Short Summary
Bryce Distillery is a startup absinthe distillery, born of fun and passion three years ago at a community apple-pressing in Missoula, Montana. Since then, we've put all of our efforts toward creating the finest spirits using our creativity and our training in tradition.
This campaign will scale our absinthe production while reducing, recycling, and re-using the byproducts of distillation.
Contributions will also build our tasting room which will host murder mystery parties and live jazz, and provide a relaxing and vivacious community space for the absinthe-curious and the absinthe-serious. Meeting our target, we'll put Bryce Distillery on the blockchain.
Good karma. You got this and we got you.
Products
We're starting off with two top shelf products: an absinthe blanche called Frosted Fairy and an absinthe verte called Anonymous. We just have one question: white or green?
Note: our recipes do not use any coloring, flavoring, oils, or extracts. The blanche does not contain any star anise, and the verte contains a small amount for flavor. Both recipes are primarily wormwood and green anise.
FROSTED FAIRY: 66% ABV/132 PROOF
Absinthe was banned in Switzerland on October 7th 1910, following a gruesome murder. But the people of Val de Travers – a Swiss valley community – never stopped drinking it. During the 97 year ban, residents took to the underground, producing clear absinthe that would not be identified as the green fairy by inquisitive authorities. We traveled here to humbly learn these exquisite recipes and traditions that capture the spirit of Val de Travers: the place where absinthe was born and where it will never die.
ANONYMOUS: 55% ABV/110 PROOF
A tale, an era of wealth, despair, and art, this is the spirit behind the drink that hails from the hands of Van Gogh, Picasso, Hemingway – the skygazers who sketched an era and hardly remembered any of it. We followed the footsteps of these iconic artists through the great absinthe cafés of Paris and came up with a recipe that captures the freeform spirit of the times.
Bryce Distillery is excited to announce our collaboration with Dry Hills Distillery in Bozeman, who will be supplying our neutral spirits from 100% Montana-grown grain! This will be the base of our absinthe. We infuse botanicals like grand wormwood (Artemesia absinthium) and hyssop, and herbs and spices like anise seed and coriander, with the neutral spirits, then distill. The result is a primarily anise-flavored drink that is both rich and refreshing. We color our absinthe verte with botanicals including chlorophyll-rich petit wormwood, mint and lemon balm to give it a distinct and pleasing emerald glow. Many of our herbs are grown in home gardens and community gardens in Missoula, Montana: The Garden City.
For tastings, we only serve our absinthe one way: with water. The nuanced flavors and aromas of a fine absinthe remain bound to the alcohol molecule until the beverage is diluted slowly, and they are released. There are other ways to enjoy absinthe, including some famous absinthe cocktails which we will also offer at distillery events, but there is no better way than the traditional serving method to immerse yourself in the creamy botanical tide of great absinthe.
If you're unfamiliar with the absinthe ritual, we have included some educational material. We also highly recommend heading over to the Wormwood Society Facebook Page. If it's not on there, you don't need to know it!
Sustainability
Bryce Distillery is using almost entirely repurposed materials for the buildout of our space. Our backers enable us to take the heat generated through distillation and put it to use. Modeling our methods and technologies largely after Stillwagon Distillery, we build a copper pipe system to run the hot water through the tasting room, creating heat in the winter. The cooled water will deposit into holding totes where it will be re-used to cool our still again. The spent water will then be finally repurposed to water our indoor plants. We can still do better. Imagine a self-sustaining distillery. Want to know more? We got you. Our backers are the first to hear the latest updates.
Blockchain
BOOZECOIN is the official coin of Bryce Distillery. It is completely useless and has zero value, and we're giving away 100,000 BOOZE to anyone with a BitShares account. Though BOOZECOIN is completely useless now, blockchain tokens have many use cases like reward points and passes to exclusive distillery events.
Given the chance, we will staff a small team who can further develop this technology into something that can be applied to Bryce Distillery and other businesses.
What We Need & What You Get
Good karma. Here is a list of where our money will go. If we don't get all the funds we anticipate, the first thing on the list will be funded, then the next, and so on.
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$96,000: This increases production capacity with a water and energy-conscious production system. Here is a picture of our 100 gallon still, manufactured by Still Dragon USA!
Ain't she a beauty? We worked directly with the engineers, with help from Distillerie Pierre GUY, to design something that will maximize the flavor profile of fruit and botanical spirits while saving the most water and energy. Given the right technology, our unique system will reduce water waste by 80%, heat waste by 50%, and organic waste by 100%!
- $30,000: Buildout of the local tasting room
A cozy, well-lit speakeasy where community and conversation inspire. Given the necessary funds, this is the future of our tasting room. Bryce Distillery hosts private and public events such as murder mystery parties and live jazz. The ideal absinthe-sipping environment. We got you.
Here's a recap:
- Production and distribution with sustainable methods: $96,000
- Tasting room for our community: $30,000
- Boozecoin development: $5,000
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TOTAL: $131,000.
We encourage you to take a chance on some of the more exciting options of our 30+ perks. For your contributions, you could name our next batch of absinthe, or you could make the founder film himself diving into an ice cold river. You could collect BOOZECOIN, or by being the highest donor, you could have your professionally-composed portrait mounted on the wall and have your plane ticket paid for so you can come to Missoula for the grand opening. Or, if you're the type who prefers to sit back and watch the show, we're offering absinthe accessories and posters, and every contributor will be named an official part of the Bryce Distillery family and have your name immortalized on a gold plaque mounted in the distillery!
First 50 backers to contribute greater than $50 get a Bryce Distillery frequent drinker's glass: a beautiful absinthe glass kept at the distillery, good for one year of special offers and discounts!
See our complete list of perks to the right if you're on a desktop device.
The Impact
Our backers love creativity and community! With the support from this campaign, Bryce Distillery will begin producing our world-class absinthe this spring using local ingredients and sustainable methods, and we will be distributing to a location near you. We will open the doors of an unforgettable tasting room in beautiful downtown Missoula that promotes conversation, creativity, and community.
Our backers help conserve our most precious resource! With the water saved through your contributions, we will save enough water to fill an Olympic swimming pool in the first two years, and the savings will only increase exponentially as we produce more and increase our efficiency and technology. In the future, we can fund studies to make this the standard in the distilling industry to reduce our impact on our most precious resource: water.
Our backers help solve world hunger! If our ideas for blockchain implementation became the standard for food distribution, we would see less food wasted and more distributed to the places where people are hungry. Not only that, but healthy food would become more accessible and affordable for everyone worldwide.
All in all, this campaign will create the change in the distilling industry that will help us realize the future that we all want to live in.
Risks & Challenges
We understand that, by contributing to our project, you are placing an immense amount of trust in our ability to succeed. We are 100% transparent with our community concerned with the risks and challenges we face on the road ahead.
Market cap: Absinthe is a specialty product with a limited amount of consumers. We're not trying to replace whiskey or vodka with absinthe. Absinthe can gain us a foothold in niche markets across the US and around the globe. From here, we continue product development to put unique products in emerging markets. Bryce Distillery uses market tech and boots-on-the-ground research to listen to direct consumer feedback from discriminating absintheurs, monitor markets with meticulous scrutiny, and work directly with the craft cocktail world to ensure that our products are in high demand by bartenders and consumers.
Competitive industry: The distilling industry is shadowed by a few large industry producers with millions of dollars to put into marketing each month: Jack Daniels, Bacardi, Diageo, and more. Bryce Distillery acknowledges the inability to surpass these companies in the forseeable future, some whom have over a century of industry experience. Bryce Distillery sets ourselves apart by seeking a different market; one of consumers with discriminating taste who seek connection, adventure and experience.
We have worked with business incubator Blackstone Launchpad for over two years to identify and address these market challenges, developing plans to overcome hurdles when they hit. We have cultivated a tight network of advisors to aid our success.
Other Ways You Can Help
1. Make some noise about our campaign! We understand that not everyone can back us financially, but somebody they know probably can. Share this on social media by using the Indiegogo share tools on this page.
2. Follow us on social media @brycedistillery everywhere (except Steem @logitrade)
3. If you don't have social media, just send us an email with some words of encouragement, or some funny pictures. Tell your friends and family about us, and we will be forever grateful!
4. Visit our website. We love seeing that people came and checked us out. Vain, I know.
5. Come in when the distillery opens!