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Mobile distillery on the go
Howdy all,A friend asked me the question and I couldn’t find it so I’m asking for your help…Probably a stupid question and I’m guessing the answer is probably no, but i couldnt find the why and I couldn’t find it in the TTB regs… Would a mobile distiller like some of the traveling distillers in France fly in the the US? The distiller is not fermenting, they wouldn’t be responsible for sales, that would be up to the brewery or vineyard to have the necessary permits. I don’t see any reason it shouldn’t be allowed, so that generally means I’m missing something obvious… I’d appreciate any help or if you could point me in the right direction. Thanks
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6 Replies
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We do distillation training and guest distillation services for clients. As long as the distillery that is receiving the training is completely legal, it doesn’t matter who does the distillations there.
The main thing is that accurate records are kept of materials coming in, distillate being generated, what is stored, bottled and sold. Those are all up the the distillery itself.
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Thanks for that.
For the traveling distiller there would be no permits necessary? Ie the show up with a still in a trailer/box truck, etc.
Would the vinyard/brewery be set up as a nondistiller producer since they are contracting out the distillation?
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Oh I see you are talking about bringing a portable Distillery setup with you to distill with?That’s not a very feasible concept. The logistics of moving a distillation setup of any size just doesn’t make sense.I mean maybe you could bring a 100 gallon still or something like that with you, but then you have to deal with all of the setup/breakdown and fuel costs. And they would still have to deal with the legalities of it all.But to do any sort of meaningful production would require an expensive setup that wouldn’t be recouped for a really long time.
If a brewery/vineyard wanted to have some distilled products, it would be much easier just to amend their permitting to allow for a small still and do it in house.
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Thanks Kindred, yes mobile like the traveling distillers in france that do brandy, calvados, and armagnac.
I understand this is not anywhere near an ideal business plan. I was just curious about the legality of it.
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Hey there!
Not a dumb question at all. Bringing a mobile distiller to the US would be tricky. The main issue is that even if they’re not handling sales or fermentation, they’d still need to comply with TTB regulations and state laws. The brewery or vineyard hosting them would need to have the right permits. As @Kindred Spirits mentioned, the logistics of moving and setting up a distillation setup are pretty complex and expensive, so it’s usually more practical for the facility to just get the proper permits and do it in-house.
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Fair enough. Thanks all, I appreciate it!
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