Roger

Sys- I get your drift, but I will offer an alternative view. in my previous company we paid an individual just under $300,000- for an inhouse consultation to assist us with some specific marketing ideas that were relative to our business, that she had been successful with in her term as the president of marketing for a like firm prior to her retirement. It was well worth it for us to do so, and we were glad we paid for it. But in your case you have admittedly no knowledge of the industry, and are attempting to gain said knowledge for free from professionals (both what has worked and what hasn't) so that you can build a knowledge base to then sell on the open market. I absolutely commend you on your effort, and I really mean that. However I can't imagine any particular company would reveal specific marketing successes freely, for someone to then resell. All of that said, the best way for any company to research what is working, is to look at the offerings and marketing concepts of like companies. In fact I will give you the one bit of advise that we paid heavily for: if you see something that a lot of companies are doing, do the same thing. Then do something else to individualize or brand your company so it stands out, but rely on the sales of those products that everybody else in your space sells. It seems pretty simple, and it is, but oftentimes companies try too hard to be different, and they lose the potential revenue stream from more mainstream offerings.

Sis- what exactly are you attempting to do: open your own distillery, or charge "clients" for the marketing information you obtain for free from this forum? It seems like if you are after marketing tips that you can then "sell" you may very well hit a wall As for B2B, vs B2C, perhaps you should keep in mind that B2B has no actual value without C. Essentially what you are looking for is B2CViaB. This is then quite simple for a regional product: Story / label / price point for bottle #1. Quality of product for every bottle thereafter, as B2B will fail automatically regardless of Story/label/price point, if C doesn't repurchase.

I just checked your Florida building codes, and like NY , you are F1. The only difference is that FL beverages can be up to 16 % and still be F2, vs NY where F1 occupancy kicks in at over 12%.

This thread is hysterical. I am also the lawyer for the estate of the deposed ex president of Zimbabwe , and need your bank account routing number so I can send you 50% of the looted treasury.

True,True, as they say in the islands, however depending on your facility size, and the size of your "on premiss bar" in relation to your total size (I.e. 10% or less per floor) you may have an ancillary carve out for IBC purposes, provided you do not have an H designation on that floor. Example: 2000 sq ft distillery, 1000 square feet tasting and retail, 300 sq feet bar/lounge.

We have been advised that the tasting room, is M, under the IBC, I.e. a liquor store, and further, "tasting" is really noting but an ancillary or accessory activity associated with the sales of merchandise. Especially in so far as many people don't even taste what they buy at that time.

I thought in my past research somewhere I read that prior to prohibition, light/white whiskey was the number one drink in the US, and was primarily the "mixing spirit" of choice. Sometime after or around the time prohibition ended, vodka, perhaps it was Schmirnoff was sold to a new buyer who sold it hard into the US market, and it replaced light whiskey as the predominate American mixing spirit. White / light whiskey never recovered its market position as a universal mixer spirit. Seems like a market that's waiting for good product and associated smart marketing.

Nor is there an "e" but that's also just scemantics

Perhaps I didn't say it correctly, but isn't this Exactly the same as Canadian Club ? It's not a negative comment, it's the difference between how the US and Canada defines and allows for the production of whisky/whiskey. The Canadian whiskeys are allowed to be distilled up the azeotrope, and then blended for "flavor". A small amount of corn/rye lower proof distillate is blended with NGS / NSG, and it produces what is known worldwide as light whiskey. Whereas in the US it can't be done that way and called "whiskey". This guys "new idea" is just re-branding a 150 year old process, for Snookie

http://www.lakedistilling.com/ Talk to Dave Nice people

It's just Canadian Club . Ehe ?

Not that I really care either way, but one wouldn't say: Territory Neutral, or Journalist Neutral. In fact I can't think of any use of the noun/adjective "Neutral" in the manner described as GNS. Then again, I don't speak government.

MM went back to 90 proof. Rats, I thought we had a gift

I suppose it's all in how you define craft. In a large automated operation that makes the same old thing over and over again, you could more than likely reengineer the auto feed control panels that occasionally have a human push the green button when the green light comes on, yellow when the yellow come on , etc... instead have a little feed tube that drops a kernel of corn onto the button when the light changed, and a chicken could peck the button to throw the valve. Viola, automation and repetition masquerading as "craft". So easy a trained chicken can do it. Speaking of chickens, I really like Campbell's chicken noodle soup, but I dont often hear people wax poetic about the craft of filling the same old can, with the same old soup. Products like MM are fine, but they no longer completely define the industry. The industry was defined by large companies lobbying for barriers to entry. Now that "that's" over with, the true Artisan/craft industry will innovate, and the big companies will see what works, then just change which button the kernel of corn drops onto, and sell the same things on a larger scale.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/alcohol_abuse_maker_mark_watering_AZ4jgR0ULxevDXLlE6uRRO?utm_medium=rss&utm_content=%0A++++++++Local I have spent my entire adult life in manufacturing and marketing, and every once in a while a competitor does something that is so blatantly ridiculous, that it help you while harming them. Thus it is with Makers Mark's new "Less is Better for More" campaign. Their new marketing concept is actually so absurd that one would I assume have to be drunk before you would actually believe it ! In essence it says, "because you like what we have been selling to you, we have decided that we will change it, and then bring it to you and even more people (at I assume the same old price)". "So we are sorry if you have been a loyal customer who has helped us become a multimillion dollar corporation, but we are now not even going to sell you what we always have, because we want to charge the same amount for less, to even more people". This is even worse than those deals where your bank gives preferential interest rates to acquire new customers, while you as a long term customer have to get the old rates. Because even in that situation the "new" customers at least receives a better deal. With Makers Mark, even the new customers get less! For anyone who is bottling Bourbon or Whisky at 90 Proof, you have now been given a competitive marketing advantage if used correctly, by advising your current and new accounts that you will not sacrifice the quality, integrity and content of your product, because you refuse to expend the capital to increase your production to meet demand. And you don't have to. You just don't buy a corporate jet, and you can continue to provide your customers with more for less. Markers Mark: The gift that keeps on giving, albeit less each time.

I believe the still exemption is because they operate at under one bar. I.e. less than 14.7 lbs Psi at sea level.

Great info Nick ! Thanks.

Received my DSP on 2/1/13. 90 days, but I changed my floor plan 3 times, which created some delay. TTB were great to deal with in the process.

As Porter says, there is no significant difference in the runtime. The real question is, where are you going to get the 40% wash? It is going to take run time to produce that wash, as you can't ferment your way there. There is no free lunch

I have read your original post, and appreciate the concepts of heritage, and family in your venture. I then did some follow up research on the Heritage side, to see if as I suspected there was perhaps some form of "error in historical context" that may be driving you towards an end that is not necessarily feasible. What is perhaps happening here is that you may be trying to produce vodka defined in purity, content and process in current TTB terms, on equipment or with process that was around at a time before vodka was really pure in today's conventional TTB terms, or for that matter even late 18th century Russian terms. The real question here would seem to be: what date in history do you feel "vodka" became "vodka" ? 1100 - 1400 - 1796 - 1813 ? The term Vodka from the old Russian sense, and again depending on when, is more often relative to final product, vs process. In fact if in 1795 "vodka" was made to 70ABV by 3 distillations in pot stills then placed in a charred oak barrel then filtered through sand, then cut with water to 40ABV it can not be called Vodka in today's TTB environment. It simply can not happen. If however you want to "wait" until the early 1800's when plate and column stills were invented, then you will see alcohol distillations getting near the numbers that the TTB requires to be a Vodka base. Perhaps a better route would be: how do you make an old school product that you can call Vodka, or some derivation therein given the TTB constrains you find yourself in? I suggest a look at what Jack Daniels seems to be doing with their unaged rye, which is somehow magically a "neutral spirit" that has only been distilled to 70ABV. If you could get the TTB to let you use that same theory, it would be easy to get to 70ABV with your Pots, then convert that "Netural Spirit" into some type of Old School Vodka. I can feel you pain here, but you can't duplicate that which never existed, I.e. 95+ABV in pot stills. It never happened, and that's not what old school vodka was. Old school vodka was essentiall a 40ABV product, that got there by means of 70ABV +/- distillation, followed by various filtration processes. Failing that, talk to Tito Best of luck.

Resoundingly YES !!! If a government agency, be it local, county,state, fed, etc... gives an advantage to one company vs. another, it is absolutely wrong. It may not be "un-American, in so far as it seems to be the status quo. Our governments and Authorities have so degraded out ability to compete in the world market by making manufacturing so difficult here, that there seems to be little choice but to hire even more "government or quasi government" bloated shirts to help offset the burdens imposed by their brethren. But this should not be for US companies who do not export over 50% of their production. In fact each and every time a company is given an advantage over another, said advantage should automatically carry across the entire industry nation wide, so that no company is enticed to operate, expand, move or locate for what amounts to little more than passing their burden onto someone else. One could write an Excel program to eliminate the entire rediculous industry of Industrial Development Agencies in less than 8 hours, by merely compiling the deals given across the county for every industry, and hitting V-Lookup, to offer the same deal to any company who answers 10 drop down menu questions. What a joke, giving preference to any private enterprise ! As for an individual "company" giving a discount to a customer for bulk purchase, that's the whole idea of "private enterprise". Oh but wait, I am sure there is a government form for that

Question ; if NGS (or for that matter ones own vodka) is so "pure" as some have stated here, and there is no need to produce in any other manner than for example a continuous column, then why do distillers place so much emphasis on filtering ? Sometimes multiple filters. What are they filtering out, if they have produced a 96% congeners free distillate, they why not go directly to the bottle ?

As with politics, all markets are local. It matters little that a big company is far far away, when they can sell their product in your backyard with perhaps an unfair financial advantage. When we begin to believe that problems are just too large to tackle, or companies are so protected by politicians that they can't be touched, we are little more than sheep. And sheep don't make good business people, nor do they often succeed.

Really ? It is my understanding that the USVI is refunding 40% of the rebate / carry over/ diirectly back to Diaego, plus they get a 90% reduction in their income tax. I don't quite understand how a competitor who get a 40% rebate on his production tax, plus a 90% reduction on Income tax, does not negatively affect or competitively disadvantage US micro distillers. But then I'm just a country boy, and don't really understand all them high falutin figures.

Two bit - what state are you in, and does your state accept the cola exemption ?