Q: Tell us about your company.
A: We are a North Dakota distillery making all natural products. We distill rum and moonshines. Our products are silver rum, spice rum, cinnamon rum, coconut rum, and coffee rum. We also have a bourbon barrel aged rum that is allocated to our distillery tasting room which is called Big Dog Tiki. Our moonshines are blueberry and apple—again, both are all natural with no artificial flavors, colors or added sugars. We also make a canned cocktail called Dog Water which is our blueberry moonshine and pink lemonade in a can, ready-to-drink.
Q: What is your story? How did you end up where you are?
A: I started the distillery after being told “you need something more to do.” I designed a 20 gallon still with the sole purpose of making rum and moonshine. After being told many times over by still makers “you going to blow yourself up.” I finally found a still maker in the hills of Kentucky that made my still and I was on my way. I perfected my recipes, began distilling, and found a merry band of so called expert tasters.
Once production was underway, I entered our products in an international tasting event. The spirits competition notified me that our spice rum was silver medal best of class and Forbes magazine picked it as one of the 10 best to buy. From there, I increased our still sizes to 115 gallon and 225 gallon capacity with 1,500 gallons of mash tanks, which really made my expert tasters happy but by now I was questioning their motives. We then added expanded lines into the other varieties of rums and moonshines and under the advice of the so called “tasters” added a canned cocktail. The canned cocktail is called “Dog Water” it is a combination of our blueberry, moonshine and pink lemonade in a can ready to drink.
Q: What are five exciting things going on at your business right now?
1: We are expanding our product lines even further with a big announcment coming.
2: We have really good employees they bring a lot to the table they are the show.
3: We are making booze right now and haven’t blown ourselves up.
4: Our tasters have had way too much. I am beginning to think they are in it for the free drinks.
5: We have a new motto: win or lose, we make booze!
Q: What is something you learned about business in the last year?
A: It is very hard to win the loyalty of North Dakota consumers. They are very set in their purchasing habits.
Q: Do you have any resources you’d recommend to other entrepreneurs?
A: “Chemical Engineering and Thermodynamics for Dummies” should get you started.
Q: Is there anything else you’d like to say to our readers?
A: Buy local products, somewhere there is a merry band of tasters that depend on it!
Blind Ambition
heartriverspirits.com
Facebook | /heart.river.spirits
Instagram | @heartriverspirits