Join Us for a Tasting at Western Reserve Distillers

 

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Suzanne: Hi I’m Suzanne Henricksen, a researcher
and storyteller by trade, and a world

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explorer; drink-local enthusiast by heart
i’m traveling the world to celebrate and

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share the people, the process, the stories
and the innovations behind craft alcohol

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and I can’t wait to share our amazing finds with
all of you so let’s get drinking Crafty Cask style.

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[Upbeat music]

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Suzanne: this is quite the operation.
Ann: Well, thank you!

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Suzanne: I’m very impressed.

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Evan: Yeah very cool and I love that it’s like
you know being able to repurpose something

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like you mentioned from what 1915?

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Ann Thomas: Yes

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Ann: so the building was actually constructed before
the City of Lakewood was incorporated

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Suzanne: Wow!

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Ann: So watch your step.

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Ann: um…

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Ann: And –

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Suzanne: oh it smells good, and it’s warm, and it’s….the distill’s all lit up and in action and ready to go..

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Ann: They must’ve finished the run. Um, so what we do is we go through a full stripping run, of all of our products and

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Ann: we capture everything that comes off

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Evan: Okay.

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Ann: and-then we’ll do a final distillation so we kind of clean up the spirit first

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Suzanne: yeah

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Ann: and then we’ll put it through and then we’ll collect our hearts.

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Ann: Here, upstairs.

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Even: Oh, okay

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Ann: So we have um four floors and a basement
so we have basically 22,000 square feet

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Suzanne: Wow

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Ann: um and right now we have- How many barrels do we have aging, do you know?

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Kevin Thomas: A little over a hundred.

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Suzanne: A little over a hundred?

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Evan: Okay.

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Ann: So at this point all of our grains go
to the front of the second floor um up there, and we start aging them

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Evan: Gotcha

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Ann: And then we’ve got two more floors

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Evan: Do you kind of rotate them through uh for um temperature-

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Ann: We haven’t-

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Evan: No?

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Suzanne: Is the temperature controlled at all or?

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Ann: It is temperature controlled.

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Evan: Okay.

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Suzanne: it is controlled? okay. Yep.

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Ann: Yep. Um..one of the things you know, because
we don’t have- you know we’re not in Kentucky we’re

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Ann: not in a big house so we don’t have like those serious extremes

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Evan and Suzanne: Right.

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Ann: it is something to you know- and again, you know also with bourbon when it’s in a barrel if it gets below like 40 degrees- 45 degrees it tends

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Ann: to slow down um aging it

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Evan: Sure

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Ann: it doesn’t move as much
so again trying to keep the temperature on that floor like up to like 50-

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Kevin Thomas: the key to agave is making sure it feels like Arizona

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Evan: Yeah it makes sense!

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*all laugh*

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Suzanne: Probably needs to be about 30
degrees hotter and a little dryer

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*laughter* Kevin: It’s not like the winter time

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[Upbeat music]

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Suzanne: tell us all about Western Reserve I don’t know a lot about this facility which is super fun like I love-

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Ann: So, um, so, we opened our doors in
2018. My husband and I are the co-founders

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Ann: um we started 2014.

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Suzanne: Okay.

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Ann: I guess um…-

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Suzanne: What made you start?

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Ann: he came to me with this idea of starting a craft distillery

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Ann: I had no idea what one was

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Suzanne: Yeah

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Ann: At all.
So he explained to me what it was and I was like

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Ann: ‘oh! okay we’ll have fun-‘

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Evan: Yeah!

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Ann: You know thinking that he was just like snowballing you know or throwing out-

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Suzanne: it would work its way
out of his system but he’d go explore

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Ann: So then he came to me a few weeks later with a uh business plan and 10 year projections

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Evan: Oh wow he’s serious

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Ann: I’m like ‘oh crap’

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Ann: I always tell people ‘when we started this I drank Red Wine, Rosés, or Zinfandel

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Ann: um white wine gives me migraines so I can’t enjoy

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Suzanne: Interesting! Usually that’s red wine for a lot of people – that’s so interesting

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Ann: I know. Total opposite um
and I drink Tequila in Margarita and Vodka in a Cosmo

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Ann: and that’s it that’s like what I drink

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Evan and Suzanne: Sure. Yeah.

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Ann: So when we decided to do this well obviously

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Ann: I was going to drink a little bit more right so
we did we jumped in-

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Suzanne: tough part of the job I know

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Ann: Right?

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*laughter*

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Ann: So we like jumped in we started taking classes
um we did online classes we did some in-person classes.

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Ann: We read. Um, my husband’s background is
engineering, chemical, and mechanical, so he picked up

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Ann: on the science stuff very quickly um-

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Suzanne: I feel like that’s a common part of this kind of story that

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Suzanne: there’s usually one person in the relationship
who has some kind of a science background

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Ann: They have to

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Suzanne: that feels kind of confident that-

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Ann: You know getting into this I’m like ‘Oh my god-

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Suzanne: Yeah

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Ann: Could you work, if your brain didn’t work like that

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Suzanne: Yeah..

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Ann: I don’t know how people could do this, if there isn’t somebody that does it

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Suzanne: Right.

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Ann: I would have been lost I mean I could I could
make a recipe but then every step that comes after-

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Suzanne: Sure

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Ann: Like I would have to read it daily-

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Evan: The fine tuning of it

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Ann: Right.
So um that’s how we got started um and we decided that we would be organic so

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Suzanne: Wow!

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Ann: We are Ohio’s only certified organic distillery

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Suzanne: Wow!!

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Ann: and also USDA Certified Organic

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Evan: Cool!:

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Suzanne: Nothing like raising the bar even higher for yourself

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Ann: Great!
you know if you’re going to do it, just do it, just do it!

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[Upbeat music]

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Ann: Well basically it’s the same as an organic vineyard um
we get all of our grain daily, all organic, um

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Ann: all of our fermentable grains come from a farmer
about 75 miles from here so it’s still in Ohio

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Suzanne: Is that part of the organic certification?
Does it have to be local like that or that’s just something you guys do? Okay. Yep.

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Ann: But there aren’t a lot of working in farmers as you probably know

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Suzanne: Sure

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Ann: Um so even trying to find one is difficult

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Suzanne: and they have to be ‘Certified Organic’ right, they can’t be like ‘we are technically organic we’re just not paying the fees’ right okay

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Ann: So you have to be Certified. Um so the farmer we found
has been farming for about 40 years

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Ann: um 1400 acres so he didn’t have to worry
about overspray from other farms.

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Suzanne: Right, sure.

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Ann: So um, and we have heirloom seeds, we got from him, because of it being organic, we have things Hybrid-ized. We have things being multiplying for years, and years and years.

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Ann: So it’s clean, its heirloom, it’s, so it’s, it’s turned out beautifully for us.

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[Upbeat music]

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Suzanne: That Speldt Vodka is crazy it’s so fun.

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Ann: It’s, it’s seriously, when we- it was interesting when we made it

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Ann: um we were finally done with it
and we filtered and everything and-

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my husband was using- you know we got the- we had just a small
bit of it at the house and he was like ‘oh my god you have got to try this.’

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Ann: and he gives me a cup with ice he was like ‘just
drink it’ and we probably both had two- just the vodka-

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Suzanne: Yeah.

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Ann: And, like ‘whoa!’

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*laughter*

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Suzanne: Yeah, for sure.

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[Upbeat music]

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Ann: That actually represents our granddaughter, um, her
name is Isabelle and we call her Izzy B so she

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Ann: is the ‘Bee’ in our logo so

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Suzanne: Cute!

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Ann: So our logo is a compass um
and the arrow points at a ‘Bee’ um and it’s just her

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Ann: she’s our turner, um, and the way the compass is set
up um if you hold it over- if it was blown up and

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Ann: you hold it over the state of Ohio the arrow
basically points to where Lakewood is in Ohio

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Suzanne: Sorry, what?

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Ann: where Lakewood is in Ohio

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Suzanne: Oh! Okay!

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Ann: So relatively in the same spot-

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Suzanne: Cool!

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Anne: um, and so when we started this being

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Ann: a family business um she was six, yeah, so you know
she can’t drink, and she’s, she’s 12, she can’t drink it

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Ann: she can’t sell it she can’t you know,
do anything with it um but she does come in and

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Ann: work now like she, all of our premium bottles,
the labels, are hand written and she’ll come in

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Ann: and she’ll do that um, she was just here on Monday,
so she was filling out the labels then she’ll bottle-

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Ann: she’ll label the bottles, um and I have- manages a
a better job than some adults, puttin’ the labels on straight yeah

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Suzanne: Thats great.

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Ann: So to incorporate her into the family
business the only way we could do that was ‘Bee’.

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Suzanne: Yeah.

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Ann: so we had a designer create his own- he created
the bee, so it’s designed specifically for us

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Suzanne: That’s nice! That’s so sweet.

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[Upbeat music]

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Ann: We want to do the entire spirit’s portfolio so we

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Ann: have everything so we knew
what rum had to be in there

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Ann: But then, you know, so none of us really like Rum. What are we gonna do?

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Ann: Taking- again, classes, learning more about
it um and deciding to go with

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Ann: um the molasses as opposed to sugarcane. Um was, for
us, was our favorite once we started doing that ‘oh! oh! we like that!’

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Suzanne: Yeah.

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Ann: Um, and at the time when we first started
we had a um, Mixologist working for us that was

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Ann: big into the tiki scene so Rum was like
his thing so he was like really was our-

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*laughter*

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Suzanne: Come on it’s a good pose you got a good brick
wall behind you you’re geeking out with some

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Suzanne: agave spirits

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Ann: Um so he was really like, we
really, like okay so we need you to help us

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Ann: hone in on this and so the same thing when
we got the molasses and that’s what we got from him was like ‘oh! oh I like this one!’

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Ann: So when hitting the barrel and took it out

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Ann: both of us when we got the
award but he and I were like

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Ann: jumping up and down like high-fiving each
other in the office like we were so excited

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*laughter*

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[Upbeat music]

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Ann: So we get, um, 100% Blue Agave concentrate. Um, and it comes straight to us.

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Evan: Okay.

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Ann: Um, we tried the Agave syrup, um we tried, you know, a couple different alternatives-

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Suzanne: so is the concentrate a liquid?

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Ann: it is, yep.

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Ann: and it comes in um, we were getting a frozen
concentrate by the time it gets to us it’s

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Ann: not so frozen and it’s that’s all
we’re using as just 100% Blue lever.

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Suzanne: yeah what are you going to do in that area how
are you going to start educating consumers about what agave spirits are?

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Ann: So we have started,

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Suzanne: okay.

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Ann: So, um, even the consumers, that you know, are the customers coming here, um we did, you know, we’ve done the tasting classes,

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Ann: We do like a ‘Margarita Masher’ class, you know things like that. And so we have people trying them and um

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Ann: it’s, it’s the calling it Agave thats the first thing that gets them.

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Ann: And then, you know, they were like ‘so what’s Agave?’ ‘What’s Tequila?’ just, we can’t call it that because we’re not in Mexico

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Suzanne: Right.

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Ann: ‘huh! So it’s Tequila?’…’yes.’

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Suzanne: Yeah.

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[Upbeat music]

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Ann: so these two, are our organics.
So our ‘Organic Wheat’ and our ‘Organic Bourbon’

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Ann: and unfortunately- so you’ll be able to tell
the difference but our ‘Organic Bourbon’ has

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Ann: probably been in the barrel, that’s one’s probably
been a little over two years

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Suzanne: Okay.

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Ann: So it’s no even a four-year Bourbon

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Suzanne: Yeah.

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Ann: So um…and you can tell it tastes very young, not a lot of

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Ann: deep complexity to it um-

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Suzanne: it’s very good though! It’s really-

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Ann: Um- really we were really we were impressed-

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Suzanne: It’s Zippy!

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Ann: it says a lot about the barrel-

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Suzanne: It has like some like zip to
it that I love that was like as soon as I was like ‘oh!’

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[Upbeat Music]

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Ann: Our six-year Rye has become a
better seller than our four-year um which we do-

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Suzanne: I do like the six-year a little bit better

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Ann: Okay!

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Ann: We were surprised about this it’s Rye.
We would have thought a younger one

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Suzanne: Because you want that spicy green character
to come through versus the barrel

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Ann: Right!

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Suzanne: Yeah.

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Suzanne: yeah I feel like the extra barrel aging just kind
of rounds out the edges a little bit on that one

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Suzanne: like that one is spicy uh and it’s a noticeable
step change-

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Ann: and if we had any of our Organic Rye

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Ann: I would definitely show you guys some because
it’s incredible but we don’t and we did open a

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Ann: barrel to test it and then like ‘no it’s
not ready it’s really not’ *laughter*

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Suzanne: We understand.

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Ann: And we are going with the Spelt Whiskey also. We figured
since we were already using it for the Vodka we were-

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Suzanne: Yeah, of course!

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Ann: we’re definitely going to do it-

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Suzanne: Great,I love that!

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Ann: We just got some in the barrels…

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Ann: Two weeks ago I think

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Suzanne: Cool.

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Suzanne: So tell me about
your bottle. Your bottle is super unique.

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Ann: So…um, our bottle… *laughter*

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Suzanne: Is it a blessing and a curse?

00:12:26.486 –> 00:12:35.675
Ann: Um, it started out as a curse. I have to say so we um, being a Craft Distiller as you know, we all have to watch our pennies when we’re getting started

00:12:35.675 –> 00:12:36.175
Suzanne: Of course

00:12:36.175 –> 00:12:36.675
Ann: And so you typically just-

00:12:36.675 –> 00:12:38.631
Suzanne: And with custom bottles, you typically don’t see- yeah.

00:12:38.631 –> 00:12:43.150
Ann: Right. So, we were working
with a design firm that they were like

00:12:43.150 –> 00:12:48.960
Ann: ‘you can afford this one; like we know a company in
Mexico they’re right in Mexico City you, can you

00:12:48.960 –> 00:12:56.080
Ann: you can get your bottles from them’
So they’re um handmade and the company that does it is ‘Kabisa’ in Mexico City

00:12:56.080 –> 00:13:01.920
Ann: they actually make ‘Patron’s’ Bottles. So we found that
when we went down there so that was kind of fun um

00:13:02.640 –> 00:13:10.080
Ann: So trying to think of a bottle, that, one will
stand out again in that sea on the shelves

00:13:10.880 –> 00:13:18.640
Ann: um you know kind of draw your attention but it had
to be like a usable bottle for lack of better word

00:13:18.640 –> 00:13:19.555
Evan: Yeah

00:13:19.840 –> 00:13:23.680
Ann: You know I had to go back back and forth a couple
of times and they had to like keep repositioning

00:13:23.680 –> 00:13:28.960
Ann: the Bee you know in different places but my my most important thing about the bottle we love

00:13:28.960 –> 00:13:36.880
Ann: the bulbous part of it being that we have a purpose around the hold.
That was perfect- exactly- so for me a woman had

00:13:36.880 –> 00:13:42.916
Ann: to be able to handle it, because I love the
‘Calumet’ bottle but it takes two hands, for me to pour it.

00:13:42.916 –> 00:13:48.661
Ann: So a woman can hold the bottle’s neck, and pour it. They can hold it at the base, and you can pour it.

00:13:48.661 –> 00:13:52.071
Ann: And at no point in time, do you feel like this would fall out of your hands.

00:13:52.071 –> 00:13:57.079
[Upbeat music]

00:13:57.280 –> 00:14:01.440
Ann: We actually live in what was once
called the Western Reserve Region of-

00:14:01.440 –> 00:14:04.818
Ann: -most Western Reserve Region of the
Western majority of Connecticut

00:14:05.040 –> 00:14:10.240
Ann: um and through our journeys- so my husband and
I are originally from Upstate New York

00:14:10.240 –> 00:14:16.000
Ann: We moved to North Carolina, Connecticut, Switzerland
and now we’re here you know a corporate world um

00:14:16.000 –> 00:14:19.305
Ann: when we lived in Connecticut we actually lived
in the Western Reserve Region of Connecticut

00:14:20.160 –> 00:14:25.040
Ann: so when we moved here we kept seeing Western
Reserve everywhere and we were just- I’m like

00:14:25.040 –> 00:14:27.828
Ann: ‘what is this? like okay this is strange’

00:14:27.828 –> 00:14:28.328
Suzanne: Right.

00:14:28.328 –> 00:14:31.738
Ann: Um and so we finally asked somebody and they told us

00:14:31.920 –> 00:14:35.545
Ann: And so when we were trying to… You know
coming up with a name for your company

00:14:35.545 –> 00:14:36.045
Suzanne: It’s hard.

00:14:36.045 –> 00:14:40.960
Ann: I mean you know, its really hard! You know we’re like ‘do we just
call it the Thomas Distillery?’ We’re like ‘no that

00:14:40.960 –> 00:14:46.770
Ann: sounds kind of arrogant’ you know like what do?
So um we just like ‘what about Western Reserve?’

00:14:47.600 –> 00:14:49.876
Ann: Um it followed us we just felt that

00:14:49.876 –> 00:14:50.376
Suzanne: Thats cool

00:14:50.376 –> 00:14:54.803
Ann: it brought two, you know, two places that we lived that we really enjoy

00:14:55.378 –> 00:14:58.236
Ann: um brought them both together and-

00:14:58.236 –> 00:15:01.530
Suzanne: so is this the Western Reserve area like where you like see that a lot?

00:15:01.530 –> 00:15:02.030
Ann: it is!

00:15:02.030 –> 00:15:05.760
Suzanne: So it makes sense too. Because
it’s like the neighborhood like recognizes it, and notices it.

00:15:05.760 –> 00:15:06.964
Ann: Yes! Um and-

00:15:06.964 –> 00:15:07.811
Suzanne: That’s so fun

00:15:07.811 –> 00:15:12.909
Ann: Yeah like I said it was when we
um we were even trying to come up with our name

00:15:12.909 –> 00:15:18.095
Ann: Um the design company we’re working with said ‘well
I have a picture of an old map’ and they brought

00:15:18.095 –> 00:15:25.775
Ann: in an old map that actually had the Western
Reserve area of Ohio and Lakewood is in there. And we’re like ‘oh! thats awesome!’

00:15:25.775 –> 00:15:26.801
[inaudible] [upbeat music starts playing]

00:15:26.801 –> 00:15:29.056
Suzanne: That’s fun, that’s great.

00:15:29.056 –> 00:15:48.080
[Upbeat music continues]