John McKee

....also, the title should have been "Whiskey Systems. Too much money???thoughts???"...not "to". Busting your balls, McKee

Hey all, John D. is correct, there are scales of cost and precision that Whiskey Systems customers will fall into. We use it at both of our distilleries, and until we brought it online, we were wasting time, effort, and expense. Whiskey Systems has been worth every penny for us. Cheers, McKee

Jedd, I'm about as top secret as Trump's toupee. 4 barrels to a standard pallet, shrink wrapped (or banded) together, and 3 high is as far as I currently go. Cheers, McKee

Check out the photo in this article. http://www.wsj.com/articles/diageo-shares-climb-on-takeover-speculation-1433768168 Cheers, McKee

Hey, Call Dan at Garrison brothers. He was doing that for a while and had great success. He'll have all your answers. Cheers, McKee

Hey, Consider palletizing them vertically and then just stacking them. Lots of examples in macro and micro distilleries of this technique being used. We use both wine racks and pallets, both work well......but to be honest I sort of like the palletizing system better. Just easier to work with and really maximizes your storage efficiency. Cheers, McKee

Hey, We have the same system and its pretty easy to fix. Here are some thoughts. The whole system runs on a vacuum pump, so if a head isn't filling that means you have a vacuum leak on that filler head. The filler head assembly has a few gaskets and washers that could be leaking by. Take the head apart, clean each component and reassemble. The end of the filler head has a white conical gasket that creates the seal against the bottle head. Check that for tears, creases, gunk. Anything that is keeping it from making a seal will affect the performance of that filler head. We've run over 100K bottles through our system and we take it apart, completely, every 10K or so and do a full maintenance. You should think about doing the same from a preventative maintenance standpoint. The hose from the vacuum pump to the filler head might have a leak. Check the hose clamps on each end, one may be loose and allowing a vacuum leak at that location. Also, the vacuum pump can get bunged up too. Pretty easy to disassemble and clean the flapper that the piston drives against to create the vacuum. Probably not the case here, but without regular p.m. it can cause a lose in system performance.....I.E. 100/hr vs 200/hr. If none of this answers the question, just PM me and I'll do my best to help. Cheers, McKee

Pete, I spoke with the Fire Marshall in Moore, Mr. Lindsay. He is seeing if the official investigation report is public and will get me a copy. If that happens, I'll share that here. Cheers, McKee

Hey distillers, please sign up for the webinar next week! There will be more to come in August. The American Craft Spirits Association present the first installment of our Education Webinar Series. The first few webinars of this series will be present for free to give you a taste of what’s to come. The topic: Barrel Exemptions The time: August 5th, 2015 at 3pm ET Please register for the webinar at:https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/regist…/3407696964974900226 Get to know all of the ins and outs of Barrel Exemptions with us! This presentation will cover the details of the TTB's barrel exemption to MAQs (maximum allowable quantities) in the distilling space. You will be able to submit questions throughout the webinar and they will be passed on to the presenter at the end of the session during the Q&A. Cheers and thanks, The ACSA Education Committee

Multi column systems become pretty necessary as you grow. We also build distillation equipment, which you can see at headframestills.com. Our standard model processes 1000g beer every 8 hours in a single pass across a 4 column system. Cheers, McKee

Hilarious, sorry. We get our Rye from Montana Milling in 2000 lb supersacks. They'll do truck loads too. montanamilling.com Cheers, McKee

MGPi sells by the truck, unaged Rye. You need about 2 months lead time. Call and ask for Perry Ford. 812.532.4156 812.584.9664

Partrick, You're probably right, but since its the last step before we put it in a bottle, we just go really extra cautious on our filtering. Could it be overkill....mebbe? Cheers, McKee

Geek, All-Flo: Model BK-025 is the AOD we used on the barrel filtering/pump rig. Cheers, McKee

Good morning, The Silver Trail Explosion Fire Marshall's report is available online at https://www.scribd.com/doc/272493968/Silver-Trail-Distillery-Accident-Investigation-Response-Report#fullscreen Please take time to read it today and think about safety in your facility. This report is not the final definitive answer, the engineering report from the insurance company will be the final answer of what went wrong. Try to leave the armchair engineering out of the discussion and just read the report...think about safety in your distillery in all aspects, not just your still. Go look at photos of the facility online, think about your facility. What can you change today to make it more safe? Operational change, extra fire extinguisher, anything. Think about yourself, your people and their families. Be safe, McKee

Geek, Our Enolmaster uses a vacuum pump to pull from the source tank, through the filters and the filler heads. Our larger line uses a centrifugal to push the spirits through the filters and on to the filler system. Our barrel/filter pump system, uses an AOD to pull from the source barrel, through the filters and then on to the destination tank. Many ways to skin a cat. Cheers, McKee

John, I haven't had too much experience with filtering over the years. Until making hooch I was mostly just doing bag filtering....so sorry, I can't help on the Pressure Leaf filters. However, as to your question about the Shelco Filters: 5 micron = MPA5.0-10s6s .45 micron = MPA0.45-10s6s Cheers, McKee

Michael, Awesome info. Thanks! McKee

Filters come from Shelco http://www.shelco.com/. Housings can be had from them too. Cheers, McKee

Michael, You can also get the Flex Impeller pumps with air operated motors correct? In which case, XP wouldn't be a concern. Nice option for some. Cheers, McKee

Lucidi, The only time I'm not chill, is when the ADI Forums are used in the same way as homedistiller.org. This is a forum for professionals to share professional advice. If you aren't a PE in at least one of the areas I mentioned above, then you are not qualified to offer professional advice....especially on something so important, period. The advice I was giving, which is the advice we all should be giving, is "seek out a professional opinion" especially in an area as important as the safety of your future distillery, its employees and your well being. The horrible accident at Silver Trail Distillery is your wake up call. Humbly, McKee

Hedgebird has the best reply in this thread...... TLDR: In today's world turning sugar into alcohol is easy, the tricky part is turning alcohol into money. ......you need to remember that you are opening a "Marketing Company That Happens to Make Hooch", not a distillery. If you don't understand that from the get-go, and budget accordingly, you are going to have a tough hill to climb. 5-10 years ago, this was a "build it and they will come" kind of business. Now, you won't even get enough distributors, bar owners, or liquor store owners to talk to you if all you're offering is a "vodka, gin, and a white whiskey while you're waiting for your brown stocks to age". Distilling is easy. Selling is hard. Of your initial startup costs, you should have at least 30-40% in just brand development and marketing. Once you're running that number can be 25-35% of your COGS. If you aren't setting that bar, you are in this for a hobby, but not to service your debt or ever make enough to live off of and pay your employees. Lastly, no one can build a safe distillery for less than $100K. Period. Yes you can build a distillery, but not a safe one.....and that should be your primary goal. Your kiddos won't be proud of all the money you saved if you wind up dead. Cheers, McKee

Hey all, The only definitive guide that will give you the real and actual answer is the "Recommended Fire Protection Practices for Distilled Spirits Beverage Facilities 3rd Edition", available from DISCUS for a small fee. Anyone other than an engineer with a PE in Fire Protection, Mechanical / HVAC, or Electrical will not be able to give you answers enough to satisfy your Fire Marshall. And additionally, anyone offering you advice without those qualifications would be liable for any future damages or injuries incurred as a result of their advice. The best reference is the DISCUS doc. Get it. Cheers, McKee

Hey, I used to deal with one in the Midwest by the name of CP Recycling http://www.cprecycl.com/bio.htm. Charlie Wessels. They specialized in taking offspec (wet) methanol from biodiesel facilities. You may also want to call your local Waste Management https://www.wm.com/enterprise/manufacturing-and-industrial/index.jspoutlet. I often hear of them buying smaller outfits like CP Recycling and offering those services too. But based upon your geographic locale, you just want to do some basic Google searches on "bunker fuel supplier", "bunker fuel broker", etc. Especially in areas with large ports. They'll just mix the heads into the bunker fuel that they sell to the large ships for fueling their engines. All in, go into the conversation with the mindset of your heads are worth something, not a "waste product". The btu value of heads is enormous and especially in bunker fuel, give a quick "octane/cetane/??tane" boost to what is nominally low quality fuel. Cheers, McKee

Sell it into the bunker fuel market. Make money off it. Cheers, McKee