Scrounge

No, on the selling direct to bars and restaurants thing. But my disclaimer is always- call CA ABC.

As of right now, you can only sell your brandy by the bottle. If you make it into vodka, you can not sell a bottle of your vodka in your tasting room. You can charge for tastes, I forget exactly how many you can pour a person because I don't have a tasting room. I would suggest calling or going on the web site for the CA ABC to make sure you have the correct answers you need. Sounds like all of these rules are about to change for small producers anyhow.

Have you tried less reflux, so as to pull off the hearts at a lower proof and perhaps retain more character ?

Probably the lack of a vacuum relief on the steam jacket. When you shut off the steam, a vacuum can occur as it cools. I also have a Corson mash tun and agree that they, and their equip/support is fantastic

Try McMaster Carr. They seem to have most everything.

You need a bigger still just to make the landlord his booze. Crunch the numbers! I think your flirting with disaster. Which could be a lot of fun! You are going to have to many assumptions with not enough room for error, with that high of overhead. I think the days of assumed success with a distillery are in the past. Is that still direct electric heat? So no grain in? Pretty limited in what you can make then. Or are you going Bain Marie? Where's the mash tun and fermenters? Your 100k is a lot of $ to loose. Not trying to burst the bubble either, but if I had a stake in that plan, I would want some revisions. But then again, you could probably pull it off!!!!! I'm very cautious in new business planning. I prefer plenty of room for error, and to be pleasantly surprised when some things don't require that room. Good Luck! For real.

One thing I think of reading that is, 4k a month????!!!!, holy shi-t, that's a lot of money to pay for rent unless you are so super sure that you have it dialed from day one and are certain there won't be a single delay. Which isn't realistic, unless you have previously built out and ran a distillery. You need your address to file for your permits, so you better get your permit perfect the first time or you could easily bleed that 45k dry in rent alone, while waiting for permits. Next thought is 15k for equip is not very much at all. You could make booze from 15k worth of equip in a 1k a month space. Maybe your a fabricator yourself so I'm not seeing the full picture? Biggest thing to me is that rent. I'd run far away from that. What's your output gonna be with that small of an equip budget? Gonna be givin it all to the landlord. You could probably pull it off though!!! People are always doing amazing things!

Oh man, that's great. Made my day!

I am/was on a well. My distillery is on my ranch/farm and we already had a well to serve the residence. My county environmental agency thought they should make me drill a new "commercial" well. A commercial well usually has a larger bore, and a deeper casing. After much back and forth and trying to figure out who actually had jurisdiction to make me do such an expensive thing, we/I took it to the state, because I was tired of waiting for my answer. The state said they only have jurisdiction on wells that serve 25 or more people and referred it back to my locals. After a long write up describing exactly what the booze making process is, and much more discussion, they agreed to let me use my current well if I submitted quarterly water tests from a third party. 20$ a piece, much better. All that being said, your really going to need to test your water and design your treatment based on the results. Iron is something your definitely going to want to take care of if its an issue, it will interfere with mashing enzymes and fermentation results. All gonna depend on what your particular water is like. One more thing to think about- if you live in an area that's being effected by current droughts- wells can go dry they especially like to do it after you've spent 2 yrs building a distillery on top of them.

How big is that kettle of yours?

Like Hedgebird said on my stills as well. One gasket between the glass and the column. It should be pyrex(hard glass), and it can take a bit of pressure and metal contact without worry, as opposed to soft glass or tempered soft glass that will shatter on you.

Well alright jax, whatever u say! It just seems odd that someone would post the original post without any contact info. Sort of like your ad for a part time brewer that says to email, but lists no email? Maybe you are the original poster? It's not that big of deal though. Sorry to ruffle your feathers, wasn't my intentions at all. I believe I already listed what my intentions were, and yes, I don't give a shit about grammar, you are correct. Lets get back to more important things,eh? If you would like to have the last word, by all means, please do, cause I'm all through with this thread. Thanks

Also jax, since your ripping my grammar, scrounge has an N in it.

Well since its seems you are new to the forum, you must have missed the debate that started over me and some others discussing being ripped off by a vendor for a lot of $. The entire thread was removed by the admin, and a large debate followed. I was told that vendor reviews are not welcome here. While I do see others occasionally commenting on a vendor experience, I'm not going there, here on this forum. If you need a recommendation for a reputable company for a certain piece of equipment, I believe those are allowed.

Try Classick for contract distilling and or Denner for distilling and bottling, here on the forum. I believe they do this kind of work, but don't quote me on it. Just trying to help connect the dots for you. Good luck.

Wasn't trying to be a bully, and I don't recall saying anything insulting. It's seems a bit odd that someone would make such claims as the OP did without saying who they are or leaving some contact info? Sorry if folks are a bit sensitive, but open forums like this leave a lot of room for people to mislead others with misrepresentation of who they are. I've been run around by a few folks who are trying to get in on the fact that new start-ups will need to spend a bunch of money. I'm not claiming that's what the OP Is doing, I was just poking at them to get them to drop the bull-shit and come with some transparency, mostly because we are neighbors, and the services he listed could be of interest to me. Anybody who has actually sorted through the bullshit and laid down there $ could understand this. Anybody who is a real buisness, with real credentials as stated by the OP , wouldn't get cought up with me in some silly little tit fot tat forum bullshit. Hey Jax, u ever price what marketing, design, branding or any of this stuff costs from a reputable firm? It's 10s of k's of $. So, you can worry about my grammar ifn yant to? But I'm actually a distillery weeding through the bullshit that is out there so I can hire the right folks for the job when needed. No harm intended to the OP, lets move on.

Hey there State31, Actually I told them they should contact there regional ABC office for an answer. Perhaps you should read the post your trying to quote, again. Thanks for the "good luck" though! Your right, were definitely not a good fit.

Well the suspense is really killing me here! , who are you? See, I'm gonna need just a bit more info before I cut you a check.

"The biggest spirits companies in the world". Wow, that is impressive!

Hmmmm. Might have something to do with making booze?

What is your zoning?

I think you are good to go on that, but why don't you just call your regional office for the ABC. Being that everybody on here is from everywhere, your going to need a CA specific answer. I'm also in CA and the folks at my regional office are very helpfull when I have a question. Ther might be some specifics, in the answer, that you should really know.

+1 on the Rotary Evaporators. A buddy has one and its really cool! Check em out, at least for design ideas. It uses a cryogenic type freezer set up for cooling. Perty neat piece of equipment. Runs a tiny little batch, maybe 5 gallons, but way cool tech.

Never heard of em. Call Corson Distilling, great guys, American made.

Sugar Daddy here on the forum, atleast for the panela, maybe molasses too?