John McKee

Maybe buy a drum heater, get the molasses warm and less viscous and you can probably use an AOD (Air operated diaphragm) pump. Blanket drum heater would be best and you can probably find a much cheaper one somewhere other than Grainger. http://www.grainger.com/product/Blanket-Drum-Heater-3CDC4?s_pp=false Cheers, McKee

Tom, By start a brand, I meant getting a distillery to co-produce and co-pack a spirit line for your company. For instance, I could call Flavor Man and say, I would like to have "McKee's Single Malt" created and packaged. We arrange a fee for that, they produce and ship to distributors and I brand ambassador the product around. The concept of this model is giving you a chance to ensure the product will actually sell and if so, in turn creating a warchest of cash from sales to allow for investing in my own distillery. COGS = Cost of Goods Sold. In spirits (at least the way I look at it) this is the total cost if takes to get a bottle into a customer's hands, which includes but is not limited to; Bottle Label Cork Juice Packaging Shipping Taxes (federal and state) Marketing & Distribution Expenses. The total of those item is your COGS. Assuming you can do that for sub $10/bottle and you can market yourself as a "premium" +$30/bottle, then you're bringing in a good rate of return and in a Co-Packing model, you don't have debt service of other expenses. Use that to build a good balance in your savings, then finance and open a distillery. Works for some, doesn't work for others. Just another way of approaching a business that is in an increasingly over-saturated industry. Best, McKee

Square is awesome.

We went SBA 504 and SBA 7A and were happy with both. Approach an Ag. Bank and pitch that you are opening a "Value Added Agricultural Manufacturing Company." That will help. Cheers, McKee

Good afternoon, You might want to consider starting a brand and then using the revenue from sales of that brand to open a distillery of the size you originally intended. The benefits to this approach are: You get a chance to see if your brand can sell in your market, prior to massive CAPEX investments. You get a chance to learn marketing and sales of beverage alcohol. You can get a good brand underway for ~$50K. If the COGS is modeled properly and you are diligent about marketing expenses, you can turn that into a 4x kind of return. I know that many people (perhaps including you) are initially leery of this idea, but distilling is really a very small part of the level of effort in having a successful micro-distillery. Proving to yourself and any potential investors that your brand has legs, prior to building your own facility, is an ok way to go too. Cheers, McKee

Good morning, In MT the law allows for 18 and up to sell beer, wine, and spirits. Basically the law was drafted to allow for convenience store workers under 21 but older than 18 to sell booze. However, in our tasting room operation, we only hire 21 and up to sample and sell our products. We can hire 18 and up, we just chose to set a standard at 21 and up. Cheers, John

If you're working with a bank on financing, negotiate an interest only payment plan until you're officially open. That way you can save money from retained principle payments. Cheers. McKee

Lauter?

Fermented Beverage Production, http://www.amazon.com/Fermented-Beverage-Production-Andrew-G-H/dp/0306477068/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1390585504&sr=8-1&keywords=fermented+beverage+production

Jeff, I'm surprised that based upon your previous experience that you don't already have some of these answers. You should run Tito's over a GC and educate yourself on what is in Tito's....... Cheers, McKee

Dave, Is the same used still from Roughstock Whiskey in MT? Those pictures look like his old distillery. Thanks, John

Jake, One things that does happen.... If you don't chill filter your whiskey and it gets that cold while trucking, you can potentially develop a precipitate that is filtered out during chill filtering. So you might ship clear whiskey and by the time it gets to the shelf, it might be cloudy or murky. BTW, it was -22 here in Butte this morning. Stay warm buddy. Cheers

Good morning, You can do all that you are suggesting in your question. You still will require a full DSP, not just a basic permit, and your labels will not be able to use the phrase "Distilled by" or "Distilled at" in reference to your distillery. Your concept is similar to Templeton Rye, High West (some blends not all, they do some things in house too), any number of vodkas, and a large portion of beverage alcohol in the entire market. Cheers.

...hilarious.

Jeff, Thanks for dropping a line to all of us. You might be surprised, but there is often a great deal of conjecture and guessing-games on this board regarding Tito's, both in the early days and today. Would you be willing to share some stories of your time there? I think we'd all be appreciative. Best, McKee

Unless someone has evidence to the contrary, I would suggest that your immersion heating coils are just too hot for the proteins associated with Rye....therefore your scorching and burning. Your answer, without continual agitation or temperature control to the immersed coils, is to not distill on the grain. You'll probably want to consider lautering and then distilling. Anyone else? We do 1000g Rye washes, grain on distillation with no issues. However, we don't use immersive electric coil heaters, which makes me think that is your primary issue. Cheers, John

Tom, I'm pretty sure this doesn't apply to you. Since you have a DSP, I think the TTB will claim that with regard to the Three Tier system, you can't have an Alcohol Dealer Registration. Although your state may allow for some direct retail, the Feds don't. Anyone know elsewise? Best, John

TAPI makes a nice cork. No issues for 60K+ for us thus far. Kevin Dunbar kevin@tapiusa.com Cheers, John

Personal opinion.....natural corks with any high proof spirit (80 proof and up) is a mistake. Go synthetic.

Tyler, Carl makes one, Vendome makes one, and we make one. Not sure of other manufacturers. Best, John

Tyler, There are ways to knock down foaming allowing you to maximize your still charge. But ignoring that, you may want to consider a continuous stripping still at that volume. 500 gallons in a 2 gpm stripping still is only 4+ hours of machine time. Buy 3-500g fermenters, run out 3 stripping runs in a single long day (quicker than you can do in a batch still) and you have a lot more product to run through the finishing still. Food for thought. Cheers, John

Jedd, Actually, you need fewer total lbs (or weight) of botanicals in a continuous still (as compared to a batch or standard gin basket design) for a few reasons. Mostly it has to do with basket design and even contact with botanicals.....so having said that, you could probably use less in a batch still too (provided your basket was designed properly). I've been to many distilleries and have seen: Dry, unstripped botanicals at the end of the run Botanicals that never hit their volatility temperature during the run....thereby did not impart any flavor at all. Dangerous conditions to access the botanical basket....Carl's are notorious for hanging the basket in goofy, unsafe locations for access by an operator. PLA...(sorry) I usually use that term to mean Pure Liquid Alcohol....could have said 100%. Just for mathiness sake (understanding the azeotrope and all) trying to communicate the recovery ratios over time. Cheers, McKee

Good morning, If you are making gin from GNS and not from a mash and are amenable to non-macerated gin styles, I would suggest a continuous still for a number of reasons. There are no heads cuts. In a continuous still, even a relatively low capacity (say 1 gpm input of 40% ABV - which yields .6 gpm PLA), you can hammer out 216 gallons of non-proofed spirit in about 6 hours. In a continuous, you can better manage the vapor temperature across the botanical bed and can manipulate that vapor temp in the course of the run. The result of that temperature manipulation will result in your ability to extract differing flavor compounds based upon their relative volatilities. We feel that botanical basket design and operation is critical to good gin production. A big spot in the pipe, with a screen bag holding a bunch of botanicals, does not cut it. Question your still provider on their basket design, most won't be able to fully answer questions about botanical extraction rates, full botanical wetting, and volatility ratios, etc. If they can't, they aren't doing you any favors by selling you their still. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions or would like to know more about the gin we make on our continuous still. Cheers, John

Your local municipality gets to make its own rules when it comes to what it allows through the sewer and municipal treatment systems. However, here are some bullet points that you can use to support the fact that you don't need to have containment: Ethanol and water are infinitely miscible. Meaning, in the event of a spill you can open the hose and dilute the stream going down the sewer to a point where it will be virtually non-detectable. Your maximum possible spill is what?.....a barrel. Maybe a proofing tank. Your volume will determine the max, but as a micro figure your largest possible spill will be less than 250g. The toilets from the buildings on your block will put 4 times that down the drain every few hours. Again, combined with the argument from the first bullet, they'll never even notice the ethanol in the mix of effluent from the entire remaining contributions to the system. In spill containment regs, the rule is that you build a containment system of 1.25x of the largest possible tank in your facility. This might seem like a lot, but for a 250g tank, that's probably a berm around the tank about 4" high. You could argue that you'd be willing to put a berm around your tank farm rather than in the outlet to your sewer system. Or you could tell them you'd be willing to install a block valve in the primary sewer drain. Basically, ensure them that you could stop anything from entering the system if something was to happen. Good luck. Sorry I can't be more helpful. Cheers.

SOLD. Thanks for looking.