Beauport Bob

I am curious. And it might be a regional thing, but, what is a "Bar Lanyard". Is it different than a regular lanyard you would keep keys, or an ID badge attached to? Length maybe?

Thanks

I know it is a bit peevish but out of respect, we do have a "Coop" and he gets things done. The "co-op" seems to have not gotten done. Part of being a big country.

Porter,

If this is not for in house production use, keep an eye on your TTB regs if they are leaving the plant..

Very nice job "G".

Congrats.

If the question is of gain over expense, ROI, from tours, t's, hats, etc. is for a business plan, and you cannot sell your own product, do not fall into the trap of counting on even a dime. Although it will come to you over time. The distilled product and its sale is your center. We consider our store and it's activity a seperate entity. Drives my accountant nuts.

That said,

Without the tours we will all lose something. From the smallest on up, we are selling hand crafted spirits.

Without the tours, how can we sell the difference between large scale produced product or the basement rectifiers and our crafted product? You are telling the customer base "Trust me, it is". If they cannot see it, you and I know that doesn't play in New England.

To me it is like leaving the phone off the hook.(Am I the only one who knows about that?) You never know who will walk through that door. For me it was a tour bus operator. Ka-Ching!

I am in an industrial park also. They still find me.

If it is the cost/attention of tours that is concerning , shave the costs. Limit the times available to one or two slots when your schedule allows. We post Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 10:00 AM. But we never turn someone away. Use the inconvenience as a positive. Tailor an abriveated tour for the "droppers by". "We are really busy right now, but I'll run you through quickly". But you do need some personality to do this correctly. Not just there is the fermenter, there is the still. Our experience is that they will show appreciation at the cash register.

Just my thoughts. Good luck, Bob

I forgot, our advice to "newbies" for such little money on the premium, get enough room on your bond. People seem to think 16K is a good number. When getting quotes ask for a price on double and triple dollar amount. You'll see there is little difference over the year.

We started with a smallish dollar amount bond. Quickly blew the $ amount out of the water.

increasing the bond amount was our problem. The Pro Forma was good for the intial bond. The resulting increase in stock and on premise barrels, with little sales, during the "economic adjustment" made "no" a popular answer for the surity. writers. We went the T-bill route to get this off the table. Means more years of eating peanutbutter and jelly sandwitches for us. We will now look into the advice given on this thread. Thanks.

Thanks Scott,for the info.

Maybe some of these guys would like a booth at ADI.

Tee's, hats, glassware drive me crazy.

We recently just got "Bar" Coasters. two sided. About .10 each, online,volume can change that. We used PrintGlobe, there are many companies. Plant logo one side, product on the other. As you can imagine we cannot give them away to restaurants fast enough. We hope they are used effeciently. We want people to walk off with them for home use.

We also use them as giveaways at store tastings. For a dime a coaster, autographed right there by the Distiller, helps increase impulse sales.

How about ADI/we create a "Buzz" or checklist on collecting distillers Autographed Coasters collection. Similar to the U.S. state quarters, baseball cards. It sounds a bit "Jr. High" but people like'em.

I would like to start now (see how it is infectious) I'll exchange signed coasters (2) with you and build a collection for conversational viewing during tours at our shop. We are big on promoting all craft distilleries on our tours. Gloucester is a destination and we get many people from around North America and the world. This is a "what is good for one is good for all" item.

Cheers, Bob

Good. Questions like these are all good qualifiers for attending the ADI Conference or the TTB Expo. The TTB attends the ADI to offer a seminar relative to startups and to be there for all of us.

I am glad they are there. (I hope they have someone monitor this site )

As Paul touched on, what applies to Brewery and winery does not often apply to Distilling.

Please, to everyone, on ALL things you question, check the TTB regulations, and your states regulations, you must have intimate knowledge of the regs. Just because someone speaks to you about an item, here on ADI Forum or casually outdside, does not make it correct. Do not get into the habit of interpreting the regs to your favor. Ask the TTB. They usually will be helpful. If you do not, it will cost you valuable time and money.

Of course, good luck.

Bob

Good Work and Good Luck.

Bob

loophole (plural loopholes)

1.A method of escape, especially an ambiguity or exception in a rule that can be exploited in order to avoid its effect

Loopholes, strawman, end arounds, and other legal manuvers are usually reserved for short term, "get out of Dodge" quick efforts of advantage. It exposes opposition of intent and will quickly be resolved by the lawmakers. You are going to have a lot of time, money and sleepless nights invested in your distillery and you do not want to be caught in the middle. Be up front.

I cannot stress highly enough, and I am confident many working distillers will agree, work with your state's Dept of Revenue and Alcohol Board. Involve them. You will be creating employment and additional taxes. Reality: If you do not respect them think of the resources they have against your own, if needed to defend yourself. You will not light a cigar at the end of the day and say "well, I guess I showed them!".

Many of the laws on the books are 75 or so years old. a little effort, well a lot of effort, and you can change them to your advantage. The guys in NY, WA, and others have done this. Better to stay "in the box" on this one.

If you are working on your business plan, even if allowed to deliver, look into other fees associated: Salesman, registry of delivery vehicle , etc.

I think Ironworks, Lunenberg, have yet to open.

I also would like to speak with them.

Our communities have about 400 hundred years of similar history.

Bob

I think Jimmy Owens, of Demptos, featured this item at the ADI RUM conference, Huber Starlight, 3 years ago.

Sherman, nice that you filled your profile on this site. Not many take the time to do it. Although it is interesting to see your reputation as "Neutral" or zero. You are too interesting for that to last long.

Maybe by another name? Mr. P.O. Shine maybe?

Cheers,

Thanks Marie. You have rested my concerns. We'll be in touch.

Hello Marie,

I do not seem to be able to find on any of our local shelves this type of closure. Anyone out there using it?

How about TTB acceptance, for spirits?

Porter, could you be making ths a bit more complicated than you need to? I think it may take a lot of pipe to extract the heat. I would think still size does matter. You are saying "cooling for 8 hours" so this I assume it is a commercial sized still. Length of distillation will require more cooling, so as your underground pipe is insulated by its own ambiant heat there would be need for more pipe. With an underground tank, will your water temp rise over several distilling days so your cooling flow rate will rise..repeat, repeat. That may be what Mr. M.J.C. is getting to.

Will fixed & buried limit what you can do? Think Growth. What you install is finite. An outside solution is expandable. You will have more control. But, glad you have enough land (and Zoning)to do it.

How is your water? We pipe our condenser water, taken from the town at a relativly constant temp, so our flow rate is constant for cooling, to a tank (HLT?)for our next fermentations. We use the heat rather than throw it out.

Any others doing that?

Jester,

Compared to glass and plastic, this Barrel Thief at $40.00 (USD), materials and your time?

I'll feel like a thief myself. I was going to use one of those smiley emoticons, but as you know I'm just not that "touchy feely".

I know this is not distilling related, but,to all, please, please take very little heed towards the "pregnancy pact" movie on Lifetime. How they could put so much misrepresentation of a community in so little time is amazing.

Cheers.

Bob Ryan,

Gloucester, Massachusetts

Welcome db337,

To get some of the groundwork out of the way, there are already some decent threads running on this site. You'll have fun reading them.

Good luck.

Beauport Bob

There usually are a couple of grain suppliers at the ADI conference. I hope they should be prepared to speak on this. especially if they monitor this site! Then we all can talk to each other.

Have you asked the vendor to research? If it expands the the products marketability they should want good information rather than a customers say so or not. Likely they would have the resources to get that good information. They should be excited about the potential. I'd be interested.

BR

Hello Stevenstone.

Our local landscapers love the bags for hauling leaves in the fall.

If manual, 2000 lbs is a load even for a jack rated for 5000. (do not get one for less) Its the pumping and turning the wheels that will trouble you. Hard to believe but not everyone is skilled at working a handjack. Especially if the load is uneven.

Personally, we started with the 50/55 lb bags, gave the one tons a shot (for cost savings) and went back to the smaller bags. It was hard to watch the "weighing out" of the big bags. Our mash vessels are not big enough to handle the nicely measured 2000 lb. I'd rather do the math and make up weight out of just one bag. That may not be your case.

Consider that if you are not purchasing a truckload for direct delivery, these bags may go on and off several plateforms. Likely with power jacks. Each time they are moved, even in cardboard surrounds, they take on a plumper shape. Now instead of 42" pallet wide you have a very plump, over hanging, floor dragging, ready to tear situation that no longer fits into your allotted warehouse space. We were lucky to have a vendor work for us to resolve a bag which was delivered half full and with a lot of duct tape. Each of our four loads had a bag which experienced a tear and had short weight. I have no doubt that they left the grain supplier in good shape. Just a fact of shipping. When we get bigger it will be good to go back to them.

I think the "Cleaned vs non cleaned" is more that a reputable vendor of grains for brewing/distilling does clean during processing. It would be more risk to buy direct from a neighbor grower. I think that unclean anything is going to give you unclean something in the end.

So, to this point there are 74 views and one, Viz, reply not relatred to use. Is this telling me something? Is anyone using this type product?

Bob

Does anyone have a comment or experience with Ph stabilizers such as 5 Stars "5.2 Ph stabilizer"? Bill Owens mentioned this in his book and it seems homebrewing people like it.

Thanks,

Bob