KBFreeRange

We are in the process of drafting our broker agreement and are looking for some insight on how much some of you might be paying brokers to represent, sell in and otherwise support your products. We are in a control state so the state handles our distribution top state stores. Reviewing broker agreements from a couple of the majors informs me that the rate is usually a percentage of the net sales of case product. The agreements I am looking at are 5 years old, but the compensation rates come in between 3% and 5% per case. In one contract there is a flat per case negotiated rate, and in the other there is a sliding scale of percentages, the more that sales goal is exceeded the higher the percentage commission. It looks like 5% is the ceiling for this last contract. We'd love to hear about your experiences. Keith Barnes, Bainbridge Organic Distillers

Not to be a broken record, but steam is the ticket, hands down. You can select a unit that puts out the BTUs you need, and if you stay low pressure (under 15psi) you can side step a boiler inspection (depending upon your state laws) and don't need to have your equipment rated for high pressure, which adds a lot of cost. Ours if fired electrically, 789,000 BTUs, and it comes up to temp in under 10 minutes. The time it takes to bring the equipment up to temp depends on what we are doing. We decided to avoid flames of any kind in the still room, so gas fired (and wood fired) were never a consideration. Follow the lead of your equipment manufacturer - most still agitators have motors that are cased to be explosion proof so you don't have any open sparks in the presence of high proof vapor coming off the product outlet. Some of the heat sources you mentioned seem like they are more commonly used in home distilling - are you setting up a legit DSP or working off the grid?

I would shop around, as the decision to require collateral is arbitrary and made by an underwriter who most likely does not understand your business, nor what is standard in our industry. As you mention, the requirement may be a factor based on your credit and financial condition, and in that case you may find this requirement wherever you go. Sounds like your investor is not attached yet, or his/her financials might have played a role in the decision. Keep shopping.

I could not agree more. The process to acquire a DSP permit and state license are well defined and not prejudicial. Complying with them does not harm an applicant financially nor does it cramp an individual's ability to be expressive and to explore new things. There are always people looking for a shortcut, and ones that lack the commitment to "do it the right way". And there are plenty or reasons that a DSP SHOULD NOT be located within a home or on a piece of property that shares space with living quarters. If you need to make alcohol at home better to stick with making wine or beer.

I guess my position is unique and I've looked at this subject from all angles. I've owned a marketing company for the past 25 years that specializes in marketing the most successful and recognizable spirit brands nationally. We work on the world's No. 1 vodka, the world's No. 1 whisk(e)y, the world's No. 1 gin. We handle advertising, brand strategy, promotions and packaging. If you have ever bought a bottle of alcohol in any store in the US you have seen some of our work. I understand the ramifications of this issue first hand. Spirits marketers and brand owners know that developing the brand equity that will represent your products for the long haul is one if the most important things a they will ever do. I also hire designers and creative teams on a freelance and contract basis, and I work with people that live everywhere - from Bermuda to the Bay area. I know that any designer that you can forge a relationship with is likely to do a better job than one that is pitching free logos all day long just to try to sell one or two of them. That's what these logo mills do. And it bugs me to ask people to do work for free knowing that I am going to profit from their free labor. If there's 30 designers pitching you through the logo mill 29 of them are going to go away empty handed. How many great designers would do this? Would you spend time developing a new spirit idea and then just pitch it to an account for free, shoot-out style? Also, local designers usually take special pride in "home town" projects, especially for something as cool as a distillery. What local designer wouldn't give a break to a local distillery just for the notoriety? It is a RARITY that a designer refuses to find a way to work within the constraints of a tight or small budget, especially if the project is juicy. Finally, my son and I opened a craft distillery last year, targeting a small 6500 cases a year. So I understand the pressures, finances, processes, permitting and the million other things that a small distillery needs to pay attention to to survive. I haven't run across a situation yet where taking a shortcut to save money didn't have noticeable downsides. Sure, we look for things to be competitive, but cheap bottles still look shoddy, taking more heads and tails to extend your output still makes the booze taste crappy and bargain priced logo mills still turn our work that is USUALLY run of the mill at best, and downright plagiarized at their worst. Sure you can get lucky. And even though I am a designer myself, I hired a very talented designer to develop our identity. I'd stick by my original advice. Talk to your designer about what you want and how you think about your brand and company. Don't be afraid to tell them about looks that you like or things you've seen that impress you positively. Don't be afraid to tell them your budget up front, even if it's small. And don't take it personally that designers can be moody, and seem to be wired a little differently that some others. This is one of the things that makes them capable of doing great work that they can be passionate about. Designers should bring YOUR brand to life. And consumers will respond to this.

We run grain in our mash all the way through the process (cooking-distillation) and have a question about taking specific gravity and terminal gravity readings with this type of mash. Do the mash solids in the liquid distort the readings when using a typical SG hydrometer? If so, is there a reliable way to remove the solids so an accurate reading can be taken?

I would encourage everyone to really read the comment "we had over 1000 submissions over 30 days from as far away as the Philippines" before taking this route. Someone, probably you, has to wade through all of these submissions, and while you may SAVE $1000, how much more might you have MADE by being focused on the regular things you do to run your business, or doing the things that only you can do? Anyone that has ever posted a job on Monster.com knows what I mean - maybe 5% of all submissions are of interest and it's apparent that the others didn't even read the ad (or in your case, the design brief). I would venture to guess that any designer in Tennessee understands much more about capturing the sense of that place in a way that is unique to YOU than any designer in the Philippines - or Seattle for that matter. And hiring local designers does what we all say our customers should do - buy local and support the local economy. These grist-mill design companies can sometimes yield good designs, but since all of these companies have folks that use clip-art, pre-designed templates and logos that have been outright copied from other companies it's a guarantee that you will see a logo that looks identical to yours out there some where. Just hope that you are the one that used it first or you'll find yourself in a trademark or trade dress lawsuit lawsuit that will waste more time and money than you can imagine. Try this - be honest with your designer or design agency. Tell them how much you want to spend and why, and ask yourself why you only want to spend $1000 on what might be the single most recognizable marker for your brand. Let them decide what they can do for your budget. And take it from there. Use the same purchase decision making arguments you use now. Not all bottles are the same, and the one you want might be more expensive. Is it worth it? Do you use a different yeast because it's cheaper or on sale? Is all grain the same? Good luck!