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| Townshend's Distillery (aka Thomas & Sons Distillery) will be the home of an additional workshop entitled Beyond Gin: Using Botanicals in Spirits in a new (and very old) way, as well as one of the distilleries featured in the Portland, Oregon distillery tours at the ADI Conference, March 26-29, 2018. More Conference highlights, below, left, and full schedule here (scroll down for schedule). |
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Craft Spirits Conference
Special hotel room rates effective through this Saturday only!
ADI Conference registration is ahead of all previous years. Our room block at the Doubletree Portland is sold out but there are still rooms available at the
Hilton
Portland Downtown and its sister property the
Duniway
Portland.
Book now - ADI pricing ends Saturday, March 3.
More info.
(scroll down for Hotel info.)
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Free consulting promotion with distiller Jake Norris at Expo
Visit Jake Norris at Booth 116 [FIVEx5 Solutions (formerly Distillery Solutions) /Jake Norris, Inc.] for the opportunity to "sit down with a consultant" and pick his brain, free of charge. Expo Floor Plan.
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Beyond Gin:
Using Botanicals in Spirits in a new (and very old) way
This course will survey the use of herbs and spices in spirits. We will discuss how variables like time, proof, and temperature affect extraction. The workshop will focus on bitter flavors in particular, exploring different bitter botanicals and how to use them. Monday, March 26, 2018 and Thursday, March 29, 2018 * 9 am - 5 pm
Instructors: Seth O'Malley and Ray Nagler of Townshend's Distillery More info.
Rye Whiskey Workshop (1-Day)
Instructors: Ryan Hembree, Founder of Skip Rock Distillers and Molly Troupe, Head Distiller of Freeland Spirits.
This workshop will cover rye whiskey production from start to finish. We will start with a mash, covering fermentation, stripping runs and making cuts on the spirit run. Barrel aging, proofing and blending will be discussed. More info.
Tad Seestedt, founder of
Ransom Spirits
Moving forward with the Craft Distilling Revolution. Opportunities, Challenges, and Ideas for the Industry's next decade.
Kraig Naasz, President and CEO of the Distilled Spirits Council
Political, Economic and Social Factors Impacting the Distilled Spirits Sector
Michael Kinstlick, ADI Research Economist
The State of the Industry Address
Duncan Holaday, founder of Vermont Spirits and Dunc's Idea Mill
The Germination of Distillation
Women's Summit in cooperation with
Ladies of American Distilling
Monday, March 26
Trade Tasting
Monday March 26
Gin Summit
Saturday March 24
TOAST - The Oregon Artisan Spirit Tasting
Saturday night, March 24
Send Your Spirits Overseas with the Help of WUSATA - The Western United States Agricultural Trade Association
Monday March 26
One-day Vendor Expo Only Pass, $150
Wednesday, March 28, 2018.
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Apply to be a Social Media Ambassador at the Conference
As a social media ambassador, you will share opinions and observations about the breakout sessions with your social audience using the hashtag #SpiritsExpo. You will get free entrance for both days (March 27-28, 2018) of the Conference and a ticket to the Awards Gala (dinner provided).
If you would like to be a social media ambassador on behalf of an organization, please send your application to Erik Owens.
More info.
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Master of Malt wins inaugural Icons of Gin Online Retailer Award
Master of Malt, global spirits eCommerce platform, has picked up the first Icons of Gin Online Retailer of the Year award, announced at the Gin Magazine Awards in London on February 15.
Read more.
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New Releases,
Events & Milestones
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Seersucker Southern Style Gin releases two Limited Edition flavors
Azar Family Brands, distiller of Southern Style Gin, is adding two limited edition seasonal flavors: Seersucker Southern Style Lemonade and Seersucker Southern Style Limeade, officially rolling out Thursday, March 1. Available throughout spring and summer.
Read more.
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Syntax Precision Spirits introduces Heavy Rum & Rose Gin along with all-new branding
Heavy Rum and Rose Gin are the newest members of our Precision Spirits lineup. The new design includes white labels featuring a molecular structure found in that spirit.
Read more.
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Distillery Solution announces rebrand to FIVE x 5 Solutions
Distillery Solutions announced the company's rebrand to FIVE x 5 Solutions. The comprehensive rebrand unifies the business's offerings for distillery and brewery management and includes a new logo, product names, and website.
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Michigan Craft Distillers Association names 2018 Board of Directors
The Michigan Craft Distillers Association (MCDA) has named its 2018 Board of Directors:
President: Jon O'Connor - Co-Owner of Long Road Distillers
Vice President: Rick Wyble - Head Distiller & President at American Fifth Spirits
Treasurer: Brandon Voorhees - Co-Owner at Gray Skies Distillery
Secretary: Richard Anderson - Co-Owner at Iron Fish Distillery
Director: Don Coe - Former owner of Black Star Farms.
Read more.
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Moonshine University Schedule including March 5-6
Fermentation Workshop
Courses in March begin next week:
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ADI Discount Program: NYISC
The 8th Annual New York International Spirits Competition is held in the heart of New York City. Open to all commercially produced spirits from around the world. You do not have to be imported or sold in New York to submit! The NYISC is providing a discount to ADI members.
More info.
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Registration is open for TTB Trade Practice Seminars
Have you ever wondered why TTB keeps mentioning "inducement" when we're talking about trade practices? Are you concerned that you may be operating in violation of the "tied-house" rules? Should you be?
Miami, Florida - April 10, 2018
San Francisco, California - May 9, 2018
Chicago, Illinois - June 13, 2018
Boston, Massachusetts - July 18, 2018
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TTB Webinar TODAY:
What you need to know about using Formulas Online
Date: Wednesday, February 28, 2018
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IRS notice of proposed rulemaking: eliminating unnecessary tax regulations
This notice of proposed rulemaking proposes to streamline IRS regulations by removing 298 regulations that are no longer necessary...
Read more.
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New DSP Permits issued
New Distilled Spirits Plant permits issued as of February 25, 2018.
Enlarge/more info
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ADI map of distilleries
on Distilling.com
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Winter issue of Distiller magazine on newsstands
Distiller is available at 400 retail locations including Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, and various newsstands. Contact us for copies for your tasting room or gift shop.
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ADI's Certification Program now has
2,812 spirits listed!
Apply today
and join the 578 micro-distilleries who are truly
craft.
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New board takes over Tales of the Cocktail
TOTC Foundation board members Gary Solomon, Jr., the Solomon Family and Cure's Neal Bodenheimer finalize the sale of the annual cocktail + spirits convention commiting to donate $250,000 to charity
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (February 21, 2018) - New Orleans natives, Gary Solomon, Jr., founder of Solomon Group, with the support of the Solomon Family and Neal Bodenheimer of Cure and Cane & Table, two of New Orleans' most beloved bars and restaurants, have formally taken over Tales of the Cocktail (TOTC), the beverage industry's premier cocktail and spirits festival and non-profit, from original co-founders Ann and Paul Tuennerman.
Read story
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How Do You Make a Booze Brand Go Viral?
The "Master of Craft" explains
by Aaron Goldfarb,
Vinepair
Steven Grasse has mastered the art of navigating the boundaries of the booze world. The FDA's list of acceptable additives "tells you every single ingredient you're allowed to use in a spirit," Grasse says. "If it's not on the list, you can't use it. Unless... you can make a historical precedent for why you need to use it."
That's when he brought up beaver testicles.
"We found that Swedish immigrants have used beaver balls as flavoring for years," Grasse says. "They can make a spirit taste very delicious, in fact. We're releasing it very soon, but we're still trying to settle on a name." Grasse is no crackpot. In fact, more so than perhaps any person ever, he knows exactly what it takes to make an alcohol brand take off.
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US online alcohol sales hit $1.7 billion
by Amy Hopkins, The Spirits Business
Analysts at Rabobank state that growth in online channels is "dwarfing that in brick-and-mortar retail". Over the course of five years, off-premise alcohol sales had a CAGR of +1.44%, while sales from winery websites quadrupled, and on-demand delivery apps processed more than US$100m in annual sales in 2017 - up from zero in 2013.
Speaking to The Spirits Business, the CEO of leading US on-demand alcohol delivery service Drizly estimated that alcohol sold online will be worth US$7-US$15 billion annually in the country "over the next few years".
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Chuck Schumer trolled a Kentucky Senator
with Brooklyn Bourbon, only to get schooled by
a local distillery
by Libby Torres, Bedford + Bowery
Brooklyn-based Kings County Distillery sent Senator Chuck Schumer a bottle of their finest bourbon this month after his playful gift to senate majority leader Mitch McConnell didn't go down so smoothly.
Earlier this month, while at a conference at the University of Kentucky, the New York senator gave McConnell a bottle of Widow Jane bourbon, apparently bottled near Schumer's apartment in Brooklyn. Schumer bragged that Brooklyn "produces some of the best bourbon in the world," causing McConnell, whose home state is a bourbon mecca, to joke, "There's no such thing as Brooklyn bourbon." While Schumer's gesture was full of New York attitude, it turns out that the booze was actually distilled in Kentucky- only aged and proofed in Brooklyn. Bourbon aficionados took note...
Read more.
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Local beverage pros react to the new tax law
by Edward "Teddy" Durgin, Beverage Journal
There's really no other way to put it. In December, the White House signed a historic tax bill into law that was absolutely loaded with "goodies" for the beer, wine, and spirits business. A number of the Maryland-D.C. area's top beverage industry professionals weighed in on the changes, and their enthusiasm was obvious. 
Jaime Windon, owner and co-founder of St. Michaels-based Lyon Distilling Co., declared during a recent interview with the Beverage Journal, "The tiered changes create a more competitive and equitable tax system, which significantly benefits smaller distilleries and every distillery in Maryland. Historically, the high federal excise tax rate on distilled spirits has been a huge barrier to growth. The largest tax savings apply to distilleries producing less than 100,000 gallons of spirits each year, indeed reducing the rate from $13.50 per proof gallon to $2.70 per proof gallon. To put that in perspective, in our first year [2012], Lyon made less than 1,000 gallons. In 2018, we plan to make 10,000 gallons. That represents a potential savings of $108,000 in federal excise tax under the new law."
Read more.
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Syntax Spirits ready to write the next page
of award-winning distillery's history
by Angela Rose, Company Week
With smart new labels and a hyper-focused portfolio, owner Heather Bean is ready to write the next page of her award-winning distillery's history. "I've always enjoyed the fermentation arts," Bean says when explaining how she wound up as a distiller after a 25-year career spanning chemical, mechanical, and software engineering. "My mother let me start making wine when I was about eight years old. I won't say it was good, but it was actual wine. Then I started making beer."
When Hewlett-Packard -- where Bean worked in digital camera design -- began to outsource manufacturing, it was just the impetus she needed to make a transition into the engineering of spirits. "The job just wasn't nearly as fun as it had been 10 years before," she explains. "I always joke that it drove me to drink. And being a good engineer, I had to learn to make my booze cheaper, so I started a distillery."
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A Career Change? I'll Drink to That!
by Michael Hoinski, The New York Times
Marsha Milam's father struck gold drilling in oil patches in Illinois back in the day. Ms. Milam also struck gold when the 86-proof, single-barrel bourbon whiskey she makes under the brand name Ben Milam was awarded a coveted Double Gold at the 2017 San Francisco World Spirits Competition.
The accolade was a breakthrough for her upstart distillery an hour southwest of Austin, in Hill Country, an area flush with breweries, wineries and other distilleries. Ben Milam - named for her first cousin six times removed, a hero of the Texas Revolution - opened its tasting room last March and was fielding 10 phone calls a day from stores trying to stock its product a month later, after winning the award.
More.
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State Line Distillery in Madison brings Scottish distilling techniques to Wisconsin
by Laura Schulte, USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin
MADISON, WI - The first thing you notice when you walk through the doors of State Line Distilling is the smell.
It fills the tasting room as it wafts from the distilling equipment, where wheat and barley are mixed and mashed and fermented to create State Line's distinct line of spirits.
Owner John Mleziva - along with his partners in distilling, Mark Anunson and Mike McDonald - opened the distillery at 1413 Northern Court in September, and it was a dream that was years in the making for Mleziva. He followed his dream all the way to Scotland, then spent another year of masters study and years of planning and execution.
That aroma of ferment from the other room is the scent of a dream made real.
Read more.
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Bill's Corner
Miscellany from
ADI Founder/President, Bill Owens
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Alt Whisky at deVine Spirits, Victoria, BC
Call it the School of Hard Liquor... This one-day seminar will focus on alternative grains and techniques for modern, New World Whiskys. This is an intense, fun, and hand's-on introduction to the Craft of Whisky. Students will cover the science of distilling, but just as important, how to operate the still, fix a pump, or mill half a ton of organic spelt, emmer or einkorn.
More info.
Ken Winchester is a pioneer winemaker, distiller and consultant on Vancouver Island, BC. He studied at UC Davis & Michigan State, apprenticed at Bruichladdich Distillery, and is the creator of Victoria Gin, Glen Saanich Whisky, Moderna Vermouth, New Tom Gin, and Ancient Grains Whisky.
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In praise of ADI Conference...
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Above left, Nelson Dilbert and business partner Walker Romanica, right, of Cayman Spirits Co.
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"I am pleased to be coming to the ADI conference this year. I first attended several years ago and never turned back. When we started in the business, we were looking for advice, equipment and suppliers. This conference is a must for well-rounded Distillers or wanna-be distiller-professionals. The education sessions feature some of the best in the business. You will not walk away disappointed. Bill Owens is truly the "Godfather" of distilling business. I just wanted to take this time to Thank you, Bill! From all of us in the Cayman Islands."
Tropical Regards, Nelson Dilbert, Owner/Distiller
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to our Title & Platinum Sponsors:
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Copyright © 2018. All Rights Reserved.
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