Let’s start with the good news first! You like us, you really like us! We’ve sold a record amount of Kinsman Rakia in the past year both on and off-site!
And now the bad news: After this Saturday’s Dunkelweizen release, we will be temporarily closing our tasting room, so we can preserve product for bars and restaurants and catch up with production demands of Kinsman Rakia.
But don’t fret! Bartenders and bar managers will still be ordering Kinsman and HighWheel through their normal channels. As a consumer, you’ll still be able to enjoy Kinsman cocktails and HighWheel brews all around town and at your local liquor store. Please continue to support bars and restaurants that support our endeavors and make sure to ask your bartender for Kinsman and HighWheel wherever you go!
So how do we make sure this doesn’t happen in the future?
We simply can’t; fruit distillation is incredibly expensive, and annual fruit yields are unpredictable.
We’ve been successfully matching supply with demand over the past 6 years, but while we can’t control mother nature, nor the costs of fruit, we’ve been blessed with a bountiful growing season this year, doubling down on our own growth with this summer’s harvest and our largest to date fruit acquisition in Belgrade. Over the last year we also increased our distilling capacity in San Antonio.
But making Kinsman is akin to making fine wine. Fruit allocation happens months before harvest, which happens months before final distillation can be complete. More fruit has been acquired, of course, but staying true to our family legacy means patience is a virtue.
While we normally depend on shipping via Atlantic on a boat, to expedite things, and minimize interruption, this year we turned to shipping via air so we can start distilling sooner.
We have big plans for 2020 and beyond, but closing out 2019 and meeting end of year demand came with a challenge. Our supporters’ thirst for quality spirits means we’re down to our last few cases of Kinsman, and we’ve chosen to allocate them to the bars and restaurants that support us.
Quality spirits take time. That said, we hope you understand why we’re choosing to close our tasting room doors for the time being to make room for round-the-clock distilling.
We’ll see you real soon!
Stay tuned for updates.