Brothers Vilgalys Spirits

We hold a DSP but purchase bulk alcohol to make our booze (we have a line of liqueurs). As such we're not looking for a 'distiller' but still someone interested in producing high-proof flavored spirits. We are hiring an entry-level operations assistant to assist with production, bottling, cleaning, occasionally running tours & bottle sales, and many other needs. The right candidate will be someone enthusiastic to learn more about the industry and able to work unsupervised and sometimes doing repetitive tasks. You will be working with the owner-employee (myself) and one other sales rep. We are still a small start-up, so pay will be hourly and full-time with no benefits. Equity might be available for the right candidate. We are located in Durham, NC. Full job description is here on our website: https://brothersvilgalys.com/jobs/ email jobs@brothersvilgalys.com with your stuff

We purchase NGS to make liqueurs. We saved a lot of money starting out this way. Not just the costs of a still, fermenters, mash tanks, etc but the space taken up costs extra square footage costs extra rent. And NGS is not very expensive, so it's not as if there's a huge amount of savings on the cost of materials given the time & energy needed to distill it yourself. With that said, you'd want to think about the story you'll be telling to your customers. There's a gazillion vodkas out there. Why is yours going to be "special" if you're just using NGS you bought? Why should they purchase your stuff when the macro brands are still going to be cheaper, or there's another dozen "pot stilled artisan magic" brands next to it? It does sound like the space you've got is ideal to work with (especially if you own it already). But if the story about your brand is "it's local," and it turns out not to really be local, your consumers are going to be disappointed. There's plenty of ways to market vodka, but that's also a crazy-competitive category. Maybe you could make a big deal about your water source?

This might trigger the local health department getting involved if you're re-using containers. Having worked in restaurants and dealt with that, I really don't think think it'd be worth the hassle whatever the small cost savings might be.

In our case, we zeroed in via trial and error with the lab still, but now always blend by weighing everything. Our base alcohol is 190 proof GNS. Like others, we calculate the sugar as simple displacement but take contraction into account for alcohol & water mixtures. Would definitely be using Alcodens if it could estimate ABV% w/ sugar (or honey, juice concentrate, etc).

We also use a Corona Mill (also just learned that's what those are called). I don't need our stuff super-finely ground so we've removed the outer plate, and use a drill to power it. Before that I had a metal tortilla press, but this works a lot better.

http://www.freundcontainer.com/ Has glass 50 ml and caps, no minimums. If you're going to do them for real (shelves), would definitely suggest plastic bottles since they're cheaper and more durable.

We broker our own stuff, but other NC folks use the larger brokers. The main thing the big guys can get you is access to their distributors out of state, but they will not go out of their way to market an unknown product for you. For my own stuff, I don't see why I should be giving away 10-15% of our wholesale cost just to get in with Southern / RNDC / etc. Ultimately if you're selling well in NC you can find distributors outside the state anyway. You will need the wholesale permit from the TTB listing the ABC warehouse as a location anyway, regardless of whether you broker your own stuff or not.

It refers to proof gallons of bottled product that you've shipped out that month (hence withdrawn, and covered by your withdrawals bond), and which you've paid the excise tax for. I really suggest you study up on all the forms and record keeping requirements if you're asking this question, no offense meant. Good luck!

The Paulson closures are described on our last invoice as "T-Top 22.5mm Beige Shank w/Dark Brown 36mm x 10mm Cap" Tapi was "Wood 33/34x14 stain and tumble varnish top with a 23mm Sugero Replica synthetic shank" although we've not ordered from them for a while.

We've used corks from Tapi and Paulson Supply, both of them fit pretty well. Haven't noticed any 'slippage' of corks like you're describing. Paulson Supply is, for the sort we're using, a better price though they have a longer lead time to ship.

As a UCSB alum, this is definitely exciting! Best of luck with your start up.

Facebook and other social media stuff can be very useful, but they're not a good way to reach brand-new customers. Rather, they're a very good tool for building a community / staying in touch with established customers. Any time you are paying for "likes" or twitter "followers", those will essentially be fraudulent accounts, or even if there are eyeballs on the other side of the screen, they have no interaction with your brand besides clicking on a thing. Basically buying likes is paying for the "impression" of an already-popular brand. That's okay for a blog that just makes money on ads and clicks, but as liquor sales go, a gazillion likes doesn't mean as much as having a community that actually wants to read / see what you're posting. So when you post a picture of a new cocktail, you want Joe McCustomer who sees it to already have a bottle of your stuff on his home bar. If he was brand new, your booze was just another thing he saw on facebook once. Here's what I understand about facebook's display algorithms: The faster a thing gets "liked" from when it was first posted, the more screen displays it gets going forward. So the only thing that matters is posting something your followers actually want to see (and share). A few general things I've found that help: 1. Pictures get more attention than just words. 2. Having real content / news / substance matters, as does the usual rules of social media (don't overshare, don't post unrelated memes, don't ever invite anyone to play a game, ever). 3. Post good stuff in the early afternoon when everyone in a 9-5 is just getting back from lunch / starting to waste away the rest of the day. Really big stuff you can post earlier. 4. Actual paid promotions are useful if you have "big news" to share (like a new state or a new product), because that will quickly pump it to all your existing followers and more, but the message still needs to be one focused on your current customer base. Anyway, that's only my own POV, I hope it's helpful.

Boxes are almost always cheapest from whatever local packaging companies are near you. Cardboard is very cheap to make, so all the cost is in transportation. You may also be able to get away with re-using the dividers from the 12 packs if you tear them in half.

Just wondered if there's anyone out there with experience using an Infrared Spectrometer to determine alcohol content, and what their experiences are. I don't have a chemistry background myself, but am just aware that this is possible. We made a honey liqueur so density-meters don't really help. We currently proof using a glass lab still and hydrometer. It's both time consuming and a bit error prone. I know that Anton-Paar offers these, but is anyone using a cheaper off-the-shelf generic device from another company? I assume you'd just need something that can read the right IR spectrum (3500-3200 cm-1) Also I'm aware that the TTB has their own list of approved stuff, I just want something that can be used quickly and later checked against our lab still / hydrometer.

Stainless would be $$$. Have seen both steel drums lined with food-grade enamel inside, and HDPE drums which our current supplier uses.

No problem, Bonds are paid yearly and aren't more than a couple hundred dollars. We get ours through our same company we get liability insurance from, but there are lots of sureties out there. There is no time lag or permission needed once you're operational. There is a separate part of the bond, the Withdrawals, that covers taxes on spirits that have been bottled and shipped, but not yet paid. As long as you don't exceed that liability, you're okay to do whatever. It is up to you to record everything and submit it on your reports and excise tax payments. The TTB expects you to have comprehensive records, but they don't need to see them unless they come and audit you.

The answer depends on how you set up your bonded area. The tax liability exists on the booze as soon as it's made, and the total liability on your space cannot exceed the amount of your bond (whatever amount that is). You then pay the tax, in two-week increments, whenever it leaves your bonded premises. There's no reason not to include the bottling area under the bonded area. Generally I find it's much easier to figure tax on bottles and cases than in bulk quantities, and there is a space for "proof gallons bottled" on the monthly reports. Again, not a TTB agent, but that's how I think it works.

Square is fantastic and very easy to set up.

Welcome! (btw if you need any help from another Durhamite, send me a message or something!)

I use 6-bottle cases. When dealing with smaller ABC stores (here in NC they're run by local governments) it's an easier sell to get them to try out the product, which will often lead to larger sales later. 12-bottle cases would save us a bit on shipping and cardboard I suppose, but the bottles come packaged in 6-packs already, so that also greatly simplifies things.

Even in a growing segment there will be businesses that go under and fail. It comes down to the people running them, not to whether there are "too many" of them. I've seen no evidence that the "buy local" movement is a passing trend. It's a shift in consumer awareness and values.

Two things that might help-- Here's the ABC pricebook. Under various brands you can see the retail price as well as the case price (what ABC pays for it). http://abc.nc.gov/pricing/pricebook.aspx Also on this page (which has basically everything you'll need at the state level) there's a price filing quotation form. Somewhere this is also a spreadsheet you can download. http://abc.nc.gov/pricing/new_companies.aspx Out of curiosity, where in NC are y'all located?

This is probably a question I've got to ask the TTB (and FDA), but just wanted to float this out here and see if anyone has dealt with anything similar. I make a spiced honey liqueur (Krupnikas) that uses, among other stuff, lemon and orange zest. This results in quite a bit of pectin precipitating out in the final product. About 10% of the final blend is cloudy with spice particles and pectins. These are quite difficult to filter out. We could use a centrifuge (lots of $$$), or possibly a bag-type or rotary-drum filter, but all of those are scaled for operations larger than mine right now. So I've just been saving this stuff, decanting off the clear part, and bottling that. Obviously this is not the ideal method and I'm trying to figure out whether I can afford to filter this stuff and recover the perfectly-useable product that's mixed in with the dregs. Pectin is really annoying to deal with, and it will quickly clog up any kind of typical filter media as it's a very 'sticky' but very small molecule. Essentially it just makes a gel when you try and pressurize it through anything. The other route I'm considering is just using the stuff to make a food product of some kind. It's got a lot of flavor mixed in. Honey + spices = delicious is pretty basic math. At home on the stove I've made cakes and apple sauce using this stuff that were fantastic. But that means not only figuring out FDA regulations on this, but explaining to the TTB where it's going and finding out if I still owe excise taxes or not, etc. (have not researched this at all) Even if I can filter out the stuff, those spice solids are still usable for flavoring, and pectins themselves have uses in the food processing industry as a thickener. I'm just curious if anyone has done something similar with a spirits by-product, and what your experience dealing with those regulations has been. Or any other thoughts on this kind of thing.

Can't help you on the stillage question (I use GNS and blend liqueurs), but as dealing with town governments, it can vary a bit depending on the disposition of the city manager you're talking to, and your own social skills in talking to them. They can either make things very easy for you or completely impossible. I always approach those things with "This is what I'm doing, these are the resources I have, tell me what I need to do to satisfy you." I was lucky enough to be in a town that is very pro-growth and pro-small business, and most of the folks I talked to were genuinely interested and helpful. For wastewater, I just had a list of the chemicals I'd be using and we had to install a grease trap to keep them happy. I tried very hard to explain that we never use grease or oils or whatever, but they just said that that's what the code required and so that's what I had to do. It would also help to at least be familiar with the fire code requirements and to have a plan for how you'll deal with those. Mainly you'll want to show that your methods are safe and that there will be no way for ethanol fumes to come in contact with fire. I keep the GNS in a fire safety cabinet and this made my fire inspector very happy. I'm assuming you've already answered the question of zoning as well. Hope that's helpful, it's hard to be specific as local requirements are always well, local.

Congrats! You may want to check with ABC before running any test batches, and be sure to explain you are currently pursuing a permit with them. In my experience, ABC didn't take very long before giving a temporary permit either. And the more attention, hype, and promotion you can do prior to opening, the better off you'll be. We had a facebook page from the very beginning, and that's done a great deal to build up a following. Still very new to shelves here, but our product is selling incredibly well. Also where in NC are you guys?