Special Edition: AMA with GET NOK CEO

Hey guys, we had a special guest in the Telegram Group today, so I thought I would add the AMA here so people can read at their own leisure!!

Captain:
Good evening/morning fellow pirates (or whatever time it is in your part of the world).

I have just muted our chat as we have a very special guest joining us.

I’d like to welcome Nick, the CEO of Get Nok.

For those who have been living on Pirate Mars and out of the loop, Get Nok are the distillery producing our MoonPirate rum.

This rum was chosen BY YOU. Early investors voted on the bottle, the rum base and a subtle flavour. The label on the bottle is yet to be voted on.

MoonPirate holders chose a Dark Rum with a hint of Coconut.

Also remember that Get Nok is a startup company. If you check out the MoonPirate Roadmap you will see there is plans to update their website well before the rum goes on sale.

I have #13 questions for Nick today, which I’m sure you’ll find very informative.

I’ll give people a chance to read this post and then I’ll welcome Nick.

Nick:
Hey Crew

Captain:
How are you today Nick?

Nick:
I’m doing well thanks for asking. You?

Captain:
Excellent!!! I’m feeling extra piratey today! Thanks for joining us. I’ll get stuck straight into the questions

Nick:
sounds good!

Captain:
#1 Can you tell us about your previous jobs/roles?

Nick:
I worked as a corporate event AV Technician for about a total of 9 years in Las Vegas and in London. Worked in a distillery in Los Gatos, CA called hanging rock for approximately two years 2015–2017 as a distiller assistant.

Captain:
Brilliant! It’s a very exciting step starting up your own distillery.

Nick:
yes sir its exciting indeed

Captain:
#2 Where did the Get Nok name come from?

Nick:
Funny question because I get that asked all the time “wth is a Get Nok??” haha Well, I’m a night owl and want my company name to really represent me in a way. It was originally Nok for nocturnal but was already in use. I then thought of Get Nok because when I think of liquor I think of the nightlife, a lifestyle, nightclubs partying etc., you become nocturnal, you Get Nokturnal. You seize the night.

Captain:
Wow, that is interesting!!! Thanks very much. There you go folks, you now know where the name Get Nok came from

Captain:
#3 What makes Get Nok unique?

Nick:
Get Nok’s has 2 things that sets us apart from other distilleries: To create spirits tailor made to the consumer’s taste by allowing them to choose and pick how their blends/flavors will be made and to the bottle they choose. So as an example with rum, the base ingredient of rum would be sugarcane juice, sugarcane or molasses. Consumers will get to choose between those options as well as their accented flavors, which in the case of MP Rum would be hints of coconut.
Our second offering would be our products being able to aid in the symptoms of hangovers. I have mentioned CBD in the past but there was a misunderstanding with regulations in creating alcohol blends with the compound in it. FDA doesn’t approve of mixing elements of the cannabis plant with alcohol. But we reached out to a bio-health science company out in San Diego, California that uses a compound derived from non-cannabis botanicals that produce the same effects of CBD.

Captain:
Great, thanks!!

Captain:
#4 What excites you most about collaborating with MoonPirate?

Nick:
I am excited because I see a fortified team and an ever-growing loyal community. That sets a foundation for any brand or company. I also see MoonPirate having the ability market itself, the whole idea behind it is eye catching and I see no problem with this brand being ubiquitous, dominating global markets.

Captain:
I agree we have the best community here! We are approaching 4 weeks old so in reality, we are still just a little Pirate baby. Lot of exciting things to come and lots of room to grow/expand ;)

Captain:
#5 Can you share information on international shipping?

and

#6 Tell us about the poor folk in Alabama and why they are excluded?

Nick:
When it comes to International shipping, by law we are only allowed to ship using direct shipping methods such as FEDex express services. There are a few countries that we are unable to ship to, those countries are those ones who have banned alcohol due to religious beliefs.

Unfortunately, there are three more states to add to that list…

Utah, Mississippi, Kentucky state officials have not yet decided on changing their distribution laws. Utah is a little trickier because their regulations are based off of their religious beliefs. But dont worry, I will make it one of my priorities to contact retail stores to stock our product.

Captain:
Thanks Nick. So there you go guys, international shipping (to most countries) will be on offer!!

Few issues with some US states mentioned above, sorry guys, out of our control but sounds like Nick is doing everything he can :)

Captain:
#7 Does the NFT aspect (some bottles) excite you?

Nick:
It does! This is unprecedented! I see this bringing beneficial attention to both Get Nok and MoonPirate. The creativity aspect of the implementing of NFT’s into real world products sets us apart from our competitors.

Captain:
It does indeed! Plenty to work out in that area and I don’t think EVERY bottle will have this. But linking an NFT to a physical bottom of rum is something which definitely sets us apart. We have a lot of ideas in this space, so stay tuned!!!!!

Captain:
#8 Who else works for Get Nok?

Nick:
I have two other guys who work for me, James A. who is my assistant I think he lurks around here and Marshall T. Who I’ve decided to be my Master Distiller. As we grow, I will incorporate more team members for marketing, sales and production.

Captain:
Brilliant! The three Get Nok Musketeers!!

Captain:
#9 Can you explain more information on the process of making rum (sample batch, recipe submission, aging process etc)

Nick:
This is gonna be a long one give me a moment haha.

So we start off with the wash:
Rum wash is made from either sugarcane syrup, sugar cane juice or molasses. To create the wash you use either one as a base and you boil it into water until it is fully dissolved. I’ll then pour in cold water to cool down the temperature of your wash. Once its cooled, to about 75–83 degrees F, you then add in the distillers yeast (about 50g a hecto liter). Depending on the type of rum, we either gradually add more yeast overtime or leave it as is. After that process we aerate the wash and then transfer it into a sealed tank for fermentation. 4–7 days sugarcane and 13–16 days for molasses.

Distillation:
We currently use a single pot still, which is a more tedious method but eventually we’ll get column stills.

During distillation we have 4 steps:

1. We get rid of the toxic elements in the fermented wash which are called foreshots which include: acetaldehyde, acetone and methanol. Those are the first 5–8% of vapors being produced while heating up to the temperature of 172–175 F. Those are thrown out. We use a testing kit to check the presence of the toxic elements. We heat up the temperature to 200F for distillation because alcohol has a lower boiling point than water (212F) and at that temperature alcohol turns into vapor and water remains as a liquid.

2. Collect the the “heads” at 175F-190F or at 160Proof (tested using a hydrometer) we collect and store this for future use. Either redistilling or blending.

3. We collect the “hearts” at 190–203F or above 160 Proof.

4. Last we collect “Tails” at 203F and above. We store and use that for future distilling.

Casking and ageing:
Casks for ageing rum American oak casks that were formally used to age bourbon. White rum takes less time to age than dark rum. The color and flavor from the rum comes from what type of cask you use and how long you age it. With white rum you’re looking at 3–5 months but with the darker rum up to two years. I use developed a secret method of speeding up the process by manipulating air pressure, elevation and temperature where the casks are stored, this is what sets us apart from our competitors 😉 I will be sharing that secret with other smaller distilleries the future.

Captain:
Wow, this is very informative!!!!! Hope you’re appreciating this Pirates!!!!

Captain:
oooooh pirate secrets!!!!!

love it!

Thanks again for the detailed response. That gives everyone an amazing insight.

Captain:
#10 What do you do for fun (other than making kickass rum of course)?

Nick:
I’m a musician, it’s been a while but I play the drums and produce music on my laptop using Ableton.. I also go to the gym on my free time.

Captain:
Great stuff :)

Captain:
#11 How many bottles are you anticipating to be available at launch?

Nick:
We are aiming for 500 bottles at launch but will continue making batch after batch and our website will be updated with availability. Make sure to signup for our newsletter!

Captain:
Brilliant news! Initially we were talking about 100 bottles. But MoonPirate has grown so quickly, that would have sold out instantly. It’s great we can do a higher number of bottles. And we have special things planned with “rare”, “limited edition” and “standard” bottles, which you will probably talk about in one of my next questions

Captain:
#12 You’ve already briefly touched on this, but tell us more about CBD infusion (which is no longer happening) and if there is other alternatives?

Nick:
CBD a cannabinoid found in cannabis has many benefits ranging from addressing anxiety to treating chronic pain. The combination with on alcohol promotes the feeling of calmness and relaxation. Scientific studies, as well as numerous anecdotal reports state that the use of CBD in combination with alcohol reduces the symptoms of hangovers the following day.

I erroneously stated that our products were going to be infused with CBD but due to U.S. Federal Regulations we no longer plan on doing so. To circumvent regulations we found a compound called Phytocannabinoids. They have been found in non-cannabis botanicals and yield the same results as CBD. We have reached out to Emerald Bio-Health Sciences to produce and emulsify those compounds so that we can add it to our product!

Captain:
Fantastic. We’ve had a few questions about that so thanks for the response.

ok last question

Captain:
and then i’ll share something no one in this group has seen

Captain:
#13 And what kind of prices can we expect?

Nick:
For start our Limited Edition Bottles will be sold for $200 each and our will go for

Standard Bottles $100. Our Rare bottles with be auctioned off and will contain a NFT 🙂

Captain:
Fantastic. I think a lot of people were assuming that EVERY bottle would be $200 USD. And this is simply not the case. The Limited Edition bottles will be in high demand I am guessing. The rare bottles will be auctioned off as an NFT which will be super exciting and TRULY UNIQUE. MoonPirate is breaking barriers here and really linking real items into the blockchain/crypto space.

Captain:
We will also be giving one bottle away (either rare or limited edition) in a competition…as long as you live in a suitable location/country that can accept shipping

Captain:
Well thank you soooo much for your time today Nick!!!!!

It’s been a pleasure having you here and everyone at MoonPirate looks forward to working with Get Nok.

Nick:
MoonPirate is truely momonumental

Captain:
couldn’t have said it better myself!

Nick:
No problem! Thank you and to your crew! So glad to be apart of this journey!

Captain:
Ok everyeon — As I mentioned, investors have already voted on the rum. But the voting on the label is still outstanding. We will have lots of label options to vote on and they will slightly differ for rare, limited edition and standard edition.

I can share a SNEAK PEAK of one of these labels. This is still in draft and is NOT representative of the final version.