captnKB

what state are you in? does your building have sprinklers? In CA there is a very low limit for how much high proof booze you can store in a blending tank, without having sprinklers. In a building with sprinklers that number is significantly larger. At our place, we are sprinklered and have 2 500gal blending tanks. We keep the tanks sealed when they are sitting and waiting to be bottled. No evaporation if tank is sealed tight

we've used a corn base and had no issues with clouding as long as you proof with RO water

anyword as to an update on this bill. I searched online and it said that H.R.4083 had died in congress and S.2169 has been referred to finance comittee. Is this bill something we should still be writing to our congressmen about?

we leave the original bung in and just drill a hole the size of a bung on the head of the barrel, the siphon out the booze. Then refill and replace with a new bung. Bunge is easily removed with a cheap Bondo dent puller

corn, barley, wheat, rye?? what kind of grain? ferment distill on grain or lauter? need more info to provide an answer

Vitner is awesome! great customer service and very helpful, I highly recommend them

If your going to be selling in liquor stores grocery stores or other bottle shops it is a good idea to have two products as many retails have said to me that they will give you two face outs on a shelf

Vice magazine reviewed palcohol http://www.vice.com/read/powdered-alcohol-got-me-drunk-the-worst-way-possible to quote them "If you like headaches and gummed-up sinuses and numb, dissociative drunks, you're going to go apeshit for powdered booze"

in regards to your potato question, try giving this a read http://homedistiller.org/fruit/wash-fruit/pot as far as equipment list goes, id suggest visiting a few distilleries to get a better idea of all the equipment you'll need

Teton, my walk in numbers are difficult to estimate as we are very new and do not yet have a tasting room so its difficult to estimate. We are in a city of over 100,000. the location in an industrial lot. Insuranceman, thank you for tossing those numbers out there, I understand there are many factors that drive these numbers, I am merely trying to get a ballpark number to start planning for the financial side of a retail/tasting room operation. Mash thank you for some numbers as well. Im going to start with an estimation on the low side of 120k in revenue per year from the tasting/retail room Can anyone give a ball park on what percentage of walk in visitors buy a bottle, or an average dollar amount of goods sold per visitor?

depends on you molasses, blackstrap has considerably less sugar than light molasses. the setup I've run is to use 220 gallons of water to one 55gallon drum of first run high sugar molasses.

email sent, look forward to hearing back

In california it seems like the laws are soon to change, which will allow california distilleries to sell bottles out of our tasting rooms, I am trying to estimate how much revenue could come from a tasting room selling soft goods and bottles direct to the consumer. If anyone out there is willing to share I would like to hear how much revenue your tasting room generates on a monthly basis. Thanks, ---KB

What is AB1233 all about I googled it but could not find any info on how it relates to us

Welcome Anton! your density meters are a tool that I've found to be amazingly helpful when working in a distillery

Anyone know of any small distributors in southern california?

id love to hear some responses to this question as well

welcome michael. Santa Barbara is a beautiful place best of luck out there

Hi Violent Blue, I am very interested in continuos still design and was wondering if your company progressed to making a continuous still design that is available. Im hoping to set up my distillery with a continuous steam driven still and a small pot still for the spirit run. Please let me know what you think, Cheers ---Kris

Welcome Five Oaks, Your plan is ambitious, best of luck down the long road to success

Thanks Randallam for the Spam in Polish, its nice to know I can consolidate my debt in poland

in cali I've been told the legal amount you can dump is less than 1% alcohol

Are they any particular benefits to operating a farm distillery versus locating a distillery in an industrial building in california? There are some benefits I can see such as living close to the distillery, possibly growing some of the grain for use. Eventually owning the distillery aka not be forever tied to a lease. Breaks in taxes? Different classifaction? Sell to the public? Been doing much research but can't seem to any clear cut answer

same happens to me

skaalvenn is correct. whiskey stones are made of soap stone