Praxis

just realized I replied to a 9 month old post

I didn't see anything in the tabulations about product development. Just deciding to make whiskey is great and all but if you have no or limited experience you will have a bit of development time. If you just want to throw something at the market that is a recipe for potential hardship unless you get it right the first go round. There are a lot of schools and courses out there I would advise you find one that has a product you like and talk to them or enroll in a class that promotes that style. There is a lot of info you can find from the web and books read everything you can and take notes on specific points of interest then spend time digesting it. I personally think that many of the courses offered are basically the same and are more teaching the theories and business end, the only way to develop a product is to actually make it. My advice is to find good water, use a very basic pot style with no type of automation, and treat every failed batch like a lesson. Keep the failures around and go back to them even if you feel like you should not bother aging it do it anyhow follow through with every batch. Your product is really everything, without exceptional juice you will rely heavily on creative marketing. Understanding every part of the process is where its at. All this is just my opinion and I am sure that other people will find greater importance in other aspects of the business. Have fun with it. I hope that you succeed.

not much to say we are looking at doing 3 styles of rum to start. Joined this site to learn all I can about the legal aspects and distribution, which seems to be the biggest hurdles for me. I have a financial backer lined up that came on board after tasting some rum from a small shop in central america that was using my process ( 25gal pot, cane sugar/molasses wash, and a proprietary method of simulating aging ) We are planing to do about 5000 bottles a month. This may sound disjointed and odd but I am trying to type this and have a conversation with a really obnoxious client at my office.

I am working on a new craft distillery in Florida, hoping to start production by the 1st of the year. This forum is great!