Mammoth Distillery

An Interview with Mammoth Distillery Founder and President, Chad Munger, about boats, booze, and the new tasting room at Bay Harbor.

MAMMOTH

By Dan Kimball

Can you tell us a little about why you chose to open your new location in Bay Harbor?

The decision to open our newest tasting room in Bay Harbor was an easy one. Our brand is, by necessity and by design, all about the Northern Michigan lifestyle and there is no better place to experience that than Bay Harbor. It has the best of everything that makes Northern Michigan so special: four season beauty, water everywhere, power boating, sailing, hiking, biking, golf, skiing, snow shoeing, and lots of small town charm so the atmosphere is a perfect fit for our brand. The folks in the area are also well know supporters of the eat local food movement which includes Mammoth as we use only Northern Michigan inputs in the spirits we make. In fact, we have even started our own farm and are currently growing many of the inputs we use.

How has the reception been to the Bay Harbor Tasting Room?

The reception in Bay Harbor has been unreal. It always takes at least a full year for a new location to get up to speed in terms of traffic and sales because it always takes time and effort just to let people know you are open. But, in this case, by our third week of operation we were as busy as our Traverse City location is on many nights. One advantage in Bay Harbor is that many locals and Bay Harbor residents had already discovered us in Traverse City, so it was easier for us to let them know what was going on up here. The folks that run Bay Harbor and the Petoskey Chamber of Commerce have also gone way out of their way to promote us and we can’t thank them enough!

How does the Bay Harbor Barrel Club work?

The barrel club is similar to a mug club but on steroids. We created the club to help us connect on a more personal and consistent level with people who have fallen in love with our products and staff (who are exceptional and create the experience that defines our company). For $400 you can become a lifetime member of the barrel club which means that you recieve 20% off all purchases (products, classes, merchandise, everything). You also receive four bottles, two bottles each of our bourbon and rye whiskey, from barrels we put away specficially for our barrel club members when we open a new tasting room. Members also get early access to all new product releases, social events, and classes. Benefits are also good at any of our tasting rooms!

Would you be willing to share a little about your Chris Craft on Torch Lake?

We fell immediately in love with our 27 Launch. It checks all the boxes, it’s beautiful, designed and perfectly for the kind of cruising and guest oriented entertaining we do with our summer time guests. It’s quiet and handles the frequent Torch Lake chop with ease so we can enjoy boating even on days with rough water on the lake. It’s also been very reliable and simple to maintain which is critical when the season is so short. The folks at Walstrom have also gone above and beyond. They have made unsolicited visits to make sure everything is working well and have even delivered supplies to us at the lake. We could not be happier - it’s the perfect boat for the job.

Tell us a little about the lifestyle of your business and how it intertwines with the north boating/vacationing lifestyle.

As I mentioned earlier we are a lifestyle brand and many, if not most, of our customers we first encounter when they are on vacation. Our products, when used in moderation, are a real part of lots of vacation activities or post activity relaxation - none more so than boating. The experience and memories created by spending time on a boat are generally very positive and are often what people remember most when they return to their permanent home. Enjoying our product while boating, sailing, after skiing, by the campfire, etc. creates a real positive experience with our brand that would be very difficult to create if your first experience with Mammoth was only in a liquor store. When people associate our brand with their vacation or time spend in Northern Michigan, we are winning and are building what we hope will be lifelong relationships with our guests.

LUXURY SPORT IN MOTION

SET YOUR COURSE

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There’s no time like the present to brighten the future.

When a client’s best interests come fi rst, as they always do at Greenleaf Trust, the future appears brighter. We holistically integrate return on investment with estate planning, trusts, retirement, risk mitigation, tax planning, charitable giving, and so on. Thanks to our culture of honesty and honor, and doing the right thing fi rst, always, we’ve achieved 99% client retention, and $13 billion in assets under advisement. Our clients have a future, and they want it to be bright. To learn more, call John Welch or visit greenleaftrust.com.

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traverse city 231.778.0050 | bay harbor 231.439.5016 | greenleaftrust.com