We said we’d have no Cheese Lovers newsletter this week, and that ended up being half true. This is a Liquor Newsletter as we want to update you on a few things on the liquor side of our world:

NOON TODAY – Drink Local Day of Action

A survey – Redhead Spirits– are you in?????????

And, if it continues to get nicer and you’re thinking about heading this way this weekend, watch our Facebook page or give us a shout via email and we’ll figure out if we can be open on Saturday.
If you don’t care about booze, there’s probably no reason to read any further and we’ll send a newsletter on Sunday with the latest deals at Redhead Creamery, LLC.

Otherwise…

Liquor item #1: NOON TODAY – Drink Local Day of Action

At Noon today Redhead Creamery and other small businesses across Minnesota will add their voice via the hashtag #DrinkLocalMN. One of the reasons Redhead Creamery has experienced any semblance of success so far is our work with craft breweries, wineries, cideries and distilleries. Whether it is collaborations on our cheese, selling in their taprooms or using their refrigerators as pickup spots on our routes, we owe much to Minnesota’s Craft Beverage industry. Obviously, those businesses have taken their share of trials and tribulations over the past year. Some experiencing great sales booms in some segments, and others seeing huge hits depending on how their businesses. We know these people, and we believe Minnesota’s liquor laws frankly need an update.

The Drink Local Economic Recovery Package will help these businesses. In legislative speak that is Minnesota Senate File 1176 and House File 1192. On social media, it’s hashtag #DrinkLocalMN. The bills proposed basically make very modest changes to current state law:

Convert the rate of tax to non-metric values to eliminate confusion

Updates the “normal” percentages of alcohol in wine and cider

Allows micro-distilleries to sell up to 1.5L per customer per day of product (up from 375 mL)

Allows brewpubs to self-distribute

Lifts the grower cap for brewers

Allows limited off-sale of product with takeout orders for restaurants

We urge you to contact your State Representative and State Senator (find them here) and ask them to support SF 1176/HF1192 to help our craft beverage industry. A simple note of who you are, roughly where you live, what you want them to support and why it matters to you (I love things that taste good is great!) would be awesome. And, at noon, join the chorus by utilizing #DrinkLocalMN on your social channels, and feel free to post the PDF if you sign up for the Facebook group!

Liquor item #2: A survey – Redhead Spirits – are you in?

A long long time ago, we were wandering the Fingerlakes region of New York and came upon a farm called Three Brothers Wineries & Estates which had three wineries, a microbrewery and a coffee house all in one site. We thought to ourselves, as our cheese haus was being built at the time – could we have more than one “thing” at our farm?

Fast forward, and this idea recently keeps hitting us in the face, like a tail from the wiggliest cow in the barn when you’re trying to milk cows. It seems like something we must pursue. Let’s be clear, it will be at least 12 months, if not several years, but we are working on a way to use some byproducts of our current processes and creating a licensed microdistillery or microbrewery on site… with minimal inputs besides sweat, grease, tears and of course the fun part – financing (thanks lenders, if you’re reading this!).

However, we want to know from our audience (please respond!) via this simple four-question survey. You can respond via this Google Form or email us back:
A. Do you drink spirits (vodka, whiskey, gin, rum, et cetera) in your home or out at establishments?
Yes or no.

B. If yes, do you enjoy drinking spirits at home, or only when you're out to eat or socialize? And do you enjoy craft (more taste at a higher price) spirits or inexpensive (less taste at a lower price) spirits?
Craft or inexpensive (or both). Only at home or only when out to eat/socialize (or both).

C. The partners at Redhead Creamery are considering a process that would take our whey, convert it into ethanol (alcohol) and create a whey based spirit. Is this something you'd be interested in?

Yes definitely.

I would try it, but I do not like spirits.

I would try it, but I doubt it would be better than the current spirits I like.

No, I would not try it.

D. We are just in the basic research stage now, but if you have any advice or input, please let us know! We're specifically looking for expertise from anyone who might know about Kluvermyceros maxianus yeast, craft distilling or the whey to ethanol process. The current thought would be, after more months (or years) of research, financing, technical experimentation and market testing, to build the distillery near the creamery right on our farm.
Any thoughts or advice you can provide us?

Thanks for reading! Talk to you Sunday.

Lucas, Alise, Linda and Jerry