THE DISTILLERY
Lets face it, Life is not about the destination, it is all about the journey.
Our distillery journey has been LONG and interesting!
We started our journey in 2013 at a friends anniversary party. Yes, an idea that was hatched over drinks at a party, I know that never happens. JOE had brought back some 'shine from a recent trip and discussion about opening a distillery started.
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IT was that conversation that gave John a brain-worm that burrowed through his skull. John had created Mead for Joe's wedding (a traditional wedding drink) and had been making beer for years, as a hobbyist. After more conversations, John and Sarah bought the parts and created a little still to experiment.
As our planning continued, we started searching for a place to build a distillery, We found the right place with GREAT water, close to all kinds of outdoor activity, near the interstate and close to home, AND it would pay for itself until the distillery was started and earning a profit.
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Then we hit a SNAG. Come to find out, John didn't read the laws right and there is NO provision for any home distilling. With a knock on the door from a state liquor investigator, They had a long talk, the spirits that had been so lovingly created were removed and John was told NOT do that again until he did have a distillery license. That was in 2015.
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SNAG #2! the property that we were to make the distillery took a full 2 years to get a mortgage on. Come to find out an old mobile home is NOT insurable, nor can you get a regular loan to finance it, and there was a very old mobile home on the property, and still is!
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SNAG #3!! At the time the regulation required a distillery to be 50 feet away from any residence AND had to be built out and ready for inspection before an application was submitted. THEN it took 350+ days for the federal investigators to show up.
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Did we give up? No. we didn't know how to do that, we just made some changes
SO John stopped distilling, until 2024, Then Sarah found a mortgage. Sarah doesn't take NO very well, and kept on asking until she had a YES! THEN John wrote a business plan for a brewery. The Dam Brewhouse was born from the need to open a brewery BEFORE the distillery. Profile Spirits was in the business plan on year 5. That just meant we had a lot of work to do! Building a brewery.
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LOTS more planning, Septic, Building, advertising and working on our craft! Come January 1, 2018 we were ready to put the plan into motion and started with Beer With Friends! In the basement on Friday evenings giving away our beer, meeting new people and working on making the beers you want to drink!
By October 2018 we had the building finished and the federal government actually sent investigators to check our our little brewery. We did get in a little trouble for Beer with friends, but not as much as we could have from the distilling! They let that slide so that we could pay taxes on all the beer we make!
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We received our Brewery Notice on Dec 2, 2018 and frantically made beer until our opening on Dec 21, 2018!
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After 4 years of brewing, it was time to turn attention to the distilling. And we decided to take the old sugar house and convert it to the distillery. We had plenty of experience with the town and knew that we couldn't build anything new, so keeping with what we have was important.
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We had to both save the building from falling over, there was a tree that fell on the roof, and the whole building was leaning over and it was slowly dissolving into the earth from the lack of a foundation. SO we first secured the structure, then slowly jacking parts to level the building and attached long beams to the exterior so we could chop off the rotten part and jack the whole thing up in the air! A foundation was poured and we then built the walls UP to the jacked up part of the building. Raising the ceiling height for a taller distillation column.
While in 2022 we worked hard getting the building saved, 2023 was the year for a buildout, finishing the interior and exterior. 2024 was the year for getting all the finisheing touches complete, equipment built and ready for federal approvals. It is tough waiting for the federal government, silence...you just wait. Finally there was a response with some questions and bingo, our DSP (distilled spirits plant) was approved. Phew! Now it has been 9 years since we have made any spirits, and 10 years since we started our planning and while we had started working out some spirits, it is NOW time to get to business. Play Time
And PLAY we will! Finally Joe's Bourbon is a reality, Pear and Apple Brandy from our friends fruit trees is in a glass. Smoked whisky, Maple Whisky, Vodka, Rum, GIN! All in process. BUT it is not about the spirits, it is about the people that have helped. Helped create, helped advise, helped build, paint, encourage and even help lift a glass. It takes a village, because without the village what is the point?