HELENA – At times over the past few years Mike Uda may have felt like his start-up was standing still, but now Uda’s still is operational, and there’s commercial liquor being produced in Helena.
As of earlier this summer, cases of Vigilante vodka are stocked in the state liquor warehouse and available to liquor retailers across Montana.
Uda, a partner in a downtown Helena law firm, and some friends first had the idea of a commercial distilling operation after a visit earlier this decade to a liquor manufacturer in California. They rented some space in Montana Business Assistance Connection’s business incubator building on Poplar Street and set about growing the business.
It wasn’t an easy process. There are federal and state permits to acquire, background checks and product name and label permissions to secure, among other hurdles. Not to mention learning how to distill alcohol.
“When I started to enterprise I never drank much vodka, but I’ve had to develop a taste for it,” Uda said recently.
There was no small amount of trial and error involved in developing the process for distilling the product.
“Part of the judgment of it comes from distinguishing what’s good and what’s not, and being able to determine what’s pure ethanol and what’s not.”
Uda had hoped to use Montana grain or at least Montana sugar in his production, but ran into problems acquiring quantities small enough for his start-up operation. For now he’s distilling the alcohol from Ohio molasses.
Each batch run through his still produces around six gallons of ethanol, which, after being diluted with water to reach 80 proof (or 40 percent alcohol) results in around 15 gallons of vodka.
Part of the impetus for starting the business was a 2005 change in state law that allows for “microdistilleries.” Similar to the law for breweries, a microdistillery can serve up to two ounces of liquor per day to patrons, and sell as much as one liter of its product for offsite consumption.
Uda doesn’t have a formal storefront yet — the space he’s operating out of currently seems barely bigger than a storage closet — but he’s looking around town for somewhere to open a tasting room (and larger distilling operation) that would be open to the public.
Uda believes his product compares favorably with high-end imported vodkas. He remembers the first time he saw a bottle for sale — at M-T Glass on 11th Avenue — and said there was a “certain amount of relief” associated with seeing his work come to fruition.
“The ‘eureka’ moment was when we got really good vodka,” he said. “And I knew if we were smart and marketed well and didn’t try to do too much, the rest will take care of itself.”
It’s not inexpensive. After applying a formula that includes taxes and a mark-up, the state sells Vigilante to the state’s 100 authorized liquor stores for $30.05 a bottle. Assuming a retail mark-up of 10 or 15 percent, consumers can expect to pay $33 or $35 for a bottle.
Uda hopes increased production will lower his incremental costs and allow Vigilante to sell the product at a lower price.
“We don’t want to be the cheapest on the shelf, but we don’t want to be the most expensive either,” he said. “We’re aware the price point is high, and we’re doing everything we can to do something about that.”
So far the state liquor warehouse has sent 11 cases of Vigilante to liquor stores around the state, including all three retailers in Helena and East Helena as well as Butte, Bozeman, Missoula, Great Falls and Billings.
“Once they let us know they have a marketable product and what the size is, we would calculate the price and put it in our list book,” said Shauna Helfert, administrator of the Liquor Control Division.
Helfert said several other distilleries have gotten licenses under the recent law. Vigilante is the first to reach commercial production, although a Bozeman company, RoughStock Distillery, plans to have Montana whiskey on the market soon.