blueridgedreamin

I appreciate the responses. Not being familiar with these heat sources, I will do some research on those options.

I am planning a new distillery and trying to find out options. I'm looking at starting up with 80 gallon stills and want some help with how to heat them. Does anyone have options for heat sources for a still of that size?

Copper pot still 80 gallon.

Don

Is it important or necessary to boil your Wort from your Mash Tun before running into the fermenter?

I have read that you don't need to, but I want some more experienced advice. I always do for my beer, boiling for an hour even if no hops are needed; I know this helps to sterilyze the Wort before it goes into the fermenter. I just want to know if this step is necessary for distilling.

Thanks.

We started distilling and opened our tasting room doors for around 60k. Tasting room traffic and having a product right out of the gates (in our case, a white whiskey) was critical for us, and 3.5 years later it still is! Startup expenses are the easy part. Operating capital is a whole nother matter — Especially if you're intent on whiskey production. 2+ year of staring at barrels is a mofo!

I get that about the whiskey lag time. We have some ideas for spirits quick out of the gate, tasting room from the beginning, and our signature whiskey(s) aging while we sell the quick stuff. Probably a lot like many new distillery startups.

if you are doing this as a business and not a hobby, I would look at your #s again. I thought I could get away with under $100K, but we are at $140 and climbing,

My business partner and I are pretty handy so I know we can do a lot of the work. Our state is very friendly to all spirits and the law is still loosening up for us. I do not plan to start big, just the minimum, maybe you would call it 'hobby' but my long-term plan is to build it to a medium to large-scale craft distillery. I'm hoping we can get setup for far less than $100K. If I can produce a few cases per week, that will be a good start for me.

James,

When you say "Pulling "out all of the flavor" is much harder than you think, there are plenty of plated and packed columns in operation that are producing products chock full of flavor." I have a concern.

If you use a good beer wash will a reflux or fractioning column strip out a lot of the flavors you want for your whiskey? I thought a pot still is best for preserving the flavors you want for whiskey.

I don't have any property so I know my startup costs will be higher, but I am looking at options for financing. I just don't want to saddle my new business with $50K of debt from the starting gate. I am still a long ways from it but I'm doing my research. If I can get started with $25K and a 25-30gal still, I am happy. I know I'm in a fantastic market (the Pacific Northwest) and have a rockin' business plan with a solution to the problem, so I think I can do it.

Conejo148, you encourage me. I know that I can start mine with less than $100K like so many say. I have the same goals, start small, grow it to take over my 'day job' and make a career out of it.