This is our fifth episode. We will discuss distillery logistics and the craft cocktail recipe - Singapore Sling. This podcast episode features Whiskey Maker - Doug Hall and Whiskey Drinker - Tripp Babbitt.

Show Notes

Tripp: [00:00:00] This is the Brain Brew Whisk(e)y Academy podcast were going to take you behind the scenes on what it takes To build a whiskey distillery business the Eureka! Ranch team led by Doug Hall are creating a craft Whiskey Company. Life has never been done before

 

Tripp: [00:00:20] Let's start the Brain Brew Whisk(e)y Academy with the cliffhanger. You left us with in the last episode which is giving us the distillery logistics and also this craft cocktail recipe. The Singapore Sling. And based on the fact that you just visited there and I'm sure we'll hear a little bit about your travels there too.

 

[00:00:41] Yeah. So. So I thought this week would be good to get you into some stuff that nobody taught you because I know as we were getting our distillery we're only a couple of years in here. And as we were putting things together we operated under another person's DSP first. We got it registered and we did it there. So we're literally just about to open up our own physical space. So we've been operating on somebody else's space. When you file with the TGV you can do that for those of you involved in it. But one of the things that we learned we've learned a number of things is we've put this together and we've talked with all kinds of people about it but somehow they missed some certain things. So if you're going into the going to create a craft spirits company you're gonna whether you're gonna do gin or whisky wear whatever it is and whether you're gonna do it the classic way of distilling are you going to work on stuff that we're doing. Which gets you up and going lot faster and cheaper. Whatever it is a couple of things that you got to think about really think hard about your tasting room because anywheres from 20 to 50 percent of your sales and profits may come right from that spot. It depends on state laws or provincial laws or you know country laws if you're in other parts of the world.

 

[00:01:58] I forget now we're doing a podcast. There's no boundaries to this planet Earth. It's a whole new world.

 

[00:02:06] Boy isn't that exciting. And and so depending upon the rules on how it works you know you make money selling bottles but you make a lot more money selling drinks.

 

[00:02:19] You know you make a drink. It'll be probably 80 85 percent profit margin gross profit make bottles. You know you probably make 50 percent is what you're gonna shoot for.

 

[00:02:34] But sometimes it'll be better. But you know on average it'll average out at the end of the day maybe about 50 percent by the time you do taxes and all the rest of this craziness that you have to pay. And so that tasting room is really important and really think about it. And it's for that reason that you know we were operating. We're operating out of Kentucky in a place and we looked at a lot of different places for it and we decided to put it come over the Ohio River just a few miles over and from Kentucky and put it in at the Eureka ranch because when we have a large property here but also we've got this magnificent ranch building that has this huge bar and this huge you know 30 foot tall stone fireplace and this huge great room on the side of a lake and I'm like My God you know it's a multi-million dollar facility. And on Friday nights and Saturdays I can use it as a tasting room and it's already paid for. I mean that works. The math works. And so we renovated buildings here on the property and we're building some new buildings on the property. And so but getting that space right is really really important. It's really important that that you can make that work as a commercial space.

 

[00:03:46] So it's this Something dug you found from from the distilleries that you've worked with to this point as far as the tasting room that that that's where the profitability comes from and I guess we helps then the demand obviously for more than the product itself.

 

[00:04:03] But it's in some states it's really huge depending upon the way the state laws are. But breweries are the same way. I mean very high amount of sales and profits are made on location. I mean it really is hyper local. And so you've got to have that as your base to make money on. I mean you know some some restaurants that are complaining that you know breweries and distilleries are competing unfairly you know because they're basically competing with them as restaurants or bars. And then if they had to deal with the taxes that we have to deal with whether it's federal or state and three tier distribution systems and all the craziness that you have to deal with I don't think it's a bad thing at all. We've got to do things like this because you've got to be able to sell it by the drink if you want to make money.

 

[00:04:53] I mean it's just it's really important and you also sell tchotchkes shirts and all that kind of junk people want cause they want to be at the place and all that stuff. But you know you've got to have a business there and you've got to want to be in the restaurant business. You've got to want to be in the restaurant or bar business if you don't want to be in the restroom if you just want to make whiskey and go do it. It's gonna be really tough to make your math work. It's gonna be extremely tough. You better have a whole lot of money to get into this business because it's going to take a long time for you to be able to build awareness and distribution.

 

[00:05:25] Now you're seeing that are you seeing that Duguid Bay from a craft whisky standpoint or a craft spirits standpoint.

 

[00:05:33] I'm saying it for any spirit. Well come here you woke up you know. But primarily the craft guys you know you've got to have it even if you wanted to be a you know say you you wanted to make something big you know doing something with a hotel chain or you're going to have to have some retail business as a backbone to get it going. I just think I just don't know of another way to do it realistically. Okay. All right. The second thing that you're going to find out is if you were all successful you're not going to have anywhere near enough room. So make sure you're thinking about how you're going to expand the space and what you don't need is more space for distilling. That's like no space. And people spend all the time around the shiny copper still and that's the key thing that is not what the problem is. The problem you're going to find is the warehouse space the bonded warehouse space which is where you've got alcohol before it's the tax paid on it and where you have to troll it and the unbounded space it's for it because I mean when you get a little bit of flow the empty bottles are sitting there the empty bottles go into cartons go get liquid in and get a label on it go into a carton.

 

[00:06:50] Now you've got four cases that are waiting to be shipped out. You've got in many cases that you've got whiskey aging so you you've got work. I mean you know we talk about in lean they talk about work and process. My god the amount of stuff you've gotten process and if you're small you get killed because the price of buying a small amount of bottles and stuff kills you. So you have to buy more. And next thing you know you've just got warehouses full of junk. I mean it's just huge volumes. I mean this stuff takes up I'm in thank God it's whiskey it's better than beer. I can't even imagine what the beer guys have to go through. I mean you see these places where they've got the cans stacked up to the ceiling. I mean the volumes that a beer guy has to do are even worse. But it just surprises you because you tend to think about the whiskey making and that kind of stuff. But if you've got to have a rock house you've got to store barrels then you've got to dump the barrels you got bottles. I mean that same product is taking up you know each volume because I know we've gone we've gone up 10 x in sales this year and next year we're going up 5 x again and you just do a little bit of paper to pet pencil to paper and you quickly go oh my frickin Lord.

 

[00:08:08] How many pallets do I have to have and what kind of flow am I going to get. And so we're working on systems for that. So really think about that you're going to underestimate the amount of space that you're going to get. And related to that I know a group I know a couple of groups that have been looking to buy me we're not for sale or anything but who are looking to buy craft distillers. And one of the things that they've told me that has held them back from certain purchases is that they said they had no capacity even if they wanted to make them big. They were either landlocked in a city and there was no space I mean for intents and purposes they had to start a new place in order to make the math work. I mean they had a brand maybe a recipe but that was about it. There's just no stock there's no no volume for it. So I'm not talking about building it big but you got to think through the plan for how you're going to do that.

 

[00:09:10] Ok. This is some of the interesting things that you found as far as the distillery piece. Well what's let's move to the last section here on your craft cocktail recipes that you had been too long since you've been back from Singapore. And I've actually had a Singapore Sling before. I don't know what was in it because I only drink it. So I am not familiar with raffles long bar in Singapore. When we start there.

 

[00:09:42] So. So Raffles Hotel named after raffles who was who came. I think he was an Englishman who came to Singapore in the area and helped develop it.

 

[00:09:58] The Raffles hotels very famous and there's a at the end of it there's a bar called the long bar it's I'm on the second floor and I've been to Singapore a couple of times and the first time I was there it was rustic. I think it would be a name of a rickety staircase you went up there you know charmingly Russ I guess just what you would say OK. And this time when I was there I was a little bit unsure because I'd heard that the hotel was under construction. I thought I was there but they knew enough to open up the long bar first because the tourist is coming through while I go get the place where the Singapore Sling was originally invented. And so they make Singapore Slings and they make a lot of them. And back they have a mixing machine.

 

[00:10:48] I'll send you the video on it we put it up on the website. They have an automated mixing machine for shaking the Singapore slings.

 

[00:10:57] It's an hilarious. And I took some video of it and so we stopped in and we might have had a couple a couple of these things. And so the new building is a bit disappointing I said it was sort of like it'd been dignified. It was it was just very prim and proper. How they've made it up. It just you know it looks like Walt Disney's view of what an old uh Singapore bar would be like.

 

[00:11:28] You know it's just it's like a movie set then or a riot or something. Yeah I mean I mean they got they got like they got like you know you know like the palms that you know

 

[00:11:42] Breeze they've got some of those on a metal bar that that automatically goes back and forth like it's like it's a bit cheesy OK now it's like a lot cheesy and I had pictures of the last time I was there and I looked at the bar and the new bar is made to look like the old bar but it's not the old bar. And the whole place is I mean it's fine but it's just doesn't have the the grip that it had before. But the cocktails are still good although I would point and book them a little bit because they aren't squeezing the juices. And but the volume they're doing I guess is pretty big.

 

[00:12:22] And so here's the drink. And again the brand in the case here the brand names really matter. They really do matter. And so to a tall glass of ice and

 

[00:12:34] Add one and a half ounces again what can add one and a half at one and a half ounces of gin the gin is a little bit open but I would tend to use Beefeaters or Gordon's a classic London dry I would tend to use one of those. OK.

 

[00:12:50] A half ounce of Cherry Herring which is a cherry liqueur a quarter ounce of contro which is an orange liqueur quarter ounce a Benedictine half ounce fresh squeezed lime juice two ounces of fresh squeezed pineapple juice a dash of Angus stir a beer bitters and then you got it. Stir it gently and add a splash of 7 Up and garnish it. You know she'll take it like a toothpick and take some cherry and pineapple to add to it and and add that to it and it's a it's a wonderful refreshing long drink.

 

[00:13:43] That's quite fun.

 

[00:13:46] Yeah they're tasty. Well there's a lot going on inside those drinks obviously that I didn't have any idea of what what the ingredients were at the time. You know I've got and I got to ask this and maybe it's going to be in one of the upcoming upcoming craft cocktail recipes but I gotta believe there's a Doug Hall something Doug Hall one may you know maybe it's on Doug Hall 62 now.

 

[00:14:13] I don't know.

 

[00:14:14] That's a good one. You know maybe we're good. We're gonna have a bit of a party here.

 

[00:14:19] Martin Luther King weekend is gonna be the official opening of the distillery here in Cincinnati. And that's our official opening and we've got some wonderful musicians from Prince Edward Island coming down and might have a little bit of a birthday party we're going to release a new special bottling for my birthday I'm going to do. But you've got me going now though. There'll be a special cocktail too. I think I'm going to have to start on that.

 

[00:14:45] Oh good. Doing to do something about this stuff folks. I mean the fun thing about these things is make a cocktail for family and friends make it and enjoy it invent your own play with it.

 

[00:14:56] I mean it's simple it's easy and send it to us. Yeah.

 

[00:15:01] I mean I know I haven't I haven't send it over and you know well if it's something worth mixing well we'll put it out there.

 

[00:15:11] Send us a send us a cool one we'll send you a T-shirt. Elvis said that the guys and I go wow that's cool we'll send you a T-shirt and that's the recipe that's meaningfully unique.

 

[00:15:24] Very good. Hopefully we'll get some participants in that I've made me do it just to come up with something to try and get a T-shirt although your voice rejected my pizzas.

 

[00:15:34] So I'm not sure I'll do a mixed drink but I'm still I'm still looking up at a Ford Doug on near meaningful unique scale. So I had some work to do. All right very good. Well that concludes this portion. Any cliffhangers for us for the next brain brew whisky Academy.

 

[00:15:59] No but I'm going to end you with a quote this week and it was a quote I've met a friend in Singapore who said this to me and we had a wonderful for our dinner just a glorious Asian dinner with a tasting menu and had lots of laughs and talks and he said this quote to me and I put it down and I just think it would like to end the show this week with this he said no one ever changed the world because their boss assigned the project to them no one ever changed the world because their boss assigned the project to them.

 

[00:16:39] So what are you waiting for folks.

 

[00:16:42] Let's get started have you ever thought about owning your own craft whiskey business. Well subscribe to the brain brew whiskey Academy because in early 2019 we'll be offering opportunities to start your own business whether you are an aspiring entrepreneur curious about innovation or just like a good story. The brain brew whiskey Academy podcast will take you behind the scenes to learn the good bad and the ugly about what it takes to create whiskey and the craft space. Which is growing at a crazy rate. Lessons learned can be applied broadly.