Distillery design and layout

[Guest Bobcat Hill]

We're finalizing layout for our small start-up distillery (3,000-square-foot slab pole barn, may be able to add another 500- 1,000 square feet) with a small tasting room and wondered if there are any considerations in planning use of the distillery space? Since we're starting small we must maximize use of our space until a second phase addition is added in Year 5-6.

[Paul Tomaszewski]

Ensure your tasting room/gift shop is in a separate enclosure (walls dividing) from the distillery. Also, it helps to have a "tax-paid" area that is separate from the distillery (as in, not bonded) for storing product that has already been taxed at the federal level.

[Scott @ Twenty2Vodka]

Space for empty bottle storage was something that kind of caught us off guard.

[MarkR]

Sit down with all parties who will be running the production operations, and walk through all of the processes that you expect to happen when in full production mode. Diagram them on a sheet of paper, with dotted lines between the bonded and un-bonded steps. Take that diagram and convert it into a floor plan, following the process steps with as little movement from one step to the next, and avoiding crossing over steps. I have visited a number of small distilleries, and am convinced this would have saved them a lot of hassles down the road.

[Kev the Architect]

Counsult your architect and engineer to make sure that you are following local building codes. This includes evrything from the amount of and types of liquids you will have in the building and how you store them, electrical requirements in the building, ventilation and how many people will be in the building at once (actual and allowed by code).

[Rum]

If I were designing from scratch I would create as many opportunities to have gravity do the work as possible instead of pumps. i.e. molasses storage up high flowing down to mash tank, down to the fermentation tanks, down to still, etc... I would also put in a lot more drainage on the floor!

[Classick]

If I were designing from scratch I would create as many opportunities to have gravity do the work as possible instead of pumps. i.e. molasses storage up high flowing down to mash tank, down to the fermentation tanks, down to still, etc... I would also put in a lot more drainage on the floor!

Lol... bingo! you can never have too much drainage lol

[Scott @ Twenty2Vodka]

I'll "third" the drainage remark.

[Jonathan Forester]

I agree with you about diagramming the facility. I first started out with regular size graph paper and drew dozens of designs looking at work flow, equipment usage, etc. Then moved on to poster size drawings. As time went on the whole space morphed into what I now think will be a well designed facility, that is fluid and can change as needed, for different types of operations.

Sit down with all parties who will be running the production operations, and walk through all of the processes that you expect to happen when in full production mode. Diagram them on a sheet of paper, with dotted lines between the bonded and un-bonded steps. Take that diagram and convert it into a floor plan, following the process steps with as little movement from one step to the next, and avoiding crossing over steps. I have visited a number of small distilleries, and am convinced this would have saved them a lot of hassles down the road.

[Scott @ Twenty2Vodka]

Come to think of it, I used PowerPoint and auto shapes to represent our proposed shop footprint and equipment layout. Even went as far as using it for the external layout of our building in relation to our plot of land to make sure our well/septic were properly distanced from each other, and to make sure a tractor trailor could back up in the area allocated for our parking lot.

It's easy enough to setup a scale and grid in PPT giving you an accurate representation of your space within a couple feet... If you have access to PowerPoint it'll save you time in revisions and options. But once you are done drafting on paper/the screen, go find a space about the size of what you are about to use to get the feel for how big (or small) it really is...

[Classick]

Dont forget room to move the forklift around...should be able to turn corners without having a heart attack worrying about the still. also height. considerations.. i have now run into our overhead Air conditioner twice ( a possible catastrophe) as well as constantly having to watch the overhead lights when lifting our fruit basket out of the still ( we have an alambic pot still so we put most of the liquids in through the top)

[Guest Bobcat Hill]

Thank you to all for your comments!

[dcase]

I've been using this website to do a floor plan:

http://www.floorplanner.com

It's free, very easy to use, and it lets you see the layout in 3D.

Drew