Moving on up!

Place for craft/micro distillers in all stages of build to show and share.

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glenlyon
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Re: Moving on up!

Post by glenlyon »

Oldvine Zin wrote:Is there public moorage at the Roberts Creek pier
Sorry, the marina is at Gibsons, not Roberts Creek. There is a pier but I'm not certain as to whether or not there is an actual moorage available.
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Oldvine Zin
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Re: Moving on up!

Post by Oldvine Zin »

glenlyon wrote:Hello,


In the meantime, indeed, I am being faced with my first real 'nightmare' which is eating up a lot of valuable energy. I have a neighbor who has turned into a total asshole, completely objects to what we're doing and is harassing us at every turn. Everything from excessively loud music being played at us, cameras trained on our every move and threats, legal and otherwise.

I'm trying to play it as cool as possible but it's becoming very hard. Ideas anyone?
Maybe an one on one conversation to find out what their real objections to your endeavor, and then work from that. Happy neighbors can be an asset to your plan.

OVZ
glenlyon
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Re: Moving on up!

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Oldvine Zin wrote:Maybe an one on one conversation to find out what their real objections to your endeavor, and then work from that. Happy neighbors can be an asset to your plan.
Good advice, but sadly we're already past that point. Very recent developments are looking very bad. Inevitably, I see a courtroom in my future.
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glenlyon
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Re: Moving on up!

Post by glenlyon »

Although the pics are still eluding me, checkout our Instagram account @bruinwooddistillery. There are some pictures there as well as a variety of feedback about our products.

Our website does admittedly suck very badly. Sucks, sucks, sucks. However, we haven't done much with it because we're already selling everything we can produce so there is no pressure to improve. Hopefully after Christmas we can move on that.
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glenlyon
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Re: Moving on up!

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It’s been a while since I’ve been able to take a break and actually write something. And, today, as always, it seems, another action packed day. It started off with a big international sale to Japan – wahoo! Then, even though we are closed on Thursdays, suddenly guests started arriving. Normally, I would be thrilled about this, but - they bought up everything I had! Now my shelves are skint going in what I know is going to be a big weekend! Aya!

Just to quickly reiterate, much to the shock and consternation of our respective families, we opened a 1000 sqf. distillery on our farm about 15 months ago, after a two year rezoning and building process. At the time, there was one other open distillery in our area and another poised to open. (in fact, they have only just opened a few weeks ago after almost two years of struggle. But, that’s another story.)

During the first month or so of being open it was quiet for sure. We did some advertising and put out a few signs. People started trickling in – and then, a stroke of luck (sort of), a bunch of forest fires broke out in the interior of the province. Bad for them, but great for us as it drove the tourists into our fire-free zone and from then on we were slammed until Christmas. We barely crawled over the finish line after selling close to 4,000 bottles of our spirits.

As luck would have it, we were snowed in for all of January and a bit of February, so I took advantage of the time and distilled up a storm and bottled up what I thought would be enough to last well into the spring. However, by April my stock pile was sadly depleted - way faster than I anticipated. So, back to the stills. Note: I have an assortment of stills ranging from 20L to 250L and one or more of them run almost every day.

Then later in April, we attended a big craft distiller’s tasting in Vancouver. A really well done event featuring 40 BC distilleries and 600 guests. Because we were new on the block the first 10 minutes or so were kinda sad. Only a few hardy souls were prepared to risk a new taste. But after doling out a few tastes of our Advocaat, we were suddenly the hit of the ball and we won the audience choice award for best liqueur. Awesome. Since then we have sold a shitload of Advocaat.

In May we struck again with another hit, our Rhubarb Gin. I sold out the entire run in about three weeks and I still have people coming in looking for it and trying to reserve for next year, It was a very tasty number inspired by last year’s customers telling us about English rhubarb gin and a generous local farmer with an abundant patch!

(Spurred on, I’ve got a new Blackcurrant Gin coming out in a week or so. I’m just waiting for the labels. I expect it to sell out very fast as well.)

Summers almost finished and we are now looking forward to the busy fall schedule – it’s jam packed with events right up until Christmas… Must keep stilling…

Check out our Instagram account at @bruinwooddistillery to get a glimpse of our venture – and to hear about some of the new spirits we have upcoming – or, if you are in the area, please stop by.
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glenlyon
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Re: Moving on up!

Post by glenlyon »

Hiya,
Been a while since I've been around. This is the first sorta quiet week I've had in months. Just finishing up a rye mash.
So we've just finished up our second season. I thought it might be fun to sum things up as I sip on my espresso vodka - one of our products.
Contrary to popular expectation, we made a profit in our first year. Not a huge amount, but a profit none the less.
This year our business has grown by about 300% and we are on track to make a healthy profit again. So, pretty happy about that.
Next year's projections looks great - I expect we'll double in sales this upcoming year.
One of our fun est projects was the Pechuga. I saw it mentioned on this forum and then I made one and released it, thinking no one would be interested. Sold out in a few weeks! Crazy.
I figure since we opened we've sold about 13,000+ bottles.
So, it is possible to have a successful small distillery if you make a good product, deliver great customer service and work hard.
:)
Glen
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cob
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Re: Moving on up!

Post by cob »

good new congratulations are in order. how long before you can buy out your a$$hole neighbors and expand?
be water my friend
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madspeed
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Re: Moving on up!

Post by madspeed »

Thanks for the update post, its very encouraging hearing you are doing well
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