Why not a farm distillery?

moonrise over the farm

After all, we have a farm.

We did seriously consider starting one, but decided against it in the end for a few reasons.  One, the capital needed to start a farm distillery would run in the millions.  The best equipment comes from Germany, is made from copper ($$$), you have to convert barns or build new, and you have to hire a distiller. Plus do all the things we are doing: branding, marketing, website, graphic design etc.

Which brings us to the second reason we decided against it:  we don't have the expertise.  Distilling is not something one lightly picks up -- people get university degrees in distilling, after taking chemistry courses etc.  If you don't do it right, you can poison people!  So since we didn't have the knowledge, we realized we'd have to hire someone who did, and that wouldn't be easy.

An even bigger reason we decided against it is the fact that NY State just loosened its laws to allow farm distilleries to start up easily.  The number of farm distilleries has gone up 211% in the past three years.  They are popping up like mushrooms!  We believe that the competition is going to be intense, (erm, not that starting another vodka brand isn't!) and that in the next five years we'll be seeing a bunch of distillery closings.

same moon, different barn