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Catoctin Creek Distilling sees business growth in on-site ABC store

Change in Virginia law allows producer of certified organic spirits – there's only one in the state – to sell from the distillery

Tucked away in a quiet industrial park in Purcellville is the Catoctin Creek Distilling Company, Loudoun County’s first legal distillery since Prohibition.

Scott and Becky Harris started making organic and kosher certified rye whiskeys, gin and brandy just a little more than a year ago. They sell everything they can make, and with a change in Virginia law, their front room will be an ABC outlet as of July 1, 2011.

Visitors will be able to pick up a bottle of Roundstone Rye, Mosby’s Spirit or Watershed Gin right at the distillery.

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 “We thought it would be a unique product and there would be a market niche for it, and that has proven to be the case, Scott said, just prior to a free bottling event in mid-April. “When we came on the market, a number of organic-themed restaurants took us in right away – Patowmack in Lovettsville, Woodberry Kitchen in Baltimore.” Catoctin Creek products are a fixture at Tuscarora Mill in Leesburg and Magnolias at the Mill in Purcellville.

The fledging business has an “excellent problem” right now, Becky added. “We sell everything we make as soon as we make it.”

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Catoctin’s organic spirits are even in a tiny little vegan restaurant in the District of Columbia, Scott said. “Who knew vegans drank?”

Until the July 1 launch of on-site sales, the Catoctin Creek bottles are available in Virginia in 26 restaurants, from the Ashby Inn in Paris to Vintage 51 in Leesburg and South Riding, and in ABC stores. Until this month, a year into the business, only the Roundstone Rye was on the shelves in the ABC stores; Mosby’s Spirit and the gin had to be special ordered.

Even with those restrictions, the Harrises sent $140,000 in 2010 taxes to ABC. They won’t be surprised, they said, to see that number double now that they can sell from the store.

Before State Sen. Jill Vogel and the Northern Virginia delegation went to bat for Catoctin Creek in Richmond, only three distilleries in the state could sell from their own premises, thanks to special loopholes written into the law for them: Mt. Vernon sells whiskey made the way George Washington made it because it is historic; Stillhouse Distillery at Belmont Farm in Culpeper; and Copperfox Distillery in Sperryville because they get 51 percent or more of the grains they use from land they own or lease.

Jill Vogel (R-27) sponsored Senate Bill 1249 that added an exception for an ABC licensee that is “an independently certified organic distillery.” Del. Joe May (R-33) co-sponsored Vogel’s bill in the House of Delegates, and it sailed through unopposed in the Senate, and with only five “no” votes from the delegates. Gov. Bob McDonnell signed the bill in March.

Vogel said she was motivated to support organic agriculture in Loudoun, an emerging economy she is eager to support.

In a year of budget struggles, a bill that adds tax revenue, even if it’s only another $100,000 or so, can only be a good thing, Scott argued.

It all started, Scott said, when Becky was getting ready to go back into the work force after a decade at home with young children. He was looking for a career change after several decades in software development and had always liked spirits. Let’s start a distillery, Scott said. She told him to draw up a business plan.

To their surprise, the bank OKed the plan and put up the money. “Holy moly,” Scott remembers thinking. “This is real, now we have to do it.”

They ordered the custom-built Kothe still from Germany, leased the space on East Richardson lane in Purcellville and by Jan. 4, 2010, 11 months after drawing up the business plan, were licensed and producing premium spirits.

“Most men my age get a Lamborghini or a Ferrari,” Scott said.” I got the still and it’s about the same price.”

They bring in organic rye from Kansas. Even if they could find organically grown grain in Virginia, there are no local mills that can be certified to handle organic products.

Converting the grain to premium spirits is efficient, from head to tail. Step one is to make a “rye beer” or mash – basically an alcoholic oatmeal, Scott said.  Add 1,000 liters of water to 700 pounds of rye grain and end up with three 100-gallon batches. Each batch will produce 10 gallons of alcohol.

Becky, the distiller, puts the mash into the still and boils off the alcohol and water vapors. The 90 gallons of now non-alcoholic mush goes to a local farmer for cattle feed.

The first half-gallon of alcohol is the “heads” – poisonous byproducts of fermentation like methanol.

“Remember when moonshine would make you go blind?” Becky asked. Turns out it could. The moonshiners didn’t distill off that first half gallon. The Harrises put it in spray bottles and have an organic cleaner for the tubs and vats and equipment.

That leaves seven to eight gallons of the “hearts.” It will become Mosby’s Spirit (unaged, clear rye whisky) or Roundstone Rye (brown in color from aging in oak barrels).

Then the “tails”—“the funky tasting, sharp, acrid alcohols.” Becky collects that last gallon or so and redistills it to get rid of the fusil oils that “mess up the flavor.” She ends up with the good ethanol, “very neutral, almost like a vodka.” That becomes gin.

Watershed Gin, the by-product of whisky making, is now the second best selling product at Catoctin Creek.

As a sideline, the Harrises worked with wine maker Doug Fabbioli to produce a pear brandy, on the shelves as Pearousia. And for one month of the year, they shut down the rye production and work with grapes to make brandy. The first batch is still in the cask and won’t be bottled until 2012. The first run of pear brandy yielded 600 bottles, which went on the market just before the holidays in 2010 and sold out immediately.

Catoctin Distilling Company will be on the Spring Farm Tour, highlighting the process of making distilled spirits, including fermentation, distillation, aging and bottling. Scott suggests picking up a bottle of Roundstone or Mosby’s at a local ABC store (it won’t be available at the distillery until July 1) and bringing it along to be signed by the distiller.

For more on upcoming bottling events (free, the Harrises treat for lunch), June 18 distilling workshop ($150 each, followed by lunch and tasting at nearby Magnolias at the Mill), whiskey cruises in D.C., and the Nov. 1 Whiskey Fest in New York City, go to www.catoctincreekdistilling.com. For a listing of stores and restaurants that offer Roundstone Rye, Mosby’s Spirit, Watershed Gin, Pearousia and (when it’s bottled and named) grape brandy, click on “Enjoy” and go to “Where to buy.” Catoctin Creek spirits are available in Virginia, Maryland, District of Columbia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Washington and California.

 

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