Monday, October 19, 2009

Distillery Set-Up Weekend

It has been a while since I posted on the blog. Things have been so swamped with the business, that obviously, my priorities are elsewhere for the time being.

The boys and I spent a very wet weekend (45 degrees and a constant drizzle) in the distillery working. All day Saturday, we worked placing quick-release connectors on the new high-capacity carbon water filter. Then, after checking it for leaks, we moved on to getting the barrels cleaned out and placed on some support timbers.

All day Sunday, I worked on the federal DSP permit, which is nearly ready to submit. We just need a firm date for when the still will arrive to send it off. The federal permit is enormous--over 110 pages in our case, which we have to file in duplicate. I am amused that the first page of the federal permit extols the virtues of the Paperwork Reduction Act before instructing that all filings must be in duplicate.

Our filing contains the basic forms for permitting, background checks, surety bonds, environmental considerations, water quality considerations, plus supplemental information about our processes, the legal descriptions and plats of the land, the site plan, our security measures, our accounting procedures, five months of bank records, our lease, promissory note, articles of organization, operating agreement, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. The application packet is a monster!

Fortunately, FedEx Office (formerly Kinkos) makes easy work of organizing and printing it all. They have a convenient online tool that allows you to upload PDF files, choose paper size, paper type, binding, sorting, folding, etc., and then preview it all online, and print it to your nearest FedEx Office location. Our order was ready the same day, within about three hours of my uploading it. What's more, it only cost about $30, which for 330 pages, is cheaper than I could have printed it at home.

The next step, after getting the still in place, will be to have a signing party between Becky and me, and then send all this stuff to Cincinnati before the holidays begin, when all federal activities slow to a crawl.

We are still hopeful to have an approved application before the year ends.

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