coop

I agree with you 100%. This was never supposed to be a do it your self at home breaking the law forum. It is for real distillers and their employees who need to find something they need or help fixing a problem they encountered. This forum should be limited to people who should have done their basic homework about what they are getting into and need a little guidance. If you want to just get in and have some stimulating conversations then join a book of the month club. Join the ADI, pay the money up front then you should have some input. To help each other not just to stir the pot. I am sure the maintainers of this page could with the stroke of a few keys, make this happen. Coop

You need to look at the for sell items here in this forum. Those bottles are for sell by one of our members is small or large quantities. Bay Distillers in Madison Wisconsin. He distills rum. Coop

Wondering how many of you are using a company called C-2 Distributers LLC? I see several of your products listed with them and was wondering if they are doing much business with you all? How your deal with them is working out or not? Coop

We use Sodium Hydroxide to clean and soften up the build up then a rinse using a citrus acid to finish it off. Coop

We had the same problem here, lucky for us we used a CC and they took over and removed the amounts from our account and refunded our money. They are not a reliable company and I think ADI should send out a notice in their letters to us all. Coop

So do I, they leave you nothing for storing bottles, boxes, potatoes waiting to be processed, no alcohol storage or processing tanks and nothing for storing finished product in boxes waiting to be sold. Coop

My only comment would be, what do you do with the left overs? Dump it on the ground? With grains we sell out spent mash back to the local farmers for feed> Coop

Here at Colorado Gold we use a 237 gallon mash kettle of my own design. It has a mixer on top to keep the mash moving with a direct steam injection for heating and a jacket for cooling. I had a local welder put it together for me and the cost was 1/4 as compared to purchasing one made by any of the manufacturers of distilling equipment. We use about 350# of differnt grains each time. I can make two mash runs in about 6 hours. Coop

I was just wondering, how do you fill the dry barrels, let them soak for a day or until all leaks stop then empty it without it being rinsed out?? Coop

How about Cedaredge Colorado, it is just over the mountains, Coop @ Colorado Gold Distillery.

There has always been a saying that you earn a living working 9 to 5, you make your fortune from 5 till 10. It just takes good scheduling. Coop

Hello Ken, the one I have goes from 0 to 40 on the brix scale and opposite it shows the approximate value degree alcohol. It is a hand held model #REF-513 ATC. When you look through it the left side reads brix and the right side gives approximate value of alcohol. No name on the unit. It is used by all fruit and grape growers to let them know how much sugar is in the fruit. We use all grains here to mash and produce our alcohol. I know the maximum amount of sugar I can expect to get out of our mash and i use it to let me know when I have converted all the starch to sugar in my mash kettle. Thus I can start cooling it down to transfer to fermentation tanks and add my yeast. I really never use the brix side as I am just interested in how much starch to sugar conversion I have. I think you can just search using the model reference and it might come up. I got it from some instrument company. Coop

We use a Refractometer to check our brix and it also gives me a approxament alcohol reading also. You can find them on the internet and we paid $39.00 plus shiping for ours. It gives us all the information we need to check that things are working right and we have all of the converting possible from our grains. Coop

Both Doug and I work two jobs. I am a GC and have been in our town for 30 years. I have realy cut back as I am getting too old and too sore to keep up the pace out their. Doug has another business called Carpet Direct which he balances both to keep selling our product. We pay all the bills and have a little left over to make improvements to our products and processing but wait another year or so then we will not have to work two jobs. My wife is a retired school teacher which brings us in a salary so all is well. Coop

Here in Colorado, we have a little over 3000 Sq. Ft. containing distilling area with room for two stills, a fermentation room containing 4-800 gallon tanks a retail store and tasting room, mixing and bottling area, label and box making area along with storage areas for Bourbon, Vodka, Gin and Corn Whiskey. It is large enough that we also give tours three or four a day. Coop

The re issuing of the tax break for them is and has been only the tip of the iceberg. More importantly they get to vote in all our elections, they are protected by our armed forces, as most countries in the world are, but the real corker is they pay absolutely no income tax to the USA to help pay their way. Now that is a real crock.

We at Colorado Gold Distillery purchase our yeast and also our malted barley as we do not malt our own. Takes up too much space and not worth the effort. Coop

Colorado Gold Distillery, Done Coop

No sugar here, only the real thing for me. Coop

Those are the charts that I was needing, thanks to you all for your help. Now what we all really need is a abbreviated short form and only one form for the following items. 1. Production 2. Storage 3. Processing I do not know how any of your operations work but here is what mine is. After mashing and fermentation is complete I start striping runs which take me about 5 days to accumulate enough alcohol to do a rectifying run which only takes one day. Then I cut and mix down to 80 proof 40% ABV and bottle everything in the same day. I control my production based on how much inventory I have on the floor to sell. The forms we are now using are out dated and need to be revamped based on each DSP plants annual production. What we produce is so little that we should only be required to file quarterly. If the ttb knows how much grain or fruit or whatever we are using they already know within a gallon or two how much alcohol we are capable of producing from that product. Other than loses from spillage, filtering or other production operations. The only form that really counts is how much is bottled and at what proof. You can then take what you have bottled at what proof and pay a per bottle tax. This would save the ttb a lot of time and money trying to process all of that paper work. They would not be so bogged down that it takes 3 to four months to notify us that we need to fill an amended form because we did not take something from another report and transpose it to the other form in order to fill out the last form. By this time the following reports from the previous three months forms now need to be amended also. It is creating a never ending cycle. Also I do not need to be informed on a separate sheet of paper that these forms are a paper saving act. Guess what if I forget to tell my printer to not print that wasted page I just wasted the paper that they say we are saving. It takes me 4 to 5 hours to prepare the existing forms, if I have no interruptions that break my concentration, and I know it takes the ttb thousands of hours trying to figure out just what we did wrong in the first place. We were in operation for three months before I ever received any instructions on how to fill out the forms. We are not lawyers and do not have the money to hire one just to fill out forms. Just venting a little, thanks for all your help, Coop

We get nothing here. After cutting and filling our Vodka, Gin it is like looking through an open window to the world. Crystal clear, pure and clean water. We are able to keep our coffee pots for years and years without ever having to clean them with vinegar. No sediment at all. The only reason there is chlorine in it is the state requires it. Coop

Has any one seen a chart like the temperature and proof adjustment charts from the TTB for calculating the proof gallons at 100 proof. This would be a great time saver and sure would cut down on a lot of mistakes. Thanks, Coop

Here in Cedaredge Colorado our water is so clean and pure that all I need to do is use an activated carbon cartrage behind a sedement filter and it is pure and clean. Coop

We here in Colorado constructed a separator for $1200.00 which we pump our spent grains into from the fermentation tanks. Let it set a few days to drain then sell it back to the farmers at a rate of 70% of market pricing. It has been a win win for us. No disposal problems, 70% of the cost of our grain comes back to us, the farmer saves 30% on the cost of his grain bill. Can't lose on this. Coop

I thought I replied to you but maybe you did not get it. I am sure we can help you with this in Colorado. Coop