Brad Dahlhofer (B. Nektar Meadery)

Very cool. Yes, I’d definitely be interested in pouring. PM me and I’ll connect you with our CA salesperson. He’ll be the one to arrange all the details and make sure we’re not already booked for another event. I’ll get over there myself if I don’t have anything else keeping me from attending.

Brad

Don’t even think about doing your own. Find a good CPA. The trick is, knowing a good CPA from a bad one. I finally found one I like.

Anything come out of this? I (B. Nektar) would love to attend. But probably looking more like 2018 now, right?

In the US there are very specific laws about how an alcoholic beverage has to be made and labeled. We can not simply bring the mead over to the brewery and blend them. And besides, what’s the fun in that?!

The biggest challenge for me has been to get a braggot that had a big enough mouthfeel and not the higher alcohols that are common when using…[Read more]

I’ve been known to make a session mead form time-to-time. Maybe just start posting some specific things you want to know and I and the others our there will do our best to help.

Brad Dahlhofer
B. Nektar

Greg at @thecolonymeadery is probably the best source for that type of information. He’s a really nice guy. I’m sure he’d help you out if you reach out to him. He’s also the head of the AMMA Legislative Committee and has already started organizing local state-level AMMA Chapters that can help with state specific issues and questions.

I’ve used a heavy-duty paper cutter before. Seemed to work okay. But I hate doing it in general.

If you’re using screenprinted bottles, then hotstamps won’t work for you. They are for stamping a code onto a label before it’s applied to the bottle.

You’d be better off with an inkjet or laser batch coder.

Uhh…5000 gallons is not small-scale. Unless you’re talking about 5000 gallons per YEAR.

There’s so many variables here, but lets start with the annual production. But it also depends on your aging time, racking methods….and so much more.

Like most consultants, my common answer to a question is “it depends”. 🙂

We have both closed-head tanks and VC. They’re different tools for different jobs.
For the most part, we don’t ferment in the VC tanks. They’re best for long-term aging to avoid oxidation as others have said. We ferment in our closed-top tanks and then age in the VC. EXCEPT when we’re making session meads; then we only use closed-top tanks.

Yes,…[Read more]

Glad to see you going for it!

Just remember to watch your cash. I used to enter my bill payments into Quickbooks LONG ahead-of-time as “PLACEHOLDERS” so I could watch my cash situation. I would then delete them once I had the actual check written for the actual amount. I freaked out my book keeper (who had never seen it done that way), but it…[Read more]

What exactly do you mean by this?

“To help us out he will take the extra cost off our lease. For example: We planned on borrowing $90, 000 and now it would go up to 130,000. ”

From your previous statement, I interpreted that you have a $46k build-out to do before the facility was ready. Are those leasehold improvements? So do you mean that…[Read more]