Understanding Spirit Operations
In contrast to wine, spirits have a much higher alcohol content. Because of their high alcohol content, spirits have legal reporting requirements. The producer is required to track measured, adjusted, and absolute volumes. Spirit volumes are reported as proof gallons in the United States or as litres absolute alcohol (LAL) in Australia. This value is used to calculate taxes and duties on alcohol. Spirits can be blended with each other, but they can also be blended with wine in a process called fortification.
For spirit operations, the system does not provide special base operations. However, you must set up separate configured operations for spirit operations, such as configured tank-to-tank, shipping, receiving, and transfer operations. When you set up configured spirit operations, you must specify a To After material type. For tank-to-tank operations, for example, this setting is important because it indicates whether you are using the operation to move a spirit into a spirit vessel or into a vessel containing wine. You can move spirits into vessels that contain blend lots with a non-spirit material type, and vice versa.
For any operation that involves spirits, you must ensure that the Perform Survey Measure check box on the Operation Header form is selected. The selection for the Perform After Measure field cannot be Do Not Measure.
When you enter a bill of lading for spirits, you must enter an EUR, but you do not have to enter composition information.
For configured spirit operations that move spirits into a vessel containing wine, you also select the Fortification option. This setting enables the system to retrieve fortification operations for the Fortification report (R31B70).
To perform spirit operations, you must select vessels that are approved for spirits. To approve a tank for spirits, you select the Spirit Approved option when you set up the tank in the Tank Master program (P31B08).
When you select a vessel containing spirits, the Temperature, Temperature Unit of Measure, and Gauging Document Number fields are enabled. You must enter a temperature and unit of measure when you enter actuals for a spirit operation. The system uses the temperature unit of measure that you set up in the facility constants as the default value for the operation.
For in-place operations, the system displays temperatures on the In Place tab for the From vessel containing spirits. For move operations, the system displays temperatures on the Move Details tab for the From and To vessels that contain spirits. When you fortify wine, the system displays temperatures on the Move Detail tab for the From vessel.
If you use single vessel entry, the system displays the temperature, unit of measure, and gauging document number in the Single Before Vessel area of the form as well.
For external receiving operations, you enter the temperature, unit of measure, and gauging document number on the Bill of Lading Details form. You record only one temperature per bill of lading. The system uses the temperature that you enter as the default temperature for the After lot. You can enter the temperature on the bill of lading only for an external receipt of spirits. If you create a receiving operation for a transfer between blend facilities, you cannot enter a temperature. The system automatically displays volumes at standard temperature. For any other bill of lading operations involving spirits, the bill of lading header does not display the temperature, temperature unit of measure, and gauging document number.
You must enter a gauging document number for any To or From vessel that contains a spirit. The system does not generate this number; you must enter it manually before closing an operation. The system stores the gauging document number in the Operation Vessel Assignments table (F31B70).
Because the volume of alcohol fluctuates when the ambient temperature changes, you have to measure and enter the ambient temperature for each spirit operation and vessel. You typically enter temperatures at the same time as actual quantities and dips. You must have entered the ambient temperature when entering actuals for a spirit operation. If you enter an actual dip or move value for a vessel containing spirits, but no temperature, the system issues an error message.
To close an operation that uses a vessel containing a spirit, you must enter actual values for each vessel containing a spirit; otherwise, the system issues an error message. If the From vessel contains a spirit, you must enter an actual From After value. If the To vessel contains a spirit, you must enter an actual To After value. To close a spirit operation, each vessel containing a spirit must have a gauging document number.
The system displays the actual volumes for all volumes at ambient temperature. The only exception is the bill of lading, which displays spirit volumes at standard temperature.
Based on the temperature conversion chart that you set up for a spirit material type, the system calculates volume adjustments for the standard temperature of the type of spirit. The system displays all lot and planned volumes at standard temperature, for example on the Instruct Lot Attributes form and the View Wine Lots form. EUR and compositions calculations are based on the spirit volume after the conversion to standard temperature.
Depending on the setup in the facility constants, the system calculates and displays spirit volume either as alcohol volume or as proof volume on the Instruct Lot Attributes form and the View Wine Lot Details form. The system does not calculate spirit volumes if you did not set up a QA alcohol attribute in the winery constants. If no QA alcohol results exist for an operation and a vessel, the system does not calculate the spirit volume.
To calculate spirit volumes at standard temperatures, the system needs an alcohol percentage to retrieve the correct conversion rate from the temperature conversion chart. The system assumes that the QA alcohol percentage of the From After lot cannot change or be different from the QA alcohol percentage of the From Before lot. Because the QA alcohol percentage of the To After lot is unknown if the To vessel already contains a spirit, the system uses the QA alcohol percentage of the To Before lot to determine which temperature conversion rate to use for calculating the actual volume at standard temperature.
If the To vessel is empty or does not have a QA alcohol attribute, the system uses the QA alcohol percentage of the From Before lot to determine the temperature conversion rate. Normally, the system uses the QA blending rules to determine the QA alcohol percentage of the To After lot. However, because the typical QA alcohol blending rule is AVERG, the system cannot use this blended value to calculate the spirit volume of the To After lot when the To vessel was empty.