The inspiration to open a distillery
Often you hear stories of business ideas dropping out of thin air during a serene vacation on a lake or in the mountains. I am skeptical of these stories but maybe only because I had slightly different experience. I read a book I ordered from Amazon in 2013. Alt Whiskey by Darek Bell, the owner of Corsair Artisan Distillery, appeared on a recommended list of books on my Amazon account. I own a library of beer brewing books that have informed my passion for homebrewing for the last 15 years. Somehow the analytics at Amazon knew I might like to read a book about making whiskey from craft beer. Intrigued, I ordered the book with one click and within a week, I decided to abandon the homebrewer’s dream of opening a craft brewery. Instead of joining the ranks of over 100 breweries in San Diego County, I would forge relationships with the young tight-knit craft spirits industry of less than a dozen and make a semi-novel product that taps into the heart of the San Diego beer scene – hopped whiskey and gin.
The main challenge was to learn about the craft of distillation, which is tough given that it is illegal to distill at home unlike brewing or making wine. Fortunately, the science of distillation is a part of my background having earned a PhD in chemistry from UC San Diego in 2007. However, the art and craft require practice and experience. Once I convinced a few friends that this was a young growing industry with lots of potential soon to follow on the heels of wine and beer, I enrolled in the Artisan Craft Distilling Institute Course in Gig Harbor, WA. The week-long course in June of 2014 covered all the gory details involved in opening a distillery and hands-on experience at Heritage Distilling Company. While the legal, construction, tax, sales and marketing challenges were enough to make your head spin, two things gave me confidence in my passion for opening a distillery. First, the science of the process was exciting, interesting and accessible to me. Second, was the sales pitch of this course, “Take the first big step to the next big thing.”
Now imagine two friends hiking through Glacier National Park, listening to music while tasting craft beer in the cul-d-sac of Telluride mountains or surfing the Cardiff beach break while camping on the cliffs of San Elijo State Park.
Now comes the cliché picturesque scene of two guys surfing on a beautiful San Diego day in Cardiff-by-the-Sea. My good friend of 15 years, Jon “Archie” Kasten had a born-again experience when he tasted Alpine’s Nelson IPA. Once a committed Rum and Coke aficionado, he had bellied up to the bar full of San Diego IPAs. As owners of VW campers, we would often meet up at San Elijo Camp State Park to camp, surf and share a few IPAs, some of which were my homebrews, and listen to music. I had a lot of friends who enjoyed my beer but Archie was seriously interested in taking my craft commercial. One summer day in between sets, I told Archie, “I’m thinking of opening a distillery instead of a brewery.” The rest they say is history.
But wait. Even before that fateful day, a shared passion for craft beer had grown out of other vacation scenes. My close friend Eric Buchanan and I met over 20 years ago as freshman at Cate School in Carpenteria, CA. In college we spent a summer together working in Glacier National Park. Our motivation was to go fly-fishing and explore the majestic beauty of the mountains. But we often found a bottle of Great Northern Brewing Co or Moose Drool beer by our side. In fact, our visit to the brewery overlooking the Northfork river parralelled by the Great Northern railway in Whitefish certainly inspired both of us to consider the prospect of owning a brewery at the beginning of the craft beer revolution. However, as fresh-faced 21 year-olds we knew that there was still much life experience ahead of us before that could become a reality.
Now, 20 years later, a few college degrees, numerous job experiences, and with families onboard, we have boarded the train to the American dream. But at this point we have barely left the station and still have a long journey ahead.
