Welcome to StillDragon Europe!

FullySilenced

Well on the milk cans the top removes and you have an 8" hole...

Myles

:)) good point. forgot about that completely. OOPS!

Law_Of_Ohms

I use a 6in ferrule on my 50L keg, great size, can get your hands in to clean very easy, but can't stick your head thru it... 8in would allow for a visual inspection

SDeurope

Sorry for the late reply, we have all hands busy with finishing up our other business, and with our preparations.

The Austrian Farmer Edition is tricky, as the specifications in the Alcohol Tax Law do not allow any deviation, a two-boiler setup is out of question. The milk can type should stay at 50L, for 120L-150L that nice looking bowl type seems to be way better.

We have been at the large drinktec fair in Munich yesterday, and a very interesting idea has come up there. I'll have to further investigate before I can tell something, but it could be huge for farmers up to commercial micro distilleries.

I am sorry for the delay we are stuck in, but there are a lot of things which have to be considered and worked out before we can start selling SD equipment. We'll surely get there and you'll be the first to know ;)

harley

I do not know how the pricing of malting barley malted versus unmalted barley looks like in your country, but in Sweden it looks like this: 1kg unmalted barley direct from the farmer cost about 1,2 Swedish krone and 1kg malted barley from Swedish malt ( big malting factory) cost about 7,0 Swedish krone. So you se that it is a very big price difference. So my next project when my little destilleri is finish, is to build a malt “robot” that can fix barley to be malted in a size of about 4m3 at every time so a can make unmalted barley to be malted myself... I have already a skis/ drawing to first prototype in my head....

What du you think about this... can you se a market in EU for this solution maybe, there is a lot of money for the farmer to make and it,s all abot "local making" nowe here in sweden .... Lloyd maybe can fix production i kina of this "malt robot" when am finish with my prototyp and up and running with it... Cheers

Lloyd

What would be a good homeowner/hobbiest size, @harley? 1/2 cubic meter?
In USA fresh barley from the feed store (for animal feed) is very cheap but malted barley has a big price premium at the homebrew stores.

The few times I made all grain it seemed to attract every form of pest imaginable - mice, insects and snakes that wanted to eat the mice.

Myles

Just enough to make 1 run in the boiler.

The information I have for Irish whisky, was based on a 40 gallon copper boiler and they malted 224 lb barley and 28 lb oats.

If you were to do it yourself it would make sense to only malt enough to use. Storing it is an un-necessary headache.

cooperville

@harley i would be into a hobby size style malting 'Robot' i have been noticing the pinch on purchasing malt

SDeurope

Excellent idea! Malt was a huge topic at drinktec. Something to really be considered.

harley

Hobby sizes can we forget, For the cost of this malt "robot" in stainless is likely to be as high as it is only economically viable for large users, type distilleries and breweries, and of course the farmers who grow the malt so they get more paid for their work and products ...

Inner size of a freight container is that which determines the circumference of the round vessel and the height should only be somewhere between 1.5 to 1.8 meters in the vessel ... as big as possibel... There will also be a diesel-powered hot-air furnace can provide hot air with a good pressure up to 200 degrees and can be set between 100-200 degrees with good accuracy ... etc. ... and many farmers alredy have this typ of diesel warm air to dry there corn... so maybe theres old diesel hot air can work for then .. and obvious a fireplace for peat so they could make smoked malt barley also as accessories .. and yes all smoke from this shall go into the wessel... ;-)

Cheers

SDeurope

There should have been small farmer sized malting machinery at drinktec, but I did not see it (not enough time to check all the industrial stuff neither).

harley

This is am relly interested in, se if you can find who sell it or doing, it so a can take a look on there constuction and allso price of it ;-) This is the future in EU for farmers and the market is BIG, relly big....

Law_Of_Ohms

Malted barley from home brew shop... ~$50 per 20kg? unmalted, steam flaked from animal feed store = $15 for 20kg

harley

Do you nowe what the Farmer get when he sell unmalted barley to the big malting companys.... that is relly interessting becouse the price diff is relly big here in Sweden and a think that is same big diff in all othet country allso... so there is a lot of money to make for farmers, brewery, destillery and other peopel,,,,, but it must be big wessel so it can take 3-5m3 at time becouse it take about 5-10 days every batch ;-)

Myles

Any update on availability? I have cash in my account waiting to come your way!!!!! Myles

SDeurope

@Myles, I wish I had better news than just that everything is set in motion an progressing slowly. All I can say is that we'll definitely not be able to start before the beginning of the new year. A lot of uncertainties still ahead, nobody can tell how long our sea freight deliveries will be on their way once they have left China.

Lloyd

The boilers are now in production for @SDeurope and the fittings that go with them still have a week or two before the deadline closes in. After then its carved in stone and little else can be ordered for a few months.

If you are in the EU or a country close then by all means let @SDeurope know if you want something NOW so he can get it on this sea freight, cleared through customs and available to you before China shuts down during February. After this sea freight you are looking at around May delivery unless you want very expensive air freight.

Your EU distributor has had many start-up hurdles to jump through to get everything government approved so SD products can flow more freely into and around the EU. My hat off to him for his patience and persistance because it is not easy to do what he has done, even if it seems it has taken a long time.

I'm not usually wrong about such things and I do truly believe @SDeurope will infect all of Europe with the StillDragon modular still concept.

.

After that buildup, @SDeurope, you perform or make me look bad :))

SDeurope

@Lloyd, we are gonna make you proud! :) All thanks goes to @Lloyd of course, it has been a long and bumpy road so far, questions were piling up faster than they could be answered. We are progressing, and there is no doubt we are getting there. Looks like we have to add even more to our long items list, as more requests are coming in, we have to be well prepared to not run out of stock too soon.

Lloyd

@SDeurope, running out of stock is the way of life with StillDragon.
It is not possible to predict what everyone wants but your product list to build for you should have the basics covered. I figure it will take about a year for you to have your ready-to-sell inventory needs nailed down.

Sadly I thought the same for USA but after almost 2 years we still have supply problems. The beer making community got turned onto element guards there and put our sales database/prediction on its ear. We had a run on element guards that caught us with our pants down.
One month its bubble caps, the next its sight glass kits, then its element guards... even with almost 2 years of sales history it is hard to predict the needs of the inventory needed.

And someone posts a bright idea and suddenly there is a run on a certain product. That happens about once a month or so. If they would give me 3 or 4 month's heads up that would be cool so I could get it produced and sea freighted but that never happens. Instead we run out, emergency express to COA (cover our a*s) and over-compensate on the next sea freight.

Sea freight keeps the costs low but expensive express delivery keeps the customers from rioting when you run out of bubble caps, 4" copper plates and downcomers. More than once Smaug and Punkin have anxiously awaited an express after receiving a huge sea freight to fill backorders.

I doubt that many of your customers ever know what you do in the background to get SD products available to them and that goes for every StillDragon distributor. It is a huge effort to get the right blend of goods ordered, produced, inspected, boxed, crated, trucked, containered, shipped across an ocean, cleared through customs, government forms filled out and taxes paid, more trucking and warehouse fees and FINALLY able to sell and box for our customers at a fair and decent price.

It takes dedication, attention to detail and an unerring desire to give the best possible goods and service at the best possible price to our customers for us to have continued success. Your actions so far have already made us proud @SDeurope. Now its time for SD goods to flow across Europe and Russia. We really do live in exciting times and I thank you for being a major part of it.

Ya'll ain't seen nothing yet. Imagine the things we can do together in the coming years.

Myles

I think it is all you fault Lloyd. I used to have a plan for my "ideal" still room with 3 simple stills - well perhaps four ;)

Anyhow you keep bringing out new stuff that I look at and think - hey I can miss-use that in my own stills. Can you stop for a bit so I can at least finish the gear I have!!!!

ikonos

Awaiting launch day!!! Any update?

SDeurope

@ikonos said: Awaiting launch day!!!

Me too :)

The latest update on our situation:

We are not operational yet, as we are still missing the goods to fill our warehouse. We already take non-binding advance orders, but unfortunately we can not tell any prices yet (we strive to stay as close to the US prices as possible), and we will not be able to start shipping before sometime after the beginning of the new year, so after our first large sea freight delivery has arrived. At start we will have most common items in 2" and 4" in stock, as well as a selection of 50L / 70L / 150L boilers to suit local needs. Anything larger will either be stocked later as demand can be determined or built to customer specifications (boilers).

We already have quite a list of interested parties, and if you want to be informed by e-mail as well once we are ready for action, just send an e-mail to info @ stillragon . eu.

I'm confident it will be worth the wait. It has been a PITA for @Lloyd and @smaug to fulfill individual shipments to our part of the world, not to mention after-sales support which just can't be done reasonably from overseas. Just bear with us, you will not be disappointed. ;)

djaponov

We are wating for yor. When are you going to open?! Do you think that shipping cost gona be less? I'm in Cyprus and want to odrer Dash 1. Thanks

SDeurope

Hi @djaponov, sorry for the delay, I have just answered your PM (I've not always been logged on to the forum, and for some reason I did not get a notification about new PMs by e-mail). Our initial shipment should still be about 2 to 3 weeks away, so there is not much we can do right now than to drink some booze and wait.

Grip

Hi @SDEurope. I look forward to dealing with you, not that I've ever had a problem with Lloyd, but contact in this part of the world will be useful.

Myles

Well folks I just sent SDEurope the funds for my outstanding pre-order. So if you had pre-orders in with him, then he will probably be in contact soon.

Not sure when the main shop will be on-line but hopefully it will be soon.

Sorry Lloyd but I have bad news - he is already out of stock of 3" brass ferrules. I needed them for my own personal build. :)) :)) :bz

SDeurope

Yes, interestingly two items are already out of stock before we even were able to list them... :-O At least we could manage to make some photos before these were packaged. ;)

It's not that our initial shipment was a small one, but squeezing it all in was difficult at best without any prognoses on demand here in Europe just by analyzing sales in the U.S.

The first few urgent advance orders have already been prepared for shipping, and we are slowly progressing through the already long list of inquiries, I am sorry having to ask you (the interested party) for a little more patience.

The launch of our website had to be delayed, there is a new change in mailorder law coming up which a software update is supposed to accommodate within the next two weeks. Hopefully we are able to flip the switch soon, it will be announced when the time has come.

Myles

Well folks SWMBO has told me that my order arrived and has been put in my workshop. Nice easy delivery with no extra charges.

All I need now is some time at home to actually build my new column. :)

daniels999

Can you advise if Stilldragon products are CE marked/approved please as I am looking to kit out a commercial boutique distillery. Many thanks

FullySilenced

Not all products need CE marking to be traded in the EC; only product categories subject to relevant directives are required (and allowed) to bear CE marking. Most CE-marked products can be placed on the market subject only to an internal production control by the manufacturer (Module A; see Self-certification, below), with no independent check of the conformity of the product with EU legislation; ANEC has cautioned that, amongst other things, CE marking cannot be considered a "safety mark" for consumers.[5]

Retailers sometimes refer to products as "CE approved", but the mark does not actually signify approval. Certain categories of products require type-testing by an independent body to ensure conformity with relevant technical standards, but CE-marking in itself does not certify that this has been done.

I could not find a category for modular food or distillation pieces.

But I am not in europe either...