Aaron Schnell stand next to his pilot distillery, Sunshine Spirits.
The distillery will be locate 20 miles south of Albuquerque near the town of Belen. (This New Mexico valley has numerous wineries)
Sunshine Spirits like Don Quote Distillery are starting their operations with a small "pilot" plants. Both plan to expand into a larger kettles with a year.

Efforts to rejuvenate whisky are scotched
Source: The Herald
IAN FRASER

Distillers' attempts to revitalise the UK Scotch whisky market by introducing more "accessible" brands are faltering badly, and some recent campaigns intended to attract a younger generation of drinkers have been axed.
Even though exports of Scotch whisky are growing at a healthy clip, the picture is far less promising at home. According to the latest figures from the Sutherlands Scotch Whisky Yearbook, the UK market for Scotch slumped by 6.2% from 30.1 million litres in 2005 to 28.2 million litres last year.
Recent launches that industry insiders had hoped would help reverse declining UK sales by rejuvenating the image of Scotch at home include JMR's Easy Drinking Whisky Company (majority-owned by The Famous Grouse parent Edrington Group), Diageo's J&B -6c and William Grant & Sons' Monkey Shoulder.
Diageo confirmed yesterday that it has ceased production of J&B -6c Scotch. This virtually-clear blended whisky was specifically intended to attract younger drinkers to Scotch. Chill-filtered down to minus six degrees celsius, the product was billed as a "classic for a new generation" and distributed to carefully selected style bars and nightclubs.
Diageo said: "We have ceased production of J&B -6c. The decision has been made on a global level and there are currently no future plans for the product."
"In Britain, despite gaining good distribution and building a reasonable consumer base, J&B -6c has not met the stringent performance criteria set by Diageo for ongoing production."
Meanwhile, JMR Easy Drinking Whisky Company, founded in 2003, has withdrawn its range of three blended malt whiskies - the Big Spicy One, The Smokey Peaty One and The Smooth Sweeter One - from the UK market after disappointing sales.
The company, backed by Edrington, had hoped to "demystify" the world of Scotch and make the sector more palatable to outsiders. Its three founders, brothers Jon and Mark Geary and master blender David "Robbo" Robertson, claimed they had "chucked out the Scotch whisky rule book" through their quirky and irreverent approach to marketing.
However, the company yesterday confirmed it has thrown in the towel in the UK market. Founder director Mark Geary said it will instead be focusing on the US market.
Geary, who also works as a head of planning and research at Edrington Group, said: "The UK is a tougher market in which to introduce new brands as a result of the low margins available. Because of its sheer size, there is a greater number of consumers open to this sort of thing in the US. It gives us a larger target to shoot at. The opportunity is huge over there."
Geary said JMR will focus on exporting to California, Colorado, Texas and Florida, where he said the company has had some success in persuading youngish Americans to acquire a taste for malt whisky.
The products were launched in the US in 2005 and Geary said sales rose to 4000 cases during 2006. He said JMR's products continue to be distributed by the French group Remy Cointreau in the US.
A spokesman for William Grant & Sons says it is committed to persevering with its own youth-oriented brand, Monkey Shoulder.
Launched in 2005, this is a blend of three Speyside malts. It is named after the sore shoulder that Scottish distillery workers got from turning the malted barley by hand.
The spokesman said: "We are gaining traction with retailers and the on-trade is becoming more interested. But there's no denying the UK is a tough market, and blended malts is a relatively new category."
Alan Gray, whisky analyst at brokers Sutherlands Edinburgh, said: "Just because these attempts at revitalising the UK Scotch whisky market seem to have failed does not mean the industry should give up trying. Eventually, someone's going to come up with a breakthrough product that revolutionises the domestic market."
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Berks County native creates award-winning gin

By CHRISTOPHER HINZ

READING, Pa.
Robert J. Cassell was working on a bachelor's degree in nuclear medicine when he followed his passion and went to work for a brewery.
The Boyertown High School grad didn't blend radioactive isotopes with hops to create beers that make you glow in the dark. Like many students, he started college with one career in mind but dived head-on into a vat of knowledge that really spiked his interest.
"Just kind of twisting the science from one to another," said Cassell, 27, explaining the linkage between the two seemingly disparate fields.
Abandoning nuclear medicine just short of earning a degree from Wheeling Jesuit University, he did stints at several East Coast breweries. While director of quality assurance at Victory Brewing Co. in Downingtown, he became intrigued by distilling.
Today, he's master distiller and one of the three partners at Philadelphia Distilling, a new company whose first product, the award-winning Bluecoat American Dry Gin, began bottling a year ago.
"We're the first craft distillery in Pennsylvania since Prohibition," Cassell said.
The Boyertown graduate, class of 1997, learned his craft at Scotland's Heriot-Watt University, whose School of Life Sciences includes the International Centre for Brewing and Distilling.
He participated in distance learning for nearly a year, then spent about six weeks at the university's campus in Edinburgh, Scotland, doing practical work. Since completing the distilling program in 2005, he's continued to pursue distilling and brewing courses through the university.
Cassell pitched the idea of a microdistillery to his uncle, Andrew Auwerda, 38, who has a background in retail sales. Together with Timothy Yarnall, the men launched Philadelphia Distilling.
Cassell helped the partners develop a business plan, raise capital and launch the fledgling firm in a northeast Philly industrial park. He also designed the firm's copper still, which he said plays an important role in removing impurities.
"You have to design the still around the product," he said. "It's a very traditional, old-school kind of process."
He said Bluecoat is made through a 14-hour batch-style distillation which produces 1,300 bottles at a time. For now, the gin only is sold in a 750 milliliter size, although a 50 milliliter version the so-called airplane bottle is planned.
"All the bottles are still hand-corked and hand-sealed," he said.
Bluecoat is made with certified-organic botanicals no chemicals for growing or processing, and no artificial flavorings. Ingredients include coriander, angelica root, a proprietary citrus blend and juniper berries.
"To be considered a gin, it has to have juniper berries by definition," he said.
Although part-time help is hired occasionally to help with bottling, Cassell and his partners are the only full-time employees. All three multitask, helping out with whatever needs doing to keep the young business running.
Cassell, who lives in Philadelphia, frequently returns to his old stomping ground to visit his father, William J., who resides in Gilbertsville. The distiller recalled that back in his high school days, another passion consumed much of his time.
"I was fully focused on track," said Cassell, who ran the decathlon while a Boyertown student.
These days, running the distillery is his main hurdle, but the long hours and hard work appear to be paying off. Earlier this year, Bluecoat won a silver medal in the gin category at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition.
Cassell said it's all been worth the effort.
"Even though it's work, it's definitely something I enjoy," he said.
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ON THE ROAD,
Killed my first deer last week. He hit me and I was doing 80 mph. Small dent in rear fender.
Going to Chicago this week. Then south to IN and KY.
If I haven't contacted you about your operations send me an e-mail or call me

bill@billowens.com
My cel is:
510-566-9566.
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http://distilling.com/backissues.html
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--To obtain a distilled spirits permit go to: http://www.ttb.gov/spirits/index.shtml

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--To obtain TTB list of DSPs go to: http://www.ttb.gov/foia//err.shtml

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--To obtain TTB statistics on distilling go to: www.ttb.gov then scroll down to "spirits" and then the "year".
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--To obtain Distilled Spirits Laws and Regulations go to: http://www.ttb.gov/spirits/spirits_regs.shtml

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--To obtain label regulations go to: http://www.ttb.gov/spirits/bam.shtml distilled spirits manual circular.
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