TetonDistillery

To the OP, I would guess that your hourly rate should be in the $15 to $20 per hour range or the same annualized salary, depending on the area of the country you live and cost of living. You are definitely above unskilled labor and they are trusting you with some significant responsibility. It really depends on the company and how it is structured. I am a big believer in offering stock options. We are a C corp and have 30+ investors in our company. Every working full-time employee receives stock that vests over 4 years. That applies the figurative "golden handcuffs". If he is good then give him a bit more stock each year that vests over 4 more years. If the employee walks away, then they are losing most of their stock options. That way both the employees and the owners have the same interest in growing the company. We want our employees to view this as more than just a "job". We want them to really care about being successful.

Skip the raw potatoes. Just use potato flakes. Then you don't have to deal with all of the grief of whole potatoes in the distillery. 75% of a potato is just water. You don't need that 75%. You just want the 25% potato material. That is all in the potato flakes We are in Idaho and specialize in vodka distilled from potatoes.

photo 1 of 9 look sort of after the fact to me. Burn marks. Tough to tell. There was a reporter there that had just finished an interview. That person might have just started taking a bunch of pictures after the flash.

We use an electric steam boiler because the rates are so low around Idaho. There is lots of hydro electricity here. So in our situation, there is not a separate boiler room. There is no flame source. But I am working consulting on a new distillery in another area of the country. In that distillery I believe we will have to build a boiler room. It is my understanding that this is required in most fire codes. I am interested in what happened at Twister Distillery. According to the article, they have been inspected in the past. So this appeared to pass local code. But looking at the pictures available, it is tough to tell. It appears they have purchased safer equipment, but they were not yet using it.

It looks like they had propane for the heat source. Most distilleries would have a boiler in a separate boiler room with appropriate ventilation, so any flame would be away from ethanol vapors.

Quote: Thurmon was taken by helicopter to Integris Baptist Medical Center. He was listed in critical condition Friday with second-degree burns covering 52 percent of his body, hospital staff said. ---------------------- Our best wishes for Jeff Thurmon on recovering.

Get an iPad with the credit card swipe and use Square. If your cell phone can tether to provide a wifi hotspot, then you can bill from anywhere, festivals, offsite tastings, etc. Here is an article on it. http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/03/square-ipad/ Here is a nice way to present the iPad to customers. http://www.ipadenclosures.com/ipad_kiosk_enclosure/ipad-pos/square-ipad

Yes, we made a list of all local geographic names. That included creeks, lakes, rivers, mountains, famous local historical people, etc. Those are all in the running for our next product name. I am just wondering how everyone has gone about this process.

We are going through a process right now to name our next product. We named our vodka after the distillery, "Grand Teton Vodka". Fairly basic naming strategy there. Now we have something else entirely unrelated and we are trying to figure out a different naming strategy for it. So I just wanted to toss this question out there for everyone. How did you come up with the name for your spirits? Local connection? Totally unrelated? Anything.... Thanks

Ethanol Wall Fireplace.... Sell a few of these fireplaces to locals around your distillery. Then get an industrial ethanol license from the TTB. You can sell the heads to local people. We sell 1 liter bottles of "heads" at our distillery that are used to power these fireplaces. http://www.woodlanddirect.com/Fireplace-Accessories/Ethanol-Gel-Fireplaces There are a bunch of different styles of ethanol fireplaces. Here is one picture.

The cost of a storage unit is about $100 per month. Store the extra 15,000 bottles there, keep 5,000 bottles in your distillery. My guess is that you are paying between $2 to $3 per bottle when buying only 5,000 bottles. Unless you have some unique custom mold bottle, that same bottle would likely be under $1 per bottle if purchased in quantity of 20,000 (full container from China). So the savings per bottle are massive and is more than enough to cover $100 per month for storage.

24 months is very typical. Results may vary.

Manufacturing and shipping time is estimated at 90-120 days for all items.

Updated new website address. http://www.tetondistillery.com/distillery/distillery-equipment Any purchase includes a complimentary 3 days of hands on training at our distillery. All Distillery Equipment displayed on this page was designed to specifications for Grand Teton Distillery and is used in our regular daily production to achieve our award winning results. If you would like to purchase a similar setup for your distillery, we will provide the same quality production equipment and training. Manufacturing and shipping time is estimated at 90-120 days for all items.

Our biggest problem with shipping spirits in small amounts (6 bottles or less) is breakage. We have special packaging that minimizes the potential for bottles breaking, but it still seems to happen sometimes. What are you guys using?

I think he is suggesting that the hobby brewers eventually resulted in the craft breweries springing up everywhere. All of those hobbyists practicing during the 80s eventually resulted in the businesses that exploded onto the scene in the 1990-present time frame. So would a hobby distillers law result is more craft distilleries? I would argue that we already have an explosion of craft distilleries opening. So the tax benefit for the government is already underway. I have no objection to hobby distilling being legalized. I just don't think it will result in any more craft distilleries. The barriers to entry are fairly easy already.

What is the statute of limitations on illegal moonshine? Since spirits are much higher in alcohol content compared to beer or wine, I really don't think the feds will approve of hobby distilling anytime soon. Some of the legal craft distilleries would likely qualify as "hobby distillers" based on the size of the equipment. I have visited some distilleries that would fit in your typical two car garage.

Government agencies just looking to justify their existence and their budgets.

This is 100% correct. There are many companies in China that are pretending they are the factory. In fact, they are often just a middleman with a website. They are just marking it up. It takes a lot of research to figure out if you are dealing with the actual company/factory. We actually made a trip to China to visit our bottle supplier.

If you think you are getting close to maxing out your equipment, you need to be planning months in advance. A really quick way to lose distributors is to not be able to ship to them when they tell you they need more. They will find another supplier and you will lose your shelf space. Manufacture and shipping time is typically 90-120 days for a new still. http://www.tetonvodka.com/page/distillery-equipment

I disagree also. Once used bourbon barrels are readily available. New barrels are tough to source if you are not already an active customer with the cooperage. Although Black Swan appears to be taking new customers, their prices are really high.

I am working with an individual who is also planning to open a New Jersey based craft distillery. It will likely be in the region around Morristown NJ or a reasonable driving distance from there. He is hunting now for the location. It is at the moment unnamed, but he has already ordered all of the equipment with a long lead time (stills, fermentation tanks, etc) and we are tentatively planning for early 2015. The licensing process in New Jersey appears to be about 3-6 months according to the lawyer.

This is a website where real founders submit articles anonymously. Good articles are then posted by the website owners. It is mostly tech oriented startup companies, but the information on some of these articles is relevant to everyone. Startups Anonymous: Thinking about leaving your job to start a company? Read this first. http://pando.com/2014/05/14/startups-anonymous-thinking-about-leaving-your-job-to-start-a-company-read-this-first/ [This is a weekly series that brings you raw, first-hand experiences from founders and investors in the trenches. Their story submissions are anonymous, allowing them to share openly without fear of retribution. Every Wednesday, we'll run one new story chosen by Dana Severson, who operates StartupsAnonymous, a place for startups to share, ask questions, and answer them in story-length posts, all anonymously. You can share your own story here.]

The price for bottles when buying only 5,000 is WAY higher. If you can afford to step up to 20,000 bottles (a full container) you will likely cut your cost per bottle by 50% or more. That has been my experience.