"Distiller's meeting"

We have a plan! I mean it! How about a walking map to all our places, an ongoing promotion with the Jupiter hotel and owning the name "Distillery Row"? The only problem was that we had our meeting at the opening of the long anticipated Beaker & Flask in our 'Hood. too much drink, not enough business...

We had all the guys from House Spirits, Artisan, Highball, New Deal, Ryan and myself.

Tim Davey didn't have to give me that beer in his Patriot's mug. His Wife, Katherine, said he stole them from their home.

chicago flikr

See more photos here.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/35872587@N04/?saved=1

Chi-town!

We had to go to Chicago to visit our distributors, Bon Vivant. The Key men ended up being Ian and Steve, mainly because of the tutorial they gave me and Ryan about how one should drive in the city. Horn "Chirps", are to give direction. Full handed honks are to correct people in their errant ways, and two handed honks are wrought with the necessity to yell out the window, some colorful expletive in the spirit of helping.

These guys were amazing! They worked us and we knew that we had to bone up on our drinking prowess to keep up. In all, it was a fantastic time with the salt of the earth. I doubt we'll ever repay them for their hospitality and friendship.

Messin' with Artisan Spirits

We spent a long night drinking beer and making booze with our neighbors, Artisan Spirits. They wanted to see if our fancy German still was better than what they were doing. In the end, we figured that it might be faster but it might be okay for them to use what they were. if it aint broke...

huh? I wanted picts...

from Medford.

The Medford Champs

We need to keep these guys around. Ryan brought this energetic brother/sister duo into the team to help us in southern Oregon. They rocked the house and are people you would crave to hang out with daily. Their spirit is infectious and drive, enviable. I blame Ryan for not getting these pictures to me sooner but he has enough to worry about keeping Jennifer happy, drinking enough to keep up with me and running his other business, Total Quality Services. Call him for HVAC problems or e-mail me....

flikr photos

I got these pictures from George Burns, Oprah Winfrey's personal photographer. These were the photos that he took at the party in Washington D.C.. I didn't recognize anyone but maybe you will.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/35872587@N04/

Cinco Design Party

We had some fun with Cinco Design the other night at one of their parties. Check out their flickr site.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cincodesign/

It's in the blood...

My sister Suzy made the trek to Reno, stomping ground for much of the Family, to honor Esther who recently passed. As much of a loss as that has been, our family is strong and close (And they cook wicked good food!). They were in need of some hooch to toast and wouldn't you know it? We always seem to have some lying around.
I really miss all the tias and tios and want some more molé.

Washington D.C.

I met these guys from the Curiosity Group a few weeks ago and they came in for a tour. Dave Strawinski called on the 15th with a crazy opportunity. He has this friend who was coordinating Oprah's party at her personal chef's restaurant Art and Soul in D.C.. They wanted some hand crafted booze to pour and I happened to have some laying around. I Fed Exed 5 cases thinking that was that when they said they would put me on the list for the party. I didn't give it a second thought. I couldn't afford to go. and then there was the issue about what to wear to a thing like that...

Enter Ryan, our intrepid shareholder and construction dude. He got plane tickets and a room, paying dearly for it under the condition that he go with me. I tried to buy a suit, but my card was declined (Obviously), and mom came to the rescue... again.

I went to the party dressed in a Versace jacket and Hugo Boss pants learning only after the fact that those are cool designers.
My hat is off to Vickie Bordeeaux at Nordstrom. She defines customer service and I would advise that anyone seek her out.

At least I met some great people like Art Smith, Andre Agassi and two Marines that made the whole night. Too bad I couldn't have coffee the next morning with those two gorgeous women: Everything is too far by cab over there!

Either way, you still have to teach the elites how to pour absinthe...

Draaaama!

Sorry for the lack of pictures. My camera broke and the phone cam isn't so great. We're in the midst of a lot of drama with our neighbors. Suffice it to say that we don't like the potential outcome with the Green Dragon and feel that it could hurt us as well, but will continue to fight extinction.
Annalou Vincent does photography for herself and for many others like Beer NW magazine. She took these pictures through the windows one day and had a good laugh that I was trying to take apart a 220 circuit with a screwdriver and a spatula...
The other is of Jeff Howard being Jeff Howard: cool.
Her url: www.annalouvphotography.com

Tribute to our mascot

It's been about a month since Jackson passed and if I think about it, it makes me bawl. I know everyone thinks that their dog is the best, but they're wrong. Even though he was Kieran's dog, we all thought of him as our too. In retrospect though, I think we all were actually his. He protected and loved all of us and even though he could be a schmuck (Kicking me off the bed because he wanted more room, pulling a full sized futon through three doors and shredding it outside so it looked like it had snowed in the back yard or insisting that the right two-thirds of my couch was his and therefore nobody could ever sit there). There never will be a replacement for our truly best friend.
Rich

More events

We've been invited to Ron's property for a number of times and have just been plain busy!
We finally decided to go for Labor day weekend (I need to take some photos of the white trash '70s RV we got from Ryan-hospitality booth or something. We need to "Trick it out" with some righteous shag carpet and an eight track).
He has this property in Tillamook, Oregon on the coast which is beautiful. We plied the unsuspecting guests with a full measure of absinthe and lovejoy. Luckily no one fell into the fire pit (Kieran almost...)

Crazy event/Party season

This time of year turns whacky with all the festivals and events. My camera broke and I can't afford to replace it yet so I've been rather envious of Annalou's fancy rig (She does great work for Beer Northwest Magazine and quaffs only a little beer at the Green Dragon).
I digress.
I was only explaining that some pictures are of less quality... iPhone.
Here was a good one: BarFly's battle of the band vans

absinthe!

I know. It's been too long since my last post, and it isn't for a lack of activity that it has gone undone, but I thought that writing about wrangling with the feds over the Trillium did not good blog entries make...

We finally received approval, and are going full tilt to bring the love.

I hope you love it as much as LoLo.

... and the tables have arrived. Just wait until the tasting room is ready
Rich

The Still dudes arrive

Nicolas Hasse and Alex showed up to show us how to run our fancy still. It was nice to see the professionalism and skill bound up in guys that were so nice to work with. We worked hard to be ready for them getting the boiler going. It's crazy how fast this thing heats up, but 390,000 BTUs is a lot o thermal units...
The Germans were all business but great! Kieran missed the lesson in running the still because he had to get stitches after he cut his eyebrow. I guess I'll have to run it. It was nice to see Ryan do some work though...
Rich

Spending too much money at the Green Dragon

We've been chipping away at building our new still, and it seems to go better with a beer and some music. Good thing we're right next to the Green Dragon. Bob Shoemaker has been kicking around Portland for years and I'm glad he's found a home here (On Thursday nights at least).

Hmmm...

We finally got our German still, but it didn't come with instructions. At least we had a bunch of guys standing around giving opinions. How do you get 2500 pounds of hand made copper and steel into a small doorway? Sawsalls.

We'll figure it out.

Hopefully.

We've got gin!

Here it's Christmas eve, and my buddy Doug came to the distillery early to help me get the new gin bottles in and filled for liquor stores before New Years. Colby showed up as well to lend a hand where he could and Jeff Howard stopped by to say hello and ended up being invaluable. I wanted to bottle ten cases of gin, and then make the three hour drive to my mothers' house for Christmas. I couldn't believe it when my mom and sister, Sam drove down to surprise me and they even jumped in to help. We bottled twelve cases and were able to go home for Christmas. I'm so grateful to be the recipient of such love.
Rich

pulling an all-nighter

We have finally gotten listed by the state of Oregon. It happened more quickly than we expected which resulted in a lot of freaking out. We needed to get stuff to market, and now so we worked from 8 am till 10 pm, cooked a little food (I burned my red beans and rice beyond recognition because I fell asleep), and returned to the distillery at around 1 am and bottled vodka until 7:45 in the morning. I had hoped to get more sleep, but alas two hours would have to do... We still have construction going on, and I had to deliver 30 cases (10 vodka, 20 hazelnut vodka), to the state warehouse. Although we're pretty exhausted, It feels great to finally get product out. Here are a few pictures taken at around 6:30am last Sunday night
Rich

The Green Dragon opens

Our neighbors are finally pouring beer, but haven't yet got spirits. Either way, it's worth mentioning that they are rolling. They are specializing on Artisan beer that you've never heard of and fare that belies a european eatery rather than some bar in inner s.e. Portland. They, and us, seek to revolutionize the way that we eat and drink: Be aware and be concentrated upon educating your tastebuds. The sensate experiences here will challenge you and change your life for the better
Rich

Getting toward production

We had a deadline laid on us by a shareholder. Get this place looking like you can be in production in 10 days. We have a stock-holder's party tomorrow and it needs to be cleaned up. Months of planning and sweating, and now we are at the edge where we start making booze...
Vodka, then Trillium, and when The Christian Carl still arrives at the end of this month, gin. (Not to mention the stuff we have to "Play around with".
It is sufficient to say that we've been tired and tried with the dance of bottles, cork, label design & printing, Federal Bureaucracy, and people asking "How hard can it be; you're just making booze..." My answer? get a doctorate in chemistry. We worked hard for the last two weeks to clean the place up for this suarée, and I'm ready to drop. At least we are getting somewhere.
Rich

Fund Raiser party

One of our partners has a friend that fell off a ladder and hurt himself to the tune of more medical bills than we could pay if it happened to us. His wife and daughters are trying but what can they do? If we have any integrity, we would try to help, and so it goes. We held a fundraiser for them and raised a paltry $4000., but at least we tried, and had a nice party in his honor. If you can help, they are still taking money for Pat at 2756 ne 36th ave Portland, OR 97212. Here are some pictures...
Rich

Painting and painting

Another day of toil and tumult , juggling barrels, feds, ad agencies and worrkers, but we muddle on and shall eventually prevail. We have been painting for what seems like forever, but is realy only two weeks, and the difference is palpable. Cheers to our workers who show up every day with no idea what lays before them, except for the drama of the over-stressed owners, distillers, et al...
Everything will be just fine...
Rich

barrels have arrived

We received 70 barrels from Jack Daniels for our rum today. Kieran wasn't ready as we have no racks. We have been painting and not welding, but you can't stop progress... At least The paint is almost done and all that we await are the federal approvals. They can come any day, which signals the time whe we hit the ground running.
Rich

ID Branding genius

ID Branding is a company that has bigger fish to fry than our little venture, but they have taken us on. I'll try to get as many of them as I can, but am constrained by throughput. I'm sure you and they, will understand if I didn;t get them all. Either way, they are stellar people who are putting our little city on the map of great innovators and people who embrace beauty and life itself.

ID Branding genius

We had a presentation today. It wasn't the first and it won't be the last, but this was the presentation where these crazy geniuses placed a diaper in our seats. At first I wondered if the meeting was really going to take that long, but learned that that wasn't the point at all. They have worked as people on fire to come up with not only bottles and labels for us, but have dug deep into us: who we are and what sets us apart from everyone else. They even welcomed Jackson, our drooly spoiled mascot with open arms. These people are not your wannabes or yokels, but a powerful and heartfelt machine who can read the people they serve, toward the end that they capsulize who they are in a most beautiful way. Just wait until you get the bottles in your hands and then you'll understand why I am ever at the verge of tears in gratitude for what can happen if you have even a little faith.
Rich

The Green Dragon

It seems that the public house is spinning with activity. There is a bit of a party scheduled tonight, and the brewers are reeling to get the house ready it can be at this time for shareholders and lookers-on. Kieran has leant his hand and those of our boys in our employ to help. I wish I could be there for the party, but at least took some pictures of the activity to share with you.

Rich

Independance day

We took a break from all the running around to celebrate the fact that we are free, and able to do so much more than so many others throughout the world. Our nation offers us this freedom not because of any edicts from figures of authority, but by laws written on the hearts of everyone who llives here.
"We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness."
With that in mind, we celebrated as any American should with the institution of the bar-be-que at Kieran's folk's vineyard. It's really a beautiful place, and they are truly the salt of the Earth. I thought I'd show some pictures for your enjoyment of the fourth of July in Oregon.
Rich

Getting there

It's getting closer to the date that we're rollin', and I can't wait! Working two jobs is killing me (Even though I know I won't work any less when I'm cranking out booze).

We have windows in, the "Yellow Brick road" Walkway, an opened skylight in the bottling room, and a rumor that Kieran and Loren found a rickshaw...

We're talking about a lot of stuff like paint, Christian Carl stills, epoxy flooring, the tasting room, and some research bearing out that we can actually make Absinthe that will be real and make federal muster.

Heady times await.

Rich

razor wire

Superior Fencing did a great job building out the fences for our bonded space. They worked all day, and left a masterpiece, albeit something that is a bit "Brig-esque", as one friend put it. What do we do with painting the walls? I would think that it has to "Comfortize", the metal , but what? Maybe you can help us decide.

The Green Dragon is in full swing too, and we can't wait to see what they end up with.

Rich

construction

While we were playing around with making fire, we noticed Trillium flowers growing all around us. It was almost as though it were an omen of good things. Almost immediately upon our arrival back to Portland, we were beset with crews showing up at the distillery ready to make it new to our image; to the image of a new dream.

Apollo drains, Superior Fencing, Total quality construction.

We were now in the midst of the reality that our dream was becoming real to the buzz of saws and the erecton of the physical that we had only tried to imagine.

...With the ongoing paperwork that threatened to quell the excitement.

We will not be daunted with that however. With physical changes taking place, and an electrifying meeting with ID Branding, we are rolling.

Rich

Mental Health break

We had had it. We needed fire, trees and water. There wasn't enough time to go, but we did. Kieran drove to Detroit Lake ahead of me as I was still at work at the liquor store until 7pm. I made my way there in the dark, and was finally relaxed at 10, sitting by the fire, with some Weller 107 at my side. It has been such a struggle and a pressure to coordinate buildouts, materials and paperwork (Don't EVER forget a comma on your bond application). We cooked up porterhouse steaks over the fire and Kieran's favorite combination, Beans and corn.

The morning brought the realization that there was no more fire and we hatched the idea to build one survival style: Wood on wood friction. Good thing I happened to have a cordless drill in my truck...

We arrived back in Portland late for a meeting, but a little more refreshed for the onslaught of work that lay ahead.
Rich

A slew of pictures

I have been remiss in uploading pictures on a timely basis. I could make the excuse that I've been busy (Two jobs; running a liquor store 50 hours a week, being mired in the H*** of Federal paperwork, and trying to be available to ID Branding), but you would just call me a wuss. Therefore, I will make no such excuse.

I will say that My mom and a dear family friend are coming to visit this week-end, Ty Tyrell, who is more family than anything else, and in the midst of crunch time. If it was anyone else, I would have asked to take a rain check but if you have family like mine, you savor any opportunity for a visit. After all, they just want to see the space. We had the bigger windows cut in yesterday, and I'm sorry that I don't have pictures, but I have some of our cute little 5 gallon test still named Jessica, and other things that might be fun to look at including the cooperage place that we're looking to for barrels, Kelvin cooperage out of Kentucky, Jackson, the mascot for whom we had to get a special clause in the lease, two of many of Kieran's medals taken at the distiller's conference, and absynthe that we will be able to market after nearly a century of illegality.

Ready To Build

To all interested in the goings on of Integrity Spirits, please let me introduce myself. I'm the future head distiller for Integrity my Name Kieran Sienkiewicz formorly of Rogue River Brewing as their head distiller where I garnered 16 medals under the Rogue Spirits name, enough with the intro. The exciting things going on are the commencment of building. We have aquired 5 tanks for ferment and blending (step 1 ) we just ordered a gorgeous copper Alembic Still from Portugaul which will be arriving in @ 4 weeksand the fabrication of our 2nd still is underway. Our neighbors at the Green Dragon Public House are mad at work with the interior of their space, They were spackling and painting today and I suspect the bar to be built in the next week. The extirior of the building has been painted and it looks awesome. We have been painting the rafters on the interior Graphite grey which will be done on Monday. Next step is the chain link corridors and floor treatment. This part should be fun as it's a earth friendly coating with walnut shells (for grip) added in, the final look is very cool. We hope to be up and running by August depending on all the Federal liscenses and to have some new spirits to you by September. Watch for the Gin it's amazing (but of course I'm biased).

Cheers
Kieran

Paint scheme

Our neighbors are painting, and we liked the colors. here is their representation.

Chalking the outline

We spent the last few days making chalk lines that mark where aour walkways are and the lines betwen our distillery and that of our new neighbors who are working to buuild a revolutionary brew pub and brewery. The place doesn't look like much yet, but we are starting to visualize the dream. I met with our ad agency, ID Branding today, and they seem quite excited. We are getting prepared to launch our formal stock offering, and thence it goes...

New Roof & Skylights

We are moving on The roof of the building is 2/3 done we are expecting new skylights to flood the distillery and barrel room. Last Friday we met our neighbors who are accomplished brewers and publicans. They will be opening a public house that is supplied by the beers they make as well as guest taps and intends to tout a gourmet comfort food menu made with as many local ingredients as possible. The one suprise and a delightful one at that, is they intend to put a coffee roaster in the space as well. All products from our 10,000 sq ft space will be made in oregon in small batch, liqour, Beer, and Coffee.
Kieran, distiller

we have a lease

We finalized the lease today, and filed paperwork with the OLCC. The ride starts now. We have an open space and a world of promise. Rich

Incorporation

Rich Phillips has filed incorporation papers on Valentines day, 2007 for a new distillery that will become the standard for the twenty first century. He has hired Kieran Sienkiewicz as their head distiller and are in lease negotiations as of today. Now comes the ride; the buildout of the space, the amassing of paperwork, the regulatory issues, all for the hope toward the happy and successful end of creating superb spirits.