Questions to Answer When Deciding on What Still to Order for Your Distillery

Everyone's starting point is different. Some are expanding from brewing to distilling and will have a good baseline. Some will work at another winery and are ready to take the plunge and start their own winery. When others are just beginning their winemaking journey, they need help every step of the way. This is the general order, but all topics are critical to the decision-making process. let's start.

1. What distilled spirits do you want to make? Whiskey, Moonshine, Bourbon, Gin, Vodka, Brandy, Absinthe, etc.

2. How much of each spirit do you want to make? Prove gallons or barrels on a daily, weekly, monthly or yearly basis.

3. Are you distilling or brewing now?

4. Is this your first winery?

5. How much do you want to work? Think operations and production. The answer to this question is not as simple as you might think. There are a few things to consider here.

• How many days per week do you distill?

• How many shifts for B—one, two, or three?

• How long is each shift

• a shift of 100,000 proof gallons per year?

• 100,000 proof gallons per year for four different products.

6. Would you make bourbon or whisky?

• How many barrels per day?

• A 1,000-gallon tank can produce approximately 2 barrels of beer per day, while a continuous run of 1,000 gallons of beer can produce 2.3 barrels of beer per day. Depends on the ABV of the beer.

• If producing more than 2 barrels per day, consider continuous column stills vs batch pot stills

• If producing 1 to 2 barrels per day, then still stick to batch pots

• If producing more than 2 barrels per day, consider moving to a continuous column

7. Will you be running a sweet or sour mash process?

100 years ago, creating an experience for visitors might not have been important, but in today's winery tourism environment, the appearance of equipment is very important. Customers want to see bubbling mash and a nice steam still in the fermenter.

Copper or stainless steel? Do you prefer a copper color that still has a natural luster after years of use, or a polished to a mirror-like finish? Are you in a historic building or area, wanting to stay true to the fabric of your community, or in an urban setting and want to attract a group of people who go wild on social media to post, share, rate, and comment on your winery.

"If you're not putting on a show every day for visitors, you can have a 12-inch column 1 day a week instead of a pot 5 days a week. You'll produce a better, more consistent product, and you All buckets can be filled one or two days a week.”

Copper beer brewing equipment on display

8. Have you already selected a site?

9. Do you own properties and buildings or rent them out?

• If you think you might be moving soon, the setup costs can be quite substantial

• Is this a long-term or short-term position?

• Will you start production and move to another location?

• Ready to move your anti-skid system? Consider a portable system built on a skateboard with major components picked up and moved around on a flatbed truck.

10. Buildings - What kind of buildings will be home to your winery?

• existing structure

First floor, second floor or something?

Can it withstand the weight of the device when fully loaded? A fully loaded 10,000-gallon mash tank can weigh more than 40 tons.

Ceiling height restrictions? equipment maximum height?

Can you lift the roof to accommodate a continuous column?

Access point - still from the roof? Drive by forklift?

Neighbors - Will delivery trucks have direct access to your brewery during construction and daily operations after?

History - Are you considered a National Historic Site? That's fine, but it often changes the rules of what you can and can't do to modify an existing structure.

What state are you in? Local, city and state regulations vary by location.

Is it a stand-alone building or is it a location with other retail outlets like restaurants or apartments? Fire detection and suppression must be considered in every situation.

Import and export of dry goods

• new building

high

How many square feet are in the building

room for expansion?

Is it already designed or can you change it based on the distillation equipment recommendation?

Copper alcohol distillation equipment on display

11. What utilities do you have available?

• water

city, river, creek, well, geothermal

What is the flow rate? At least 6 gal/min.

What is the average temperature? Heating and cooling with water is an important part of the distillation process.

• vitality

Natural gas or propane

Electric – single-phase, three-phase, 230 V, 460 V

Firewood or Coal?

12.Will you mill grain or buy pre-milled grain?

13.What are you going to do with all this used grain and used water?

• Can sewage be discharged directly into the urban sewage system?

• Will they charge you for waste discharge

• Do you send used grain to local farmers? How much residual oil do you need to hold before you have to stop production? What if the farmer doesn't show up?

• Do you partially dry the grains before delivery

14.Which wineries have you visited? Anything that stands out you want to copy or avoid?

15.Special features - copper, stainless steel, glass, alcohol safe, etc.