Hidden Ships Distillery

Transcript

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Welcome to Topsail Insider, where you can hear all about the businesses and events in the beautiful coastal towns in the greater Topsail area of North Carolina.

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Hello everyone and welcome to Topsail Insider.

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My name is Krista and I am your host.

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Today we are talking to Amy and Andy Zwebka.

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They are the husband and wife owners of Hidden Ships Distillery.

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Welcome, amy and Andy.

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Thank you so much for letting us come in here today and do this, including we just did a tasting, which was so much fun.

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Yeah, thank you so much for coming in today.

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Yes, everyone here knows Hidden Ships Distillery because it's a very popular place, and rightfully so.

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For those who may not know what Hidden Ships Distillery is, please give us the nutshell version of what you have going on here.

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Yeah, so we are Topsail Island's first and only distillery.

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We're actually the first in Penner County.

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We're what we call pre-prohibition inspired.

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So our cocktail menu features cocktails from the late 1800s or inspired by that era, I think.

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In our lounge area we kind of carry over that theme and feeling.

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It's a unique atmosphere for the area.

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We like to call it a little bit of speakeasy without being too too dark and dim, a little bit of coastal without being too bright, and so you kind of combine that atmosphere with the menu that we've created and that's what you get.

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We get a pre-prohibition cocktail lounge with the menu that we've created and that's what you get.

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We get a pre-prohibition cocktail lounge.

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You nailed it.

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I was thinking about how to describe this place.

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It's very velvety and warm feeling in here, but you still have a lot of fun here, with people coming during the day, and I came in the other day and they were playing cards.

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I was a little jealous, like that's what a great place to hang out.

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You also have like football and themed evenings and events here, so you did.

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you caught that speakeasy, darker vibe, but it's not too dark, it's perfect.

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I want to jump right into the backstory and then we're going to go through what you offer, from your cocktails to what you're distilling and your classes, which are amazing, and all that.

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But first let's talk about that backstory.

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So you did something that I only dream about doing.

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I dream about it.

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I even bought an RV because I wanted to do it so badly, but I couldn't get my family on board Before we get there.

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Where did you two meet?

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We met in high school?

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Where?

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At what part of the country?

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In Western New York?

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Where were you when you started the RV trip around the US?

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Yeah, we were here.

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So my background, which we may get to.

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But I just retired after 21 years in the Marine Corps that was June of 2021.

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And so we were here.

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As I retired, we left North Carolina and then headed out on that trip.

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Was it a honey?

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Let's sell everything and just travel around the country with our children and show them everything?

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Or was it you had a plan in place that you knew ultimately would lead to hidden ships?

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I think we had a plan that the trip would only be one year long, so that was definitive.

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Some people that we met out on the road like do it.

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When they say full-time, they mean there's no ending date.

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For us.

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We were full-time for that year, but we knew that it was going to end, and so, prior to the trip, we had certainly dreamed of having hidden ships.

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We had spent some time thinking about it, planning.

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I had done some preparation prior to, but certainly nothing was solidified before leaving on the trip.

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Well, when we left North Carolina, we actually went basically straight to the Kentucky Bourbon Trail.

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That was kind of our first major stop, spent 10 or 11 days there up in Kentucky and did a lot of the big distillery tours but also a lot of craft distilleries, because that's what we were more interested in seeing at that time.

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Okay, you were retired.

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You have a background in nursing.

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What made you do the jump from, or were you already thinking about a distillery while you were in the military?

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Yeah for sure.

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So our origin story that we like to tell we're here today because Amy and I had a great experience in early 2019.

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That was at another distillery up in North Carolina called Murto's Made.

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It's in Huntersville, so if you're in that area, go check them out and they have a similar business model with a back of the house distillery, front of the house cocktail bar.

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They're much more speakeasy though in terms of their lounge, much darker but similar business model.

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And that was early.

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2019 was the first time I'd kind of ever had a smoked old fashion.

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It was beautifully presented to us and at that point in my life, for probably the 10 years leading up to it, every time I saw a brewery open I would look at it and say, darn it, I should have done that, and that's certainly not to take away from all the unique challenges that are in that industry, but that was just my mindset.

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And so then we have this great experience at a distillery and I just started to research the craft distilling as an industry, doing as much as I could.

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The assessment I made from a business perspective was I think craft distilling is where craft breweries were maybe 10 or 15 years ago, just in terms of how often you see them or how popular they are.

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And so I thought well, if we're going to jump in, it makes sense to do that now.

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Again, I still had two years left to serve in the Marine Corps, so I did what I could.

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University of Louisville of course, louisville is the heart of bourbon country in Kentucky.

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That school offers a graduate program in distilled spirits, so that's an online program, nothing hands-on for distilling, but a great background in regulatory issues, legal issues.

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We're a very highly regulated industry, as you could probably imagine, and so it gave me a firm foundation in those concepts, but also branding, marketing, a little bit of operations.

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And then my favorite was the history of distilled spirits.

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I was a history undergrad so I really nerded out in that class.

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Okay, it's all starting to come together now, yeah.

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So really loved that one and again finished that course right at the same time as I was retiring.

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It was a two-year program and so finished up June of 2021, retired June of 2021.

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And actually when we went to Kentucky for the bourbon show, we stopped by the university.

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I was able to pick up my diploma.

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So that was fun Nice.

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Worked out.

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A husband and wife team, usually one has that passion?

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Yes, and the other person is very supportive.

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You educated yourself as well for distilling how did you get so immersed in it as well?

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Okay, so for 21 years I watched my husband provide for our family and sacrifice, and at that point, when he retired, I said you need to be doing something that you enjoy.

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There's no point in just getting any job.

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What is it that you want to do that you?

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enjoy.

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You know he's always been an entrepreneurial spirit.

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He's several businesses before even getting out of the Marine Corps that he's made work or has worked with, and I knew that that was something that he's very passionate about.

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He's brought several ideas to the table and sometimes I roll my eyes and sometimes I'm like, okay, he brought this to the table and I was like heck, yeah, like that sounds like a good idea.

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And he, of course, like he said, does a lot of research.

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He doesn't do anything from the hip.

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He brought the research with the distilleries, you know, coming right behind the breweries saying how they're the up and coming, our personal experience at that one distillery and then our multiple personal experiences at other breweries and distilleries, because we very much enjoy visiting those anywhere we go and all around the country.

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When we went for our year trip, for sure we hit up as many as we could.

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That's something we definitely have always enjoyed.

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So when he came up with this idea, I was like heck, yeah, like that's a good idea.

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There's nothing here in the area like that.

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It could be a really good thing and I am definitely on board and I want to be involved.

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He's definitely the lead here, like I lead our home, because we homeschool our children too.

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Somebody has to be there to do that mostly.

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So we definitely lead more at the house.

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But I was like I'm a hundred percent going to be involved and know more about distilling than than just like we have one you know what I mean I wanted to, so us going to, we attended Moonshine University.

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Yeah, okay, so I did read that you were top of the class at Moonshine University, but I didn't.

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So I finished last but even if you finish last, you still graduate.

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Amy was the honor graduate graduating number one.

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Okay, but while we're talking about the Moonshine University, which totally doesn't sound like a real thing, but it is a real thing.

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Tell me about that.

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It's a shorter course.

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Why is that course so important to people who are going into distilling?

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It was actually during the RV trip.

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Again, I'd done, I'd finished up with that University of Louisville program had a foundation.

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About halfway through that trip, amy and I were talking about it and we had spent the last couple years dreaming about it.

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We had pages and pages of notebooks filled with possible names of a place Like we had.

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It was all in the dream kind of phase, but we made the first decision during that trip that kind of really solidified it and made what I call the first business investment, which was to attend Moonshine University it is a funny sounding name but I promise it's legitimate curriculum Again back in Louisville, heart of bourbon country, and so it's a six-day course that is hands-on distilling.

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So for Amy and I that was actually our first experience with working, you know, from grain through the whole process of distilling and then at the end of the week you get a bottle that you made aged one whole hour in a barrel, which we still have.

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How does that taste?

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Out of curiosity, you know it's unaged bourbon.

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They call it white dog for a reason, so so yeah, that was a great but that was it's.

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You know they call it white dog for a reason.

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So, yeah, that was great, but that was.

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It was important to me that we both attend that right, because it wasn't enough for me to just go and I would bring back the notes, and then that was part of Amy being heavily involved in the business and, frankly, I didn't want to be responsible for taking all those notes by myself, because she ended up gravitating towards some of the other classes, like branding and marketing, and she picked up on things that I would have missed, and so it was very beneficial and it wasn't cheap and I say it was an investment.

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It truly was for us both to attend.

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That was critical.

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One of the things I learned there was the staff.

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There has a core staff that they keep, but then they also bring in outside instructors for various topics, and a lot of those instructors were consultants for distilling, and so one of my takeaways was I need a consultant, and I knew I couldn't afford those consultants because they work with all the big companies and I didn't have that kind of budget.

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So we got back and I knew I needed a consultant.

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So I found one again in North Carolina.

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His name's Steve.

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He runs a company called Kindred Spirits Consulting, so shout out to Steve.

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He was the master distiller at End of Days Distillery down in Wilmington when they opened.

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So he was critical for our success in getting open, certainly, but put him on retainer basically as soon as we got back from that course.

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The thing about the course that was important was you know, you can't learn it all in six days, obviously, but really all it did was give us the confidence to think that we could pull it off.

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And so when we went into that course at least for me, I think both of us our plan was we'll do the course, We'll spend two, three years probably getting it up and running.

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That was kind of the game plan when we went into the course.

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And then we graduated the course and what we did instead was get back to the area and sign a lease for this place three days later.

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Wow, you know no business plan it did give you confidence, maybe too much, I don't know.

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We signed the lease, not a business plan in place, no funding secured, just again a belief that we would figure it out, and so that course was important.

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For that there was knowledge and ultimately allowed me to have better conversations with Steve, the guy that I was putting on retainer as consultant.

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So you know I trust him obviously with his knowledge, but now I had a foundation in that knowledge that allowed me to have better conversations, so it was a really important course for us.

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So you said you sort of gravitated towards the marketing here today.

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Have you guys sort of gravitated to different aspects of the business, like you prefer to run this part and you run that part?

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How have y'all divided and conquered.

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Divide and conquered is a great term, I think, and we kind of do that in our personal life as well, with the kids when he was in the military.

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But, yeah, same similar approach.

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There's a lot of things that we work on together and we almost always consult each other for pretty much every decision, even if it's right after the fact, we're both aware of everything that's going on at all times.

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Yeah, I definitely take the marketing, the social media, the merchandise, the events, that kind of stuff.

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Okay, when we were opening, I was in charge of, like, the decor and working with, you know, getting all that in place.

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I'm not a bartender and I never will be, so that's Andy's.

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Andy runs the bar, got it the bar and then the whole distilling side, like I'm aware and a part of the process, but he runs, he's the master distiller for sure.

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Okay.

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So since you're doing the distilling primarily when you have that recipe, especially award-winning recipes, you don't mix that up very much, right.

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No, I mean continuity across batches is what we're going for.

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We want a consistent flavor profile, because that's what becomes a customer expectation, right?

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So if they bought one bottle once, whether it's a year later or a couple years later, they would expect to have that same taste profile.

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It's important, so certainly important to us.

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So I would say no, we want to be very consistent with flavor profile.

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The only thing I would add to it is, like between batch one and batch two of vodka, for example, we didn't change the recipe, but we did refine how we filter it, and so that was not so much changing the the taste of it, but just kind of making a cleaner product.

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and so that's some of the smaller changes we made in between batches do you tweak the percentages like you were saying earlier, like this is 15% rye and you're like I think we need to up that just a little bit on the next batch, or is that deviating too much for your customers who already know what you're selling?

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Yeah, so something like that.

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You know, you mentioned rye or if we did a corn bourbon right.

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So typically a bourbon will have corn as a base, at least 51%, and then rye or wheat and then barley, and so for us we want to focus on making a weeded bourbon.

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We're going to keep that mash bill that's a fancy word for recipe we're going to keep that mash bill consistent.

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There are different tastes that come out for different various reasons, a little bit different in each barrel, a little bit different aging, and so that's a lot of times when we get to barrel blending, that's where you can kind of get that consistent taste profile because you're blending multiple barrels.

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But you mentioned kind of changing the recipe.

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We did tweak our gin recipe despite being award-winning it was but we saw an opportunity to just lessen the juniper a little bit and we were very happy with the results in batch two from that.

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The gin that won the gold award.

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After it won the award, you tweaked it.

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Yeah, I mean, since you talked about timelines, when I tweaked it I had already shipped it off for competition.

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I didn't know that it was going to win gold.

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Oh, that's funny.

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I think batch two is even better.

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I think every change we made was for the better.

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So the vodka won the gold recently.

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It was like two weeks ago right A couple weeks ago we got those results and then the rum, the gin, the gin.

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So we have two gold medals one for our gin that won at New York International Spirit Comp, and then vodka just won gold at something called USA Spirit Rating, which is an international competition.

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The way they run all of those is, it's all blind taste testing, oh that's cool.

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And you get a panel of judges.

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Typically three judges do blind taste testing of all your spirits, and then you get tasting notes and so they'll let you know what kind of things they're picking up on.

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And then they're great as well, and so you know you go against all the big distilleries that are still submitting their products to compete on those platforms.

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So after the competition and you've been awarded or not awarded, depending on who you are they give you.

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You said they give you notes, so like hey, you know you need to improve here, or hey, you killed it here.

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This was amazing.

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Most of the notes are just tasting profiles.

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So you mentioned that we did a tasting before we recorded this, so I tried to take them through some tasting notes, things that they may be smelling or tasting, and that's that's some of what I got back from those competitions.

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Uh, are tasting notes.

00:17:35.653 --> 00:17:47.057
Now there is one competition that the american distilling institute runs, called adi, and that particular competition is very, very big on saying here's what we liked, here's what we didn't like, and so that was.

00:17:47.057 --> 00:17:50.299
You know it's interesting to read and to certainly consider.

00:17:50.299 --> 00:17:51.804
Are there areas of improvement?

00:17:51.924 --> 00:17:54.342
Yeah, and one of your earlier answers too.

00:17:54.342 --> 00:17:57.163
You mentioned getting the funding for here.

00:17:57.163 --> 00:17:59.743
Tell me about the wall over here, the wall of fame.

00:17:59.743 --> 00:18:04.579
Tell me about why that is what it is and how you got started here.

00:18:05.020 --> 00:18:05.221
Yeah.

00:18:05.221 --> 00:18:12.328
So in March of 2023, which was about six, seven months before we opened last year we ran a Kickstarter campaign.

00:18:12.328 --> 00:18:14.576
Kickstarter is called crowdfunding.

00:18:14.576 --> 00:18:24.347
It's an opportunity for people to contribute financially at different levels of support, and so we had everything from a $2 sticker to, you know, a hat, a t-shirt.

00:18:24.347 --> 00:18:27.644
It was really an opportunity for people to show their support before we opened.

00:18:27.644 --> 00:18:30.964
But the wall of fame represented two levels of support.

00:18:30.964 --> 00:18:33.000
One, you know, for a hundred bucks.

00:18:33.000 --> 00:18:34.104
There's a plaque in the center.

00:18:34.104 --> 00:18:35.240
They can get their name on that.

00:18:35.715 --> 00:18:45.297
And then the larger tiles that surrounded those were really pretty affordable as well 250 bucks and you get your.

00:18:45.297 --> 00:18:52.843
What we liked about it was we saw a lot of business support, so a lot of those are local businesses that showed early support for us, which we appreciated, and really for them, 250 bucks for you know, a marketing tool, right?

00:18:52.883 --> 00:18:53.905
So they're up there forever.

00:18:53.945 --> 00:18:55.656
So that was, I think, a great deal for them.

00:18:55.656 --> 00:18:58.801
But we raised that money in March of 2023.

00:18:58.801 --> 00:19:02.528
And then we coordinated that actually with our soft opening.

00:19:02.528 --> 00:19:05.599
So we mentioned our one year anniversary coming up.

00:19:05.599 --> 00:19:17.680
We opened September 29th of last year, but on September 28th I used our soft opening as a tool and everyone on that wall is who was invited to that soft opening.

00:19:18.481 --> 00:19:19.204
So we called it a.

00:19:19.224 --> 00:19:23.538
VIP party, but I knew it was going to be our soft opening opportunity as well.

00:19:24.098 --> 00:19:27.106
And what are you doing for the one year anniversary celebration?

00:19:27.515 --> 00:19:28.176
Yeah, big party.

00:19:28.176 --> 00:19:29.200
We certainly hope so.

00:19:29.200 --> 00:19:30.001
I think it will be.

00:19:30.001 --> 00:19:31.915
We're throwing a tent up out in the parking lot.

00:19:31.915 --> 00:19:33.861
We're going to have a stage built out there.

00:19:33.861 --> 00:19:39.101
We have two bands on Friday, the 27th, and three bands on Saturday.

00:19:39.181 --> 00:19:40.042
September this month.

00:19:40.103 --> 00:19:48.071
This month a couple of weeks away, and then Sunday because the tent can't get torn down until Monday we decided to go ahead and host a little craft show as well.

00:19:48.413 --> 00:19:48.575
Nice.

00:19:48.595 --> 00:19:49.800
Since the tent will already be up.

00:19:49.800 --> 00:19:52.364
So we kind of have a Friday, saturday, sunday schedule.

00:19:52.364 --> 00:19:54.020
So, yeah, we expect a big turnout for that.

00:19:54.535 --> 00:20:05.347
I just want to say congratulations, because I think you had a stellar year, and to be able to celebrate that a year later with the success that you've seen so far, and I think it's only going to get better.

00:20:05.347 --> 00:20:07.549
I just wanted to say my hat's off to you.

00:20:07.569 --> 00:20:08.632
Well, thank you, it's impressive.

00:20:09.055 --> 00:20:10.461
Where do y'all live in the Topsail area.

00:20:11.194 --> 00:20:13.056
We live on the Hampstead-Surf City border.

00:20:13.115 --> 00:20:13.737
Okay, right there.

00:20:13.737 --> 00:20:19.580
And did you know that it was always going to be Surf City where you were going to open the store, or were you looking at other areas?

00:20:20.300 --> 00:20:21.082
We wanted Surf City.

00:20:21.082 --> 00:20:23.644
You did yeah, based on what was available.

00:20:23.644 --> 00:20:25.045
We were looking at different real estate.

00:20:25.045 --> 00:20:32.250
We searched Surf City first and then we started like well, maybe we have to go out to Holly Ridge or maybe we have to go out to Sneasbury.

00:20:32.250 --> 00:20:36.593
But when this became available, we knew immediately like yeah this is right.

00:20:39.035 --> 00:20:39.957
Was this development here, charlie Medlin?

00:20:39.957 --> 00:20:44.125
Was it up and running when you guys made the decision or it was just breaking ground here?

00:20:44.125 --> 00:20:45.587
Right, it was about half full.

00:20:45.909 --> 00:20:47.319
Oh, okay, like all of these.

00:20:47.615 --> 00:20:48.961
This building was nothing.

00:20:49.535 --> 00:20:52.863
These last couple of buildings had nobody in them yet.

00:20:52.863 --> 00:20:53.805
Dirt floor still.

00:20:53.986 --> 00:20:55.008
Yeah, but the building was here.

00:20:55.008 --> 00:21:00.047
What was the most challenging thing that you guys ran up against when you were opening?

00:21:00.717 --> 00:21:02.615
Oh, I mean, that's probably a loaded question.

00:21:02.615 --> 00:21:07.386
So I think we had a very, very great outfit in terms of construction.

00:21:07.386 --> 00:21:14.407
I had a great general contractor shout out to Steven Masonboro Construction just an awesome company to work with.

00:21:14.407 --> 00:21:19.217
And I'll tell you, I talked to other owners and they had horror stories about working with their general contractor and.

00:21:19.938 --> 00:21:20.880
Steven and his team.

00:21:20.880 --> 00:21:23.183
He was proactive about when problems came up.

00:21:23.183 --> 00:21:28.501
He he was helping me solve them and so can't can't say enough about it and you know you look at our timeline.

00:21:28.501 --> 00:21:30.936
We did it, I think, as fast as anyone can.

00:21:30.936 --> 00:21:36.233
We signed the lease July of 2022 and we were open by September of 23.

00:21:36.233 --> 00:21:38.941
So really about a 14 month start to finish.

00:21:38.941 --> 00:21:39.923
We didn't break ground.

00:21:39.923 --> 00:21:45.645
This place where we're sitting still had dirt floors on April 12th of 2023.

00:21:45.645 --> 00:21:47.872
And by September 29th we were open.

00:21:47.912 --> 00:22:03.038
And so when you talk about challenges, I think you know Steven had his kind of timeline for construction and what I did was I overlaid everything that we needed to do, particularly with the distillery side of the house, like when are we receiving equipment?

00:22:03.038 --> 00:22:04.704
When are we setting up the stills?

00:22:04.704 --> 00:22:07.154
When can we actually be distilling product?

00:22:07.154 --> 00:22:12.464
All that had to be synced very tightly in order to make the deadline.

00:22:13.066 --> 00:22:21.381
We got a federal license to be a distiller pretty early on and it's a bureaucratic kind of process and there's quite a bit involved, but frankly, it was pretty straightforward.

00:22:21.381 --> 00:22:22.644
That was at the federal level.

00:22:22.644 --> 00:22:31.229
At the state level, it was a little bit more stressful, and it was stressful because you can't apply for your permits until construction is over.

00:22:31.229 --> 00:22:39.902
So we had to act as if, throughout the whole process, that we would get approved for these permits, but not knowing until really the very end.

00:22:39.902 --> 00:22:44.159
So construction was officially finished August 30th.

00:22:44.159 --> 00:22:48.788
I had all my paperwork prepared in advance and I went up the next day.

00:22:48.788 --> 00:22:58.442
I drove my packets to Raleigh, I had an appointment to sit with them and I walked away with both the commercial permit to be a distillery and then the retail permit to run a bar.

00:22:59.123 --> 00:23:12.397
But all that had to happen so that we could actually make product, and we had already announced our grand opening, so we had a month which was September 29th 30th.

00:23:12.417 --> 00:23:15.844
September 30th, so August, you're getting the end of August.

00:23:16.538 --> 00:23:28.404
They call it a certificate of occupancy, when you talk construction and you're done, and it's all part of the permit process, and so we didn't get that, though, till August 30th, and I had a month then to turn on everything.

00:23:34.996 --> 00:23:38.886
I've never said that distilling equipment was pretty.

00:23:38.886 --> 00:23:40.480
It's really pretty.

00:23:40.480 --> 00:23:44.999
The copper and I don't know what he called all the vessels that you have back there.

00:23:44.999 --> 00:23:47.083
Everything is so it's pretty.

00:23:47.083 --> 00:23:56.047
So you had all of that in place and you had to distill a batch before you could do the grand opening.

00:23:56.047 --> 00:23:57.736
So let's talk about that batch.

00:23:57.736 --> 00:24:02.146
How long does it take from beginning to end to get a batch completed?

00:24:02.355 --> 00:24:03.701
Yeah, a little bit different for each one.

00:24:03.701 --> 00:24:08.359
So vodka is the quickest and easiest when we put it in the still.

00:24:08.359 --> 00:24:12.178
It takes about six hours to distill it total and from each run.

00:24:12.178 --> 00:24:21.944
So you mentioned the copper back there, our copper still is 250 gallons and so after we get about 130 gallons after about six hours off of the still.

00:24:21.944 --> 00:24:24.569
But that's a very, very high proof, right?

00:24:24.569 --> 00:24:28.319
So we're talking 160 plus proof that 130 gallons.

00:24:28.319 --> 00:24:29.865
We have to proof it down.

00:24:29.865 --> 00:24:34.394
Proofing down just means we're adding water to get it to the right proof that we want to put it in a bottle at.

00:24:34.635 --> 00:24:38.301
So we get that off the still I mentioned earlier.

00:24:38.301 --> 00:24:40.775
I think that we take it through a four-day filtering process.

00:24:40.775 --> 00:24:46.222
So then we start that four-day filtering process and then basically after that it's ready to bottle.

00:24:46.423 --> 00:24:47.144
Do you bottle here?

00:24:48.077 --> 00:24:50.085
We bottle all in-house, and so that's vodka.

00:24:50.085 --> 00:24:52.101
Gin is very, very similar.

00:24:52.101 --> 00:24:54.982
Gin is really just like the tea of spirits.

00:24:54.982 --> 00:25:12.845
We soak botanicals in the still overnight and it's about 40 total pounds of botanicals for each batch and those go in brewer's bags, actually like big tea bags, and we put those in the still the night prior, we let it steep overnight and then we distill it the next day.

00:25:13.194 --> 00:25:14.178
But, same kind of process.

00:25:14.178 --> 00:25:30.882
About six hours total to distill it, getting about that 130 gallons off the still at very, very high proof Gin then takes a month to sit and so, if we go back to grand opening, I only launched with bourbon, bach and rum because the gin hadn't sat long enough.

00:25:30.882 --> 00:25:38.432
About a month later we did a gin release party mid -October because it needed that month before we could actually bottle that.

00:25:38.511 --> 00:25:45.300
I did bottle about a hundred bottles of it for behind the bar only, so it didn't have its full month.

00:25:45.300 --> 00:25:54.768
It still tasted good, certainly good to be in cocktails, but I wasn't confident to send it out in the world for bottle sales in the merchandise boom.

00:25:54.768 --> 00:25:58.205
So we held it for another couple of weeks before we sold bottles.

00:25:59.095 --> 00:26:00.644
Okay, so interesting.

00:26:00.644 --> 00:26:04.843
I know nothing about your business at all, so it's really cool to hear all this.

00:26:04.843 --> 00:26:09.718
Do you plan on scaling your distillery business in the future?

00:26:10.420 --> 00:26:13.711
I think the quick answer is we have some not plans.

00:26:13.711 --> 00:26:16.622
I'd still call them dream phase of what year five may look like.

00:26:16.782 --> 00:26:17.044
Okay.

00:26:17.486 --> 00:26:23.105
But in our current space, which is certainly a small space, we have a lot of capacity for clear spirits.

00:26:23.105 --> 00:26:26.325
So vodka, gin and rum we could ramp up production quite a bit.

00:26:26.325 --> 00:26:31.827
So, to go back to the example I mentioned, 130 gallons of high-proof gin and vodka comes off the still.

00:26:31.827 --> 00:26:37.627
That 130 gallons, after you proof it down, ends up making almost 1,200 bottles of product, finished product.

00:26:37.627 --> 00:26:41.405
We distill about once a month, give or take based on production and based on sales.

00:26:41.405 --> 00:26:46.676
But we've been open a year.

00:26:46.696 --> 00:26:47.598
We're we're on batch three of vodka right.

00:26:47.618 --> 00:26:49.183
So we've done it three times and that's 1200 bottles.

00:26:49.183 --> 00:26:54.638
I could very easily, in our space, scale and produce 6,000 bottles if the demand was there.

00:26:55.381 --> 00:27:08.862
One of our focuses moving forward into the fall here, our next kind of phase of growth is really going to be focused on distribution across the North Carolina ABCs, and so we'll be focused on building that distribution, building those sales.

00:27:08.862 --> 00:27:18.455
And the way we do that is actually going to bars and restaurants that order from the ABC system and saying, hey, we're a North Carolina distillery, we're an award-winning distillery.

00:27:18.455 --> 00:27:19.556
Would you taste our spirits?

00:27:19.556 --> 00:27:21.438
Would you bring them in and put them on your cocktail?

00:27:21.458 --> 00:27:21.798
menu.

00:27:22.218 --> 00:27:28.242
And that's our plan to grow sales and we have the space to scale to meet those production demands.

00:27:28.242 --> 00:27:32.165
On the vodka, gin and rum specifically, I did not know.

00:27:32.546 --> 00:27:34.707
it took six hours to distill.

00:27:34.707 --> 00:27:35.768
How many gallons?

00:27:35.768 --> 00:27:37.249
Is that again About 130 gallons.

00:27:37.249 --> 00:27:41.092
I had no idea that it was that short amount of time, but then you age it.

00:27:41.392 --> 00:27:41.653
Right.

00:27:41.653 --> 00:27:43.739
So you know, vodka needs filtering.

00:27:43.739 --> 00:27:57.342
Rum doesn't really need any time after distillation, but rum to go back to it, we have to ferment that for four days on the front end, and so we do a rum wash, we ferment it and then we distill it, but rum is ready to go into a bottle right after.

00:27:57.342 --> 00:28:00.988
Okay, If it's our white unaged rum, Okay, so that's a little bit different.

00:28:00.988 --> 00:28:03.018
But six hours, I'll tell you, is fast.

00:28:03.018 --> 00:28:06.737
But that's also based on the fact that we have super efficient, well-made equipment.

00:28:06.737 --> 00:28:13.903
There are distilleries that you know 12 hours is a short day for them, and so we're able to do that, in part because we have great equipment.

00:28:13.943 --> 00:28:23.548
Yeah, that's awesome as far as getting your stuff out and into other bars and ultimately distributed throughout the state or the US at some point.

00:28:23.608 --> 00:28:24.170
I would assume.

00:28:24.815 --> 00:28:26.181
That's a sales team, right.

00:28:26.375 --> 00:28:31.484
Yeah, eventually for sure, and we won't look at out-of-state distribution until at least year five.

00:28:31.484 --> 00:28:34.464
We'll spend the next four years really focused on North Carolina.

00:28:34.464 --> 00:28:37.924
The sales team is a sales team of one, which is me right now.

00:28:37.924 --> 00:28:41.019
We do have someone that will probably assist us with that.

00:28:41.019 --> 00:28:46.169
She has a background in doing some of that and so we'll bring her in, but I wanted to be me.

00:28:46.169 --> 00:28:51.345
Right now, I am the number one brand ambassador for Hidden Ships.

00:28:51.404 --> 00:28:52.647
Absolutely, it's your baby.

00:28:52.914 --> 00:28:59.442
Certainly, you know, when we did tours, I started the tours and that was intentional and so you know I'll be the first one that's out there hitting the road.

00:28:59.442 --> 00:29:10.406
Here Again, as I mentioned, that's our focus this fall is to really put a lot of time of effort into hitting the road and going to have those, and I'll do those tastings, like we did earlier with bar managers that are doing the ordering.

00:29:11.635 --> 00:29:17.288
Tell me about the name and the logo and the hidden gem in the bottle.

00:29:17.288 --> 00:29:22.279
How did y'all come up with the logo and the name oh my goodness Hidden Ships originated.

00:29:22.401 --> 00:29:24.507
It's a nod to Topsail Island itself.

00:29:24.507 --> 00:29:37.488
So the folklore is that the pirate ships learned to hide, like at the sound side, on the inlets, so that when passing merchant ships went by, they would come out in an ambush and pirate as they would.

00:29:37.488 --> 00:29:48.520
The merchant ships soon realized they were doing this and started to look over the island for the ships and the only thing they could see were the topsails Right, so they called it Topsail.

00:29:48.821 --> 00:29:49.063
Island.

00:29:50.415 --> 00:30:06.125
So the hidden ships is definitely a nod to Topsail itself, and then some of our jewel tones and everything we have going on here nod to Pirate Because when we first came up with this, we were explaining this to our interior decorator like, hey, this is where our name came from Hidden Chips da-da.

00:30:06.125 --> 00:30:08.343
They're like, oh so you want a pirate theme bar?

00:30:08.343 --> 00:30:12.357
We're like, oh no, so it was a weird mashup to get them to.

00:30:12.377 --> 00:30:13.500
We didn't go with that interior designer.

00:30:13.519 --> 00:30:17.666
No, no, no, we hired someone else I was wondering if you had an interior designer.

00:30:17.666 --> 00:30:18.548
For sure you did, yeah.

00:30:18.587 --> 00:30:30.839
Yes, for sure, because I'm not this talented, but they were like I felt like it was going to be really challenging to be like okay, we'll combine our hidden ship's name with, like a speakeasy.

00:30:30.839 --> 00:30:34.885
Speakeasy yeah, but they did a beautiful job, incredible job.

00:30:35.366 --> 00:30:37.829
The colors in here it's turquoise.

00:30:37.829 --> 00:30:42.807
They've got the most beautiful tufted bar stools I've ever seen in a bar before.

00:30:42.807 --> 00:30:47.567
But, like we were saying earlier, it definitely does have that speakeasy feel.

00:30:47.567 --> 00:30:50.023
But you're still at the beach and we're still kind of light.

00:30:50.023 --> 00:30:56.102
But I do love the name and I love that you took that from the history of Topsail Island so lovely.

00:30:56.102 --> 00:30:59.105
I love the name and I love that you took that from the history of Topsail Island so lovely.

00:30:59.105 --> 00:31:02.490
So you have a little Easter egg that I want to talk about that I just saw today for the first time.

00:31:02.549 --> 00:31:13.526
Tell me about that we know we named it Hidden Ships and there's not like pirate themed, but we definitely kept a little hidden ship on the back of the label.

00:31:13.526 --> 00:31:16.095
So if you turn the bottle around and you look through, you will see a hidden ship on the back of all the labels.

00:31:16.095 --> 00:31:20.465
We also have 10 hidden ships in our bar, oh really.

00:31:20.465 --> 00:31:24.346
So we had little tiny ships, gold ships, placed within our bar.

00:31:24.346 --> 00:31:28.174
So if you're ever sitting at our bar, we had 10 little golden ships.

00:31:28.455 --> 00:31:31.683
If we find all 10, we get a free cocktail.

00:31:31.763 --> 00:31:35.500
There's 10 ships, yep, and then there's one buffalo, one golden buffalo.

00:31:35.519 --> 00:31:36.663
One buffalo One golden buffalo.

00:31:36.742 --> 00:31:38.086
in there too, one golden buffalo.

00:31:38.467 --> 00:31:41.041
All right, let's talk about your signature cocktails.

00:31:41.041 --> 00:31:44.544
Who came up with the signature cocktail menu?

00:31:45.666 --> 00:31:47.240
Yeah, so the menu was my baby.

00:31:47.240 --> 00:31:59.666
So after I retired from the Marine Corps, one of the things that I wanted to do intentionally was to become a bartender, and specifically for the experience of being a bartender, but also trying to learn bar management as much as I could.

00:31:59.666 --> 00:32:09.039
And so I think I picked up while being a bartender at a couple of different places that there was this growing appetite amongst customers for return to some of these drinks right.

00:32:09.039 --> 00:32:14.701
So 15 years ago you couldn't walk into a bar and ask for an old fashioned not really.

00:32:14.701 --> 00:32:16.385
They wouldn't really know what you're talking about.

00:32:16.454 --> 00:32:17.861
And now it's become much more common.

00:32:17.861 --> 00:32:23.694
It doesn't mean it's a good old fashioned, but they'll at least have heard of it and we'll make you something, and so that trend is increasing.

00:32:23.694 --> 00:32:26.084
Now you have a little bit more sophistication with a customer.

00:32:26.084 --> 00:32:45.511

Hidden Ships Distillery

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