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Hi everybody. Funny that you should ask about a software program for craft distilling...

http://www.distillerysolutions.com

Distillery Solutions is about to release the long-awaited demo of their flagship product, Stillhouse.

Stillhouse has been in use and growing for about two years now at Stranahan's ® Colorado Whiskey. Built as an in-house program for the distillery it has been built into a commercial product for the Craft Distilling industry. Not only does it manage orders, it does everything. Literally.

To touch on just a few...

- Order Management

- Bailment Status

- Payment Status

- Donation Management / Accounting

- Comp Accounting

- Production Notes / Daily Reports

- Barrel Management

- Bottling Results

- Employee Info/Timesheets

- Document Repository

- Distillery Wikipedia

- Inventory Management

- Accounting / Accounts Payable

- Monthly Reporting

- Federal Reports

- Federal Excise

- State Reports

- State Excise

- State Taxes

- City Taxes

- Automated Tour Manager

- Spent Barrel Manager

- Volunteer List Manager

- Newsletter List Manager

That's a brief overview that just skims the surface of the program. To say the least, it was built to be the central core and heartbeat of a Craft Distillery's operations.

A demo is slated to be released next week and when it's out on the web, we'll post it here.

For now, have a look at our website: http://www.distillerysolutions.com

Cheers and all the best,

Jason Lippa

jason@distillerysolutions.com

Distillery Solutions

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I have been using "Stillhouse" from Distillery Solutions ever day for almost two years here at Stranahan's Colorado Whiskey. I can't say enough about it. It takes all the headache out of running a small distillery. It tracks incoming orders all the way through to invoicing the customer, reminds me when to reorder materials based on depletion from inventory. It tracks my entire production from grain to bottle to help me pinpoint waste and loss. I can send memos to all employees in one key stroke, I can assign tasks to individuals. Employees even log their hours worked on Stillhouse. I really can’t say enough about this program. The time is saves in tax preparation more than pays for itself every month. I can’t imagine trying to run a distillery without it.

Jake Norris- Head Distiller

Stranahan's Colorado Whiskey

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Apparently everything at Stranahan's is for sale. :)

Ouch.....But it was disappointing though to hear about the sellout after visiting there in '09. Not that interesting to return to now. Took them out of the artisan class for me.

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Why?

Why are they no longer artisans? They still have the same production methods. Nothing has changed. Or at least not yet.

They're practicing the art of distilling at a very high level, and produce a completely unique spirit that's nothing like anything else on the shelf.

If that's not craft, I don't know what is.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi Everybody,

We’d like to let you know that the first version of the Stillhouse Demo has been posted on our website at www.distillerysolutions.com. We’d encourage you to go out and have a first-hand look at Stillhouse’s capabilities.

On the website you’ll also be able to read through some preliminary info about pricing. Pricing will be finalized by the end of the week.

We’re really excited about the software and look forward to sharing that excitement with you soon!

Cheers,

Jason Lippa

Distillery Solutions

jason@distillerysolutions.com

www.distillerysolutions.com

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  • 1 year later...

Has anyone else used the Stillhouse software? I have not been able to get a response from them and their web site says scheduling requires 2-3 months notice. If they are that busy, there must be people in these forums using the system.

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I contacted this company over a year ago, and the prices quoted then were:

Master Distiller is $1500 set up and $500 a month.

Head Distiller is $1500 set up and $350 a month.

If you used the Master Distiller for 5 years, you'd pay $31,500. That seems pretty high, although maybe their prices have changed.

It's described as "web based" so presumably they run the server. What if their server goes down? I'd be a lot more interested if it were sold for a (reasonable) flat fee, for installation on the customer's server.

I notice they've added a "mobile" add-on for Master Distiller, presumably at some additional cost.

Hopefully Distillery Solutions will post some updated pricing, if the numbers have changed.

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I got a response and they are putting together a proposal for me. I will ask them for references and see where this leads. $500 a month does seem high to me, too.

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Dear Jason and Distillery Solutions Team:

Great idea, and it looks like something I want for my distillery (once I get it up and running). Given that you posted an advertisement here, I think it is only fair to the community if I post my questions here.

1. According to the FAQ on your site, "Monthly fees are priced on a sliding scale, reflective of the size of your distillery's operation". What is the metric for "size of your operations" and will you post the scale on your website/publicly?

2. If you're pricing is based on the size of my "operation," why are there three feature packages? The features are already build, so your marginal cost to giving me access to all of them is negligible (perhaps even less than the cost associated with keeping track of three feature sets and who has what features). Also, this is a new product and more users means more and better feedback, which is golden when you're developing a product. What was the basis for putting a given feature in one package, versus another?

3. It looks like you'll be entering 1 year licensing agreements. If you plan to increase pricing, how much notice will you give customers? Does your licensing agreement provide you the ability to increase prices between renewals?

4. If a customer wants to cease their subscription, how can they port their information from your site. Once ported, will you keep a copy of it, and if so, for what purpose and how long? Can I expect any support once my license expires, or if I decide not to renew (if, for example, I get audited for a period during which I was a subscriber)? Will you charge for this kind of support, and if so, how much?

5. Will your full terms of use be available on your website/publicly? Will a copy of your software agreement be available on your website/publicly?

I don't want to give the impression that I am down on this product; quite the contrary, I think this is a fantastic idea and hope i can use it in my tiny "operation" once it gets fully up and running. I am, however, concerned with the preliminary pricing information I've seen so far. If I'm Stranahans, then $500 is probably a good deal, but if I'm Chris's-not-quite-extant-distillery, that's a crushing number. I'm also sensitive to the fact that when you are using a "cloud" service, your data "belongs" to another company, and they can really do some harm (and therefore extort some serious fees) if they want to. I don't expect that from Distillery Solutions, I'm just hoping you can assuage some of these fears so I can add your software as a line-item on my financial projections.

Thanks for developing this product, and thanks in advance for any answers you can provide.

Cheers,

Chris

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