Panoscape

Depends on the specs of the still, meaning some still manufactures list the total size of the pot and some list what the pot should be charged with. Rule of thumb is 2/3rds fill, 1/3 headspace. So, a 450 gallon pot would take a charge of 300 gallons. I charge my 100 gallon still with about 65-70 gallons of wash. But, if your still is rated to the size of the wash that it can take, then you're fine. I haven't run a large still like a 300, so not sure if you could get away with less headspace.

I'd go with a 20bbl brewhouse and a 450 gal still. One run through the brewhouse would give you two stripping runs, which is a full day of distilling on a good still.

If you're just starting out, worry about your tasting army, not your distributor. Tastings is what will drive sales for a new brand. You should have at least one person in every major city in your state that can do tastings every Friday night. Stores will take a chance on you if you can support your spirits with tastings. Sit down with the store owner and schedule the tastings for half a year or so. Build your tasting army now, you'll be thankful you did once you have product ready for market. Distributors will become interested once they see there is a large demand for your spirits.

Welcome CJ and wishing you the best with your venture. Something you might think about is maybe start with the brewery first. This will give you everything needed to do the distillery, except the still. Plus, you'll be making a profit right off the bat. Wine and whiskey take time to age, so having something generating income would be good. Another thing is to add more floor drains than you think you need, you can never have too many floor drains. Best of luck to you and your family.

With Sugar washes, the PH will crash to 2.8-3.0 no matter what. You can bring it up to 4.5 using calcium/potassium carbonate(IIRC). I believe your yeast needs more food for it to work, try a can of tomato paste or some wheat germ. The lallemand nutrients worked terrible for me. No need for that spendy lallemand stuff. But, sugar washes tend to make "hot" spirits... never could make a smooth sugar wash. If you're using lallemand's sugar wash yeast, then dry pitch it at 68F, for some reason they don't like being hydrated before pitch. I stopped doing sugar washes because I could never get the sting off of them. Grain is soooo much better. More work, but better spirits.

Try looking here>> If that doesn't help then you might try and give the TTB a call.

It needs to show your bonded area, non bonded area, containers, still, fermentors, bottling line, office, tasting room if you have one, locked area for finished products, wall measurements, doors, windows, roll door, bathroom and just about everything else. Get a floor plan for the building and draw all your stuff on it. Those usually will have all the measurements on it.

here you go.

I've used Lightning Labels with good results. I designed Cascade Alchemy's labels. They're clean, easy to see across the store floor and have strong brand presence. I have twenty years experience in design and would be happy to help you design a label. If interested, drop me a note here on ADI.

No. But if you mention your spirit then it must be the same type and class that has been approved on your bottle. It also needs to conform to TTB's advertising regulations.

Please read this. It will answer your questions.

If you want to greatly lengthen the time of COLA approvals for everyone using the system, then by all means submit to your hearts content. If you stick to the type, class and any additional text that was approved on your formula then you should get COLA approval within one or two rounds.

You can not bottle without an approved label. You can not withdraw your spirit from your bonded area without a label. So, you can not serve tastings or sell cocktails because this is outside of your bonded area. You can make your spirit and store it in bulk containers and keep it in processing/storage until you have the labels. This is all covered in the TTB's code of federal regulations. Maybe take this time to read through it again. I've read it 4 times now, and I still keep learning info from it.

When doing the floor, you might build in a recessed area for your pallet sized floor scale so you can dolly containers onto it without ramps. This will most likely need a drain too, but it will make weighing 55 gal. drums so much easier. Make sure to add a hard plumbed sink to your tasting room, most building codes will require it. Design the tasting room so people can see the work going on in the back but can't enter without being escorted. This will allow the tasting person to show off your pretty still while leaving you free to do precession work. Place your locked bottled/case area near your roll door, makes for easy loading on distribution day. If you're doing mass amounts of GNS, you might look at an exterior storage tank and have it piped in. This will allow you to buy in greater quantity without breaking your F1 building rating. I have not done the research on this, so it might take some looking into. With an F1 rating, you can have a total of no more than 60 gallons of 190 proof in the building at one time. Sprinkler system so you can get the max gallons of spirits on the floor with a F1 rating. Or, go for a higher rating. I heard a local distillery around us spent $1M on their building so they could have 2 totes of GNS on the floor at one time. Start right now and build your tasting army. Get them server certified and have them though out your state. This is the most important marketing tactic that moves product. It shows the store that your product has support and gets people tasting your product.

Option 1: join GS1 US as a small business and pay $750 once and then pay an annual fee of around $150. For this you will receive your very own prefix for your business and be able to create the barcodes within their site. Option 2: Piggy back on another companies prefix and buy barcodes one at a time from them. It's much cheaper this way but you'll loose your unique/branded prefix for your company.