June, 2013 | Booze Business: A Blog Dedicated to the Business of Spirits and Wine

Would you drink a beer that tastes like liquor? How about a liquor that tastes like beer?

June 20, 2013 4 Comments

BrewDog, an independent brewery based in Scotland has launched a beer-based spirit called WattDickie. It’s named for the two owners whose keyboard seems to be missing the space bar. (Their website is here.)

But their creativity seems to be working okay. Although, the idea has been done before, but the other way around. Therein lies the tale.

Messrs Watt and Dickie developed the new product using a “radical brewing and ice distillation process.” It’s 35% AbV and is created using an IPA style beer. At 70 proof it must pack a wallop.

I’ve been following these gents for some time (see May 16, 2012 posting) and admire their independence and cheekiness (for those of you in the States, that’s called chutzpah). Martin Dickie, had this to say about their new creation:

“What we have here is not a beer, but its alter-ego. This is Mr. Hyde. This is the shiver down the spine of the grease slick adman relying on people lapping up the ‘same old-same old’ from their sticky bottle of snake oil. This is a drink by the misfits, for the misfits. It’s a beautiful, absurd experiment.”

It will sell for £2.99 for a 6cl bottle and will be available in BrewDog bars and their online store at the end of June. Get this – according to Just Drinks, it is expected to be available in 700ml bottles later this year.

I wonder what it tastes like.

Back in the day, Seagram, spurred on by the vagaries of the owner, produced a beer-flavored whiskey called Old Breed. (See the May 24, 2010 posting for the full story.)

Failure does not begin to describe the reaction to this neither fish nor fowl new product. The comments were universally negative (with “awful taste” at the forefront) and the product was pulled faster than a New York minute. That is, of course, when management mustered enough guts to tell the owner his baby was ugly.

Now, I’m not saying that WattDickie is in the same class as Old Breed. But, calling their brew or concoction a “new style of spirit,” makes me wonder. Is it indeed a new worthwhile alcohol product or a bad idea whose time has come again?

As they say, “the proof of a pudding is in the eating.” So, to my readers in the UK – try it and let me know what you think.

(My thanks to Drew DeSarno who brought this to my attention and supplied the Old Breed photo.)

Southern Comfort’s Next Chapter — Does the new ad work?

June 11, 2013 1 Comment

Southern Comfort has launched the next chapter in the “Whatever’s Comfortable” campaign that I have been following for about a year (Aug14 and Dec19, 2012 as well as Jan 17, 2013). So far, according to Brown Forman, sales trends have turned around by 6% and the brand grew for the first time since 2008.

This latest effort marks a change in character from the original award winning effort, “Beaches,” which featured an interesting, everyday guy comfortable in his own skin as he casually walks down the beach. Here is the original.

The new ad execution has a different character but the same attitude. “We want to champion consumers to ‘be their awesome selves’ and that attitude comes out through this work,” said Mark Bacon, SVP, Managing Director, Southern Comfort. “We’re comfortable being Southern Comfort and we want our consumers to embody that same attitude about themselves.”

Here’s the ad by Wieden + Kennedy. I enjoyed the original ad a great deal but this one works for me as well.

What do you think? (You can also find it here.)

Want to start your own liquor company?

June 4, 2013 No Comments

Go to Moonshine University. Really.

If you’re interested in becoming a chef you might consider the Culinary Institute of America, so why not a school to teach you the craft of making liquor. Well, there is such a school. It’s part of Distilled Spirits Epicenter and you can find the website here.

So, the first stop in becoming the next booze business tycoon is the school.

Next, they have a number of different businesses to help the wannabe craft distiller. One is called Grease Monkey Distillery, which is designed for use by everyone from entrepreneurs to industry experts, and is equipped to distill spirits of all kinds. Kind of like a do-it-yourself still using state of the art equipment.

What good is an outstanding, crafted liquid without a vessel to put it in? Well, then avail yourself of Challenge Bottling. It is a highly

flexible bottling line that is versatile enough to handle smaller production runs, challenging projects, and various packaging requirements. In other words, they are contract bottlers.

Let’s go back to Moonshine U. No, they don’t teach you to find a remote spot in the woods, set up a still, cook the mash and drive like hell to outrun the revenuers.

Instead, they have a fairly comprehensive 5-day program that I think is impressive. The curriculum runs from learning the fundamentals, to the production of rum, whiskey, vodka and gin, as well as general management covering all aspect of marketing, sales and distribution. It isn’t cheap folks ($5,500) but I’m guessing it’s well worth the money.

Aside from the aspiring liquor moguls, the school is a good place for marketing and sales people to learn about the liquor business and see more of the production landscape. At Seagram, we had such a program at the Lawrenceburg KY plant, which was very popular. Absolut had one in a town called Åhus, Sweden, which was both educational and afforded the opportunity to eat herring. (Hey, don’t laugh it was world-class herring.)

Seriously, this is a very worthwhile endeavor in the heart of the Kentucky. Distilled Spirits Epicenter has an endorsement by virtue of its membership in the Kentucky Distillers’ Association as the group’s first-ever Educational Distillery member.

About the only thing they don’t do is teach you how to get lucky and produce a winner. That’s up to you.