coop

Every one who comes into our distillery absolutely love the smells. Almost all think it smells like a bakery. Yeast and grains. Also tell them the spent grains would be GIVEN to the local FFA, Future Farmers of America which is a school program which we support here with excess grain that I have not sold back to the farmers. We support at least one family a year in the program. Always one that would not be able to purchase the grain necessary to raise a animal for the fair. Maybe their is a local already in the business but not legal? Just trying to help, Coop

Do not rule out Home Depot heat gun. Ours worked great for 2.5 years. You just need to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time if you know what I mean. The new one will just be a lot faster and easier for help to use. Coop

The heat gun we were using you had to rotate the bottle and sometimes shrinking was un even and if you held it a little, very little too long in one spot it melted the capsule. The tunnel provides the same amount of heat all around the capsule at the same time. After I mount the tunnel to a stand all I will have to do is insert the bottle neck into the tunnel for about a second and it is done. I will be able to shrink ten times faster. Coop

Thanks for all your help. The hand held unit was just what I needed. Coop

I need to replace my old heat gun for one that is a tunnel type. I use it for shrinking Caplets. I want to mount it on a stand and just stick my bottle into it for a few seconds. A hand held one will work and I would build a mount for it but I cannot find one. Coop

Brad the short answer is yes to both air and shower station. I have to assume at some time you will be using cleaning agents, chemicals, bleach any thing else you could think of. You may get by with a small eye cleaning station which would double for skin washing. These are standard items for everyone but not enforced everywhere. Usually only large towns or cities have code officers to take care of it. Any place that has codes can require it. Our make up air was ok because we have two large evaporation type coolers on the roof. All we need to do is open the roll up door and turn them on if necessary and they accepted that. Many ways to skin a cat. coop

Thanks for your response to the # sign. I forget that everyone in the world has access and may not understand what I am talking {Writing} about. Coop

100# carbon will filter 700 gallons of alcohol. This works for me.

Look at when he joined. He just joined to place his add and not really interested in keeping up. Too bad we cannot get rid of these kinds of distractions. Coop

I built my own granulated carbon filter. We use about 100# for every 700 gallons of product run through it. I feed the filter with a 3 gal per min diaphram pump and I have another 3 gal per min pump for the return side. When the fill pump is putting more into the filter than I take back out it is time to change the media. Coop

We tell all our accounts what we are selling each product for at our store. How they price it is up to them. From our guest register we send out post cards to all locals that have signed it from the three counties around us once a year for a customer appreciation day. All stores do this. We provide non alcoholic drinks, some snacks things like that and put everything on sale that day. It cost us about $500.00 to do that including everything and after covering all cost we make about $3000.00 net. This is how business is done. We even invite all the local accounts to this so as not to miss anyone. Coop

You say use a little bit, how much is a little? What would be the ratio of lactic acid per gallon of wash. coop

Thank you so much for this information. I think they were just trying to bambosul us into getting a permit. Glad I posted it here. Coop

We have a guest book that every one signs when they do a tour. I can say with no doubts as we see these people over and over and over. Each time any one who has toured and tasted has any one come for a visit the very first thing they do is call or come back with their friends for another tour. It has become the thing to do when visiting Delta, Montrose or Mesa county. We show them the entire process, everything. They all go nuts when they walk up our osha approved rolling step latter and look into a tank of fermenting mash, the smells the whole process just amazes them. Then at the last thing I tell them just how much we pay in taxes for every gallon produced they fully understand why our products cost more than the big guys and step up to the bar and by some. Coop

So are we I thought it was just a stupid law that I will work on to get it changed. Coop

You are right about the malted barley, but all our corn, wheat is raw and to purchase that from Colorado farmers we need to buy the permit. When I called the Dept. of Ag I was told it came into play about some distiller and his purchases of potatoes, what ever that is. It would be a civil matter. If they want to help anyone why not pass a law that states all liquor purchased for resale must be on a C.O.D. that would solve a lot of problems for us all. He also said they contacted the distiller guild here in Colorado, but I never heard anything about it from them? Not sure what they are doing for us. I have sent e mails to them with no response. I do not think any of them at the state really know what is going on. Coop

That is good news, every little thing helps and goes a long way, Coop

This pertains only to Colorado just thought you would get a kick out of this. Yesterday I received a notice from the state agriculture department that for the privilege of supporting our local and state producers of grains, fruits, vegetables or anything that comes from the ground including all farm products I must purchase a license to do this. You need to understand that our state has spent hundreds of millions of dollars promoting "Buy Colorado" and the latest program is "Colorado Proud". Now for supporting local made and from Colorado producers they insist I purchase a permit to do this. It also states that if I do not purchase this permit I will be charged with a class 6 felony. This is extortion at its best. It will effect every winery, micro brewery, distillery and any other business that uses farm products. Now the real kicker is I can purchase any and all my grains from another state and not be required to have a permit at all. I purchase my malt from Brees which is processed out of state but is from another state and that is OK. If I decide to purchase malted barley from say Colorado Malts which is a Colorado company I must purchase a permit to do this. So if I purchase the rest of my grains from say Utah, Kansas, Nebraska any other state I do not need the permit. Government run madness. Coop

We here at Colorado Gold Distillery have now and always had Free tours and Free tastings. We are a small distillery but our tours and retail shop produces over 50K a year. Our distillery has become a go to place in western Colorado. This does not count all the good it does within the community. The town loves us, the banks love us, we have two liquor stores in town along with a few resturants they have all our products and they love us. It is a win win deal. We have about a 5k dollar inventory. It cost us nothing to man it as we are here anyway. Our store takes up about 300 sq.ft. The net income from it pays for all our rent, utilities for all production. Coop

I was just wondering if any one here has any names and numbers for a distributor in Texas. We are in Wyoming and going to Utah. I am not interested in any of the National Distributors. Just some smaller ones that take care of major areas. Thanks, Coop

Colorado allows sales and tastings. Coop

Now the real work begins, have fun, coop

We make two Agave Spirits here. First you need formula approval, then it took the ttb 4 submissions before the realized we were not importing but making a domestic spirit. Then another 4 submissions to them and the last one required the words tequila on the front label which I knew was wrong, then I had to remove the word tequila from the label back to my original submission. Then the sent me a notice it was put on hold for research for two weeks before finely approving it. Lots of work. coop

If you need to make some kind of "cash flow spirits" you might need to look at a "Corn Whiskey". By definition it is a un aged whiskey. You cam put it in used barrels for a short time to give a little color and flavor. Do not use any kind of activated filtering after being in the barrels as it will strip all color and flavor from the spirit. coop