Roger

Other than Panoscapes desire to use beer wash for marketing purposes, which is a good idea for one product, people appear to forget that the huge expense everyone is hung up on, is for the "malt". Malted barley is 5-10 times more expensive than non malted barley, and all of the other grains that you will normally use in your mash bill. Unless of course all you are going to make is Single Malt Whiskey. Recalculate your operations by bringing your mash bill down to current prices of various grains, with a per batch cost from a brewer.

It depends on the state laws . Interestingly enough in for example NY, it appears that the law says that while you are not a distillery, you can sell all the distillery branded merchandise you want. But once you become a distillery, you can't.

A "potential" customer walks into a tasting room, and says " I would like to taste your vodka". The distillery personal says, " great, here's a wooden token for one dollar, which also gives you the right to buy my bottle of vodka for a dollar off, should it prove to be as advertised, and to your liking. " The "potential customer" then forks over their dollar, and becomes a "customer" with an implied purchase agreement to purchase, should the sample be satisfactory". This would be totally unlike a liquor store where an individual would go into an establishment and choose between 1000 different products and brands. The distillery tasting rooms are destinations where an individual has already gone out of their way to track down and locate a product they have heard about, via any number of ways, and goes in with the intent to purchase. Or would the TTB assume that people are going to drive around the countryside burning gas to drink $1.00 worth of alcohol ? "Woohoo honey, let's jump in the SUV, burn some fuel and go do a 15 second test of 1/4 oz of alcohol in the next county". The individuals who pay for tastings are entering into an agreement which they may or may not choose to finalize. I could see an argument that perhaps an individual who did not end up purchasing a bottle would perhaps generate an "excise tax", but for the individuals who actually bought, it would seem that they had surely met all standards of the legal criteria ?

First off, I doubt you will be a "partner" with the restaurant from the sounds of it. As such, it is out of your hands so I wouldnt even think about what effect it may or may not have on your "brand". For all you know, in 4 years it will be converted to a chuckie cheese. Your concerns are: your business, your space, your customers. Forget about what's next door, at it has virtually nothing to do with you, other than how it may affect the "neighborhood" . And what it is envisioned next door today for that space will more than likely change at some point anyway. As long as it isn't a crappy location, your neighbors will not determine your success or failure.

We were taught to operate our defleg topped packed column stills by the retired head distiller of the largest Swiss cherry brandy distillery. Our stills came out of that facility. We were told that if you want to maximize the flavor and quality of your brandy you should not really use your deflegmator in a hearts run. You use it after the hearts when your ABV is down around 67ish. At that point pull your hearts run container, let water flow into the deflegs to pull out the remaining alcohol, so you can put those tails into your next run. After your 4-5th run reusing tails from previous runs, dump all the tails and start again. If I run my stills at a water outlet temp of aprox 130 degrees at a reasonable flow rate I have a hard time keeping the ABV below 80. If I then flow over Into the deflegs (the warm water coming off the condenser) it pushes 90% on an initial run. While this is great if you are trying to run for example a near neutral base for a whiskey blend, it is too pure for a decent flavored brandy. Hope that helps

How about lipstick

My stills have devices like these in the condenser water lines, which allow you to control the temperature of the water based on the probe mounted near the condenser outlet (mine are in the top of the condensers. The valves operate between apx. 80 deg and 200, and you adjust that with what is essentially spring pressure to set your desired "ending" outflow water temperature and subsequent distillate temp. Because you are sensing the ending temperature, it doesn't matter what temperature water goes in at, because the valves open and close as needed to adjust for your desired output temp. My stills were built specifically for brandy, and they were set up to run in a single run at 160 proof . http://www.ebay.com/itm/Danfoss-Thermostatic-Water-Valve-AVTA-25-/131139817684?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e888ad0d4

I am lautering "pre fermentation" , not post. You hear about things like rice hulls, and I was curious if anyone is doing it with at least 51% corn. It's been taking several hours to draw off 500 gallons of wort, which isn't horrible I guess, but much slower than I thought it might be.

For anyone lautering a corn mash (bourbon or whiskey) with a lauter-tun, can you shed a little light on the amount of time one could expect it to take to drain the tank for the first run, and then the sparged run please ? If I am asking it corrrectly, is it like 2 hours for the first 200 gallon initial run, then 4 hours for the sparged run of the next 200 gallons. (Assuming for example an expected final 30gallon beer, etc..) granted this will be variable based on the fasle bottom type, and bottom surface area as related to the total volume, but anything would be helpful if you also note the basics of the tun. Also anyone using rice hulls and what that did to your run time. I dont know if I am just trying to rush my runoff, or if I am sticking. Thanks Roger

I do not believe that you need to make a restroom ADA compliant unless you are changing its structure , layout of the fixtures, or fixtures themselves. For example if you were to replace a vanity, unless you put in the exact same thing, you need to put in an ADA approved vanity, etc...

My last comment on this issue is that the number one criteria for a review on a professional board should clearly be: the reviewer must disclose their name and the name of their company. Exactly like they are disclosing that of the alleged offender (or positive review) . It is far to easy to destroy personal and business reputations in an anonymous format, when there are no potential repercussions.

That seems high, but the commercial cross border rates have always been bad. I just got 16 barrels in today from Louisville, KY to northern Ny (800 miles) delivered by FedEx and it was $700- total. That's four skids. If you want you can have them dropped at our location and come pick them up yourselves. We are only an hour and a half from Ottawa//hull. Get a rate quote to zip 13607

Alternatively I have read a lot of negative reviews about St, Pats of Texas. In particular there are serious complaints on Probrewer.com. Subsequently I was very reluctant to purchase anything from them. However there prices seemed good so I gave them a try on small things. After a few good experiences I eventually decided to buy some serious equipment from them and to date have been 100% satisfied with their products and service. I've got to wonder how much business a company loses because of isolated customer experiences being portrayed as if they are the norm.

Fuel tanks at all airports have a retractable reel with aprox 20 gauge wire located beside the fuel hose reel. On the end of the wire is typically a decent sized alligator clamp that you clamp to your plane on for example the nose wheel strut. The other end is grounded through the reel to a ground rod. You are then free to fuel your plane. You just need to remember to unhook it before you taxi away

My DSP is located in a village setting. I originally applied for a building on my farm, which is 13 miles away, to be included as an off site location to house my Mash operation and barrel storage. I included a Google earth map of the location and route between the two. It was approved right along with the original application.

I am by no means a boiler expert, and have relied on advise from this board on mine. That said, I am currently running a 300k gas fired steam output for my twin 90 gallon stills with no problems of capacity. The boiler seems to run aprox 50% of the time! and I don't yet have my condensate return pump installed, so that should bring me down some more. I see a lot of discussion on here about wanting to run a mash tun at the same time as the stills, and think it is worth discussing. As an example natraj was talking about a 400 gallon tun and a 100 gallon still. If I'm not mistaken you can't (or maybe more appropriately don't need to) run a 400 gallon mash tun to feed a 100 gallon still, every day. Even with 2 still runs per day, the mash capability is going to out produce the distillation by 2x, and will probably be more like 4x. So the still will operate every day, but the tun will only operate about every 3 to 4 days, and even then, for a few short hours. Therein lies the question of how large a steam boiler should you actually install, when it's capacity is essentially under utilized virtually 80% of the time? As such the boilers are inherently oversized and not efficient and considerably larger and more expensive then perhaps need be. You almost have to wonder if in all of these small start-up operations where a lot of people are tight on money, if these boiler systems are not way oversized, vs what is really needed. For myself I found a mint 12 month old steam boiler on craigslist for $850- and installed it myself with a HVAC expert as an advisor. This turned a $30g project into a $5g project and was a fun learning experience.

I was kidding

What about BitCoin ?

Alternatively, one typically finds success where and how others find success. If this is a business for you vs a hobby, then I might suggest you do what others do and do it passionately so as to impart good quality and heart into your offerings. If at the same time you have an "individualized" product or three, as well as a good story or venue, the "passion" will go hand in hand with the practicality of producing products for the masses.

I dont know the specifics of your zoning, etc.. But I am always of the opinion that the more visible you make your process ( if it is a well kept space with decent equipment) the more interest you will attract to your offerings.

This is of course my own personal opinion, and I only throw it out for thought to the OP, as it appears he has X dollars to risk/spend, and he should perhaps look at several operational paths to possible success. It has been posted on here that a way to possibly start, is to develop a "brand" and essentially use someone else's capacity to produce "your product." I would argue that as the craft industry is now starting to take hold, potential customers know that craft primarily means "doing it yourself" . As such perhaps you would be better off directing your limited resources into actually "doing it yourself". Unless you have the latest greatest recipes for spirits and associated cuts and aging plan, which I doubt you do at this early stage, you instead have whatever everybody else has, except the actual craft distillery. What's the marketing slogan, " Buy my product made by Bob's Distillery, bottled by Bob, labeled by Bob, etc... But it's more better from me because its "mine" ?. That would be fine if you already owned a well know bar or restaurant, or for that matter, handbag line. If not however, you will more than likely end up spending all your money on product and marketing, and when your done, you will have some bottles of booze, and a big box of posters, I think you would be better off trying to become an actual distiller, and put your money into a small equipment setup, find yourself a small but visible place to operate out of, and learn the craft. Build your brand through what you make not through what someone else makes. If it crashes and burns, sell the equipment . But more than likely once you get operational you will attract some financing. Best of luck

No you do not need the DSP in hand, just mark "applied for" in the appropriate box on the NYS wholesale application. Once you apply, you will be assigned to a human that covers your area. You could always call the main line and ask a question and you will be directed to someone. If you have any specific questions, you can pm me. Best of luck Roger

I believe the problem you will encounter is seasonal availability direct from farmers. Unless of course you are planning on storing your yearly demand, which can be done. Most farmers seem to store and consume their own projected demand, then sell off the excess to grain houses to avoid spoilage.

Example of govt opinion on this type of practice : http://www.cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/trade/basic_trade/labs_scientific_svcs/technical_documents/lab_bulletin/vol12_no1/v12_no1.ctt/clb_v12.pdf

What state ?