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Craft Distillery for Sale $20

Well that got your attention.

In China, distillation for personal use is not regulated. Nada, nope, nothing. Do as you please. Not that its legal or illegal but rather that its completely ignored at every level... it's like if you want to make your own shoes - no law against it but booze and shoes are so cheap why bother making your own? BUT if you want to SELL the booze you make, well, that's a whole other story!
You have to pay about $20 (depending on where you live because in a poor village its a lot cheaper than $20) to get the official permit that you can proudly hang on the wall. With permit in hand, very easy to get in only a day, you can now make and vend all the booze you can.

If you make more than 5,000 RMB (about $826 USD at today's exchange rate) per month in sales then you begin to pay a little tax.

I distill openly and often and no-one cares. At all.

Making $$ selling booze here is hard to do because the marketplace is flooded with cheap hooch. Sure, there is a booming market here for $200+ per liter swill but that takes centuries of massive advertising.

Just giving you a peek behind the bamboo curtain. *$20 Craft Distillery does not include equipment, recipes or customers - just the permit.

Comments

  • I'm in You got my attention

  • Ha, got a nibble from @cooperville :D

    I don't plan on opening a distillery here, just relating how crazy the personal distilling culture is from one country to another. In USA I hid all traces of my hobby but here I don't hide a thing. The still is always visible to anyone who cares to look, but they never do.
    My friends figure its part of my job to have the equipment but I'm sure they are being kind to a foreigner and his strange ways. After all, anyone that makes his own booze (or clothes or whatever) must be on the edge of crazy, right? 8-}

  • I'm in too! With a large scale crowd-funding endeavor it most likely should be possible to reach those $20. Investing a dime and one would be a proud shareholder of a Chinese distillery! I'm sure others with chime in as well. :O)

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  • If you had a distillery in China would it make it any easier to get one in the USA? as an international distiller? OR for any other country i wonder? Thinking outa the box....

  • I'll bet the regulations for importing alcohol to the U.S. are easier than making it in the U.S. Tax is probably the same.

    DAD... not yours.. ah, hell... I don't know...

  • @dad said: I'll bet the regulations for importing alcohol to the U.S. are easier than making it in the U.S. Tax is probably the same.

    Never thought about it dad but I'll bet you are correct. Real McCoy Rum out of Connecticut brings it in from Barbados. Master Distiller is an American so I'm told.

    StillDragon North America - Your StillDragon® Distributor for North America

  • Are you offering to broker Chinese DSP registrations? :)

  • I used to think the transport costs would kill such an idea, but now it is probably feasible.

    DAD... not yours.. ah, hell... I don't know...

  • edited January 2014

    @jbierling said: Are you offering to broker Chinese DSP registrations? :)

    Haha, no. Just showing the difference from one country to another where the same thing is cheap and easy or expensive and difficult.

    I found some really amazing pure corn whiskey here and traced it back to the distributor. We visited him and learned tons about the way things actually work.

    First off, there are about 3 or so GIANT distilleries in China and they do not sell to the public, nor do they make any cuts at all. They essentially sell low wines to their distributors in 10,000 liter SS totes. The distributors can select from sorghum, wheat, corn, etc...

    The distributor will then either process (re-distill) or ship to a sub-distributor for re-distillation. During the processing, cuts are taken, botanicals may be added, blending and aging may occur and finally it will be diluted to between 52 and 64% ABV (selling strength).

    The distributor or his sub can then vend to the many Mom and Pop liquor stores who may also add their own bit of processing.

    At every step, from the distributor to the Mom and Pop, there are usually large vats of fermenting rice to supplement the income. The first ferment from the rice is consumed as wine while the second and last ferment is distilled.

    At the distributor level, vast fortunes are made.

    image

    This is a picture we took of one of the distributor's subs. Notice the coal fired pot still at the back and the product jars. While we were visiting, there was a steady stream of retail customers stopping by to get their little jugs refilled.
    The adjoining room was full of rice wine fermenters and his license was displayed on the wall but I failed to photograph it.

    DSC07163.JPG
    800 x 450 - 90K
  • Looks like china rocks

  • @cooperville said: Looks like china rocks

    Well, it does help having half a billion heavy drinkers :))

  • Looks like my old shed \m/

  • I think I've heard similar distribution setups for vodka in Europe, but do any U.S. operators sell low wines and primary alcohols for refinement?

    I see this as a very interesting marketing scheme...I make three kinds of low wines and sell to craft distilleries that finish it as they see fit.

    DAD... not yours.. ah, hell... I don't know...

  • Search GNS (grain neutral spirits) it's available world wide as a base spirit i reckon. Raw material for distilleries.

    Cheap as chips even here in Aus, it'll be almost free in the states. :))

    StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand

  • @dad said: ... I see this as a very interesting marketing scheme...I make three kinds of low wines and sell to craft distilleries that finish it as they see fit.

    Interesting observation, dad, but I'm sure it's all about the economies of scale. Trains rolling in with grains and trains rolling out with animal food. Somewhere between the two is a massive mashing, fermenting and distillation operation.
    But you are so right for most of us, getting to the low wines stage is the hard part. The final spirit run is the fun part, for me at least.

    If I remember correctly, the distributor said the low wines that he gets from the giant distillery is about 55% ABV.

    A typical finished blend here will be mostly sorghum with lesser amounts of wheat, barley, corn and rice. Tempered to a finished ABV of around 52% or higher for a retail sale of around $1 to $3 per 500 grams (1/2 liter). And yes, it's often sold by weight because customers bring their own bottles to be refilled, BYOB? /:)

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