luck!

Answer it as they ask it- estimate what would be the maximum you COULD produce. They use this information along with your payments to ensure you're staying honest. They don't actually hold you to producing this amount. When you get around to the bond, you will state your maximum production you intend to produce and store which will likely be much less than what you could produce. A lot of the questions they ask may frustrate you but the TTB has it's reasons even though they may not seem reasonable or apparent to you. Don't let it get to you- if they don't like your answer they'll let you know it and give you the opportunity to correct it. Good luck!

David Perkins at High West Distillery in Utah went the experimental license route. Perhaps you could contact him. http://www.highwestdistillery.com/ Good luck and welcome!

We're by no means big, but we aren't about to dump them down the drain, so we collect a few months worth and pay to have them hauled off. I've been told if you produce enough you can sell them. When they leave us they get redistilled, seperated and are used to produce various solvents. These guys pick up ours- http://www.brenntag.com/en/ and they have offices around the US. There are many environmental services companies that will haul it away for you- check your local phonebook.

Muddpuppy, in the US a federal permit is required to distill. If you are looking for hobby level discussion I'd suggest you look at some of the Yahoo groups set up for this purpose. If you're intention is to learn for legal distilling purposes you should contact Christian Carl, Bavarian Brewery or some other supplier who can hook you up with one of their seminars, or search for a generous distiller willing to show you the craft. Please review this message- http://adiforums.com/index.php?showtopic=2

Check out this thread- http://adiforums.com/index.php?showtopic=172&hl=reviews

We have the KD-10 and the CP02S (not sure what the difference is). It's definitely fine enough for our use. We bought quite a few filters with it and still have a 3 month supply. I did meet someone that sells them but I can't seem to find them now. If you find a Begerow dealer in the US they will refer you to someone who can sell them- that's how I found the pads originally- unfortunately the name escapes me at the moment. Let me know if you come across them.

I emailed Dave Bateman requesting that the upper limit for small producers be increased to 60,000P.G.- I suggest others also email or call him on this matter.... His email is dave.bateman@ttb.gov

We use a small plate filter (two 10 pads on each inlet side) we got through Bavarian Breweries and Distilleries. Seems to work very well for this sort of thing. Call Lewis or Andrea 310-391-1091

We just tested out some wax from Southwest Wax- http://southwestwax.com/ It worked very well- I had tried some from some winery supply houses and they seemed too thin the Southwest product is thicker. Contact Gary Latto at 847-221-3553 ext. 302 Don't know too much about tabs, I've seen people use glass tape (reinforced tape) as a tab.

I'd love to hear the hows and whys of moving a brewery/distillery across country... ! Welcome!

Chuck, there is a difference. When distilling in small batches all cuts are made according to the distillers senses (in our case we do it primarily by senses, and only use hydrometers and thermometers secondarily to back up and to try and develop a correlation between instruments and our senses and of course to ensure our distillate meets federal requirements for the class). We have the ability to control the outcome and make adjustments while processing the product to get the desired result- the process is slow. When distilling continuous, it's all done by engineering. You cannot produce 1000 gal in an hour and affect the outcome by taste alone, it all happens fast -you primarily rely on instrumentation and the location of cracking valves in the design of the still- very rigid, not much room to improvise. Essentially there is nothing wrong with continuous distillation, but it was created for one purpose- to produce large volumes of the same product over and over. I think the differences are philosophical- what business do you want to be in? Big volume of the same product or smaller volumes of various products and the freedom to experiment and create new things? Choose either, they are both excellent ways to spend your productive years, but I think most "artisan distillers" will choose the freedom small batch distillation affords.

Well written Melkon, Great Lakes Distillery, LLC certainly backs this. Will this document be enough reason for legislators? Should this document explain how economies of scale give big distillers an advantage? Anyone know a brewer from the early days who may have some recollection of how they got the changes made?

I don't think anyone is purposely creating their Absinthe recipe to limit wormwood from traditional levels. The less than 10ppm is typical of historic absinthe as well as modern- this was the reason the ban was lifted, turns out thujone doesn't carry over well from the still. In fact I'd be willing to bet the products you mention started as traditional porportions and additional botanicals were added to get a product the distiller enjoyed. Visit http://www.wormwoodsociety.org/ an excellent resource for all things absinthe.

We invested in a decent laser copier/printer that can do up to 12"x18". We do posters, shelf talkers, menu cards. Cost is very little- I'm leasing a Toshiba (very fast) for $200 a month includes the first 500 color prints per month, all toner and maintenance. We only pay for paper and .01/copy over 500. Also print office stuff with this too. I also have a wide format printer left over from one of my previous careers. We print larger posters and the occasional banner but these are a bit more expensive. I don't know if you use a distributor, but they should be willing to do some of this or at least split the cost with you. Good luck!

I'd recommend finding shipping boxes locally if you can- they are heavy in bulk and you may end up spending a lot to ship them in. Not sure about Montana, but here in WI you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a corrugated company. With labels you need to decide what kind of quantities you want. There are a lot of printers getting into digital presses which make a lot of sense for small run quantities (less than 10,000 labels) more than that and you may want to go with traditional printing- of course then you'll have plate/screen charges... One small run (digital) printer I can recommend is Fly Packaging in Wausau, WI. number is 888-376-3911 Talk to Will. They are a new company, and they've done several proofs for some small run products we're coming out with. They looked fantastic and price was reasonable- we'll be using them. Good luck!

Don, we just got our Bierschnaps formula approved. I need to get my label approved in the next 30 days to bottle for "pumpkin" season. If we miss that, not much point in selling the product this year... now you're making me nervous- what reasons have they given for label rejection?

Actually I thought about printing on clear, and then using a white sheet of paper to simulate the white, but of course we had to complicate it even more- the white on the bottle is a gradient.