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Ethan Perkins
Startup Talks
Chief Innovation Officer
Endless West

Ethan Perkins is the Chief Innovation Officer at Endless West, a beverage company using innovative methods to create wines and spirits at the molecular level. After graduating from the University of Michigan, Ethan began his Beverage Alcohol career with E&J Gallo Winery, before moving on to Diageo, Stoli Group USA, and now Endless West. His twenty-three-year career spans sales and marketing across beer, wine and spirits in all three tiers of the US three-tier system as well as internationally across a diverse set of brokers, importers, bottlers distributors and large accounts. Ethan joined Endless West to develop and lead their internal brands route to market strategy for both their domestic and international markets as well as their control brand/private label vertical.

Most recently, Ethan is focused on commercializing their IP and technology in the business-to-business sector of Beverage Alcohol by establishing Endless West as a supplier of choice for domestic and international bottlers as well as global aggregators of bulk goods.

Endless West’s first product, Glyph, was the first whiskey ever to be created note by note, using molecules (or, flavor and aroma notes) extracted pure, from more efficient sources in nature. Unlike conventional whiskeys, Glyph is made without aging and/or barreling — which means significantly less wood, water, and land is used in its production process. The portfolio has exploded to include over twenty bottled and canned brands that Endless West owns directly or contract manufactures for clients as well as a robust offering of bulk goods across whiskey, rum, gin, tequila, brandy and RTDs. Originally from Kingston, NY Ethan holds a MBA from the University of Iowa Tippie School of Business and currently lives in Temecula, California with his wife Lindsay and their two boys Elijah and Solomon…and two dogs.


Event Introduction
Startup Talks
 · 06/26 (Day 2)
Start Up, Stand Out
4.2H - Hall B2
Methodology for Entrepreneurship
16:30
[Innovation] Endless West Molecular Brewing: From 10 Years in a Barrel to 24 Hours in the Factory

Endless West is the first company to introduce molecular brewing technology to spirits. By identifying key flavor and aroma molecules (or notes) and then extracting them from more efficient natural sources, including plants, fruits, and yeast, they have revolutionized the process.

Here, brewing is done by computers, not barrels. With the maturation of this technology, whiskey that would traditionally require 10 years of aging in a barrel can now be "brewed" on Endless West's production line in just 24 hours.

However, drinking spirits has never been solely about the alcohol itself. In an industry that places such a high value on culture, atmosphere, and ritual, how far can "quantum tech" go? What else can Endless West bring to the industry through molecular brewing?

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(Source: instagram@endlesswest)

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