Jim Rutledge to start his own distillery

[flahute]

I've been wondering why he was absent from any role as a Four Roses ambassador. I did not see this coming.

 

http://www.jwrutledgedistilleryllc.com/

 

You Tube video of him on the site tells the story.

 

A wheated mashbill.

A rye whiskey! (Something he's wanted to do all along)

Plus rye based bourbons per usual.

 

Wow.

[altadoc]

i'm incredibly excited to see what jim does.  of course, waiting for the product to come online is gonna be difficult.

 

but damn... a rye and a wheater from rutledge? gonna be amazing

[Sluffo]

I know I'll be contributing.

[JoeTerp]

good news

[KyleCBreese]

Now we just have to wait about 10 years. 

[jvd99]

I'm in on this all the way!  This is a start up I can get behnd

[fenderbender4]

Damn...I'd be in.

[Canarse]

As much as I respect what Rutledge did at Four Roses, this doesn't look good.  Crowdfunding?  If they aren't well enough financed to wait 6-7 years to produce a good bourbon I'm skeptical.  

[starhopper]

Not gonna hold my breath on this one.

[Auracom]

Incredibly exciting news. Good for Jim. Good for the bourbon industry. Good for us all. 

[Flyfish]

I thought Rutledge already founded his own distillery. It's called Four Roses.

[PaulO]

I've tasted some 2 year old rye that was very good.  They could also release bourbon at 4 years old as bonded.  Of course a little older is nice.

[ken_mays]

There is a post over at the Bourbontruth blog about Jim's departure from 4R.

[Thig]

16 hours ago, Sluffo said:

I know I'll be contributing.

Not really familiar with crowdfunding so is this a contribution or are you getting an equity interest (although very small) in the company?  I guess I am trying to figure out if this is just a contribution to help them  out or if you stand to make something on it if all works out.

[petrel800]

49 minutes ago, Thig said:

Not really familiar with crowdfunding so is this a contribution or are you getting an equity interest (although very small) in the company?  I guess I am trying to figure out if this is just a contribution to help them  out or if you stand to make something on it if all works out.

 

Typically on these start up deals, there are dollar values that get you some stuff.  I've never seen one where you get stock or an equity interest in the company.  Most of the time for small donations, you get a T-Shirt or some Swag.  As the monetary value goes up, so do some perks.  A tour or a day with Jim . . . etc.  There is typically always one or two pie in the sky deals if you can drop some big dollars, however, my thought would be if I had that kind of cash, I'd likely want a meeting and something for the effort, say equity in the project.

 

I've seen several products hit the market out of crowd sourcing, bought a few myself.  Mantle Mount is a great solution for a flat screen TV mount that moves the TV down to eye level.  My family room is narrow and the only spot for my TV is above the fireplace.  Not the ideal location for a TV, but given the size of TVs these days, its the only option.  The mount has worked great for me so I'm not looking up watching TV in there.  Another I just purchased that started from crowd funding was the SteakAger.  I just got mine, so I can't comment on how well it does what it says it does, but the reviews on the dry aged beef that come out of it have been good from what I've seen.  All that said, a distillery and the amount of capital needed to keep it going for 4-6 years to get product out seems a bit ambitious, hopefully, one of the partners has a boat load of money to supplement the crowd funding, because this certainly isn't a product that gets outsourced to China for the manufacturing for pennies on the dollar.

 

I will say this, I was thinking about this last night.  Instead of just donating a few bucks individually, would it make more sense for SB.com to organize a larger group donation and maybe try to negotiate some sort of deal on some barrel pick opportunities in the future.  I'd rather bet my $10 bucks on that as part of a group for another super SB bottling then individually for a nice note and a TShirt.

[Thig]

Thanks for the explanation, I didn't know whether to look at this as an investment or just something to help out a good guy.

Sent from my HTC6525LVW using Tapatalk

[jvd99]

Unless some equity is going to be available, I don't see crowdfunding generating a meaningful amount of capital.  I'm sure the exact parameters will be disclosed when the site goes live.  If there's equity, I'd be more inclined to participate.  That being said, I really like the idea of a group SB contribution in exchange for exclusive perks down the line (assuming of course, that the aforementioned equity is not part of the deal).

[flahute]

See this interview in Whisky Advocate:

http://whiskyadvocate.com/2016/04/29/jim-rutledge-talks-of-four-roses-past-distillery-future/

 

The funding question is addressed there. They will be talking to private investors also.

[ramblinman]

The crowdfunding answer seems to be roughly "why not, its free money and everyone is doing it"

[b1gcountry]

Crowd funding does a number of things in addition to raising capital. It gages interest in a unique way. Knowing that people are interested enough to front money can spur investors or tell you how much interest your product will generate.

Also it can generate publicity and interest. Anyone who contributes becomes invested in the company, so they tend to generate publicity through social media, etc.

Also, in this case I can't imagine that another reason isn't to show the folks at 4R how much business JR generated for them. I would imagine the right offer would put him in some position with 4R again.

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[fenderbender4]

3 hours ago, b1gcountry said:

Crowd funding does a number of things in addition to raising capital. It gages interest in a unique way. Knowing that people are interested enough to front money can spur investors or tell you how much interest your product will generate.

Also it can generate publicity and interest. Anyone who contributes becomes invested in the company, so they tend to generate publicity through social media, etc.

Also, in this case I can't imagine that another reason isn't to show the folks at 4R how much business JR generated for them. I would imagine the right offer would put him in some position with 4R again.

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Yeah, I assumed private partners/investors would be the primary source.  The crowdfunding would function more as marketing, a way to get people to "feel" a part of the process, which is what so many bourbon fanatics freak out about anyway...the process of it all.  To raise the capital for a full-on distillery, suppliers, etc., would (and will) take more money than crowdfunding can provide (at least to my highly untrained eye).

 

Plus, the people who will be buying (if it goes well) JR's stuff, will only be people who are "invested" in bourbon/whiskey.  People who just peruse and grab the "flashy" names, won't bother, so it's a way of snagging the core demographic (us).

[b1gcountry]

I just realized JR will start to get annoying alongside JB, JD, RR, etc

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[kcgumbohead]

 

3 hours ago, b1gcountry said:

I just realized JR will start to get annoying alongside JB, JD, RR, etc

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This announcement along with castle and key ( the new old Taylor distillery) are the most exciting developments by far for this enthusiast in all of bourbondom. Once there is a JR in the marketplace I doubt I will bother much with the JB, JD.... or many other abbreviations enough to approach annoyance. Glad I have enough legacy "JR4R" to hold me over till then.

[GaryT]

On 4/29/2016 at 2:18 PM, petrel800 said:

 

I will say this, I was thinking about this last night.  Instead of just donating a few bucks individually, would it make more sense for SB.com to organize a larger group donation and maybe try to negotiate some sort of deal on some barrel pick opportunities in the future.  I'd rather bet my $10 bucks on that as part of a group for another super SB bottling then individually for a nice note and a TShirt.

 

I think that is a great idea Mark!!!  I would definitely be interested in doing that!!  

[GaryT]

First backer!  Will be interesting to see how this works out!  Went with the coin (individually numbered), since I still can't get into Mellow Moments.  

 

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/j-w-rutledge-distillery/x/13963188#/