Introduction

Inspired by the Australian TV show “The Flying Distillers”, should we provide a similar service? It might be called “The Flying Distillers”. Here’s what it is or what it could look like. I’ll also share some first-hand experiences.

Most important goal of this article? I am interested to learn from your feedback. Is “The Flying Distillers” a concept that will, for lack of a better word, “fly” or not? Please let me know your thoughts …

Concept

If you are sick, you go to a doctor or a hospital. But if you are living in the Australian outback … well, there are no doctors or hospitals nearby … so the doctors fly to you.

How about we take this concept and try to role it forward into the distilling industry? Imagine an up and running distillery struggling with the production of a new spirit or with that new piece of equipment they purchased? If you can’t easily fly over to visit the distillation or distillery consultant, wouldn’t you want him or her to fly over to you?

The value proposition

I don’t know The Flying Doctors very well, but I imagine that they do not fly over to help cure a cold. They are probably called upon, in matters of life and death, right?

If we translate that to the distilling industry, then “The Flying Distillers” concept would be an additional service, where our staff travels to a customer’s distillery to help ‘m with that new spirit, procedure, or piece of equipment. For something really important, that is worthy of our time and energy, and your money.

Some rules and conditions

When we decide to further develop this Flying Distillers Concept, there need to be some rules and conditions. An easy one is that we only sell this service to iStill Customers. A second one is that we only offer it to customers that did the online and hands-on distilling courses. Metaphorically, you should be able to cure that cold or weather out that flu. If we fly in, it is for the big and worrying things that you want to get under your control.

iStill’s Flying Distillers Service could be purchased with the iStills you buy from us or later, when you try to get your distillery up and running. I also see a possible connection to recipe development, where we come over and train you how to make it at your location. Finally, I can imagine that people want a refresher and maybe combine that with maintenance, servicing, or upgrading their iStills.

Our experience so far

Last two weeks we have dabbled a bit with the idea, to gain some experience. One of our staff went to France to help with the first distillation runs of a new distillery set-up. Another iStiller is currently in the UK to help out another craft distillery, that is already working with us for many years, but wanted some replacement parts installed and our input in creating a more efficient operation.

The feedback we get is enormously positive. Training and distilling on location seems therefore to be a valuable addition for certain customers with very specific questions. But – for our team – it also comes at a drawback. It asks for a lot of time, travel not being the least of them

So … what say you? Is this a service we should further develop and offer? Any thoughts you want to share? Please let us know.

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