Congratulations to all the "Pro" operators that are taking or have taken the leap

Smaug

Hope to visit this April and pee on your toilet seat on the way to my cousin's house just over in Bel Aire.

CothermanDistilling

be careful what you say, @smaug, you may have to bring a 380L boiler with you ;-)

Smaug

@CothermanDistilling said: be careful what you say, smaug, you may have to bring a 380L boiler with you ;-)

That would be no problem BTW. Happy to do that for you.

grim

Speaking of 380l boilers in the US - is one of those for me?

crozdog

@CothermanDistilling looking good! A couple of comments / questions....

• what do 5, D1, D2 & MF represent?
• I question the security of glass sectional doors on your bonded area.
• Where is the still(s)?
• where are the fermenters & bottling / labeling equipment?
• where are you storing raw ingredients?
• consider a bigger door to the empty bottle storage area - much easier to move pallets than many boxes....
• I don't think you have much finished product storage space - consider quantities / volumes / production time / # of runs to make your biz case work ... is there enough room?
• think about the workflow....how will materials be moved from delivery to storage to use? Same with product i.e. low wines, new make spirit, bottling, labeling, packaging bonded storage - shipping dock? that may result in rearranging the layout to be more efficient
• I note the MLT so assume you're doing all grain - what about spent grain handling & waste management especially water? Also if doing AG where are you aging (assuming dark spirits)?

you don't have to answer them, here, but you might want to consider them as an impartial 3rd parties 1st impressions

CothermanDistilling

All your questions have been answered to the various city folks and my DSP consultant.... but hey, good for the community

5= 5 gallon barrel, d=still, mf= mash fermenter
security is security, don't want to go into too much detail and get off topic here, but if you are concerned, hire a TTB consultant, everything I am doing is approved through one before the DSP gets sent in... in summary, a chain link fence can secure a million gallon tank outside with the right padlock, so inside with a glass door is a non-issue in comparison... if it has a 5-pin key retaining lock... and you have a bond to 'protect their revenue'... again, have a DSP consultant write your application if you do not want to have back and forth at 30-60 days a pop...

bottling and labeling are ironically done on the table marked for 'bottling and labeling' in the bonded area...

raw ingredients (grain, botanicals for gin, etc..) are stored in the gift shop as displays. FYI, the gift shop excluded from the DSP general premises so that we can sell spirits from it.

Again - everything I am doing is approved (and written explanations provided in my DSP application) by a guy with 30 years in the ATF/TTB

We are in a touristy area, HUGE daily walking traffic on a 60 mile walking/bike trail, in a art district, community redevelopment district, on the Gulf of Mexico (I am 500ft), etc... we are starting ultra small to perfect recipes, basically do the things that a homebrewer can do legally for a couple years before making the jump. We will not be having full pallets of full bottles at this time, when it gets to that point, hopefully in a couple years, we expand to the back section of the building by going to a 1000L steam powered beauty, and keep the front as the pilot/display system... we were lucky to meet the good ole boy that owned the building and have him sell it to us because he liked us(my wife really), but we spent our nut on the building and don't want to be owned by an investor to but $500k of new equipment... I am piecing together all the items that I can and saving 75% of that $500k... I just got a fork truck that now have $425 in total, but if I built our distillery like most people, that would not be an option, it would be 10x more...

I understand completely where you are coming from being applicable for most distilleries located in an industrial park, but we plan on being a boutique distillery with most product sold to tourists directly with Florida's new 2-bottle law.. if I sell 100 bottles a month for the first year, I am happy... I can workflow 100 bottles... I realize 100 bottles/mo may offend some with a more aggressive business plan, but wife and I have great jobs that are flexible on time, I could actually do my day job sitting next to the still for 8 hours a day.. in fact, I am on a really boring conference call while typing this and sending my bond information to the TTB consultant....

spent grain goes to the same farmers the two breweries within a stones throw go... and maybe i get a pig for the pig roast once a year...

barrel aging will be in the bonded area, we will bond an upstairs mezzanine area in the future and have a nice barrel room for ahem... quality control...

punkin

yeah, yeah get a pig. Do a couple a year for sure. I'd do it in a shot if i had room.

captainshooch

@CothermanDistilling great to hear things are going well for you. Now, you posted pics of some really tasty looking hog snappers and now is hog cookouts. Plus you have a job that lets you do both at the same time and a Mrs that sells her condo to help finance your ventures. I hate you....nah just kidding man, happy for you :-bd

Smaug

It is a good model. One that will let you have some breathing room while establishing some brand recognition and demand.

Lloyd

100 bottles a month? I bet you will sell more than 3 or 4 bottles a day.
Great on you for taking the leap and living the dream.

crozdog

@CothermanDistilling thanks for taking the time to answer. I was asking the q's as i do a lot of work on efficiencies in operations and processes. Your setup / layout makes sense now you have provided an over view of your operation - I was looking at things from the perspective that you were setting up a larger operation. FYI the comment about the glass was coming from the prespctive that someone could easily smash it thereby voiding security & being able to access the bonded area - again looking at things from a different perspective.

Good luck with things, it looks good & I would like to be doing what you are.

CothermanDistilling

@lloyd, I will be open about 1-2 day a week for 4 hours each, friday evening and saturday afternoon when the local art/craft/market is open a block a way.. sales will be on production limits, I will hold back enough from going into barrels to have something to sell, I guess I could always get a drum of NGS and make a big batch or apple pie ;-) I wonder how much the testing costs to accurately test the alcohol level to TTB standards.

Moonshine

What the !? @Smaug, can you get etho to explain that setup?

punkin

What a shame to cover up that pretty boiler with that panel.

Moonshine it's a 4 plate (6"?) column, looks like automated cuts controlled by solenoid valve to the 3 recieving tanks for heads, tails and hearts. Glass enclosed parrot ect. Obviously not pure SD but a very good looking hybrid of our parts and custom ones.

LoveTheWheelsPunkin

Smaug

Its set up for vacume

punkin

aaahhh

Lloyd

And no parrot, cuts are predetermined by volume.

Smaug

@Lloyd said: And no parrot, cuts are predetermined by volume.

That should make the nervous nellies loose there marbles for not sticking to dogma.......... Course if one is intimately familiar then volumes become SOP any who.....IMO.

CothermanDistilling

@smaug - didn't I mention vacuum (partial) a while back and got slapped?

FullySilenced

Times they are a changing..... @cothermandistilling smaug may think you like a slap every now and then.... ;))

CothermanDistilling

hey now! LOL... me thinks the vacuum pump hooks up to the stainless chamber in the middle with the 2" sight glass below it... so you know you are not sucking in liquid...

FullySilenced

I hope the owner shares a video of it running with a little detail here and there...

Smaug

@CothermanDistilling said: smaug - didn't I mention vacuum (partial) a while back and got slapped?

Who was slappin?

CothermanDistilling

actually, it was @Lloyd...

punkin

Musta been a gentle slappin, i don't recall it. We have to consider safety as a manufacturer, although we can't envisage everything people do with our modular components (and believe me they do some wacky things) we can only promote the equipment for it's intended design purposes. B-)

If we were to promote it as vacuum, we would have to certify it as a pressure vessel.

FullySilenced

@punkin or in this case a lack of pressure vessel :))

Lloyd

I think I was slapping myself as I don't really understand vacuum distillation.
The 6" components, especially the sight glass lenses, were never intended to be used with vacuum distillation. In normal use there is only the slightest pressure to contend with but implosion is a very real possibility under full vacuum (the customer told me he was using 3/4 vacuum - whatever that means?).
Making predefined cuts by volume is also a bit foreign to me but I suppose if you run the same recipe often enough you'd get the hang of it.

punkin

Yep the screw in lens tees would be a better bet, the glass is heaps thicker.

Smaug

Makes a purty pic no matter.

Etho explains that his client is happy as the original factory config was not at all drawing a comensurate result.

Law_Of_Ohms

I've used the standard SD sight glass with my vacuum pump. no problems.

I'll take some pics next time i set it up.