How to get started distilling whiskey?

n1st

With Barley, shed space and spring water at my disposal where would one start?

Objective would be a very small whiskey distillery in 20 years time i.e. very small something like 200 bottles per year of great quality whiskey.

The Hill Billy

Your first step would be to apply to the Revenue for a manufacturers licence. AFAIK it is illegal to distill spirits without such a licence. I'll move this to Entrepreneurial & Business Management as you'll get better advice on starting a business in that forum.

tHB

dbran

Hi

Even a very small whiskey distillery will require a significant amount of capital and investment as it will be essential that the quality of the product is there.

I understand that it takes 5 years before a good whiskey can even begin to sold and the distilling process is fully complete. The longer it is left the better the quality. So that means a significant amount of investment in the product in terms of time and money. I do not think that the "little shack and mountain stream" idea would cut it other then as a marketing/branding exercise.

Also, 200 bottles a year will just not be viable as a business, more of a hobby. Just do even the basic numbers and you will see that.

Best of luck.

dbran

L1011

200 bottles a year would be vastly below the minimum still capacity Revenue will licence even if you ran one wash a year.

n1st

Very good.
What would be adequate volume after 5 years?

Does all of the equipment need to be stainless steel etc?

In 10s of thousands of euros what would be a rough figure to get the minimum volume in place?

L1011

n1st wrote: »

Does all of the equipment need to be stainless steel etc?

Your stills pretty much have to be copper - which is incredibly expensive

To get a Revenue licence without an exception being made you need a still capacity of 1800l. This means that one wash through is likely to produce about 90l of pure alcohol from a normal mash, or 320 bottles at 40%.

You are probably looking at the guts of a million on equipment alone, at the low end. This would almost certainly be below capacity to ever make a return on it; and would be rather labour intensive too.

BeerNut

L1011 wrote: »

200 bottles a year would be vastly below the minimum still capacity Revenue will licence even if you ran one wash a year.

From what I'm hearing, it's not that hard to get an exemption to that requirement. That's how all the new microdistilleries are managing it.

OP, making whiskey is probably not the best way into the whiskey business. Everybody else starts by commissioning somebody to make a whiskey to get their brand built and some money in the coffers. If I was serious about wanting to make whiskey I'd probably go and get a degree at Heriot-Watt and/or a job at an established distillery. With the best will in the world I doubt that high-end whiskey is something you can learn to make off your own bat. It's not like beer in that regard.

pedroeibar1

n1st wrote: »

With Barley, shed space and spring water at my disposal where would one start?

Not a great question. There are thousands out there with an aul shed, barley and a spring well, including meself! The real question is "How much money do I need?" which is more than a lot! There are few with the cash and patience to await a r o i. Look at the Whiskey/Gin/Vodka guys in Dingle, they also have a whiskey school that runs a short course on how the product is made.

n1st

Thanks for the answers.

Doesn't look promising.

BeerNut

Make beer instead. Sure that's half way there

L1011

BeerNut wrote: »

From what I'm hearing, it's not that hard to get an exemption to that requirement. That's how all the new microdistilleries are managing it..

That is something I'm hoping for myself...

If you want to go down the hobbyist route, its just not practical. If you want to go down the commercial route you still need a hefty wodge of cash and probably also need to sell non-whiskey distilled products while your first few years are ageing; like Dingle are.

thecommander

L1011 wrote: »

you still need a hefty wodge of cash...

€44m
http://www.irishtimes.com/business/agribusiness-and-food/jack-daniel-s-firm-to-build-44m-distillery-at-slane-castle-1.2235658#.VW9MuQEQzrC.twitter

pedroeibar1

thecommander wrote: »

€44m

Put’s it in perspective really, $44 mil upfront and 25 permanent jobs. (BUT one of them is for a guy who brings a title and a castellated address to help the brand.) That's about €1.75 mill per job, compared to Enterprise Ireland's €15 k (tops) per job created.

A hobby distillery (provided Revenue permits could be obtained) could be done on the French model. In both Normandy and Burgundy there are mobile stills, where a truck with apparatus rocks up, takes your cidre and makes Calvados or the lees/marc from your vats and makes Marc or Grappa. Boudin & saucisses cooked while they were processing it, baguettes and a noisette, all before work.. Happy memories. (Not sure that black pudding and the breakfast roll would produce the same atmosphere or result!)
If you want to do it on your own, remember that the acetone and methanol come off first from the still, at fairly low temperatures, so they are easily segregated and discarded. Drink that stuff (even in small quantities) and you will go blind.:eek:

L1011

thecommander wrote: »

€44m
http://www.irishtimes.com/business/agribusiness-and-food/jack-daniel-s-firm-to-build-44m-distillery-at-slane-castle-1.2235658#.VW9MuQEQzrC.twitter

One of the new scotch distilleries did it for "only" 10.5m sterling. A lot of both are building costs and automation etc but that's needed to be in any way cost efficient

BeerNut

I bet Blackwater Distillery didn't spend anything near that. I reckon it's much closer to the OP's idea.

jimmii

This article suggests Teelings were looking at a €10m investment that would produce 500k litres a year.

Beer definitely looks a better option! There was an interview with the GBB guys in the Sunday Times (behind a pay wall) a few weeks back they spent around €350kish on their new brewery a few years back.

delahuntv

With a few new distilleries open and the OP seems to have a strong interest in the area, would an option not be to work in one of these new distilleries and learn the trade and even, if the opportunity arises, make your own signature whisley as part of their line up?

The dingle distillery would be one place I'd look at as the founders are very much into doing things differently (same guys as porterhouse beer) - also dingle is a great place to live as a bonus!