I’m Jason Will and I’m a proud Aussie from Brisbane in Australia. I’ve been in Asia since 1999, Shanghai on and off since 2001. I’m currently Country Manager for Asian Tigers (who specialise in relocating people between Asia and the rest of the world). While it seems like Australia has only been producing whisky for […]
Read MoreI’m Jason Will and I’m a proud Aussie from Brisbane in Australia. I’ve been in Asia since 1999, Shanghai on and off since 2001. I’m currently Country Manager for Asian Tigers (who specialise in relocating people between Asia and the rest of the world).
While it seems like Australia has only been producing whisky for the last couple of decades or so, being a lover of whisky, Australia and history, I can correct that misconception by sharing a bit of my own knowledge of the facts.
Distillation was originally legalised in New South Wales (one of the 6 states that now make up Australia) at the end of 1820, by the then governor, Major General Lachlan Macquarie.
Lachlan was Scottish by birth, born on the island of Ulva, near to the Isle of Mull in the Inner Hebrides. Scotch whisky lovers will know that the Inner Hebrides also includes Islay, Jura, Skye and Raasay – all world famous for creating some amazing whiskies. So it’s fair to say that Scotch and whisky really was in his blood, and probably influenced his decision to legalise distillation and allowing the people of Australia to have their very own Uisce beatha.
Fun fact – Lachlan took up his post as Governor of New South Wales taking over from Governor William Bligh who’s officers had mutinied against him.
The second (and lessor known) mutiny for William Bligh in his career. His first mutiny being when he was the Commanding Lieutenant of HM Armed Vessel Bounty of Mutiny on the Bounty fame.
The first legal distillery actually opened in 1822 in Hobart Town, on Tasmania. For a while, Tasmania became the centre of the Australian whisky industry, albeit it at a time when Tasmania was actually known as Van Diemen’s Land. It only became known as Tasmania on 1st January 1856.
The Tasmanian whisky industry came to an abrupt end in 1938, mostly due to the Victorian Distillation Act of 1862, allowing much bigger distilleries to start, to a thirsty market of gold miners. John Dunn’s Warrenheip Distillery (built in 1863) was the second largest in Australia, and in 1888, the federal distiller was built in Port Melbourne, the third largest distillery in the world at the time with 1.1 million LPA of production capacity.
In 1930, seeing the opportunities in Australia, the Distillers Company of Edinburgh (now of course Diageo) built Corio distillery which quickly became the largest producer of whisky in Australia. This was followed after the end of World War 2 with Gilbey’s of London opening their distillery near Melbourne. This led to almost all of the whisky in Australia being controlled by just two companies.
At the time they both benefitted from a 40% tariff being applied to imported whiskies, so both companies took the approach of producing cheap, inferior quality whisky. A sad time for Australian whisky lovers.
By 1960, these tariffs were removed making imported whisky much more affordable. This resulted in Australians shunning the locally produced whiskies in favour of imported whisky, and as a result of this, by 1980, both of these major distilleries were closed.
In 1992 everything changed. Lark Distillery opened, thanks to Bill Lark lobbying the Australian government to allow smaller producers to get past the barriers to entry around the 1901 Distillation act. Thanks to Bill’s tireless efforts, the laws were changed and Australia benefitted from an explosion of small, boutique, craft distilleries. In fact, by December 2021, there were 333 new distilleries opened in Australia, with 50 of them producing whisky!
Bill was inducted into the Whisky Hall Of Fame in 2015. At the time, only the seventh person outside of Scotland or Ireland to be given such an honour. As the grandfather to modern Australian whisky, it’s well earned.
After my proud boast about Australia and whisky, it probably makes sense for me to talk about what drew me into Nine Rivers Distillery.
Like most of us on the Nine Rivers Distillery team, I was originally drawn into learning more about the project through a curiosity about the ambition of it. The sheer scale seemed to be bordering on the ridiculous. I honestly thought at first it was a wind up because (as those that know Jay can testify) he has a crazy side and will pull off some of the most crazy windups in some of the WeChat groups he runs.
As most people would agree, he’s what we would generally refer to as a nutter. One step over that line that separates sanity from madness. It created enough curiosity in me to take some time to talk to him on a personal level and quickly learned the difference between his online caricature-like personality, and the real Jay.
The online Jay, with the dark humour, the ability to trigger literally anyone within seconds (a skill he really has perfected to olympic gold medal standards) – it’s all pantomime. It’s entertainment. Polarising people ensures that whether they love him or hate him they are talking about him. It’s free marketing and it’s a genius approach.
Underneath all of that there’s a razor sharp brain that seems to be able to do literally anything. There’s not a single aspect of this project that he’s not completely on top of and literally dancing around the “experts” about it. Most people only see the fun side of things, when he’s smashing around in excavators and loaders. I’m lucky to have considerably more insight, having developed a personal friendship over the years and being a bit of a Jiminy Cricket figure in the project.
I’m the calming voice in Jay’s ear when he has steam coming out of his ears and needs to rant about the frustrations that arise when the people around him can’t keep up with his energy. Which is no doubt why I ended up with the “Responsible Adult of the Year” award at last years 9RD Awards Ceremony.
In addition to being Jiminy Cricket, I’ve had a number of different involvement in the project. Starting with being a member of The Think Tank (a group of us that brain storm new ideas, concepts, and value adds for 9RD) I’m also involved in the Social Media team. Whether it’s proof reading and editing content, or pushing and sharing content online, whatever is needed when I have spare time, I dive right in. I’m also part of the team that organise and manage the Shanghai Whisky Networking events here in Shanghai.
I’m also angling for the role of Chief Tester, Taster and Guzzler – but with more than 200 of us all putting ourselves forward for that job, it might end up being settled in a colosseum with us all fighting it out until the last man (or woman) is standing!
We have all of the same challenges that Australian whisky has had, and then a few more. Let’s be fair here, there’s a huge amount of international bias against anything that says “Made in China” on the label – despite the facts that China really does lead the world in so many industries!
It’s not going to be easy to convince the world that we have made amazing whisky, even if we do reach our goal to do that. But it’s going to be the kind of challenge that I’ll embrace and run with. There’s a lot more satisfaction in being the underdog and achieving something special, than it is to be starting at the very top of the industry with every advantage already there for you, on a plate.
If you enjoyed reading about how we currently don’t see any alternatives to dramfunded, and you would like to catch up with some of our past articles, then please CLICK HERE and go to our News Section, where most of our other content is published.
One of the easiest ways to help our project succeed is to take an interest in anything we have for sale. You can find out what we have if you CLICK HERE and go to our shop. We’ll make a few percentage points (after sales tax) and this goes directly to our project.
You could help us by simply buying your very own Brick for Life – a brick with a steel name plate wrapped around it, which will be cemented into The Plenum (our feature wall) in July 2023. Every brick owner is entitled to a free dram for life every time they visit us in Longyan, Fujian.
Or, you could learn more about being involved and help us grow to our target of 1000 stakeholders. You can read more about how we are Dramfunded if you CLICK HERE. Remember, we currently have no alternatives to dramfunded!
Last, but as important as all the other points above, you can help us by reading, liking and sharing our content across some of the more popular platforms.
LinkedIn users you can CLICK HERE to follow us.
Facebook users, you can CLICK HERE.
YouTube users, you can CLICK HERE.
Twitter users, you can CLICK HERE.
Instagram users, you can CLICK HERE.
Or follow us on WeChat using the QR code below.
Currently, the most popular enquiry we’re getting here at Nine Rivers Distillery is about when we will have our first Open Day, to allow whisky lovers from all over China (and beyond) to come on over and see what’s going on. The old “chill out, you can come visit when we’ve finished construction” is falling […]
Read MoreCurrently, the most popular enquiry we’re getting here at Nine Rivers Distillery is about when we will have our first Open Day, to allow whisky lovers from all over China (and beyond) to come on over and see what’s going on. The old “chill out, you can come visit when we’ve finished construction” is falling on deaf ears. Whisky lovers want to be a part of it now now, and see everything as it’s being built.
Totally understandable – who wouldn’t want to see what’s going on, close up? As we all know, photographs and videos never really do anything the justice it deserves. Being on site, seeing it with our own eyes. Getting a real feel for the sheer scale of what we’re doing.
So what will this Open Day consist of? In its most basic sense, it will be a chance for people to come to our site, have a tour of the construction site, ask as many questions as they want (to be answered by our expert Egghead and knower of all things, Lucas), take some pics (to show off and brag to everyone you know that you were there) and then we’ll all have some scoff and drinks.
Scoff will be provided in the form of an on site barbecue. Drinks will be provided throughout the day. There are rumours of there being adults only beverages too.
Of course we need a date for all this fun on Open Day right? So here it is. Saturday 13th May. We expect people will probably start arriving around 10am and the actual tour will be at midday. Lunch at 1pm on site. Some people will probably start leaving at around 3pm although we anticipate some people will linger on until they get bored, or kicked out for being a bit of a mess (yes Mischa, we mean YOU…….)
Of course, most of you already know where we are located and if you don’t, well shame on you. Our address is:
福建省龙岩市新罗区大池镇龙池路266号
266#, Long Chi Road, Da Chi Town, Xin Luo District, Fujian Province, China.
There’s a map available if you CLICK HERE. This map link isn’t perfect and it’s about 200 meters off target. But we’ll help you coordinate your arrival on the day.
While it would be normal and understandable to put a hefty ticket price on the day, that’s just not how we roll. The cost is absolutely nothing. Zero. Nada. The tour, the scoff, the gluggs – as Melba Montgomery famously sang back in 1974……
Open Day is hosted at a construction site so naturally we will have a limit on how many people can turn up. We can’t take a horde of people on site. It’s a working building site and ensuring our construction team don’t loose time, due to us getting in the way, is far more important to us than having hundreds of people wandering around like lost sheep.
We have to plan for a set number of people. We need to ensure that we have bought enough safety equipment for all. We need to ensure we have enough scoff and grog to refresh y’all and we might also need to make sure you’re not just some dark, corporate spy working for Dr Evil, trying to find out the secrets to why our project is just so damn cool.
There will be zero accommodation for anyone that just rocks up unannounced. It’s a secure site with security guards and if your name is not on the list (and you have a recognised photo ID that proves you are the person on the list) you won’t get in. Period.
No amount of shouting at our security guards will change that. Additionally, please be aware of the fact that we reserve the right to use any CCTV footage of anyone giving a “Do you know who I am” type rant, on our social media channels for the entertainment of everyone that got their shit together and reserved their spot.
Obviously we make things really really complicated. The Open Day Event is no different.
Pop the QR code below, add Olive, tell her you want to come and how many guests you want to bring. Olive is fluent in both Chinese and English. Those of you requiring assistance in Sumerian, Canaanite, Hurrian or Mycenean Greek – you might want to quantum leap into the year 2023, where Chinese and English pretty much dominate the world of communication.
(As a side note, if you’re just a flux capacitor short of a time machine, we can introduce you to a guy called Josh, who’ll contract manufacturer it for you. Just get your Kickstarter campaign started because he’s gonna need a LOT of dollars for that…..)
We would recommend everyone coming to Open Day to use the high speed rail network to get to Longyan.
There are a number of reasons why we recommend using the high speed rail network. Not least because it’s actually amazing. It’s fast. It’s reliable. It’s punctual and it’s really good value for money.
The nearest airport is Xiamen, so when you factor in the time it would take you to get to the airport, the fact you have to check in well before your flight, the time that the flight takes and the travelling from Xiamen to Longyan – a high speed train directly to Longyan is probably going to be quicker.
We’d suggest you leave your suits, boots, frocks and high heels at home. Casual clothes and hiking boots are recommended. The site can be very muddy if there has been any rain and if you’re dressed up to the 9’s, you’ll end up trashing your threads and probably slipping and sliding all over the place.
As entertaining for the rest of us that might be, you might want to avoid videos of you, on your arse, up to your elbows in mud, in your bestest clobber at our Open Day, being a viral on DouYin.
That’s right folks. No children. This is a construction site. Not a playground. We don’t have a creche on site and if you rock up with one or more of those little people, we’ll turn you away. Nothing against kids on a personal level. It’s just common sense that a building site and rumours of adult beverages after the tour kinda infer this isn’t going to be a smart choice for a family day out is it?
Anyone attempting to sneak children onto our site will have the child/children confiscated and then sold to pirates.
If you’re not fit and healthy, then our Open Day isn’t going to be something for you. There will be at least a kilometre of walking involved in the tour over rough and uneven ground. Think Class 3 Hiking Trails, with ladders and stairs thrown in for fun, and you’re getting there.
If you’re wobbling, hobbling, using walking aids or a chair with wheels then this really is not for you. If you run out of steam halfway through the tour, there is no rescue party or an air ambulance to fly you out. We’ll just leave you there – we aren’t going to delay lunch just because you weren’t in good physical health. We might save you some leftovers. But that’s not a given. That’s a maybe.
Everyone turning up for Open Day will be expected to sign a liability waiver. If you get hurt, that’s your own problem. We aren’t paying for you if you’re clumsy and fall off a roof at 24 meters high. Just think quick while you’re falling and aim for softer ground.
You’ll also need to provide an address in case we need to ship your body somewhere in the case of any fatalities. Obviously we wont pay the shipping costs. So make sure whoever is receiving your corpse has some coin in the bank.
Anyone rocking up to our site on Open Day smelling of booze before the tour will be told to jog on and to return from whence though came. It’s not big. It’s not clever. In fact, it’s dumb as bricks. Remember, this is a construction site. Being drunk on site puts us and our construction partner at serious risk of legal issues. We won’t take that chance, so you’ll be waddling back to town feeling rather stupid.
If you enjoyed reading about how we currently don’t see any alternatives to dramfunded, and you would like to catch up with some of our past articles, then please CLICK HERE and go to our News Section, where most of our other content is published.
One of the easiest ways to help our project succeed is to take an interest in anything we have for sale. You can find out what we have if you CLICK HERE and go to our shop. We’ll make a few percentage points (after sales tax) and this goes directly to our project.
You could help us by simply buying your very own Brick for Life – a brick with a steel name plate wrapped around it, which will be cemented into The Plenum (our feature wall) in July 2023. Every brick owner is entitled to a free dram for life every time they visit us in Longyan, Fujian.
Or, you could learn more about being involved and help us grow to our target of 1000 stakeholders. You can read more about how we are Dramfunded if you CLICK HERE. Remember, we currently have no alternatives to dramfunded!
Last, but as important as all the other points above, you can help us by reading, liking and sharing our content across some of the more popular platforms.
LinkedIn users you can CLICK HERE to follow us.
Facebook users, you can CLICK HERE.
YouTube users, you can CLICK HERE.
Twitter users, you can CLICK HERE.
Instagram users, you can CLICK HERE.
Or follow us on WeChat using the QR code below.
Here at Nine Rivers Distillery we intend to place great emphasis on fermentation in whisky production at our distillery – hence adding Neil Playfoot to the team. As one of our core principles, we want to revive the use of brewing yeast when making whisky. A tradition which has been mostly lost in Scotch whisky […]
Read MoreHere at Nine Rivers Distillery we intend to place great emphasis on fermentation in whisky production at our distillery – hence adding Neil Playfoot to the team. As one of our core principles, we want to revive the use of brewing yeast when making whisky. A tradition which has been mostly lost in Scotch whisky production in favour of consistency and high alcohol yielding yeasts over flavours and aromas.
Let’s start with a recap on the basics (sorry Whisky Nerds, you’ll already know this, but give us a moment to bring everyone up to speed) so we’re all in the same place.
This end product can then be either put into a still (to make whisky or other alcohols) or put through some other processes to create beer.
Let me first caveat this with stating that the following in a generalisation and of course there are some really exciting exceptions to the following.
Generally speaking, most whisky producers (for various reasons) are very conscious of costs of production. While it might be unfair to state that most whisky producers are penny pinching pirates that shave every cost to the bone for the sake of increasing profits by a few percentage points, we can all accept that whisky costs considerably more to create than unaged products such as vodka and gin, while still carrying the same levels of taxes. Often, every single cost is relevant so ensuring maximum amount of alcohol can be created from a wash, in the shortest amount of time, is very important to most producers.
So in the case of creating whisky, fast acting, highly productive yeasts are of paramount importance, often at the sacrifice of flavours and aromas. With creating craft beers, a huge amount of attention is paid to both the yeasts that are used and the fermentation process. Longer fermentations controlled at particular temperatures allow a brewer to predict and achieve the desired flavour in the final beer. If the fermentation is too quick or the temperature to high, then off-flavours are produced. Whisky producers typically just want a base alcohol to distill, relying on flavours and aromas to be created at the point of distillation, and then during the maturation in the case.
In brewing you can take the same sugar liquid we made from the malt and hot water and depending on what yeast and how we control the fermentation make entirely different beers.
Let’s say we have out light-yellow coloured sugary liquid which we plan to ferment. We could do the following:
Logic would infer that if we can create at least three (we could do more, but let’s keep it simple for now) different types of beer from the same grains, but with varying the yeast used and the fermentation process, then it stands to reason that we could create three different types of whisky.
We would of course have to include some constants in there, such as maturing the whiskies in the same type of wood, for the same length of time, in the same conditions, and we’d have to ensure that the whisky was not over powered by a dominant cask seasoning or cask finish such as sherry. But, if we accept that distillation CONCENTRATES alcohol and (subject to how hard, or fast the distillation is run) aromas and flavours, it will be concentrating the aromas and the flavours created during fermentation – right?
With the knowledge that different yeasts and fermentation processes will create different beers (and therefore should create different wash) we can take this one step further by adding a layer of unique, terroir specific angle to our whisky by utilising local yeast strains. But before we get onto that, let’s start by understanding what yeast actually is.
Yeasts are single-celled, microorganisms and fall under the classification of fungus. While we won’t go too deep into the science lesson and start talking about the evolution of yeasts from multicellular organisms (a step “backwards” in evolution in the typical sense), or the phylogenetic diversity which results in the placement of yeasts in two separate phyla, lets keep it simple and generalise fermentation yeasts as organisms that metabolise sugars and excrete alcohol and carbon dioxide.
Scotch whisky producers typically use one of 4 types of commercially available Saccharomyces cerevisae yeasts and while other whisky producers have experimented with other yeasts (Don Livermore, Master Blender at Hiram Walker & Sons in Canada created a whisky yeast flavour wheel back in 2017 that showed what yeast can contribute to whisky) there is something to be said for the reliability and consistency of commercial yeast strains. One spoiled batch can be a commercial loss, which is often too much for smaller producers to absorb.
We are working with a number of local universities and a global leader in the production of yeasts, to harvest local, wild yeast strains. While there’s loads of nerdy science that happens to take wild yeast to a point of being a viable strain for fermenting wash, the basic steps consist of taking swab samples from potential yeast sources and propagate the samples on plates. As the cultures grow and multiply, individual yeast strains can be isolated and grown on until there is enough to pitch into sample fermentation batches.
These fermented batches can be distilled and then the new make spirit can be analysed from a science based perspective, but also from our own tasting panels, made up of our investors of course – one of the many perks of being involved in Nine Rivers Distillery – free booze (*cough* “tasting samples” as they are officially called).
The yeasts that are behind the best ranking new make spirits will then be propagated to commercial scale and will be used to craft our whiskies.
While we’re no experts in the classical taxonomy of organisms, we know it has to be in latin. So our short list currently consists of the following:
No doubt we’ll end up with some kind of voting system to pick the best name
Something really unique to our proposition. Something that is in every way, not only authentically Chinese, but unique to our local area, Da Chi, Longyan, Fujian, because it’s made from something local right at the very start of the production process.
The sugars were converted to alcohol by local yeast strains.
It also means that no one else, anywhere in China, at any other distillery, can create a whisky that is the same as ours.
Simple because we think that whisky made in China, should be distinctively Chinese in every possible aspect.
There are so many whisky distillery projects here in China that are seeking to replicate Scotch whisky. Frankly, apart from this being completely boring, it’s also just playing to the international narrative that China cannot innovate, it can only copy and replicate. Of course, this is absolute nonsense as China has not only been innovative in many industries, but has grown to literally dominate many in just a few decades. We think the same should be true about whisky.
Looking to so many success cases in “New World” whisky, from literally every corner of Europe, to India and Australasia. There have been so many amazing, exciting and modern whisky brands that have set out to make unique and distinctive whiskies that stand alone and independently of the typical scotch styles, and they have done it successfully.
These examples are both a foundation and an inspiration to what we want to do here at Nine Rivers Distillery. We’re aiming to shout out to the whisky loving world:
If you enjoyed reading about how we currently don’t see any alternatives to dramfunded, and you would like to catch up with some of our past articles, then please CLICK HERE and go to our News Section, where most of our other content is published.
One of the easiest ways to help our project succeed is to take an interest in anything we have for sale. You can find out what we have if you CLICK HERE and go to our shop. We’ll make a few percentage points (after sales tax) and this goes directly to our project.
You could help us by simply buying your very own Brick for Life – a brick with a steel name plate wrapped around it, which will be cemented into The Plenum (our feature wall) in July 2023. Every brick owner is entitled to a free dram for life every time they visit us in Longyan, Fujian.
Or, you could learn more about being involved and help us grow to our target of 1000 stakeholders. You can read more about how we are Dramfunded if you CLICK HERE. Remember, we currently have no alternatives to dramfunded!
Last, but as important as all the other points above, you can help us by reading, liking and sharing our content across some of the more popular platforms.
LinkedIn users you can CLICK HERE to follow us.
Facebook users, you can CLICK HERE.
YouTube users, you can CLICK HERE.
Twitter users, you can CLICK HERE.
Instagram users, you can CLICK HERE.
Or follow us on WeChat using the QR code below.
What are the alternatives to Dramfunded? Could Nine Rivers Distillery have been possible with other approaches? If so, why was the choice for Dramfunded made? We explore all this and more below. As a frame of context, it’s probably worth explaining how businesses are normally funded: They emerge from an idea, to a startup, and […]
Read MoreWhat are the alternatives to Dramfunded? Could Nine Rivers Distillery have been possible with other approaches? If so, why was the choice for Dramfunded made? We explore all this and more below.
As a frame of context, it’s probably worth explaining how businesses are normally funded: They emerge from an idea, to a startup, and then on to an operational business resulting in, in some cases, a public listing. Don’t worry, we won’t get all nerdy about this. We’ll keep it simple and from OUR perspective, so before any investment experts pile in ranting about how we’re wrong, please remember that we’re humble whisky lovers, not investment bankers.
From our point of view, we saw our key stages as being the following:
Pre-Seed. The first drop of money where a founder or founders would have some cash to put a concept together.
Seed rounds and beyond are where a founder or founders might reach out to friends, family and professional connections with a concept that needs funding to sprout. There is also a common trend to engage with professional investors such as angel investors, venture capitalist and eventually private equity. We’ll explain these in a moment.
The seed rounds are normally broken down into phases, called Series A, B, C and whatever other letters might be needed to distinguish different rounds of funding.
Series A might reach out to angel investors. Series B might include venture capital companies. Series C might include private equity. Angel investors typically work in the US$1-US$10 million range, and are usually prepared to take more risk for expected bigger returns. Venture capitalists typically work in the US$10-US$50 million range, investing in more established and proven businesses. Because the business has established footing, there is less risk and less return than an angel investor. Private Equity works with bigger numbers, lower returns, and expects to see a firmly established operation, perhaps a market leader or dominant brand.
We started with a Pre-Seed investment round – this is where we pooled together some rambos (our term for RMB) to cover all the early costs. These costs included setting up a legal entity, paying for some lawyers to legalise our view on the company structure, shareholders agreements, renting and registering an office (all companies need a formal office in China – none of that PO box nonsense, or adding a letter to a home address to refer to a desk in a garden shed) and covering travel costs to travel the length and breadth of China to find a home for our project. If there was an alternative to dramfunded, it definitely wouldn’t have had such a cool origin story. Plus, we also used some money to register all our IP (intellectual property) which included trademarks and patents.
We then moved into the Seed Round, where all of our Pre-Seed investors threw in more money and we brought in more people with more money. We needed this to show the government here in Longyan that we were serious and that we had the money to bid for land. We put down a deposit and engaged with our architects to start designing our new home.
More lawyers, more legal costs, including a restructure (yup, first load of lawyers gave us the wrong advice), and we put Hayden Zou full time in Longyan to start moving things forward on a local level. With his cheerful demeanor and can-do attitude, he’s been rocking things in Longyan.
Logically, the next thing to do would have been to start a Series A round, but (although we needed more money) the project just wasn’t at the developmental level needed to start a Series A. So, instead, we did a couple of Convertible Note rounds.
A convertible note is similar to a loan and kinda like an investment. Investors throw in their money and earn an agreed rate of interest. The notes then have a clause where, at the start of an equity round (Series A) the note holder can either take back their money and the interest earned, or, convert them into Shares at the Series A round.
In Series A, we wanted to raise enough money to build the first 3 buildings of our distillery, purchase all the stills and other shiny things we needed to start producing, and get some spirit running off the stills. We worked out that we needed about ¥100 million and that would need about 1000 whisky lovers.
There’s some simple maths behind that number. The board have always funded 60% of the project, leaving the other 40% to be funded by micro-investor whisky lovers. We know the average investment from our whisky lover army, so a few button clicks on a calculator and bingo, we have a pretty accurate guess. Who said high school math was useless?
However, building up to 1000 people takes time, so rather than have everyone waiting for as long as it takes before they get their share certificate, we split our Series A into 4 phases, allowing us to essentially round closure and issue certificates, within months of investment, as opposed to waiting until everyone had chipped in.
There almost were. We considered a few alternatives to our dramfunded approach. We had the calls and we did the meetings. Yet, it just wasn’t right for us at the time.
We won’t kiss and tell (it’s rather uncouth to do that after all), but the major difference is simply the massive void that we saw between their “knowledge” and our “experience”. While MBA’s, hand tailored suits, shiny shoes, and monologues full of buzz words and acronyms sound rather impressive, they don’t mean diddley if you don’t know China at a grass roots level.
Bringing a “branding and marketing expert” and showing some slides on a concept rebrand, inspired by a dozen click bait posts on LinkedIn (in which they argue that everyone in China loves the colour red because it’s lucky lucky lucky!) is not a “value add”…especially when the key message was that this “expert” would be billed to the company at the “amazing value rate” of US$5000 – per day! We weren’t expecting to have to PAY for alternatives to dramfunded!
Talking to a distillery start up with the opening line that you don’t drink whisky but you’re a “super dooper baller investment guru”, all while holding some green juice muck in a sleek designer cup because of some new age detox nonsense doesn’t really cut the mustard. If there’s not whisky in that cup, we are absolutely not entertaining it as a serious alternative to dramfunding.
Of course, we’re sure that not all professional investors are like this. We just have enough confidence in our project to believe there are profits for investors, which is why professionals didn’t win out over dramfunding. Ultimately, we’d like to see something a bit more interesting than fluff, waffle and noise for the sake of being heard.
(Note to any professional investors reading this – don’t task any wheatgrass-smoothie-swigging-suited buzz-word wobblers with contacting us. They will walk out emotionally and mentally battered. Get a normal, no nonsense, WHISKY DRINKER to get in touch…)
It’s not uncommon for other big players in the industry to get involved in startup or early stage projects. In fact, the vast majority of distillery start-ups, despite their marketing fluff and waffle, are mostly only starting because they dream of a big-bucks cash out when one of the major players rock up with their army of suits and a cheque book.
Even us. Humble as we are with absolutely NO bragging whatsoever about this, we’ve had a number of approaches from some very big names in the industry (kinda rude to name them, but 2 very large baijiu producers and a rather well known Scotch whisky producer…) and enjoyed those conversations immensely. There’s zero shame in getting a kick out of a knock on the door when you’re nothing more than a slide deck and a muddy field.
One offer (one of the baijiu companies) was for a total buyout at double what we believed our value to be. Yes, even as just a slide deck and some mud. Flattering offer, but there was zero interest from all of us. Their second offer to buy 51% and retain full control over branding and marketing was met with a typically legendary outburst of mirth by the grey haired monster and the rest of the team. This was not going to be an alternative to dramfunded.
A second offer (the other baijiu company) was never going to go anywhere in our mindset. Ponying up their “head of whisky” who spent the entire call talking about their vision for whisky matured in Chinese yellow wine casks resulted in us pressing the mute key and rolling around on the floor in fits of laughter.
The old yellow wine cask maturation is a copy and paste from EVERY Chinese forum about whisky, where there’s a sheep level mentality about this being the best way to craft a “Chinese Whisky”. We think it’s nonsense. It would produce something vile and probably taste like a cheap vodka that has macerated rotten fruits, pencil shavings, and cigarette ash. Again, this was not offering alternatives to dramfunded.
As for the Scotch player, our first reaction was “what a bunch of dinosaurs”. With a mentality stuck back in the 1800’s their “vision” was to do what they have been doing for generations: the same old crap for the mass market, as their grandaddy’s grandad started.
In fact, calling them dinosaurs is a compliment. These people were from the Paleozoic era. Barely multicellular lifeforms. At least dinosaurs ran around with big scary teeth and gobbled up the smaller animals. The main armament of these guys was their ability to bore people to death. No surprise that we didn’t consider them as alternatives to dramfunded.
Again, we’re sure that not all of the industry players are so out of touch with reality, but until something a bit more in line with what we want to do, and more in touch with the fact that our calendar suggests we’re living in the 21st century and not the 19th century, then we’ll continue to do our thing with full independence from the major players. As it turns out, there really isn’t a good alternative to dramfunding.
(Note to any industry players. We have no interest in being an extension of your bulk spirits division. We’re doing single malt, we’re aiming for the top end of the market and we’re gonna shake up the global industry. If that’s “too ambitious” for you, then don’t waste your time, or ours.)
So that’s why we are who we are, and why we continue to be dramfunded. Whisky lovers chipping in their coins, to have some skin in the game, and combine their bragging rights for being an owner, all while spreading the word about what we’re doing.
In a culture where word of mouth and personal recommendations are the major influencer in consumer interest and purchasing trends, we think we’re doing the right thing.
In a project where everyone invested actually loves whisky and wants to be fresh, raw, creative, and distinctive in a commitment to put quality before profit and greed – we think we’re approaching this exactly as it should be.
Whisky for the people, by the people.
If you enjoyed reading about how we currently don’t see any alternatives to dramfunded, and you would like to catch up with some of our past articles, then please CLICK HERE and go to our News Section, where most of our other content is published.
One of the easiest ways to help our project succeed is to take an interest in anything we have for sale. You can find out what we have if you CLICK HERE and go to our shop. We’ll make a few percentage points (after sales tax) and this goes directly to our project.
You could help us by simply buying your very own Brick for Life – a brick with a steel name plate wrapped around it, which will be cemented into The Plenum (our feature wall) in July 2023. Every brick owner is entitled to a free dram for life every time they visit us in Longyan, Fujian.
Or, you could learn more about being involved and help us grow to our target of 1000 stakeholders. You can read more about how we are Dramfunded if you CLICK HERE. Remember, we currently have no alternatives to dramfunded!
Last, but as important as all the other points above, you can help us by reading, liking and sharing our content across some of the more popular platforms.
LinkedIn users you can CLICK HERE to follow us.
Facebook users, you can CLICK HERE.
YouTube users, you can CLICK HERE.
Twitter users, you can CLICK HERE.
Instagram users, you can CLICK HERE.
Beyond the obvious questions one asks an up-and-coming distillery, one question we frequently get asked is, “how is Nine Rivers Distillery funded?”. We’re Dramfunded. It’s one of the things that make our project so unique, and also underpins why we’re confident we’ll be a successful crafter of world class whisky. If you’re not sure what […]
Read MoreBeyond the obvious questions one asks an up-and-coming distillery, one question we frequently get asked is, “how is Nine Rivers Distillery funded?”. We’re Dramfunded.
It’s one of the things that make our project so unique, and also underpins why we’re confident we’ll be a successful crafter of world class whisky. If you’re not sure what Dramfunded is, then read on.
It’s our own word that we use to describe a group of whisky lovers, pooling their hard earned rambos* to fund a project. In our case, it’s Nine Rivers Distillery. A project that was initially funded (at our pre-seed round) by the equivalent of about a years spend on whisky for each of the first founders.
*rambos, a colloquial term we use to refer to our local currency – “RaMBo’s”
It’s kinda the same as Dramfunded, except without the requirement of being a whisky lover.
Crowdfunding isn’t a new concept. The Statue of Liberty was crowdfunded in 1885, or at least the pedestal to mount it on was. Since Congress couldn’t agree on the funding, and the New York Governor refused to use city funds, it seemed impossible until Joseph Pulitzer raised the needed funds over a 5 month period, accepting donations from US$0.15 to US$250. 160’000 people pooled just over US$100,000 and saved the statue, creating what we now call crowdfunding.
Since then, rock bands have used crowdfunding to finance tours, groups have raised money to fund legal cases, movies have been crowd funded and, in more recent years, startup businesses using crowd funding have been almost part of pop culture. Maybe you yourself have even used a crowdfunding website for something you liked or believed in.
However, while most crowdfunded projects use a crowdfunding website or portal, we don’t. Hence the title, Dramfunded, not Crowfunded.
Most crowdfunding projects for startups will be one of two types – rewards based crowdfunding or equity based crowdfunding.
Rewards based crowd funding is really simple. Someone has a concept for a product, but can’t afford to build it. In this way, the product is essentially pre-sold to interested consumers. The startup will then design, develop, and manufacture this product and eventually ship them out to the eagerly waiting customers.
There have been some amazing success stories. A project to make a funky watch snagged over US $20 million. A cooling box with speakers raked in US $13.2 million. Even a camera tripod hit over US $12 million.
Equity based crowd funding is different in the sense that the end consumer becomes an investor and receives shares in the business (equity) for their money. One of the most famous equity based crowd funding success stories is also in the alcohol industry. Brewdog are now reported to have 200,000 investors, raising over £100 million and now have a business valued at £2 billion. Not bad, Brewdog.
You wont find us on Kickstarter, Indiegogo, GoFundMe or any of the other hundreds of platforms.
There’s a number of reasons why you won’t.
Primarily, it’s because most crowd funding websites (and the processes involved) end up costing a huge chunk of money. The website itself can end up costing anything up to 12% of the capital raised, and most of them add another cost of a few percentage points for processing payments.
If that wasn’t enough, there’s also another stack to be spent on a services agency to help put your story into “Crowdfunding Friendly Format”.
Crowdfunding is a competitive industry and there are literally thousands of projects live at any one time. Without a skilled and experienced professional agency (the types that know the best way to grab attention, tell a story, and get people to hand over their hard earned money) there is very little chance of success.
Agencies don’t just ensure the overall presentation and image is perfect, they also know all the tricks to get your story featured on crowd funding discussion websites, forums, and all the other places to get eyes on your project.
Do the math with us. Those agencies normally want 25% of the gross total raised, plus when you factor in an additional 12% lost to the crowd funding websites and their payment fees, and that’s almost 40% of the money gone, a steep sum.
Imagine paying full price for a bottle of whisky and you were given a 420ml bottle instead of a 700ml.
Exactly. Now you can understand why we went for the dramfunded approach!
Everything we have done so far. Everything we have achieved. Everything we have raised. It has all been through word of mouth. The chain is simple: a person gets involved through knowing everyone else at one of the various Whisky Networking events, then tells their friends about being part of a crowd of likeminded whisky lovers who want to do something special in the world of whisky.
That friend learns more, understands what we aim to achieve, wants to be a part of it, and then tells one or more of their friends. This continues and cascades and we grow. We raise more money at each stage of investment, sure, but more importantly, we have more people to talk about our ambitions to their network.
It’s not just about raising money. It’s also about building the brand awareness and communicating our message to all of our potential future customers. As well as the fact that everyone has a talent, a skill, or a passion, all of which we can utilise within our project.
Not being a multibillion dollar alcohol conglomerate, we can’t throw ¥1 billion at a project with two stills – or even just CLAIM to be doing that in some kind of shareholder appeasing spin doctoring.
What we ARE doing is building something with more than 7 times the production capacity of THAT project, for a fraction of the price. We spend less because everyone rolls up their sleeves and mucks in.
Dramfunded isn’t just about the money raised. Everyone has something more to give. With over 200 people involved, just an hour a week from each person gives us 200 hours a week. Many of them contribute considerably more than just an hour. But even on the minimum, that’s 200 hours a week of diverse skills, extensive experience, natural talent and real world business experience – considerably more use to us than a bunch of big bucks consultants flown in from abroad, armed with nothing more than an MBA, a shiny pair of shoes, and a Mandarin travel phrase book.
How many startups in any industry (let alone a distillery) can claim to have their own architects, structural engineers, construction experts, scientists, mechanical engineers, software developers, graphic designers, packaging experts, marketers, linguists, chemists, logistics experts, distributors, a minivan’s worth of international C-level executives, and a coach load of successful entrepreneurs, some of whom have listed multimillion dollar companies on stock exchanges?
Our group of passionate people are all united under a single vision to create world class whisky.
We’ll continue our story how we’re funding Nine Rivers Distillery. More reasons why we chose this approach. How it benefits our project and, the big ones – why haven’t we taken in any big corporate money (despite a number of offers……).
If you enjoyed reading about how we are dramfunded, and you would like to catch up with some of our past articles, then please CLICK HERE and go to our News Section, where most of our other content is published.
One of the easiest ways to help our project succeed is to take an interest in anything we have for sale. You can find out what we have if you CLICK HERE and go to our shop. We’ll make a few percentage points (after sales tax) and this goes directly to our project.
You could help us by simply buying your very own Brick for Life – a brick with a steel name plate wrapped around it, which will be cemented into The Plenum (our feature wall) in July 2023. Every brick owner is entitled to a free dram for life every time they visit us in Longyan, Fujian.
Or, you could learn more about being involved and help us grow to our target of 500 stakeholders. You can read more about how we are Dramfunded if you CLICK HERE.
Last, but as important as all the other points above, you can help us by reading, liking and sharing our content across some of the more popular platforms.
LinkedIn users you can CLICK HERE to follow us.
Facebook users, you can CLICK HERE.
YouTube users, you can CLICK HERE.
Twitter users, you can CLICK HERE.
Instagram users, you can CLICK HERE.