Planning new distillery in Missouri

[Pofarmer]

Buddy and I have been hobby distilling(yeah I know) and looking to go legit. We have a access to a couple of proprietary corn lines developed specifically for distilling and I will be growing at least one and maybe two of them. This will be a fairly small operation at first. Have been looking into getting the necessary licenses and equipment to upscale. Expect some more or less dumb questions in the near future. Lol.

[Jedd Haas]

There are several levels of difficulty in the distillery business. Here are the first three levels, in ascending order of difficulty.

1. Distilling
2. Regulatory compliance
3. Sales

From level 2 to level 3 is a big jump. I won't tell you that distilling is easy, but compared to the other two levels listed, it's by far the easiest part. If you don't have a willingness (and preferably ability) to sell, you may want to reconsider or find someone with sales expertise before proceeding.

There are also some other levels of difficulty above the 3 that I listed.

[Pofarmer]

22 minutes ago, Jedd Haas said:

There are several levels of difficulty in the distillery business. Here are the first three levels, in ascending order of difficulty.

1. Distilling
2. Regulatory compliance
3. Sales

From level 2 to level 3 is a big jump. I won't tell you that distilling is easy, but compared to the other two levels listed, it's by far the easiest part. If you don't have a willingness (and preferably ability) to sell, you may want to reconsider or find someone with sales expertise before proceeding.

There are also some other levels of difficulty above the 3 that I listed.

Regulatory compliance I'm not too concerned about. Both of us are detail oriented enough I think to handle that.  Local Compliance is easy. State not so bad. The one that's most concerning is Sales. That's the one we've been discussing. I wouldn't even be considering this if we didn't have a unique feedstock we can market. There's a potential to just sell barrel's as well.

[Kindred Spirits]

Sales is one of the toughest things to iron out. Will you be distributing? If so you will need to make sure to differentiate your product from others on the market and keep the distribution reps happy. Unless you are in a control state, then it helps to make friends with the ABC reps and board members.

[Naked Spirits Distillery]

Missouri isn't too bad, but it isn't simple either. Check out Missouri Distiller's Guild. We have a great group of distilleries willing to share advice. Reach out if you have questions. The comments above are very accurate. Making liquor is the easy part. Plan well on how and where to sell. Second suggestion is to plan funds needed and timeline to open then double both. You may not hit double, but you will be glad to have planned for the overruns. 

[TwentySevenBrewing]

On 4/26/2023 at 8:36 AM, Pofarmer said:

Buddy and I have been hobby distilling(yeah I know) and looking to go legit. We have a access to a couple of proprietary corn lines developed specifically for distilling and I will be growing at least one and maybe two of them. This will be a fairly small operation at first. Have been looking into getting the necessary licenses and equipment to upscale. Expect some more or less dumb questions in the near future. Lol.

Hello,

I started as a homebrewer (still brew) and took the logical steps towards home-distilling. We will be opening our distillery late summer early fall. I have learned so much from reading these and other forums, many different books and articles as well as visiting a lot of local distilleries and breweries. The distilling community is AMAZING, there aren't any "dumb" questions that someone before you hasn't already asked. Good luck!

Chris

Holland Brooks Distilling and Events

[Will Whalen]

@Pofarmer just PM'd you