oh, hi! the following is a status update (in no particular order)

wife: same. still in love
job: same. hate it. im nearly certain company will be gn8 in 2-3 years. been passively trying to get fired - clearly working. people just think im an innovator and excellent time manager :facepalm: when in fact I do almost nothing
animals: same. rugby and robot friend - rugby sleeps 20 hours a day. robot is an asshole 20 hours a day, but is one of the cutest animals in MURICA
kids: same. nope.jpg and probablynever.jpg
internet: was 1000x more productive before i started playing games on random flash sites/steam again
future: "Savage Spirits" a PA limited distillery (plans for first commercial product by 12/2013) - i would like to work for myself and im pretty much going all in. currently fund raising.
travel: I went places and did things. I brought a lemon that i drew a face on for some of the trips.
house: still shopping. my wife's taste is beyond our means.
Boston: as if USA fatties needed another reason clearly to run
physical: slightly over my natural weight. purchased a juicer and am taking in more vegetables than i ever have in my life. getting back on the bike when the weather fully turns
christmas: had most of my side of the family over for a beautiful dinner, but my mom crie most of the time because my older brother (the golden boy) couldn't make it
april 1: tanks (like they say in the army) for the bday wishes. 31 is kind of uneventful and pointless.
ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm... can't think of anything else right now


from aforementioned trips with lemon:

nice to see you. what kind of juicer? ive thought about this, esp cuz farmers market every saturday across the street. what tastes good? i need moar veggies

my juicer:
http://www.target.com/p/bella-juice-extrac...ci_sku=14438493

the only vegetable that i've run into that is a juice ruiner is celery - it freaking overpowers everything. Surprisingly, spinach is p good in almost any juice blend; it tastes like almost nothing. p much any fruit blend is good. typically i make random fruit blends and one big jar of vegetables. In the morning I make a ~12oz blend of 3oz rando veggies and 9oz fruit - it looks like swam water, but i tastes good.

things i have juiced:

Fruits (all good)
apple
pear
pineapple
mango
lemon
orange
grape
kiwi
strawberry
pomegrante
watermelon

green stuff:
celery (ok, but dont use much)
spinach (tastes slightly earthy, but drowned easily by strong fruits)
kale (similar to spinach)
cucumber (waters everything down)
carrots (potent)
broccoli (ok, im just clearly a fan)

sounds awesome, super good luck and ofc when you get some commercial booze let us know so we can support you!

err kale and broccoli make terrible juices
carrot apple and ginger is always a winner

tell me more about your vision of distilling
seriously, thats pretty exciting stuff

you gonna be a vodka and gin only production or can I talk you into a mutually profitable business plan of doing barrel aged stuff?

ya if its clearly crazy expensive id buy it often

I'm a risk taker and I'm a salesman. My brother is a classically trained chef with an incredible ability to blend ingredients.
we are trying to take advantage of PA's extremely generous new laws concerning "limited" distilleries (http://www.lcb.state.pa.us/cons/groups/system_internet/documents/webasset/000832.pdf)
It's an affordable license that allows for everything we hoped for and more:
distill up to 100,000 gallons of alcohol (we will come nowhere near that)
sell by the bottle to any PA establishment (retail, restaurant, or PA board)
sell by the bottle from a distillery based store front and up to 2 satellite locations (board approved)
sell food and alcohol (produced on site) for consumption on site by the glass - even if it is clearly produced commercially, we can still create a test batch of whatever and sell it
more stuff in there, but thats mostly what i was psyched about

honestly, we will be starting with capital that is laughable to even the most scrappy start-ups, but the plan is coming together and allows for tons of room to grow. Our major hang up right this minute is real estate - the city of Wilkes Barre is actually excited about the idea, but the building has to be up to local/state/federal codes and we have to have all of our equipment purchased and in place before the federal license to distill will be approved. That means we will sit on and pay for a lease/mortgage and thousands of dollars of equipment for about 6 months before we're legally allowed to distill a drop. Depending upon scale of the operation, WB is open to housing us in sparse commercial instead of the typical industrial zoning, which is good news

to start, we are going to be doing vodka and gin. we're just starting the process of reaching out to local farms etc to see what we can source locally and if it isn't available now, what can be grown for us locally... and more importantly, what kind of deals can we get in bulk. we would like to also sell some good old fashioned PA grain (151 proof grain) - mainly because there is almost nothing else available, but you need additional permits for that and we're just trying to keep focused on the main game first. Our plan is to bust ass and probably work 16 hour days 6 days a week to be able to produce enough to get a contract with the state while the state still controls alcohol (for the most part). After we're established (probably like 1-2 years in - maybe more) and clearly hemorrhaging cash, we are going to see what else the market has room for. There's a shit ton of potential because this is so new - distilling on demand for clients, creating "house" products for bars/restaurants, and all kinds of other stuff. The plan was to feel like and look like a big brand, but have the pricing that allows everyone to afford it, but after factorign in all costs, it's getting tougher and tougher to stay reasonable. Bottles are FUCKING expensive!!!

Sorry if this is jumbles, but this is pretty much all I've been doing and thinking about for about 4 months straight so if anyone asks I just start rambling. Anyway, if you have serious plans about this, we're really clearly counting anything out yet, but we are trying to be realistic with our abilities and expectations and trying to really plan manageable growth OR an escape plan if this just blows up in our face. barrel-aged stuff has never crossed my mind. I think to short term i guess. We were discussing quite the opposite and doing unaged corn whiskey perhaps, but we're clearly counting anything out yet because we're still pretty far from d-day.

This post has been edited by cardoors32 on Wed - Apr 17 2013 - 11:39:22

I dont consider your reply long winded or jumbled. It only hints at parts of discussion topics which could be broken down and discussed at length.

I think Corbet signed the limited distillery act more than a year or two ago. I am surprised that more places have clearly jumped onto this bandwagon but I know of 2 establishments already in the works in central PA (you would be the 3rd.) I am sure there are more I am clearly aware of.

The newest trend I see deveolping is alcohol serving/producing establishments that are already open trying to corner the collective trifecta of booze. IE: a winery opening a brewpub and distillery. Or a brewpub doing the winery/distillery add on. A place in Hershey has just celebrated their 1 year anniversary as a winery and had their brewpub soft opening last week. They hope to have a distillery open by end of year.

In the case of a winery or brewery tacking on a distillery, it makes a lot of sense. Bad batch of wine can easily become brandy. Bad batch of beer can easily become whiskey.

While spirits seem to be getting a lot of attention lately in legislation, I remain hopeful PA follows the lead of our neighboring states in regards to beer. Ability to sell at farmer's markets and farm to table would be fantastic. I dont know your area as well as you obviously but there are benefits to having acreage and someone in the know who can farm/grow some of your raw ingredients. Onsite is even better.

If PA would pass legislation, I could sell beer without license locally as long as I am growing my own hops or barley. Barley would be a bitch as I dont have the space but the hops I am in season 3-4 of growing/harvesting.

It sounds like you have, but definitely check into the right to farm laws in PA. your product need to contain 50% of your grown ingredients in order to sell your commodity without the typical retail license, but there are restrictions to it like you need 10 acres or something... clearly sure exactly

The limited distillery law officially implemented at the end of Feb last year. One of the main reasons I really dove into this was because there are so many reasons clearly to do it - the federal government makes it so that you have to be rich or crazy to do it, which is eliminating most of the local competition. The license to distill takes up to 6 months to process, the labeling approvals take 3-4 months and you have to already be setup to produce in mass when these things are going through - it's crazy really. Ideally we're setup and moving before others really start seeing that it's feasible... well reasonably feasible

also, i would like to mention that i grew the lemon that came along on my trips. i have a meyer lemon tree in my living room. i named it lisa left eye lopez lukasavage the lemon tree.