A source for both home distillers and professional distillers to involve themselves more heavily in their craft…

This past Sunday we took the next step in our Historic Stone Beer/Gruit Brewing for distilling research. Myself, filmogropher D.J. Henderson, Christi Atkinson of The Veil and Distillers Talk, Dayton Barrel works Distillers Bill Hocket and Drew Zarrett , as well as Brian Cushing of the Victorian Barroom and Locust Grove Farm Distillery met at Caleb and Whitney Michalke’s Sugar Creek Malt House in Lebanon Indiana along with their salesman John Beal for a day of brewing with hot rocks, tours of the malthouse and the Sainhouse, shop talk, history, good food, and of course fellowship amongst similar artisans.

So, where to begin? A few weeks ago my friend Caleb Michalke of the excellent Sugar Creek Malt House here in the Hoosier state posted to social media about his brewing of a Norwegian Raw Ale using hot stones to heat the mash for conversion of starch into sugar in a wooden cask. Herein he also used a mixture of straw, juniper, and alder sticks as a filter. Around the same time I had began to study a bit more on “Gruit”, beer made before the introduction of hops and often using interesting botanicals in place of the hops. Immediately the distiller in me jumped forth and started thinking of the various possibilities with brewing these “Gruit” beers and subsequently distilling them.

Just a quick update on the ongoing Indiana Absinthe project we spoke of before. The project has moved forward by leaps and bounds in recent months. Brian Cushing, Myself, DJ Henderson (responsible for the gorgeous photos above), and Adin Pempberton with the help of several Locust Grove and Musee De Venoge volunteers managed to get two 50 gallon barrels of mash completed at the Locust Grove Farm Distillery in early October.

This past week Brian was gracious enough to set up a field trip to Musee De Venoge so we could meet up with Donna Weaver and make plans. We talked about the local history, we talked about the various botanicals, we picked the recipie we thought best representative, we toured the cottage garden and Venoge, and as though the county and homestead were an old friend waiting for the righ ride it turns out Donna already had several of the requisite botanicals planted including Wormwood, Mint, and Hyssop!

ndiana has a long history with the production of seasonal farm-distiller produced apple brandy from the pre-prohibition era. In fact the state was once the largest producer of apple brandy globally. With the rise in craft spirits distilleries in the state it becomes more important than ever that we as distillers secure our distilling legacy and future by creating a cooperative “mark” and set of identity standards based on historic production protocol in order to create a category of spirit that is distinctly and completely representative of our distilling heritage and prowess. Creating this category also gives rice to the opportunity for existing farmers and aspiring farmers to diversify and introduce much needed horicultural diversity into the state.