Timoteo

Off Topic but, I wanted to wish everyone here and those connected with the ADI and forum a Merry Christmas and a Happy and money making new year. Best of luck to you all, Coop

Merry Christmas from Ogden's Own Distillery in Ogden, UT. Here's to many Holiday toasts with micro- spirits.

Cheers

Timmy!

We didn't have to put up any collateral for ours. I'd shop around with different agencies. I had 3 or 4 working on pricing for mine.

Just my 2 cents.

Phil

Although I don't like Wells Fargo as a banking institution, they can write you a bond quick, cheaper than you're stating with your current situation and no collateral. It's funny how some insurance companies know so little about their products. A smaller company that originally helped me out and was great to work with "Malloy Imrie & Vasconi" St. Helena, CA 707-963-4073 Mary Allen.

and if you don't have an accountant and lawyer yet, maybe you should start there. They are both expensive and essential.

-Scott

I believe Scott nailed that for you. I structured mine as an LLC and am taxed as an S-corp. I raised money, but didn't allow any partner more than 5% ownership. The LLC does not necessarily have to be dissolved if you lose a partner though. A well written articles of organization can address partner gain/ loss, voting rights, decision making etc, again- the accountant and attorney. My experience was that my accountant was the best to ask first. You can save a lot of money getting his point of view first. I found that my attorney had no issue with his advice and saved much billing time for me and my LLC.

Specifically, I'm wondering if anyone has a good source for good quality, but reasonably priced "bar lanyards" like a bartender, etc. would use. I'd really love to have something like that in our arsenal on the street, but thus far (for a good one) am getting quotes in the $1.50-$2.00 range and that seems a little steep to me, even for something nice.

Any thoughts?

I have a Proforma Rep- Mike Scott- 801-547-5424. He normally comes in around $.78 per lanyard on orders of 400 or more. When I first started buying promo items, I was paying in that same range. Most of his material either comes out of California or is souced in China. Normally takes about 2-3 weeks @ the most

Timmy!

Hi, it's Tim from Ogden's Own Distillery. I haven't checked out the forum lately, but noticed xpress fill is still not getting a fair shake. My xpress fill 460 has now filled over 10,000 liters in the past 5 months. I've sold over 7,000 liters since August 1 2009. I bottle about 1,000 liters at a time and check the machine for accuracy during bottling. It nails it every time on every head within 2ml. It normally takes 3 to 4 cycles to get warmed up and then it's on. A bottling run takes a little more than two hours using the xpress fill. Every head is accurate and I have no complaints.

I am going to buy another xpress fill for a backup. I just thought about how much I rely on that little machine. It's the most important piece of equipment that I own- excluding my brew/distilling system. Those guys have turned a bad product around.

Cheers

Tim

Robert Miller

561-8188977

Robert has many contacts and is normally able to get bottle orders as low as 10,000 pcs. He has taken care of me very well. His prices are great and it's really hard to find people with uniqe products and ability to take a small order.

Label One Connect in Beaverton Oregon. Tom Talarico. They've been a great asset. Embossing, foil, whatever you need, they can do.503-646-7933. I started with a small order of 5,000 and have ordered 15,000 more through them in the past few months. Their prices were a little high for my label with foil embossing, but once I stepped up the size, they cut their prices considerably.

Tim

Bevlaw.com is a great resource once you move forward with your labeling project. Robert Lehrman (sp?) can assist you in getting almost any formula approved. He is the party responsible for getting the TTB to approve the first absinthe in the US. We have used him for all of our label approvals. He is both efficient, quick, and inexpensive.

Don

If it doesn't fall under a specific category you can go with a fanciful name. The fanciful name is submitted on your formula approval. I had to submit a few different fanciful names, but now have a category of my own.

I have talked to a few distributors/salesmen and none seam to really take me serious. Does this all change once you get your federal and state permit? Has anyone else had this problem?

Get used to it. Nothing will change until you have something in the bottle. Then it had better be impressive.

I have the new x-press fill 460. I was really nervous because I bought it last year and had not heard all the negative comments. I saw one for sale for $100(vigneroon). I am very happy with mine. I bottled a batch of 1200 liter bottles with it just recently and it is impressive. It's not extremely fast- ~22 seconds for a .750 and ~30 seconds for 1 liter bottles. It works well for Underground, which is a high solid liqueur. I think these guys have the kinks worked out.

Tim

I got a letter from him last week and laughed because just yesterday I gave the ok on my first t-shirt proof.