Help with farm distillery licensing

[navenjohnson]

Questions on Ag distilleries and livestock:

1. I am hoping to set up a distillery on a piece of property in Colorado currently zoned as agricultural. What are the differences between this and a non-farm distilling operation according to Federal and State licensing? Do you know of any distilleries in Colorado which are located on agricultural, farm or ranch land? What are the specific challenges faced?

2. Our goal is to build a distillery with as small a carbon footprint as possible. One part of this will be some livestock to consume the stillage after being put through a liquid separator. What animals will eat post distillation stillage? I have heard that cattle don't take to the stillage like they take to brewing grains. What about heritage pigs, indian running ducks or chickens? Will they eat it?

Cheers!

[dhdunbar]

Federally, you should have no problem qualifying a distillery on a farm if there is some distance between a residence and the building that will house the DSP.    That  answer is fact-dependent, but I've done it several times in the past.  About the rest, I l know nothing.

 

Dave

[AK2]

Naven,

We feed our separated spent grains to cattle.  We do not feed it straight, typically blend it in with hay/other roughage.  I do know that it is best to keep feed rations consistent.  Keep that in mind when planning how many animals vs. how much wet you will produce (wet cake does have a tendency to mold up, last I knew it does not really effect nutritional value, but I am sure there is a point where you wouldn't want to feed it).  I do not know about hogs, we have never fed spent grains to ours. I think the university of Nebraska did a bunch of wet cake feed studies from ethanal plants, maybe google their results.  Wet cake from ethanol plants will have a different nutritional value vs. spent grains from a distillery, but it can give you some what of an idea what to look for.  

 

Adam