When are we opening…

“When are you opening?” That’s the question we get all the time. Believe me, I wish I knew. I had hoped we would have a soft opening by the end of October, but here it is October 21, already. We both knew that this adventure was going to be a struggle, but I don’t think either one of us realized how the mini projects would slow us down.

One project that is taking much longer than I thought is the labeling. I first ran into budget issues when it came to designing the labels and I couldn’t hire a designer. Therefore I had to create them myself. While being able to create them is fulfilling, the learning curve ate up a big chunk of time. Currently I have four labels created, two have been approved and two are still awaiting approval. I thought the label approval would be the hardest part–wrong! I soon learned that my custom label design (cut-out) would require a custom die cut from the label printer. That is another $300-$400 per die. So, I put my fake graphic designer hat back on and did some redesigning. I now have my label designed for a standard die cut. I was fortunate enough to have done these changes before the TTB requested label corrections. That was an interesting experience as well—a story for another time. Nonetheless, I was able to resubmit the new design. The next step was to decide which label maker to use and what paper do I want. I worked with 3 different companies to get quotes and made a decision yesterday. I’m now waiting to see a sample and hope to have labels in the next couple weeks. I started this label process 4 months ago.

Along with the labels our other hold up is the gas company. Dave had to convert our gas line to a larger pipe size. This is now causing the gas company to do some internal engineering with an approval process. We were initially told that it would take 1 to 2 months to get us hooked up.  I got word today that they hope to have the gas hook up in a couple of weeks. I still have a page long “to-do” list but it’s probably only about 30 hours of work. Dave has some final plant hook-up tasks and the tasting room is 85% done. We are getting close.

Now back to the question, “When are we opening?” If we can get the natural gas hooked up in two weeks and I get my labels, I am hoping to be open by Thanksgiving. However, this will be a soft opening. We haven’t been able to run any product yet because we don’t have the natural gas to fuel our boiler which will heat the stills. We will only have a couple of products available at the start. This wasn’t our plan, but as I have mentioned before our plan may not be His plan.

Thank you all for your support. We are working hard to get the doors open to welcome you in.

Dave, Shelly & Hank, aka “Bad Dog”

The People Behind Bad Dog Distillery

One would think that Dave and I are the people behind Bad Dog Distillery. That is far from the truth. There are many people behind Bad Dog Distillery. Without our friends’ and family’s help we would not be able to do it.
Dave’s good friend Mark Y. spent at least 2 solid weeks helping Dave build the tasting room. They even did the majority of the tasting room design. I think one of the conversations went, “the bigger the log beams the better”. And they are big for sure.
Dave’s other good friend Marc T. has spent quite a few of his Friday and Saturday days off helping. Allan has been the “offsite-gathering-equipment” guy. He found Dave the boiler and coordinated the pickup. I think he also played part in finding us some doors. Son-in-law, Daniel, and his buddy Dave are helping with figure out how to get the boiler hooked up. My daughter’s best friend’s husband and brother-in-law helped with our sprinkler system. Dave even had a client come in and help with some architectural design ideas.

I’ve had help too. My daughters, Taylor and cousin Jesi help find our brand essence’s three words, which are Simple, Neighborly, Tradition. Cousin Holly and I tackled the job of cleaning the disgusting bathrooms. Alyssa has been stopping by the distillery almost every night after work. She’s done be data input for me.
So you can see the people behind Bad Dog Distillery are all you. Without your help Bad Dog Distillery would be just a dream. Thank you every one!!
Oh….. stay tune….. work party for paint will be planned soon. 

Thank you for all of your support,
Shelly & Dave

What is a distillery?

I have found that many people don’t know what a distillery is. Many get it confused with a brewery and they think we are going to brew beer. I like beer and have brewed beer, but I would rather drink it than make it. 

A distillery makes hard alcohol like whiskey, gin, vodka, rum, etc. The process of making distilled spirits starts off much of the same as making beer. We start by combining some basic ingredients such as grains, yeast & water. Of course each product’s recipe varies. The grains breakdown and convert the starches to sugars. With the help of the yeast and enzymes the sugar is converted into alcohol. This is where the similarity ends between beer and distilled spirits. Once the yeast and sugar has done their jobs we drain off the spent grains. We take the remaining liquid and pour it into the still. Alcohol’s boiling point is lower than water so it vaporizes first. It is then condensing by cooling the vapor, and collecting the resulting liquid commonly known as alcohol.

I’m sure you can tell by now, I am not the expert distiller. This is so very true, but I’m learning from a great teacher. If you want to learn more, I encourage you to visit our tasting room and plant when we open in the fall of 2014. Dave is a great teacher.

I hope that helps clear up some confusing between a brewery—that makes beer and a distillery—that makes hard alcohol.

Have a wonderful evening,

Shelly

Discarded Logo :(

Here’s the logo that Fresh Bread Design did for us. We really liked it but it’s the right decision to not use it. If you’re curious, Google Bad Dog Bitters. I think you will agree.

Tasting Room

The rough out of the tasting room. Note the large beams, aka logs to me. Also to the left is me sitting at my desk in the upstairs office.

It’s Official!

Great news! Bad Dog Distillery is approved to operate as a Distilled Spirit Plant. It’s amazing how fast this happened. According to the TTB website the average wait time for a DSP is 120 days. Ours was approved around 42 days. The next step is to get approved by Washington State.

Now that the paperwork is done, it’s crunch time to get the tasting room done. Dave, Mark and Marc along with other friends have been hard at it. The guys decided to use large beams instead of TGI joists (manufactured). So they headed up to our local Oso sawmill and got logs.  Once the structure is up it will be us girls’ turn to finish the décor and painting. This will be the fun part.

Another exciting thing for me is Dave built stairs to what is now my office at the distillery. As I type I’m sitting in my office complete with internet!! Most don’t know that we haven’t been able to get DSL at our house. This is a real treat for me. No more having to cram stuff in on my lunch breaks.

We had one slight set back this week. We settled on a logo, but I found that Bad Dog Bitters has a very similar one.   Alyssa and I both agreed we better change ours. So…back to the drawing board. It’s really not that big of a deal. We haven’t used it in any marketing yet.

Stay tune for our new logo…..

Cheers & blessing,

Shelly, Dave & Hank (aka Bad Dog)

The First Walls

Here’s a picture of the walls for the bathroom hallway. Not too exciting, but exciting for us. This is something we’ve been talking about for 9 months now.

The Walls are Going Up

We are gaining momentum with the distillery.  Last Thursday the TTB requested additional information for our permit.  They wanted more detail on the layout of the interior and another drawing.    I submitted that on Monday and got a phone call yesterday.  I was told our application was going to be forwarded to final approval.  We could potentially have our operation permit in a couple of weeks.

Dave is putting up the walls for the tasting room and the grain loft. I order internet and phone service and should have that by Monday.  I bought a printer last night and will buy an iPad once we get the internet up and running.

Probably the most exciting part of the week is the finalization of our logo.  I posted 3 options on Facebook and got lots of good comments.  We took those comments to create the final logo.  I can’t wait to share it with everyone.  Once I get the distillery’s office fully functional, which should be next week, I will work on an official Bad Dog Distillery’s Facebook page.  And probably should figure out the Twitter thing too….

Dave and I wish all of you a fabulous weekend and thank your for reading Bad Dog’s blog.  Next week I’ll be adding pictures to it.

 

Cheers,

Shelly

Oso Mudslide

It’s hard to believe next Tuesday will mark the 1 month anniversary of the Oso landslide. Dave and I were at a distiller’s tasting event called Snohomish on the Rocks that day. I remember when Dave got the phone call from his friend, Guy. We both thought, “A mudslide. It’s happened before up there. No biggy.” After our event Dave called a buddy that lives in Oso and found out it was a very big deal and total devastation. From that point we both went into shock, grief and then how do we help mode.

 

That Saturday night was the first opportunity to help. Dave got a phone call at 9:30PM from a client asking Dave to come and get his horse because their place was flooding. That seems like a simple enough request, but the client lives on the Darrington side. Dave and some friends had to make a 4-hour round trip to get the horse. She is now living with us. The following week Dave knew he needed to do more. He headed up to the Oso fire station dressed in his logging clothes and packing his chainsaw. He was put to work as a sawyer. He cut logs so the excavators could pick them up and move them. Homes were buried under these muddy log piles. The work was slow going. They needed more heavy equipment. By Thursday of that week Dave told me that he had to get a machine up there. He’s an operator, he can do more. He called a rental company and got an excavator dropped off at the site by either Friday or Monday—by now the days have become a blur. The rental fee is $2,000 a week out of our pocket. He spent the next couple of weeks operating the track hoe and working along with the FEMA group, which included his cousin Fred. Who would imaging that Freddy, a Seattle Firefighter would be working in a debris field with his cousin in Oso/Darrington.

 

While Dave was working in the debris field I was helping organize a donation drive at AMT where I work. A co-worker had connections with the media and AMT became a donation drop off point. The donation response was overwhelming to say the least. We were so fortunate that the distillery was still empty. We took all the supplies for the worker to the distillery. We organized everything on pallets. It became a staging area to replenish supplies for the people working in the debris field. This kept me busy for 14 days straight.

 

It’s been 3 weeks now. Dave and I are both getting back to our normal routine. Tuesday was his last day on the site. It’s time to focus on the distillery again. The Monday after the slide I submitted our paperwork for the Distilled Spirit Plant permit to operate. This was a huge accomplishment. We also opened a bank account at Coastal Community bank. I would say this completes phase 1.

 

Next on our list is Dave has to get the plant set up. We have about 3 months before we could potentially have our TTB inspection. I will be working on our brand strategy and labels. After that we will work at creating a website and social media pages. So stay tune for our new logo….

 

Cheers

Shelly

It’s Not our Plan…

This week has been a very stressful week.  We have gone to 2 banks trying to get funding.  Both banks were not even sure what a distillery is.  I have pictures in our business plan on what it might look like and talk about the distilling equipment and the tasting room.  But they still can’t visualize on what a craft distillery business model looks like.  Dave and I were warned about this in the distilling workshop.

 

Because they don’t know what a distillery is they can’t see it being successful.  The banker last night even told us that he heard there is a distillery in Snohomish that is financially struggling.  And that’s the only things he knows about it.  I hope he takes the time to read my business plan.  If he does he will fully understand that this can be a lucrative business if done right.

 

I just got the call from the bank. They will not loan us any money unless we put our house up as collateral.  That is not an option.  Many of you know we co-own our house with my daughter and her family.  The house is my grandchildren’s home and we will never jeopardize it.

What now?  God always provides and this is not an exception.  We are fortunate enough to have enough money on my old Bayliner’s 401K to get the business up.  We are going to have to cut a few extra corners, but I have faith we can make it work.  We will most likely be looking for some investor to supplement if we think we don’t have enough capital to do a good job.  We will decide this in the very near future.

This week was a clear reminder that we think we can make plans but ultimately the successful plans are always Gods plans.  We wanted a bank loan to keep things simple.  I guess that’s not part of the plan.

I’m thankful that we know the answer regarding our funding and can move on.  Next week I hope to be able to finalize the TTB permit paperwork and file it by Friday.  That will be a great accomplishment.

Have a wonderful weekend and I wish you many blessings

Cheers!

Shelly