August 2022
Building
Interior and exterior roof work is progressing. Ben Carroll’s roofing crew has been great. As they work from above (sheeting and rolling out a membrane), they are also reinforcing from below (adding posts, beams, and braces). The picture below shows how they’re integrating the old post and beams with new supports.
Our time with the architect is going extremely well. Drew has taken measurements of our historic building and translated our values (community, quality, fun) into a few potential layouts. We’ll have three main public spaces: a tasting room, a mezzanine level, and an outdoor patio. We’re still in the drafting process but, in the sneak peek below, see if you can find where we placed a walk-up window for to-go craft cocktail slushies.
Tonight, we met with UM Western Glass Professor Ruth King and her students to tour the building and envision custom glassware, lighting, and signs (did someone say neon?). We’re thrilled these talented students want to design and fabricate one-of-a-kind pieces for us and our customers.
Something neat that came across our social media this week: check out this beautiful piece of art by Justin Selway. It’s currently hanging in Sweetwater Coffee for locals who want to see it in person.
Business
Designing our logo with Birdie Hall has us focused on how we want to represent our business, ourselves, and our products. Inspired by the history of this area, especially the plants and animals we see on local hikes, our logo is evolving into a symbol we’ll be proud to put on our bottles and our merchandise. When we reveal the final design, I’ll include a survey on what merch we should order first!
Courtney, Logann, and Jess of Headwaters Small Business Development Center came down to Dillon this month to tour the building and are helping us get ready to apply for multiple grants to offset renewable energy purchases and some key equipment costs. This investment in infrastructure and equipment will make a huge impact on our ability to get up and running on the timeline we have set up.
Word is getting around town - we were asked to speak at the Dillon Rotary Luncheon and share how our business plans will positively impact the community. The Rotarians were extremely supportive of our efforts and multiple folks told us how pleased they are that we’re fixing up the old Williams Feed building and making it into something new.
UM Western has started classes and we have had our first meeting with students enrolled in their Business Capstone class. These seniors asked excellent questions about distribution plans and product marketing. We’ll interview interested students for semester-long teams (ex. Operations) on the Tuesday after Labor Day.
Speaking of Labor Day, we’ll be at the building on the Friday and Saturday of Labor Day Weekend collecting data on how many people come by the area. Doing car counts will give us a baseline to anticipate business on future Labor Days.
Distillery
We are about to take the plunge and purchase our most important piece of equipment: the still. After a few more talks with the manufacturer, we’ve landed on a 500 gallon hybrid pot still from Affordable Distillery Equipment. To learn more about how a pot still works, check out this video. Ours should be ready to roll off the line around March 2023.
We are establishing connections locally to source Montana grains for our whiskeys. This means building partnerships with area farmers and grain distributors and finding livestock operations interested in our spent grain for their animals.
Recently, Katrina was able to visit Smoky Quartz Distillery, a veteran-owned and operated distillery in Seabrook, NH. The proprietor, Kevin Kurland, was a fount of knowledge and advice. He makes an excellent molasses-based white rum, and then ages it in bourbon barrels for a lovely finish.
Do you know anyone who would want to subscribe to this end-of-month newsletter? Forward this email along and they can click HERE.