TheLostState

We currently have 14 barrels left.

2 Barrels.

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18 Barrels are still available.

I can't speak specifically towards Ohio beer laws, but in the states that we have dealt with beer distributors for our spirit based RTDs the contracts are tied to particular label or brand at a particular facility. Franchise laws are dirty and out dated and breaking up with a distributor in a franchise state generally leads to not being able to get any other distributor in said state to pick you up. I have never heard of franchise laws applying to self distribution though, so as long as you had a signed agreement that they could not sign a distribution contract with a wholesaler for that brand you should be able to break away easily if it doesn't work out. Talk with your own Alcoholic Beverage Attorney though, preferably one that is sure on the laws as you shouldn't pay $400 an hour for "maybe", and have them draw up a contract that's fair to both parties but favorable towards you.

I would say that's dependent on what you goals are. We have a few distilleries around us that strictly focus on their retail and cocktail sales and don't push distribution. They are relatively small in comparison to the others but their goal is primarily operating as a self stocked bar with the bonus of bottle sales. Initially I would say start about 50/50 with distribution and retail but start working on growing out your volume on the distribution to get into the 70/30 realm. The wider your distribution the more volume you can potentially move and the more growth potential you will have. It is definitely easier to sell in your distillery vs in a bottle shop just because you have a captive audience, but distribution is where the volume is and in the end pays off the best.

There are indeed a lot of variables at play and the spirit landscape has changed post-covid. Our tasting room opened in August of 2019 and we sold a little over 1000 bottles in those first 4 months. 2020 was starting out on track then covid shut everything down, but we ended up with around 2500 bottles sold for the year. 2021 overcorrected because of everybody finally getting out and we doubled to a little less than 5000 bottles for the year. 2022 seemed to correct backwards to where 2021 probably should have been for us with around 2600 bottles sold again. 2023 we are at around 3000 bottles sold thus far. The above is just bottle sales in our tasting room, we also pivoted into canned RTD cocktails in 2022 but I didn't count those in the numbers because I don't have the Distro vs Tasting Room numbers on hand. Post-Covid we have seen less people coming in but they are spending more on average. We don't currently operate a cocktail bar, though we are going to open one hopefully in 2024, and Tennessee doesn't allow DTC, but we use an out of state third party for shipping. Our tasting room currently keeps the lights on but not much else, everything else is driven through distribution and quite a bit of private label/contract distilling. It's pretty much been said elsewhere, unless you are in a really high traffic area the tasting room can maybe keep the lights on but the main focus should always be distribution and growing your footprint while not over-extending. It's not a fun situation to run out of a popular bourbon when it takes literal years to gain back the inventory.

Still Available.

We are looking to part with 20 barrels of our 5 year old High Wheat Bourbon. It was distilled in 2018 from a mash bill of 60% Corn, 30% Wheat, and 10% Barley. They entered the barrel between 120 and 122 proof and are actively aging in 53 gallon Char #3 White Oak barrels. Asking 3200/barrel, if interested please reach out to nick@loststatedistilling.com.

We use Hoochware for our production and inventory but not invoicing. When we send to Virginia, who is also state controlled, we just create the sales order to the VAABC for what we sent and mark it as fulfilled for our records. Within Hoochware that accounts for your federal tax calculation and inventory. Accounting wise, since they are bailment and we get paid when they sell, we just leave an open invoice and credit to it whenever they send us a check.

14 Days for us. We also thought it would take longer than it did and are still trying to get contractors in to finish the inside of our building. We used the Rob Pinson and the team at Waller Law for our app, and everything went smoothly.