I got the passion to distill just from
being a Kentucky boy growing up around
bourbon. When I left the military, I was
looking for that next thing and had a
mentor say, "Well you can do anything you
want," so I sought out distilling. I've
been a home brewer for four to five
years now and it was time to do a career
change, so at that might as well turn a
hobby into a new work life. A new baby at
home she's a month old, and my wife we live
on a small farm with horses, and cow, and
chickens, and ducks, and we kind of are
trying to grow our own food and live as
much as possible on stuff that we make
and that we raise. I like to experiment, I
like that I've started to do the
fermentation thing. I do my own kombucha
now and it's a big thing. I mean it's
just experiment making bread, making
cheese. We've been making cheese too... it's just fun.
So anything that I can put together I
try to be creative with it. I was really
wary going into the program not
having a science background, but the
professors are really engaging. They, you
know, break down concepts to usable
concepts. So, you know, when we're talking
about chemistry, we're talking about the
chemistry of the water that we're going
to use to make our products. And then
being able to use that science to better
my craft has been really exciting. Well, I
like to be creative, especially when I'm...
kitchen is one thing. You can do, you know,
get ideas as it comes and be very
inspired on a moment. But you cannot do
that when you brew-there's rules to
follow. If you go over a certain
measurement it's gonna change the
outcome. It's gonna change Ph, it's gonna
change a fermentation time, it's gonna
change everything. So, you have to follow
the rules. It's like creativity but has
to be funneled into the science that
goes with it. Everyone in the program is
coming from a different background. So
you have these people from different
backgrounds of different industries
sharing their input. And then you're also
sharing ideas throughout the process.
It's really cool to have that sounding
board in that peer group. It's actually
been very helpful to get to know each
other...to bring the life experience, or the
brewing experience, or the professional
experience that some people have...to just...
just it's a very rich group I would say,
fun group. There's a lot of programs out
there for people that, you know, they want
to spend a weekend. This is the first
program that you get a actual degree.
It's also interesting because each
weekend is different. You're getting a
different viewpoint from industry
professionals that have been working in
the industry for years. From anywhere
from scientists, you know, who work on the
science of fermentation. The scientists...
the science of grain all the way to the
actual craftsmen: the brewers, the
bottlers, the people that work in
marketing, and business planners, and just
the whole span of the people that you're
gonna interact with on a one-on-one
basis is really cool. When you can see
the equipment that they use...how they use
it, you can see the the process a little
bit. We went to a yeast facility as well
where you can see how they propagate the
yeast and they were showing us the...I
mean it takes a lot
of quality control and very sanitary
practices too to be able to do that. So,
it's just been an eye-opener for to
see what is involved. It's not just
brewing. It's, you know, there's a lot of
things going on there. I discovered that
mixed my science, my love for science and
my love for the Arts, so that's just a
perfect way for spending my afternoons
and hopefully later do on a
daily basis.
