souschefdude Posted September 25, 2014 Share Posted September 25, 2014 Kevin, the issue of equipment capacity is huge and the variables are many. I'm attacking the same issue from the labor side of it not equipment. If I have equipment that can accomplish X gallons in an eight to ten hour shift, based on five days a week, I can at least double capacity by running two shifts a day, still allowing four to eight hours a day for cleaning and maintenance. Adding the idea of a third shift becomes exponentially challenging. But two seem realistic. Assuming initial funding isn't the issue, then, I don't believe stills, bottling and packaging are the limiting factor...I think fermentation is. How much fermentation can you afford and warehouse to feed a still? Looking at it from the labor side. You say you are a small group of people? How many? Everyone keeping there "other" job? What do you expect as a salary as part time or full time? How fast do you have to make a profit to satisfy your need for salary? In the long run, people are going to cost you a lot more than equipment. And rent...I've seen small distilleries in boutique locations paying $6,000 a month for rent! If I were looking at it from sales, how much can you guarantee to sell? Yeah, I don't know either... I can estimate my production rates from X equipment. I can not estimate sales of a given product. I recently toured a bunch of distilleries and my questions to each were "How long have you been in production?", "Have you turned a profit?" "Are you glad you did it?" I would like to hear those answers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohninWV Posted September 28, 2014 Share Posted September 28, 2014 Teton vodka giving SOLID advice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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