A true speakeasy... somewhere

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Side Note on Misadventure Vodka; or, I fucking love these guys!

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First of all, let me just say: if you don't think what these three dudes are doing with unsold bread is stupid amazing, something is seriously wrong with you.

Allow me to set the scene: tiny manufacturing space in the middle of nowhere North San Diego Country aka San Marcos. Purpose of my visit is to check out The California Spirits Company. I step immediately onto a production floor where Casey the proprietor is behind the wheel of a fork lift (Raising a barrel drum on a palette to about twenty feet in the air, because "gravity works just as well as a pump." I can't tell if he's kidding). This place is so small, the five other people in there make it seem jam-packed.

Casey jumps down and introduces himself. Only a few words are exchanged -why I'm there, where I had come from, Casey basically making sure I'm not a spy out to steal his potions- before he's back work. Casey not only distills his own rum and (excellent) liqueurs, but he also rents his f…
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John Granata Jumped Out of the Sopranos and Straight into Jersey Spirits Distillery

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John Granata of Jersey Spirits Distillery, in Fairfield, NJ, is a very likable man. As one talks with him, you get a sense of familiarity. Then it will dawn on you: oh yeah, he's in that episode of The Sopranos, where Christopher cuts in line at the bakery or the fried chicken joint or wherever. John was Pissed Off Customer #5. Ok, maybe not literally, but John is that type of Jersey every-guy you see at pizza parlors up and down the Garden State Parkway - just waitin' on his slice of cheese!

What I like about John so much is not just his openness -about himself, his business, about making booze- but his patience with my novice questions. In fact, there are several points during my visit where he'll pause mid-sentence and rewind to an earlier point in the conversation, worried he didn't explain it adequately the first time. You have to love that.

John tells me about his varied background, which touches on TV production, home-brewing and learning from his dad, a chemis…
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Milk Street Distillery, or Two Brothers Making Rum in a Barn

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You can tell right away that Gordon and Mike, of Milk Street Distillery in Branchville, NJ, are brothers. It's not so much in how they look as how they flip each other off when I ask them to pose for a picture. (Thankfully, they strike a  hands-in-pockets pose soon after). Even if they weren't related, these guys would have to love each other, for the amount of time they spend together.

Before deciding to devote their lives to making delicious spirits, the two were contractors for twenty-three years. The slowdown in housing construction, and a single article about a change to New Jersey's craft spirits laws, sent them on their journey. A quick restoration of a nineteenth century barn later, Milk Street Distillery is now the life of Branchville.

I show up 10am on a Tuesday, when things are a bit sleepier.  The drive out to Branchville takes me through scenic forests, valleys and farmland. I don't have to stop and read the historic markers dotting the highway to know th…
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Who knew you had to go to Upstate New York to find some heat?

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Ballston Spa, NY is a tiny, though apparently up-and-coming, town that has a strange association for me. I visited here unwittingly about sixteen years ago, when my car broke down on the Thruway. I was on a road trip from DC to Montreal, in a time before cell phones.  After standing on the side of the highway for a couple minutes, the steam still rising from the car's radiator, a state trooper pulled over and radioed us a tow. The closest town happened to be Ballston Spa. It was also the Friday of Easter Weekend. The tow truck dropped me, my friend and my car in front of an autobody shop that wouldn't open for another fort- four hours. We got to know the not-ironically retro motel and Chinese take-out place very well that weekend.

I'm happy to report that my visit to Ballston Spa this time around is of my own choosing and much more eventful. I visit Jake Hewson at High Rock Distillery. He and his business partner, Peter, opened the distillery in 2014. They are fittingly, …
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I went to a hoedown and a distillery broke out

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Only by chance did I pick the perfect day and time to visit Rebecca Creek Distillery in San Antonio, TX. You wouldn't think Wednesday around 11am would be a particularly exciting time. But on this day, the country duo Smithfield are performing, promoting a reality show they're in the process of filming.  There's also a camera crew for a syndicated network show called "Best Of." The show is about to name Rebecca Creek the best Texas craft distillery for 2017, so they are capturing footage. Local TV news and a country music station have joined in as well. Add a decent bbq food truck (I'm sorry I was surprised by how good they were) and a tasting bar run by lovely Helena, and you've got yourself a party.

Because this is a big event for Rebecca Creek, I get to meet quite a few of their folk.

At the top of the totem pole there's founder Steve Ison. He tells me how once he conceived the idea of Rebecca Creek, he knew he would need the business acumen of fr…
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Balcones Distilling: Modern Technology Creating Old-School Flavor

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It's going to be hard to focus this post, because Balcones Distilling, in Waco, TX, has a lot going on. Maybe it will be best to start with Zack Pilgrim, one of their masterful distillers.

I've used my brains this time and called ahead. That's how I find myself waiting in a lobby, chatting with Laurel the receptionist (and, as I will learn later, Zack's wife). She tells me she's been working there six months. I should have suspected something right away, because she seems to know a lot of the distillery's innermost workings for having been there a relatively short time.

Zack arrives through a double door to the side, in all his bearded glory. If you look at pictures of other Balcones employees, you will conclude that a beard that normally would qualify a dude for lumberjack status in the real-world, is mere training fluff here. I'd say Zack, on the day I meet him, is somewhere in between.

I'm excited that Zack seems excited to show me around.  There ar…
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Social Still Rises from the Rust

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Billy Joel's song "Allentown" can be misleading. The closing of steel mills and subsequent generalized despair are very true (and supposedly got our current president elected) but he is singing about Bethlehem, not neighboring Allentown. I guess not much rhymes with "Bethlehem."

My entry into town is fairly dramatic. The storm clouds have just begun to part as I round a corner on the freeway into town.  The first thing I notice are the hulking skeletons of the furnace stacks. I don't need to get closer to know they are the no-color of filthy water. But I do get closer, and the reality on the ground begins to shift. There are signs of a city coming back to life. Some of the ancient brick walls have freshly painted signs: vintage stores, a "pet resort," and the obligatory brewery or two.  

I pull up to Social Still before it's open. This gives me time to wander around the gardens of the Museum of Industrial History across the street (reclaimed …
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Kristofer Kwant puts thought into everything at Triple Sun Spirits

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Let me start at the end: I leaveTriple Sun Spiritsin Emmaus, PA mentally exhausted. It's been a very rewarding hour and a half getting schooled by owner-distiller Kris Kwant. This man is meticulous in everything, and our conversation weaves across numerous topics: Pennsylvania's excise tax laws, how a spirit's coloring will effect its hydrometer readings and tons of molecular chemistry as it relates to flavoring and alcohol.
Looks are deceiving and we -yes, I'm including all of us- unfortunately try to do our best with the most superficial of information. For instance, I show up at the Triple Sun facility and think "here's a hobby distiller renting out the back of a brewery, for his experiments and whatnot." Wrong. Well, Kris isn't even there when I arrive. The doors are unlocked because some folks are in the attached, though unrelated, brewery, so I make myself at home at the bar on the distillery side. 
It's a spartan space. Or maybe the room is t…
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What do you get with a chemist who loves to drink? Alamo Premium Distillery

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I park where my genius phone tells me Alamo Premium Distillery should be, but I'm sure I have the wrong place. All I see is this young man out in the parking lot, chopping wood. Keep in mind, I'm not out in the sticks somewhere. This is a shout from San Antonio International Airport. Hell, I see planes landing at the end of the street.

"Hi, I'm Patrick," he comes over with outstretched hand, once he looks up and has spotted me. Patrick is twenty-four and an apprentice for Noel, the owner, who I soon meet once we head inside.

I don't say this as a knock against Alamo Premium Distillery, just setting the context: it is housed in a garage not meant for visitors. I squeeze my way through loaded up pallets. A woman sits at a table off to the side, sticking these little test tube-looking bottles into parcels. Noel explains that a couple of businesses are run from the distillery, including a spirits of the month club. I think that's a great idea and want to sig…
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Hill Country Distillers: They're doing WHAT with cacti?

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Hill Country Distillers' cactus-based spirits have a lot going for them, just don't call it Moonshine!

This directive, delivered to me as soon as I meet Cayce Kovacs, co-owner along with her husband John, is confusing because "Moonshine" is slapped across all of their labels. John will explain all when we sit down for a cocktail at the end of the day, on the lovely grounds at the distillery in Comfort, TX.

For now, I'm handed off to Sean, their part-time bartender and tour guide. You couldn't ask for a better brand representative than him. That's because Sean has been around since the beginning of Hill Country Distillers. He is the son of distiller James, and went to a "moonshine school" in Kentucky with Kaycee and John before the distillery opened. He has been known to lend his two cents when the spirits need a skillful nudge.

Since John will be leading a tour in a little bit, Sean sets me up for a tasting at the front bar.

The prickly pear spi…
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