July 2022
Building
In early July, we had a visit from our architect, Drew Nuding. He was busy at the building: he took detailed measurements and met with a whole bunch of folks. After spending a long weekend in Dillon - going to the Farmer’s Market, walking around town, having a beer at the brewery - he said he understood why we love this community so much. We’ll be meeting with Drew next week to see his first architectural drafts.
Derek has made headway on disassembling the two-story office space (see below). He’s working towards cleaning everything out so we can pour new concrete floors in the entire building. If we’re able to complete the demo / disassembly and rough in utilities by October, we will hopefully still have warm enough weather to pour new floors before winter. Otherwise, we’ll have to wait until spring.
Also, the roofers have started! We’re working with local contractor Ben Carroll. He and his crew will clean up the roof deck (locals, you might have seen the man lift on Virginia St.) and in the next month they will put on a new metal roof. This has been our top priority since we bought the building.
Business
Things are moving along on all fronts.
Logo: Our work with Birdie Hall continues to be a dream.
Regulations: We’re learning all about the paperwork processes (and code requirements) at local, state, and federal levels.
Financials: we set up loans through Stockman Bank to fund construction costs and equipment purchases (next month we should have updates on a new still - keep your fingers crossed).
Last month, we met with Joyce Pollastro, Sanitarian for Beaverhead County’s Public Health Department. She connected us with Headwaters Small Business Development Center, located in Butte. A few weeks ago, we had a great conversation with Courtney, Logan and Jessica. They will all come down next week to see the building and advise us on applying for business development grants.
Distillery
As I mentioned above, we’re close to purchasing a still! We have an estimate from a highly-regarded manufacturer and are currently in the weeds determining the right size for the boiler and the electrical service. Once we place our order, It will take about 6 months to manufacture the still (which is less time than we anticipated).
On our final big trip of the summer, we spent some time in Illinois and Iowa. Instead of going to any distilleries, our research centered on liquor stores: when looking at shelves of whiskey, vodka, and gin, what logos caught our eye? What styles did we want to avoid? We were surprised to notice that none of the stores we went to in Illinois carried agave spirits (what you have to call tequila/mezcal if it’s made in the United States). Agave spirits seem to be popular in Montana craft distilling (we really like what Spotted Bear makes), and we hope to distill our own at Terminus. For those of you around the country, we’d love to know: can you find only tequila (hecho en Mexico) or are there agave spirits on your local shelves?
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