Ted Pappas Big Bottom Whiskey

Ted Pappas, founder of Big Bottom Whiskey, has created a resealable for his new branch, Calhoun Bros. Whiskey. The idea for the pouch is a year and a half in the making and has plans to hit the Atlanta market later this year.

(Brittany Greeson/The Oregonian)

Ted Pappas the quick-witted, fast-talking founder of Hillsboro's

is going small and betting a new product will be a hit with outdoorsmen.

Liquor stores across the state are starting to carry

, the 200-milliliter resealable whiskey pouch that Pappas and officials with the

believe is the first of its kind in the United States.

Big Bottom Whiskey

What

: Independent bottler founded by Ted Pappas

When:

2010

Where:

21420 N.W. Nicholas Ct., Suite D-9, Hillsboro

New:

Calhoun Bros. Adventures Spirit, a resealable 200-milliliter pouch, retails for $8.95.

Like his Big Bottom brand, named after the protected Clackamas County wilderness area, Pappas' new product is inspired by his southern roots and the great outdoors.

The Calhoun name comes from a street in Charleston, South Carolina, where both Ted and his late brother, George attended The Citadel. Pappas wrote an original story to go along with the 86 proof whiskey, itself a nod to his brother's graduating year from the military school.

Jim Dodge, OLCC's purchasing coordinator, said the resealable container is an original, although some retail locations are starting to offer collapsible flasks. An OLCC committee took a little bit longer to approve the product, Dodge said, because of "the uniqueness of the packaging."

"He's sort of testing the water," Dodge said.

Branding

Similar to his Big Bottom brand, Pappas' Calhoun Bros. whiskey isn't made in-house. An independent bottler, Pappas buys his whiskey wholesale and ages, blends and refines the spirit to suit his tastes.

But with his new brand, Pappas is treading new ground in the packaging world.

Calhoun Bros. Whiskey in its new resealable pouch as created by Ted Pappas, founder of Big Bottom Whiskey. Pappas is creating an original story online about the two brothers, loosely based on Ted and his late brother George.

Light weight, convenient, resealable, the container holds about "three good drinks" according to Pappas.

"Perfect by the campfire," he said.

State officials describe the container as an experiment, and have some concerns about the $8.95 price tag being too steep for customers.

Pappas said while he plans to distribute to Georgia and "potentially other markets," he's holding off on inundating retail stores so he can see how sales progress.

But some industry observers believe Pappas could be onto something big.

"The big guys are going to watch and see how it goes," Lew Bryson, managing editor of Whisky Advocate magazine said of large whiskey companies. "And jump in with both feet."

Primed for growth

The past year has been a good one for Big Bottom. Last August, Pappas debuted new labels, which he said has helped boost sales.

He brought his whiskeys to farmers' markets in Washington County, which helped raise visibility.

Sales have been brisk, Pappas said, a more than 60 percent increase over the previous year.

He expanded, adding another 1,500-square-feet of space, to double the company's footprint in the low-profile warehouse and tasting room in a Hillsboro warehouse. Pappas called the expansion a godsend.

"I'm getting a lot of the repeat buys," Pappas said, a key to long-term stability.

But Pappas still has a day job. He works for Kaiser Permanente as an information technology specialist.

Since founding Big Bottom in 2010, Pappas said he's held onto five- and 10-year plans. The five-year plan included distilling his own whiskey in-house. Pappas said he's close to achieving that goal, and hopes to have his own young whiskeys within a couple years.

"In five years Oregon is going to be producing a good amount of very high quality single malt whiskeys," Pappas said.

The 10-year plan, he keeps close to the vest.

Industry could notice

New packaging trends are becoming commonplace in the whiskey industry, according to Bryson and others. Some companies have tinkered with whiskey in a can, Bryson said. Plastic bottles are more commonplace.

"To put a cap on it," Bryson said of Calhoun Bros., "Is brilliant."

Mark Gillespie, producer and host of Whisky Cast, a whisky podcast, agrees that large sellers could pick up on Pappas' idea.

He also said there could be

other consequences of the new disposable product, making it a way to get around bottle deposit laws.

While Gillespie described the resealable pouch as "great idea" and he could see the packaging become a trend, he's unlikely to use it.

If he's going camping or fishing, Gillespie said, he's going with a tried and true container centuries-old: the metal flask.

-- Andrew Theen