schnit

Awesome. Thanks for your help everyone!

Interesting, I'm really wondering about this. The Carolina posted above would seem to confirm my suspicion in that you can't use the state outline? It appears they flipped the state 180 degrees horizontally and then modified it's shape so that its recognizable--yet still "just a random geometric shape". See below. I'd imagine if using a state outline were within the regulations they wouldn't have flipped/edited the state? Also, here's the image of high west in the similar fashion as above, however it's the exact state outline and isn't distorted or flipped.

Can anyone help clear this up for me? My designer has put together a pretty cool logo for my company, it features the state's outline with a banner going across it with my company name. The problem is that I've only seen one other distillery/winery/brewery with a state on the label. See the link below for image. http://www.highwest.com/spirits/36th-vote-barreled-manhattan/ I've Googled it for the past week and I can't come up with anything. I've spent a few hours in liquor stores just looking for someone using their state and I'm not seeing anything other than above. I don't know if companies can't do it, or if they won't do it because it may hurt sales when they go into other states. If anyone has any input, I'd appreciate it! The regulation with the TTB is written as follows:

One thing I've learned from speaking to a different city was this: Make sure you let them know 100% of your operational plans because they may have some little regulation which is a deal killer. A city I spoke with yesterday was very excited at the idea of having a distillery and it sounded like everything could work out-- until I told them I needed to have a "showroom" for selling shirts/glasses/etc. Apparently they only allow manufacturers to have a showroom no larger than 15% of their floorspace and they can only sell items manufactured on the premise. So glad I found that out during the 10 minute phone call before I devoted days/weeks/months!

I did find out (I'm not sure of all the specifics and I wouldn't be surprised if there were many more) but apparently restrooms need to be updated to current ADA even if the building was built before `90.

I'm curious if this is a decision made by American Distilling Institute, or just one moderator of their forums?

As someone who's new to the industry and has been pricing out equipment for a while, I'd like to see supplier reviews. One bad supplier could theoretically run multiple members out of business. It's a booming industry and naturally it's going to bring the swindlers and unethical businessmen in. It's no different than shady construction companies chasing hail storms across the midwest. If there is a place that reviews distillery suppliers, I'd appreciate if someone could post the link!

This. I found this out at my meeting with the inspectors last week and I'm waiting for the property owner to get back to me with the specifics. From what they told me changing occupancy basically means the space needs to be 100% up to new building ADA standards including parking spaces, curb cuts, bathrooms, you name it. Granted, the property manager may be willing to absorb a little of the costs but then I'm also far less likely to negotiate a better price on the lease.

I was thinking the same thing. The only difficult hose I've ever encountered was braided stainless but, after I learned to wrap tightly with electrical tape and then cut with a sharp rotary tool it was a breeze. I'd imagine the same technique applies to any hose with a type of braided sheath.

Thanks. From my first meeting it seemed to be more of a rough "Who are you, what exactly do you want to do? Hire an architect to make sure the space is properly zoned and up to all the codes." It wasn't great, but it wasn't bad either. The one nice thing was that all the inspectors and the city seemed to agree that they weren't looking to go overboard or above & beyond what the code books say.

Hello all! I've got a few meetings this week with the city planner, building inspector and fire department for my micro distillery. It's a small town of just over 2,000 people and overall they sound pretty eager to get me to establish there. What I'm trying to do is: Make sure they fully understand what I am bringing to their city. Identify and mitigate any future surprises and costs which could delay or outright prevent me from opening. I'm looking at a couple properties. One in an older industrial strip pre-cast building. It's got floor drains and is not sprinklered. The other is in a newer, larger pre-cast commercial/warehouse building which I do not yet know if it is drained/sprinklered. The city has never had any kind of business like this before, and it's overall a very new type of business for the state. This is also a very new venture for me, I don't have any experience with starting a business of this size (except for doing a lot of reading over the last year). The plan for the property is to have a small sales/merchandise room in the front, and the rear being the DSP. Any tips or suggestions would be great!

*edit* Nevermind, after thinking about this after the benadryl wore off I was backwards.

Not sure if serious, but isn't BC basically dead since their big fiasco a couple weeks ago? Or is it still a dominant contender in e-currency?

I see it a number of ways. The biggest being "small" distilleries who spent a lot of money without the intent of moving a lot of cases. The distillery then prices their bottles based upon the cost of doing business more so than the actual quality of their product.

I don't think this has already been discussed, but when one googles "adi forums" the first time the link is clicked it redirects to a different site, url4short (dot) info. At first I thought I had a virus, but it happens on every computer in the house as well as computers I've never touched before. From what I've read it appears to be a forum server side malware type bug.

That looks like a marvelously functional minimalist design--it looks easier and lower cost than what I was thinking of doing. Thanks for posting the picture!

I'd be interested in seeing them. The easiest way to upload is to go to WWW.imgur. com Select upload image(s) After upload copy the link on the right for BBCode and past it here. The code will have brackets around an IMG tag which say "IMG link /IMG." (I can't put the brackets in the instructions otherwise the forum will try to display an image)

I'm looking at making my own once I start. If you own a welder or band/jig saw it shouldn't be too difficult to do. When I worked in construction installing wood stoves (very heavy) I used a similar device to this for removing the stove/pallet from the truck...granted, mine had a stair climbing attachment but it worked off the same premise. http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200387589_200387589?cm_mmc=Google-pla-_-Material%20Handling-_-Lift%20Tables-_-855662&ci_src=17588969&ci_sku=855662&gclid=CPuzqry59bwCFYY7MgodZF8AAQ If you build your own, I'd just make sure it's capable of being used with a pallet lift/forklift. When I get my space I'll be looking into a manual lift since a nice forklift is out of the budget and a cheap/old one can be a big hassle (or a great investment if it doesn't break!).

Not a problem Bobby. I'm not sure if there are any more in Denver itself, I thought I only saw one when I googled it. There are some great cider and beer places though!

I visited Stranahan's in downtown Denver a couple weeks ago and enjoyed it. It's a large company so it was with a tour guide and just the standard stuff you'd hear on any large company tour; nothing too in-depth. Still kind of cool and interesting. It also included a free tasting. If you are interested you have to register through their website (very painless).

Just another vote for square (I had an electronics business and used it for local sales). It's so easy and the fees are ridiculously low compared to other options.

Welcome! (I'm also from Minnesota and have been a lurker on here for quite some time) Good things are happening in Minnesota!

I think you need to define what you consider "extremely small" or any variant of the wording. For some people, extremely small means a 55 gallon boiler converted to a still. For some people extremely small means a 100 gallon custom made copper still For some people extremely small means a pair of +100 gallon custom made stills. I've been planning my operation for a few months, right now I'm hoping to get a ~$50k loan with about $30k funded by myself and various fund raising techniques for a total of (give or take) $75,000. I consider myself "extremely small", but I know others who would consider them in the same boat with 2-3x the investment that I'm considering. (note, not all of the funds I'm mentioning are being used to open. Part for startup, part to help pay for those dark days where I'm trying to sell the 2nd bottle, and the rest hopefully I don't need and can return to the bank) I believe the costs of opening with a 10 gallon still are very similar to the costs of opening a distillery with a larger still--capable of some (albeit small) production numbers. Edit: Also, one of your primary problems/costs is going to be the building your distillery goes in, unless you already own a suitable building it will probably be one of the larger costs for you. I'm really struggling to find something for under $1,000 per month near me (around 1,000 to 1500sq/ft, which puts me in the "extremely small" category). This adds up to $12,000 per year, which takes a lot of sold bottles just to break even on rent. I think if you follow your idea of starting very very small you are going to have a hard time getting anyone to invest since you will likely be quite deep into the red and losing a lot of money without the means to earn any.

Hey, it's Tyson. I googled them and it sounds **partially** legit. They are a product placement company and it sounds like a shady attempt at fund raising for movies. What I'm guessing they do is blanket call all kinds of different businesses in different areas and then sell it to the studio. They probably keep a large catalog of different brands so that when a refrigerator opens for 1 second in a movie a few products are briefly seen. For all you know, Red Boot could be on the bar's liquor shelf next to 30 other whiskey's and only legible on a 4k HDTV! Remember this scene from the original Back To The Future? A rep with the production company told California Raisins that they would do for them what E.T. did for Reeces Pieces. Needless to say, you probably never even realized California Raisins was even in the movie. California Raisins spent $5,000 on the product placement, and even got it refunded because the movie rep misrepresented it so much. If they could absolutely guarantee a very prominent repeated placement in an A-list movie, then I'd say it could be worth the investment. Odds are though, that $5k would do much more for your business if invested in local advertising.