White whiskey/Moonshine marketing

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MDH
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Re: White whiskey/Moonshine marketing

Post by MDH »

You're in the right place. I haven't met them myself (yet...) but I recommend visiting James and Richard at Sons of Vancouver if you are on a budget. Seems like they're doing well for themselves, and I believe they were once members of this forum too.
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BaxtersDad
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Re: White whiskey/Moonshine marketing

Post by BaxtersDad »

Shovelhead,

I do not want to rain on your parade, and hope you will read this in the spirit I am offering it. I am 18 years down the pike from starting a microbrewery on a shoestring, and we are still going, so it can be done. Just offering some tidbits from our experience which may or may not be useful as you think about going forward with a distillery.

Of course you need a product, and so now is a good time to be experimenting on that part. Before I started my brewery, my partners and I did dozens and dozens of test batches on my homebrew equipment (which is now the pilot system in the brewery). Passion alone won't get you there, you also need a good product and a fair mastery of materials and techniques. We finally dialed in what would become out initial lineup of beers, and I assume you will be able to do that as well.

But please give serious consideration to planning for the business end of things. What are your capital needs to get get a distillery up and running? Be ruthless in preparing that spreadsheet, don't overlook anything. Of course, you need to provide equipment for mashing, fermenting and distilling. You will need barrels and racks if aged whiskey is part of the long term plan. But don't forget about installation, wiring and plumbing. Look at Odin's Dutch Courage Distillery thread to get an idea of fixtures and furiture finish for a distillery. Don't forget permits and licensing, hookup fees for water and sewer, anything you are going to need to pay to get started. So what is the total to just get up and running? Do you have the money yourself or the financial backing to install and open a reasonable distillery? i can tell you from personal experience that if you start on the cheap to "just get by," (we did) you will forever be playing catch up (we have been for years), and properly financed distilleries that start after you will zoom by you in success. Not saying you can't do it, but go into it with your eyes wide open. We opened our brewery for about $130,000, when we really should have had at least $500,000.

And then look really hard at the realities of operating a business. How much gross income can you project? OK, you start out selling white whiskey or gin and vodka, whatever. How much can you produce? How long will it take until you have product ready to sell? For a small brewery, it is actually pretty easy to project income, because if you are small, you can pretty much project selling everything you can produce, so you mulitply your selling price by what you can produce. But the rent, insurance, electricy, water, sewer, garbage, wages for employees, taxes, plus your initial stock of raw materials and bottles need to be on hand from day one. It is a brutal realiy that you have to project gross income, then deduct the cost of goods sold, which give you gross profit. Out of gross profit you need to pay all your fixed expenses and overhead. The bottom line is either positive, break even or negative. Unless it is positive, you will be working for free. Even if it is positive, will you make enough money to live on? And you neeed to have sufficient operating reserves until income catches up with outgo.

Now, we thought we were going to do the brewery part time. Due to dumb luck, an experienced professional brewer fell into our hands, which is the only reason we are still in business. He started at 6 a.m. every morning and was frequently not done until late in the evening. My partner and I initially did all the brewing, keg washing, keg filling, CIP, and janitorial work. Oh, yeah, and sales. After our brewer started a month into our venture, my partner looked at me and said "Tell me AGAIN how you and I were going to do all this in our spare time?" Getting that professional brewer probably saved two marriages. The moral, don't underestimate the labor required to operate any kind of a serious business.

This is NOT to discourage you! I had four partners, and the brewer became our sixth partner. None of us was wealthy and we did not have financial backers. So if you look at everything and decide it is feasible, GO for it!
Last edited by BaxtersDad on Wed Dec 09, 2015 5:58 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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LWTCS
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Re: White whiskey/Moonshine marketing

Post by LWTCS »

Duck your so spoilt for one thing.

But I would say that the distillation for the white whiskey should be pretty strict cuts. And absolutely AG. Ain't talking about white dog in the traditional sense of the word.

Blaum Brothers in Chicago does a wonderful job on their white whiskey. There is a few others. If I had a dollar to bet, I'd bet woodshed can make a pretty good white whiskey

Don't wait to start your barrel aging program though. That's where the money is.

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Shovelhead89
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Re: White whiskey/Moonshine marketing

Post by Shovelhead89 »

As I move further along with this, I am hesitant in using the term "moonshine" I've been searching for acceptable replacements in canada but am having trouble finding what I can use for my label other then I won't be able to use the term whiskey. FYI it will more a predominantly corn mash if that matters.
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Swedish Pride
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Re: White whiskey/Moonshine marketing

Post by Swedish Pride »

buy the rights to uniCORN sweat from MCH.
Don't be a dick
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