OldSpye

The last paragraph of your post resonates pretty strongly, since at the moment I have no fewer than three white oaks on my property that need to come down, per my insurance carrier. (For the non-NJ folks out there, the homeowners' underwriters have been suggesting, post-Sandy, that large trees which threaten the structure be removed) Each of these trees is 65' to 80' tall with a 30" trunk diameter. That's a lot of barrel staves.

Remind me not to open a winery.

I'm gonna call "BS". Phthalates are plasticizers and are, in the food & beverage industries, most commonly associated with plastic containers and improper (non-food grade) PVC plumbing. The product cited in the article is a Sazerac spirit produced in Bardstown by Barton. I've been through their facility. It may be a lot of things, but it's not susceptible to phthalate migration.

They need to know the size, general type (pot still, etc.) and max output / 24 hr period. They also want the serial number. I asked that particular question re: our still, which is being built by a local coppersmith. Apparently that can be as simple as "1". We're gonna add a few zeros.

As has been mentioned, cleaning is pretty easy. I gather you're overseas, so you'll have to do some interpretive shopping, but this device, available here from Home Depot, costs all of $139. It's a basic electric steam cleaner. That's all you need. Steam clean the wood between batches and there's no reason your bacterial exposure would be any higher than with any other fermenting system.

I'll say the same thing here that I say to everyone on this topic. We've been distilling spirits for hundreds of years. We've had pretty, shiny, expensive, insulated, jacketed, temperature controlled stainless steel fermenters for a few decades. Part of the craft movement is capturing the essence of legacy ingredients, process and taste profile - while distancing ourselves from machined, mass-produced spirits. To me, all this as relates to fermentation vessels is an easy call. It's the one part of the process that you really shouldn't have to over-think.

Yeah, it's gotten crazy out there. I just got a 2014 price list from BarrelBuilders. 220 liter oak - $425.00. And they don't have any.

Brilliant!

This actually seems like the most workable model - for a number of us within, say, a particular state to buy a container and divide them up. Actually, I know a guy who would probably be interested in playing the role of "distributor". Any links to one of these overseas suppliers?

Deer love it. Just sayin'.

New Jersey simply requires that you disclose any felony convictions and have not been convicted of any "crimes of moral turpitude" within the last five years. I've got a driving history loaded with issues related to acceleration and my OIC went through just fine.

I'm puzzled by the vilification of RO water. Without getting into the chemistry over the whole thing (because I always sucked at chemistry), what I do know anecdotally is that water makers on boats, ships & submarines are all RO. There's literally billions of gallons of the stuff consumed every year on the oceans of the world (including a fair amount by me) and ain't nobody died from it.

Gotcha. I'll take a look at those. Trying to do some floor planning, now that the architect has finally got everything right. Thanks!

Barrel racks for full-size (53 gal) barrels are easy to come by, but I haven't seen any barrel racks for smaller 15 or 30 gallon barrels. Those who are using smaller barrels, how do you rack them?

It's sometimes difficult to separate fact from urban legend when it comes to this topic. For example - I was down at Barton a couple months ago and one of the guys there told me that "A bunch of guys from Texas bought a barrel, just came and picked it up the other day... loaded it in the back of a pickup and drove off." He even mentioned the price they paid.

For what it's worth, the stuff works pretty good as lamp oil, too.

Specific to our situation, the answer to the question is "no". We had to hire an architect, at the request of municipal zoning. However, the suggestion that you have a $15,000 job is insane. I shopped the specs for our job to a number of architects. All of the multi-partner architectural firms came back with estimates in the $4000 - $5000 range. I then got a response from a licensed, sole practitioner who offered to do the job for $1500. I would suggest that route, if it's available to you.

A hearty shout-out to Congresssman Congressman Nick Rahall (D-WV3) for becoming the fourth co-sponsor of H.R. 4083! Thanks to the Congressman and remember, folks - contact your legislators and get them on board!

I dreamed up the press concept as well. It's comforting to know that I'm not the genius I think I am. One other concept that I'm thinking of playing with is a sluice. Similar to the traditional tool, but with more (and finer) riffles and a screen at the end to separate fines from the outflow. At some point I suppose I'll get past the point of tinkering being half the fun....

And we have a plan for that.

That's some cool stuff. You know me... I'm a retro kinda guy.

There's another guy I know of, a friend of a friend, who was looking to open up somewhere in north NJ. I don't know if he's attached to any of the projects you've listed... guy's name is Randy something...

Population density of NJ is 1210. Population density of PA is 285. And it's not an "apparent" number based on size, that's what population density is. That's a good start, but then you have to do some additional breakdown to arrive at any sort of reasonable data set that will support a conclusion (which by definition will be speculative). What's the percentage of adults vs. minors in either state? Since the U.S. Census break is +/- 18, you have to use those numbers and accept that there's going to be a little slop. What's the household per capita income? We know (from the research as well as from a field of general knowledge) that NJ has roughly the 2nd highest per capita income in the country. That's a meaningful number when you compare it to per capita spend on distilled spirits because it a) establishes trends and 2) tells you, roughly, how much potential growth there is in the market. We had a team from Rutgers-Newark (Graduate School of Business) put all this together for us - and more - comparing NJ to neighboring states and to the U.S. market as a whole. We sampled current and prospective buying habits and methods. We sampled product preferences. We researched historical market growth and projected market growth. Probably not many people go to this sort of trouble. And, truth be told, the only reason we did it is because we had the opportunity to do it basically for free, using some pretty high-level pro bono talent. The market research, however, serves to inform a number of key decisions in a very quantitative manner. Qualitatively, it simply enhances one's comfort level - and, going back to my previous point about evangelizing your concept, having some amount of supporting research enables you to better articulate your business case, your overall concept and story.

Well, only insomuch as you do the math which takes into account population, consumption, etc. You have to assume that in Y1 to maybe Y5 your distribution is going to be essentially local. New Jersey's population density being several times higher than Pennsylvania's means that it supports a greater degree of market penetration. Have you done any marketing studies?

Yeah, it looks like the link on the picture died. I saw it the other day - nice bottle.