This is our tenth episode of the Brain Brew Whisk(e)y Academy. We will discuss how to use data in a whisk(e)y business and the craft cocktail recipe - the Solstice Sling. This podcast episode features Whiskey Maker - Doug Hall and Whiskey Drinker - Tripp Babbitt.

Show Notes

[00:00:30] Using Data in the Whisk(e)y Business

[00:01:32] Are 80% of Distilleries Non-Compliant with Regulations?

[00:03:06] Collecting Data is. Mindset

[00:04:59] Data Chaos Caused by Volume Increases

[00:08:19] The Craft Cocktail Recipe - The Solstice Sling

[00:09:00] The Solstice Sling - Step 1

[00:09:05] Step 2

[00:09:18] Step 3

[00:09:26] Step 4

[00:09:29] Step 5

[00:09:32] Step 6

[00:09:34] Step 7

 

 

Transcript

Tripp: [00:00:04] This is the Brain Brew Whisk(e)y Academy podcasts where we're going to take you behind the scenes on what it takes to build a whisk(e)y distillery business.

 

Tripp: [00:00:15] The Eureka! Ranch team led by Doug Hall are creating a craft whisk(e)y Company like has never been done before.

 

Tripp: [00:00:30] Ok well let's move to our Brain Brew Whisk(e)y Academy segment and we're going to talk about the need for data in a distillery and then our craft craft cocktail recipe. But you know we've talked about data before quite a bit of company about data being used in a whisk(e)y distillery or a Spirits Distillery.

 

Doug: [00:00:54] Ok. So if you're thinking about creating a distillery. Let me just tell you data and precision with managing your data is critically important and the reason it's important is so that you don't go to jail. I'm really really serious. Okay. The fact of the matter is is you got all your selling. You know when you sell spirits the government has a very vested interest there your partner whether you like it or not. Okay. And they want their taxes and they've got regulations. And so you've got to follow the rules.

 

Doug: [00:01:32] I was with the leader of one of the states and he said he was shaking his head because we were talking about our systems and data capture and all it takes things we're doing so Oh my God he says would you please teach the others. And we're working on it. This is one of the ways we're doing that because he says 80 percent of the distilleries in my state are probably making a. Breaking the law in a significant way. And they don't even know it. And one of the biggest issues is they're not tracking their data. I mean when you have a distillery and you make spirits or you bring spirits in you have to track that liquid. You've got to track all of that liquid because now you can do our D and you can have waste in manufacturing. That's fine. But you know when it leaves the distillery the tax man in your province in Canada your state and the feds they want their money. That's just the way it is. And so you've got to be meticulous with it. And it's the same thing when it comes to doing your research. I mean I understand you're an artisan but you need to be an artisan who writes down the recipes OK.

 

Tripp: [00:02:46] And because you've worked with a couple of different distilleries before. What data seems to be missing from this. Well you know as as you mentioned that they could go to jail and they're probably breaking the laws or something in particular that they seem to be missing.

 

Doug: [00:03:06] I think the biggest thing they're missing is a mindset towards it. I mean they think that they're they're basically you know if they if they're homebrewer or something they think they're more like a chef just kind of winging it. And the fact of the matter is is with when you're now in business and you've got you know whether it's the government your shareholders or whatever it might be you've got to develop a mindset. And that's what comes from the plan do study act mindset which is and you need a platform whether you're going to use the trailblazer platform that we've got and that we're gonna make available to craft people at a scholarship price or whether you're using some other software you've got to be capturing this data and you've got to get a mindset of running tests and documenting and documenting and documenting what you're doing your sales system your CRM system for managing your customer relationships that you're doing.

 

Doug: [00:03:58] You've got to get this discipline in early. OK we're in the process of doing a massive expansion and and we did we did very well with this. But now as we've grown literally 10 x this year we grew literally 10 fold. And and the year coming up we're about to grow another 10 fold. You know that created put tensions on us and while we were really great at it at the beginning of the year by the end of the year as far as business went up 10 actually tend to get sloppy on it. And so we're making a new statement as we've done this new expansion sort of run that do the next run of growth is we've got to get even more disciplined with our data because the bigger you get the more missing something in data Cassia and it can cost you a lot.

 

Doug: [00:04:49] So in time energy and money.

 

Tripp: [00:04:51] So Doug is that because you've got new people coming in to help with the volume or what. What seems to drive the chaos and.

 

[00:04:59] The volume of what's going through. In other words just the throughput in our case the throughput of bottles and that that's going on you know before. If you made a little mistake on your ordering or your numbers it didn't have huge consequences you could just run over to a warehouse and get some more. Now all of a sudden you need to bring pallets and if you miss it or you know the labels that you need are just bigger volumes that the whisk(e)y that you need is just much much bigger volumes that you have to go through. And so the attention to those details you know if it's a little if you're smiling and this mistake cost yet you know 500 bucks that's regrettable but you live with it. But when you get bigger that mistake that same mistake instead of 500 dollars can be now five thousand or ten thousand dollars and now it's Ouch. You know the consequences are just much bigger estimating your costs. You got to get them really good you've got to get so many people I talked to I say what's the cost to make whisk(e)y and they say a number and I go Well first off I know you're wrong because there's no way on earth that you can do that. And even the biggest companies in the world can't do it for what you just said because you haven't put in all the rest of the math you haven't done all the rest. Thanks. Now there are some good systems in distilling. There's some wonderful distilling systems that we use that integrate with our project management stuff in our accounting systems. But you got to have some systems Inc. But it's got to be in the people. It has to be in your people. And that's just I don't do math. I don't write stuff down. Sorry you don't work for me. End of story. Not interested. Mm hmm. It's the only way we can work together trip.

 

[00:06:38] Yeah. If it's not written down it's not. I mean we have a guy that does R&D who's who's very artistic. Philippines is incredible. He's incredible. OK incredible palette. And we got him writing down all of his experiments in the trailblazer software and he would put down what he learned and he brought his plan to study cycles and he was a little hesitant at first but now he does it and he says Oh man it's so helpful to me because it forces me to think through what I just did. Mm hmm. Now as a bonus it also comes to me. Who's the CEO of the company. And wherever in the world I might be three times a day I get a notification with all of the updates and so on and I can comment on it.

 

Doug: [00:07:20] So what allows us to keep going faster to pivot to adjust and adapt because of that collaboration. But we can't read minds. So we have to read words. You know that's the best way we found that.

 

Tripp: [00:07:32] That's that's great. That's. But a guy like you said it is a discipline that we seem to have especially whether it's R&D people or marketing people they don't really. They resist it. And yet when they adopt it they seem to like it which is there is great irony they're associated with with kind of that mindset.

 

Doug: [00:07:58] Well it gets back to is this about creativity or is this about innovation which is productive imagination. Are we here to try to ship something make a difference in the world or are we doing art for art's sake. I love art but that's not what we're doing here. We're trying to make a business out of these things.

 

Tripp: [00:08:19] Absolutely. Well let's move to your craft cocktail recipe. The solstice sling and it looks like this may be one of your early inventions for four for craft cocktails.

 

Doug: [00:08:36] Yeah. So this is this is actually from Philip who's who's are the magician at our place who leads R&D and I challenged him to come up with a winter cocktail. This was originally built for the Eureka! Ranch holiday party and the distillery party and it's a it's it's kind of a neat twist on a gin cocktail that it's the same time classy and elegant.

 

Doug: [00:09:00] And so in a shaker what you're gonna do is you're gonna put together an ounce and a half of gin.

 

Doug: [00:09:05] One and half tablespoons of pear puree which you make by just cooking some pears with a little water and then putting them in a blender. So it's gonna be a little bit chunky for you just to soften them up.

 

Doug: [00:09:18] A tablespoon of Rosemary syrup. Some simple slurp that you've let some rosemary soak in a.

 

Doug: [00:09:26] Half teaspoon of lemon juice fresh lemon juice.

 

Doug: [00:09:29] And a half teaspoon of white balsamic.

 

Doug: [00:09:32] And you top it with some sparkling water.

 

Doug: [00:09:34] And garnish with Rosemary and lemon.

 

Doug: [00:09:35] So this is this is a real craft concoction. This this is this is out there. This is not some of the simple ones that we've been doing. This is the kind of thing that you'd pay extras for and it's just got the likeness of the pear with the Rosemary. Now brings out some of the notes in the gin. Some of the spice notes of the gin start to come out and it's just magical. It's a magical taste.

 

Tripp: [00:10:03] So let me ask you this Doug because you're so specific about some of the items that are being used. Is the shaker matter is it the Boston Shaker is it going to be any shaker or. I see you've got seconds. You got me. I know it's like it's like you've been smacked in the face six times.

 

Doug: [00:10:20] You know you start to ask these questions go ahead and fess up what happened to you on the martini recipe.

 

Tripp: [00:10:26] I didn't have one I didn't have the right shaker to begin with. So that was that was the first disaster that I had didn't take his name day. No it didn't. And I have to admit it did not. I once I got the Boston shaker and was able to.

 

Doug: [00:10:40] Describe it with people so they know what we're talking well.

 

Tripp: [00:10:43] OK. So so in an earlier episode we talked about a martini and Doug took me through a very.

 

Doug: [00:10:49] Not A martini.

 

Tripp: [00:10:50] THE martini Sorry. Yes absolutely. So I'm already being corrected. He's very Doug is very prudent about this when he is prudent about nothing that I've ever I've ever heard this before. But you had to have the Beefeaters Gin because you know now you've got me. So I'm remembering these things like I said get smacked across the face a few times and you start to say OK. Now why am I doing this so. So we got the Beefeaters Gin because it has less sugar in it. Another gin. I remember that. And then you had the Dolin vermouth dry vermouth. They put in you got to put in a cab full and I used the wrong cab. The first time that was another disaster. I used the Beefeater cap by accident. There was one sitting there and I missed it by that much. And it's not that you know there's these are small differences and then I had I forget what type of Shaker that I has but it's a strainer in the top but.

 

Tripp: [00:11:48] But regardless.

 

Doug: [00:11:49] Boston shaker is the two part one right. That's the last. And the silver one but you'll see that I put together and then you shake it and it creates a greater[00:11:57] flow [00:11:57]throw for it. And so the ice in that you get to the proper dilution when you do it that way when you use the little shakers you just don't get the movement.

 

Doug: [00:12:07] And so you don't get the right solution and you don't get the. The ice interaction that you need it's just not nearly as good.

 

Tripp: [00:12:15] No. And it was there was there is a it's an interesting difference between I mean people I'm just going to suggest that they try it. You know it's worth the entertainment effort for nothing else to get the Boston Shaker and the to have it shaken for the 12 seconds or whatever.

 

Tripp: [00:12:34] But let me get back to the Solstice Sling Yeah. Does it require a Boston shaker. Number one.

 

Doug: [00:12:40] Oh I don't even explain after that. It's always Oh it's always going to be the Boston shaker. Never very stirred or shaken and if it's shaken it's always a positive shaker. OK.

 

Doug: [00:12:52] And and it's stirred which you know you know Bond shaken not stirred. You can stir as well you can try it that way and try it and see what you see the difference. See the difference which is which what you do. Oh come on it's a cheap thrill Donna. Besides after you taste it four or five of them it's gonna be more fun.

 

Tripp: [00:13:15] Yeah and then you get the guests out there doing the 12 second countdown with you too. That's right. So.

 

Tripp: [00:13:20] And then also on this drink the gin is it. Does it matter which gin for this drink for the Solstice Sling.

 

Doug: [00:13:28] Let's so let's. So this one. But I would keep it to a I would keep it to a London dry or a Plymouth. I wouldn't go to some of the boutique ones because a lot of those have too much sugar and it's going to take it over the top. So I would tend to keep it to a dry. I tend to use the dry stuff all the time. It is just. And then I add my sugar back into the syrup so I can control it more. But gin.

 

Doug: [00:13:54] So just so listeners know gin and rum has sugar added you can legally add sugar. I mean just like sugar it is what it is. No it does come in from the cane sugar. No it's added sugar. You add sugar to gin and rum that's legal do a London dry it's not supposed to have it it actually can have I think point half of 1 percent or it's not like that sort of soften it there's a tiny tiny amount in it but that's the reason why some jeans taste good and some jeans don't. The idea of a gin was you would add the remove that even the driver mood has sweetness to it and that's what brings the sweetness in as opposed to when I have craft gins. I'll usually just have them over ice. Most of the time just because they've already got the sweetness in it's not removed. It's a different taste but they've already put the sweetness in it.

 

Tripp: [00:14:48] Okay. All right. Well that ends are Brain Brew Whisk(e)y Academy segment and we'll look forward to the next drink that you have for us and probably next time we'll give it get an update on how the distilleries coming too.

 

Doug: [00:15:04] Sounds good. OK. Thank you Tripp.

 

Tripp: [00:15:06] Thank you.

 

Tripp: [00:15:12] Have you ever thought about owning your own craft whisk(e)y business. Well subscribe to the Brain Brew Whisk(e)y 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 Whisk(e)y Academy podcast will take you behind the scenes to learn the good bad and the ugly about what it takes to create whisk(e)y and the craft space. Which is growing at a crazy rate. Lessons learned can be applied broadly.