Andrew

Post-distillation maceration. Not all absinthe is green, or even colored, but traditional green absinthe uses one set of herbs for distillation and a second (different) herb load to color; most importantly, Roman wormwood. Other typical coloration herbs include various species of mint and hyssop.

GStone can speak volumes on the topic but the Wormwood Society pages he runs are a good start.

This is hearsay rather than personal experience, but bottle it and use it (or sell it) as lighter fluid.

From our permit experience, it seems to depend on where you are located and you're past distilling industry experience. After about a month of back and forth over the bonds/application we had a perfected application. Then it only took them about 60 days and they did not come out and do any inspections. Our state was quick as they had seen one other distillery before us. I understand that another winery in our state took closer to 18 months to get their DSP permit and had many inspections. So I think our short application was an anomaly and would allow much more.

Thanks much, and good to know. If you find a way to bottle some of that good luck, I'd buy.

Good luck and keep us informed of your progress.

Guy-

Thank you very much, especially for the details. Evolving my initial wild-ass guesses to educated estimates is comforting.

Regards,

Andrew

Took us 18 months to get planned. permitted, and open.

Don Poffenroth

Dry Fly Distilling

Thanks much for the insight!

This is an awkward question because state/local will be so variable, but:

Is there a good rule of thumb for the amount of time to budget for getting permits - from federal to local - for a small DSP?

TTB's stated target is 60 days from receipt of a perfected app, and recent articles on micro-distilleries mention 18 month to 2 years of permitting. I'm in the process of doing my homework on this disparity as well as state/local requirements and contacts for my area. While I figure things out more accurately, I was wondering if there was a "general" time expectation useful to plug into a business plan.

Regards,

Andrew